“What about the assignment?” One of the mystery Reclaimers whispered. She was local to Bandon by the sound of her accent.
The group of five hushed as they considered the question.
Heinz shifted awkwardly and looked to his side at Louise. She had taken control of the chance encounter and answered all of the other groups' questions. It took a moment for the mystery group to get over their initial shock at Heinz’s group’s presence and the idea that they were from another zone. When they did they had retreated down the road to whisper amongst themselves.
Why, Heinz wasn’t sure. It wasn’t like his group couldn’t hear them anyway. Heinz glanced at Louise again. Something which Louise didn’t seem inclined to let the strangers know.
“We need to find more food.” Another voice butted in. Their accent was less distinctive but heavy to emphasise their assignment’s importance.
“I think knowing about Kinmore and Courtmacsherry is more important!” A man hissed.
The two initial speakers began to argue but were drowned out by a fourth voice.
“Enough.” The man spoke at a more normal volume to cut across his group mates. He glanced over at Heinz’s group before turning back. This voice, Robert, had been the one to ask Louise questions earlier. “We head back. I’ll take them through the barrier and you can finish off your duty searching near the barrier.”
Two of the Reclaimers voiced their acceptance. Notably neither of the two who had spoken first.
“You know we won’t find any food or swarm there. What’s the point?” The indistinct voice argued.
Robert spoke again like he didn’t hear them. “We’ll take the back road home. Justin and Teresa can scout ahead. If you find anything we can detour to pick it up or clear it out.”
The concession seemed to mollify the two dissidents. This time all of Robert’s group acknowledged the order, though reluctantly.
It was clear that Robert was in charge of the group and not just in the way that Louise was the leader of their own. Robert’s four group members did not look at him like an equal. They looked to him for guidance.
Robert didn’t look like their equal either. He seemed more 'professional'. Well as professional as you could get when the profession was two and a half weeks old. His protective gear matched, each layer built by the same person as part of a set. He carried more weapons than anyone else, likely more than any two of the others. Which was a lot. Every member of the group carried an assortment of weapons. It almost reminded him of Cian, the member of Luke’s team that carried so many blades he belonged in a horror movie, but the weapons were more varied. Hammers and spanners were common which made Heinz think that a lot of the tools were to be thrown. Robert carried less blunt objects and more hatchets and knives.
“If you’ve come to a decision we have some questions of our own.” Louise called over to them, breaking the silence and the illusion of privacy.
To Heinz’s relief, the group of five was not from Bandon. The town had not fallen. It was never a homezone. They were all from Innishannon, a small village built near a river crossing on the way to Cork city.
No other zone had made contact with Innishannon. To them, Heinz’s group was the first sign of human life outside of their bubble.
Louise and Phil worked in tandem for the questioning. Together they made a frightfully effective team.
Louise asked pointed questions. Why were they here? What thresholds had Reclaimers in Innishannon reached? Were people teleported in? How many zones had they cleared? Which zones were they focusing on? Some of her questions seemed to follow strange tangents. Tangents that Heinz could now make sense of after the conversation the other day. While several of the questions were important for the situation, most were aimed at getting to Cork.
When the group was starting to get frustrated or suspicious with questions that Louise didn’t supply her own answer to, Phil stepped in.
Phil’s questions were more related to the task at hand, to the Swarm they’d encountered and the System. At one point Phil pulled out notes for his bestiary. This was met with an enthusiastic reception from Robert who stopped to take a look. Phil’s openness and willingness to share information and experience helped hide the opposite from Louise.
It turned out that Innishannon had been raiding Bandon town for supplies for almost two weeks now. After they learned the walls could come down, reconnecting with Bandon had been the village’s first priority. Robert spoke sadly about the day when the Reclaimers had seen the deserted town. It had been a dark day when they realised that they couldn’t reclaim it.
The trouble lay with the same monsters Heinz’s group had encountered. Innishannon’s name for this kind of Swarm was ‘Monkey’. The moniker was based on the extra limb sticking out of their backs. The creatures were fast, agile, intelligent and moved in packs. Early attempts to wipe the creatures out had some success but not enough before the swarm grew wary of humans and traps. Now they stuck to the roofs in parts of town with two or three storeys. Monkey’s spiky fur made them ‘walking brillo pads’ and they could throw rocks fast enough to brain humans. Add to the fact that most people didn't know parkour it was a mess.
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Robert darkly explained that after a number of deaths the decision was made to abandon the town. Reclaimers visited every day to check on swarm growth and search for more supplies. Innishannon didn’t have the manpower to do anything else.
A wave of hope spread amongst the Innishannon five at the realisation that with more towns that could change. A wave that didn’t survive in Heinz. He expected that Kinmore would help. He would too but meeting Courtmacsherry hadn’t fixed anything. Instead a tension had built between the two towns, one that worsened with Kinmore’s tax. Was Kinmore going to take over Innishannon too?
