As if hearing William cry, Kaufman's eyes pop open and his hat falls to the ground as he is jolted away. Jumping out in fright and fearful shouting, Kaufman keeps his posture as he looks at the two people in front of him.
“D-don't wake up a resting Walker for god's sake...” Kaufman unapologetically says the same thing William heard not so long ago.
“Greetings, mister Kaufman.” Ellie gives a rather deep bow and politely greets the figure in front of the door. She recognizes this person immediately. Much to her embarrassment, she hasn't recognized him before.
“Well, hello kids. You took a while. I thought you would come straight to the 6th floor, so I waited for 2 days already. I hardly got a sleep like this so I don't mind, but still... making an old man wait is not nice.” Kaufman says in sarcasm, with a healthy dose of playful truth.
“Sir Kaufman, your pranks were not much appreciated by Burton.” Ellie comments.
“Heheh. I could not care less about that bastard! I can't believe my daughter decided to name him a freaking Dean of my baby!” Kaufman freaks out in agitation.
William looks at confusion since it seems Kaufman is rather familiar with Ellie, or it could be vice versa. He does not know.
“What is it, mister Kaufman? I don't think it is that strange for me to go through the systems that are within this place. Floor by floor, upwards.” William says to Kaufman, who still remains angry as if remembering some unpleasant memory, or idea. Looking at William, he chuckles and changes his expression into a much more relaxing mood.
“Well, I did give you a gift. A rather nice one at that. Since It's interesting and quite usable for you.”
“You know I have no idea what I should even deserve or not. I only came here, while no one told me much about this whole mess.” William retorts, with a much more firm voice, and tone to the person before him.
He has already grown up in a couple of days as a person. A little, but it still counts. After all, William doesn't know the underlying structure or the people in the Federation that much. As for the patriarchy or whatnot, he grew up in the Outside camps, so he could not give a crap about that even if he was taught about such systems as a young Walker.
Dealing with important people is not always pleasant, but finding a firm ground for argument and talk is equally important everywhere.
Especially here, where there seem to be much more powerful aspects of the hierarchy. A rather unfamiliar term for William, but he could accept it.
“Hmph! You are good. Good. One needs to grow up to become a good Walker. I hope the lower floors were to your satisfaction. Especially to someone like you, who grew up without knowing about the bigger world.” Kaufman casually says.
“I grew up quite well, mister Kaufman.” William tells with a smile on his face. He is not one to be sad about his life. What's the point of that? Just a door to more sadness.
“You surely did... Yes. yes. yes. I can see that.” Kaufman mutters and shows his glove-less hands while stroking his chin.
The same old Emblem is engraved into his flesh. The same what William has seen.
“Why are you here?” William asks with some concern and suspicion. He could tell that nothing good would come from someone who is sane enough to spend 2 days sleeping in a hope of waiting for someone. Wiliam assumes it from his own experience, but at that time, he wished for some sleep.
“Well, I wonder what you assume is my position and why I am here. Why won't you guess?” Kaufman asks while caressing his thinly trimmed beard.
William ponders in unknown thoughts. What he said right there is a kind of hard thing to assume.
“Well, Ellie did tell me you was a past director of this library and even the current director is your daughter. So, I bet a high-ranking Walker, while the former answer is obvious. You are here to take your full pass back.” William, more than anything, guesses, while feeling confident in Ellie's words. She would not lie to him, right?
Kaufman keeps looking at William while pretending nothing bad is happening.
“Someone had a loose tongue, I suppose?” he says at last while glancing at Ellie aside, who embarrassingly looks away. As if this is none of her concern.
“Yea. I hoped the historic section on the 4th and 5th floor would be more informative about the Federation or the library itself. There is so little about the federation and a few about the information about this library.” William forced a topic upon the little tense atmosphere.
“What library needs information about itself? That doesn't make any sense to me.” Kaufman chuckles with the dumb-sounding question.
“Well, you are a past director, am I wrong? There were no names, but some documents at least stated the nickname of the Director a few times. The Flash.” William tells Kaufman the little that he managed to get through the day.
Some bits of knowledge are hard to get into. One needs to know the better context of more things, to understand others. Some information could be even interconnected, while some stand on their own.
For example, the Federation. This place is connected to a whole world, with many pieces of strings, that keep the flow of knowledge to learn much abundant and hard to fully comprehend by a single individual.
