Squish.

What was that…?

Squish.

Stop, I am sleep…

Squish.

"I said stop!" I snap upright, swinging drowsily. Where is that coming from?

I look around and remember where I am. I wince, hoping I didn't wake Andrew or Sierra. They both appear to still be asleep. I breathe a sigh of relief and hop off the table, trying to be as quiet as possible. I open the door and step outside, determined to find the source of the squishing.

Closing the door behind me, I can tell the squishing is definitely louder out here. Not that there was much it could have been inside. I draw my sword.

Despite how loud it is, I can't pinpoint the sound. It's almost like it's… above me.

The sound stops for a moment, and a shadow passes over me on the ground. I roll left preparing to fight whatever just jumped off our roof. When I get up, I stop, slightly confused.

What is this thing?

It's a small green blob of… stuff. Slime, maybe? Right, Sierra said she fought some of these. They don't look so dangerous, though…

I retract my sword, watching the little creature. It shakes a little, then jumps hard, sailing over my head a good ten feet. It then hops around a couple times, then does another hard jump toward me, going just as far as before. It continues that pattern, focusing on trying to touch me. It's hostile, but appears harmless. I wonder…

Now, usually if you want to test something's harmful capabilities, you get a dummy or something to use as a test object. But, that's not as fun. Plus, we don't have material for that right now.

I reach out to touch the slime, and it stops hopping, yet doesn't wiggle.

How do you see? You clearly know where I am, but you have no eyes… Do you sense my heat signal? Or maybe you operate on sound? You don't have ears, though… or any organs, for that matter… What are you?

Upon contact, my hand starts to burn, like I just touched something heavily acidic. I recoil reflexively, trying to separate myself from the slime, hissing in pain. The slime, however, has a different idea. How do you think?! YOU HAVE NO BRAIN!

The slime starts crawling up my arm, slowly burning me as it progresses. I reach my other hand back to punch it, then decide that one burning arm is bad enough. I summon my sword and stab the little demon creature three times, killing it with the third. It dissolves into smoke, leaving behind a bunch of copper coins. Counting them out, I get thirty-seven.

I also pick up two blobs of Gel. I put them in the bottom-right corner of my inventory.

Oddly enough, my left arm is no longer burning. It still hurts, but not in the same way. I grit my teeth and head back inside. This world is made of deception and illogicality.

I close the door as gently as possible, not wanting to wake the others. Well, I'm not getting back to sleep now, especially not with a burning arm. I'm gonna need to bandage this…

I recall the mushrooms that Sierra gave me. Don't they have healing properties? I select one from my toolbar and eat it, instantly feeling better. I look at my arm, seeing only a pink hue hinting at a burn, nothing more. Well, would ya look at that? And this is the weakest healing item there is…

I stretch and yawn, rubbing the sleep out of my eyes, and shake my head to make myself more alert. Cracking my neck, I head back outside to work.

Let's make a list of what needs to be done… The house could use some touch-ups, but that's low priority, as we would only do that to make it habitable for multiple villagers, whom we can't yet protect; we need a sawmill to make a loom, both of which we need for beds, which I will need if I want to have full function in my neck; we should build some type of defense for night creatures, for surely there are hostiles among the night, though we may be the only defense; and we need better equipment, like armor and stronger tools. Defenses and furnishing can wait, so I'll focus on finding a sawmill and armor material.

I look around, deciding against going to the snow and purple, since one is unknown and the other requires insulation in one form or another, which I do not have. The jungle probably has all sorts of unsavory bugs and critters with which I would rather not interact. That leaves the desert.

Taking a deep breath, I start heading west. I'm at the tree line when I hear the house door slam open behind me. I spin around, to see Sierra looking around in a panic.

"Ryan?! Where are you?" She cries.

"Over here!" I call back.

She turns my way, relief flooding over her face, replaced unnervingly swiftly with anger. She marches over to me, and I swallow nervously.

"What were you about to do?"

"Go to the desert and look for a cave, or dig a hole if that doesn't work."

She stares at me in disbelief, then slaps me.

"Are you stupid? That's what I did yesterday, and I brought back one of those demon-ant things! Do you really want to go to their homeland?"

I consider for a moment. "Yeah."

"I thought so. Now—wait, what?" She says, taken aback.

