When it seemed as if they were clear, Amanda let out the breath she’d been holding.  “Holy shit, did you see that thing?  It was literally a living tank.  I wouldn’t be surprised if it could shoot fire out its mouth or something!”

“Yeah.  Level twenty.  That thing was no joke.  Probably could have eaten that titan we killed. We’ll have to figure a way around it on the way back.  Or distract it somehow.  It must have been ambushing people here this whole time.  Other creatures too, if it’s up to level twenty.  Unless the system sent it here that way.”

They continued another twenty miles along the interstate before it was time to hit the state highways.  These were much smaller two-lane roads with trees and the occasional house or patch of businesses along either side.   Sam slowed them back down to 30mph and they crept along.

They’d only made it a couple of miles when they encountered an obstacle.  A multi-car pileup that included a semi-trailer blocked the road.  The vehicles were all burned, their tires useless.  There was no way to move the wreckage.

Sam drove the pickup off the shoulder and into the steeply sloped grass that led down to a drainage ditch.  He was able to creep around the wreckage and get back on the road.  A minute or so later he came walking back around.

“The grass is soft, but if you keep moving, you should be okay.  The truck isn’t heavily loaded.”   He hopped into the cab as Amanda scooched over, and Allistor started forward.  Sam gently coached him through it as they went off the shoulder into the grass.

“Take a shallow angle, boy.  You don’t want to start to slide.  That’s it… good.  Now, gun it!”

Allistor did as he was told, and they got back onto the road with only some minor slippage of the tires and flying mud.   As they pulled up next to Meg, Sam said, “That’s gonna be harder on the way back with a full load.  Let’s hope it doesn’t rain.”

They crept along the state road for another five miles or so before they found another pile-up.  This one stretched for hundreds of feet, with dozens of cars involved.  Crunched car bodies and old bloodstains spoke to fatalities, and probably monster predation afterwards.  With no way to get around since even the grassy areas were blocked, they turned around and retreated to the previous intersection.

Sam knew this part of the country well, having lived there most of his life.  But without a map, they were just guessing at what roads might take them in the general direction they needed to go.  After more than an hour detour, they managed to get back onto the same state highway.