The outskirts of Bandon town were empty bar signs of Swarm.

That was a good thing.

A week and a half ago everyone got a message about a zone falling. There had been no more since but none of them thought that was because it was the only zone. No, the System just stopped telling them.

It was an odd day where signs of Swarm made Heinz happier than signs of people but that seemed to be the way his week was heading. The group had discussed his and Louise's last trip on the drive. They were all prepared for what they might find in the zone and town.

So while they all grew watchful at the signs of swarm, the group walked lighter.

Lone houses gave away to estates. Estates gave away to terraced housing. To their surprise they only encountered one Swarm along the way, a Jackal. They hadn’t seen any of its kind since the first ring of zones around Kinmore were cleared.

The monster ran at the sight of them. It wasn't enough.

Louise sent it stumbling to the ground with a quick throw. She chased after her knife as it left her hand and finished the Jackal off before anyone else was able to help.

The appearance of an old enemy left Heinz with mixed feelings. As they encountered more and more kinds of Swarm it became difficult to keep them straight in his mind. Should he learn to target a Hyena’s weak spots when Boar’s had a different biology? And what about that giant rock-like creature from the graveyard?

So Heinz generalised. Long limbs were a weakness. Creatures on all fours couldn’t turn easily. If a Swarm looked like a rock it probably took hits like one. Can’t see the teeth? They’ll be where you least expect them or everywhere.

This generalisation partially extended to the Swarm’s eating habits. Some, like the Slugs, ate anything and everything. Others ate trees or bushes. Several left trails in their wake, eating whatever came into contact with their body. Jackals seemed to be a mix of the plant eaters and one final kind. This kind was rarer and the newly named ‘Slashers’ were the only variety of Swarm that solely existed on this diet. Slashers ignored all other food in an area to eat only animals. The untouched horse riding centre and grounds were the only examples of this he needed.

So Heinz was concerned because the one Jackal they’d seen wouldn’t eat one patch of grass, stop and continue again further down the street. No type of Swarm they’d encountered would be happy to demolish one patch of life, ignore the rest and move on. He eyed up the surrounding buildings and the damage to them. No Jackal was jumping out of a second storey window either.

Heinz stepped closer to Phil who led their formation today and gestured at the window. Another in a similar state could be seen a little further down the street.

“New kind of Swarm?”

If anyone could ease or confirm his worries it would be the man writing a book on the subject.

Phil hummed. “Possibly. There’s glass on the street but I don’t know if it’s enough to say if the window was broken in or out.”

Heinz brought up the empty patches of greenery and Phil hummed again. He tilted his head back and addressed the group.

“Louise, will you keep an eye on the sky? There might be bigger versions of the Vamps.”

Louise gave her assent and the group shifted. She moved forward and Shane dropped back to cover the rear.

Louise and Phil’s argument yesterday had popped the bubble of tension but they hadn’t mended all their bridges yet. For now the two remained polite but distant. It was a bit silly to Heinz when they risked their lives together on a daily basis but he couldn't complain about their focus on the job at hand.

The town remained orderly until they reached the local Chinese. The takeout restaurant was a mess. What remained of the large shop windows was scattered across the ground in front. A shopping trolley lay discarded on its side by the door.

“Stick to the opposite wall.” Louise ordered, waiting for Heinz and Phil to move before following herself.

They stepped closer to the shop, scanning every inch before moving forward again. A large plastic wrapper fluttered under the trolley. The interior of the shop didn’t appear to be disturbed. Not that there was much interior. The inside consisted of a bench along the wall for customers to wait and space for two people to pass between there and the counter.

“Closer.” Louise called.

Phil advanced and moved his shield to cover himself. Heinz sidled up to him, moving his halberd tip in front of both of them.

“Stop.”

The order came as they reached the edge of the broken glass. From here Heinz could see that the plastic wrapper had once held glutinous rice. Once as it was clearly empty now, its contents scattered or transferred elsewhere.

