We’d all gotten kind of blasé about injuries, confident that as long as we protected our head, neck, and torso, John or I could fix anything else. Getting injured still hurt, but catching a glimpse of someone’s muscle or bone just wasn’t as horrifying as it had been. I could heal most injuries without breaking a sweat.

“That’s a nasty penalty,” I said. “We can’t let you get hurt. Do we-”

“We get to my cousins’ house,” Byron cut in. “We don’t stand here chatting in the open, especially not with possible new monsters around.”

“I haven’t gotten any messages from Albuquerque,” I said. “That’s weird. Even with the change to monster appearance, I don’t think we’ve ever had a new twelveday start without a new, higher-point monster.”

“We’re not chatting, we’re moving,” Byron reiterated, shoving me forward. “Vince, you’re on point. Use infrared. Davi, take the rear. Kurt’s your shield priority. Me, Kurt, and John in the middle. John, put your hand on my shoulder and use Clairvoyance to search our surroundings. I’ll steer you.”

We made our way down the road a little more slowly than normal. I ranged back and forth, trying to be sure to lure out every monster in our path before Kurt got in close enough to interest them.

Kurt himself was on-point with his Missiles, but clearly stressed.

“I can’t think of the last day you guys haven’t healed me at least once. There might have been one, when we were building Frankenair?”

I stabbed my spear into the chest of a bugdeer, halting its charge so my teammates could finish it off with Missiles. “A lot of those were minor, though. The last lethal injury you had was, um… Probably that wostrich herd before Glorieta?”

“Maybe,” Kurt said. “We’ve all been getting Cure Diseases from John regularly, though. Any of these wounds could have gotten infected, otherwise, and anything more than a scratch has a good chance of slowing me down enough that I get injured more.”

“We’ll just have to be sure to clean your cuts well, then,” John said. “Buck up, son. No sense borrowing trouble. Just think, we’re only a couple days from home!”

Kurt shook his head and changed the topic. “What did the rest of you get? Is that the same bracelet as last week, that says what people’s strongest skill is?”

I glanced down at the bracelet on my wrist, a simple band with a blue stone. “I’m not seeing anything when I just look at you. Hm… maybe… “ I touched the gem on the bracelet. “Okay, now it’s saying ‘not available’ for you.”

“Part of the penalty?” Kurt asked.

I glanced at the rest of our group. “No… it says the same thing about John and Davi, and for Byron, it says ‘Flaming Hot: Active. Area-based temperature control.’”

Davi got it before the rest of us, letting out a peal of hysterical laughter. “Oh my gosh! It tells us about people’s Specialties. You lied to us, Byron! Yours isn’t called Avatar of Flame at all!”

“It would have been if I named it!” Byron glared at his own bracelet. “I didn’t count on this little snitch outing me.”

Davi just laughed, and the rest of us joined her, even Kurt and Byron.

We reached Byron’s cousins’ house without disaster. His grandma had clearly been keeping watch for us and met us on the lawn. “You’re safe! All of your friends too? Praise the Lord!”

A young teenage girl - maybe thirteen or fourteen - crept after her hesitantly, standing in the doorway instead of following her outside.

“Lottie!” Byron yelled, scooping his cousin into a hug. “Good to see you.”

Lottie returned the hug, but I didn’t hear the words she mumbled back.

Annie hustled us into the sitting room; not a difficult task, when the mouthwatering scent of cookies was there to lure us in. They sat on a plate in the center of the table, only slightly burnt, next to a basket of eggs. A few feet away, a fire crackled in the hearth, heating a griddle on a makeshift stand.

Annie was practically singing as she asked us how we liked our eggs and cracked the shells with an expert hand. She’d cooked eight before glancing behind herself suspiciously.

“Alright, I know the heat on this griddle isn’t so even. One of y’all helping me out?”

Byron raised a hand. “I can put the fire out if you want and heat the griddle directly.”

Annie stared at him for a moment before putting her hands on her hips indignantly. “You could do that, and you’re letting me choke myself sticking my head in this smoke?”

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

“Well… you clearly had a plan! I didn’t want to get in the way.”

“Ohhh, grandson mine…” She glared at him for a moment before deciding to let the issue go. “Well, nevermind! You get to work right now! Get!”

“Yes ma’am!”

Even though Lottie and Annie weren’t willing to try the seared pavemimic, we had a wonderful meal as we shared the tale of our journey so far.

At one point, Lottie reached out to lay a hand on Byron’s arm, her face thoughtful.

“Need something, Lottie?”

