Allan entered the classroom with the figure's warning stuck in his head. Minutes passed, and the sensation of being watched never left him. He felt weird; his hair stood on edge, and he felt as if bugs were crawling through his skin. He kept looking around for the source of that feeling, but was unable to figure it out.
The class ended with him barely paying attention. Of course, his best friend noticed.
"Hey Allan, you good?" Matthias asked with a careful tone.
"Huh? Oh, yeah, I'm good. Just felt a little under the weather," Allan replied.
"Right…" Matthias answered as both of them stood up when the bell rang, announcing a switch of class.
Both of them walked out of the room together and started heading to the direction of their next class.
"Government Studies"
The class had been implemented this year after careful deliberation of the council and all nations. As they all believed that basic knowledge of the current and past government structures was important for all students to know; of course, this was just the introductory class to the subject, as it was the most basic stuff taught to students.
As Allan reached the classroom, the feeling only intensified.
"What's going on? Why does it feel so strong now?" Allan asked in his head with a panicked voice.
"I don't know…As I said before, whatever this thing is, it's somehow hiding pretty well," the figure said with an almost indifferent tone.
"Why are you so calm about all this? We don't know what it is or where it's coming from; it could attack at any moment!" Allan's tone rose with every word.
"Relax, whatever it is, it needs to show itself first before attacking…so I'll just act then. It's better if it doesn't notice me either"
"That's reassuring…" Allan said in his head as he rolled his eyes.
The pair reached their desks as Allan kept having a conversation in his head. His best friend couldn't help but frown as he stared at Allan.
'He's been doing that a lot lately' He thought as he kept watching Allan make weird faces from time to time.
The class continued as usual, and nothing out of the ordinary occurred.
Until it did…
Suddenly, as the teacher in charge of the class explained the different types of government systems of the past, all the lights went out, and a powerful tremor shook the classroom. The classroom started shaking out of nowhere, and everyone lost their balance. After a few minutes, the shaking suddenly stopped.
Safety protocols were immediately implemented, with the teacher taking charge of everyone's safety. Everyone was confused; everything was happening too fast, first their vision went dark, then a tremor suddenly shook the building. It was only a few seconds after the tremor ended, that an explosion rang out from the courtyard. Everyone flinched at the noise and tried to cover their ears and protect themselves from the sudden shockwave that broke the windows and hit their bodies like a truck.
"DUCk KID!!!" the voice suddenly yelled inside his head.
Allan followed its instructions without thinking. As he did, all he heard was the sound of the reinforced wall breaking, and shards of glass accompanied with pieces of concrete flew out, suddenly a pained yell filled the classroom.
Allan was the first to witness it.
As the dust cleared out, his eyes went wide in shock. All he saw at that moment was his teacher impaled to the adjacent wall. What looked like a crimson javelin was embedded in the middle of his chest, piercing his body and pinning him to the wall like a rag doll.
His teacher, an awakened professional of the second rank, died, just like that. He wasn't just some random individual hired by East High to teach this class. No, he was someone who had passed the world's tribulation in his younger years, and later became a veteran of many expeditions through the barren lands outside the city gates.
There was a reason why this school was named East Gate High School. During the human wars, many countries lost large amounts of land. The nuclear weaponry had made it difficult for the planet to sustain life, so the surviving countries had made the decision to create walls around major cities and settlements that were capable of sustaining their inhabitants.This decision helped humanity develop safe zones free of radiation and maintain a clear airspace free of any biochemicals that were unleashed during the war.
Alas, things only got worse after the first invasion. The creatures from beyond the veil had made it difficult to consolidate all the land into one single controlled country again. As such, the majority of the countries that survived lost almost half or one fourth of the land they had painstakingly redeveloped. Of course, that was the case for countries that were able to rebuild enough to fight back. The ones that couldn't…well, let's just say they didn't make it.
Once Allan realized that his teacher died in an instant, he knew that there was no possible way for him to survive such an attack, and would only be pulverized in seconds. The figure tried to hide Allan from the attacker, but was not fast enough. A sudden gust of wind hit Allan as his vision got blocked by what looked to be a humanoid form in front of him. Allan immediately felt a gaze so deep that he felt completely exposed to it; it was as if his whole being was uncovered in an instant.
He then felt a hand squeezing his neck and effortlessly raising him to the creature's eye level.