The Connected System

“Chickens?,” Loch exclaimed, looking down the small hill.

He could see where the ground had been dug up by the Katshituashku’s run to come protect what the tree it thought belonged to it. Following the path into the woods, Loch could see where some trees had been pushed aside to make a trail for the large beast to roam. He wondered what they would find when they followed that trail, which he knew they would eventually. Or someone would.

Just not right now because there were more important things to pay attention to.

The sights and sounds of the chickens were so familiar. The animals were very common in Northwood. Many families had their own flocks, both free ranged and caged. It was even common to see the animals roaming the sides of Route 4, pecking at bugs in the grass along the shoulders. There were so many that Loch had been surprised none had been found yet.

He had assumed that the increasingly larger and wilder animals had killed all the chickens or they had fled deep into the woods. He had given up on finding any.

Kelly had talked about getting their own chickens. Loch hadn’t been against the idea, he had just joked that if she got her chickens then he got to get a goat. Or two, so they could keep eachother company. There was no farming or livestock reason he wanted goats, he had just always thought them fun creatures to have roaming the backyard. It had become a family joke.

The sounds the chickens made were louder than he remembered, but then the birds themselves were bigger. No longer the size of small dogs or cats, they were now as big as medium sized dogs. Labradors and German Shepherds and others of that kind. Thankfully not Great Dane size. Chickens were bad enough at their old pre-Connection size. Giant chickens would be the thing of nightmares. The chickens still had their overall roundish shape, covered in multiple colors of feathers, indicating different breeds. There were even a couple of larger roosters watching over the flock.

Doing a quick count, Loch thought there were over three dozen birds. It was hard to tell with them constantly moving around each other, even flapping their wings to hop over some. There were a couple of brave chickens that moved away from the group, pecking at the edges of the trees, but most stayed relatively close.

He wondered where the flock was roosting. There had to be some eggs. Butchering three dozen chickens would feed the entire Clan for a couple of days if they rationed the meat and eggs. But three dozen chickens and a couple of roosters could become a lot more.

The question was how to get the birds back to the clanhold.

Or did they even need to?

He looked back at the Grand Oak. Loch had thought about putting guards around the tree to protect it. If the chickens roosted in this area, there might not be a need to move them. It would be next to impossible to move chickens the size of dogs. Did they have enough people to spare to guard the tree and have some to work as chicken farmers?

Loch wasn’t too worried about random beasts getting the chickens. They had survived for this long and in those numbers, the birds seemed capable of taking care of themselves. The dump wasn’t even that far from the Clanhold. The major problem was building shelter for the guards and chicken wranglers.

“I’m not skinning all those,” Barbara said, coming up next to him, still covered in blood and gore.

Loch laughed.

***

Loch smiled. He had thought he’d been due for a lucky streak and it was now manifesting. The Grand Oak, the chickens and now a trailer. He just hoped it didn’t mean a streak of bad luck coming his way.

The shelter problem was mostly taken care of.

The transfer station had been a couple hundred feet off Route 4, a two lane drive leading up to it. On the east side had been a large open area with a large three sided shed, the front side open with a single slope roof. It had been filled with dirt that the town used on the roads in the winter. Off to the side had been a small work trailer. It had a couple offices and that was it.

Loch knew the type of trailer. Thin walled, barely any insulation. Meant for construction sites. A place to have meetings, store files. Not meant to be lived.

But it was still there, not claimed by the Worldcore, and it was still intact.

They could work with it.

Throw a couple bunk beds in one of the rooms, leaving the other for a lounge space. Or just some mattresses and sleeping bags to start, but eventually bunks. It wasn’t as close to the chickens and the tree as Loch would have preferred, but it would just be temporary. They’d end up building a real barracks, farmhouse, chicken coop. Everything they’d need.

He wondered about the Katshituashku and if it would respond, or if there were more. There were no guards or soldiers, no matter what their Classes, that could take that thing on. Thanks to the gaunt fight, sadly, they had all gotten a couple of Level increases. There were some right on the edge of hitting Level Ten but their Advancement was slow. Even with regular monster attacks along the perimeter of the school and the nearby woods, there were a lot of guards. Not enough for all they needed but still enough to make it hard to get Spirit to Level. Spreading them out, putting some on the wall to the west and some at the Transfer Station would help give them more Leveling opportunities and face stronger monsters.

The Transfer Station might end up being too strong for the guards now, but they’d gain Levels, and that would probably only last a few years.

With the growth of the Clanhold, the area might end up being contained by more structures and more of the clan members. Loch wasn’t sure how expansion would go, but chances are it would spread out along route 4. The area around the school wasn’t made for expanding north and south, but they could go east and west. They’d spread out down Bow Lake and Harmony Lane as well but would it be better to keep everyone close for the first couple of years?

Loch had played some civilization building games, but those all had things going in relative squares without anything forcing specific or odd layouts. He remembered seeing satellite images of New York City and its grid pattern layout compared to Boston and the mess that was that city’s layout. Loch had hated driving in Boston.

Not something he’d ever have to worry about again.

What was Boston like now? How much of the city had been claimed by the Worldcore? How much had the earthquake caused by the Connection’s arrival destroyed? Was Boston even standing?

The situation in Northwood was bad enough and they only had a couple hundred people. What would it be like in a city of millions that had probably been reduced to thousands, maybe even a hundred thousand. What were twenty or more story buildings like now? Isolated kingdoms or were they taken by the Worldcore?

Cerie had said the Worldcore had needed a lot of Spirit energy to jumpstart the Connection and to start the planet’s increase in size, along with creating the Dungeons, monsters and Adapting the survivors. Giant cities like Boston, filled with millions of people, millions of tons of steel and other building materials, would be great places to get that energy from.

He hated thinking of all those people and their homes just taken. Like Kelly had been.

Not like Kelly. She was still alive.

Brian and Jenny walked out of the trailer. She gave Loch a thumbs up. Stuart and one of the other scavengers had been waiting at the bottom of the stairs for the all clear. They rushed into the trailer, backpacks off and ready to grab whatever was useful and didn’t need to remain for the guards. Brian and Jenny could have done it, but the scavengers had Classes focused on that task and got experience for it. There wouldn’t be much, but every little bit helped and it was better they got a little instead of Brian and Jenny getting nothing.

Loch could see Route 4. Unless there were any surprises, they’d probably make it back to the Clanhold before dark. There was a lot to do.

There was always a lot to do.

He wondered how the two groups in the Dungeons to the east were doing.