She shook her head. “Just… wanted to be sure you were real. I was starting to think that Granny and I were it. The last ones.”

Byron flinched. “It’s bad out there, but… not that bad. We’ve met lots of people. We’re on our way back to Alabama so my friends can look for their families. Hopefully… Well. We’re going to look. Would you two be willing to come with us? I don’t really want to leave you here by yourselves.”

“I was hoping you’d stay,” Annie said.

Byron shook his head. “They can’t really make the blimp fly without me, but I think we could carry two more.”

Annie looked around the room, then sighed, scooting over to lean into Lottie. “You up for it? I don’t know if I could have left my own house, but that’s long gone anyhow. It’d be nice to have more people to stand watch at night.”

Lottie shrugged.

“Sugar? We're a team. If you don't want to go...”

“Fine. It's fine.”

Lottie’s response may have been lukewarm, but it left Byron with a huge smile.

The only damper on the evening - other than worries about Kurt's penalty - was a series of messages from Albuquerque: one letting us know that a new monster had appeared, the haystack-looking things we’d encountered in the maze. The second let us know that larger and tougher versions of the mantis-monsters were roaming, and gave Novice Titan Hearts when killed.

In the middle of the night, I was woken up by a third message about some weird tree-like stationary monsters that aggressively attacked anyone who came near. The trees were apparently unkillable, with some sort of invincibility that triggered when they got damaged enough.

…

We headed out the next morning after a breakfast of seared pavemimic and eggs. I got Byron to freeze a few filets and stole an insulated container from his uncle’s kitchen. They wouldn’t be as good after they’d been frozen, but they’d still be a million times better than basic rations!

I tried to focus on the positives, and not the onslaught of monsters that had appeared the previous day. At least they were all ground-based.

The blimp still lifted into the air with our extra weight. Byron had to make the air slightly hotter, but the difference was slight.

"I don't think I'll tire much quicker," Byron said.

Annie spent most of the flight spectating, against John’s advice. To his surprise, she didn’t seem to find the devastated landscape as depressing as he had. She’d brought a pair of binoculars, and crowed triumphantly every time she spotted signs of someone still living. Lottie was quiet, but she did peer through the binoculars when her grandmother prompted her to look.

We got a few more messages as we traveled, all about the stationary tree-monsters. Apparently they grew bigger over time, and seemed to be able to spawn subsidiary monsters, stealth-based burrowers.

It was almost physically painful to stop that night, just outside of a little Mississippi city a road sign identified as Belzoni.

“We can make it tomorrow!”

“As long as the weather holds,” Byron said.

I took the first watch, unable to sleep. Kurt joined me. We didn’t talk about our families, didn’t voice our excitement or concerns or what-ifs, but I appreciated his company. The chance of success felt so close and fragile that I feared to speak about it, as if the dream of reuniting with my family was a soap bubble that might pop at a touch.

…

Tree monsters continue to grow. Additional enemies appearing nearby, new varieties. Some flyers. May be generated within tree? Recommend fighting tree until invincibility shield appears. This seems to limit growth.

Well, that wasn’t a great message to wake up to.

John had spotted a few of these “trees” as we’d traveled yesterday. From what he observed, they were rooted to the ground like trees, but had a far thicker trunk, and didn’t have branches so much as a mass of roiling tentacles that lashed out at anyone who came too close.

I passed it along to my friends. “I really don’t like those trees. Every time we hear about them, it’s more bad news.”

John frowned. “Some of the ones I saw yesterday were already over 100 feet tall. I doubt their tentacles will be able to reach us in the sky, but let’s stay high.”

The day was windy, a stiff breeze blowing to the southeast. It helped us make good speed, but wasn’t without its downsides. In spite of our efforts to steer north, we kept finding ourselves drifting south.

It necessitated a conference.

“At this rate we’re gonna miss Huntsville by a hundred miles,” John said. He glared at his compass. “We’re too far south. Just a lil’ west of Birmingham. Might be better off stopping and hoping we get calm winds tomorrow.”

“Maybe I can tow us?” Davi suggested. “There’s going to be a lot of wind resistance to fight against, but the propellers will be helping.”

“It sounds like we need to head almost due north from here,” Byron said doubtfully.

“Do you think you could counter the winds, John?” I asked. “We know the landmarks in the area, so-”

A weird sound interrupted me, like high-volume static. It was barely audible above the whump of the propellers, but it startled me because, well… there wasn’t much to hear up here, apart from ourselves.

What had that been?

Then the blimp started to drop.