Chapter 33

Soon enough, a sudden movement shifted the weight of the walls and seats when the motions moved onward, angling very little in a flight.

“Here we go. Flying and all. You can glance at it yourself, William. There is a great view... or not-so-great pictures ahead.” Luke suggested.

The helicopter reached an unknown altitude, shocking William with a gasp when he glanced behind him, looking from the widow. In dozens of seconds, the grass was just a green color and the trees were smaller the further they went. Now, they were like colors, marking a view that not many could see.

What was hundreds of feet of elevation, or a thousand feet? What was the difference? On the ground, William could see things with his own eyes, but far from the sky, everything was tiny and strange.

A great height could mean death, dizziness, and broad space with nothing to grasp. The nearest forests or even hills appeared like a wide painting, and even Roshwell wasn't as obvious thanks to its hidden spot. But he still noticed some walls and buildings, hiding behind hills and trees from all those miles away. Farms looked enormous and most obvious, and Corruption was almost nonexistent from this position. It looked like a safe area.

“Wow. It really looks healthy. Green and good for dozens of miles like stories and scouts say.” William reckoned.

“So far... A lot of things Outside are hardly that. You will see, or... you already know about it.” Luke said pessimistically.

In any way, William embraced his journey like his bag and turned his head at Luke, who was comfortably sitting and almost dozing off. The seat in the front obscured his vision to the other side, so he couldn't see the windows. And even if he could, he would see the same things from the window behind him.

“Do you want to see a much bigger world?” Luke asked, noticing his silence and his eyes. He understood that feeling quite well, so he moved his arm and loosened his belt. William almost stumbled aside at a sudden shift. Now, he could turn his ass and look behind him much better.

“T-thanks...” He mumbled, lowered his bag, and clutched the back of his seat instead. A better view was there, but the window wasn't as clean as those in the cockpit.

“You might want to go to cargo. There is a vision deck. Anna's company is a drawback. Seeking all around when one flies at this age is a good way to see any land. Though, we have sonar and my senses, a human eye is an excellent tool. Walkers have it even better, though you aren't that yet.”

William wasn't ready for this lecture, but he noticed how he proudly praised his senses and that Luke could be better than some tools, radars, or sonars.

Any sort of detection of Darks was very important. Outside knew it way too well, and there were many techniques developed over the ears to make it easier. There was a smell, signs of steps or Fog, sounds, and the easiest was eyes. But that would mean Darks were already way too close, so that wasn't ideal for normal people.

“I don't want to bother Miss Anna,” William said.

“How about the cockpit? Bothering Zep won't work. He bothers others instead. Oh, that is some big drawback.”

William cringed in an idea to hear Zep and... wouldn't this be way too good of an offer? William almost accepted.

Luke smiled and pointed towards a better window a few seats away. “That one. Look at it. It's big and clean.” Luke loosened William's belt completely and William tumbled and fell numerous times before he got up. His center of gravity was in shambles, making him seem as if he was drunk and had to learn how to walk. Dann would surely laugh at him.

The helicopter was relatively calm by now, so he tried his best to stand and walk. He failed graciously and managed to grab handles on the wall after a second attempt. Then, he watched clean and sizable windows that gave him a sight that he would never forget.

“We must be over two thousand feet from the ground,” Luke said. “That is a weight that no Drones or Droons goes to. But some Darks with wings and greater detections could see and notice a lot of things. The sky is vast. There are a lot of potential dangers, so one has to look out for them or have great precautions like some things.” Luke laughed, stomping his feet to the ground.

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“What about speed?” William blurted out, not taking his stomp for something important.

“Helicopters could get quite quick. Not as me. Not as some jets or planes.”

“More than what? Drones and Droons are quite quick and like shadows. How about a plane?”

“Darks are whatever dangers they could be. Speed and protection are important, and planes are quicker.” Luke nodded. “Don't get me wrong. Walkers are still better. Trust me.”

“I don't have to.” William glanced at him for a moment. “I have seen many Walkers fight and die. I know what it gets like, so... I think it is normal to be afraid, isn't it? It makes us human, even if we are monsters in human skin.”

