Heinz shifted as the salt dried against his skin and became itchy.
He hadn't had enough time to wash up before he was due to meet the others so he dried off quickly before throwing on some clothes. He was regretting the timing now they were all in a small space but he wasn’t the only one as Shane still wore his reclamation armour.
Phil, Shane and Tara and himself were sitting in Phil’s SUV, waiting for Louise to arrive.
After catching up with Louise and Tara to organise the meeting, he had joined Rosa and Shane’s effort to secure the harbour against more Swarm. Groups of five were sent out across the water in the centre’s boats. All volunteers carried paddles but for propulsion rather than fighting. Heinz had retrieved his halberd and the other volunteers were armed with their usual weapons. Fuel was still in short supply and they were instructed to use it only if needed to chase the swarm or to help anyone in danger.
Heinz's boat took a wandering path around the shoreline as they searched for any signs of alien life in the fading light. They found Swarm only once, on the south-west shoreline north of the western arm of the harbour. It was here that Heinz went for a swim, diving into the water to attract the fat leeches to the shore.
By the time the sun had set, three layers of fishing net were strung across the harbour entrance. Tires filled with concrete secured the bottom of the net to the seafloor. Four thick mooring ropes had been spliced together and now lay above the surface of the water, holding the net high. The ends of the rope were wrapped around bollards on the piers and then attached to vans. The harbour chain could be raised or lowered by both vans moving away from or towards the end of the piers.
A loud cheer rang out as the vans parked in place, nets hanging above the surface of water turned purple by the setting sun. The boats returned to the outdoor centre triumphant and full of talk about further safety measures for town and zone but Heinz knew they had barely scraped the surface of the harbour.
Rosa had met him on the shore with a new neoprene scarf and chicken wire jacket. There was no news about Ann yet. Heinz wasn’t sure if the lack of news was good or not. Ann was still alive but not healthy enough for the doctors to send an all clear.
He left carrying one of the centre's wetsuit for duty tomorrow. Rosa made a comment that the centre’s wetsuits had no other use now, which chased after him. He would have gladly worn his own wet and smelly one again if it could help anything.
“Sorry about the SUV.” Phil said for the third time. “Things are a bit agitated inside.”
“It’s fine Phil. We know it’s late.” Heinz assured him again. They left unspoken the incident earlier and the other reasons why their presence might be problematic.
“Should we start?” Shane grumbled from the backseat.
“It has been ten minutes.” Phil said with a sigh as Tara hummed an agreement.
Heinz frowned. They couldn’t really bring up anything about group I38-7VQ dissolving without Louise here.
“What about transport?” Tara asked. “The run yesterday was fun and all but I don’t want to do it twice a day and from further out.”
They looked at Heinz.
“I didn’t get a chance to speak to Rosa about it.” He said tiredly. It was far down in the list of priorities. “But I wouldn’t expect much with the fuel issues. The arsonist has been using fuel to start the fires so they’re locking the supply down.”
Shane grunted while the others made sour faces at the reminder. No buildings with people living in them had been targeted since the town hall but every wrecked building was a stain on Kinmore.
“Back to the carpool then.” Phil said and patted the wheel.
“My van or this then?” Heinz asked.
Louise’s three-door car wouldn’t hold all of them and their gear anymore. Last time he drove everyone they hadn’t been terribly impressed by the lack of seats but they had experienced much worse transport since then.
The way Shane and Tara turned to Phil confirmed their feelings on the subject.
“Meet at the marina?” Phil offered. “I need to check if this is needed.”
Tara’s shoulders drooped but Shane and her nodded.
There was a moment of silence before Phil spoke again.
“We need to talk about the team that joined us today.”
Heinz stiffened. Louise wasn’t here yet. Should he tell them about the offer? The decision had been popping into his head again and again for the last few hours. He hadn't made a choice. He was hoping to hear her side of the story first.
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“They're very organised. Mr. O’Bryne was telling Louise and I about their training routine.” Tara began talking animatedly. “Bella and Adam create individual meal plans, they practise formations in the school’s sports hall and have group workouts in the gym. Kate and Nicky create and design their gear and weapons.”
“Interesting. What are they basing the meal plans and exercises off?” Phil asked.
“He didn’t say about the food but the exercises are all about what role they play in a fight. Like how halfbacks work more on runs while the forwards focus on catching and scoring.”
“I wonder what success they’ve had with traditional training methods and how it’s affected post threshold changes.” Phil said and reached for his notebook on the dash.
“We should start something similar.” Tara suggested. “I could find out more about their training.”
Heinz and Shane shared a grimace.
