“First the group selection right?” Peter looked around at the other four Delegates. The picnic bench was an odd place to have a discussion about the future of Kinmore but well, it beat standing. And it brought them close enough to get a good look at each other.

His fellow delegates were.. an interesting bunch of people.

“I’m sure that will be fine love,” Helen answered. She shifted the tupperware on the table before them and took the lid back to place in a battered leather bag. Not that anyone had touched it. If Peter’s suspicions were correct, they all had plenty of the cubes at home.

Helen dipped forward and her face tightened. “Best to support all those leaving. The church has been far too busy this week.”

Peter looked at his other four counterparts.

Two of them were busy reading the new system messages that they had access to. Maggie, who was some kind of hippie dance instructor and Richard, who was too pale and skinny to have worked a day in his life. Peter had Richard pegged as one of those new tech money that had arrived to the town recently.

Neither looked up at his question. So Peter turned to the final member who shrunk a little at the attention. Charlie couldn’t have been a day over 16 and shifted closer to Maggie as if to hide behind her. They eventually nodded when Peter didn’t look away.

To his side, Helen honest to god cooed at the teenager. She pushed the tupperware towards Charlie.

At least the noise disturbed Maggie from her reading.

“Hmm?” She asked.

“The group selection?” Peter repeated. “It should be the first thing we buy. Followed by the defence.”

Maggie started to nod only to shake her head. “Group selection first but we should get the healing after.”

Peter hummed and considered it. The healing thing was a lot more expensive and the description was vague. Very vague. Who could say if it would be better than the local doctor's office. On the other hand a strengthened barrier around the town that anyone could cross had a clear benefit.

“Shouldn’t we go step by step?” Helen asked, fiddling with one hand like she wanted something to occupy it. “It’d be faster to buy the cheaper items.”

“We don’t have an issue with Swarm in the town,” Maggie argued. “But we do have an issue with injuries.” She indicated back into the town behind her. “People are still recovering from smoke inhalation. Some super alien medicine sounds great to me.”

Peter opened his mouth to point out how many animal medicines would kill humans if used on them when he was cut off.

“No,” Richard spoke for the first time after distractedly giving his name. “We buy-”

—

They sat back down. It hadn’t been a shouting match or anything but Maggie was glad that they were in an isolated part of the docks. Well, maybe if all the Reclaimers hadn’t been out clearing I38-KC then someone would have heard and the argument would be moot. But they were and they were doing a great job. She could see the Swarm control ticking down in each zone little by little. So the argument continued.

Maggie sagged. Her friends were all out clearing the I38-KC. What if they were already hurt? What if they got hurt while they waited?

“If we do this people will die.”

Charlie had retreated from her as the argument grew more heated but at the statement they shuffled a little closer.

Richard sagged too. He reached up and rubbed tired eyes. Maggie could see faint impressions on his nose from glasses and wondered if his eyesight had been affected by the System too. Looking around, all the delegates had bags under their eyes. Maggie wondered if she did as well. Maybe she should invite them all to a class after this.

The silence stretched.

“I know.” Richard admitted. Saying it out loud seemed to take something out of him.

Helen reached over and put a comforting hand on the skinny man's shoulder.

“It’s thousands of credits,” Peter said, tapping his finger against the table. “By the time we can afford it… If we can afford it.”

“Is the tax even enough?” Maggie finished for him.

“No,” Richard admitted. “It would likely take too long but there’s a way we can fix that.” He nodded at Helen’s bag. ”I don’t know about you but I have lots of food cubes and credits. I’ve run the numbers. If all five of us can continue making enough cubes at the same rate and sell them, we can reach it in two weeks. We can trade credits back and forth until all of it goes to tax. And if we find more people, more towns like Courtmacsherry, it will go faster.”

“The cost.” Helen stated and they all knew she wasn’t talking about money.

“There's only 300 across the world.” Charlie spoke up quietly. “Before all this the population had nearly reached 8 billion. That’s one for every 27 million people,” They paused and gulped. ”Ireland has a population of 5 million. Realistically it’s unlikely we’ll get one at all. If you’re sure about what the System’s going to do…”

“Yes,” Richard said and straightened up. “I didn’t put it together until I became a Delegate.. but it’s been there in the messages since the start. Check for yourself. We have to do this.”

