A Parade of Horribles
by Matt Dinniman
Contents
Chapter 79
Overview
With the Outreach Guild nearly emptying the floor, Carl realizes there are too few teams left to avoid deadly crawler-versus-crawler pairings in the final heat. Britney's disturbing mind-to-mind warning confirms that whatever is affecting her is escalating, adding a personal and immediate threat. At the same time, Pontiff's report casts doubt on Carl's casino-based escape route, leaving the team to face the last race with fewer options and a growing sense that something will still go wrong.
Summary
As the final heat approaches, Carl reviews the shrinking field. Of 989 remaining crawlers, 715 plan to accept Outreach Guild deals and leave the dungeon, which drops the active field to 274 crawlers across 103 teams. Because too few full teams remain, Carl and Imani conclude they can no longer prevent additional crawler-versus-crawler matchups in the final race, and several holdouts, including Osvaldo, Chris, and Lucia, still refuse to leave.
Carl and Donut move through Hungry Eyes gathering last-minute food buffs while escorting Pontiff to the Desperado Club, where he will investigate the disappearance of strippers. On the way, they meet Britney outside the club. Britney says Elle wants her and Louis to take a deal, but both of them refuse, and she claims she only stepped away to clear her head and prepare Louis for racing the flying gecko.
Carl immediately senses that Britney is worsening in the same unnatural way Chris once did under Maggie My's influence. When Carl presses her, Britney breaks away physically, then briefly touches Carl and speaks directly into his mind, telling him not to worry about her and to focus on surviving. The contact leaves Carl shaken because it resembles prior mind-link experiences but feels more corrupted and urgent, confirming that something dangerous is happening to Britney.
As Carl and Donut head back toward their garage, Pontiff sends a message from inside the club district with bad news about Carl's backup escape plan. Pontiff reports that the casino's Wheel of Fortune may no longer have a usable Nothing space and that the remaining slot appears altered in a suspicious way. Carl reflects that the plan had depended on using that portal and a holding area accessed through Herot, but he has never fully trusted the method and now fears they are out of time to verify or replace it.
Back at the Outreach Guild, Prepotente confirms that no more crawlers seem willing to accept deals and that fewer than three hundred are left. Carl asks again about Osvaldo, but the answer is still no. Prepotente then remarks that the floor's ending feels anticlimactic because Carl's plan seems likely to make the final race easy, prompting Donut to angrily shut down the jinx before she and Carl share a dark laugh with him and part for the race.
Who Appears
- Carlassesses final-heat odds, confronts Britney's condition, and worries Pontiff's escape-plan warning means time is running out
- Donuthelps with preparations, previously recruits Filipe into taking a deal, and shuts down Prepotente's careless optimism
- Britneyrefuses to leave with Louis, appears increasingly unstable, and sends Carl a direct telepathic warning
- Prepotentewaits by the Outreach Guild, tracks departing crawlers, and confirms almost no one else will take deals
- Pontiffinvestigates the Desperado Club and reports troubling changes to the casino's Wheel of Fortune escape route
- Osvaldostubbornly refuses Carl's plan and rejects taking a deal, affecting final-heat matchup calculations
- Filipequietly chooses to take a deal after Donut convinces him, leaving Osvaldo behind
- Imanihelps map likely final-race heats and concludes too few teams remain to prevent crawler matchups
- Ellepushes Britney and Louis to run, faces a dangerous final heat, and nicknames the Russian team
- Louisrefuses Outreach, prepares to jockey the flying gecko, and remains tied to Britney's deteriorating situation