Phil’s panic and fear took the weight out of Heinz’s anger.
He didn’t have it in him to give out as the man trembled on the ground. Every day, Phil left home to fight monsters but it was the thought that he was hurting his family that left him shaking.
“No - it can’t be. Maybe it’s just something on your clothes,” Tara said in a choppy voice. “My parents haven’t said anything. They.. They..”
Tara stepped away from Louise and Shane towards Phil. Her elation from the fight had begun to fade with Heinz’s shouts, but now it died. Worry, anger, doubt and pain flashed across her face.
Louise reacted to the news quite differently compared to the other two. She went dead still. Not one muscle twitched. Heinz wasn’t even sure if she was breathing.
Shane wasn't looking at any of them, already shifting in place. He would escape from the conversation soon. Leaving Heinz to try and calm the situation.
“Phil, I don’t think we can say that for certain.” Heinz started hesitantly. Memories of conversations with panicked parents flashing through his mind. He hated dealing with parents. “Have you taken Samantha and Emma to the doctors? I’m sure something else is up. A lack of vitamins or something. If it was the system, everyone would have rashes. Tara’s parents would have said something.”
His words bought the growing panic to a halt. Phil’s trembling slowed. Louise started to breathe again. Shane took the chance to turn and move away, closer to the dissolving Elemental’s body.
“My parents. I’m not sure they would say anything. They’ve.. before,” Tara said, rubbing her palms, a faraway look in her eyes. Phil’s trembling continued.
“It could be a fourth threshold thing,” Phil guessed hollowly. “Aisling said there weren’t many in Kinmore.”
“Stop!” Heinz snapped. They both looked at him. “It could be anything. There aren’t many fourth thresholds but there are more than the five of us. Luke’s team are fourth thresholds, and they train at the school don’t they? I’m sure he teaches a class every now and again.”
“Heinz is right,“ Louise said, moving away from the position she’d been locked in towards Phil. She crouched down and picked up his notebook. ”We won’t figure anything out here.” She tapped the notebook and pressed it into Phil’s hands. “If you want to find answers about all of this, you need to keep at it.”
Louise grabbed Tara as she left and steered her away.
Heinz waited as Phil took a slow breath and repacked the notebook into his bag. He counted to five before offering Phil a hand up.
“I know you’re worried but you have to let it go. That could have gone so badly.” Heinz paused and tried to remember what Rosa had said to him about leaving the town. “You need to leave all of that in Kinmore. Trust those we’re leaving behind and focus on getting back to them. That’s all that matters.”
Halfway town was in ruins with clear signs of Swarm everywhere. The Elemental had done a lot of damage to the surrounding structures but its focus seemed to have been on breaking into kitchens rather than pure destruction. However the one restaurant in the town had been demolished.
The ruins of the town held nothing for the group. After a short break they left, following the road. Their destination was the next town along the road, Ballinhassig, which should be in the next zone. Louise and Shane were hopeful that the town would be another home zone. If it was, they might even make it to Cork today. It was an unlikely goal, given the strength of the Swarm here, but the thought helped clear up the gloom from Phil’s latest theory.
After they left the Halfway roundabout behind them, the road became a dual carriageway. While it was littered with cars, with the extra space they had no issue running between them at full pace. The wide open road granted them full vision of their surroundings. Perfect conditions for a run.
Everyone fell into a comfortable pace, a pace that would have broken records before the system.
As nice as it was, no one felt particularly happy as they travelled. Heinz tried to entertain himself by dodging back and forth between the crashed vehicles. Any distraction from the wasteland around them was appreciated.
“We have our work cut out for us don’t we?” Louise called, effortlessly closing the gap between them as she noticed Heinz staring across the valley.
The dual carriageway ran almost parallel to the north east zone wall. It was an uphill climb the entire way and gave a great view down on what used to be a lush valley to the south. Now the valley was monochrome. Any sign of grass or trees were gone. The only glimmer of colour was a stream that wound its way through the endless expanse of bare dirt.
The hill opposite had suffered the same treatment. If not for channels of run off water that gave the slope some texture you'd barely be able to tell it was a hill at all. The channels gave the hill depth but it only worsened the desolation. Rain water carved through the dirt and without any anchors, carried the hillside away.
It was global warming on an accelerated scale. An unnatural climate change happening in every zone.
“Yeah, we do.”
