The transfer from Marigold-251 over to Cantaloupe was a graveyard. The shops had been shredded and the safe room was empty. The Stage-2 Gross Atomizers would have been easy—I could hold my breath far longer than their poison-clouds lasted—but I didn't waste time on it.

  The last time I'd updated them on my progress, they'd said I should turn back and join up with a larger group. They had convinced Mom that it was too dangerous, and they were heading back down the line. Obviously, I'd ignored them, continuing up Marigold until I could transfer.

  Maddy: Alright, I'm at Canteloupe-251. Where are you all at?

  Sandra: We're back down to 127, heading to the stairs at 72.

  Maddy: When did we learn the stairs are down there?

  Sandra: It's on your expanded map. Nobody had to learn anything to know that.

  Maddy: You can expand your map?

  Sandra: I didn't tell your mom you said that. You're welcome, because she worries enough with how you ignore your messages without knowing you have no idea how the game works.

  Maddy: You know, I get a lot of that, about me being too low level or doing this wrong, but I'm making time through stuff you're barely surviving, so maybe I understand this just fine.

  Sandra: Sorry. You were saving us fine last floor and are doing great this floor. We're with a larger group, and if we split up, well, let's just say that Evelyn is clearly the strongest crawler in the whole group.

  Maddy: Alright, I'll be there soon.

  Sandra: Your Mom says to be careful, and to take whatever exit you can if it's too dangerous to reach us.

  I read that one, but I didn't respond, as I was already speeding towards more Stage-2s.

  My expectation was that this would be a lot like the previous segments, but I was wrong. I'd been going up the line while the monsters were going down the line, so we'd collided a lot. Worsening it, whenever they stopped to fight me more would wander in as we were blocking the flow.

  Going with the flow, they would sometimes turn to fight me, but I could keep moving forward to avoid too much clumping. Because I killed some as I sped along, there was also less of a flow coming behind me.

  I figured out that with the large groups at some stations, if I came in with enough speed, I could go up the wall and clear the whole mass, coming down in the tunnel on the far side, where it was sparse again. That required some fancy, footwork on the walls, grinding the side of my "skates" against the stone to keep from falling, but it worked.

  All told, going flat-out, it took me just over a day to make it from Cantaloupe-251 to an incredibly dense cluster of mobs in Stage-2, slightly past station 104. These were Babababoons, Gross Atomizers, Cornets, Drek, and fortunately-few Razor Foxes. Those were way too dense to pass through. I looked back, finding the rails fairly sparse.

  Speeding back up the line, I used illegal checking and fastball-headshots to wipe out everything halfway back to the next station—about 2 miles—then returned with room to work. I had a plan, and I was more than a little proud of it.

  I activated my Sink Into Shadow and began throwing breaking-balls as far as I could through the gap above the swarm, diving into the mass as late as I could, basically at random. Sometimes I would hit something floating high, like a gross atomizer, but mostly I was raining my Extremely Sharp Knife into mobs way too far off to turn things towards me.

  They took so little notice that I had mobs come up behind me before I had more trouble ahead. Unfortunately, I couldn't clear as far back as I wanted, as I was seeing stage-2s begin to filter in from the stage-1 groups I'd passed a while back, which meant a big press was probably coming again.

  I hurried back and started throwing with abandon. I couldn't reactivate Sink Into Shadow, so I got noticed occasionally, but it was usually only three or four peeling off, and they couldn't keep pace while I skated backwards and sent fastballs at their heads.

  It's be dangerous once I had stuff behind me, but the tracks were still mostly clear. After the third such break-away, as I sent in more breaking balls, I got message from Sandra.

  Sandra: We just got a rupture on one of our guards. You messaged about that for some mob, right?

  Maddy: Yeah. That's my knife. I'm trying to clear a big knot.

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  Sandra: Fuck! Stop! That thing's hard to heal.

  Maddy: I already stopped. I was peppering it through the mass, hoping a lot would die at once.

  Sandra: Well, it is thinned out, whether it was you or not. We're just past you, at Cantaloupe-103. We'll finish this group with a solid push and come get you.

  Maddy: No time. The Stage-1s from further back are all went to stage-2 together. They're, let's see, maybe two-hundred meters behind me? It's the babababoons in the front, so you're prepared. Do whatever you do for defending. I'll just plow through what's left of these things.

  Sandra: Stop being so reckless!

  It didn't seem reckless. I backed up to maybe twenty meters ahead of the incoming stage-2 Babababoons, readied for a dead sprint, and got going down the track ahead of their howling rage. The mobs on the track ahead weren't tightly enough packed to cause a clog when I checked them, so the main threat was keeping my speed high when I jumped a fallen one.

