A teary man helped pry the kids off Heinz’s shoulder under the angry stares of two Courtmacsherry reclaimers.

Heinz waved the wailing children goodbye before staggering away to his van. He collapsed down against the wheel, ignoring the pain in his stomach. The panels felt cold against his head as he stared at the purple sky.

He didn’t look as someone settled down beside him.

“Here.”

Heinz let his head fall to the side until he could see who was prodding him. Alisha pushed a naggin of whiskey against a sore spot on his side again.

“I’m driving.” He said with a pained wince.

“Take it.” She said and pushed it forward again. When they arrived back Alisha was still in charge of the basecamp. She directed a flurry of people their way before being dragged away to deal with incoming cars.

Heinz caught the bottle before she shoved it into his side again. He hesitated a moment before taking a large swig. It burned but not as much as it should have. Did the alcohol even affect him anymore?

“It was that bad huh?”

Heinz nodded and took another swig.

“While everyone was distracted by the fire, whoever it was got to the restaurant. It’s where we’ve been hosting a school/ daycare. They killed one of the teachers and..” Alisha trailed off. “I guess you know the rest.”

Tara and Shane arrived and collapsed down next to him. Heinz passed the bottle over to them.

“You all did a good thing.” Alisha finished. She pushed herself up to face them all. “Thank you for bringing them back safe.”

A runner came and pulled Alisha away. Louise and Phil joined them as she left.

Tara offered the naggin up to them.

Phil twisted his head to read the label. His face twitched. Discontent with the whiskey turned to parental disapproval as he looked back at Tara and then to annoyance as he looked at Heinz and Shane.

Louise grabbed the naggin from Tara and took a large gulp before shoving the bottle at Phil. Phil winced as the bottle hit a sore spot but grabbed it before Louise let it fall. Louise sat down on Tara’s side.

Phil hesitated before taking a reluctant sip and sitting down in Alisha’s vacated spot.

They sat and passed the bottle back and forth for a short time but the small bottle was quickly empty.

“We’ll need to head off soon.” Heinz said. He idly spun the bottle around between his hands.

Their system timer hadn’t changed after kil-dealing with the Malignant. Whatever part of the System increased their leave time after killing Swarm in controlled zones didn’t seem to apply here.

Louise pushed herself up. “I’ll ask the doctor to check out Tara’s arm.”

Tara started to manoeuvre herself to get up but Louise put a hand on her shoulder and gently pushed her back down.

“Just wait here. We all need a check up.”

Heinz pushed himself up. “I’ll let Jack and Jamie know we’re going.”

The van was quiet on the trip back to I38-Z4. It was a different quiet to the tired silence as they headed to the zone earlier that morning. Only half a day had passed but so much had changed.

Louise and Tara sat in the passenger seats beside him. Tara’s hand wrapped in a splint like Shane’s had been this morning. Shane’s arm had also been rewrapped by the Courtmacsherry doctor but with sticks rather than the hard plastic splint that Tara received. Shane’s injury wasn’t healed but the doctor judged it less likely to shift out of place and supplies were limited. It wasn’t like the plastic would prevent Tara from moving as she wished anyway. One flex and it would snap.

Heinz parked in the same spot he had in the morning. They crossed back into I38-Z4. After the all clear was sounded he reached out for the zone control reflexively.

Zone Control - I38-Z4

Swarm Growth

55%

Local

40%

Not much had changed. It wasn’t a surprise given that most Reclaimers had been called into the hunt.

They trudged back to the basehouse from earlier. While the others inspected the inside, Heinz pulled one of the garden chairs over and sat down to keep guard and watch the sun setting.

The chair collapsed under him.

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

Heinz let out a pained laugh as he fell on his ass. The thin metal had twisted under the pressure and now poked into his back. It should have hurt. The metal edges should cut him or even leave a nasty bruise.

It didn’t.

Heinz felt for his status.

User I38-3NA5

Classification

Fighter

Credits

147

Energy

Threshold

742.5

1100

“What did the chair do to you?” Phil asked with a grin as he walked out. Phil was smart enough to avoid the flimsy chairs and lowered himself down to the floor beside Heinz.

“Didn’t give me any support.” Heinz replied dryly as he started to pull the pieces out from under him.

Phil snorted.

Heinz chucked the last piece off down the driveway before asking what was on his mind.

“Why did the Malignant give so much Energy and Credits?”

It was too much. Hundreds of Energy for one.. creature. More than 20 times more than anything else they had fought.

Phil inhaled. “Credits I don’t know. Energy..” He trailed off and rubbed his head. “If you add up all the thresholds I’ve earned over 2000.”

