When we reached the intersection, Davi came up to the front to help Byron turn the wheel.

Even with the two of them, they couldn’t manage it, and it wasn't due to a lack of strength. Davi had three alien abilities; her small stature didn’t accurately represent her current power.

Something was blocking the tires from turning too far in either direction. The steering wheel would turn easily only in a narrow arc. Davi and Byron could force it a little farther to the right or left, but the moment they stopped straining, it would pull itself back into the center.

Byron threw on the brakes. “Something’s wrong. We need to go look. Guess it’s time to try to get into the back of the truck, too. Bolero, you got enough juice to send out some scouts? I’d rather not be the filling in a pavemimic burrito.”

“Huh?” Bolero said. He and John had tried to conserve strength and rely on the more effective gradual healing method we'd been shown, but our injuries had been severe and numerous. Just stopping the bleeding had left both of them tired, sitting slumped against the walls. “Oh. Yeah. Sure.”

Bolero closed his eyes and three hand-sized balls of fluff appeared in front of him. They were the mascot critters of Legend Scramble, with eyes and mouths too cute and cartoonishly big to belong to any real animal. Bolero kept his eyes closed as his scouts scurried toward the driver’s side door. “Open it for them? Real quick?”

Byron did and the critters leapt out, making little squeaky-toy noises as they did so.

“Road right next to the car seems fine,” Bolero said, his eyes still closed.

“Can you send them to check under the truck, too? Something seems up with the wheels or the axle, and they’re a lot smaller than I am.”

Bolero nodded. “Yeah, sure. Everything looks fine, I think? I’m not an expert on trucks. I’ll have one of them jump up on the - Dios mío!”

The last words were given as a yell as Bolero leapt to his feet, eyes flying open. As he jumped up, the truck shuddered, the floor on the front left side of the car sinking down by an inch or so.

We stared at him. He stared back, eyes wild and breath coming in great ragged gasps as he muttered unintelligible-to-me Spanish phrases under his breath.

JoeyT, resting on the floor, patted his friend’s leg. Bolero jumped. “Sorry!” JoeyT said. “You… okay?”

Bolero shook himself. “I am going to have nightmares about that.”

“Are we in danger?” Davi asked.

The eSports pro glanced at the door - now closed - and took a deep breath, clearly trying to calm himself. “I don’t think so, but cleaning off the truck is going to be a dive into hell.”

“What’s the matter?” I asked. “A pavemimic on the axle?”

“Try a dozen! Twenty, maybe? I’m not a car guy, but everything looked normal to me until I had one of my scouts leap up on the axle. It came to life and swallowed him! The eyeful I got of that was bad enough, but I had my other two scouts sitting near the wheel, watching. When the first pavemimic moved, it started like… a chain reaction, one after another of the things flipping into motion until the area under the truck became some sort of nightmare roiling fleshball of death that swallowed up my other scouts.” He shuddered. “I did not need to add that to my memories.”

“They were all wrapped around the axle?” I asked.

“The axle and the front two wheels. Oh fuck. There are probably more on the other wheels, too!”

Byron grimaced. “Hopefully not as many? I’m guessing we drove over the damn things and they latched on. Probably grabbed onto the first thing they noticed, and I’d think that’d be the front wheels. I don’t know what we do about them, though. I can wake them up with a Fire Bolt, but fighting that many at once would be hella dangerous. We’ve got some knives, but the only edged weapon we have with any reach is Zephyr’s axe.”

“We’ve never fought more than one at a time,” I said. One pavemimic wasn’t a terrible opponent for a group of people. Even if it caught someone by surprise, the biggest danger was accidentally slicing too deep and injuring your friend when you tried to cut them free. It only took a few cuts before the monster’s gripping strength was too compromised to really put anyone’s life in danger, and we could do those in seconds with practice. A lot of the time, the person grabbed wouldn’t even be badly bruised.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

A writhing mass of dozen or more pavemimics was a different story. If they got a grip on someone, we wouldn’t be able to surround that person and cut them free without being grabbed ourselves.

“We’ll have to try to separate them,” Davi said. “Jump out the passenger side into a spot Bolero says is clear, then clear an area to the side of the truck. We stand far back and pelt them with stuff until they separate from each other. Then we take them down one by one.”

I nodded, thoughtful. “They don’t seem to be able to see. That should work. It’s worth a try anyway. But… If I jump out right now, I’m pretty sure I’m going to tear my side back open.”