Luke was a bit surprised to hear that. He noticed William's calm eyes and resolute face. It wasn't a prideful claim but a real one that was clutching parts of Luke's mind in many ways.

He didn't reply and rather wondered what this boy endured Outside, away from his parents, but mainly from his father. Luke knew him and recalled a broad, firm, and wide-shouldered soldier that one could rely on. He learned many things from him, so getting to know his son was a little weird.

He wasn't as obvious, however. William wasn't aware of how Luke felt about this situation because this private mission clashed against numerous interests. They didn't even know how much they messed up, or who was they dealing with.

With a much better window, William secured a great spot for his eyes. He was speechless and glaring down. The world was mesmerizing, tiny, and savage. The sights below were as he had expected in his dreams when the helicopter left one of the rare safe-havens.

Corruption had a darker undertone, destroying land, darkening trees, and turning soil purple or into darker sheens. There were many cracks, chasms, and notable patches of lingering Dark Fog all over the place. There were many signs of Darks one could note, looking smaller, but still insane. Some rare greenery was here and there.

A large portion of the Corruption had limits to what it could achieve, and destroying everything wasn't optimal, for there would be nothing more to corrupt afterward. Loss of source was terrible, so some patches of life were still notable from time to time. But it felt like a green spot in a labyrinth of darkness, which would soon succumb to death.

William rather aimed at better sights. Forests were great, like plains and hills, or places around some lakes. They might look dark, and dead, but they resembled some natural sceneries and images William found great. From above, they looked different. Lakes were still blue at least, and smaller than he imagined, while the land was much more expansive than his imagination.

Sights of Darks didn't surprise him in the slightest. Everything was within his expectations.

After a while, he observed the old world and destroyed cities where Corruption found much more weight. There were nests, which was a term Outside made for places where the Darks hid, evolved, slumbered, or ate, constructing homes in many forms. Some of them looked like buildings, cocoons size of trees, mountains, or objects that didn't make sense. Some could float in the air, hovering like a cloud, or looking way too specific.

Everything that the last century endured was around in one way or another. The past cities were large marks, looking alive but in a different era, in pieces, or new homes.

Some of these cities were breathtaking even with destruction and Corruption, notions of Dark Miasma, or Endless Dark Fog, which was a note for very large nests, or various homes for high-ranked Darks, looking like large trees, reshaped large towers, or buildings with constant Fogs lingering around them, marking territory.

“There are so many of them!” William said. “How long even passed?! We aren't that far from Roshwell, aren't we?”

Luke heard his wonder and replied. “As I've said. Height and speed, and... we are protected. By now, we should be dozens of miles away and those cities aren't much to begin with. I don't think there is a single Rank 7 Dark roaming around, and camps are stable enough for years. This much proximity is seen as acceptable.”

He didn't say more.

William guessed he could see for a dozen miles ahead, seeing the destruction and the ground like a painting, but the further he glanced, the fewer details he noted.

Green and darkness. Two natures clashed around the earth, inside, and all over the globe. Grey mountains were rare, harder to see, and harder to Corrupt because rocks were rocks. A lot of humanity took advantage of that and tried to reach for the skies, and built things, shelters, and sanctuaries because history proved they worked wonders. They did. Until they didn't.

William didn't have to wonder in what direction this helicopter was going. It was to the east because the Federation was hiding somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean.

There was no breeze inside the helicopter, though William bet the air could be clean and swift if the window opened. The lack of humanity was a cool prospect for some parts of nature, as pollution no longer existed in human form—unless one ignored the nukes or how people trashed the land in their last wits.

Darks were much more savage anyway, giving destruction a much different meaning.

The helicopter was far up in the air from little things on the ground to matter or make obvious sense. William couldn't see any specific Dark, but he bet there were many of them in numerous passing nests and Fogs, which had numerous color schemes, density, and speed that described their kind and Rank. They were considered as non-living things, though their Ranks were still evident because of their differences and effects.

The sights started to look weirder and weirder, looking like expectations for a moon to turn into a sun. Some rarer or bigger nests looked like dark flames from a distance, domes, pillars, hives, or pyramids.