A truck speeding towards the black fog. A girl and a dog riding with a corpse.
Not the best situation, if you asked Sandrine.
"Are you kidding me ?"
She really wanted to swear and curse the death game, but unfortunately she didn't have the time. Sandrine rushed towards the passenger window, grabbing the edge of the roof and flipping inside, using the recall of the harness' leash to build momentum and throw herself inside. In a second she was next to Gribouille, who had still been biting the corpse's hand to hang on and use the leash's recall to bring his mom inside.
Once inside, Sandrine wrinkled her nose. The whole vehicle was covered in blood. When she had stabbed the driver, she had pierced his neck which made the blood flow like a fountain, staining and covering everything. The smell made her want to gag, a terrible nausea shaking her whole body.
But she had to hang on.
Sandrine turned towards the front, lowering her gaze to the foot pedals and…
"Hum…"
She didn't know how to drive.
In fact, a lot of players didn't know how to initially, but the game crammed the information in their heads when they had acquired their vehicles, allowing them to properly drive on the infinite road. As for Sandrine ? She only knew that the mileage didn't count unless she was on Paquerette, walking alongside her wouldn't work.
That was all she knew.
Without a proper vehicle for herself, she didn't get the driving knowledge from the game.
She didn't even know which foot pedal was the brake and which one was the accelerator. In such a situation, pressing the wrong one would send them straight into the black fog.
And the black fog was scary. Even scarier than dying of starvation. All the bosses were creatures contaminated by the black fog, as well as the night monsters. When this substance transformed normal beings into strange disgusting monsters, of course it was extremely scary.
Sandrine had no idea what would happen once she entered the black fog, but honestly she didn't want to know.
Seeing the number of players' profiles who had turned gray after entering the black fog, she felt chills running down her spine.
Anyway, she needed to stop the truck immediately.
As someone who had no idea how to drive, Sandrine did what seemed the most logical. She turned the steering wheel to get the truck away from the black fog.
The problem is : When you have never touched a car in your life, you don't really know how delicate a steering wheel can be. You always see people turning it like crazy in movies, and assume that you need to do the same for your vehicle to turn properly.
Wrong assumption.
Even worse if you turn the steering wheel strongly, suddenly, and you're driving a heavy truck with some cargo. Because, as much as your vehicle will try to follow the steering wheel and turn suddenly, the weight of it added to the momentum will continue to push it forward.
Best case ? You drift.
Worst case ? Sandrine saw it unfurl right in front of her eyes.
As soon as she violently spun the steering wheel, she felt as if the horizon was rotating. Slowly, like those scenes in movies accompanied by classical music, she saw the weapons on the passenger seat slide towards her, the corpse falling on the driver window, staining it red. The sleeping space behind her made some rattling noise as everything came crashing down, the cabinet falling softly on the mattress of the bed, but then sliding some more until it hit the wall.
The whole truck was falling to the side.
Sandrine grabbed Gribouille and tried to get out through the passenger window, who was now tilting up, but she couldn't reach it amidst all the weapons falling toward her that she had to dodge.
Suddenly, everything shook as if caught in an earthquake, the sound of the fall reverberating into the cement mixer, deafening amidst the metal crinkling, objects crashing down and breaking, the driver's window not resisting the weapons' assault and shattering under Sandrine's feet, but she had successfully survived, one leg on the dashboard, the other knee on the headrest of the driver's seat.
But before she could sigh in relief, Sandrine glanced towards the front of the truck and froze when she saw the scenery.
Had the truck stopped when it fell ?
No.
Just like they said in physics class : The heavier an object, with the more speed, the harder it is to stop.
Even falling and losing the support of the wheel couldn't break the huge momentum that had been built up.
Amidst the grating noise of the metal scrapping the asphalt, the cement mixer truck continued to slide towards the black fog.
Sandrine's smile was so wide, showing all her teeth, incapable to be hidden or diminished, that drool was escaping her lips.
