I had to be cautious going forward, I'd realised. Hopefully, Oliver was going to be safe, but I had no real way of knowing unless I went back to visit him, which given the way things currently stand in this country, I decided was too high a risk. I also decided it was too much of a risk to take a route directly to the tunnel to get to mainland Europe, so I took a circuitous one south, via Aldershot, then all along the southern coast of England until I reached Folkestone.

Resources were a concern, of course. I still had no plans to starve to death, I still needed to keep spares just in case I ran out of any of my equipment, and I still needed to be able to trade for other useful items. True, since meeting Phil back in Yate, I had more resources at my disposal and some modest nanocloud upgrades, I would still need more in order to make my future more certain and less hand-to-mouth.

That was to say nothing of my mission to find out what had happened.

It took me four days of almost constant walking during many of my waking hours to reach the Eurotunnel entrance in Folkestone, and it was a complete disaster zone compared to the last time I'd used it. Buildings that had served as terminal entrances, offices, ticket booths and refreshment facilities were all torn down. Almost nothing here was standing. There was a tower nearby that I could climb up to get a better look of the area, so I used it and took a good look around.

The entry to the Eurotunnel was thankfully intact, meaning I could walk into it. I'd no idea what I'd find inside of it, of course, but it wasn't collapsed from what I could see outside. My nanocloud overlaid a visual of the structural supports that were keeping the tunnel intact as I approached, and I continued to maintain my hope that the tunnel was completely traversable from this side through to Calais.

There were a whole bunch of people milling around the site during daylight hours, and I wondered what they were doing. Some of them looked to be armed with blades, and a few even had some crossbow-type weapons. There was no way I'd get to that tunnel entrance without being spotted by these people, and I suspected they weren't going to take kindly to me stepping off of the British Isles.

I wasn't sure why; I just had that feeling.

So, I waited until nightfall, retreating from the area so I could go hunt for some more animals to skin and preserve, so I'd have something to eat as I made my way across the channel. I also managed to find a largely-intact shopping complex, and while many of the supplies had long disappeared, I did notice a few non-perishable items among the discarded piles. I also managed to find a nearby stream where I could refill my water container for the journey.

When I'd returned that night, most of those milling around the tunnel entrance had disappeared, making their way to set up tents and other temporary shelters. Only a few were left to patrol, and most of them seemed to be more interested in what was coming out of the tunnel, than what went in. This would work to my advantage, I realised, and made my way as slowly, and as quietly as I could to the entrance.

It was deserted, thankfully, so I slipped inside, and started to crawl my way slowly along and down its' gradient, until I was certain I'd be out of their line of sight, before I stood. Realising also that I might not be the only one with nanocloud-enhanced senses, I also took off my shoes, stepping on to the weathered and dirty concrete flooring with bare feet for the first time since I was a kid. It was uncomfortable, with all of the jagged and loose stones I came across every now and then, but it was silent compared to if I'd been wearing my boots.

It wasn't until some time during the night, after having walked nearly five kilometres into the tunnel, that I felt I could put my boots back on, which I did in order to make my journey easier and faster. I still had another fifty kilometres left to walk, so I stepped it up a notch as I continued descending to the nadir of the tunnel.

It was a day and a half later, after taking a very quick nap in the tunnel that my nanocloud had boosted with some carefully-calibrated control over my brain chemistry, when I'd finally reached the other side, emerging from the tunnel during the day. Much like the Folkestone side of the tunnel, this end was also completely unrecognisable, but for very different reasons.

Where I'd once seen open fields and a few motorways on the French end of the tunnel, the terminal, the rail links and road exits, I now saw the exit from the tunnel was surrounded on all sides by some thick concrete walls that extended what must have been nearly fifty metres in height. They were topped with some sharp looking spikes, and seemed to be manned by guards, all looked in excellent shape, with looks of cool detachment.

One of them had spotted me emerging from the tunnel exit, and took off in a sprint that was faster than I'd ever seen anyone run.

