Into the Light

“How do you do it?” Kerrigan exclaimed while examining the hit count on his screen. No one had a higher score than Alfred in Noctostrike, a midnight laser combat game. Not even those on the Junior squads, with their night vision, had anyone with a score even close to his level.

“What can I say?” Alfred replied. Even in the overcast wee hours of the morning, you could see that Alfred walked with a swagger. It was the closest thing to a brag he ever allowed.

Kerrigan pulled up the standings. In the three weeks since Alfred had joined, they had moved from fourteenth place to fifth. At this rate, they would qualify for the inter-clan tournament. Kerrigan seemed to float as he imagined visiting Clan Montrel for the first time.

“You cheat!” Bryce yelled as he ran up suddenly from the moon-cast shadow of a tree. Pushing Alfred over, he stood over him menacingly. Kerrigan stepped between Bryce and Alfred while Bryce’s teammates made a show of pulling him back. Bryce freed his arm from the crowd pulling him away, pointing it at Kerrigan in a threatening manner.

“I don’t know what your team is doing,” Bryce continued as he was pulled further away. “But I’m going to find out.”

Kerrigan shook his head as he watched Bryce’s team disappear into the trees, taking Bryce’s accusations with them. He turned around and offered a hand to his teammate.

“He’s pissed because their team isn’t eligible anymore because of you. Don’t give it another thought.”

Alfred pulled himself up, trying to hide his frown. His posture, his demeanor, his swagger were gone. Was that…concern? Alfred was the best rookie Kerrigan had ever seen, maybe ever played. Why would a little knocking on his ass be the reason for him to change?

“Are you ok?” Kerrigan asked after walking several meters in silence.

“Don’t worry about it,” Alfred snapped with his eyes fixed forward.

“Hey! You’re not going to let him get in your head, are you? I know that was the first time you have been laid out, but you need to shake it off.” Kerrigan stepped up and stood in front of Alfred. “Alfie, I can’t have my star rookie getting the yips. Not when I’m, when we are so close to getting the recognition we deserve.”

“I told you not to call me that,” Alfred said as he pushed past, bumping his shoulder into Kerrigan as he walked back to the base. It wasn’t an aggressive bump. It was almost in desperation, like an animal caught in a corner trying to run.

“Hey, I’m sorry. I just thought–”

“Well, you thought wrong.”

“I’m sorry.” Kerrigan wanted to say more, but he didn’t dare. They continued in silence. Even as other teammates passed, trying to get Alfred Hyped, he gave the most minimal reaction and maintained his steady pace forward. Resigned to a fate Kerrigan didn’t understand.

“You know,” Kerrigan said hesitantly. “I know we haven’t known each other long, but that day I found you playing pick-up games in the abandoned district; I wasn’t lying. I’m here for you no matter what you need”

Alfred turned his head away almost as if he was ashamed. After a few moments, he returned his focus up ahead.

“You don’t think he will do anything, do you?”

“Who? Bryce?” Kerrigan allowed a louder-than-expected laugh. “No, what can he do? At worst, he can file a complaint. I don’t even think it would rise to the level of an investigation. He has nothing to stand on but being a poor loser. ”

That didn’t seem to reassure Alfred. Kerrigan tilted his head as he gradually stopped keeping pace with Alfred. Was he cheating? If Alfred was, he was the best cheater Kerrigan had ever seen. He started heading in another direction. If Alfred was cheating, he didn’t want to know.

“What if I told you I was cheating? What would you do?” Alfred said softly.

Kerrigan stopped and turned to face Alfred. Alfred had also stopped, but had slunk into a tree's shadow.

“You’re being hypothetical, right?” Kerrigan responded.

Alfred didn’t answer.

“Alfred, there isn’t a way you can cheat,” Kerrigan exclaimed as he moved toward him. “If there were a device on you, it would be caught the moment you stepped in the arena. We don’t even get to bring our own guns.”

“They can’t detect everything, I know because they haven’t been able to detect me.”

Kerrigan tilted his head. What could he possibly mean by that? His eyes widened as he took a step back.

“You bloody Mute,” Kerrigan whispered. “I should have known things were too good to be true. Are you sucking out their souls?” Kerrigan backed into a tree, jumping as his back touched the bark. Mutates weren’t just scary stories parents told their kids to keep them in line. There was a war fought about them. A war that his Dad fought in, a war he died in to stop them from being created.

Alfred walked forward, his hands exposed in a defensive position. “First of all, I’m not a mutate. Second of all, What?!?”