“By the door.” Phil spoke softly.

The glass had been disturbed in several places. The wind had blown the finer pieces away. Something had brushed sections of the glass away as it passed. But closer to the shop, where Phil was indicating the glass had fallen into larger pieces and piles. You couldn't avoid the glass there and it had been stepped on. A boot print was visible in crushed glass.

“Other Kinmore reclaimers?” Heinz asked, scanning the shop once more.

“I don’t think either Courtmacsherry or us need food so much they would make takeout their first priority.” Phil said and glanced behind him nervously at the rest of the street. “We shouldn’t stay here long. They might have been ambushed.”

Shane shifted at Phil's words so his back was to them. “This doesn’t look like a main zone.”

Heinz glanced back at Louise but she didn’t seem inclined to contribute to the conversation. She had gone back to scanning the skies.

“What if they were left behind from the teleport?” Tara asked, tightening her grip on her axe only to wince when her splint creaked.

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They collectively stiffened. Thousands had lived in the town before this all started. Could the System have missed a few? To be locked in with endless Swarm... It was not a fate Heinz would wish on anyone.

“Let’s move on.” Phil said, ignoring the question. “There’s nothing left here.”

Louise sounded her support with a grunt so they backed away and set off down the street again.

More signs of people popped up as they progressed further into the town and onto the main street. The main street was a long, straight, one way road that passed through the non residential part of town. It was a shell of its former self due to the advent of online shopping but not yet dead. Empty shop fronts were rare and you'd have better luck finding parking in the city.

This street made it clear that the town had been raided and not by one or two groups of early Kinmore or Courtmacsherry Reclaimers. It would take days to move all the items that had been collected.

More and more it looked like this could have been a home zone.

The raiders didn’t stick to restaurants either. Boutique stores, home goods and the pharmacy were all targets. Even the town library had been broken into.

They were avoiding various items thrown out by the raiders and the cars left behind on the main street when a clatter disturbed them.

Heinz fought the urge to look behind him and moved to stand on Phil’s left. The others followed suit until they formed a small circle. It was hardly a perfect formation to fight in but that wasn’t the goal. They moved into the circle to check for an ambush before they faced whatever made the noise.

“Roof.” Shane called.

The Swarm was coming from behind them then. Had the creatures picked up their trail? And Shane didn’t recognise the Swarm or he would have called a name out.

More clattering.

“Here too.” Louise and Tara echoed together.

Phil cursed beside him. Heinz fought the urge to turn.

“Nothing here.” Heinz called. The road and roof ahead remained empty. Phil confirmed the same.

More clattering along the roof tiles followed by a clopping as some of the creatures spoke.

“Too many. We need to go.” Shane called gruffly.

“Run on three.” Louise ordered. Her voice was cold which helped steady Heinz. Her business-like manner lacked fear or other emotion. All that was left was a certainty that reminded him why he trusted his group.

“1”

Lots of clattering.

“3”

Heinz took off. He left the road and moved onto the left hand side pavement. His halberd’s length made it awkward to carry, especially while running. As it was, the weight end smashed a car window and banged off a shop front before he got it under control. He needed to make his own path away from the group.

Clattering continued above and behind them. The impact of many, many feet on the stone tiled roofs.

Heinz glanced to the side at the road and centre of the street. Louise had already taken the lead with Phil following. Tara was two metres or so behind them and Shane a metre or so behind her. He scanned the roof opposite him before facing forward but the creature’s hadn’t caught up yet.

The end of main street was in sight. The built up area stopped at the intersection with the two lane road around the edge of town. If they reached it the Swarm would have to descend from the roofs and fight them on foot.

“Straight ahead and across the bridge.” Louise shouted and put on another burst of speed.

Heinz tensed his abdomen and used the rush from the Adrenaline augment to catch up to Phil. Not a second too soon as a crash sounded behind him. A piece of tile shot over his head to shatter on the car on his right and send shards flying.

A rain of stone began.

