William is left with a little shock. This man is strange, but his way and mannerisms are quite interesting. For a soldier and a Walker, one would need to remain some sort of oneself and not end up as a complete stoner in the shape of nightmare and death.

 

“Is it that bad to be a teacher?” William asks, to be sure what was wrong with the way he said it.

 

“No. No. No. I would be the most hilarious one there ever was. Heheheh.” Luke chuckles once more.

 

“Nah, stop with this. I am serious. Kid, I hope this conversation will at least be helpful for your future. Who knows, maybe you will get to know me better one day.” Luke shakes William's head once more and tidies his jacket back to cover his chest.

 

William holds no question or complains about his reasonings since he is still in the unknown about a lot of things in the grand scheme of the Walkers. This is his very first view of that word at a much closer distance, but in truth, it was more like a drop in an ocean. Nothing much.

 

Beeb!

 

Boss! There seems to be some troubles. Come to the cockpit.

 

Szczepan's voice suddenly sounds from the speaker in the ceiling.

 

“Ahhh... I love complications. Let's see.” Luke sighs and gets up from the seat before disappearing behind the door of the cockpit.

 

William is left seated, even if he doesn't want to be. He could not find the mechanism of how to get off the belt at all.

 

Inside the cockpit. Szczepan is looking with binoculars facing the vast ocean by the sight from the windowed cockpit. There is only a blue ocean across the horizon. About half of a mile above the surface of the ocean.

 

“What is it?” Luke asks, while the rest of the people in the cabin also looks from the window.

There is quite a bit of view from this cockpit area. Curved windows were all around the part of the ceiling and even down below for the pilot to see down, and around the majority of the periphery of eyesight. The front was sectioned to multiple clear windows with a vision of almost 180 decrees for the primary pilot.

 

“Seems like refugees,” Szczepan says while tossing his binoculars to Luke.

 

“What the fuck are they doing here? Are they out of their damn mind in the middle of this goddamned place?” Luke curses out loud while catching the binoculars and looking through the window in a general area where Szczepan looked previously.

 

“What complete idiots!” Luke curses once more. In the binoculars is a not-so-big boat with not a great quality as well. There should be no boats like this in such a region, and Luke, as well as Szczepan, know what is up with that.

 

“Ignore or not?” Szczepan bluntly asks.

 

Luke, scratches his chin while tossing back the binoculars to Szczepan.

 

“Down.”

 

“Alright, boss.”

 

“Man... No mission is ever normal!” One of the assistant pilots complains behind Szczepan.

 

Back in the seating area, Luke steadily reaches out to the door. Opening it without hesitation, he looks down below. The air messes up the room, while the sudden turbulence completely shocks William who has no idea what is happening.

 

It is nothing for such a massive machine, as they descents down while keeping up with the boat that is powered by some engine. Luke stares directly from the open door down below. William watches his back before he disappears from the door that shut close as he left.

 

“He fell down!?” Wiliam exclaims.

 

“Calm down, kiddo.” Szczepan suddenly appears beside him.

 

“Some work ended up interrupting this mission. That is all,” he explains, as more crew members appear in the room as well.

 

Down, but not so much. In the middle of the air. Luke is falling down while the approaching boat keeps on running away.

 

“Hmph!” He puffs his chest up, with the same vigor as he showed for Allan. A wave of particles appears much faster than before. In a form of cube shape, it travels in the air, while Luke lands on top of it with his feet. Crouching down on it, he regains the flow of speed, and flows beyond the boat.

 

Looking down below, he notices 5 people about a dozen meters below him. They are looking up with fright, disappointment, and helplessness.

 

3 women and 2 men are on the deck, as far as he is concerned.

 

Reaching further below so he could see and speak better, Luke shouts. “Who in their bloody minds is traveling in such waters, huh?”

 

“We can travel anywhere we can!” shouts one of the burly men in the middle of the deck.

 

“This is a bloody section of the sea that is off limits. It is close to a goddamn New York City!”

 

“WE don't care!”

 

“Even under the jurisdiction of the Federation?”

 

“No place in the word is in possession of someone! Hell yes!!” This time shouts one woman in the back.

 

“Bloody hell...” mumbles Luke as he jumps down below.

 

Striking the deck, he appears in the very middle of the boat.

 

“I will ask some bloody question. Could be worse than bloody depending on the cooperation, alright?” He states as he straightens his back from the landing.

 

The group clearly shoves hesitation before one of the men grabs something from the blanket and points it straight to the back of Luke's head.

 

With a shotgun in hand, some self-assurance is much better.

 

“5? No, 6? What are you even doing here?” Luke calmly asks, while ignoring the shotgun to his temple.

 

Luke points his question to one woman who shows some restraint while hugging a tightly covered blanket.

 

“Shut the fuck up! Fucking Walker!” The man with a shotgun yells at Luke.

 

“Pointing a gun at one is not always a good idea. How do you want to do this anyway? Reach the Federation and hope for the best in this suicidal mission where even the travel with the helicopter is reaching its limits?”

 

“I said fuck the shit up?” Man agitatedly mumbles while biting his own tongue.