Within many of the walls of dense concrete were what appeared to be doorways, and several slits that were just wide enough for people to see out of when aiming weaponry of various kinds. Barracks, perhaps? Siege defences? I had no idea what lay beyond, but I resolved not to tangle with anyone that could operate such a disciplined-looking operation.

The only way out of this closed-off fortress (what else could I call this place?) was a narrow funnel leading to a zone that I couldn't see past. It must serve as some sort of checkpoint, I'd guess, so I followed it, hoping that I could speak to someone reasonable and get to the bottom of this.

Now that I was on the French side of the channel, I decided I might benefit from speaking the language, so I queried my nanocloud.

Linguistic translation function unknown.

Dejectedly, I sighed, realising that speaking to the locals would become an issue unless I could find a way to quickly learn the language, or obtain a real-time translation function for my nanocloud.

If I can obtain a dictionary or translation document, can you build a translation function from that?

Negative. The ability to create custom functions is not available for this nanocloud yet.

Will it be?

Completion of a Nanocloud AI upgrade to at least Level 1 will provide the ability to enable a Function Builder module that will be able to serve this purpose.

That was a start, I supposed. Still, how was I meant to find a nanocloud AI upgrade? Where would I even start looking? I also still needed to resolve my language problem in the meantime. My french was rudimentary at best, and I would have to rely on some long-passed French language lessons I learned in school.

Fuck it.

Nothing to do but get on with it, I realised.

I set off toward the checkpoint, acknowledging the people who were standing guard.

"Arrêtez! Identifiez-vous!" A person dressed in black fatigues stepped out of a nearby building and stepped toward me, his thick gloved hands both outstetched as if to stop me from going anywhere. While I didn't understand a word of what he said, I could reproduce it precisely, thanks to the nanocloud. His gesture also made it clear I needed to stop.

I did.

"I'm sorry," I then called out. "No French! Speak English?"

The Guard frowned in what appeared to be irritation. "Of course I can speak English!" He said, his accent barely noticeable. "Now, who are you? It's not often we get lone travellers wandering out of the Eurotunnel."

"Ricardo Reyes," I told him, needing to get to the point. "Is there anywhere I can go to pick up a language translation function for my nanocloud?"

The guard paused, looking somewhat confused. "Your what?"

Oh, for fuck sake. "The cluster of nanomachines that are swarming through your body at the moment," I told him irritably. "The-"

"Alright," the guard cut me off. "I get it now. Yes, you can get a nanocloud function that will allow you to be able to translate spoken languages in real time, from the local visitor information centre."

I sighed in relief. "Great, where's that?"

"Before you go, you still haven't answered my question. Where are you from?"

What question? I thought in my head. I didn't bother to be a prick about it though, instead choosing to give him what he wanted. "I came through the Eurotunnel from England."

"Then you should probably turn around and head back," the guard said, his tone frosty all of a sudden.

"Sorry, but I'm on a mission and need to-"

"That wasn't a request," the guard stopped me, stepping forward, his manner becoming agitated. "The continent is not a war zone, wasteland or anarchy like your country has become."

"Good! That suits me down to the ground," I retorted. "I'd rather find some civilisation for a change."

This reply took the guard by surprise. "Well..." He hedged, pausing a moment. "You're surprisingly calm, you sound less feral than many we get from that side of the border, and if you're prepared to follow the rules laid out in each of our regions, you may pass, but be warned. We don't tolerate lawlessness. Out in the wilderness, if you're attacked and required to defend yourself, that's fair. Defend yourself if you are attacked in town, within reason, but... You attack anyone in town for any reason other than critical self-defence, and you'll be exiled, or in extreme cases, executed. There are other rules specific to each town and city, but the overriding rule is there's no Wild West out here. You don't get to go to arms and fight just because someone looks at you askew."

