The city looked bleak. Even the impressive walls that reached 50 meters into the sky looked forlorn. Huge stones that should have left anyone who looked at it astounded instead came off as tired and dirty. A few men stood at the top but didn't move around much in the summer heat. They just stared down at the hoard of beasts below. There must be over a hundred of the mammoth creatures trying to break through. The walls built by man were expressly for this purpose.  No matter how the monsters looked, the walls held firm. The monsters looked tiny next to the wall, but each stood 5-8 meters high with tough skins and a relentless desire to attack the humans out of their reach.  

Noah and the man beside him stood at the tree line 500 yards from the wall and looked on with dead eyes at the last obstacle between them and safety. Noah once again looked around and behind him. He was using his gift again. The head of the search teams had put him on search team 8 because of his gift. He could tell if there were live humans in any given direction. If he was close enough, he could even tell how far they were and what condition they were in. Now, only the city showed life. Well, human life.  

The man beside him was the last he could find. Time was getting close anyway. The clock in the tower should be getting close to zero now. The doors would shut and never open again in this world.  

Noah remembered when he had first seen the tower nearly five years ago. It was jutting into the sky higher than you could gauge with the eye. He was running from a pack of something. Wolves? Maybe it was Goblins. After so many fights, he couldn't remember anymore. He left the line of trees and saw the tower and the wall. A roving group of searchers had beaten back whatever was behind him, and he had made it inside.  

After being questioned about his experiences, he made it to the tower. He remembered the words on the side of the giant monolith.  

Placed here to save any who would escape your world.  

Your world will become more savage by the day until none survive.

It will be a savage place for eons to come. You must abandon it.

You may enter here, and the tower will act to make you stronger.

When you are strong enough, the doors will open to a new world.

This world will be like yours, but one finally ready again for life.

When the clock reaches zero, the doors will shut.  

Gather all.  

* We, who have walked the path before you

"They should be clearing a path every couple of days for anyone I send back, but we don't have days," Noah said. The man beside him started as they hadn't talked in over a week. Marching orders to stay quiet to avoid monsters had been followed since Noah had saved him. He waited. Whatever plan Noah came up with, he would follow. "I'm going to kite them. When the wall is clear, head towards it, but don't let them take it up until I am close."  

Noah ran at a 45-degree angle toward the beasts without waiting for a response. He pulled a small horn from his cloak and blew into it. The sound that came from it was loud. Louder than anything that small had any right to be, but this was now a world with magic in it. At first, the beasts and the men on the wall just stopped and looked in the direction of the crazy man making so much noise. Then, almost like a dam had broken, the monsters rushed towards him. He started to angle further away from them and back into the woods.  

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

The other man ran towards the wall once the last monster had followed Noah into the woods. He waved his arms to get them to lower the boards he could see hanging from the pulleys on top. By the time he reached the wall, the small platform was on the ground, and the men encouraged him to get on. "He said wait until he was back!" the man yelled. He was nervous, and every instinct he had was yelling at him to get on the platform and get to safety. He couldn't do that, though. Noah had not just saved him once but countless times. He had found food and water for him, carried him when he couldn't move, and more... he had kept his hope alive. He would not ignore the one thing Noah had asked him to do for Noah. The man on top looked at him and then at the tree line and nodded. There was no question in his eyes either.  

He stared at the trees, willing Noah to come out. He heard him before he saw the man burst out from the brush.  He started waving his hands to start the platform back up. Noah was so much faster than the other man had been that before the platform had reached 4 meters, he was underneath it. He jumped, kicked off the wall, and landed on his feet. A feat that would have been impressive several years ago was nothing to Noah and his hardened and magically changed frame. Years of searching and fighting had changed him.  

Soon after, the monsters emerged from the trees and roared in frustration. Their prey had tricked them and was already out of reach. When they reached the top, the ten men that had been spread out across the wall had all reached the section with their platform. Noah could hear with his heightened senses, "That's him. It's 8." "He made it." The platform swung to the top of the wall, and they stepped off it, finally safe.  

The guard in charge stepped forward. "Hello, sir. We are glad you made it back. There are only a few hours left."  

Noah stared at the guard for a moment. "Travis, right?"  

"Yes, sir! All ten of us are volunteers waiting for you. We are all men you saved."

Noah gave a start and looked around, and recognition dawned on him. He looked back at Travis. "How many?" he asked.  

Travis gestured to the man who had come with Noah. "With him 8963, sir. You are the only team that has been out there for nearly two months now."

Noah chuckled and looked down. "No... I mean... How many made it into the towers?"

"Oh. Right. I believe the count is close to 900,000 in our tower. Communications with the other 99 towers went down, but there is hope that it is more than 80,000,000 worldwide based on the last number we knew."

Noah nodded but gritted his teeth. Nine billion down to less than a hundred million. He looked out over the ruined country. Scanning again. It had become instinct at this point. "There's no one left. Let's go." Noah led the way as the group followed in a silent procession. None spoke. Each of them had spent time with Noah, traveling in near silence. They fell back into that pattern without realizing it. Noah looked at the town that had once been so full of life. Nocturnal flying monsters had started to become strong a week or so ago. Making the walls less protective. Then, most had moved to the tower. Many buildings had been knocked down, and the rubble had not been cleared. There was no point as everyone knew they weren't coming back out once they went in this time.  

At the doors to the tower, Noah waited until everyone was inside. There seemed to be some conversation going on inside, but Noah ignored it as he did one more scan. To his surprise, he got a hit. His head jerked to a fallen building not 20 yards from the doors. He ran. Travis, noticing Noah had disappeared from in front of the door, stopped reporting to the head of the tower council, and walked back outside. He came across a strange sight. Noah was throwing large pieces of rubble around. Before Travis could go and ask what he was doing, a large piece of debris was moved, and Travis heard a small cry.  

Noah bent down and carefully picked up a small child about five years old out of the broken structure. He pulled a canteen out of somewhere and gave the child a drink.  He then started to talk with the child softly as he walked back to the doors. By the time they reached Travis, the child he could now see was a little girl, had calmed down and was listening to Noah. "We're going to go inside, and there will be someone to get you some food and a place to sleep. You are going to be ok." It wasn't so much the words he used, but the confidence with which he said it that calmed the child. Even Travis relaxed remembering how Noah had done the same for him just a year ago. It was the confidence of someone who had done this many times before. Said the same thing many times before. So often that the world didn't dare let anything else happen but what Noah said would happen.  

Once they reached the doors, Noah turned one more time, looking out at the town left and right. Then, shaking his head, he turned away for the last time and went inside.

Travis followed him inside. "8964," he said under his breath.