No one had an answer for Dick.
Shane broke the silence with a grunt and pushed away from the doorway towards the door lying on the ground.
He left a bloody handprint behind him.
Mike and Dick both rushed to help him as Shane bent down to pick up the door with one bloody hand and steady it with his previously broken arm. Part of Shane's splint had come away as he tore off his shield earlier. The crumpled support gave Shane’s arm a bent and misshapen bulge.
“Sitrep.” Louise called out. Her voice was unsteady and she was having trouble steadying herself as sat up.
The trio working on the door paid her no mind. Mike and Dick were busy trying to get Shane to stop. Shane was focused on ignoring them and trying to manoeuvre a door into place one handed.
Everyone else looked at her confused.
“Your status. No. Not that.” Louise exhaled in frustration and blinked her eyes. “Your health. Injuries.”
“I’m good. Fine. Buzzing.” Tara replied quickly. She started to tap her leg against the ground as she stood. “Too fine. I feel racy.” Tara’s eyes widened and she blushed. ”No, not that racy. Racey. Energetic. I passed the threshold.” She started to look panicked. “Heinz, Louise, you too right?”
“Yeah but I feel light.” Heinz flexed his muscles and winced as stiffness and tiredness washed over him. “And sore but that might be the Adrenaline.”
“It's the Attributes!” Phil chimed in. ”Twelve points in one Attribute now. Did passing ten give something? A perk? What-”
“Injuries.” Louise shouted over him. She took a breath and pushed herself up. When she spoke again her voice was steadier. “I’ll have a new scar on my front but the cut doesn’t seem too deep.”
“My shoulder.” Sean said and clutched his upper arm. “It's a bad cut and might be broken. I couldn't get out of the way of the Swarm from the roof.”
“My leg is cut up and sore.” Phil said. He hesitantly put weight on it only to wince. “The swarm got a parting shot in.”
“I’m clear aside from what I did to myself.” Dick called from where they were setting the door in place. A red line ran down his face from his spear.
“My back and shoulder.” Heinz started and tried to twist his head around to see. The neoprene on his shoulder was sliced up and bloody. But he had no idea about his back. Everything was so generally sore it was hard to tell. “I think.”
“Bruises.” Mike called ruefully. “Both from belly flopping on the ground and the door.”
Everyone turned towards Shane and his arms. He pushed the door one more time to check it was fixed in place before turning back to them. He scowled for a second before relenting.
“Worse than it looks.” Shane said as he lifted his bloody arm. He wasn't so quick to lift the other. “The other is sore.”
Louise scanned over them before coming to a decision. She started slowly towards Sean. “If you were cut, get your clothes out of the way so we can treat the wound. Heinz, where’s the first aid kit?”
Heinz shifted around to slide the bag off his back. It didn’t come.
“Anyone seen my bag?”
Tara shook his head beside him but no one else responded. Everyone was following Louise’s instructions or talking between themselves. Heinz asked again.
“It was on the ground outside.” Phil replied. “It might be a bit.. trampled.”
Heinz looked towards the stall door and the three men standing by it. They looked back at him then at the door they had set in place.
“I’ll get it.” Tara volunteered and shot towards the cracked hole between stalls. Her speed didn't prevent her leaving a parting shot behind. “But you guys remember the Swarm broke through the door when it was actually attached right?”
The three fishermen froze and looked towards the door again. They looked at each other and their shoulders slumped.
Tara was slower to come back.
When she arrived back she was still vibrating in place but she looked hesitant.
“Over here.” Louise called and waved her over towards herself and Sean.
Sean had no trouble peeling off his outer jacket and another loose jacket covered in fishing nets and wire, but Louise had needed to cut open the tighter inner layers.
Tara hesitated then walked over. Louise held a hand out for the first aid kit but Tara let Heinz’s bag fall to the ground. She stepped closer to Sean.
“Tara, what -”
“Healing II.” Tara said with a grimace.
Louise’s mouth scrunched but she stepped back when Tara gestured. Tara stepped forward and placed a shaking hand on Sean’s torn upper arm.
“Ow! What are you-” Sean started but paused with a shudder. ”Oh. That’s... warm.”
After a few seconds Tara lifted her hand and dark blood dripped down. She quickly rubbed her hand on her jacket and stuck the hand in a pocket. She seemed calmer even if she hunched over a bit.
Heinz turned his attention to Sean’s shoulder but there didn’t seem to be any difference. If anything it was messier and bloodier than before.
“I don’t know about the bone but that should help seal the wound.” Tara said as she noticed everyone staring at her.
“What’d you–”
“How’d you--”
“–do?”
“--know that?”
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Phil and Louise asked immediately. They glanced at each other, then back to Tara.
Tara was uncomfortable but she took her hand back out of her pocket and rubbed the top of her palm. When she spoke it was with short clipped sentences. “The augment changed my hand. My parents made me test it.”
Heinz couldn’t help but stare at her hand. Unfortunately like with Sean's shoulder, he couldn’t make out anything under the blood. An issue with her augment would explain why Tara had been off all day. Tara stiffened again under all the attention.