Fucking hell, I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Did this guy think I was nuts? I declined to comment on that, however. These people clearly weren't playing around. "I've no intention of making my, or anyone else's life difficult," I told the guard. "Now, will you please tell me where to find this visitor information centre?"

"Through the checkpoint, follow the road until you get to an over-pass road-way leading North-East, and proceed along the road for a few mines past the old site of the Eurotunnel Terminal until you get to a large red building at the edge of Calais," the guard told me, stepping to one side and gesturing through a gated roadway, the gate opening at his sweeping gesture as he spoke. "You can't miss it, there are often a large group around this time of day."

I nodded my thanks. "I'll head there now. I take it they have a copy of local laws I can ingest into my nanocloud?"

"You assume correctly," the guard replied, his tone far less frosty than it had been a few minutes earlier. "The continent has a variety of hostels, inns, taverns and other short-stay places if you need to stop and rest. No doubt you'll have to travel by foot to get to most places, there's a powered vehicle ban you may not know about coming from the island. We're still trying to fix the mess that the outbreak caused, and the occasional harassing actions of your countrymen are slowing things down."

Were things really that bad, that the UK was now a prison island with people trying to escape by clashing with the continental forces on the other side of the tunnel? I'd not noticed anything like that on my plunge through the tunnel the last few days, though it might explain the presence of so many on the English side of the tunnel, all looking as if they were preparing for a fight.

"Understood," I told the man. "And you should probably know in that case that when I snuck into the tunnel a few days ago, there appeared to be a large build-up of forces on that side. I don't know if they're expecting an attack from here-"

"We have no interest in going over to the British Isles," the guard replied curtly, cutting me off. I continued regardless.

"Then the other possibility is that they may be building up a force to launch another attack. I didn't notice anyone behind me as I came through, so I'd say if they are coming here, you've got at least a few hours to prepare, just in case."

I stopped talking then, allowing the guard to mull that possibility over in his mind. "I'll pass it along. Thanks," he eventually said.

"No problem, and thanks again," I said in goodbye. "I'll stay out of trouble."

The guard merely nodded, and then turned back to his post, my visual overlay popping up to show me his nanocloud, though why, I didn't know at the time. I proceeded along the checkpoint and along the road as I was told. As I started walking, my nanocloud sent me a message.

The visual overlay provided to host showed a concentration of nanocloud units around subject's ear canals.

Subject was likely communicating host's warning to colleagues through that interface.

That made sense, I realised.

It took little time to arrive at the information centre the guard told me about. Indeed, as the guard had advised, I found a tall red building that appeared to be made out of a combination of stonework and various alloys. The tower sat atop it was lined with one large continuous glass ring, though how this was even possible was beyond me, even at the height of the technological era, having such a large piece of glass was virtually impossible to construct and transport. It would shatter under its' own weight at the merest disturbance, and...

Focus, Rick!

Impressive as this building was, I had more important shit to deal with today. I needed that language function!

Approaching a rather civilised line of foot traffic, I waited until one of the waiting information agents waved me across to see him. A young looking brown-haired man with fairly non-descript features, wearing a wraparound fabric on his upper torso, beckoned for me to approach. "Puis-je aider?"

"Que l'anglais?" I immediately asked, having picked up the phrase earlier from other travellers in the area, hoping this didn't give away the fact that I had just travelled here from England.

"I can speak English," the man replied. "How can I help?"

"Thank you," I said to him. "I have just been sent here by the Eurotunnel Calais guardsman who let me into the country. I was wondering if I could barter for a language translator function for my... For me, and for any information on the region, directions to head to the Belgian border."

"Are you from Britain?" The man asked sharply.

Not this again, I sighed, taking a deep breath, and then replied. "I've already had this conversation with the border guard. Yes, I'm English. No, I'm not trying to cause any trouble. I need to undertake a mission-"

"Alright, that's enough of that," the man interrupted rather abruptly. "It's enough to know you've already had a conversation with someone at the Eurotunnel, though I must say I'm surprised. Most from your country looking to escape that hell hole don't take the Eurotunnel. They normally try to get a boat. In extreme cases, we've had a few swimmers across the channel."

