The Connected System

They all stopped, hearing the cracking and snapping of branches. A lot of them. Smaller ones and a larger. There was a crash against the ground, all the sounds stopping.

“Was that a tree falling,” Josh asked.

“I think so,” Loch said, trying to pinpoint where the noise had come from.

With the wind blowing through the trees, it was hard to tell. He’d heard trees fall before, and that was similar to the noise they’d just heard. The wind was strong, but strong enough to knock over a tree? He could hear the eerily cracking and snapping of thin trees blowing against larger, bark scraping across bark. Not a sound anyone liked to hear.

It was somewhat haunting. The noise had always scared the girls when they were younger and hiking in the woods. It wasn’t a noise anyone was supposed to hear. Trees were silent sentinels, standing strong and resolute.

Until they weren’t.

Even before the Connection, the wind had been stronger than normal. Loud gusts rocking the house at night, chill winds making sunny days colder. Since the Connection the wind had been a constant. There was always a light breeze, sometimes stronger gusts.

But not like what they were experiencing.

It had started the night before, the gusts snapping the tent fabric all night. It had been difficult to sleep. The wind hadn’t let up in the morning. Not strong enough to push against them, but enough they could feel it. Small twigs and branches were kicked up, leaves floating across the ground, swirling in the gusts.

Trees bent and scrapped against others, branches in constant motion.

The falling tree had sounded close but Loch couldn’t see anything. He turned back to where Elora had stopped, motioning for her to continue. She had told him that the trail had been lost, accepting full blame. He hadn’t blamed her. There was no way anyone could follow a trail through this wood, not after all that time. The wind wasn’t helping, blowing away tracks in the ground, leaves covering them up. The groundscape was constantly changing.

Loch had thought about turning around but that would have accomplished nothing, just allowing the threat of the Wendigo to grow. Not that they were accomplishing anything now. With no trail, they could wander the woods for months and not find anything.

Elora was sure they were moving in the same general direction as the Wendigo and Loch trusted her to keep them on course. He planned a day, and then they’d start back to the Clanhold, heading in a different direction, hoping to come across some sign.

Or maybe something else interesting. There were more Dungeons in the woods. More Natural Resources. The Bugbears showed other monsters and beasts were living in the expansive forest. No one from the Clan had been as deep as they were. What had yet to be found?

Loch glanced back at T.J., the man talking quietly with Kyle. He wondered how good T.J.’s Strider Abilities would be with mapping out the area. It seemed geared for solo exploration, but might be safer to send a small team.

They could walk a random path back to the Clanhold and still miss a lot of stuff. It still amazed Loch how much the world had grown. At some point he knew they’d need to mount an expedition to Concord, maybe Dover and Portsmouth. Nottingham and Barrington were closer but the bigger cities were more important in the long run. If the woods around Northwood had grown from not even a day’s travel to a couple of days, how long would it take to get to Concord? Cerie had said that the growth wasn’t consistent. It could be that just the area around Northwood had grown and the rest of the distance to Concord had remained the same.

Without the internet or phones, Loch felt isolated. He had no idea what was happening in the rest of the world. How much of humanity still remained?

Loch sighed. There was just so much to do.

And he needed to work on his own Advancement. He was still Level 26, the highest of anyone in the world, but what good was that against something like the Silver Bark? There were threats like the Wendigo out there. Even things like the monster they’d fought in the old transfer station. How strong was that Elk he had seen off Bow Lake Road?

So many threats.

He had to focus or get overwhelmed. He had to delegate. There were others in the Clan getting strong enough to take on some of the threats, leaving him with just the worse. His priorities had to be the Wendigo and the Silver Bark.

And to keep getting stronger. He had to keep up his Advancement. Being the strongest human in the world would be great protection for the Clan. Who would mess with them with the threat of his retribution?

He hated thinking like that but it was a reality. The apocalypse brought out the best in humanity, people coming together to help each other, but it also brought out the worst. There would be those that would seek to take advantage of other’s weaknesses. That would enjoy the power that they got and the loss of the old rules of society. A chance to remake the world in their image with their rules.

Or lack of.

Humanity had proven, time and time again, that they were their own worst enemies. Not just in books, television and movies but in reality. The Clan would encounter one of the other human Clans someday and they had to be prepared.

