Beasts Beyond The Wall - Part 25

Kirk - Dwindling

The call was abruptly shut off and it felt like Yaju was gone, maybe forever. Was it the Nothings that had done it, I suspected as much but there didn’t seem to be able hard proof or a good lead back to them.

I put my own phone in my pocket. Regardless of who attacked Yaju the very fact that she had been attacked meant that things were going into motion. Yaju was a powerful asset to Districts so if somebody was trying to dispose of her that meant they saw her as a risk, probably to a plan about to be unfolded.

There were a few moments more of thought before I pulled my phone back out of my pocket. If Yaju was attacked individually because she was a powerful Hunter then other powerful Hunters might also be targeted for removal. Maybe this group wanted their most powerful potential opponents removed before they could become a problem.

I began making a few calls to the different more well know Hunters to tell them what was happening. However I only managed to get through to most of them. There were a few that never answered my call, troubling. However I was able to get most of those who answered to listen to me.

More importantly a couple of theme reported being attacked by these same types of people that Yaju had been. I recommended that they all gather a sections of the wall getting what other Hunters they could to join them. We needed to keep as many of them safe as possible.

Finally I called Rika. It had been a couple of days since I had meet her and Morn at her apartment and promised to get the fake identity for Morn. I had completed that however the process was still not totally completed. It would take a few more days for Morn’s fake identity to correctly propagate through all the different government systems.

Her phone rang a couple of times before she finally answered it. I spoke first, “Hey, Rika, is everything alright?”

“Um, yes, I’m surprised that you are calling me so late though.”

“Some things have started happening. I think the Nothings are beginning to move. I recently got contacted my Yaju who has been forced out of the city by people who match Morn’s description of the Nothings.”

There was silence on the other end for a moment then Rika responded, “Is Yaju alright?”

“Yes, I think so. She contacted me just before she left the city. Worse I’ve contacted some other Hunters and it seems that she wasn’t the only one who attacked. A bunch of Hunters are gathering near the Western Gate to guard and protect each other. If you feel like you are in any danger then you might want to join them.”

“Do you think they will be going after me too?”

“Maybe, depending on how much they think of you as a threat. I recommend you move to a location other than your apparent even if you do no feel like they would attack you. And make sure that Morn is with you too, you will probably be much safer if the two of you are together.”

“Yes, I’ll make sure to do that. And you should watch your back too. If they went after Yaju they might also go after you.”

I realized that she might actually be right. Normally I wouldn’t think of myself as a powerful enough Hunter for them to want to stop but I was associated with Yaju and I could sense unusual things. They might also want me dead.

“Alright, I’ll do that too. I’ll probably head to the Western Gate once I’m done here. Maybe I’ll see you there.”

“Sure, It sounds like a good idea to head there now.”

“Talk with you later then.” I said before I ended the call and closed my phone. I was in Professor Stolas’ laboratory in the middle of the night. I have been here late working on reports and putting together data. I had been having success with unlocking Jordan’s talents and the second wave of testing would probably begin in a couple of days.

I used my senses to sweep the ground to make sure that nobody was actually coming here to kill me and I detected nothing unusual. The Western Gate was quiet far away, practically on the other side of Districts. It would take me quite a long time to get there especially because most public transportation was not running at this time of night.

The fastest way at this point would be to go on foot but I was not as athletic as either Rika or Yaju so that would also take a while. I organized all my notes before locking them away for the night. If I was going to get attacked I felt defenseless without my crossbow. I would need to pick that up on my way to the gate.

I continued to scan my surroundings while leaving the building. There were very few people still here and most of them didn’t pay any attention to me as the I left the building. Once I had gotten out I began running toward my own place. There were things that I need to get there before I went to the Wall, more then just my crossbow.

After maybe fifteen minutes of running I had reached my place. Professor Stolas’ lab was close to my house and my school which I had learned when I first became a Hunter. I stopped when I got reasonably close to the house. I spread out my senses to make sure that there was nobody there.

Sure enough I felt something strange. There were multiple people in the area who felt unusual to my senses. They felt like Humans but also not like Humans. However they did not feel anything like Beasts. These must be the Nothings that Rika and Morn has spoke of.

If they were watching even my house then this must be extremely serious. This was something like a government faction trying to take over or the government trying to completely reform how the wall was being guarded.

However my house was being watched but I needed to get inside. That should be reasonably easy I though. I simply needed to completely conceal my presence and then sneak my way in. I was generally good at doing this because I could easily tell how well I actually was hiding my presence, one of the many positives of having good senses.

A few minutes later I was hugged up against the side of my house sliding one of the windows open. I slipped inside. I could tell that none of them had broken into my house because I couldn’t sense anything living inside the building. Once I had gotten inside I quietly made my way into my makeshift armory. I hadn’t been able to create anything really impressive but the room as functional. I was able to take the crossbow and sling it across my back and take up the quiver of bolts with it.

The next thing I needed was a couple of rooms over. I had a small computer which had been expensive and difficult to obtain. It seemed to have not been touched by the Nothings. I made sure it was shut down and then I sat down next to it and pulled open the casing. I pulled out the hard drive and stuck it in my small bag. I needed it if I wanted to eventually fight back against these Nothings.

Once I had that there wasn’t anything else I needed here. Now I just needed to make it back out the way that I had come in. I had shut the window after me but it was easy enough to go back out that way. It was a little bit more difficult with the crossbow on my back but I still managed.

This sort of stuff was generally easy because I could tell where everybody was and if somebody would be coming my direction far before I got there. However just as I was able to make a clean escape I felt something weird tingling in my mind. I spun around and jumped backward just before the knives lodged into the ground behind me.

I frantically looked around for the source of the knifes and when I saw her. I could tell that she was a woman but that was all. She wear a thinner black body armor then some of the other people I saw and she had a black curved featureless mask. The strangest part about her was that I could barely sense her at all. With all my senses focused on her I was able to tell that she was there but even then it was difficult. She felt almost like a shadow of somebody, like she had almost no presence at all.

I knew that I wouldn’t be able to stay and fight her, if I did then the others would surely come. It was difficult to tell if she had that same missing presence as the other Nothings but I could only assume that the difficulty of feeling her was just an extended form of the other Nothings.