Phil arrived on foot in the morning.
Thankfully Heinz’s van shuddered to life after they all packed in. It made an awful racket in the quiet morning but they were off.
Heinz felt weird being on the road again. It had been just over a week since he drove last but he found himself hyper aware of the van’s positioning, the way it pulled to the right and how little the headlamps revealed. On that thought, Heinz eased his foot off the gas pedal. Plenty of reclaimers were walking or running down empty roads these days.
The drive through Timoleague village woke them up. The zone had been reclaimed about a week ago - it was the first that the Courtmacsherry zone had cleared. Pressure from many residents wanting to return home had ensured that. From the state of the village, few of those that moved back in had stayed long.
Heinz slowly manoeuvred his van down a narrow channel in the centre of the street. The sides of the road were littered with rubbish, broken furniture or blocked by car doors left open or broken into. The houses were in a similar state, with windows smashed and doors hanging ajar. The houses still standing that was. A fire had raged on the left-hand side of the street and a row of eleven houses were burnt husks.
Every now and again there was a clean patch amongst the mess where a resident had patched up their home and cleared their entrance. Perhaps it would look recoverable during the daytime or this was a particularly badly affected area of the village but in this fading light there seemed little hope of the community recovering.
“It’s not very well hidden.” Heinz said with a sigh as they looked at the van from the road.
He had parked it on a small turnoff from the main road. Main road was a bit of an exaggeration given the size of the crumbling tarmac but it was the largest road in the area. Shane and he had lifted Tara up to break off some of the branches of a nearby tree to use as camouflage.
“No one should be searching the area. It’s just to prevent anybody from spotting it as they pass by.” Phil assured him and patted him on the back.
Heinz pursed his lips and turned to leave. 12 hours was a lot of time for people to pass by. There was nothing of value in the van aside from the fuel but it was his. Heinz had no doubt that Phil would be similarly anxious if it was his SUV that they had taken.
“Heinz?” Louise said, pulling him out of his thoughts. She nodded towards his waist. Heinz looked down and shifted. A light jingling rang out as his keys moved with him.
“Ah.” Heinz wrapped them in a spare hat and stuffed them into his bag. Silence would be best on the other side.
They walked back along the road until they reached a bridge to cross over the river that ran alongside the road. The river’s source was in I38-FB and while it became a stream in this area, none of them wanted the hassle of crossing it.
From the bridge it was a short walk up the road before they were in the zone.
They entered prepared for a fight. Phil and Shane led with their shields while Heinz, Louise and Tara followed after, weapons ready. They held position for a moment as Luke’s team had until 5 hesitant ‘Clears’ were called out.
Heinz felt for the zone control.
Zone Control - I38-FB
Swarm Growth
60%
Local
35%
“Control is better here than it was in I38-9G.” Heinz said as they all took in the message.
I38-9G's local control had been slightly higher when they entered yesterday. Could they take the walls down here in one day?
“Let’s follow the road and search for a base house.” Phil proposed and they set off.
The next half hour was uneventful. There were no sightings of Swarm and the houses they passed all had markings on the outside of their doors. This area had been cleared out already. One or two of the houses would be suitable for a base but they agreed to carry on. There wasn’t much point in having a base house in a cleared out area.
The next stop on the road had them slowing down and preparing. It was a farm.
“Phil and Shane in front. Heinz on the left behind them, I’ll take the right. Tara, you watch behind us.” Louise instructed.
“Right.” Phil replied a little coldly. His attitude towards Louise had worsened overnight.
They all moved into the positions but the slight hesitation they had before moving was telling.
A series of large sheds with rounded roofs loomed out on their right as they walked up the driveway. The uniform lines on the roof stood out from the scattered shades of grey that made up the hedges and trees around them.
“Sheds or the house first?” Shane asked quietly.
Further up on the left of the driveway the triangular tip of the house was outlined against the dim purple of the walls.
“Sheds.” Phil and Louise whispered back at the same time.
Shane set off, leaving them a short moment to frown at each other before they followed. The tarmac turned to gravel under their feet as they left the driveway to approach the farms. With the Vision augment the gravel was difficult to look at. It reminded Heinz of the static fuzz from old TVs.
The gravel track ended in a wide yard. The sheds were lined against one edge of the yard while the other was open to a large field.
