In stark contrast to Vance's smugness, Rachel sat curled up in the corner beside him, looking exactly like a sick, abandoned kitten, weak, hollow, pitiful.Truthfully, she was dying. The radiation had wasted her down to nothing, stripped whatever life had once filled her face.Even her once-thick hair had thinned visibly, scalp showing through in patches.Vance's bragging cut into her like needles, each word draining a little more color from her already-pale face.It wasn't the flexing that stung, really she didn't even remember him from her old life, didn't recall having anyone like him under her before everything collapsed.Being useful to someone had always felt fine to her. Pride never paid for anything anyway.What actually hurt was catching the subtext buried in his words he was wringing out the last drop of value he could get from her.This man listened to her on everything, normally right up until it actually mattered. The one time she'd needed a healing card, he'd shut her do

"Lenny's just a pawn for someone else.""If you want to survive, you need to take him down instead."Rachel gripped the crumpled note so tight her knuckles went white.No way to confirm if the note was legitimate, but she couldn't afford to gamble wrong either way. Worst case if she guessed badly getting thrown out of the Caravan entirely.For someone in her state, expulsion wouldn't feel like survival. It'd just be a slower, uglier version of death.Her first instinct was to abandon the whole plan. She'd already used the healing card no longer in immediate danger. One more card, fully recovered, and she'd have real options again.She dropped that thought fast, though.Whoever had gotten Lenny to act as their proxy clearly held real influence in the Caravan. If she tried scamming a healing card out of them and walked away, there was no chance they'd just let that slide.But following through on their actual plan meant she'd likely end up dead regardless.Based on the note, their real

The moment Rachel handed over the video, the whole situation flipped.The Caravan had figured this was already wrapped up, finding out there was still a show left to watch had everyone perking up, practically ready to cheer.Watching that crowd of eager onlookers, Lenny's face drained of all color, humiliation crushing down on him.Instinctively, he shot a pleading look toward Grant.Grant wasn't even looking his way, though too busy running the math on how to cut him loose cleanly.Once Blake finished reviewing Rachel's footage, he turned to Lenny. "Anything else to say for yourself?""Captain, I" Lenny's instinct was to argue his way out.But the footage laid it all out, evidence solid as bedrock. No amount of talking his way around it was going to work."Take him." Blake gave the order the second Lenny ran out of anything to say.Lenny's composure shattered completely. He'd been counting on Grant to bail him out and Grant was standing there, silent, offering nothing.Clear enough t

The radiation crisis had cost the Caravan over a dozen lives outright, with another dozen still fighting off lingering sickness, futures uncertain.Total headcount had dropped from over eighty down to under seventy.During the rest days, people had died in camp almost daily, mostly those without a healing card, or without enough to trade for one. Small mercy for the survivors, at least skipping the grueling travel gave their bodies real time to recover, and the improvement showed clearly after a few days.The crisis had driven healing card prices to absurd heights. Jake took the opportunity to sell off two, trading them for a serious haul of supplies.His doomsday chariot kept getting more powerful, sure, but the energy demand scaled right alongside it. Fuel consumption per hundred miles had climbed to genuinely alarming levels, even with the efficiency boost from his entry card factored in.He still held three healing cards, but had no plans to trade any more away, better to keep the

"Couldn't they have raised literally anything else? Had to be a hundred dogs, and now my van's got a chunk missing.""Count yourself lucky. Saw a guy back there with a chunk missing out of his skull."...Jake studied the claw marks scarring his vehicle. The deepest gouges, courtesy of the buffalo-sized one, cut a good tenth of an inch into the panel enough to genuinely bother him.Easier to wreck something than build it, as always.All that grinding, all that time pouring into upgrades, and a handful of strays nearly undid it in minutes. Where was the fairness in that?Still, he had it better than most. Plenty of vehicles across the Caravan were far less reinforced than his and had taken much worse holes of every size scattered across their bodies.Word was two vehicles had their windows smashed clean through, everyone inside killed on the spot, left behind in that village for good.Jake grabbed some water and gave his vehicle a quick rinse, washing off the filth of dog blood smeared