As much as I wanted to share my own findings, I was truly interested in what others had to say. I had my doubts that many of those competing for the strange orange prize orbs would vote for each other’s information, but the Shop recipients were all claiming their prizes now, and they’d be sticking around. That would give us a small pool of people who could vote honestly.

Keeping track of how many votes each person received might have been difficult for me alone, but with everyone there heavily invested in the outcome, I wasn’t too concerned. No one was going to let someone else lie about how many votes they’d received.

“I’ll start us off, even though I won’t accept a prize,” I said.

I could easily have spoken for an hour. It was important for other areas to get specialists with good synergies for communication, farming, and transportation. I would have loved to explain the land-purchase pattern we’d worked out, although that might have been difficult without an illustration. Our book-based armor had issues, but I could see it was still better than what most people were wearing. Even details about the Mandatory Trial might help others, that didn’t even touch on the information Pointy had gleaned from her analysis of past Maffiyir recordings.

But Micah was here, in a situation so volatile it had already left one person dead and another badly injured, and while I was desperately trying not to focus on Gavin, it was impossible not to worry. While part of me wanted to get and give all the information I could, most of me wanted to get back as soon as possible.

In the end, there was only one piece of information I had that they couldn’t get on their own.

“Army Materiel Command is based in Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville. The leaders there are working to stabilize the region. They’ve got a long-ranged flying transport specialist and they plan to do their best to connect with other military bases and installations. If there’s one in your area, please let them know. They’re adopting the black-and-white stripes as a uniform accessory, so please consider doing the same if you want to keep working for humanity as a whole.”

I could see people’s surprise and hope at my words. Seeing the starvation and hostility along US 72 helped me understand why. There had been literal warring fiefdoms in urban America. How could those exist if our army and government weren't completely destroyed? It seemed impossible.

And yet, we lived in a world of impossible things. It was important that people knew that, for all the world seemed to be a lawless nightmare, it might not remain so forever. Our leaders - at least some of them - were trying to regain what they'd lost. They were trying to provide for our people.

The things we'd lost might not be gone forever.

Gauge Boy followed up my offered information, surprising me. “Here’s a freebie from me, too. Don’t take Biological Augment: Sleepless. There’s nothing physically wrong with my sister that I can tell, but she’s like a different person. I barely recognize her.”

I didn't want to make a habit of responding to each piece of information - we needed to get back quickly - but his pain was so evident that I couldn’t help but respond. “Try to get her some synergy bonuses. I know of multiple Biological Augments that had detriments removed once they got more strength.”

That got his attention. “I’ll try that. Thank you.”

One by one, people came forward to offer their own news. The next two shared information I already knew about ability synergies, and then a third shared a design for an effective ram trap.

I was starting to feel disappointed when Bomber Jacket stepped up. “There’s something different about the twelfth ability.”

“Different? Different how?” I asked.

She shook her head, expression angry. “I live in LaFayette, Georgia. We’ve got five Points Siphons there. We had two Shops for a day or so, but then one of the Shopowners was killed, and the other one… well, she jacked up the prices something fierce. Charged 13 Money for one Basic Ration, said she’d only lower it if we gave her all the Points Siphons. Said she didn’t want anyone to bump her off. It made people mad but… what could we do? If we killed her, there’d be nothing at all to eat. She had us hostage by our stomachs.”

“I was leading the guards on the western Siphon on the day it happened. She came by to claim the Points like normal, but then she started frickin’ sparkling like some kind of anime character. It stopped after a few seconds, but I heard her say something to one of her pals. She told them that for her twelfth ability, she’d been granted a Specialty.” Bomber Jacket flexed her fingers in air quotes as she said the final word.

“What’s a Specialty?”

Bomber Jacket shook her head. “Not sure, sorry. I’m not part of her inner circle. She sounded real excited, though.”

I voted for Bomber Jacket to receive one of the prizes, but few others agreed. That surprised me, but then I realized how vague she’d been. I was in a very different situation than most, since I could contact the Arsenal. With all their Points Siphons, they’d be able to get better information in short order. Most people wouldn’t be able to do that, and there was nothing immediately helpful about knowing a future ability was “different.”

Pink Scales earned a lot of votes with the information that a lot of household cleaners could be used as slime deterrent - or “jelly” deterrent, as she called them.

“The jellies don’t react to baking soda, but they’ll avoid anything stronger than that. Borax, OxiClean… you put a line of that out, and they’ll turn around.”

Another person to earn a lot of votes was actually the idiot who’d bolted for the dais at the beginning. He hadn’t been suffering enough to earn a Shop, which wasn’t horribly surprising, given his speed. “Monsters don’t appear under roofs. We’re sheltering in a cave, and we can’t block off the entrance all the way. It’s too big. So, we’re basically staying outside, but monsters aren’t appearing in the area where we sleep. They attack us, but they all come from outside.”

I was fairly relieved when Camo Guy received a lot of votes as well. I couldn’t say he was wrong to have killed the assassin, but I was definitely concerned that he wouldn’t go along with the group if it didn’t work out in his favor. He’d undertaken the Mandatory Trial solo, and after clearing a path to the exit, he hadn’t left immediately. Instead, he’d stayed behind to see how difficult the other monsters were to take down.

“The deer can leap incredible distances, but they can’t change direction in the air, so be ready to dodge. The crab things, on the other hand, are a bitch. Couldn’t find a weakness. Heavily armored from top to bottom, and they can climb damn near anything. I took one down, but it was harder than it oughta been. Now, the real problem was that tall furry one. If you see one of those big things, just fuckin’ run. I thought the blades on its arms were gonna be the problem, but it’s fast as hell and it has this roar that…” he paused. “Busted my eardrums, I’ll tell you that much. Glad I had an exit route secured.”

Micah declined to participate, his eyes flicking between me and the dead body of the assassin. “I just want to get home.”

I kind of wished he’d said something, however weak, so that we weren’t the only two sitting out… but he was a rule-follower, and this was what we’d discussed before. I’d rarely been so grateful that my kids didn’t take after me… we’d both chosen not to participate and both had backpacks full of food, but with my reddish-brown curls and his straight black hair, we didn’t look obviously related.

People continued to offer information. Some people offered advice on synergies, other warnings on various abilities… it wasn’t only the Biological Augments that were screwing people over, either, although they seemed to be the largest culprits by far. Three people knew of others who’d killed themselves or friends by accident, one with Channel Electricity, one with something called Toxic Mist, and a third with something called Gamma Burst.

One of the teenagers chose to sit out as well, which made me relax a little.

The middle-aged black man with the graying beard had a particularly interesting tidbit to share. “I live by the edge of the Tennessee River. Most of the monsters won’t go into deep water, but the blobs will.” He meant the slimes. The lack of standard names for the various monsters was an irritation. “The blobs can swim real well. They’re hard to see when they’re not on the surface, but I’m pretty sure they’ve been appearing underwater as well as on land.”

In the end, the five remaining prizes went to him, Camo Guy, Pink Scales, Runner Idiot, and a teenage boy who, instead of sharing anything directly Maffiyir-related, simply summarized some of the principles for properly butchering animals.

I watched anxiously as the five lifted their prizes and waited the 75 seconds needed to claim them. Bomber Jacket seemed frustrated that she hadn’t garnered more votes… but although she had an irritated expression on her face, she simply let the time tick away.

All prizes claimed. You will be returned to your previous location.

The now-familiar clear casing snapped into place around me. Micah and I had made it out alive. I would have sighed in relief if I’d been able to breathe, but instead I just waited, hoping I’d soon see Gavin’s smiling face.