"I do want to go to their homeland. They came to ours and terrorized us, why shouldn't we do the same to them? Plus, that thing dropped its mandibles and some silver. It'd be like farming money."

"…You're insane. Completely, utterly, insane." She responds, dumbfounded.

"We were both thinking that yesterday, when I killed the ant. If that pattern follows, I like my odds."

"And if it doesn't?"

"I'll adapt."

"You're dead-set on this, aren't you?" She sighs.

"Very much so, yes."

"Well, then you leave me no choice. I'm coming with you."

"Great! I like these odds, we've got this."

She curses under her breath, not knowing I heard it. "Let me guess, you were hoping I'd stop and tell you to stay? This is the kind of stuff we'll have to do if we're going to survive. We'll be doing some really stupid stuff. If my track record is anything to go by, then we'll profit when we succeed."

"If we succeed." She corrects.

"Nah, when we succeed. I have faith we will."

I turn back toward the desert and start walking. Hearing only my own footsteps, I turn behind me and see Sierra wavering a bit.

"Come on. I'll need someone to make sure I'm not too stupid, otherwise my odds will go down, and I'm not super fond of that idea."

She glances back at the house, then turns and follows me. I smile, turning back to the desert again.

Half an hour later, we're in the desert, not even close to tired. We don't even sweat, which is weird, but Andrew did kind of explain that we didn't need to eat or drink. If we don't need to drink, we can't sweat, or we would need to drink. Flawless logic.

As we get further into the desert, I notice more and more cacti growing, and an idea pops into my head.

"Hey, Sierra."

"Hm?"

"Do you think armor made of cactus is a thing?"

She raises her eyebrows at me. "What in the creators' names gave you that idea?"

"I haven't the slightest. But it could work. I mean, tons of other stuff in this world does. Why not cactus armor?"

She considers, then shrugs and makes a meh noise.

I approach one about four feet tall, taking out my axe.

"What are you doing?"

"Grabbing some to take back to Andrew. I was serious about the cactus armor."

"Good lord you're insane."

"As I was when I—"

"Killed the demon ant, yes, I know. Just because it's been useful thus far doesn't mean I can't use it to express exasperation toward your actions."

I just grin and chop at the cactus. I get seven pieces back from the relatively small plant. If I got seven from this little thing, how many would I get from those? I walk to the biggest cactus I see, about twice my height and thrice my size. I chop that one down and get a whopping fifty-nine pieces of cactus. I shake my head at my own antics, then continue chopping cacti. I end up with two hundred thirteen pieces in ten minutes. As I finish the last one, which was sat on a hill overlooking a cliff, I spot a hole in the ground not too far away.

"Sierra!" I call down.

"Please tell me you're done cutting down cacti; we should have just kept going."

"Yeah, I'm done—I also see a cave!"

That grabs her attention. "Really? Where?" She starts running up the hill to me.

"Well, it's more of a sinkhole, but it leads underground, so it's close enough."

Her eyes go wide when she gets close to me.

"Ryan." She sounds awed, but that could just as easily be fear. I'll bet on the former.

"Right? It's huge! The only problem is, how are we going to get down?"

"We're not." Okay, option number two.

"Why not? It's exactly what we're looking for: a giant cave so we can find a house with a sawmill. There's no conceivable reason—"

"Look."

I squint at the pit, trying to see what she's referencing. It takes a moment, but I manage to identify a couple head-like shapes in the ground. A bigger shape walks around, and something flies out of the pit.

"Okay, so there are some monsters there, but hey, if we can handle the ant-thing, surely we can kill those."

"Look closer, and say that again."

"Fine. We can kill—" The words catch in my throat.

The large shape walking around is one of the ant-things. The flying one is apparently its cousin, having the same basic coloring, and the head-only things in the ground are just that—the ant-things, but with their heads being their only visible part. The rest of their bodies must be hidden under the ground where we can't hurt them.

"…Oh."

"Yeah, now you see? If one of those things gave us so much trouble last time, how much more will it give us when it has allies?"

"Probably not enough."

She glares at me and smacks the back of my head.

"Yeah, I deserved that. So, what do you propose we do? Fight the ant-army or look for a cave elsewhere?"

"I say we look elsewhere. I don't want to be anywhere near those abominations right now, or ever, for that matter."

"Suit yourself." I say, bounding down the cliffside. Sierra shouts something behind me, but a sudden wind takes it away.

