Before pulling out, Blake had someone paint the Caravan's destination and route directly onto the ground, and called out several times over the Caravan's usual radio channel himself.Whether the two stragglers still missing actually caught the message has no way to guarantee that either way.The Caravan crawled forward through constant stops and detours, not reaching the sand quarry until evening.With daylight fading fast, Blake had no choice but to make camp nearby first, sending a drone ahead to scout the quarry itself, laying groundwork for tomorrow's operation.The picture that came back wasn't encouraging. Within a half-mile radius sat several settlements of varying size, and as darkness set in, infected started shambling out of every one of them at a glance.The quarry itself, likely thanks to its buildings, held roughly a hundred infected entrenched inside.Small comfort, no serious threats visible among them.Then the drone's camera swept over the water, and whatever relief h

Hogg got razzed plenty over the poster, but the man had thick skin.Genuinely didn't bother him. He rolled it up right there in front of everyone, fully intending to keep it.Whether he'd sneak off later that night for a private moment with it, only he knew.Once the teasing died down, the group got to business, studying the control console together.All five carried serious physical enhancement, and the night before, they'd all reviewed the boat-operation training video Blake had somehow managed to track down.High Intelligence stats across the board meant near-instant recall of anything they'd studied.So even without any real boating experience, once it came time to actually run the thing, nobody was completely lost. A bit of trial and error later, they had the boat moving under its own power."Easy, easy, don't hit that thing, keep clear for now.""Nice, that's working."Right as they prepared to pull the boat clear of the dock, the Anomaly-infested vessel started moving too.That

Even unable to fully catch up, Jake's group didn't give up the chase, sticking close from behind.With the third boat's interception slowing the Anomaly's vessel down again, Jake's crew seized the opening to close the gap once more.After a fight this drawn out, the vessels coating the Anomaly's hull had taken serious losses, nearly losing the ability to spray its corrosive jet entirely.Without that offense left, all the thing had going for it now was genuinely excellent boat handling.Fire had run its course too, though without a way to actually reach that sealed engine room, the Caravan had no clean answer for finishing it off.Three massive vessels, each well over a hundred feet, started bashing into each other across the open water, a chaotic game of bumper boats playing out in real time."This won't work. The collisions are way too loud; this'll pull in a horde."The violent crashes made that risk obvious fast.The Caravan had wanted a quiet operation. This noisy, inefficient st

By the time the second group finished crossing and disembarked, the first wave had already set up camp.After a tense day, everyone finally caught a rare moment to breathe.Before the collapse, crossing a river had been about as mundane as it got. Now, it was enough to make fifty or sixty people genuinely celebrate.By evening, the smell of cooking food drifted through camp.Lunch had been a rushed bite to keep the work moving. Now that everyone could finally set down their burdens, a proper meal felt well earned.The night passed without incident, and at dawn the next morning, the Caravan set off again.Their destination this time was the mountain country north of the river, where the terrain climbed higher.The northern bank of the Cascade River's middle reaches held vast plains of its own, and there was no doubt those low-lying areas would turn into open water within a few days.Fortunately, the Caravan had cleared the biggest hurdle. As long as they kept traveling normally and did

"Mine's... an enhancement card."When it came to Jake's turn, he hesitated for a beat. Not that his plan had changed; he was just weighing the angle.Logically, hadn't this whole setup been building toward exactly this moment?Except in practice, someone who actually pulled a fusion card rarely announced it immediately unless they genuinely loved showing off.That hesitation alone tanked his credibility instantly. Suspicious looks turned his way, practically broadcasting we don't believe you.Truth was, Jake wasn't lying at that moment. He really had pulled an enhancement card, a small bump to Perception. He just couldn't stop people from reading into the pause.Watching the reaction, Jake thought, fine, no point explaining further. Whether they believed him or not wasn't his problem, and he had zero motivation to convince anyone otherwise. Let them stay suspicious.Besides, wasn't that exactly the outcome he wanted?The whole thing settled into ambiguous murkiness, which suited him f