“Clear.” Shane called as he stepped out into the yard and lowered his hatch shield.
“Swarm.” Louise called out seconds later with Phil echoing her seconds behind.
Heinz ignored a clang from Shane yanking his shield back up as he scanned the yard. What had he missed? There was no movement by the sheds and all of the doors were shut. A car on bricks in a corner of the yard didn’t hide anything. His eyes shot up. He hadn’t been looking up. But there were no Vamps diving towards them.
“Where?” Tara voiced the question on his mind.
“Centre of the yard. Three metres away.” Phil called.
“There’s another a few metres behind it.” Louise confirmed.
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
Heinz turned his head to the right. Nothing. He stepped to the side in case Phil and Shane were blocking his view. His eyes slid over the fuzz but nothing.
“Shane step back. Heinz and Phil will need to take these.” Louise ordered.
Shane hesitated but retreated slowly. Heinz stepped forward but stayed slightly behind Phil.
“I can’t see anything.” Heinz said as he scanned over the area again. He waved the sign edge of his halberd in front of him.
“They’re Slimes. Like the one that got Louise yesterday morning.” Phil said as he held his boathook spear forward.
Heinz scanned the area in front of him again but he saw nothing. That creature had been the size of a wheel and round. He should be able to see it.
“I’ll guide you Heinz. Turn a little to the right. Good. Now stab forward when Phil does.” Louise called.
Heinz advanced to stand beside Phil and they inched forward together. His hands tightened on his halberd. When Phil jerked forward to jab out, Heinz followed suit. There was a slight resistance to his move but he wasn’t sure he had hit the creature. Phil pulled the boathook spear back to stab again so Heinz followed suit.
“Lower next time Heinz.” Louise instructed.
Two more stabs and Heinz felt a message appear.
“It’s down.” Phil called. He turned to the right slightly, facing something Heinz couldn’t see.
“Three steps to the right everyone.” Louise ordered.
More orders followed and under the guidance of Phil and Louise the next swarm was killed in the same manner.
User I38-3NA5 - Fighter-R
Seed Bounty
Credits
5
Heinz was relieved when the second message arrived but concerned in another way. Not once during the fight had he caught sight of what he was fighting. The creature was indistinguishable against the static fuzz of the gravel.
Phil and Louise called the all clear and they left the yard to check out the farmhouse.
The farmhouse had been marked as cleared but after a quick discussion they decided to use it as a base anyway. The presence of Swarm was an indication that they were leaving the well patrolled areas and the main road was starting to turn east and away from their ultimate destination in this zone.
As an added bonus, they discovered that one half of the house was a converted barn. Once they moved a large dining table and two sofas to the side they had a large open space for Phil and Tara’s training.
“So how are we going to do this?” Heinz asked them.
Himself, Louise and Shane stood in a line facing Tara and Phil.
“Well, practice always starts with a warmup.” Tara began. Several unenthusiastic faces stared back at her at half two in the morning. “But I think we can count the trip here for that.”
“Some stretches maybe?” Phil suggested.
Tara began to lead them through a series of positions and stances which, while awkward in full gear, began to feel quite nice. Heinz hadn’t realised how tense he was becoming until he folded forward and felt his muscles strain sooner than they should have. His muscles lengthened and gave a little with each stretch until he was feeling a little sore but comfortable.
“Next is usually control exercises...” Tara explained hesitantly. “I’m not sure how that will relate to this.”
“We could practise our form?” Heinz offered, grabbing his halberd and holding it horizontally in front of him with both hands. He moved it through the air like he would a paddle. “How we hold our weapons and how we stand.”
“Yes!” Tara said and her eyes brightened. “Phil, you pair up with Heinz for your spears. Shane with me and Louise..”
“I can work by myself. Phil and Shane can work on shields for a bit and I will join Heinz and you.” Louise said with an encouraging smile.
“Well? What do you think?” Phil asked.
“Can you do it again?” Heinz responded and tried to think of something as Phil lunged forward and thrust his boathook out. They had tried a few moves already and Phil was letting Heinz take the lead. The way he whirled his paddle around earlier seemed to convince Phil that he was an expert.
Phil’s boathook wobbled a bit in the air as he held it extended out. Heinz walked forward and gave it a slight nudge. The boathook fell off to the side as Phil was unable to exert leverage on it.
