We dropped off the majority of our hitchhikers that night.

Our top speed was a solid thirty miles per hour, but our actual pace was far lower. Not every pavemimic was avoidable, so we had to stop regularly to clear Monstrosities from Frank’s wheels. That was a pretty quick process with Byron’s device, but stops to clear road obstructions were more unpredictable. Frequently we barely paused, pushing a sedan or minivan onto the shoulder in minutes, but once we were stuck for a whole hour trying to clear a huge pileup.

Traveling at speed in the dark drastically limited our interactions with other people. We only spoke to others once, when we had to get by a bread truck that had lost control and crashed into a passenger vehicle. The interaction was amicable enough; they were grateful to trade some slightly-stale bread for drinks.

Morning found us east of Colorado Springs, about seventy miles closer to home.

“Man, I want to keep going,” I said.

“Better not to,” Twinkles said. “Night driving worked amazing for us. Why risk messing it up? We can rest in shifts during the day, with some people on guard since we’ll have to keep the doors open to cut the heat.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

I knew he was right, but I felt impatient. We’d had three days of spacedogs, three days of pavemimics, and two days of rams. I assumed we’d get more rams again this afternoon, and another solid night of driving tonight, but who knew what the next day would bring? If it was something that slowed us down…

Then we’ll have to find another way to deal with it, I told myself. You’re not going to make good time during the day anyway, not with all the people stopping you. Better to be well-rested so you can blast forward this evening.

Our progress was slower the following night. We dropped off the last of our passengers, which gave us fewer hands to clear road obstructions. Worse, backroads got smaller and more infrequent as we got farther from Denver. Interstate-25 became the only viable option. There were long stretches where everything was wilderness beyond the road, not a single building in sight. This had the predictable impact of making the groups of survivors more frequent.

Most of these camps were asleep; we only realized they were there when people ran, shouting, onto the road behind us. A few had purchased alien lights and posted sentries, however, and those necessitated stops and tense negotiations. Fortunately Kurt was able to work his silver-tongued magic and get us past without any fights… although we did part with more supplies.

We stopped a little earlier than the previous day, the moment we started running into the buildings dotting the edge of another city. The atlas suggested it was a large one, and we didn’t want to spend the daytime hours surrounded by strangers.

Byron took an inventory of our remaining supplies. “Down to a two-week supply of drinks. More food than that, but I think we should start checking all the trucks, make sure they don’t have anything we can use.”

I frowned, stretching. “That’s going to slow us down a ton.”

“And get us into a lot more fights,” JoeyT added. “Most of the time, we can’t tell if there are people or not until they come out of the truck.”

I tapped the atlas. “I think the city ahead is Pueblo. The Arkansas River runs through the middle of it. All we’d need to do is get some storage containers and we can grab all the water we need.”

“Ewww,” said Davi. “River water? Is that drinkable? I guess we can boil it.”

“We’re stopping during the day, so we can set up solar stills to purify water while we sleep. It won’t take much - just some clear plastic sheeting and some bins and buckets. You put dirty water in the bin and plastic sheeting across the top with a little weight over your clean-water container. Water evaporates, hits the sheet, and rolls down to drip into your collection bucket.”

Davi looked skeptical. “Doesn’t sound like a fast process, but I guess it would be better than drinking river water.”

She was right about that. I’d looked into solar stills after running into one while playing a survival videogame with Micah and Gavin. The in-game version could produce a few cups of water in a few minutes. A real-life version would take hours to do the same, even if we set it up really well.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

“Are you sure you know how to build one?” Davi asked.

I shrugged. “I’m not a fluids guy, but the principles are really simple. It’s worth a try. If we fail, well… John took Cure Disease for his third ability.”

“So we'd drink disease-ridden water, get sick, and cure ourselves later?” Davi’s tone was incredulous, but then she slumped. “I guess that would work. This just keeps getting better and better.”

“I just hope today’s monster is something Frank can handle as-is,” I said.

“If not, at least we’re near a city.”

“Sure, but we’d lose time making modifications.”

JoeyT grunted, jumping back into the discussion. “And then that’s more things for us to copy when we get our own truck.”

“You know we’ll give you a hand,” I said.

JoeyT waved a hand. “Whatever help you can give us while Kurt gets the engine cleaned, I’d be grateful for, but I’m not going to keep you from your kids to help us get a slab of metal in place. We can figure that much out ourselves… I just wish things wouldn’t keep getting more complicated.”

None of us could argue with that.

John volunteered to wait up and keep watch, letting everyone else rest until the new monster appeared. “I don’t need as much sleep as I used to. If I’m being honest, I’m probably not going to be too helpful if we need to fight. I can heal you up well enough even if I’m a little sleepy.”

The rest of us curled up in the truck on piles of clothing. One of our passengers had gotten a Blueprint for a Room Cooler, and they’d purchased and left it with us as a thank-you for the ride. The large truck trailer strained the device’s capabilities when left in the midday sun, but the alien machine was enough to keep the heat to “uncomfortable” levels, rather than dangerous ones. With the door shut and John alert for any problems, the rest of us could sleep in peace.

Congratulations! If you’re hearing this, you’ve survived the first nine days of the Earth Maffiyir!

The visual alarm you just experienced was to alert you to the creation - and readiness - of the Points Siphons, a new opportunity for humanity! If a contestant holds the gem at the base for 12 minutes, they’ll siphon 12 points from every other contestant in its radius.

After a successful use, the Points Siphon will go dormant for 24 hours. The alarm will display when it becomes ready for use again.

Face the challenges before you to grow in strength and earn rewards. Good luck!

The words blasted into my mind, jolting me from my peaceful sleep in a panic. Around me, my friends were also bolting upright with shouts of confusion and alarm.

“Points Siphons?” Byron said. “Man, that could help us level up in a hurry. I wonder how many people would be affected? Even if it’s only 100, that’s still 1200 points: enough to take someone from one ability to four.”

“Not worth it,” Twinkles snapped. “Not unless we see one on the road that’s gone unclaimed for a long, long time. Twelve minutes? That’s an eternity. A death sentence. It takes less than ten seconds to kill Duke Shonar with a full team, and it’s still easy to get jumped and killed.”

“That’s… that’s in your game?” John asked. “But this is real life. You think…?”

Twinkles nodded decisively. “If we’re trying to steal points from other people? Absolutely. Twelve points isn’t much - I don’t really give a shit if someone steals that from me - but it’s the principle of the thing. People will absolutely attack us and try to stop us.”

An overwhelming crash of reverberating metal interrupted our discussion and drew our eyes to the rear of the truck, where the back door was now warped and indented.

“Shit. Rams are up again, I guess,” I said.

We piled outside to clear our surroundings. Once we’d secured the area, we looked around.

“No new monsters that I can see,” I offered. “Just the pavemimics and the spacedogs and the rams.”

“You think they’d do these siphon things AND a new monster?” asked Davi.

“Why not?” I asked.

She scowled.

“Look.” Byron drew our attention to a tall black spire in the distance. I’d initially mistaken it for a telephone pole, but there were no others nearby… and, in retrospect, the pole was much farther than I’d realized. At that distance, it must be more than a hundred feet tall.

“A Points Siphon,” I said.

“Yeah. I can only see a few behind us,” Byron said. “In front of us though, in the city?”

I peeked around the edge of the truck. The slightly-hilly terrain made it impossible to see the whole city at once, but even the small portion visible was festooned with poles that hadn't been there when we'd stopped.

“Good lord,” I said. “They’re everywhere.”