It’s humans versus monsters when an apocalypse turns a simple cross-country trek into the road trip from hell in this breakneck LitRPG thrill ride.

All that stands between rowdy long-haul trucker Jill MacLeod (aka Junkmouth) and her family back in Boston is two thousand miles of asphalt. Well, that and the monstrous game the System has had her playing ever since it descended on Earth. The reward: mana. Jill’s goal: kill, score, drive—and stay alive. Behind the wheel of a turreted forty-ton semi named Bertha, Jill hammers east from Montana through a gauntlet of every kind of chomping, hissing, rabid creature imaginable.

Barreling forward in her magical soulbound big rig and chalking up a bumper crop of roadkill, Jill isn’t alone for long. Hitching a ride are stranded brothers Babu and Ras Bati, who just want to make it home to Billings in one piece, and Mia Williams, a school nurse with a rotary cannon and a crateful of ammo. The artillery, at least, will be handy, because what lies ahead is the biggest threat of all . . .

Arriving in Billings, they find a city in chaos, led by a self-appointed psychopathic mayor using the monster-ravaged ruins for his own ends. But Jill hasn’t come this far to be blindsided by a human—no matter how scary. There’s still a game to be played: The System is watching, that metal-muscle fortress Bertha is transforming, and Jill and her shotgun-riding friends will do anything it takes to keep the terror in the rear view one gobsmacking mile at a time.

Tom Goldstein is a physicist-turned-writer with a passion for classic fantasy and science fiction. He and his partner live in Vancouver, where he serves his science-cat, Shiva.

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