Left unsaid was how that could be divided five ways.

Heinz kind of wished they still had that naggin. Anything to occupy his hands really.

“Is that how we’ll end up then? Like..”

“I don’t know.” Phil replied quietly. “His system was blocked, remember? I think it manages or controls the energy. The augments have changed us but not like.. that.”

“The system.” Heinz echoed bitterly. Phil had so many theories but no concrete answers on it. None of them did. Why did they get these changes? Why did that man? At what point did the system take it from him? How did the System judge his actions? “And what happens if we lose it? Tom and everyone who stopped in the first few days ended up in such a bad state. What would happen to us now?”

Phil's hands twitched and Heinz knew that he was looking for the same distraction as himself.

“I don’t know.”

The door behind them opened and Louise stepped out only to pause. She hesitated before continuing forward and sitting down on Heinz’s other side.

Heinz twitched. This was starting to be less a concern and more an annoyance. “Can you two sort this out?”

The door swung open again and Shane and Tara followed Louise out. Neither Phil or Louise spoke as Shane and Tara settled down.

Heinz was about to give up and ask about guard shifts when Phil spoke.

“You passed the third threshold the day before us didn’t you?”

Louise stiffened on Heinz's other side.

“It took me a while to figure it out. You didn’t cross the threshold in that Hyena fight. We all reacted as we crossed the threshold. You didn’t. I thought I just missed it but then. Louise, Tactician-E. ” Phil clicked his tongue. He didn’t look at Louise, instead he stared dead ahead. “It’s how you introduced yourself to Liam’s team. I thought I was mistaken but after that night in my car, when you came late, I checked my notes. When we first met it was Tactician-S. You crossed the threshold before us and changed it.”

“Phil..” Louise started. Heinz turned to look at her. Louise’s face was pale and her eyes wide. Why did she look so afraid?

“I just don’t understand.” Phil continued, voice rising as he spoke over her. “Why not let us know? Why approach Liam’s team? Why risk everything and go to Bandon?”

It wasn’t only Heinz watching Louise now. Shane and Tara had joined him. Shane’s face was as impassive as always. They wouldn’t know his reaction until he couldn’t control his anger. Tara’s brow was furrowed, confusion and hurt playing across her face.

Louise tensed, thin muscles straining out from her neck before she slumped. “How can you ask me that after today? Today of all days?”

Phil turned towards her. “How can I not ask you after today? Do you think that man was always like that? That people didn’t trust him?”

“How could you-” Louise started to snap back only to stop with a shudder. She took a long slow inhale and spoke quietly. “You want to know why I did those things? Why I keep pushing?”

“YES!” Phil roared.

Louise shot up to her feet. Accelerating from dead still to fully in motion before Heinz could register the movement. Everyone flinched, recoiling or raising their weapons out of reflex.

“Every second we spend here relaxing, my daughter spends in Dublin. The capital.” Louise's voice wavered as she spoke but she didn’t move again. Everyone let their weapons fall. “You think things are bad here? With neighbours searching each other's houses? What do you think is happening in a city where no one has neighbours? Where there’s not enough food? You think that man earlier was the only one in the world?”

No one answered her.

Louise leaned down towards Phil. “Well? You have your answer. Is it good enough for you?”

Phil floundered. He hadn’t been prepared for that response. None of them were. “Wha..”

“Fuck your trust Phil.” Louise snapped. She walked away from them and back towards the house.

“Louise.” Heinz called after her weakly.

Louise paused but only to give a parting shot. “You demand answers now but not once in the two weeks since this started have you asked about me. About my family. Not after we fought together. Not after we bled together. Not after we searched for your son together.”

And with that she disappeared into the house.

She left behind a dark cloud over them all. Her rebuke had been for Phil but none of them were any different.

Heinz had known about Louise’s daughter. He’d seen her photo. Louise had told him herself that she was in Dublin. He knew it. He just hadn’t known.

Or maybe he had but avoided thinking about it anyway. It was all too easy to ignore the bad things you didn’t think you could affect or control.

“The ends don’t justify the means.” Phil said stiffly after a minute.

Shane grunted and ground a rock into the concrete beneath his feet. Of all of them he seemed the least affected by the argument. “Don’t they? If it was your son, would you do nothing?”

Phil had no response.

They watched the sun set for a while before dividing up the night into watches.

The message woke him up but thankfully he’d been sleeping lightly.

Control in zone I38-Z4 has reached manageable threshold.

Dropping zone barrier.

He quickly threw his outer layers back on and got ready. The others met him in the kitchen. They barely needed to speak before they set out. This was routine. No one mentioned the argument earlier. It didn’t matter now.

They had work to do.