Heinz wasn’t sure who was more surprised when they met the other group on the road.
Mike, Dick and Sean were staring at the horses, mouths agape while Shane stared back, brow furrowed.
“What’re you doing here?” Shane called out and broke the silence.
Sean gave Shane a nod and walked past him. Towards the horses and away from the upcoming confrontation. Mike and Dick looked at each other before turning back to Shane. Dick clicked his tongue.
“Figured we’d help out the push to Bandon.” Dick paused as if was going to say more, then just nodded.
“Bandon.” Shane repeated angrily. He turned to look at the rest of the group.
Tara was showing Sean the wound on one of the horses’ backs. Louise looked troubled but their presence was clearly unexpected for her. Phil was already juggling his rope lead and spear in his shield hand and trying to pull out his notebook with the other, eager to catch up with Dick.
“Bandon.” Heinz echoed with his face blank as Shane turned to him, all others eliminated.
“You-” Shane started, face reddening.
“We’re here and we aren’t leaving.” Mike cut across him. He tapped his boathook spear on the ground and looked over Shane’s shoulder. “But maybe we should get those horses moving Sean.”
“Right.” Sean called back and gave Tara's horse a slap to get it moving. Tara frowned at him but started walking alongside it.
Heinz had cut rope into lasso-style leads for around the horses’ necks. The makeshift reins worked surprisingly well. The horses could slip out of them without much trouble but they hadn’t given any resistance yet.
Phil prodded his horse to follow Tara and Sean after sharing a look with Dick. Heinz and Louise went next but slower. Shane hadn’t moved and was still reddening. Shane looked like he might continue whatever he was about to say to Heinz and if he did, Heinz wanted to face him head on.
But Shane didn’t and the three fishermen waited for the others to get some distance before speaking again. Not enough distance that they would be isolated from the group which meant that Heinz and Louise could still hear anyway.
“I’ll not drag you into this.” Shane growled.
“Why?” Dick asked, his voice sharp.
“You know why!”
“That’s bull. You think Patrick wouldn’t be right here with us? You think he wouldn’t have been the first into this zone?”
“He can’t be.” Shane replied, anguished. “He can’t be home with Sarah, Joseph and Kate.”
“We know.” Mike’s voice was just as hoarse as Shane’s. “But that doesn’t change what he would have wanted. He would have wanted to find your niece. She would be his family too, Shane.”
There was a creak from beside him. Heinz glanced down to see Louise was clutching the horse’s lead tight between her hands. They sped up a bit to try and give the trio a little more privacy.
Heinz went on guard duty when they made it back to the farmhouse.
Dick, Mike and Shane set up on the opposite corner of the house from him. Their discussion had stopped during the walk but it seemed they had more to talk about with a bit of privacy.
“Heinz.” Sean was first out of the house and greeted him with a nod. “I hear you’re trying to figure out Adrenaline I.”
Heinz frowned. He hadn’t tried again on the walk back. Everyone had been distracted after meeting Mike’s group and it felt too risky.
“Have you tried the..” Sean made a seesaw motion over his chest.
“Yeah. No luck yet.” Heinz said with a sigh.
He rested his halberd in the crook of his elbow and placed both hands on his chest for another attempt but paused. He glanced over at the fisherman trio again.
“Everything alright with Matt? Not that he should be here or anything but..”
“He’s fine. After the third threshold he took up with some friends instead.” Sean said and pursed his lips. “Can’t fault him for it but it isn’t ideal. Alice - A new Reclaimer who was assigned to our group after Patrick passed - got switched to a new group.”
Heinz grimaced. Matt had seemed solid but if he’d left his three groupmates behind…
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“Don’t worry about it.” Sean said with a smile. “There are plenty of teams looking for third thresholds. If the lads hadn’t come to me with this we’d’ve found something. Matt was apologetic but he has his own people to look after.”
“Right.” Heinz nodded back and wondered how he would have acted if it had been Jack and Jamie instead of Luke that invited him to leave the group. Or Rosa and Maggie if circumstances were different.
Luke’s team was an example of the newly forming teams. He hadn’t been able to find any of them at the Patrick’s day parade but Rosa had promised to pass on a message. It would have been better to tell them about his decision in person but he didn’t want to leave them waiting.
“Want me to take over so you can practise?” Sean asked. “It can help to close your eyes and focus.”
Heinz gave him a grateful smile. Sean seemed fairly happy sticking with Mike and Dick but if their plans changed, Sean was a Fighter like him. Luke’s team could be a good fit for him.
Heinz continued the exercise until he became aware of a new strain as his muscles flexed. He frowned and felt for the sensation. There was a shift and...