  I sent probably fifty bouncing off the walls while busting through, then shot out the other end and had to leap at the last second to clear a line of defenders behind heavy metal shields.

  Maddy: See, completely safe.

  As I skated in an arc along the wall, sliding to a halt on the platform, I finally saw Mom, up on the stairs, golden bow in hand. It disappeared into her inventory as she ran at me, hugging me tight even though I was dripping blood.

  I hugged her back.

  We stayed like that until someone began calling for a shift change. Mom pushed me away, smiling through tears. "I was terrified when you kept coming, even when we told you to find another way. I should have known my daughter could handle anything. I see you're level 21, so making a little progress."

  I never checked, so I'd missed the last level. Mom was level 25, higher than most of the people there. "I'm getting by, although I seriously don't understand what leveling works like. I feel like nothing here is worth any XP."

  We headed into the safe room—shift change apparently meant it was time for Mom's group to rest—still talking. I accepted the instant Mom sent me an invite to the party, then tried to wrap my head around it as Dungeon Crawler World came on. It was the second time I'd seen it.

  Everyone fell silent, and then shocked whispers began spreading as it clearly became a retrospective for some crawler named Hekla. I had no idea who she was, but apparently she helped women, so that's cool.

  I lost track of everything else, when, as it was speed-running the women she helped, I saw my letter-jacket on one of the women.

  She'd been there the whole time, in one of the most famous groups of crawlers, but nobody said anything about Lacie because that group was just "Hekla" and "Brynhild's Daughters".

  It ended with one of the women going crazy next to the pair who almost killed us all last floor, Carl and Donut, and murdering Hekla. "Where was that?"

  "Focus on us, on right now," Mom said.

  "Are you kidding me?" I raised my voice. "Where was that? Does anyone know where that happened?"

  "Don't tell her!" Mom snapped. Now people were looking at us.

  "My girlfriend is out there, and her team just broke up and she might die, and you want me to stay here?"

  "Girlfriend?" Mom said with the sharp tone that always meant she was angrier than usual.

  I started to blush, and panic, but then I just got angry. "Yes! We were on our first date when the world ended and I haven't been able to get back to her since that first intersection on the first floor, and now you want me to stay here!" I turned to the room, not caring that I was yelling. "Does anyone know where that was?"

  "101 on the vermillion line," someone finally said.

  "Thank you."

  My mom was still yelling. "Madison, I swear, if you go after her right now—"

  "What? What, Mom? You'll make me go to my room? It doesn't exist!"

  "There's no way you'll—"

  "I just ran for like three straight days to reach you. You think I'm not going to do the same to find Lacie?"

  "Now—"

  "You know what, if you want to have this fight so much, I'll just drop the party now, and there's be a real risk of me being with nobody next floor. Or, I'll go there, and I'll only drop if I can join her party. Is that better?"

  "You have a lot of nerve making threats to me," Mom growled. I could tell she was only so restrained because we were in public, everyone staring. She didn't look worried, or doubtful, just angry that I was being obstinate. I turned my back.

  She said something more, but I just walked away, going over to where a map was laid out on a table. The table was already crowded, so I flipped up to the ceiling and hooked my feet in the rafters.

  Sandra: Are you seriously going to leave your mother here?

  The named trains cut across broad swathes, and could make this work. It looked like I could take the Death's Head three stops, go six stations down to the Suicide Direct, one stop on that, then fourteen down and be on the Nightmare Express, and then go up and down only a few stations while jumping three lines.

  Maddy: I don't want to abandon her, but I came in here with Lacie. I brought Lacie in here, and then I lost track of her so early on, and now I finally know where she is. Now, I'll tell you my plans, but don't tell her yet. It'll just cause trouble.

  Sandra: I hope you give your mother some leeway. She's been panicked about you nonstop since I met her, and now you're running into danger yet again.

  Maddy: I am giving her leeway, but she's asking me not to help Lacie.

  Mom: Stop being so irrational, sweetie. What you're proposing is incredibly dangerous.

  I wanted to block her messages. Except she was my mom, and I just couldn't. However, I did finish sending my planned route to Sandra, first. Apparently that was too long.

  Mom: Don't you ignore me, young lady.

  Maddy: I'll be fine, Mom. I'm being careful.

  Mom: You're not being careful. This is the same recklessness that always gets you in trouble. You know I'm right.

  That set me back, reminding me of how poorly the Krakaren had gone. Except that Lacie had just lost her party. She might need help.

  Sandra: The Nightmare Express is no longer running. Carl stole the engine and is driving it around for whatever his latest nonsense is.

  Maddy: Mom, I love you, and I'm going to find Lacie.

  It seemed like everyone had an opinion on this Carl guy, but all I'd seen was him almost killing all of us last floor, and him getting Lacie's protector murdered this floor.