The following morning, I left Base Arachne together with the squad assigned to it. For the first time since I arrived, I actually saw the other two members. A surprisingly wrinkled yellow fae that acted as their healer joined up with the group during breakfast, followed close behind by a very young magenta fae. The girl smiled meekly, but she hid behind the wrinkled fae when I returned the gesture.
"Where have you guys been hiding?" I asked, surprised that none of them had even registered in my vibrosense.
"We are responsible for feeding the group here. Thanks to The Druid, growing food for a small contingent of people has been mighty easy," the yellow fae replied. "I'm Pierre, by the way. This is Xi."
Shaking the man's hand, I nodded. It was true that Samuel had basically revolutionized the food industry for Wildwood, but it was curious to see it already being implemented so widely. "Good to know we've been able to help with that. Food was always... tight, in the Bunker. Nothing quite as deadly as the situation up here, but working with limited resources can be stressful."
"Of cour--"
"Did you turn our base into a spider?" Xi said quickly. She peeked her head out for just a second, enough to get the words out, before hiding behind Pierre.
"Obviously, Xi! Don't you see the magnanimous design the Vanguard has graced us with! It could use some refinement, but I'll have you know he only took three days to do all of this. Alone! Why, it might be possible for you two to just build a farm within the walls to make us even more impervious!" Larry announced loudly.
Creek was ready to swat the youth in the head, but I waved him away. Xi's eyes were glimmering as she looked at the rough spider I'd created. It was the building stick figure equivalent of one, but there wasn't much more I could do about it. Daniela was right. I couldn't just skirt my responsibilities just because they made me uncomfortable. My chest still felt like it was being crushed by guilt, but I wasn't called the Vanguard because weight and pain held me back.
The two youths spoke animatedly for a few minutes while Mav and Creek finished a sweep of the base. There wasn't anything particularly important in Arachne, but they wanted to make sure it wouldn't be too easy to use it against the town while they weren't guarding it. Of course, their usual foes would have little issue climbing the walls but it was the thought that counted. There weren't really doors to lock, but you always had to do a walk around the house before leaving for any length of time.
As soon as they returned, we left at a steady clip to Wildwood. The quiet conversation between the squad faded to the background as I focused on my vibrosense. It was still not seamless to manage, as evidenced by my blunder with Daniela, but I wanted to keep improving it. Blobby rolled along just out of sight in the trees, carrying the two geode coconuts. While rolling, I could feel the slime shifting across the undergrowth more due to the disturbances that it caused than by its actual ripple signature. The five people walking behind me all had slightly different ripples, but just focusing on them to try to separate them gave me a headache. Good to know there is always something to get better with.
"Why are his eyes closed?" Xi asked, her small steps passing close to my left on the cracked asphalt road.
"They say he has a Trait to help him sense people from miles away!" Larry whispered back.
"People tend to exaggerate things," I replied, cracking an eye to pin the magenta skinned girl to the spot. "But it's good to expect people's actual abilities to be higher. It helps to grow, when you think you are the underdog."
My memory of fighting Devon was clear as the words left my mouth. I hadn't had to fight any other lightning based creatures or Tendrils since then, but it had gone a long way to remind me that even my prodigious defense had weaknesses. Thinking about the speed that Devon and Daniela displayed, backed by their Q6 Skills, sent a shiver down my spine.
Thankfully, my words seemed to have a profound effect on the two youths. Larry's excitement dwindled, but I could see something more serious lurking there. Xi frowned like she'd eaten something sour, but actually closed her own eyes and tried to imitate me. To my utter surprise, she didn't stumble too much for almost thirty seconds before they fluttered back open. The frown was plastered there, but the glimmer of her eye was back.
The veteran Guards didn't feel the need to join the conversation, so I was able to gather my thoughts as we passed the western field of Wildwood. Knee high spinach and other leafy greens rose up in neat rows. Closer to the wooden palisade of the town were rows and rows of cabbage, the lower profile of the plant giving a clear view of the hundred or so feet to the wall. Even if they were double the size of pre-Fall cabbages, the view was still better than the taller greens. Atop the wall were evenly spaced guards, the farther two just at the edge of my vision.
