The Masked Bird

The Danger of a Community

Life settled down into a gentle monotony finally. There were of course still several risks to prepare for, like the risk of a deep freeze setting in, or raiders returning, or bad harvest, but we were finally getting into a sense of normalcy. I haven't asked anyone, but I'm worried that we're getting a little complacent with the normalcy. For now though, I think we're strong enough to repel almost any attacks from any local forces though. We've expanded to almost 100 families, and had to expand the walls a few times to avoid running into the issue of a lack of space. They've gotten some old engines from boats running again, and we're able to get a lot of fish from drilling through the ice. Things are looking up from here, and as long as nothing goes too wrong, we should be able to help even more people.

86, 10th day of summer

"No! Not like that!" The voice cut the air as I pulled back from my work, looking at the small grey rectangle I held. It had a red and a blue wire coming from it, that was meant to connect to a really thin wire inside the odd clay-like block they called c4. I didn't know how that'd work, but I wasn't questioning their magic. "Look at the time you set! You can't get far enough away in 30 seconds. I said 3 minutes!" I looked back at the small greyish-brownish screen with its bold black numbers, and saw 00:30. I thought that it meant 30 minutes? Wasn't that what he'd shown me? The man, his nametag said Conroy, stalked up to me and snatched the rectangle out of my hands. He shoved it in my face, aggressively pressing the 0 button a third time, changing the black numbers to 03:00 before snapping "That's 3 minutes!" As he finished his sentence, he cleared the screen, muttering something about "stupid tribals" that I couldn't quite make out. Not that I really wanted to, because honestly I was already completely done with whatever it was he was trying to do. It wasn't like any of these idiots - they called themselves soldiers - had done anything to break out. Just sat there and waited around, like a herd of deer while the wolves prowled the edges. I was no deer, something these people would have to learn soon enough.

Conroy seemed like he was one of those sorts of folk who looked at everyone else as below themselves - I can't imagine how he would've found himself in a place like this, where everything seemed so structured and solid. From what I'd overheard, listening in on Tom or Sorna talking to people or eachother, they were a part of a larger organisation that was working against a bunch of different groups, including the Great Lakes Imperium. Maybe he'd ended up out here because no one else wanted to deal with him? I could understand that - he had an odd air around him that made people just want to avoid him. Maybe that's why he'd been put with me, I didn't complain about things. "Try shaping it again!" He snapped, as I slowly stood up. "Are you even listening to me?!" The man's voice got higher and shriller as I looked at him. It was a trick I'd learned; a specific way to carry yourself that kept people on edge around you. A subtle tilt of the head, a little too loose in the joints, a gentle tilt of the head back to look down the nose at your quarry, small things like this. It helped that the gentle change in angle still showed him nothing of my face behind my mask, like a faceless ghoul or a ghost. Slowly I stalked towards him, letting him try to retreat.

One thing I'd learned was to keep an appropriate pace. Ever so slightly quicker than your target's walking pace, it made them have to back up at a pace faster than they were comfortable with. But he stopped after a moment, which let me close the gap, and snatch the remote out of his hand. We waited there, me holding the remote, still as a stone, waiting to see if he'd react. He did react - but it was the way I'd hoped. Instead of trying to retaliate directly, he simply turned and walked away. That meant I had at least a few hours of peace and quiet before he tried to start things again. That meant I had time to settle down, testing the settings for the remote. I hit the 9 button twice, and then hit start on the timer, as I walked back to the block of explosive clay. The black numbers read off 00:99, and counted down, about one per second. That sort of timekeeping was pretty accurate which I figured was important for something like this, but could it be used elsewhere? I wasn't sure, too much relied on when the sun came up and went down, so what would it be used for? The people in this base used a bigger version and seemed to base their schedule around it. I guess it was part of how regimented and structured everything was, even the changing of the sun and stars wouldn't change their routines.