My feet hit the ground a little hard, and I stumble, but keep going forward. I break into a sprint, trying to get my speed up before the fighting starts.

The first one to notice me is a head in the ground. Good, a warmup target. It swivels on an axis that is probably not biologically sound, and screams at me, flexing its pincers. How do pincers even flex, they're made of bone—FOCUS.

I snap back to reality in time to see a ball of something, presumably sand, flying at me. I try to cut it in half, but probably shouldn't have done so with a horizontal swipe. The two halves of the sandball hit me in the gut and the forehead, knocking me fully on my back. So much for a warmup.

I raise my head to look at the spitter, only to see it looking almost straight up. I follow its gaze, then make some weird panic noise I didn't know I could make and roll over. I narrowly dodge the sandball that would have otherwise smashed my face into paste. Oh, good, it's a mortar now. I notice, however, that the ground where the ball hit is raised, and looks refined.

I stand back up, but almost as soon as I do, the spitting-mortar-ant swivels back to me and spits another sandball. I spin to my right and run at it, dodging as it spits. When it's finally within reach, it tried to wiggle its way underground, but a swift stab to the eye stops it from trying anything. It leaves behind two silver coins and its mandibles, and a very angry friend running at me.

Wait, what? I roll to my left, barely dodging the sprinting ant-demon. When I come back up, it's already running again. Let's see if the same trick will work twice.

I wait until the last second, then brace my sword in the ground and lunge to the side. Sure enough, the ant impales itself on the sword. I take out my copper sword and raise it to strike, when it's snatched from my hand. I look up in shock at the flying ant, which now carries my copper sword. It picks up the sprinting ant and goes back down the hole. Fortunately, the wooden sword stays behind.

Well that sucks. There goes my one strategy for fighting the fast ones. I pick up the wood sword and kill the remaining two spitters in much the same way I killed the first, and they drop the same things. Putting away my sword, I decide not to go in the pit, not wanting to face a literal army of ants, regardless of type. Even the spitters could be extremely dangerous if I have to fight tons of them.

Not even two steps into my retreat, a monumental buzzing echoes from the pit. No thanks. I start a full sprint back to Sierra, then realize that would lead all of these things to her if they see me, which, at this distance, they will. I turn, mind spinning. Think, Ryan. How can you get yourself out of this alive? I sweep through my inventory, searching desperately for a solution.

Cactus.

Opening my crafting menu, I make a workbench, and view my options. Please, please, please let there be cactus armor…

There.

I pump my fist in the air in triumph. I make a full set of Cactus Armor, along with a Cactus Sword. Two swords, I can do the thing with the sprinters. Fantastic.

I put on the armor and draw the sword. I feel as though I look ridiculous, but this small bit of defense may just save my life. If only I had a shield. I shift into a combat stance and brace myself for the swarm.

The swarm bursts from the hole like a geyser erupting, spewing out dozens at a time. I should have listened to Sierra. I take a deep breath, and charge.

Flying circles around me, they start dropping sprinters I didn't know they were carrying. Five hit the ground around me. Glancing upward, I see that nearly every swarmer is carrying a sprinter. Maybe some of those are spitters? It's hard to tell from my position, especially with the lack of light from the swarmers, well, swarming.

The sprinters all charge at once, so I jump to dodge. They crash into each other, looking very confused. I smirk. Not very smart, are you?

That smirk quickly turns into a grimace as I'm shot out of the air by a spitter. Neither am I, apparently. I land on my back, hard, but hastily regain my footing. Let's try something insane, that tends to work. I open my inventory and tap both swords at the same time.

Instantly, my cactus sword is in my left hand, and my wooden sword in my right. Now we're talking business. I brandish the swords, crouching low, waiting for one to charge. I jump as one sprints past me from behind, then cross my swords to block another sandball. I land gracefully, ready to do it again, until I look around, and realize that I've not yet so much as hit any enemies, yet I've been hit a couple times.

Walls.

Right, the ants can't destroy terrain, at least wooden terrain. I store the cactus sword away and pull out some wood. Fighting off sprinters, I build a small shell, in which I can barely fit while standing, and knock out the layer at arm height. I then crouch, stick the wooden sword through the hole, and spin.

Sure enough, it works. The sprinters that touch it are damaged just as much as they would have been otherwise. The spitters can't get through the roof of the shell, and the swarmers are none the better. Thank you, floating impenetrable structures.

