"Lucas, wake up." 

Lucas heard a voice invade his sleep and felt someone shake him and he woke up with a start. "Who is it? Who are you?" He questioned harshly. For a moment, he didn't recognize Vance and stared at him cautiously.

"Relax, chap. It's me, Vance." Vance tried but Lucas still didn't let his guard down.

"Lucas, calm down." Vance lowered his voice and looked at him gently.

Slowly, Lucas recalled all that had happened to him, how he had been blown up in his lab and entered a realm that was being ruled by creatures worse than he had ever imagined. All the memories came back to him like a flooded river and his vigilant self slowly relaxed.

"You scared me for a moment there," Vance commented as he too relaxed.

"What happened?" Lucas pushed a hand through his hair and stretched his legs.

"We are about to land. So, I thought of waking you up." Vance reclined against the wall of the chopper and looked up.

"Well, thank you." Lucas scratched his head awkwardly. 

"Not a problem."

Just as Vance had stated, Lucas felt the chopper incline as it slowly descended. A few minutes later the ramp door that had been closed since he had entered opened slowly and Vance stood up immediately, prompting Lucas too to stand up. An intense pain shot through his legs that had gone numb after a long period of sitting.

'How long were we traveling?' He wondered as he waited for the people near the door to exit first. 

"Come, Lucas. Welcome to Velomore." Vance picked up his machine gun and slung his hand over his shoulder.

Lucas felt the heavy weight of the man fall on him and was dragged with Vance as they started walking towards the ramp door.

"Velomore is peaceful and clean. You can rest assured the monsters won't come here for the time being."

"Why?" Lucas questioned as he looked at the clear land ahead of him. But all he saw was a swarm of people who were deboarding from the other choppers.

"You'll find out eventually. Come, you must be famished by now." Vance didn't explain and Lucas didn't ask further, joining the crowd as they descended the chopper.

"Wait a second, would ya?" Lucas heard someone yell from behind and turned around to see who it was.

"Ryker," Vance beamed and Lucas observed the man who was making his way towards them as he held a helmet in his hand.

Ryker seemed to be of the same age as him, unlike Vance who was a decade older or even more. While Vance was shorter than him, the young man who was making his way towards them was taller by a few inches and leaner than him. His black attire didn't hide how fit he was and Lucas felt ashamed of himself as he glanced at his flabby tummy.

"Lucas, meet Ryker. He was the one who brought us all here and Ryker, this here is Lucas." Vance introduced the two men and Lucas smiled at him in greeting.

"Weren't you the one who kept running madly?" Ryker teased as he fist-bumped with Vance.

'Weren't you the one who kept toying with me? If not for you, I'd have ascended the ropes long ago.' Lucas had all the intentions of scolding him for what he did. But refrained from doing so.

"Ryker, cut it. Let's go in. We need to arrange rooms for these people to stay."

With that, the three men started walking towards the crowd. Lucas followed their pace as he studied the place again. This time, he was not surprised when he saw the small stretch of land ahead of him. Bordering it was an arena that stretched as far as his eyes could see. There were no individual houses or villas or skyscrapers as he was used to seeing in his previous life. It was just one, gigantic structure.

"Is that the only building here?" Lucas questioned, his eyes not moving away from it even for a moment.

"More or less. Although it looks like one structure from here, it's been divided into many blocks inside. But yes, it's the only building in this entire city." Ryker answered and Lucas nodded thoughtfully.

"To add more, we demolished the entire city when we learned of the attacks happening in our world and built this structure. It's almost impenetrable and it's easier for us considering that we are all staying together." Vance stated and pursed his lips.

"I understand. It was quite thoughtful of the person who planned it." Lucas approved of the plan. He didn't know how capable the monsters were and what other powers they held. To ensure everyone's safety, keeping them together was the best idea unless...

Lucas didn't dare think that far. Since Vance had declared that the monsters would never enter Velomore, he decided to believe him on this for now.

"You seem to have something to say." Ryker looked at him questioningly.

"I do. But I better keep my words for myself for now. I'll tell them to you once I sort my thoughts."

"Your wish." Ryker shrugged lightly and adjusted his helmet as he walked beside them.

"Come, Lucas. Let's register your name first." Vance dragged him towards one of the men who was entering the new residents' names and other details on a tablet.