He reached for the zone control and grimaced. It hadn’t gotten any better since he’d last checked.
Zone Control - I38-9G
Swarm Growth
80%
Local
5%
Just like in I38-Z4, the horse riding centre zone, the Swarm Growth seemed to pulse and dig at Heinz's mind and attention. The feeling of its level didn’t increase as quickly as it used to but the System seemed particularly distressed at each change.
“Want to try your new augment?” Louise asked.
Heinz slowed and raised an eyebrow at her. It was probably very difficult to see under the helmet while he was running but he was sure Louise got the impression anyway. “Here? Would it not be better to wait until we take a break so both Tara and I can practise?”
Louise shrugged. “Why not? We won’t have trouble spotting anything here. And Tara can already control her augment. She used it against the Elemental.”
“She did? What does it do?” Heinz asked, picking up the pace again as they began to fall behind the others.
“It lit on fire when the.. goo touched the Swarm.” Louise paused. “It was odd.”
“Right.” Heinz shivered. Definitely an augment he would avoid. “I’ll try mine.”
He shifted his halberd over to his other hand and began the awkward process of removing a glove while running. He felt the augment could be used anywhere, including under the glove but he wanted to see what happened. He also didn’t want to try it anywhere vital in case it went wrong.
He reached for that tight feeling that surrounded his skin, focusing on his hand and.. nothing. The feeling slipped away before he could grasp it. Heinz frowned and tried again.
In the ten minutes or so it took to run across the top of the zone and kill a pack of three Spiders, Heinz had gotten nowhere. There was one last chance while Louise and Shane went to examine the zone wall bisecting the road. Heinz sank to the ground to sit and try to concentrate on the feeling alone.
It was difficult.
In a way it felt like he was starting further ahead than he had with the Adrenaline I augment. Shield Skin gave Heinz a new feeling, a new sense, while with the Adrenaline augment he relied on other muscles and senses. He may have had advice to guide him but with this augment it felt like he needed to guide himself, his own body providing the feedback.
The feeling was just too difficult to grasp a hold of. He managed to get the sensation beneath his skin to twitch a couple of times, but that was it. How did one move their hair? How could you direct a fifth limb?
“No luck?”
Heinz opened his eyes. Tara leaned on her axe in front of him. He shook his head.
“I tried what you said this morning too. No luck. I can’t grasp a hold on it.”
Tara made a face. “I dunno then. For me it just comes. It moves when I want.” She flexed her hand and Heinz winced as a slither of blood appeared.
He shook his head and stood up. Louise and Shane were still fiddling with the zone wall. “How’s Shane doing with the Adrenaline augment?”
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Tara shrugged. “Who knows. He used it during the fight earlier but it seemed to cut out half way through." She tapped her axe against the tarmac. "We can’t pass through the wall by the wall. I know the chance was slim but it would have been nice.”
“Ballinhassig isn’t a town zone then.”
Tara shook her head.
“Where were they all teleported?” Heinz asked in frustration. “Some arrived in Kinmore but not a full town's worth. Did people get scattered across the county?”
“Innishannon or the city maybe?” Tara shrugged. She looked tired. The fight had been a lot more intensive for those at the back.
Louise and Shane finished their talk and walked towards Phil.
“Come on. I think the time for practising is over.”
They started the zone extermination by following the zone wall around.
They'd already traversed one wall out of six and with the Swarm growth so high, no one wanted to take any chances. This method also allowed Louise to check all of the walls to see if they could pass through. There weren’t any other towns in the surrounding zones, the nearest was slightly less than ten kilometres away from here, but while the system had created homezones in three towns so far it didn’t mean that it always would. There was no way of knowing if Halway and Bandon were exceptions or not.
If they had tried to travel this way a week ago, their straight line path would have been an off road mess. The streams, marshy land, hedges and overgrowth in the way would have slowed their progress to a crawl.
Now they just had to get used to the mud. Even further away from the stream on dry ground the earth had taken on the consistency of a muddy sand. Each step was a squelch. You sank a few inches in before it solidified underneath you.
The first sighting of Swarm was a pack of six Hyena. The creatures caught their scent as they walked along the south east wall.
Tara was the first to spot them, she was at the back of their formation and a slither of movement at the corner of her eye was enough for her to catch on. The creature’s were hard to spot in the dead landscape. Their hide was the same decayed colour as their surroundings.
