The nonsensical threat of a negative performance review right after I returned gave me a hint about Kurt’s feelings, but he nursed a grudge longer than I expected, barely speaking to me. When we found a Shop at the side of the road and Davi dropped off her dagger Blueprint, I bought an extra one and tried to hand it to him. He’d ignored the gesture, stalking past me to purchase one himself.

I didn’t really mind having bought the extra knife - Byron and I would test it until we found its breaking point - but Kurt’s attitude bothered me. It felt over-the-top, considering that what I’d done amounted to less than a minute of terror and busted eardrums.

When we stopped at a gas station to refill Frank’s tank, I took a minute to peruse the shelves. Anything edible or drinkable was long gone, but I found three pairs of foam earplugs.

“Look what I found! A set for the three of us who can’t heal themselves, each with 32 decibels of protection.”

“Didn’t you say the roar shook your whole body? Will earplugs even work?” Byron asked.

I shrugged. “I feel like there’s a good chance. Better than nothing, right?”

“Oh, your feelings. Wonderful! If your gut tells you something, it’s got to be correct. I feel great now. Who cares if you and John will still have your eardrums explode?”

Kurt’s voice dripped with venomous sarcasm… but that was the most words he’d said to me in almost two days. I smiled at him, trying to reassure him. “There will be more gas stations, and we still have a day before any new monsters appear. We should be able to get enough for all of us.”

Kurt practically snarled at me. “We could all have them, and they could still do jack shit to help.”

I stopped, frozen in the act of offering him earplugs. “What the hell, Kurt? What do you want from me? I know you think I was wrong to upset that big monster, but I got away with it and I got amazing information. Even better than I hoped for. Now I’m doing my best to use that information to help us prepare to face that thing, and you’re still giving me crap.”

“Lang-” John started to say, but stopped as Kurt and I both glared at him.

Kurt put his face in his hands, pushing his goggles atop his helmet so he could rub his forehead.

I didn’t rush him.

When he finally took his hands away from his face to look at me, he didn’t look angry anymore, just tired. “I don’t know what I want from you, Vince. So little of this disaster has played to my strengths, but you’re… thriving.”

“Thriving?! We’re still a thousand miles away from my wife and kids - from your wife and kid too. How are any of us thriving?”

“Really, Vince? Really? You punched that crab to death with your fucking hands. I barely managed to snipe a couple of wostriches.”

“My hands were raw meat afterward! Most of the time, I fight everything with the weapon you made for me. We’re all riding in the truck you fixed!”

“So? I’m a support build, Vince!”

“You’ve always been a support build, even before the apocalypse. You’re a manager, and you’re actually a pretty good one. You haven’t been hands-on for years, but damn if you don’t help the rest of us get our jobs done anyhow.”

“And if the rest of us died tomorrow, there’s a chance you could run home. What the hell do the rest of us do if you get yourself killed? Huh?”

Ah. There it was.

I let out a breath. “That’s not true, or fair. There’s a snowball’s chance in hell any of us could make it home alone. Does it really matter much if I have a snowball’s chance in a volcano instead? It’s still close enough to 0%. I might be able to dodge the pavemimics, but a single pack of wostriches could corner me and take me down. And I’m far from being able to deal with that 15-foot mantis from the Trials. I only got away from it by chaining heals until I was exhausted. Byron has a better chance than me.”

“And from what you guys said, my chances are still terrible,” Byron interjected. “Maybe, maybe, if I could shoot at it from someplace too small or too high for it to get at, and nothing else jumped me, and I could still aim while I can’t tell up from down.”

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I nodded. “Exactly. Even Byron with a perfect setup will probably just get gutted by a different monster without someone watching his back. He needs us. We all need each other. And the job you need me for is to take the tools you give me and get out in front of monsters. Maybe I take them out, maybe I slow them down, but I keep them from reaching you. Isn’t that exactly what I was doing, in the Trial?”

Kurt looked uncertain, so I kept talking.

“None of us can make it home without the others. We’ve come up with a plan to build an airship, and it needs all of us. We need your metal-shaping to run the ship. We need your Repair to fix problems on the go. Davi’s flight and gravity abilities will help us get lift and keep us safe in the event of a disaster. Byron will heat the air and cool down the gears so I can push them far beyond what the materials would usually allow. John will help us scout and steer. Hell, as the grunt, I’m probably the easiest to replace.”

Kurt barked out a laugh at that. “Maybe. Probably. I just hate all of this.”