I wait for hours on end, until, finally, the ants give up and return to their pit. I peek through the hole to confirm, before popping out of it and running back to the cliff. Even at the top, I can't see Sierra in the low dusk light. Please have gone back to Andrew and not have been attacked by the ants.

I trudge through the desert back to the forest, and to our home. I eat two mushrooms on the way, feeling a bit sick after each one, but undeniably healing from them.

When I make it to the clearing, I hear Sierra sobbing from inside the house. Man, if I scared her before, I may be in for more than a just scolding this time…

I quietly walk to the door and reach to open it, before realizing that they may not recognize me through my armor. I take the cactus helmet off, take a deep breath, and walk inside.

Sierra is hunched over the table where I slept, holding her arms across her body, with Andrew trying to comfort her by rubbing her back. I take off the rest of my armor.

Andrew glances over to me, then back to Sierra, then doubletakes back to me.

"Ryan?!"

Sierra's head bolts up and swings around to look at me. I give my usual stupid smile, trying to look as innocent as possible.

"'Sup."

Sierra leaps out of her chair and tackles me in a hug, forcing me to the ground. I laugh.

"What's with the sudden affection? Don't tell me you expected me to die out there, you know I'm too crazy for that."

"Shut up! That was terrifying and you know it!" She cries. Well, continues crying. I chuckle.

"Yeah, it was. Honestly, I wasn't sure I would make it. I admit, you were right, I should have stayed with you and looked somewhere else. I'm sorry." I apologize. What? Being serious outside a fight? Someone get a reporter, this is legendary!

"You should be."

I smile, a couple tears forming in my own eyes. Don't cry, then she'll cry more, then you'll both be crying on the floor while Andrew awkwardly watches. I blink the tears away and hug Sierra back. After a couple seconds, I stand.

"Glad to have you back, man." Andrew greets.

"Glad to be back, and not, you know, in the middle of an ant swarm." I joke.

Andrew grins wide, and gives me a hug too. "Dude, you damn near killed Sierra's emotions. She'll never admit it after today, but you did. Don't do something that extreme again, okay? For both of us; I was shell-shocked as well. We've only got the three of us, we can't afford to lose anyone." He whispers, so quietly that I can barely hear, so I know Sierra can't.

"Yeah, I got it. That was really stupid."

"You don't say."

We part, laughing. I wince as the pain in my gut flares back up; two mushrooms and a long walk back home were not enough to heal my injuries. Both Sierra and Andrew notice.

"Oh, are you hurt?" She asks.

"A bit. Happens when you fight an army alone."

She shoots me a dirty look, but I can tell she's restraining a laugh. "Well, then, no more adventuring for you until you've healed."

"Yes, ma'am." I agree. I hop on the table and lie down, physically fine, but mentally drained. Though it may not be best to try to learn while one's brain feels like mush, I decide I'll try.

"Yo, Andrew."

"Yes?"

"What are those things called? I know their species name isn't 'giant demon ant thing', so what are they really called?" I inquire.

Guide-mode. "Antlions. The ones which stay in the ground and spit sandballs are Antlion Larvae. The fast ones, one of which you fought yesterday, are Antlion Chargers. The flying ones are Antlion Swarmers. They can spawn on any large body of sand, and spawn in impressively, albeit terrifyingly, massive quantities in and around their nests, which appear to be conical sinkholes in deserts. Only the Antlion Larvae can spawn outside of deserts."

"Huh. Good to know what they're called, so we have some way to differentiate that isn't a paragraph description. Okay, one more thing: what can we make with cactus?"

I hand him a cactus piece, and he brings up the recipes which involve cactus. It's mostly the same as wood, without all the tools and unique furniture. There are some furniture items that cactus can make, though: tables, chairs, dressers, all the basics. Just, nothing that can be used as a crafting station, save for a workbench. I'm gonna make a house out of cactus, eventually.

"That's gonna be fun. Thanks, Andrew, that's all." Normal mode.

I flop down on the table, exhausted in spite of my near-inability to exhaust myself. Maybe the desert wasn't such a great idea… Sure, cactus is great, but Antlions are its equal opposite. Desert is now mentally blocked off, that's no-man's-land now, as is the rest of this world… for now.