For now, William could not understand even one-tenth of what he considers the basics. And that includes undercutting his lack of cleverness. He knows that, yet he also knows nothing when it comes to the Walkers and the secrets of the Dark beings. As an Outsider by the definition of the Federation. He knows a lot of things. ]
Every survivor and refugee has to know some basic things about the Dark being while living or growing up on the Outside. It is the knowledge that is defined by the many decades and generations of survivors. How do the monsters attack, what are the best defensive measures against them, and so on.
The regular people discovered even a few tips and tricks for better survival and those records keep on going for the current generations. For example, is that the majority of the monsters will seek their prey, without seeking another one, before it's dead. It is natural since the predator is focusing on the task in front while ignoring others. Such things are normal in the animal world.
More often than not, Dark beings have no systematic approach to the hunting of mankind. Although, the very first records of the swarms of the Dark said otherwise. Those records are kept confidential or restricted in spaces on the 6th floor, that are yet to be uncovered by William.
Since the following and researching the Dark beings, hordes of monsters are usually the cause for the destruction of the camps, and William was witness to a few such situations. No amount of preparations or tricks would help regular people. Only Walkers could be of some help, but that is not the final and absolute answer in the swarm of the death, that is the hordes of monsters.
William looks at Kaufman, with an unbothered, and calm face.
“Yes. I am called that. I suppose you connected a few strings by yourself. If Ellie had not told you, you would have no idea.”
“Well, I, for a fact, know that you must be a high-profile Walker nonetheless. Walkers like you must have been quite important pieces of making the Federation what it is today, isn't it?” William manages to contribute with the question, that has been carefully voiced by his deliberate words.
“Clever boy. Here I thought you would have a much harder time, than the camps Outside.”
“We live quite freely, even where death is coming every few years. Was it not like this all the human history? I read about the past, and it is very similar to my feelings about the current state.” William voices an opinion of not only him, but a lot of people in the camps he lived with, knew, and saw every day.
“Freely... That is not that bad of a wording choice.”
“Why is it even matter? Can I go to this floor or not?” William asks an important question. He feels like Kaufman is running around the boiling soup. It doesn't go anywhere.
“You can, sure. But after some forcing I want to try.” Kaufman smirks.
Suddenly, before William has even a chance to voice any other words. An invisible force is pressed onto his neck. He could not speak, but his breathing is manageable.
He tries to push something out of his neck, yet there is nothing. Kaufman playfully smirks, as the beaming Emblem in his hand flickers with light.
There is nothing, and Ellie is unable to help from her sideline. No... She would not dare to. William's body is lifted up into the air. Kicking, fleeting, he chokes on a try to utter some words.
“Can you see something, William?” Kaufman asks as he watches William about 10 feet above the floor who struggling above. This leaves a fearful expression on his face, but he could not see anything that Kaufman implies.
He is just left hanging within the empty space.
Force applied to his body is leaving some pain, but it is not that terrible. A person he assumed to be friendly attacked him so abruptly. Of course, it caused his mind to turn bad.
“I can't speak to him... is he freaking senile or what?” William curses in his mind, as he remains voiceless in the space.
“A little stronger force? Hmmm.” Kaufman asks himself in a curious manner. Still wearing his hat, he pushes something further through his mysterious power.
Suddenly, a much further force is pushed onto William's body. One, that could be equal to a few beatings, but all seems like an internal pain of an unknown pressure.
Encompassing struggle, as well as pain convulses his body, as his face would scream in pain if he could. Williams, in a single fearful moment, gets fearful of his life, a struggle that he felt before. A moment of the past, that he remembers through the occasional nightmares.
But, no matter what, he still remains in helplessness.
A struggle that he could not wrap his head around. Kaufman is hurting him, but for what? he thought, but to no avail.
“More?” Kaufman assumes, with a frown on his face. Ellie unexpectedly appears in front of Kaufman with a fearful expression.
“S-sir... He is hurt. Is this not enough?”
“Silent,” Kaufman utters with a single glance that shut Ellie down.
William's arms that keep on struggling are suddenly jolted to his body. A wrapping force is applied as if he goes through the grinder. Anger, fear, and total oblivion about what is going on are equally in William's heart.
And something hears it, that he sent knows yet, and in fact, is part of his body.
Emblem within his struggling hand beams the light of crimson. It put a few lines of some strange force around William's body, lifting the pain away.
His body falls down as the power that pain experienced is lifted away from his body.
Panting, he is glad and hopeful to voice that the curses he would never dare to utter are just around the tip of his tongue. He never felt like he wants to punch an old man like this in all his life.