“Amen to that!” John said, his southern twang thick with sincerity.

That made me laugh.

By the time we finished refueling Frank, we felt like a team again.

…

Detours and fuel stops aside, we made okay time. We’d gotten faster at clearing the roadblocks, courtesy of a see-saw Davi had spotted on a school playground. It was a rusted and ancient thing, a metal relic from decades past.

“I’d bet a real meal that multiple kids have broken bones when this thing’s seat slammed down,” Davi said.

“Ahh, that’s how you learn!” John said. “Playgrounds ain’t no fun anymore, with all the plastic and rounded corners. Bones heal.”

Child safety philosophy aside, the see-saw was just what we needed: a giant lever to help wrench stuck vehicles apart and move them aside.

We made it over 40 miles, stopping to await the end of the week near a Shop in a tiny town named Glorieta, where we dropped off a small load of hitchhikers we’d picked up in a roadside gas station. The community reminded me of Walsenburg, although it was even smaller. They were welcoming to both us and our passengers, excited to see other faces, and in a hurry to share information and resources.

Byron tried to put his Blueprint for a dagger into their Shop, but found the pattern was already present. Swords and shields were also available for purchase, and we found out that they’d been granted by the blade geode path and the gated path, respectively. They even had a trident available for sale, courtesy of someone who’d made it through the underwater path!

I bought one, even though the butt cap didn’t have enough weight to counterbalance the heavy front end. The Trial had suggested that the useful lifespan of my copper-tipped rebar staff was coming to an end, and I had to be ready. Byron and I had tested the alien daggers as well as we could. Though we both lamented the lack of precision machinery that would allow for truly precise testing, our rough-and-ready tests had at least made us both certain that the alien blade was far stronger than our kitchen knives. I hadn’t been able to break the dagger while swinging it normally, although I’d been able to cause minor damage when stabbing concrete. Byron and I had finally broken it, but we’d had to wedge the blade in a boulder and have me hit it from the side with a sledgehammer.

I was confident the enhanced durability would translate over to my trident, but I saw my testing buddy eyeing it with a speculative eye. I shifted to shelter it behind my body. “Buy your own, if you want to break it! It was expensive. Kurt can’t fix these!”

Byron grumbled, but backed off after I agreed to do a little testing on my trident, smashing it against my piece of rebar. If it bent or broke on my old weapon, well… small loss unless I broke both at once. But the trident was clearly superior, showing no signs of damage even as I put a significant bend in the haft of my old spear.

My friend would have liked further tests, but he saw the wisdom in not destroying our most effective weapons to figure out just how effective they were. He’d spent all his own funds buying a sword and shield, even borrowing a little money from John.

The trident had been just barely within my means. I was grateful that I’d only bought a couple of the Alternative Rations previously. They were far less horrific to eat than the Basic Rations, and actually approached tastiness when I sprinkled on some seasoned salt, but they were expensive. Five rations cost 50 Money, the same as a dagger! The sword and shield each cost more, and the trident most of all: 250 Money, even more than a Shop! After my injudicious purchase of a few alternative rations earlier, I just barely had enough to cover the cost. I would have liked a sword as well, but they were western-style swords, not ideal for the strikes I knew, and my funds were limited.

Santa Fe, the state capital, was only twenty miles away. We might have been able to make it if we’d pushed it, but no one could tell us what the road ahead was like or what the situation in the city was. With a new monster appearing the following morning, we decided to wait in friendly Glorieta rather than risk the road.

Novelty would reset as well, and we’d all be invited to a Challenge. Kurt and Davi extracted ironclad promises from me - and me specifically - to decline any challenge that was offered. We all had maximum novelty, but they didn’t seem nearly as worried about Byron or John accepting.

Which, I guess, was fair.

When the announcement came, though, it had a nasty surprise for us.

Congratulations! If you’re hearing this, you’ve survived the second duodenary of the Earth Maffiyir!

Your accumulated Novelty had been noted and reset to zero. Those who have not reached the Novelty cap will receive a monetary reward. Those who have reached the cap will be transferred to an arena, where they will have the option of participating in a challenge for exclusive rewards.

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

My friends’ frightened faces made me hurry to comment. “‘Option to participate,’ it says. It’s going to take us there, but we don’t have to take part.”

Kurt shook his head. “Like it’s going to be that easy. I mean, I hope it is, but there will be other people there. Don’t let your guard down.”

“Just make it back,” Davi said. “No matter what you have to do, make it-”

Her words cut off as clear casing snapped around her.