We still have no insulated clothing, so the tundra is also out of the question, which leaves foresty-jungle area versus purple-spotted hill. Both sound like I'd rather be home, but the fact remains that we're doomed if we don't explore the land and learn what's really out there.

Purple spot gives me an uneasy feeling, like something truly terrifying is over there… but then, just based on jungles from home, there's all sorts of different dangers within jungles. Not even foliage is safe. Not to mention the supersized creatures. A sword, however, can kill a critter, no matter how large or small—a sword cannot kill fear. So, jungle it is.

I bring my elbow back, as though to get up, but force myself back down and follow Sierra's instruction to rest. Tomorrow, then. I fold my arms behind my head and close my eyes, intending to sleep. Andrew and Sierra shuffle around, presumably also to sleep. After a moment, I hear their breathing slow, reaching a sleeping pace. With almost perfect quiet, I soon follow them.

Sometime later, I'm awoken by a knock on the door. It's an instinctive thing, given my small apartment back home, but I get up nonetheless. I grab the handle and nearly open the door before remembering that villagers will only come when an available home is built, and that the other two would have just opened the door if they needed to leave. I equip my armor and draw the cactus sword.

I warily turn the handle, cracking the door open about an inch. A green-tinted arm forces the crack wider by swinging through, the force surprising. I hold steady, forcing the door to hold. Can I stab it through the door? I try, but it doesn't work. Damn.

Sighing, I place the cactus sword against the wall as a doorstop, to mute the noise, and draw my wooden sword. One… two… three. I let go of the door, jumping back. The door slams open, hitting the cactus sword and making a much quieter sound than it would have if it hit the wood, revealing a green humanoid figure in the door.

"Guuhhh…" the thing groans.

Please don't be what I think you are.

"Brahhhh…"

This world is crazy enough, just stop.

"Grishh…"

Great… I think I'm looking at a zombie.

A zombie that is very loud in a room with two sleeping people.

I brandish the wood sword and rush it, hitting it hard, and knocking it back out the door. Careful not to make any unnecessary noise, I reclaim the cactus sword, exit the house, and silently close the door.

"Man, and I promised her I wouldn't adventure… though, I'm not, really, if I don't leave the clearing." I mutter, grinning.

I turn back toward the zombie, watching it get back to its feet and shuffle at me slowly. Dual wielding once more, I unleash a whirlwind of strikes on it, yet it still lives. I cut off its leg at the knee, so it has to either hop or crawl, of which it does the latter, lacking the balance to hop. I back up and study it for a moment.

It didn't seem to react to anything… it likely doesn't feel pain. Good to know; I'd have tried to stun them if I were to fight a horde. Its head also hasn't stopped staring at me. It must have been trying to get me through the door when it got here.

I shrug and finish it off with a chop to its neck, severing the head. The pieces dissolve into smoke, leaving a pile of copper coins and a thin vial of yellow liquid. I step on the items and turn to head back inside, when I hear another groan behind me. I turn and see two more zombies, with slightly altered appearances, ambling at me and the house.

This is gonna be my whole night, isn't it?

I shake off any remaining drowsiness, crouching in a combat stance. The zombies just… keep walking. I relax slightly, standing up and casually strolling over to one. When I get close, it swings its arm at me. I take a step back, staying just out of their reach. They don't seem to get faster, they just follow my path.

I slash them to dust, getting two more piles of copper coins, and… an… arm? Why did it drop its arm? What use could I possibly find for that?

I stare at the arm in confusion, then opt to have Andrew explain it later. I step on the items and look around for more zombies. Seeing and hearing none, I turn to go back inside, but something hits that back of my head, knocking me to the ground. I spin around and scramble to my feet, but nothing's there. Wait, what? Don't tell me I tripped on grass. I look around for a moment, alert, yet still hear and see nothing. I cautiously turn to resume my walk, and almost lose the mushrooms I ate earlier.

Floating in front of me, slowly drawing closer, is an eyeball. That's it—no other normal parts. Just the eye. Which would be fine, albeit a bit gross, if it weren't the size of my head. Just from a glance, I can make out pulsing veins and dripping blood flailing from the back. Wait, no, those are tentacles. Tentacles on a floating eye, made from loose veins and bloody nerves. What kind of sick, twisted creature, human or otherwise, designed this sort of thing?!