That stunned me for a moment. Swimmers across the channel? I couldn't imagine taking that sort of risk even with my nanocloud. "They must be desperate," I found myself saying weakly.

"Indeed, which is why I'm surprised you came via the tunnel. Normally only armed militias come through those tunnels when they try to take the port and establish a foothold to invade the rest of the continent."

I shrugged. "I don't exactly have any loyalty to the place," I said to him. "Third generation Spaniard, and the British Isles have been going down the loo since about fifty years ago."

The man raised an eyebrow. "The loo?"

I couldn't help but snort. The vagaries of the English language. Even those who understood it as a native tongue were often surprised by the words that some countries made a normal part of their speech. "What? I grew up in England."

"I can tell," he said with a snort back at me. "Alright, let's get to business before we bore each other to death. You need a linguistics function so you can understand people without having to get them to speak English all the time, right?"

I nodded. "It's only polite to be able to speak in the local dialect. Besides, given how Britain is seen at the moment, I'd rather not cause unnecessary aggravation any time I go anywhere."

"Much appreciated," the man said in what suspiciously sounded like suppresed laughter. "Hold out your hand?" I did so in what was now becoming standard practice. The man touched his wrist briefly to my knuckles, and a transfer of data was made. After a moment, a notification popped up in my interface, which I decided to ignore for now. "Activate the function right away, and let me know."

I did as asked. Pulling up my interface, I noticed the new Linguistics function, and activated it. Given the job it was doing in my mind, it seems surprisingly small and took almost no computational resources.

I nodded to the man.

"You've got the full linguistics database there for the French language," he said, and then paused. "What did I just say to you?"

That request was odd, and I frowned. "I've got a language database for the French language," I parroted back.

"It works," the agent exclaimed. "You just translated between both English and French in your mind. The complete French language database is in your nanocloud now, and eventually, your brain will understand it as well as your native language. It's entirely transparent, but you'll find you need people speaking other languages to speak for some time before you pick up enough of the language to be able to hold a conversation in it. The language function works in the background and will increase your language skills over time. You shouldn't have any issues going forward."

I nodded to him, appreciating the work. "This is exactly what I needed, thank you."

"You should find also that I've uploaded a route map to you, though you may need to ensure you have a route finder or mapping ability to be able to make full use of it."

I decided to take care of that immediately. While following signs and adhering to coastal regions was fine in the British Isles, being able to map previously-visited locations precisely, as well as download mapping data for places I'd yet to visit was going to be of immense use. "Anywhere I can get route finding and mapping functions?"

"Sure, they're standard functions here. I'm surprised you don't already have one in your nanomachine cluster."

I gave a resigned shrug. "Back on the Island, they don't exactly trade that sort of thing unless there's something in it for them."

"Well..." The agent said, distaste plastered all across his features. "The less said about the place, the better. Anyway, wrist again?"

I complied immediately, and the man touched against my wrist once more. The data transfer took slightly longer, but I now had two new functions. One was the route mapper we'd discussed, the other was a route finder that would help out with any terrain I had already crossed previously. "Thanks. This will help me with the journey," I said before even bothering to examine the two new functions - I could do that later. "Anything else I need to know?"

"Yes. The standard currency here is Data Credits. You can obtain those through trade. A lot of places will allow you to trade. If you visit any of the local stayover places you've heard about, say an Inn or a Hotel, then you may find notices posted about jobs. Escorting people from one city to another tends to be popular given how dangerous it can be to walk unarmed and without combat skills in the wilderness."

"It's an excellent start, and should get me nicely set up for my journey," I nodded to the agent. "Thank you for all of your help."

"You're welcome. Anything else?"

I shook his head. "Thanks again," I said before stepping back.

"No problem. Enjoy your day," the agent finished, before beckoning over the next in the line. I turned back to the road and started looking for signs to a nearby accommodation.