“Some of the groups have started to work together,” Maggie offered. What she didn’t say was that it didn’t fix everything. Heinz’s group seemed to be working together well and from what he said, so had the other group they’d paired up with. It didn’t stop a man from dying. “Even if the groups aren’t set up very well they can work together in other ways.”

“Larger numbers of people just attract more of the aliens. The council tried that and it failed,” Peter refuted. He tapped a finger against the table like it was a gavel in a courtroom. The sound was annoying. “It’s not the same as being able to manage groups.”

“Stop!” Richard said, rubbing his forehead. “Don’t start fighting about the options again. We all know that they’d be helpful. They just won’t save us in the end.”

And there was silence.

“How do we do this then?” Maggie asked. “A vote?”

Everyone slowly nodded their heads.

“Anyone have anything else to say first?”

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Shaking heads.

“A show of hands then. All in favour of saving the Credits?”

—

Helen loosened her firm grip on her bag as all the others raised their hands. So it was decided then.

“Would you like to talk about it some more? Explain your point of view?” Maggie asked her.

Helen shook her head. Maggie seemed like a nice person. They all did, if a bit misguided. But that’s what the world was like now, even before all of this business. Messy.

“That’s quite alright.” She sighed. ”I guess I hoped it wouldn’t be us. Some of the cities or somewhere else could do it.”

The four of them nodded in sympathy with her in a way she found quite patronising. They didn’t know what they were in for. There was never much trouble in the first few days or weeks of a war, just confusion. This fight against the aliens had barely started.

“What do we tell the council?” Peter asked. “I’ve been helping out at the GAA club. I can let them know.”

Maggie was quick to respond to that. “I can let the outdoor centre know.”

Neither started glaring daggers but Helen could see them both reassessing each other. Determining loyalties.

It was always odd to her how people could fight about how to help each other. At times they became so focused on arguing who’s way was best that they forgot their initial goal was to help. It became more about being right than achieving what they thought was right in the first place.

“Well,” Richard started. “I’m not sure we should be spreading this around. Half the town came out to lynch Gavin Moore - the owner of the petrol station. And people looted half the shops along the way for no reason.”

“Only tell the council leaders then?” Peter asked.

“And the outdoor-”

“Actually no,” Richard said, cutting off Maggie before the rivalry could become a thing. “Have you told anyone? About being a delegate?”

Helen shook her head. Charlie did the same across from her. Maggie and Peter were more hesitant.

“I said it to a few of the other volunteers,” Peter admitted.

Maggie’s shoulder slumped. “I’d say over two hundred people know about me by now.”

At their incredulous stares Maggie held up her hands. “I was mid class when we got the messages. There were 40-50 people there and… people talk.”

“Okay. Okay.” Richard chewed on his lip. He indicated Charlie and herself. “You shouldn’t tell anyone that you’re delegates. This could get a bit messy.”

“Have you told anyone-?” Helen began but Peter spoke over her.

“Why would it get messy? We can convince the council.”

“I don’t think we should tell the council everything,” Richard admitted, holding a hand to forestall Maggie’s forthcoming objection. “We give them the barebones, that we’re saving up Credits for Kinmore.”

The complaints came immediately but Richard weathered them and waited for silence.

“Four of us agreed on it but we can’t say if they will. What if the council wants us to do something else? It wasn’t easy to convince you and you can see the evidence. The council has other concerns and well.. After Gavin what if they want us to send them the credits instead? Create some super group with all the augments instead of funding Kinmore?”

Peter’s face scrunched up but he didn’t raise an objection.

“Loose lips sink ships,” Helen recited hollowly, placing a hand on the table to steady herself.

Richard turned to her. “I haven’t told anyone but people are going to be upset. It was my idea and I have to be there for that.”

“We voted on it.” Helen pointed out. “I’ve no issue standing up for our decision.”

Richard’s eyes flicked to Charlie who had seemed to shrink as far away from the table as possible and back to her. “Maybe but in case something does go wrong. You can explain it. There’s no point in us all taking the fire.”

—

Charlie stepped back as the others continued arguing. The meeting had been heading for disaster from the start. Everyone had been so tense when they arrived.