It suddenly speeds up, apparently dashing at me, and I barely duck out of its path. I swing upward with the cactus sword, bouncing it into the air. The noise it made is just as disgusting as the rest of it: a squelching sound, like stepping on wet bread. This is officially my least favorite monster. I'd rather fight a dozen Chargers before one of these again…

The eye flies upward, turning at its apex and speeding back down to hit me again. I hold up the wooden sword, and it impales itself on the tip. It struggles to get off, but quickly withers and dies after a few slams on the ground. I flick my now-bloody sword, wiping it in the grass. I step on the copper coins the eye dropped, and collect something else I didn't see. Checking my inventory, I find a Lens. That's… cool, but kind of disgusting. I'm not sure what that's gonna be used for, but hey, that's why we have a Guide.

I move to go back inside, then decide to stay up tonight. I mean, if we don't need to eat or drink, we probably don't get tired either, right? I should be fine doing this. Hopefully. If not, live and learn.

I leap onto the roof of the house, landing as softly as possible. I walk around the perimeter of the building, scanning the terrain for nearby monsters. Through the course of the night, I fight about two dozen each floating eyeballs and zombies. Several variants came by, too: purple, yellow, green, and white eyeballs, plus a zombie covered in arrows, and one with a vacuum cleaner. The vacuum one actually swung the cleaner, which hurts. A lot. The arrow zombies dropped about seven arrows each, so that I now have thirty.

Come dawn, I have two gold coins and a lot more practice with my swords than I did when I challenged the Antlion army. I still couldn't hold a candle to them, but, hey, baby steps. I sit on the roof, exhilarated by the constant combat all night, not even sweating. Enhanced physical abilities are awesome.

As I watch the sun rise, the world getting brighter, I hear movement inside. It sounds like a chair sliding along the floor, wild but controlled at the last moment, then quiet. Steps toward the door. Andrew; Sierra sleeps on the table.

Andrew opens the door, closing it quickly and quietly. "Ryan!" He calls in a hushed tone.

"Yo. Up here." I call back. He spins, looking up, a surprised expression on his face. He puts his hand on his chest. "Oh, thank goodness you're still here. Sierra would have just about killed you had you left; then she'd have killed me for letting you."

"Yeah, but if she'd go for me first, you'd have time to get away." I laugh. Andrew smiles.

"Alright, ha-ha, you gave me my instance of worry. Come on down, or Sierra will attack you just for scaring her."

I hop off the roof, just as I hear Sierra wake up, in the form of a very angry call.

"RYAN! You'd better not have run off, you crazy little—" The door slams open, revealing a maniacal Sierra, hellbent on stopping me from doing whatever she thought I was doing. Upon seeing me, however, she instantly calms down.

"Oh. Good morning. How long have you been up?"

"Long enough to go to the Antlion nest and back."

Her face goes slack. "You're kidding."

"Nope. I've been awake all night. May as well have never slept."

She glares at me, her eye twitching. "You… went back?"

"Hell no, I value life. I stayed here, killing zombies and floating eyeballs. Speaking of which, Andrew, got any info on those?" I turn my attention to Andrew, leaving Sierra confused and curious. I mean, yeah, I would be too if she dropped that on me a minute after I woke up.

"Zombies. A common nighttime enemy, they tend to wander in groups of three to nine. Relative to most other monsters, Zombies are easy to kill. Some wield vacuums, which enables the Zombie to pick up items and money from a short distance.

"Demon Eyes. Also a common nighttime enemy, they are difficult to fight without a broadsword, as they are a flying enemy. They spawn in pairs, but rarely stay with their other half for more than a minute, unless their attention is drawn by something else." Guide-Andrew says.

"Okay, how about this Lens I got from one?" He shows me what I can craft. "Well, that's… unsettling. Two types of eyes, one of which requires a 'Demon Altar', a pair of goggles, an Archery potion, and an 'Optic Staff'. That's not a lot. Thanks, that's all," I dismiss.

"Hey, Sierra, you up for an adventure?"

"Well, if you're well enough to fight Zombies and Demon Eyes all night, fine. But not back to the desert."

"Again, no, I value life. There appears to be a jungle to the east, with two towering trees. What say you to climbing them to the top?"

"I say you're still insane and that I'll beat you to the top."

I grin. "Not if I get there first!" I break into a full sprint; I hear Sierra do the same behind me.

This is going to be a fun day.