Blood rushed to his head. He blinked open his eyes only to close them again quickly. The sun was rising and everything was way too bright. As he slowly adjusted his eyes to the light again he began to shift and bounce in place.
He felt like he had to move and do something. His halberd seemed so light and easily to move as he juggled it back and forth.
He pushed off from the wall and strode over to where the others were gathered. Louise, Phil and Dick were arguing over something in Phil’s notebook while everyone else waited. The little bit of extra time they’d given him had made the difference.
“Relax the muscle.” Sean called when he got close enough for his eyes to be seen. “You’ll feel a loss of energy that gets worse the longer you hold it. It’s not like normal adrenaline.”
Heinz had to close his eyes again to do it. It took a few seconds after he thought he eased the muscle before he felt anything. His heart was just a little slower, his sight darker and his movements heavier.
“Good timing.” Phil added before looking at the two beside him. “I think we’re about ready.”
Louise frowned and Dick grimaced but they nodded.
Shane grunted and set off with Mike beside him.
As Heinz fell into place in the small team of eight, he tried to steady his breathing. Now that he had triggered it once it felt easier to find the muscle again. He didn’t immediately activate it again however. The feeling had been a rush but it’d left him a bit shaky.
Being able to trigger such a rush manually was weird. It didn’t make him as uneasy as the physical changes the augments had caused, but there was a definite feeling of wrongness.
Phil signalled a halt at a bend in the road and they bunched up together.
If the walk earlier had been easy with five, it was a breeze with eight people over the third threshold. The few Swarm they encountered were buried under all the weapons.
It was interesting to find out that only 5 people were ever granted a bounty for each kill, no matter how many people attacked the swarm.
“We’ll cross into the field here and continue until we make it onto the stable’s grazing land ahead.” Phil pointed off at some trees in the distance. “Horses are skittish and would run away from strange creatures. Whatever got that horse must have been fast enough to get the drop on it. So we aren’t splitting up. Mike and I will lead. Shane and Dick in the back. Heinz and Sean at the sides. Louise and Tara will be focusing on backing us up. The Swarm might charge and try to overwhelm us.”
A light wind blew at their backs as they strode through the field. It sent a chill down Heinz’s spine that had him searching the field for any signs of movement but they made it to the boundary to the stable’s land unhindered.
It was an easy climb over an old stone wall and quick duck under a wire to get onto the stable’s grounds. The grounds were reminiscent of a park with short cut grass broken only by a series of jumping fences dotted around. The area was open and clear and quite pretty in the rising sunlight.
There was still no sign of Swarm. The grass and plants hadn’t been eaten.
“Continue to the stables.” Louise called from their centre.
Heinz focused on watching to their sides but he tightened his grip on his halberd. This all felt off. Judging by the creaking and squeaks as the others shifted behind him, he wasn’t the only one to be concerned.
The stable’s three buildings were very mixed. The stable closest to the field was the smallest and made of stone. It was clearly the oldest of the three but not that old by Irish standards. The stone didn’t look half as worn as most Irish cottages.
The next was a larger wooden U shaped building facing the field. Large stall doors were evenly spaced along the inside wall of the U. It seemed to be the main living area for the horses. The last building, a shed/arena, was the largest and built from metal panels.
After a quick discussion, Mike walked in front of the group to try the main door to the stone stables. Phil stood to his right, ready to move his shield in front of both of them in case something burst out.
“Locked.” Mike called.
“And the stalls?” Louise replied.
Mike and Phil moved over but a large padlock secured the wooden doors and they wouldn’t budge.
The small hatch for horses to look out of was a different story. Mike fiddled with a latch and it swung open. Everyone tensed but there was no sound. Slowly Mike leaned forward, keeping the tip of his spear in front of his face.
“Empty.” Mike called again. “But there’s nothing inside. No straw or dirt.”
The other stalls were the same. Something was clearly wrong but there was no evidence. Their only clue was the absence of anything.
“Let’s checkout the wooden stables.” Phil suggested. “Something is clearly here.”
Their walk to the other building was quick and hurried. They all knew something was wrong now but what?
Like the stone building, there was nothing obviously wrong in the wooden building’s courtyard. The gravel surface showed little and the wooden walls seemed unmarked aside from standard wear and tear.
Once more, Mike and Phil went forward to check the first stall. This time the stall wasn’t locked and the door swung open easily.
“What the-” Mike began.
“Behind!” Shane shouted.
Heinz turned as screeches sounded from above them and the stalls. Shane had spotted a Swarm moving around the corner of the building. It stood chest high and on two legs. Headless it hunched over with two long limbs trailing towards the ground. Ruler long dark claws stood out against its blotchy pelt like body.
“Shit.”
The swarm charged.