“Do we have time for that?” Heinz asked before they planned too far ahead. “Wouldn’t it be better to spend the time fighting the swarm?”
“Not necessarily.” Phil began and tapped his pen against the page. “The energy required for each threshold is increasing at a fixed rate. For example, I expect the fifth threshold to require 1,100 to cross.”
There was an intake of breath. 400 to 700 had seemed like a large increase.
“Timewise it might be best to do the training during the rest breaks. Or in the early morning if we continue using a base house. At a certain point we will surpass the weight limits of the machines we have and training will become more difficult. I suspect Heinz will have issues already." Phil said and paused. "On that note we need to set a new baseline. Tomorrow?”
“We rest for a reason.” Shane argued as even Tara blanched at the idea.
“Limited training. Fighting practice or coordination.” Phil corrected. “But I’ve gone a bit off track. We wanted to discuss how that team was made from two different groups. The Bounty System removed group assignments. ”
“We?” Shane asked, eyes narrowing.
“I38-7VQ doesn’t exist anymore.” Heinz confirmed quietly.
“Say what you mean.” Shane said grimly. The suspension creaking as he shifted behind Heinz.
A knock rang out on the foggy back window.
“Jesus!” Heinz said under his breath as he jolted and shifted around to face the sound.
Tara opened the door to reveal Louise who gave them all a wave. Tara scooted into the middle seat and Louise joined them.
“Sorry I’m late.” Louise said before passing a sheet of paper to Shane. “I found someone who knew her. Your niece that is. They don’t know where she is but they knew she was out of town.”
“Who are these people?” Shane asked quickly, waving the piece of paper.
“Those are her friends or people who might know where they were going. Shane it was-” Louise hesitated. “They went to a birthday party Shane. For one of your grandniece’s friends.”
Shane pulled the paper back and let out a shuddering exhale.
“Grandniece.” Shane murmured.
Louise gave him a sad smile before turning to the others.
“What did I interrupt?”
“Heinz and Phil were telling us about how the System groups don’t exist anymore.” Tara said, turning to them with a raised eyebrow.
“Yes. We were.” Heinz said and met Louise’s eyes. “I spoke to Luke about their team and-”
“It’s my fault.” Louise interrupted him and turned to Tara. “I asked Luke if I could join them.”
“What?” Tara and Phil asked.
Tara turned back to Louise beside her, wincing as she swiped Shane with an elbow in the process. Shane paid it no mind, focusing all his attention on the paper.
“I met their team after we split up at the Shop yesterday. I was angry and I didn’t think it through. I spoke to Luke today and I’m not going anywhere.” Louise met Heinz’s eyes and offered him a sad smile.
Heinz turned back around to face the front window as Phil and Tara questioned Louise. Louise just lied and she knew that he knew. Luke’s team had rejected her, not the other way around. Was she leaving it up for him to reveal or not?
What would happen if he did reveal this?
Phil would be upset but he had suspected Louise’s plan to leave already. There was already lost trust between them.
Tara would be the most affected. She had grown close to Louise and looked up to her. Neither Luke or Kate had mentioned anything about Tara. Louise was going to leave her behind.
Shane was unlikely to care given the information he had been handed. But that was a point in Louise's favour too. She had continued searching for information on Shane’s niece while she was planning to leave the group. He himself hadn’t searched much over the past two days.
Revealing the information would upset the group but it wouldn't change much. All it would do was… give him an excuse to leave.
Which brought the problem back to the beginning. Did he want to leave them for Luke’s team?
The advantages of Luke's team were clear. If he had been given a choice on the first day he knew which group he would have picked.
But they were 12 days into this new world now. 12 days of silence, arguing and tension with the occasional happy moment. 12 days of fighting by their side. 12 days of saving them and getting saved in turn.
Louise plucking a Leech off of his neck. Phil killing the Boar after it threw him aside. Louise slaying the Jackal on his back at Aiden’s farm. Tara throwing the Jackals off him during the clearing of I38-KC. Louise tackling him out of the way of the Springer.
He barely knew the four of them but he trusted them. Well, he had.
Louise hadn’t offered an explanation or much of an excuse. But leaving it up to Heinz was a show of trust. Maybe that trust wasn’t fully gone.
“Heinz?” Louise asked and pulled him back into the conversation.
“Where do we go next?” He asked and ended the conversation about groups.
“If we do a zone by Courtmacsherry we can check for Shane’s niece there on our way back.” Louise suggested as she gave him a hopeful smile.
“North of Timoleague?” Shane asked, looking up from the names.
Phil started the SUV to bring up the car’s navigation map and they narrowed down which area to start.
“Let’s meet at the marina at 1am.“ Phil confirmed.