She stayed like this, contorted in a strange split, holding Gribouille against her, watching death approaching, her heart beating so fast that she felt she would drop dead from a heart attack before she even reached the black fog.
But maybe the double slap had been enough for today.
Maybe the death game didn't want to claim her just yet.
The truck lost speed, and slid slower and slower until it gradually stopped, just before the black fog. Sandrine couldn't even see anything through the windshield anymore, just pure black.
And she could feel the disgusting sensation of being watched from it.
Nevertheless, she took a deep breath and wiped the drool from her chin, trying to stop her hands from shaking. Thankfully, the body of the man she had just killed and most of the blood was under her feet, or facing someone she had killed and her own death, both at the same time, she felt like she could snap.
Sandrine tried to move her stiff body, feeling like her pupils were vibrating, nothing seemed steady. But maybe it was just the lingering fear and the adrenaline. She climbed up and lifted Gribouille onto the edge of the passenger window, then jumped up herself, looking around.
The heavy truck was completely overturned, lying next to the black fog. Paquerette was nearby, looking anxious, but as soon as she saw Gribouille and Sandrine, she calmed down. The mare hadn't been idle during their struggle either, both metal chests were on the ground near her feet.
"Thanks bestie."
Sandrine tried to appear calm, but her voice sounded a bit hoarse. Today was really a bad day, encountering two terrifying situations, her body felt tense and tired.
Wait, was it three now ? The fox boss, the double road, and the speeding truck, three. She knew that there was the saying 'Never two without three', but she didn't think her bad luck would be so strong !
Sandrine sat on top of the truck for a moment, taking off the parent-child harness to allow Gribouille to go back to Paquerette while she took a break.
She really had suffered a lot today.
Now she needed to go back inside to loot the truck, but the idea of going back and touching the corpse… Everything was probably broken from when the truck had turned over, or drenched in blood and couldn't be cleaned. There wouldn't be much to take. But also, it would be dumb on her part to not check it out at all. Who knew, there could be things she really needed ?
Sandrine looked at the time. She had finished today's mileage and she didn't intend on going up the mileage rankings, she couldn't with Paquerette anyway. Also, the roadside chests weren't useful for her anymore, and covering more distance meant having a higher probability of encountering another double road.
She could afford to take her time.
She stayed on top of the truck, breathing heavily, for another hour before forcing herself to jump back through the passenger window, falling inside the vehicle.
As expected, everything was either broken or drenched in blood.
If it had been the real world, she wouldn't have touched anything, blood could carry diseases, but now she had a constitution stat of 10, focused on healing, she didn't think a normal disease could take her down.
She found quite a bit of stuff, cans, weapons, beer bottles but only two unopened and intact enough, a pack of cigarettes hidden in the glove box, and a few miscellaneous objects she didn't need.
Nothing overly interesting.
The mattress was drenched in blood and covered in dark stains from before their fight. Not really surprising, the guy didn't look like he had the luxury of bathing regularly, so of course his disgusting body would stain his bed.
Sandrine didn't touch it.
She searched some more but the guy might have had a backpack because she found no miraculous cards or vehicle upgrade materials. Everything might have been in his backpack.
That was a good choice for a normal player with limited backpack space. Leave everything in your vehicle and only use your backpack for materials that you could stack in high quantities like vehicle upgrade fragments, wood, metal, glass…
Anyway, there was nothing left she could take.
Sandrine got out, jumped off the truck, and took out her crafting table on the disassemble tab. The truck was big, it gave her a lot of different materials, with a hundred units of wood.
Slowly but surely, she was getting closer to getting the barn.
Once everything was done, the chests were in her inventory and the road was clear, Sandrine finally completely relaxed.
And vomited.
Her nerves had kept her going until now, but she had truly been shocked, getting close to death so many times in a day, and killing someone again.
Sandrine felt like crying. Or dying. Or vomiting.
It wasn't clear but she felt like the world was oppressing her and everything was blurry.