 

“We are around 30 miles from the closes corner of the habitable shore, while much more is behind you and the Federation. What is this? How about some answers to my ears?” Luke keeps calmly talking.

 

“W-we have enough gas for the whole journey.” Mumbles the woman in the back.

 

“Yeah, right... Gas is more important than your life. Obviously.” Luke states in a sarcastic tone.

 

“Do you even have a fucking idea how many people are dying out there in these waters hoping to reach the Paradise, Walker?” The man with a shotgun pushes his weapon to his temple fiercely, but all Luke is feeling is just a mild inconvenience.

 

“In fact, I do. It is the basic idiocy of the ones who are even trying to reach a constructed island in the middle of the goddamned ocean. What answer do you want? Ship to a paradise? There are so few out there operational that even the Federation has none to spare.” Luke explains with a wave of visible anger.

 

“Then what the fuck we are supposed to do?”

 

“Do you want to blow my head off? It will be your death anyway.”

 

“Please, Marcus! Stop this!” the woman with a blanket yelled at the man with a shotgun while unwrapping the blanket to the world.

 

A sight that is not all that surprising is reflected in Luke's eyes.

 

“Baby right? Wait... a young walker?” Luke scratches his chin while flicking away the shotgun of an unwilling man who would never shoot a person.

 

“S-see? A young Walker, sir!?” Women struggle to say, while her hands are shaking in fear.

 

“Alright, Alright. I see the emblem in his palm. Calm down.” Luke says while glancing closely at the baby in front of him within a few steps. “It looks a little malnourished. Alive, but the zealous gold within that shard-like emblem is clear to my eyes. He needs some care.” Luke notes while noticing a small johnson in his crotch.

 

“Darling... you show him our baby? You know they will take him from us and leave us to our deaths.” Marcus shouts while once again pointing his shotgun back to Luke.

 

Luke, completely unbothered by the man, flickers his hair behind his right ear and reveals a piece of a small machine hidden behind his hair. A small stick extends by his finger to a microphone used in radios, which are still active these days.

 

Pressing some button around his ears, he says.

 

“Szczepan. 5, no, 6 people ready for the lift. We are leaving with them.”

 

“Roger, boss,” a clear voice said from the other hidden mic behind the ear.

 

All on the deck sighs in relief and a few even collapse to the floor. Gladness and whatnot envelop their minds.

 

“Stop the motor. This boat will go nowhere. Take everything of any value and gas here to the deck. We have enough cargo space, so let's wrap up this messed-up idea of yours.” Luke commands while looking at each person while doing so.

 

Marcus hesitantly drops the gun while hurrying to his wife, who is already tearing up. Hugging their child, they did not know if they did wrong, but the life could be at least extended. Theirs, or the life of their baby.

 

Soon enough, the helicopter hovers above the boat, with lines of ropes that lift every person up to the helicopter. Canisters and boxes of stuff that are within the boat are lifted as well, with Luke's help. William looks in confusion as there are suddenly 5 more people facing the other side of the wall.

 

The crew left everything in the cargo area apart from the group of people. Luke stays hovering in the air on his cube while looking around while suddenly frowning. There are still some boxes left that are reaching the helicopter as he shouts to his mic.

 

“Szczepan! UP! UP!”

 

A storm-like attack appears a few kilometers from the helicopter's location. Everyone was already on board, so any cargo left within the boat is already done for.

 

In the cockpit, the storm appears from the area in the exact opposite direction of what Szczepan could see. From the direction, they were traveling. There was no way to prevent this. Szczepan promptly and with some turbulence gets as far and up as he could while lifting the last boxes up from the boat as they fly up.

 

Looking in the air, Luke makes sure the helicopter is already up in the air before he readying himself toward the incoming storm that is a few hundred feet before him.

 

No attacks of the monster within the storm, reach the helicopter.

 

Amounting to a few dozen meters of waves in length, within it is a jawed head. A beast, flapping the terrific huge wing-like limbs in the water while howling in a sharp and penetrative roar. This is quite an enormous bat-like beast that flaps its winged limbs in a try to swim across the ocean. Its head is nothing like a bat at all. It resembles a Hellgar, more than nothing else, while being more pointy, and much bigger.

 

“Freaking goddess. A Jawran? Who in the right mind asked you to follow us for the past hour and something from New York City?” Lukes mumbles to himself while stepping out of the cube. As he fell, he reaches for the cube where he grabs a newly formed pole of a few inches sticking out of the cube's surface.

 

It extended while the flickering waves of the Arcalist changed the shape of the cube itself according to the wish of its wielder.

 

“Rank 4 Arcalist, A Wavehammer should be plenty enough for you, beast. Or you may be enough for me? Either way, let's get it over with. You and me.” Luke states and calmly mumbles for himself, as he remains hanging with his right arm, grabbing the handle of a hammer-like object while hovering in the air. This is his favorite choice of weapon.

 

Pouncing in about 10 seconds later, Jawran appears from the mist of waves as the neck of spikes, unlike any fish or sea predator alike, enters the vision of Luke, who just smiles at the approaching jaw that could swallow him whole.