He had to be prepared.

“I have something,” Elora said, her voice quiet but still carrying through the forest. Even over the wind, Loch could hear her.

He raised a hand, calling a halt to everyone else. It passed from one to the other in silence, the fighters turning and putting their backs to the ones in the middle, watching the woods. Loch moved forward, eyes scanning the woods on both sides. Elora was crouched twenty or so feet ahead, Harper standing next to her. His daughter had her tonfas out, eyes watching the woods to the front.

The elf looked up as he approached, shifting to the side so he could see what she had found. It wasn’t in the direct path but a few feet to the left, partially covered by leaves and bushes. The wind had helped them, pushing aside the cover. Loch didn’t think it had been purposefully hidden, just left on the ground with the wind and rain first concealing and then revealing.

A chipmunk, normal pre-Connection size, lay on the ground. It's already small body was smaller, the skin pulled tight against the thin bones. Fur had fallen out in patches, the red shade turning paler.

“That’s an awful small meal for a Wendigo,” Loch muttered looking down at the small body.

“Yes but now I have a clearer trail,” Elora said, standing up.

She started walking off, Loch motioning the others to follow. Harper moved into the shadows of the trees, disappearing.

***

Loch stepped out of the trees into a wide cleared area. The grasses were tall but the tree growth cut back, creating a long swatch that ran east and west. He smiled, knowing where they were. Not the exact point along the length, but having a familiar landmark helped center him and gave the increased land a more solid distance.

“The powerlines,” Loch said.

“Does this connect to where you fought the Velicoraptors,” Elora asked, looking east.

She had mentioned that her task with the Silver Bark had been to spy on him and the Clanhold. They’d encountered her further south down Bow Lake Road, but it came as no surprise that she’d been watching that fight or some other elf had.

“Yes,” Loch answered. “And it continues far to the east to where Drew and his people had turned onto it.”

Elora’s stance shifted a bit at the mention of Drew. Loch knew the two had spent a lot of time together, but wasn’t sure how the elf felt about the man. The slight shift seemed to indicate she had some feelings. It was a quick movement. Without his high Perception, Loch would have missed it. Elora rarely showed emotion.

She turned, looking the other way. Loch knew the power lines didn’t run directly east and west, there was a slight northern angle, but it was close enough. Both directions there was a wide game trail cut through the grass. Loch had seen a Triceratops running down it, along with dozens of smaller Velicoraptors.

Loch couldn’t see anything that indicated a Wendigo or Wendigos went that way but it was hard to make anything out. The trail was a churned up mess. Large puddles and dozens of feet of mud between made up the trail, the constant wind pushing down the tops of the tall grass, making it hard to tell if anything had broken its way through. But he trusted Elora’s tracking. If she said the Wendigo had gone that way, he believed her.

He waited as the others filed out of the woods, letting them stretch.

“We’ll take a break here,” he said.

They had already been walking for a couple of hours.

“Back inside the treeline,” Loch amended, remembering the rushing dinosaur and the ones that had been waiting for it.

There were no threats in the immediate area but the trail was used. There was no telling what could be coming down at any time.

“We should walk in the treeline,” Elora said.

Loch nodded, understanding the reasoning. It was the same as taking a break in the trees.

***

He knew where they were.

Loch could see the trees on either side of the powerlines stopping, giving way to a wide clearing. He could see the waters of Durgin Pond through the trees to the north. The grass filled clearing would run from the edge of the woods all the way to Route 107, Catamount Road. Loch had hiked to this very spot and had driven that length of road many times. He knew the Pre-Connection distances. Now he could use his maps and T.J.s Abilities to really give some scale to the new Post-Connection world.

The noises were new. It was a maelstrom of sounds, hard to make out what each was as they all crashed together. Roars, growls, screams of pain and a strange warbling call. Loud and quieter.

Everyone tensed as they approached the end of the forest. The noises grew louder.

With some hand signals, Loch spread the group out with himself, Elora and Harper at the front. He took the middle, the other two on either side, moving to stay within the shadows of the trees. The others were aligned behind him, with a couple from Josh’s group staying in the rear.

Loch stepped out into the clearing, the waters of the pond visible to his right, the broken up road far in the distance ahead. The source of all the noises drew his attention.

“What the hell,” he muttered.