The Connected System

Loch looked over the ten men standing behind the wall. They each had a sword, two archers with full quivers, and an additional quiver in the pile of equipment behind them. Now that they had a real Fletcher Classed, the only thing keeping them from having a surplus of arrows was a lack of feathers. The ten had their backs to the wall, Loch facing them with the rest of the group gathered behind him. Some had already started the trek back to the Clanhold. Five other men stood off to the side.

That group carried smaller blades and less padded protection. As a scavenging team, they wanted and needed to be more mobile and quicker. The protection would have been nice, but they didn’t want the added weight.

“As soon as we’re back, we’ll send a couple runners and hopefully devise a better and quicker communications system,” Loch said, watching the ten men, the first set of guards that would man the gaunt’s wall. “The scavengers will hit the nearby houses and give you beds, coats and whatever else is needed,” he continued pointing at the nearest house. It wasn’t large, but was in one piece and looked solid. “Work out the rotation between you. Tommy is in charge,” he pointed at one of the men.

All ten were now Classed, a couple with Striker or Watchman but most with Guardsman. The man Loch had singled out, Tommy Rogers, was one of the Strikers. Nearing forty, he’d gotten his Class not that long ago, but before the others, putting him at a higher Level comparatively. Still only Level Seven, he had more experience not just as a Guard but overall. The man had served in the Navy.

He turned to the five men to the side.

“Priority is stocking the barracks house,” he told them, looking back at the pile of equipment set aside. There were extra swords and what was being counted as armor. Hockey and baseball pads, bike pads and anything else that would work. “After that, bring everything back to Clanhold. There’s a house past the east wall that we were using for the scouts, can use that as a waystop.”

“Got it,” the leader of the scavengers, a woman named Marge said.

She turned to the others, motioning for them to follow.

Loch felt weird telling them things they already knew. This had already been gone over earlier when the decision had been made to staff the wall and the scavengers knew what they were supposed to be doing. Marge’s team was one of the first. They’d done the most runs out of any of the other teams. But when he was around, people expected things of him, and Loch felt obligated to be what they expected.

As much as it annoyed him.

“You have the flares,” he asked, triple checking. Tommy nodded. Loch sighed, this was the hard part. “You launch one, we’ll get here as soon as we can.”

What went unsaid by Loch, and was understood by the guards, was that by the time anyone came from the school it would be too late. The guards weren’t equipped or enough to deal with any real threats, they were just there to have a presence. Over time, the number would increase, but for now the ten was all that could be spared.

“Thank you,” he said, making eye contact with each of the ten men.

Loch meant it. He hated leaving those men behind but it was necessary. They were going to be in danger. He wouldn’t have left guards at the wall, especially so far from the Clanhold but the gaunt attack had shown him that it was time to take it all more seriously. Not that he hadn’t been, but he’d been going slow with expanding and building it up. The Clan couldn’t do that anymore.

With threats all around them, they had to get early warning systems in place and they had to start fortifying the territory that they owned. The Clan had the mine they had to occupy, start getting the Resources from it, and that involved building a fort around the mine and outposts along the trail and road back to the school. Then there was the Challenge Dungeon and other spots they’d encountered along the eastern part of Route 4 in Northwood.

There was so much around them that was a potential danger or resource to use. And they had a lot of people at the school that weren’t fighters or guards. Those were resources to use. Loch had been reluctant to force those people into roles, but that time was over.

For them all to survive, everyone had to do something.

He turned away from the guards, hearing Tommy already giving out orders. Loch joined the larger group waiting for him. Most, including Harper and Davis, had already headed out. Piper, Drew, Elora, Brian, Jenny, some of the soldiers and the newcomers were waiting. With a signal from Loch, Elora took the lead, running ahead to scout.

***

“So it’s a democracy,” Jeremy asked.

The large group was about an hour out from Johnson’s Field. The ruined road meant they had to spread out with some of the Clan’s soldiers watching the road, some in the rear. The newcomers, mostly noncombatants, were in the middle surrounded by people carrying swords.

“Someday,” Loch answered truthfully. “The Connection dictates a lot about how things are run. It doesn’t want a democracy but a form run by the strongest.”

“That’s you,” Josh said. His eyes were constantly roaming. Being in the front of the group with Loch and others, there wasn’t much he needed to keep an eye out for. He was more keeping an eye on the members of Clan Brady. His eyes were constantly drawn to Cerie, the fairy hovering over Piper’s shoulder as she walked next to her father.

“Yeah,” Loch said reluctantly. “It’s not necessarily about the strongest lording over the rest although some Clan’s in the other Connected Worlds do work like that. The Connected System wants the Clanlord to be the strongest and to actually fight and defend the Clan against other powerful Clanlords and monsters.”

“The strongest is meant to be a defense,” Jeremy stated.

“Something like that. The Clanlord isn’t really meant to do the day to day governing. We’re setting up a council to run things.”

“An elected council,” Josh asked.

“Eventually,” Loch replied, holding up his hands to stall the response. “To start with we didn’t have a lot of people in the different areas we wanted represented so had to take who was available. The plan is as the Clan grows, the different crafts and even Classes will form guilds and they’ll elect or appoint representatives to the Council.”

“When will that be?”

