Entering Hungry Eyes.
An AI notification popped up the second we returned to our cul-de-sac.
Listen, dumbass. You’re going the wrong direction. The race is the other way.
We backed up with Samantha at the wheel, Donut working the pedals, and me navigating. Samantha kept jerking the steering wheel, running off the road.
The boil on my back was starting to hurt, and I knew I’d have a new slug at any moment. We needed to get to Imani as soon as possible so she could finally cure me.
“Stay here,” I said to Jamal as Donut and I jumped out. It took me a second to figure out how opening doors worked, but I just sort of had to swipe at the door and will it to open, and it did. I didn’t know why something like that would work but the action of rolling down the window would not. There didn’t seem to be any true rhyme or reason to it. “Guard the truck! Samantha, you’re with us.”
“Oh boy,” said Samantha.
I jumped down into the street and blinked, unused to this perspective, being so close to the road. Everything suddenlyseemed so far away. The scent of the road, like rubber and oil and all the mounts, reached me, and I had the overwhelming urge to just put my nose down and sniff it all up.
All the garages now had X’s on them. All except our own, which still had a number “2.”
How lonely,I thought.
We started jogging toward the entrance to the Vendor Village.
Donut and Elle were in the chat, going back and forth.
Elle: Don’t you worry about it, Donut. Those tracksuit idiots had a way out, and they chose not to take it. They told us they were going to try Carl’s idea, and then they tried to trick us. They would’ve killed me, Imani, and Chris if they’d made it to that exit. After all the stuff me and Carl said at the fuck-Linus party? Yeah, screw them.
Donut: I KNOW. IT DOESN’T UPSET ME AS MUCH AS IT USED TO. I’M JUST SAD I HAD TO DO IT AT ALL. I NEVER EVEN TALKED TO THEM.
Elle: If you had, you’d be even less sad. Ivan was all right sometimes, but even he had it coming. He told me he and his friends dismantled an entire metal bridge once in the middle of the night so they could sell it as scrap metal. The whole thing caused a train accident, and he thought it was funny.
Donut: OKAY, THAT DOES MAKE ME FEEL BETTER.
We jogged through the arch and entered the Vendor Village area. It was completely abandoned. Not even the regular food vendors were out, which was eerie as hell.
I whimpered in pain.
“Ew, Carl. You got something gross growing on you,” Samantha said. She turned to Donut. “We’re going to have to put him down.”
Donut: IMANI, CARL NEEDS HELP. HIS STUPID SLUGPOX IS BACK.
Imani: Carl, what happened to the potion that Mordecai was going to make for you?
I felt my tail sag and ears droop.
Karl: We forgot to bring it.
I had kept the slugpox active because I could keep it under control with my Emberus ring. I wanted it ready in case I ever needed to use it. Pretty much everyone had thought this was a terrible idea, but I had argued that the birth of Bigs on the previous floor had saved my ass. Mordecai had made me a potion to cure it, but it was still sitting on the crafting table along with the backpack.
Pop!
I let out a yelp as the level 30 slug burst from my back, coming from under my cape, showering blood and pus everywhere. The slug slurped onto the ground with asplatch!
“Yo, what’s hanging, daddy man?” this new slug called, sitting up and shaking his head. His name was Lil’ Mello Haze, and his voice was even raspier than usual. Despite being a level higher than Bigs, he was significantly smaller, likely due to my own size. This one had a goddamned backward baseball cap hanging off its eye sockets. Instead of the standard hatchet coming out of somewhere weird on its front side,ithad the head of a mace for a tail. I panted as I healed myself. Already I could feel the next boil starting on my stomach. I increased my pace.
I called for the sluggalo to follow us, but he wandered off in the opposite direction. I barked after him to come back, but he didn’t respond.
Oh well.
Karl: Is that story true, about the bridge?