“Morning”

Heinz was glad to see that he wasn’t the last to arrive. He set down his bags and took in the others. It was weird seeing them in shades of grey and black. It would take him some time to adjust to his new augment.

Tara in particular was odd. Her usually bright purple, pink and blue ski jacket and pants were muted in the dark. The strips of colour were now just faint shades. She stood out from the others for both her height and for carrying the least amount of gear. It had been her job to prepare information.

Louise and Shane were more uniform in their shades of grey. The now standard gear of the group, wetsuits and chicken wire outer layers, were covered by tattered remains of jackets. Louise was still wearing the sailing jacket Heinz lent her on the first day. The jacket had been through a lot and he was satisfied that his unused spares had done such good. Shane had his brother’s farming jacket on. Both jackets had seen better days but still served to keep the rain off.

Shane grunted at Heinz’s greeting, fished a first aid kit out of his bag and handed it over. He had been in charge of medical supplies and multiple first aid kits was a good sign of his progress.

This kicked off a repacking as Louise handed out bags of food and Heinz brought out his survival packs. They were simple packs with the bare minimum. Each held a map, compass, knife, batteries in ziploc bags, rain poncho and multi tool. Heinz had a larger pack with rope, flares, fire starters, emergency blankets and cooking equipment.

He didn’t have enough equipment to make the packs himself but his fellow boat owners on the marina turned out to be a perfect supply source. Many of the owners weren’t Reclaimers with several too old to be considered. They still opened their stores to his familiar face when they heard of his cause. One went above and beyond and was responsible for the stainless steel hatchet tied to Heinz's belt. The Norwegian claimed it was for camping but Heinz suspected he had more comedic reasons.

Phil arrived with a tight look on his face and once he had repacked his bag they were all ready. They had all committed to individual tasks when visiting the Shop the previous day. Phil had nothing to hand out. He took the smallest task as he needed to spend time with his family. He was in charge of getting supplies to document everything they found.

They suspected that they would need to spend 12 hours on the other side of the walls and away from what the System now called a Settlement zone. So they planned, delegated tasks and prepared.

They were determined to make the most of these 12 hours.

“Want to let us know what you found on the way Tara?” Heinz asked and winced as a light flashed on in the front seat. “Rosa wasn’t able to get any information.”

The change from the dark to the lights of the council van had been jarring but he wasn’t going to turn down a free ride.

“My parents and I were able to track down some people from the previous clearing group.” Tara began when everyone turned to her. “Most weren’t open to sharing anything - the council had asked them to stay quiet.”

“Figures.” Shane scoffed.

Heinz gestured for both Tara and him to lower their voice. They were getting a lift from a council member.

“Well we did find some people who were willing to talk after finding out that it was where we were heading next. The clearing group got about a kilometre into I38-9G before they were forced to turn back.”

Heinz frowned. That was bad news. Rosa had said that there had been 150 Reclaimers in that clearing group and they weren’t the kind to wait by the walls during their duty.

“Why did they turn back?” Phil asked.

“Casualties. They were being whittled down by the swarm. Mostly the kinds we have seen before but they spoke of some other ones. Some sounded like the large armour things that took apart the clearing in I38-4P.”

“Fuckers.” Heinz swore. If the council hadn’t kept this information quiet the later clearing in I38-4P might not have gone so badly. Jack wouldn’t have gotten hurt and Shane would have been able to mourn with Patrick’s family instead of fighting another battle.

“Anything else?” Phil had taken his notebook out and was ready to take notes.

“Well yes but it wasn’t from the clearing but other trips to the further zones. And it’s not really confirmed. More stories.”

“Anything could help.” Louise encouraged.

“Well they said that there are kelpies.”

“As in the water horses that drown their riders?” Heinz asked and eyed Shane. Rosa had called him a kelpie when they met.

“It’s a myth.” Shane said and narrowed his eyes at Heinz. It seemed he hadn’t forgotten either.

“It’s just a story as they never killed or found one. Someone saw a glimpse of something horse-like carrying a member of their group away.”

“Well that’s just what we need. The swarm is bad enough without people getting superstitious.” Heinz said, drumming a rhythm on his bag.

Tara just shrugged.

They were dropped off where the wall intersected the main road. The colours receded from Heinz’s vision as the van drove away back to the town. The council was slow to set up rest stops this far from the town and there had been no one waiting when they arrived.

“Alright, final check. Do we have everything?” Heinz asked. There was about 20 minutes left on their timers. They went through a final checklist but they had everything. GAA helmets went on.

Heinz felt for his status.

User I38-3NA5

Credits

16

Classification

Fighter-R

Energy

Threshold

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

86.8

700

Agility

3

Channel

3

Endurance

6

Recovery

6

Strength

9

With a nod to his group members he stepped through.

Zone Control - I38-9G

Swarm Growth

70%

Local

20%

“Huh. I kind of expected the Swarm Growth to be higher.” Heinz spoke his thoughts.

“It is interesting.” Phil added, resting his boathook spear on his shoulder as he reached for his bag and notebook. “It’s higher than anything we’ve seen previously but there’s been less to stop them from growing here.”

“Swarm!” Shane yelled, causing them all to flinch and look around.

It took him a little longer than it should have to spot the shape barrelling towards them. It barely stood out against the shades of grey, silver and black surrounding them. It was not a unified colour and only its movement allowed him to distinguish it from the background.

“Split up.” Louise called.

Phil and Heinz ran to the left and away from the wall, spreading out. They had learnt that lesson from the Boar. Heinz readied his halberd.

The creature’s body trailed behind it as it approached. Its body was as wide as a desk and one and a half times as long as one. Pointed thigh high tendrils flexed back and forth above the creature as it seemed to glide over the floor towards them on unseen feet.