The blows against his back weren’t bad. The new armour protected him well. The impacts elsewhere didn’t hurt but they were more troublesome. When the tiles or rocks hit his helmet they knocked it to the side, blocking his vision. Anything hitting his halberd made it hard to weave the long pole past obstacles. The worst was when his feet got hit. The impact knocked his raised legs to the side turning his run into a balancing act.

Heinz looked to the right again. Louise was out of range of the stone and had pulled several metres ahead of the group. Phil held his shield over his head, protecting him from the worst of it.

Tara had slowed down. She’d fallen back to where Shane was just a step behind and would have dropped further behind if Shane wasn’t waiting for her. As Heinz watched, a heavy piece of concrete likely from a chimney smacked into Shane’s back. Shane ignored it and carried on, a perfect step behind Tara. A grey blur popped into his vision on the roof opposite only to fall back again.

Another rock smacked into Heinz’s back foot and he was forced to focus ahead of him.

“Faster” He screamed at Tara and Shane as he jumped over a knocked down bin. He put everything into running, dodging around obstacles and ignoring the continued blows.

Louise left the main street ahead and with a jump, vaulted over the bonnet of a car blocking the road. Phil was more sensible and ran around the front. Louise turned on the other side of the car as Phil ran on. With a mad grin, she swapped her blades for knives and began to throw.

Heinz cursed as the sharp objects joined the hail of objects in the sky. Every second he expected something to ricochet and a glint to bury itself in him but nothing did.

One last stumble and he was out of the narrow street and sprinting around the back of the car. He stopped behind Louise, well away from her throwing arm and stared.

Tara and Shane were leaving the street and just in time. A mob followed them on the rooftops.

There had to be forty or fifty of the creatures. Most were bike sized and thin. Four limbs swung out and around to grip onto the slick tiles with stumps made of bristly fur. A final fifth limb extruded from the jagged fur on their back and it was this limb that held rocks to throw.

Two creatures stood out from the rest. These were twice the size of their smaller counterpart and most of the size was wrapped up in the five extra limbs they had. It was like each of the small Swarm’s limbs had split in half as they grew.

The larger kind of Swarm lazily kept pace with the smaller variety, putting minimal effort in. The sight gave Heinz chills. They could have caught up to the group if they had wanted.

One of the larger Swarm reached the roof edge and, unlike its hesitant smaller kin, jumped. It soared along the air until three of its limbs reached and caught onto the metal bar of a street light. With a screech of metal, the creature pulled itself up. Stubby limbs stuck to the metal and left polished and scratched surfaces in their wake. Facing them at the top of the pole, it let out a clopping noise.

Louise threw a knife at it. The creature duked to the side but the blade glanced off one of its limbs. The Swarm let out another clopping noise.

“Let’s go.” Phil called. “They don’t seem to want to come down.”

Slowly they backed away. After three of so houses they turned and jogged to get a bit more distance. There they turned back and stopped.

“What do we do?” Tara asked, panting.

Heinz released his hold on the Adrenaline augment and grunted as a wave of tiredness washed over him.

Louise frowned. “Are you hurt?”

Heinz shook his head. “Just the adrenaline augment.”

“You think it’s bad now.” Shane grumbled.

“I don’t think they’ll follow us here.” Phil said and brought them back on track. “The houses are single story. They seem to want to stay high.”

Heinz looked around at the street they’d ended up on. He hadn't been here before. The single story terraced houses were more cottage than modern development. It must have been an old part of the town. The houses were also ransacked with all the doors ajar or with broken windows.

“I think we should continue on.” Louise said and indicated down the road. “I can’t think of a way to fight those things and I want to find out what’s going on.”

That led to a discussion on how far to go and how to get back. In the end they decided to follow the zone wall. The town centre was a small part of the zone but any clumps of buildings could be dangerous with those Swarm around.

Most of their discussion was rendered moot as five minutes down the road they stopped. The other group of five stopped too, with several lowering their weapons.

“Who the hell are you?”