With his own wounds sorted, Jake finally had a moment to take stock of the spoils.The fight itself had barely lasted a few minutes start to finish, but for sheer danger, it ranked among the worst he'd ever walked away from.Small mercy, danger and opportunity always seemed to travel together. These four hadn't looked wealthy on the surface, but it turned out they'd been sitting on some genuinely good stuff.Nobody skips looting a body. Jake started with Old Kessler and Danny, closest to where he stood."Two grenade cards, one bomb card... and a healing card too? Wasn't expecting that.""Wait, hold on, is this actually a white card?"Jake could barely contain himself. He genuinely hadn't guessed these two were carrying something like this.The grenade and bomb cards were standard fare, useful for restocking. The healing card was a pleasant surprise on top of that.But the entry card? That was the real jackpot.Something like that held serious trade value, enough to land a solid vehicl

Jake had a vague memory of this guy, name was something like Perry, if he remembered right.Not that Perry stood out for anything impressive. Jake mostly knew of him because word had spread that he'd recently wormed his way into Captain Blake's inner circle by kissing up hard.Rumor had it Blake originally wanted Hogg for that role, but Hogg had his own priorities and turned it down flat, refusing to serve as anyone's stepping stone. Blake settled for Perry instead.Perry's actual strength was nothing special, and he'd only joined recently. Blake mostly used him for crowd control around camp, nothing important which didn't stop Perry from constantly angling for attention regardless.With the Caravan stalled out this long, plenty of people had already pieced together what Blake was planning. Several vehicles had already peeled back toward the rear, a clear enough statement that they wanted no part of it.Watching that unfold, Perry decided this was his moment to defend the Captain's au

Creak, creakHaving just crushed one vehicle, the Meat Tank's arm-thick fleshy tentacles snapped out again like lightning, wrapping around another car.Slick and greasy as they looked, those tentacles carried real strength once wrapped, no amount of flooring the gas could break free.Bang, bang, bang.The tentacles coiled tighter, hoisting the vehicle straight off the ground. Just as the people inside braced to bail out on foot, the tentacles punched through the windows, wrapped around them directly, and shoved them into its mouth like a quick snack.Barely clear of the tunnel, and it had already taken out two vehicles. Watching that, half the Caravan wanted to floor it until the engine gave out nobody was thinking about fighting back anymore.A few held their ground anyway, pulling out rocket launchers and heavy anti-materiel rifles as a last resort.Except free of the tunnel's constraints, this thing wasn't an easy target to line up anymore the rockets kept missing.The anti-materie

"A bottle of cola?"Perry mulled it over. Not exactly a steep price. If this genuinely turned into major intel and won him favor with Blake, it'd be worth it no matter how he sliced it. He agreed fast."Deal. Getting it now."Watching him agree that quickly, Jake called out to his retreating back, "Large bottle. Not a can, not a small one."Perry stumbled mid-step, spun around, and shot Jake a venomous glare furious at himself for agreeing too fast and handing Jake room to raise the price on the spot.Jake spread his hands, the picture of innocence. "You really think a small bottle buys major intel? Fine, forget it I'll just take it to Reeves instead. He'll pay better anyway."Perry ground his teeth but caved. "Wait here," he snapped, stalking off.Not long after, he came back holding a 1.25-liter bottle of cola."I said large. This is clearly medium.""Don't push it."Sensing another round might actually set the guy off, Jake played magnanimous. "Fine, fine. I'll eat the loss. Medium

Watching someone actually crack open a card, the crowd that had just been spectating suddenly surged with fresh interest, every last one of them convinced they'd be the next to hit it big.With the crowd pushing forward hard and both stall owners overwhelmed, Jake moved fast, grabbing the remaining three heads carrying card phantoms and paying for them before anyone else got there first.He didn't crack them open on the spot, though. Muttering something about the crowd being too much and not wanting to wait around, he carried the three heads back toward his own vehicle.Nobody thought twice about it, just assumed he was eager to check his own prize in peace.It made sense anyway. The stalls only had one axe circulating, so the line moved slowly. Plenty of other buyers had already peeled off to open theirs privately, same as him.Back at his van, with nobody paying attention, Jake pulled out his own axe and cracked each head open like a walnut, one swing apiece.Three cards, no witness