“As you can see, the Lumos Wall stand firm. The odd wobbling effect comes from the erosion and reinforcement from the crystal,” Miss Frizzle explained as the yellow tour bus slowly drifted forward.

The kids all oohed and aahed as they made their way to the right side. The bus dipped slightly as the center of gravity shifted. The hum of the engines became audible as they output more power to prevent the bus from tipping over.

On our side was green grass and sunshine. The other was a musty fog of rubble. This was once a town known as Kamo. A place that survived the war, but fell to the apocalypse that followed.

“This light barrier is the culmination of decades of research, and today projects from Fort Jellybean to the frontier town of JellyBelly,” Miss Frizzle said as the windows began projecting various bits of data.

The Lumos Wall was 60km away from JellyBelly’s central crystal. The focus for projecting this live preserving defense against the Old World. A harrowed and broken wasteland. A remnant of World War 3.

The kids began shouting out questions, and I saw Alex wince. Her hearing was much better than humans, but I didn’t feel that much pity. As an elf, she was uptight. Which she let everyone know.

Where the kids saw a strange world, I frowned at old memories.

I remembered the bombings that had rendered the world in twain. One day they were the height of modern life. Within two years it all fell to this. A wasteland of broken dreams.

“Ah!” several kids screamed.

I looked out and smirked as a carnis slunk through the remains of what was once a prosperous town. The giant centipede-like creature was an amalgam of metal and bone. Each of its eight legs was like bladed steel, and they designed its mandibles to pry open tanks.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

I shivered at the memories. So many screams and frantic gunfire.

The carnis made its way towards the barrier. It stood up on its hind legs. The bottom for braced for the shift in weight.

[Thunk] it fell onto the Lumos Barrier. The hard light system held firm as it tried to chomp through.

I let my hands fall to the weapon strapped to my back. It was a carbine filled with anti-amalgam rounds. Though I kept spare clips for anti-infantry. There were more monsters out there than just relics of the old war.

The kids screamed, and I winced.

Videos were common, showing how the carnis ripped apart humans. Gruesome, but important.

It kept the death-rate low as scavengers were not rare enough.

Precious metals and relics of the old world were still valuable. Valuable enough for adventurers to journey into the badlands.

“Are you going to kill it?” a girl asked as she shuffled over to me and Alex.

I shook my head. “Not worth the effort of going outside. It is a small carnis, and it cannot break the Lumos Wall.”

“Can the Seven break it?” she asked in a whisper. Her eyes lit up as she referred to the horror popular in monster movies. Seven was having a resurgence in popularity.

I stared at the girl, her eyes wide as the kids were now waiting on my reply.

“Yes, the Seven can breakthrough,” I said, and the kids all gasped. Some in horror, some in excitement. “Though you all know that the Militia will head out to make sure it doesn’t get close enough.”

I smiled, and Alex nodded along.

What I left unsaid was that the Seven was an Alpha of a horde. It didn’t travel alone, and any culling missions involved sacrifice. Air raids were ineffective as the Seven had developed anti-air shielding. You had to fight in from the ground.

“Have you ever fought the Seven?” the girl asked as she stared at us.

I took a breath and nodded. I had fought it once. The average carnis was two meters long and weighed half a ton. The seven was fifty meters long and weighed some fifty tons.

It ignored tank shells, and only a mega-short-bomb could injure it enough for it to retreat. The other carnis were fluttering around the battlefield as our lines dissolved into chaos.

The kids all gasped.

“We made it go away, and we can make it go away again,” I assured them. We suffered horrible losses that day. 48% dead or rendered combat ineffective.

I stared at the carnis tickling the Lumos Wall.

Miss Frizzle began talking again, and the kids thanked us for the Militia duty we served.

I smiled as these kids were the future. If I didn’t fight for them, who would?