Louise closed her eyes for a second and when she opened them there was an edge to her gaze.
“Right. Phil, how’s Heinz back?”
Not great, it turned out. Two cuts ran down his back and a deeper slice across his left shoulder. What was more annoying was the dirt that had gotten into the cuts. Unlike the previous stalls, this one had not been cleaned out. Hay, mud and shit had stuck to the blood when he skidded along the floor. The dirt was driven further in when wrestled the Swarm off of Shane. A lot of their water supplies were used to clean him off.
Tara followed Louise around as she checked over them all and under Louise’s instruction, had placed her hand on his shoulder but not his back. Louise joked that Heinz and her matched now, Louise front and his back, and that she didn’t want to be left alone but Heinz saw her face as Tara did her.. thing.
He could confirm that it felt oddly warm but nothing beyond that.
The entire process was uncomfortable and felt very unhygienic.
Tara’s augment was used only once more, on Louise herself against her wishes when they discovered that the cut in her stomach was deeper than she’d revealed.
Once everyone was treated to some degree, they got out some food to take a break. No one was ready to set out again or even discuss it. Of course, this opened Heinz, Louise and Tara up to questions from Phil.
User I38-3NA5
Classification
Fighter
Credits
71
Energy
Threshold
37.5
1100
Agility
4 +1
Channel
4 +1
Endurance
8 +2
Recovery
8 +2
Strength
12 +3
“It’s changed to Fighter and the threshold attribute changes have been added.” Heinz explained.
Louise and Tara nodded to confirm they had the same changes.
“Right, so you can track your four personal points better.” Phil paused. “And there’s nothing about crossing 10 Strength?”
“Again, no.” Heinz replied and rubbed his eyes. “What should I do with them?”
Phil hesitated. “Usually I would say min max. Keep boosting your strength until you can throw cars.”
“But?”
“Prevent fatal imbalance.” Phil spoke softly but everyone in the stall was paying enough attention to catch it. “Heinz was paralysed when he crossed the threshold and is still sore. Louise fell over and couldn’t get her balance for a while. Tara felt pain followed by an overwhelming burst of energy. I think we should try and rebalance our attributes.”
Heinz and Tara looked at each other. It made sense. Heinz certainly didn’t want each threshold to get worse and Phil was usually right about these kinds of things.
“How?” Tara asked.
“Feel for the message and try to move the points around. For me, I imagined the attributes were cups and poured the personal attribute back and forth.”
With a sigh, Heinz closed his eyes and tried to interact with the message. He’d spent too much time on this kind of thing already today.
It didn't take long for him to realise that the pouring wouldn’t work for him. He couldn’t imagine the Attributes as cups or get a hold of them. But he did get a sense for something.
It was a control of some kind. A lever. No, a direction. A heading.
Both.
It was familiar but not. The closest he could come to describing it was sailing.
The force against his hand. The rudder pushing against him as the water pushed against it and the boat turned. Strength.
Shifting his weight and causing the boat to heel. The way the boat turned as it tipped. Endurance.
The wind blowing against the sail and him. How everything wished to turn and follow the wind. Recovery.
His grip on the rope. How it pulled at him, eager for release and driven by the billowing full sail. The speed from the tension and the burst as it was released. Agility.
The flow of water under the boat. The waves crashing against the side. Everything kept steady by the hull. The keel. The centerboard. Channel.
Heinz adjusted the tiller and felt how the boat heeled in response. As the boat heeled it turned. As it turned he pulled on the rope, the tension rose. As the force on the rope increased the boat moved and the hull thrummed.
Any change affected everything else. The boat sailed on but not.. right. Heinz adjusted. And adjusted. The flow became smoother.
Agility
4 +2
Channel
4 +1
Endurance
8 +3
Recovery
8 +1
Strength
12 +2
Heinz opened his eyes slowly, confident in his changes. He felt pins and needles across his body but it was present above the soreness. He was back to 0 Energy.
Across from him, Tara was getting up and Louise was gone. Phil was left staring after Louise pensively.
Dick returned from guard duty sooner than expected. He placed an object in the centre of everyone and stood back. It was a padlock of some kind.
“That was on the ground outside.”
Louise and Mike inhaled sharply.
“So? They knocked the door in?” Heinz asked.
“They knocked one of the doors in.” Dick reached down and tapped the padlock. “This, this was forced open. They unlocked it before they burst in. All the other stall doors are intact. No horses but nothing broken down.”
“Holy shit.” Heinz stared at the padlock again. They knew the Swarm was smart but it had been animal smart. Breaking padlocks was a whole other thing.
“The horseshit.” Phil stammered. “All the mess in this stall. It’s not in the other stalls.”
“They’re cleaning up after themselves.” Louise said faintly.
Everyone looked towards the door leaning against the entrance. Mike took a step away so he could face it. Nothing burst in at that moment to attack them for the revelation but the feeling didn’t go away as they looked back at the padlock.
“Guys, yesterday..” Tara paused, face ashen. ”You don’t think, in Clogagh, that these things were there?”