“Mutates, they can do weird things. They killed my Dad.” Kerrigan’s breathing grew faster as Alfred walked closer. He searched around, looking for someone to cry out to.

“Kerrigan, do I look like I’m from Kildrum or Merida? I’m from Salvera, just like you.” Alfred stopped a meter away from Kerrigan, keeping his hands up. “The war ended before I was born, just like you.”

“Then how–”

“I don’t know how I have abilities. I just do. I always have, or at least since I was fifteen”

A cloud moved, revealing the full moon. It brightened the small clearing in the forest they were standing in. Kerrigan could see Alfred almost as if it were midday. He wasn’t scary. He was that same man he met only a few weeks ago. The same young man he recruited to join his squad. His heart calmed as he focused on his friend.

Kerrigan stepped forward a quarter of a meter. “That doesn’t explain how you are cheating.”

Alfred lowered his hands and nodded. The clearing grew darker. Kerrigan thought a cloud was covering the moon again, but when he looked up, there was no moon. It was pitch black, like the time they went to the caves and the guides turned out the lights. Kerrigan put his hand in front of his face, but couldn’t see it. He even tapped his nose to confirm it was there.

“What are you doing? Are you messing with my brain?”

Footsteps rustled near him. He felt a hand touch his shoulder. Kerrigan recoiled, losing his balance in the darkness. He stopped moving, bent his knees, and held his hands out to steady himself.

“Can you see me?” Alfred said playfully. Kerrigan turned his head toward the voice, not seeing anyone.

“What’s happening?!?” Kerrigan exclaimed. Light instantly returned, and Alfred was standing next to him on his left. Kerrigan backed away from Alfred, putting his hands up in front of him. “Don’t do that again.”

Alfred held his palms in front of him. “I don’t know why, but somehow I can pull the light out of my immediate area, making it dark for you, but brighter for me.”

Kerrigan held his hand up to his mouth. So that was why he was so good. He dropped his hand. “You know what I call that?” Kerrigan said. “Natural ability.” He smiled. He couldn’t believe it. He had stumbled in on a secret weapon—a weapon no one could detect, and no one could dispute.

Kerrigan nodded, and they continued walking. Alfred’s swagger was coming back with every step. Kerrigan turned and nodded to Alfred, who nodded back. They both smiled as battle central came into view, a short building on the furthest edge of the arena.

The sound of running grew louder from behind, and Alfred was tackled from behind. Kerrigan turned, expecting to see Bryce or one of his teammates. Instead, he found a man wearing a grey jacket forcing Alfred down and pushing his head into the ground.

He went to call out for help, but the impact of a shoulder hitting his gut prevented him from making a sound. He landed on the ground as a grey figure restrained him. From the corner of his eye, he could see a needle being jabbed into Alfred’s neck. Alfred continued to resist for a few more seconds and then went limp. Did they kill him? Who are these people?

“Tell our counterparts in Montrel we have another one,” the man said as he stood up and assessed the situation.

“They don’t want our low-risk subjects.” The person said while struggling to hold him down. The other man assisted in restraining him long enough for restraints to be clamped behind him. They both stood up; one sounded like they were rubbing their hands together.

“Their guy… Voss? Anyway, he only wants the high-risk ones. Weirdo.” Kerrigan didn’t know what they were talking about, but didn’t dare speak. He hoped that by staying quiet, whatever this was would go away.

“Let’s just report he burst out light, like that other one we sent in last month. He won’t care. He cares more about his clan’s subjects than he does about the rest.”

Kerrigan wasn’t the smartest guy around, but it was obvious to him they were talking about taking Alfred. Why are they talking about sending him to Montrel and then Kildrum? Wasn’t Kildrum the one who started the Mutate War? Who was this Voss person?

He moved to get a better look at his attackers, but was met with a kick in the gut.

“What about him? We weren’t supposed to take out a normie.”

“He wouldn’t stop talking to him; we had no choice.” Kerrigan regretted not walking away sooner. Now what was going to happen to him?

“We still need to do something. We can’t just kill him; people will ask questions. We’re not supposed to draw attention to ourselves, remember?”

“We could make it look like an accident.”

Kerrigan’s heart skipped a beat. His breathing grew shallow. They have to be joking. He moved to stand up, but a knee was dropped onto his back. Before he could call out, a needle poked into the side of his neck. He squirmed as the cold liquid seeped into his neck, stinging as it moved.

The last thing he saw was a cloud covering the moon.