Donut used herFresh into Saltspell on the river. She’d received the spell from her Champion of Nekhebit title. That pretty much finished off the rest. She still didn’t go up a level.
As for the flying ones, we mostly allowed the truck to kill them for us.
Both Olga and Quemada remained unconscious. Finley kept chewing on his own claw as we bumped through the dark forest.
“This is no good, no good,” he kept muttering to himself. “No good. No good. No pay is worth this. I shouldn’t have used such a strong sedative on Que. She’ll be mad when she wakes up. She’ll be mad I didn’t protect Olga.”
“It’s okay,” Donut said in an attempt to cheer him up. “You’re trying to save your friends, just as much as we are. You’re okay. Maybe this town will have a cleric that will wake up Olga.”
Finally, the pit stop loomed. There was an arch with the words “Pit Stop” over it in flashing neon light that looked ridiculously out of place in the middle of the jungle.
“Finally,” Finley said, letting out a stream of breath.
Entering the Lost City of Upano. Mind the locals.
Safe room rules do not apply during pit stops.
“Huh, interesting,” I said as we passed under the arch. A wide street spread out ahead of us. The houses from our cul-de-sac were here, but they’d been rearranged into a long line. It wasn’t just our teams, but all the other houses from all three heats in a long suburban street. I saw with dismay the hot dog truck was there, poking out the back of a garage. Rapture and Genesis were walking from their garage toward a doorway at the end of the street that led to what looked like a group of falling-down buildings and huts.
Beyond the small city was a strange sight. Where I was expecting more jungle was something completely incongruous with the setting. To the east was what appeared to be a tall group of black tubes. It just went up and up and up, and opposite that was a group of cliffs. Opposite us, I was expecting more jungle, but it appeared like Upano just went on and on and on.
“There,” I said, pointing at a garage door that started opening on its own. There was no number painted on the door, but the whole driveway started blinking. Hedy appeared, standing in the entrance. Just next door, closer to the entrance, another door started to open. This was Elle and Imani’s garage.
A two-hour timer starts the moment you park in your garage.
Note: Garage doors may not be closed during pit stops. Safe room access is unavailable during pit stops.
“If the open garage doors indicate the ones who’ve already arrived, then we’re doing better than I feared,” I said, counting. There were twenty-four houses total, and only eleven of the doors were open, not including the ones for us and Meadow Lark. I started trying to see if I recognized any of the others.
Team Sparkles was in the very first garage, and I saw Osvaldo’s slaughter gnu was also parked. After the Lady Dominators, that meant we were in fourth place, ahead of the bugbears and One Fine Pig, who had yet to arrive.
Two of the homes were boarded up. I assumed that meant teams who’d been lost along the way.
We pulled up, drawing all the way into the garage.
Timer starting. Your vehicle may not leave this garage until the two hours are up.
Hedy walked around the truck as we exited.
“Not too bad,” she said, sounding impressed. “Much better shape than the last time.” She reached over and with a gloved hand picked up a tuft of red hair that had somehow gotten stuck in the front bumper. It dripped with blood and sizzled a little from the acid rain. “Race ain’t over yet, though.”
“The new shield works great,” I said. “But it needs more power to withstand a lot of abuse.” Outside, a double-decker bus rumbled past. A dromedarian camel sat in the top half behind a massive gun battery that looked like an anti-air gun.
“No helping that,” Hedy said. “They don’t want your shields too perfect. It’s a game. Don’t you be forgettin’.”
The bus was followed a minute later by Jasha and Radoslav’s van, which had been put through the wringer. It looked as if it had been stepped on by a god. All its windows were smashed out. It still ran on the cushion of air, but it kept scraping against the ground, causing sparks to fly up. They moved into a spot across the street from Imani and Elle.
Donut released Mongo into the room. I’d left Rend in the stables. Mongo rushed in a circle, bouncing around and sniffing and shrieking at everyone. He stopped and sniffed the bumper.
“Be careful,” I called. “There’s acid still on there.”
He growled and took a step back.
I returned my attention to Hedy. “Did I hear that correctly? We can’t close the garage door? I guess we’ll have to use Mongo to protect you.”
“Yep,” Hedy said. “They dropped that one on us right after the race started. It looks like that be the standing rule at pit stops. I ain’t safe like this.”
“Okay,” I said. “And nobody stayed in the garage with you after we left?”