“You’re holding it too close to the base.” Heinz offered and approached Phil. He grabbed the boat hook's shaft and slid it down Phil’s hands until he was holding it a third of the way up. “You’ll have better leverage here.”
“But less range.” Phil countered.
Heinz shook his head a little. “Range is no good if the point slides off the creature.” He grabbed the spear and guided the base of it around Phil’s front and over towards his other hand.
“If you want range try holding the base with your shield hand. You can slide your other hand back and still maintain control.”
Phil tried again with the new hold and this time the boathook didn’t wobble as he lunged forward.
“It leaves me open though.” Phil said with a frown as he glanced at his wooden and corrugated iron shield hanging to the side.
“Maybe you can work with Shane on that.” Heinz suggested.
“Yes. It’s about time for a swap.” Phil said and turned to the others before raising his voice. “Swap?”
Five minutes later Heinz was standing with Louise and Tara and feeling relieved. The training with Phil wasn’t boring or painful in any way but it wasn’t very useful for him. Phil didn’t have much feedback for him other than the suggestion to practise a ‘kata’.
Heinz understood the principle of learning specific positions to hold and move his spear into, It would allow him to move more reflexively and without thinking in a fight, but knowing that didn’t enlighten him as to what actual positions he should practise and learn.
“What should we practise then?” Louise asked as they stood together.
Louise had been practising wielding two of her knives at once over to one side. The hedge shear blades were back in her toolbelt for now but two ropes trailed off the ends. The ropes could be connected to wristbands that she now wore, allowing her to drop a blade and use one with both hands.
“Footwork.” Tara said confidently. “For an axe this is a lot like getting the most power from a hurley but for you Heinz-”
Heinz smiled as Tara launched into a detailed explanation and moved into different positions to show examples. This could be very useful.
They stopped eventually for a bite to eat. It was much earlier than he was used to for breakfast and Heinz found himself yawning around the food cube he was eating. There was one more in tupperware in his bag and that was all his supplies for the day.
There was a click as Phil turned on a torch and revealed what he had been putting together for the last ten minutes.
Several tokens were placed on top of a cream vinyl or mat full of repeating squares outlined in grey. Heinz frowned as he connected the mat to the one that Luke had used the previous day.
“I thought we’d start with the big fight from yesterday.” Phil said and pointed to a specific token. “This is the Slaad.”
“Slaad?” Heinz asked.
“The large Swarm at the museum yesterday. Luke named it after the toad-like D&D monster. I thought bear or tardigrade was a better name but this one stuck.” Phil started to explain the difference but hurried through at Shane’s grunt.
“So here’s how the fight went.” Phil moved the Slaad token back away from a collection of the other tokens. He arranged the other tokens into a line.
“We were finishing off a pack of Swarm when it appeared. Everyone with a shield was at the front while the others attacked through us or from the sides. This worked perfectly and we had no trouble with the Boars. Adam disengaged and moved over to the museum wall to attract the Slaad's attention.” Phil explained as he moved one grey token over and began pushing the Slaad token towards it. “He succeeded and the Slaad slowed down to avoid crashing into the wall before attacking him. By the time it struck a solid blow and sent him flying we had finished off the other swarm and moved to surround it.”
Adam’s token was removed from the board as a host of other tokens surrounded the Slaad.
“Bella, Nicky, Shane and I tried to gain its attention while the others focused on trying to kill it. When it concentrated too much on one of us we would hide behind our shields and try to avoid any hits.” Phil paused, reaching into his bag and pulling more tokens out. “That’s when another pack of Swarm arrived. Shane broke off to distract them,” a token was pulled away, “But we were distracted and Nicky suffered.”
Phil removed a token from the mat before looking up at Heinz, Louise and Tara. “That’s when you arrived.”
There was a moment of quiet as they digested the events.
“And you think we should practise this?” Heinz asked and pointed towards the token’s surrounding the Slaad.
Phil hummed. “Not like we were at the start. We have the reach and some shields but we lack the numbers to use Luke’s formation tactics. But how we fought the Slaad, that could work.”
Phil moved several tokens over to the side, leaving five in place around the Slaad.
“We aren’t uniform but I think we could use that to our advantage. If we tried..”