It was a combination of factors. Kinmore was becoming darker. More desperate. Any food beyond the cubes were a rare sight these days. The bodyguards that had been forced upon them with vague warnings about dangerous reclaimers had the tipping point it seemed.

Charlie had never been so thankful that Richard had suggested not telling anyone about being a Delegate.

“We don’t need your vote! We can do it without you!”

The five of them froze. This wasn’t their first argument or fight since the first day but splitting away from a unified group had not come up before. They’d been placed in this group of five and made each decision together for better or worse.

“You can. Any three of us could at any time,” Richard admitted. He fell back into a chair. The restaurant they had chosen for this meeting had seen better days but none of the rioters had seen fit to destroy the furniture. “If you do I’ll still take the blame for it all.” He gestured around at them all. “I think at this point it’s clear the cost of our decision. You listened to me before and I know that was hard. I’ll listen to all of you.”

The rest of them sat down, including Charlie, though they sat a bit away from the others. The anger flying around the room was lost as Richard stopped putting up a fight.

Helen snatched up her bag and ripped out a knife, sending a button flying from the bag with unintended strength. Everyone tensed as Helen made a pained noise. But she didn’t move, instead she just patted the bag tiredly and pulled a wooden block out of the bag. The knife began to dance across the block.

After a few seconds, Helen looked up and blinked at their wary expressions. She looked back down at the knife.

“Sorry. It’s a bad habit. I need to keep my hands busy these days.” Helen sighed and put the knife down. “The last few days have brought back memories. Make a cube, put it in a box, move the box, next cube. I worked in a factory before. Started during the blitz. Same thing. More social but the same thing.”

There was a moment of silence as they all digested that. Sometimes history felt so far away. It was weird to be confronted by it.

Charlie poked Maggie to confirm Helen was talking about the world war two bombing of Britain. It was.

Helen didn’t seem old enough to have worked during world war two. Maybe old enough to have been born during it, but to have worked?

“I was really happy when I got the Delegate message,” Richard said, breaking the silence. “I thought it was my chance to do something. I wanted to be a Reclaimer but I was never picked. No health exemption, just wasn’t picked again and again.”

“It’s not easy watching the kids go out,” Peter admitted slowly, offering an olive branch. He very carefully didn’t look at Charlie, which was appreciated. “It should be us making the sacrifices. The adults. That’s how we do things. But we can't. And its gotten worse in the last few days. Especially… Especially with the choices that we, the five of us have made.”

“It’s not too late,” Maggie said. Her shoulders were slumped and tired. All three of the public ‘faces’ of the Delegates looked worn out but Maggie in particular. She was the most widely known Delegate in Kinmore. “We can buy one of the more expensive options and explain everything.”

They all considered it, even Richard. Charlie could see them all racking their brains to remember the medium options the System had provided. All more powerful and niche than the cheaper starter options but none as impactful as what they were saving for.

But Charlie had visited the docks before the meeting. It seemed no one else had or they would have mentioned the change already. Which meant it was Charlie’s job to tell everyone. And that sucked.

“293.”

They all turned to Charlie’s corner of the room.

“What did you say Charlie?” Maggie asked. She was twisting around in her chair in a way that felt like it should cause pain. It was the feeling you got when an owl twisted its head around 180 degrees. The twist should have made Maggie look odd but it didn’t.

Charlie envied her flexibility.

“293. That’s how many are left. Other settlements have started buying it already.”

“So soon?” Richard whispered.

Kinmore was still quite far off having enough.

“Other people have noticed too,” Peter said. A weight lifting from the lines around his eyes. “Maybe we don’t need to-”

“It’s very unlikely that anywhere in Ireland bought it,” Charlie said, cutting across Peter. It helped that Peter fell silent as soon as Charlie began. It was usually a lot harder to get people to listen but these four seemed more than willing to do that.

Maybe it was because Charlie didn’t talk often so the rare input was a shock. Or maybe it was because each of them had thirty three percent control over the future of Kinmore.

Charlie liked to think it was because the four of them were good people.

“What happens if there are none left when we save up enough?” Maggie asked.

The question stumped everyone but Charlie was sure that wouldn’t last long. Whatever fears they had about their decision would disappear quickly. 293. It was proof that Kinmore was not alone. Other settlements had noticed. Other settlements were making hard decisions like they were.

Other settlements were competition.