Upon seeing us, the Guard closest to the gate sounded a whistle. Someone within the wall opened the gates and let our group enter into the town. Compared to when Daniela, Samuel and I had first arrived, it was hard to imagine we were in the same town.
The road had been worked within the walls to give it a smooth finish thanks to a number of Earth-Attuned Fallen using their Gifts. Swirls of black and white gave the road a strange visual effect as the asphalt and limerock base of the road mixed to fill in potholes and heaves the almost three decades since the Fall had produced.
Not only was the road changed, but the homes had too. As an unfortunate side effect of the regular attacks by the bile crows, many of the homes had been turned into the real estate equivalent of swiss cheese. The few surviving homes had been quickly reinforced with the help of mana-created stone or mana-grown plants. The result was an odd fantasy setting feel to the town, where stone block houses, bark-lined huts and tall vine-canopy tents replaced the cookie cutter American suburb that had once stood in Wildwood. Several had even been emboldened by the creation of the Crafting Hall and were trying their hand at building apartment buildings of a sort on one of the empty lots.
A handful of people waved at our approach, but there wasn't the usual jovial energy spread throughout the town. Even the smattering of children in the town found the somber mood clung to them and their play was subdued. The handful of salesmen that usually pandered the goods of the crafters in town were instead passing out white roses free of charge for all the people slowly making their way east. Creek and company were immediately subdued when they saw that and I opted to split from the group.
"The Memorial is going to be outside the wall to the east, Mr. Terrigan," Creek said, bowing his head as he led his squad down the main road of the town. I watched them for a few seconds before setting my stride. The memorial was scheduled for mid day, so I knew there was still a bit of time. Even if I wasn't much for formalities, I wanted to at least get a proper shower for the event.
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My feet took me through the motions mechanically. More polite waves and a handful of excited children made their presence known, but none engaged me directly. My feet took me to just outside the training fields, seeing the changes that had been wrought even in the few months we'd been on the surface. Gone was the plain sandy area used for Gift practice. Far in the corner there was still such a location, more for general assembly than anything, but now the training space had taken on some truly fantasy features.
Towering spires rose three stories into the air, formed by who I speculated was one of the Stoneshapers with some Wildwoodian help. Several platforms were lashed tightly to the spires with vines that looked fairly familiar, but didn't necessarily have to come from Samuel's
At the edge of the pond was an obstacle track that would put the old show Wipeout to shame. Considering how long I'd been avoiding actually coming to the training area and the dojo where me and the other Bunkerites were staying, it was a much more impressive product than Base Arachne.
"You going to gawk all day, or are you going to actually show up to the ceremony?" a gruff voice said behind me. I'd felt the approach; it wasn't particularly hard to pick out the heavy stomps of an orc. However, I'd opted to let them approach me. I was still wary of being too jumpy and being able to tell where people were around me, even through walls, felt a tad invasive the more I thought about it. Something else to work on.
"Hey Sarah. Yes, I was going to take a shower. Just... admiring the sights," I said, gesturing out towards the upgraded training area. "I might need to give it a run."
"You should. The newly Gifted love seeing Danny demolish the course. Seeing your lumbering behind crack the earth might dissuade them from worshiping the Bunker Busters so much. It's making us mundane squads look bad," the woman said, stepping up beside me. She wore what I could only imagine was Sunday's best after the Fall. The emblem for the Wild Guard was firmly pinned to her chest and a patch beside it said 'Council of Wildwood'.
"Nice tag," I said, leading the way back to the dojo's apartment. After the extraction of the Aberrant by the giant Death-Death Crow Appendage, Sam and I went full tilt on reinforcing the building. It was not pretty but there was definitely something manly about all the layers of stone built around it and the vines and bushes that almost camouflaged it. Ablative Armor, the blonde had called it, before disappearing to one of his many food growth experiments.
"With Kirby gone and the Dreg routed, giving some proper structure to things is important. People are tired of fighting but not knowing where they stand," Sarah said.