“And Joey really shouldn’t be walking on his leg just yet, let alone jumping out of a truck,” Bolero said. “Everyone’s still injured. Kurt’s still asleep. I think we’re going to have to wait.”

“Well, I can’t turn off the truck without Kurt’s help or getting under the hood,” Byron said. “We’re burning fuel every moment we sit here.”

“We’re not going to be able to stay here long anyway,” Avalanche said. “Haven’t you noticed how hot it’s been getting with the doors shut?”

“No!” Zephyr said joyfully, stretching her arms and grinning as she leaned up against Avalanche.

“We don’t all have Temperature Resistance,” Avalanche muttered, but she relaxed a little anyway.

“I… can help with that…” Twinkles’ whisper was barely audible. The truck cab dropped in temperature by about thirty degrees, and then Twinkles began to snore lightly.

Byron frowned. “That is not going to help as much as he thinks. I’m guessing he bought us like an extra ten minutes before it gets too hot to stay in here with the doors closed. Maybe twenty.”

“Ah, it’s better the kid’s sleeping anyway.” John spoke up, surprising me. He’d been quiet since we’d left the ValuCo. “Poor thing’s been in all sorts of pain, and there ain’t much we can do for him without using Healing Touch. Got some bandages to try to keep the wound closed, and the bleeding’s slowed down, but… He ain’t in good shape. We’ll rest up for a little bit and then go out. We’ll have to get into the back without Kurt’s help. Sledgehammer oughta take out a padlock just as well as fancy alien shit.”

I raised an eyebrow at John. He flushed and looked away.

“Already stole it, anyhow,” he said. “What’s a little vandalism at this point? Plus, I’ve been thinking… if whoever owns this is a good Christian, I’m sure they’d want it shared around anyway, not sit uselessly while people who need it suffer. I’m sorry. I’ve been looking at things all wrong.”

There was a moment’s silence. I don’t think any of the rest of us shared John’s faith in the charity of corporate overlords, but at the same time… if he was wrong, they were assholes. Who cared about their opinions anyway? If John was finally going to stop being an anti-looting lunatic, I sure as hell wasn’t going to try to talk him out of it.

Finally, Bolero nodded briskly. “Apology accepted.”

There were murmurs of agreement from the rest of TAF.

He and Bolero continued passing out heals over the next half-an-hour while the temperature steadily climbed from “a bit chilly” to “pleasant” all the way to “holy fuck, it’s hot.” The truck continued to idle while we wait, burning fuel uselessly since we couldn’t turn it off without messing around under the hood or using Kurt’s power.

The cut on my side was still evident, but I hoped it had healed enough to stay closed. It certainly felt better: it no longer ached when I was sitting still. The cut on my hand was much better too - although that was more a matter of comfort than a major concern - and my myriad bruises had lightened considerably, almost disappearing.

Davi’s wounds hadn’t been as serious as mine, and her synergy on Rapid Regeneration was low… but it was still making a difference: a bruise on her cheekbone visibly faded as we waited to go outside. I was definitely considering taking the ability. If it worked better at higher percentages, and all the Biological Augments had decent synergy with each other, it would probably be much more effective for me. It was obvious that two healers weren’t enough for our group of ten, at least not yet.

“I think you two should stay inside,” I told John and Bolero. “You’re tired already. Hopefully we won’t need more healing after this, but you shouldn’t waste your energy on fighting, just in case.”

John nodded. “Someone should stay to keep an eye on Kurt and the kid, anyway.”

“I’m kind of excited!” Davi said. “We’ve got to get water for Twinkles - and I want a drink too - but I’ve been wondering what else is in the truck.”

Bolero shuddered. “Better you deal with those pavemimics than me. I’d be happy to never see one again. You sure you’ll be okay?”

I shrugged. “Who’s sure of anything, anymore? But as long as they don’t grab us as we’re jumping out of the cab, we should be fine. They’re not that fast. All we have to do is get them separated, then it’s easy to take them out one-by-one.”

“And if you can’t get them separated?”

“Ah, we’ll burn that bridge if we come to it,” I said.

“Isn’t it the saying… cross the bridge?”

I clapped Bolero on the shoulder. “Don’t worry so much! We’ve been making contingency plans for the past half-hour straight. What could go wrong?”