The group formed up and waited in place for a fight. However, while the creatures continued to move, it was not in a wild charge at them. Instead the creatures watched and waited. They moved side to side but didn't advance. When Shane and Phil began to march towards them, the Hyena’s backpedalled, maintaining a safe distance.
In the end, the group had no choice but to continue on the way they were going. They couldn't stand here all night and unlike them, the Swarm didn't need sleep. Instead Shane dropped back besides Tara and both kept an eye behind.
The Hyena’s followed, seemingly content to stalk them. Over the next hour they would occasionally come closer, pressing in close to the wall as they approached. The group would form up and wait. Each time the Hyena’s would back away before they came within Louise’s throwing range.
After the third cycle of this, Phil identified it for what it was.
“They’re trying to herd us. Push us away from the wall into the centre.”
“If it gets them to stop and fight,” Shane said in a snarl.
Louise clicked her tongue. “We aren’t walking into an ambush because they’re annoying.”
“I don’t think we can outrun them in this crap anyway,” Tara added with a kick at the ground. Her boots squelched at the contact.
“We could cross through the wall at Halfway and circle back to them when they can’t see us?”
Everyone stopped and looked at Phil.
“Would they stick around if we’re gone?” Heinz asked curiously.
Phil shrugged. “Better than letting them follow us until we get in a fight with something else.”
Like with many of their plans these days, no one else had a better idea so that’s what they did.
They had one encounter on the way back to the Halfway wall. They outnumbered the pack of Spiders again but it was a tense fight. Not for the difficulty, but the ever present knowledge that they were being watched.
The Hyenas refused to approach and a few minutes after the fight they had reached the roundabout zone wall.
“On my signal,” Louise said. “We run straight for a few seconds before crossing. If they think we’re fleeing they might come closer still. As soon as we cross, we double back to here.”
Heinz nodded and started to drift apart from the group. His halberd tended to swing wildly as he ran. He took a glance behind. The pack of Hyenas were still following them casually.
Heinz noticed that he wasn’t the only one who looked back. If it had been human’s following them it would have been clear they were up to something. The Hyena’s had no reaction.
“3. 2. 1. Go!”
Loose dirt flew into the air as they all accelerated in an instant. In a mad dash Louise darted out from behind Heinz and took the lead. Seconds after they started their sprint, viscous hissing split the air.
It was hard for Heinz to keep his balance running across the loose soil. Each step sunk a couple of inches into the ground and in unpredictable ways. Sometimes it was like caves collapsed under his feet, sending his ankle rolling to the right. Other times it felt like he was stepping on nothing at all until the soil solidified around an awkward point. His sprint quickly became a wary jog. Falling was not an option.
Alongside him, the others had the same issue. Only Louise was unaffected, skating across the treacherous ground in quick steps.
A quick glance behind him showed that the Swarm were similarly unaffected. The creature’s may not have wanted to attack them, but they weren’t willing for their prey to escape either.
“Louise!” Heinz shouted as she drew away from them.
Louise glanced back, grimacing as she caught sight of the distance between herself and the rest of the group. She slowed her pace.
“Just a little longer!” She shouted back at them.
They kept running, pace faltering as they all struggled on the uneven soil. Hissing followed. Heinz could hear it growing steadily. Not from anger but as the source of the noise growing closer.
“Now.” With the shout, Louise led the way. She twisted mid step, shifting her momentum until she was running perpendicular to her previous course. A few seconds later she was at the wall, shrugging her glove back and holding a bare hand up to the purple while she waited for them to catch up.
Phil was next there and he did the same. Heinz, Shane and Tara were moments later.
“Go!” Louise called.
Heinz stepped through the billowing purple. He took a few seconds to scan this side of the wall before following after Louise. She was already running to the left along the wall, back the way they came. Surprisingly, Shane was keeping pace with her. On this side it was much easier to run. The ground was also devout of grass but it was firm.
The two stopped around 100m down the wall, a little further back than the Hyena’s had been when Heinz last checked, and waited for Phil and Tara to catch up.
Louise held up a hand as they arrived. “We might be chasing them or fighting when we step through, just remember to- Shane!”
Shane disappeared through the wall. Heinz cursed and followed.
The purple blinded hIm for a second. As it cleared up he could suddenly hear Shane mid scream. It didn’t take too long to find the man either. Shane was sprinting to the left at the pack of six Hyenas, some fifteen metres away.