We lapsed into silence as we clambered up the stairs to the apartment above. Sarah didn't need to ask for permission, having received an open invitation from Daniela and Ava to hang out whenever, as she set herself up to wait in the dining area.
I entered the bathroom and scrubbed the grime of almost two weeks of work off of my body. I'd taken dunks in ponds and rinsed off more than once while working or traveling, but the homemade soap and brush left me a new man as I left my armor to hang by the window. The light kevlar was more noodles than bullet stopping materials and my usual cargos were fifty shades of burnt from the fights we'd encountered. When I finally stepped out, I noticed a new simple roughspun shirt and pair of cargos had been laid out beside my dirt caked boots.
The shirt already had the Wild Guard emblem pinned to it, along with a patch depicting a pointy triangle being wrapped in an emerald vine while the whole thing caught fire.
I put the clothes on without comment, taking a deep breath and feeling the weight on my shoulders sitting firmly on there. When I went to get Sarah, she quirked an appreciative eyebrow in my direction. "You know, if Jolene wasn't hissing at everyone that talked about how good looking and rugged you are, I'm sure someone else would have already tried to snag more Terrigan for themselves. I'm almost tempted myself. You certainly have the constitution to survive some fire attuned... interactions. Have you even--"
"Is it really the time to talk about the magical birds and the bees?" I snapped, feeling a muscle on my face twitch.
"Yes and no. What do you think this memorial is for, Ronan?" she asked, veering the conversation.
"What? To remember those who died," I said, taken aback.
"Obviously. I am talking about what it means to us. To you.”
"I..."
"Creek told me about your talk. Just for the record, I agree completely with him. I wanted to talk to you before we head over because I know how hard headed you are, if it wasn't already subtly reinforced by your friends. This Memorial is not for those that are gone, but for those that remain," Sarah said.
"I get it. Don't feel guilt. Yes this isn't the first time I've been told that. You don't need to baby--"
"I'm not babying anything, Ron. You don't get it. It may be a bit callous of me, but I know you haven't lost anyone, not really. I don't need your life's story to know that I'm sure there are gaps in your family. But you didn't see your mother eaten or your brother taken by the wilderness.”
I stammered as I tried to keep up with Sarah's words. "See, you didn't even know I had a brother. And you know what that is? It's fine, that's what. Because that is my burden. I lost things that I love, so I opted to love more things. Everyone inside the walls of this town are people I love, your friends included.
"But for so long, that was all I had. And I was forced to watch as those I loved were lost to the unknown and even to a threat right under our noses. For heaven's sake, Kirby was at my birth Ronan. I've been hurt more than you could possibly understand." Sarah wiped her eyes before leveling them, and a finger, at me. "But you three made a path. Now I have things I can love beyond the boundaries of the wall. Beyond even Summerfield and all those lost in that first attack. Because now all those losses we mourned have a meaning and they give us strength."
"Sarah, I never meant to offend any of that," I said, finding my voice catching, even as I thought about losing the people that had been part of my whole life. That impotent rage when Daniela was taken was a pang I couldn't ignore, and I'd gotten her back.
Sarah's voice softened. "I know. What I need you to do is remember that you don't carry the weight of those deaths alone. We are the pillars that hold ideas and dreams larger than ourselves against the weight of a world that wants to crush us. Before it was the Dreg, it was hunger or the creatures of the wild or even other humans, if the stories from Irwin and my dad are anything to believe. Loss is an unavoidable part of this equation, but you must balance it before it consumes you. You must. If you and the others hadn't stopped the Aberrant how many more would have died? How many children like Larry or Xi? Orphans of this world that you've opened a door for because you dared to hope for a future. I'm not saying avoid the emotions and forget your part in it. I'm saying take it and turn living into the gift they gave with their lives. Surviving is hard, especially as more people... As more people fall around you!"
Sarah was practically yelling at the end as her emotions surged. The power of her voice caused ripples through my vibrosense, driving her words even deeper into me. The orc woman saw my strained expression before turning away and cleaning her face on a rag on the counter." Just think about how much more value those lives you carry would have if you saved another."
Sarah left, heavy steps echoing down the stairs and I found myself following.