Kanmi looked surprised at Solomon's declaration. He at least had the sense not to argue outright.

"Family's important," he said. "Just how far away are we talking about, here?"

Solomon tried to remember the number from the last time he'd punched it into his car's GPS. "Ninety or a hundred miles. Less as the crow flies."

His parents lived on the southern outskirts of Eugene. They were reasonably spry for their age, though he didn't love the thought of either of them being called to fight off monsters with their bare hands. At least they knew everybody on their block, and lived in a neighborhood where people would pull together during a crisis.

His sister was living on campus at the University of Oregon. In theory, the big mass of college students would be well suited to fight off any problems the system dropped on them. Assuming they managed to keep their heads despite the upheaval caused by the system. Solomon had met his sister's roommate and a few of the other girls who lived on her floor. They'd struggle to get by after being cut off from the internet, never mind anything else.

He'd also be surprised if any of them had more than a day or two's worth of food packed away. At least the junk food that made up so much of their diet wouldn't need to be cooked to be edible.

"You pick up flight from the System?" Kanmi asked.

Solomon shook his head, then started walking toward Mort's store. Kanmi trailed behind him.

"You know you're not going to just hop in your car and cruise up the freeway, right?"

Solomon nodded. He knew he couldn't drive, and he certainly wasn't planning on jogging the whole way. That's why he wanted to see Mort.

He wasn't going to give up on connecting with his family just because it was going to be difficult. If it were impossible, sure, then he'd tend to his own business and just hope everything turned out all right. But assuming the walls between zones dropped in a few minutes once the second grace period expired, the trip up to Eugene wouldn't be impossible. Just difficult.

He just hoped he could get past some of that difficulty by way of money. Solomon held onto the thought as he stepped into Mort's store.

The shopkeeper was waiting for him behind the counter. He had just finished a cigar, and held the butt between two fingers while giving Solomon a thumb's up.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

"Congratulations, kid!" Mort said, before he glanced at Kanmi and frowned. "Don't pay too much attention to this vulture, he'll drag you down."

Solomon paused and glanced back at his recent acquaintance. He actually stopped and spat on the floor of the store.

"Big words for a leech," Kanmi said, before stepping forward and clapping Solomon on the shoulder. "This guy's meant for bigger things than lining your pockets."

As hostile as they seemed to be, neither one of them looked like they were going to escalate to physical aggression. Solomon was actually a little relieved to see the two aliens bicker, since it made it less likely that they would work together to pull the wool over his eyes. For now, he shrugged off Kanmi's hand and stepped up to the counter.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm great," Solomon said. "Mort, I need to buy a ride."

Kanmi had followed him up to the counter and stood about a pace behind. Mort focused on Solomon, studying him for a moment before he spoke.

"I got some options," he said. "With the System around here still being brand new, it's not gonna be anything fancy."

"That's fine," Solomon said. "I just want to get to Eugene as soon as I can."

Considering everything he'd seen out of the system so far, he'd hardly been expecting to purchase a starfighter. It did seem worth noting that the system itself could evolve to present more choices over time.

Mort nodded, then turned around. One step had him at the back wall, where he spent a moment running his finger along the various tchotchkes on display. He finally found what he was looking for and grabbed it off the shelf. When he turned back, he tossed a pair of medallions onto the counter for Solomon's perusal.

They didn't look like anything special. Shiny, yes, and engraved with an interesting geometric pattern, but nothing about them suggested they were the answer to Solomon's problem.

"Here," Mort said, "just add MP and you'll have yourself a horse."

"A horse?" Solomon asked.

"A horse-like emulation, if you want to get technical," Mort said. "As long as you feed it MP it won't have to rest or eat. D$1000 for the pair."

Solomon winced. That was a full quarter of his latest earnings. Easy come, easy go.

Considering the pattern so far, he'd half expected that all the money from his recent adventures would be just enough to outfit himself for his next adventures. Maybe he'd gotten lucky and gotten ahead of the game with his switch to firearms. Though it would have been nice to get himself some even better armor.

Not to mention whatever came along with his zone control token. That seemed like the sort of responsibility that could get expensive in a hurry.

He studied Mort for a moment. It didn't look like there was any bargaining room on this one.

"Fine," Solomon said, pulling the money out of his inventory and dropping it on the counter. He wasn't going to pinch pennies when it came to his family's safety.

For all he knew, he was getting a great deal on a magic horse. Horse-like magic. Whatever. At least he'd probably get his money's worth out of it eventually. He was pretty sure this wasn't going to be his last road trip.

Mort counted out the payment, then slid the tokens over to Solomon. He kept one finger on each of them as he looked Solomon in the eye.

"Before you boys ride off into the sunset," Mort said, "you really should go up and claim this zone."