The creature’s were still turning to face Shane, but they didn’t seem to be readying to run. Why would they? One man was easy prey. The creatures were bunched up after the chase. Shane was heading right for the central mass of them.
Heinz redoubled his effort. Behind him he heard a curse as someone else crossed and took in the situation. Heinz twisted his stomach and the world slowed.
Shane led his way into the Swarm with an axe swing. The Hyena leapt back but Shane had stretched out to swing. The axe bit into the creature’s forelimb and kept moving, parting flesh like a zipper through cloth. The limb left dangling and useless in its wake.
The creatures at the edge of the pack could now see the group appearing behind Shane but it was too late. They were committed. Instead of running they began to encircle Shane. The creatures took a wide loop around his left, wary of the path of Shane’s axe. One on the right leapt at Shane’s back.
Shane spotted it in the air. He swept his shield to the side, smashing through the incoming claws and into the creature’s head with a crunch. Shane turned with the impact and Heinz got a glimpse of his face.
Shane’s eyes were black pits. His whole face angular as a snarl stretched his skin. Shane bared his teeth as he tossed the Hyena away. He barely flinched as another took advantage of his wide open front and leapt onto him.
Heinz charged halberd first into the group. The Hyenas on the left tried to avoid the incoming spearpoint, but well, they were tightly packed. He impaled one and scattered the other two.
Shane’s axe sank into the ground with a squelch. His hand now occupied wrestling with the Hyena clawing at his front.
The Hyena impaled on his halberd was still moving. Heinz gave up on the weapon. It was better to take one Swarm out of the fight then try fighting three at once in close quarters. He gave the shaft one last shove away, sending the impaled Hyena spinning before drawing his hatchet.
A Hyena on the right readying to pounce on Shane right went flying as Louise tackled it knives first.
Heinz kicked out at a low down flash of movement to his left. Something crumpled under the blow but the Hyena kept coming. A swing of the handaxe stopped the creature in its tracks. It did nothing to stop the one coming from Heinz's right.
The Hyena jumped high and Heinz, who was already leaning forward after attacking the other, fell like a stone. He managed to get his arm up, between his shoulder and the Hyena but that only marginally increased the distance between it and his exposed neck. He began to thrash. He wasn’t going to be the next Patrick.
The Swarm slashed at his armour and skin, igniting several points of pain across his side but not digging too deep as his armour plates blocked the razor sharp claws.
Heinz buckled again, twisting his neck to the side in a painful jerk to try get it away. He got his left hand out from underneath him and smashed a fist into the Hyena’s side.
More clawing as the creature tried to dig its way through the wrapper around its meal.
A scream brought Heinz’s attention back to the world outside of their clash. The Hyena above him twitched, loosening the pressure on Heinz just enough that he was able to twist off his side onto this back. With both hands in front of him, the Hyena felt weightless. He shoved with all the panicked force his muscles could bring to bear. The Hyena’s claw grip couldn’t stop it from catching air.
It seemed the outside world was on his side.
Heinz pushed himself up and took in the surroundings. Phil and Tara had arrived, Tara joining him on Shane’s left and Phil arriving into the centre of it all. Heinz couldn’t see Louise on Shane’s other side but judging by all the cursing, she was fine.
A splat brought his attention back around. The counterweight on the end of his halberd sunk deeper into the dirt. On the other end of the halberd, the still impaled Hyena shook slightly as it snapped its mouth open at him.
Heinz started forward. The hard part was over.
When all the Hyenas lay still, Heinz let go of the Adrenaline augment and sagged.
Shane took one last step over to his axe before his pupils shrank. As the whites of his eyes reappeared, he collapsed. Shane fell to the ground and let out a pained groan.
Paralysed as he was, he couldn't escape as Louise approached and began to shout at him.
As Louise laid into Shane, Heinz approached Phil.
“You alright?” Heinz asked, stretching his irritated neck. Everything felt heavy. His neck especially. It was as stiff as he’d ever felt it.
Phil stood over the body of one of the Hyenas, prodding it absentmindedly with his boathook spear.
Phil had fought like normal, without any suicidal charges or any of the aggression that Shane always held for Swarm. Still it was too soon to tell if he was still hung up over the rash.
Phil hummed and set his boathook spear back on the ground. He turned away from the creature and back towards the centre of the zone. “I’m fine. I was wondering what they were trying to herd us towards.”