Loch held in his sigh. He was getting really tired of Josh’s attitude. How much of the issues in the camp in Pittsfield had been the leadership and how much had been Josh?

“Right now it’s about survival,” Loch said, hoping that would be the end of it.

“And how long will that last,” Josh asked. He sighed, holding up a hand. “Sorry, it’s just that the guy in charge in Pittsfield, Ken, he kept saying the same stuff. He and his gang of toughs, the strongest ones there. They didn’t put themselves at risk to protect others, pushing us to take the bigger risks and they’d take the rewards. That was one of the reasons we left. If going to risk our lives, we want it to be worth it.”

“Living now is risking our lives,” Jeremy added.

“How many people and what Levels did this Ken have?”

“He was the highest,” Jeremy answered. “Had a Rare Class, or so he said. Was around Level Eleven. The rest were Uncommon Classes around Eight and Nine. Josh was one of them at first.”

“Until I couldn’t stomach it anymore,” Josh grumbled. “My Class is Uncommon, it’s called Bladeknight, and I’d gotten it to Level Seven when Ken started pressuring me to join his inner circle. It’s a strong melee Class, letting me do a lot of damage. He liked that. Would send some of the lower Levels in to soften up the monsters, then me and the other guys would go and finish them off and get most of the experience. I hated it but was too afraid to do anything until…”

He fell silent. Loch saw Jeremy shaking his head sadly. He waited for Josh to continue but the man didn’t, remaining silent.

“We have a couple Dungeons and a Spawn Field near the Clanhold,” Loch said. “And we set up a rotation to try and get everyone through both so they can Level and grow stronger. Of course there are some that are higher Level already and remain so but we’re trying to get everyone Classes and strong enough to survive.”

“What if someone doesn’t want to fight,” Jeremy asked, looking back at some of the others behind them. “Ken forced people into roles they didn’t want.”

Loch nodded, sighing.

“Everyone has to contribute in some way,” he said. “We don’t want to make people but with limited Resources,” he trailed off, shrugging. “I don’t like it but there really isn’t much choice. We’re not going to force people to take fighting Classes, even though so many are needed just to be guards around the school. But if they don’t want to fight, they have to do something.”

“Like what?,” Josh asked, a bit angrily.

“Crafting or something else that helps the Clan out as a whole. Even just being labor,” Loch said, a bit of an edge to his voice. “Look, no one is happy about it but it’s the damn hand we’ve been dealt and we have to do what we have to in order for everyone to survive.”

“For the strong to survive.”

“For everyone,” Loch said, emphasizing the last word. “I want as many people to live and grow, in whatever way they want, but we have to survive first.”

“And if someone doesn’t want to? What will you do? Drive them away? Kill them?”

Loch wondered if Ken had done just that. Had that been the final straw for Josh and the others that had left with him? Loch thought about Simu, someone so broken by the Connection’s arrival that they didn’t want to do anything but didn’t want to die. They wanted life back the way it had been, unwilling to adapt and change. Even though they didn’t want to help, Loch couldn’t imagine exiling them or killing them. What kind of madman would do that?

“Of course not,” he answered. “If they want to leave, that’s on them, but we wouldn’t force them out. They would have to work for their food and lodging. Everyone does.”

“Including you and those other high Levels,” Josh asked, pointing at Brian.

“Yes, of course.”

“Loch’s the strongest one around,” Drew said, stepping closer. “The kitchen staff tries to give him larger portions of the food but he refuses. During the attack on the school, we arrived at the end, but I saw Loch going toe to toe with a monster from nightmares. This Dullahan would have wiped out the rest of us without effort. I’m Level Thirteen with a Rare Class and I wouldn’t have stood a chance.”

Josh finally fell silent, thinking over everything he’d heard. Loch was thankful for Drew’s appearance. They didn’t know each other well, it had only been a few days, but Loch was glad he’d made a good impression on the other man. Drew was forming strong bonds quickly. A naturally charismatic man, he was helping out wherever he could, wanting to integrate the people he’d brought with the rest of the Clan, knowing there was strength in numbers. He also knew that those numbers were meaningless against some of the threats out there and knew that they needed to grow stronger. Everyone needed to grow stronger.

Josh and Jeremy would just have to learn and see for themselves that Loch wanted Clan Brady to be different from what the Connected System wanted. It wouldn’t be like what the United States had been, not right away at least, maybe not ever, but it also wouldn’t be a tyrannical dictatorship where only strength mattered. He kept telling himself that, over and over, because the System kept wanting to push them down the dictatorship path.

***

“Bring the supplies back to the wall,” Loch told the scouts that were exiting the house.

The group had been walking for an hour or so, just passing by the house that the Clan had been using for the scouts that had been watching the gaunts. The scavengers hadn’t gotten this far down western route 4 but the scouts had been bringing stuff back to the school when they did the rotations. As the last one left the house, they closed the door, a sign that there was still more to raid from the house.

“Yes Lord Lochlan,” the scout said, making a kind of saluting motion as he walked by.

Loch felt Josh’s eyes on him.

“The Connection gave me the title,” he explained, not quite sure why he was bothering. “I’ve been trying to get them to stop.”

“Sure,” Josh said, walking off.

Loch sighed.