She slapped herself a few times, trying to bring back some reality into her vision growing increasingly monochrome, but it was in vain. Her body grew stiff and her breathing ragged.
Her hand once again came for her cheek, but this time it was stopped by something firm but soft to the touch. Sandrine slowly turned her head and discovered that Paquerette had slid her nose between Sandrine's hand and cheek, stopping her self-harm.
The mare nudged Sandrine's back, pushing the girl against her soft fur in an awkward embrace. A horse didn't have arms. Giving a hug was strange.
But Sandrine suddenly felt better. It was strange how a black and white fur could bring back colors to her world, but suddenly her whole being relaxed. The warm body, so much bigger than her own, gave her the impression of being protected. It was weird, she was the owner, she should be the one protecting. But Paquerette had always been more mature than Sandrine anyway.
A small thing rubbed against her leg, tugging at her pants. Lowering her gaze, Sandrine saw Gribouille looking at her with worry filling his small eyes.
"It's nothing, baby. Mom wasn't feeling good but now it's fine."
A smile, a real one this time, not unhinged and insane, but soft and blooming like a wild daisy in a field, illuminated Sandrine's face. She really looked much calmer than before, as if she had left her worry behind.
This wasn't really true, her hands were still shaking a bit, but she was well enough.
"Is everyone alright ? Thirsty ? Hungry ? No ? Then let's go."
It was around 8pm now, there wasn't enough time left for a double road to appear, it was a fine time to go back on the road.
Sandrine climbed on Paquerette's back, trying to forget the weakness in her legs as she put her feet in the stirrups. She already had too much on her plate.
Once night fell, she needed to feed everybody and set up camp, as well as open all the chests, and there were a lot ! The 7 wooden ones from the offroad event as well as the golden one, the two metal chests from the double road, the few wooden chests from the side of the road, she also needed to reorganize her inventory and decide what to do with her loot from the cement mixer truck… She also needed to put on the splinters, she wasn't fully healed. By the way, the fox boss had bitten through her clothes, they were quite damaged. She only had one pair of riding pants, so she needed to see if they could be repaired with the crafting table and the sewing kit, or otherwise she would have to draw blueprints for new riding pants herself. She should also take a shower and take a look at Paquerette's hooves, since the first season would start soon. Giving all her pets a bath would be a good idea too. Did she do a medical check up on them recently ? She should probably…
Focused on her thoughts filled with obligations, Sandrine didn't know that there was something happening on the server chat. Something terrible that was extremely menacing for her and her pets' safety.
Because, before dying, the driver of the cement mixer truck had taken a picture of her and sent it on the server chat. It showed a pretty cute girl, riding a massive horse, with a hunting dog on a harness against her chest, and a cage filled with two big and plump pheasants tied to the saddle.
This wasn't just appetizing. It was a sight right out of a dream.
And the numerous hungry players couldn't take their eyes off of it.
Unfortunately, Sandrine wasn't in the right state of mind to read the server chat right now. Paquerette had comforted her, but her body still felt weak, so when night came, she didn't make any food, instead taking a loaf of bread from one of the wooden chest on the side of the road, taking out her cheese platter, the fruit platter that was about to go bad, asked AlphaWolf for some charcuterie, and made herself a big platter of snacks and aperitif. She didn't have red wine to go with, but she had two intact bottles of beer. She could have sold them for a big price, she was sure, but the only thing she needed was wood, and momentary happiness was important to get better after a traumatic event.
As she nimbled on a piece of coppa and drank slowly, appreciating each gulp, occasionally sliding a piece of charcuterie to Gribouille or a fruit to Paquerette, she read another book from Little clever's book collection. Everyone was gathered around her, as usual, and the beautiful watercolor illustrations showed the story of Margot the puppy, who wanted to study so that he could go to school with his little human. It was a cute story about separation anxiety and learning that being gone for a day didn't mean being gone forever, that everyone had their own things to do.
As usual, the illustrated book fascinated everyone. Especially Gribouille, who had a sparkling light in his eyes, growing stronger and stronger.