One of the five stumbled on a small pothole and shook Heinz from his funk. He hadn't realised how inky it had gotten on the dark countryside road. The wall was up ahead and the glow ruined what little night vision the other reclaimers had.
Only three of the group had the Vision augment. Justin who argued to continue the assignment, Teresa with the strong Bandon accent and Robert. The other two didn’t mention what they had but Heinz thought he spotted one with pupils that were far too wide.
Tara and Shane remained quiet and stayed away from the strangers. Their attempt to keep their distance was obvious enough. They received several searching looks but between their obviously broken arms, Tara’s age and Shane’s scowl, there were no questions.
Heinz didn’t contribute much to the discussion either. Instead he listened and watched. He focused on the strangers. He tried to pick up on things he might be missing about his own team. He scouted the surroundings for Swarm. By the time they crossed the wall a few things were clear to him.
Robert had passed more thresholds than the other four, likely up to the third, and was a teacher to the group.
The small village of Innishannon was ill prepared to suddenly house five times its population and was struggling.
None of them knew that people gave energy.
After crossing the zone wall and leaving the four student Reclaimers behind, the six of them picked up the pace. There was no discussion about it. They just began to jog.
Heinz ran up alongside Robert. “What happened to their fifth?”
It had been bugging him but he didn’t want to bring it up in front of them. No need to disturb fresh wounds.
Robert blinked at him in surprise. “Nothing. I’m the fifth for today and a delegate will assign someone else tomorrow.”
Their reaction or lack of in Louise’s case must have given something away.
Robert chewed on his lip. ”How do you handle new reclaimer duty in Kinmore? Surely you don’t let them go out alone anymore?”
“I don’t know.” Heinz said honestly. Which was true. He’d never thought to ask what had happened to Fred or even how Mike’s group had handled it. “I’ve only seen people added to existing groups." He paused. "Did you say that delegates can change groups up?”
Robert nodded. “It’s the first thing they bought. A lot of groups were rebuilt with a particular focus in mind or to organise things better.”
Heinz got several pointed looks from his group now. They all knew he knew one of Kinmore's Delegates well.
‘Shit.’ He was going to have to talk to and warn Maggie. This was going to get out and the fallout would be bad. There were plenty of people unhappy with what group they were put into and it wouldn’t be hard to argue the ability to change could have saved lives. No, would have.
“I’m guessing they didn’t get that in Kinmore?”
Heinz shook his head. “No, they must have bought something else.”
Robert laughed. “End of the world and not only do we still have to pay taxes, we still don’t know it all ends up. Am I right?”
Heinz snorted and smiled but he was worried. He picked up the pace a little more.
Their arrival caused a bit of a fuss at the bridge over the river to Innishannon but less than Robert expected. The reason behind the lack of surprise was made clear soon enough. They were the second group from Kinmore to arrive tonight.
This only made Heinz and Louise want to move faster. Thankfully Robert was happy enough to help and they were waved past the Reclaimer guards quickly. But before they could fully cross the makeshift gate of cars and metal wire, Robert had a question for them.
“You’ve all passed several thresholds right? How far have you gone?”
There was a second where Heinz’s group all looked at each other before Louise, Phil and he began to speak.
“More than halfw-”
“Passed the fourth.”
“Close to 70% of the way to the-” Phil trailed off.
Robert sucked in a breath and eyed them. His gaze lingered not on their weapons but on Phil’s backpack where he stored his bestiary. “Christ. You’ll have a lot to tell then I’d say.”
Heinz eyed the surrounding guards. All Reclaimers and not one Cultivator with Identify.
“Yeah. I think we will.” He said with a sigh.
Tara broke her silence as they were led through Innishannon. “Why are so many people up?”
“Everything is done in shifts.” Robert explained. “We only have so much of.. about everything really. It would take too long for anything to be done if it was only worked on during the day. Some tools are now in use at all hours.” He indicated to a building over to the side where they were making some kind of shield. Two people lay heads to the side, asleep in office chairs beside the entrance. “Housing is also at a premium.”
It seemed space was too as the village only got busier as they passed further into the village. Most of Innishannon was centred around the main road that ran through it. All the village’s shops could be found along the road. Some housing could too but most of that was concentrated in one or two estates up the hill from the village.
Robert stopped outside the village pub. He waited a tick for one of the bridge guards to come out. They opened the door and with a nod to Robert jogged back down the road to the bridge. Robert grabbed the door and waved them inside.
Fish out of Water was a nice comfortable country pub. It was the kind of place Heinz would have liked to get a pint in different circumstances. One side of the pub was covered in comfortable seating and several fireplaces. The other was more open around the bar and a flat screen TV took up half the wall.
But there was no alcohol behind the bar or a bartender. The flat screen was dull and blank. Instead Heinz’s attention was drawn to the longest table in the room, the eight locals and the five Kinmore Reclaimers sitting there. All of their attention was on his group.
It wasn’t hard to recognise one of the Kinmore Reclaimers.
“Hello.” Aisling, the Kinmore harbour master and de facto head of the council, said with a smile.