"Name?" The man questioned as he eyed him warily.

"Lucas Everett."

"Age?"

"26."

"Any diseases we must know about?"

"None." 

"Skills?"

Lucas turned to Vance immediately for an explanation.

"We need to know your skills if you have any so that we can assign you some tasks. For example, if you are good at cooking, you'll be in charge of the kitchen. We have several communal kitchens where we cook for a lot of people and it's not easy to cook for these many with just a few cooks we have. Is it? So, we need quite a lot of people who are good at it." Vance explained.

"And if you are good at fighting or using any weapons, you'll be put at the forefront to guard Veromore," Ryker added. "Just like me."

"Ahh." Lucas' eyes widened in understanding.

"Umm..." He scratched his neck as he tried to think of his skills.

Cooking?

Meh, he sucked at it. He'd blow up the kitchen the moment he did something. Cooking and he was never meant for each other. They were eternal enemies since the time he was born.

Combating skills?

The sprint on the battleground as he tried to catch the nearest chopper had almost taken his life. He could barely survive himself, protecting others was far from it. Verbal fights? Game on. Physical fights? Sorry, not possible.

Mastering weapons?

Maybe he'd give it a try once he learned it. But right now, he was not good at it, other than maybe a knife. But his skills with that too were subpar. It was barely even a skill.

Flying choppers?

Lucas ruled it out the moment he thought about it. He had nothing to say for quite some time and three men looked at him impassively at his silence.

"Come on. Don't tell me you are not skilled at anything." Ryker teased and Lucas felt embarrassed.

"Ryker." Vance gave him a look that made Ryker raise his hands in surrender.

"I was just kidding. Just kidding." He promised. "Please don't take offense."

"None taken. I understand your intentions though." Lucas smiled at him bleakly and Ryker felt bad for teasing him.

"Don't worry, Lucas. You can train and develop skills while you stay here. It's not like everyone must have a skill that could be beneficial for others. You can always cultivate them as time proceeds." He comforted him with an assuring smile. "Don't take his words to heart."

Even though Vance tried to comfort him, Lucas was determined to find something in him, something that could be beneficial to others. It was true that skills could be cultivated. But he still couldn't bring himself to show he was useless right now. He was not useless, he knew it. He just needed to know what skills he had that could aid not just him but everyone else as well.

"Does being good with chemicals help?" He questioned when he finally thought of the one thing he was excellent at.

"What do you mean?" Ryker's smile vanished and he looked at him curiously. There was an odd glint in his eyes that astounded Lucas.

Even Vance and the man with the tablet were intrigued and they stared at him with what Lucas thought to be hope and surprise in their eyes.

'Can someone tell me what's happening here? Why do they have such expressions? Did I say something wrong?' Lucas became apprehensive at once. Since he was in a land he had the least knowledge about, he had to be careful with his words and actions. 

'And I did just the opposite.' Lucas was close to berating himself for his stupidity.

"What did you say just now?" Vance questioned, his tone filled with excitement and ...joy.

Joy? Was it joy? Lucas wondered. 

"Did you just say chemicals?" Ryker too queried and Lucas pursed his lips in worry. But when he met Vance's assuring smile, he discerned their true state of thoughts and gave up resisting.

"I am a chemical engineer and scientist, more like a was. Will this skill be of any help?" Lucas revealed with pride and courage and took turns looking at the three people who held obvious expressions of shock on their faces.

"Well?" He prompted to bring them out of their trance and Vance clapped in glee immediately.

"This is amazing." He exclaimed, perplexing Lucas with his cryptic words.

"Just the person we were looking for," Ryker added.

"Huh?" Lucas couldn't comprehend what the two men were saying and looked at them one by one for help. But all he got in return was a happy grin from them.

"Lucas will be staying with us, Dane." Vance declared and started dragging him with him again, baffling him all the more.

"Vance, Ryker? What's happening?" Lucas couldn't fathom the sudden change in them. One moment they were comforting him and the next moment, they were dragging him with excitement to who knows where. Their sudden change in emotions flummoxed him, making it hard to keep up with them.

Vance turned over his shoulder and glanced at him, not once stopping on his way. "My brother is going to love you. You're just what he needed."