This one took a while to really get my interest--I think the point where it really hit was when he drank most of a tub of washwater and was finally satisfied for a little while. Up until then he was talking about being thirsty, but I wasn't really convinced there were stakes worth caring about. But when it got to that point I realized that his thirst was really an enormous thing that would become a major problem if not from him murdering people for their juicy innards than at least in him depleting all of their water resources.
After that, though, I was interested, and kept interest in it throughout. Come to think of it, I think I even had a dream last night where we found out where the scout got the drinking charm. As the drinking game went on I was just kind of waiting for the inevitable finish given the details so far so I was pleasantly surprised when the scout wasn't so easily beaten--and how even Pow has limitations to how much he can drink.
There were a few strange parts. Like the lieutenant, when explaining why she brought Pow back, says that it's because of the pocket-change inkwell and only mentions the payroll a while later--the payroll that's worth more than everything else in the entire base put together. That's a weird way to approach it that didn't really make sense to me. Like bringing someone to court with the accusation of "This person stole a candy bar from me." and going through half the trial before adding "and ALSO stole one million dollars from me." So before the big payroll is mentioned she's claiming it's a matter of principal to make Pow pay for it even though others are willing.
I thought the epilogue didn't do much but kill the ending.
Overall, really fun story. In the sequel, Pow eats everyone and wanders the desert killing any travelers he finds. He is out there to this day, and if your car overheats in the Arizona dessert, you'd better watch out.