“Avoid the spikes.” Phil shouted.

Heinz didn’t have time to point out how self-evident that was as the creature reached them.

It slid towards Shane and turned its front away from Heinz and Phil. Shane hunkered down behind his shield and they ran forward. Louise and Tara backed away from Shane and started to circle around the creature.

Heinz sunk the tip of his halberd into the creature and stumbled as the blade slid through it with little resistance. Light wisps of something bled from the wounds but the creature showed no sign of being hurt. A yell echoed from his side.

The same had happened to Phil but his sharpened boathook was shorter.

Phil’s stumble brought him within range of the spiky tendrils and they flexed towards him. One lashed out and as it bent towards Phil plates on the outside of the curved tendril lifted. It was a serrated edge that sliced across Phil’s outstretched arm.

Phil yelped and darted back abandoning his boathook but avoiding the remaining tendrils.

Shane’s eyes widened and he jumped to the side. This was not a creature to be met head on.

Heinz regained his balance and pulled his halberd back and out of the earth. The creature was slightly slowed by the metal pining it to the ground but its flesh had begun to flow around the halberd.

Heinz spun the halberd around and brought the counterweight end forward. Stabbing did not seem to be working.

The creature stopped in place and lifted its front off the ground as it turned to Shane. It had no legs underneath it but something squirmed. Shane scrambled to his feet and began to run towards Heinz.

“Focus on the tendrils. Chop them off.” Phil called out to Louise and Tara who were approaching the swarm warily. Phil was weaponless and had backed away from the creature. The creature had flowed around his boathook until the end of the spear caught in its flexing tendrils.

Heinz lifted the counterweight high and swung it down at the back of the creature. It was a sitting duck as it turned. The blow was slowed by a tendril which swayed in the way but the force behind it pushed the tendril back into and through the creature. As before Heinz’s halberd sank through the creature and impacted the ground with a thud. This time it left a sizeable dent.

Dark wisps bled from the new hole in the side of the creature.

This it noticed. A squelching warbling rang out and the swarm brought its front down on the ground with a wet thump. It charged at Shane and Heinz, almost doubling back on itself.

“Run.” Shane said as he passed by Heinz.

Heinz heaved the counterweight and turned to follow.

Shane ran around the back of the creature. He made sure to keep far enough away from the creature that the tendrils couldn’t reach him. He stopped behind Louise and Tara.

Heinz arrived just in time to avoid a flying tendril. Louise was forced to hang back as Tara let loose with wide swings of her axe. It was the perfect tool to shear the tendrils off the creature at their base. The warbling rang out again.

“Keep going Heinz. The middle!” Phil shouted.

Heinz glanced back to see the back of the creature receding as it doubled back on itself.

It turned into a chase. The creature turned around on itself endlessly as they circled it. It couldn’t turn fast enough to chase them down and Heinz and Tara kept its attention. He focused on tearing its centre apart as Tara gave it a haircut wherever she could.

The creature grew narrow and thinner in its middle as Heinz’s blows reduced its mass. One final blow separated the two halves and the creature stilled. Both halves curled up before losing all tension and spreading across the floor. Large clouds of dark steam rose to the sky.

User I38-3NA5 - Fighter-R

Sprout Bounty

Credits

15

Heinz flicked away the message.

Tara bent over panting as Shane and Louise sank to the ground away from the steam. Heinz’s legs were sore but his breathing was steady as he approached Phil.

“Stay away from the spikes?” Heinz asked Phil and pointed at his arm.

Phil winced.

“Bit obvious?” Phil asked. His boathook had not been dislodged in the fight and he had hung back shouting advice for the rest of the fight.

Heinz nodded.

“My arm isn’t too bad.” Phil offered.

“We need to carry a backup weapon.” Heinz raised his voice to reach the others. “Tara do you still have Shane’s extra axe?”

Tara waved a hand in his direction but kept panting.

“We need to get better shields.” Shane said and pushed himself off the ground. He raised his fishbox and stuck three fingers through a hole in it. The creature had got a good blow in as they began to tire.

“I can ask the guys in the outdoor centre’s workshop.” Heinz said.

“Did you get the Bounty message?” Louise asked and took Shane’s offered hand to pull herself up.

“Yeah. 15 credits for me.” Heinz said.

“10.” Tara volunteered and straightened up.

“5.” Louise and Shane spoke together.

“1.” Phil said and stepped into the dissipating clouds to retrieve his boathook.

“And that took what? 15 minutes?” Heinz frowned at the shrinking puddle left by the creature.

“Bigger risk, bigger reward.” Shane grunted.

“It was a Sprout. That’s the first of that kind we’ve seen. It was some kind of slime?” Phil murmured and rested his boathook spear on his shoulder as he reached for his bag and notebook.

“No, we’re not calling it a slime.” Tara objected immediately. “Musical chairs. We call it musical chairs.”

“What?” Heinz asked, staring at her aghast. Nothing about those tendrils said chair.

Louise laughed.

Heinz turned to her aghast.

“The circling.” Louise got out between giggles. “We were running around it like the chairs.”

“Really?” Heinz rubbed his head. Surely this was too soon after a fight to make jokes.

“It’s… not a bad idea.” Phil had his notebook out and was rolling a pen between his fingers. At Heinz’s look he explained. “We call it after how to beat it. It’s catchy and hard to forget.”

“We need to move.” Shane interrupted. “We’ve been making a lot of noise.”

Phil reluctantly packed away his kit and they set off again.

“Musical chairs.” Heinz said under his breath and shook his head.

Louise giggled.