CHAPTER 3: The Alley

"Kids! Are you here?” Adam heard his mother call out as she came in the door. There was more intensity to it then when she normally came home.

Emily responded to her from the kitchen while Adam sat in the living room playing Halo on his older Xbox. “Yeah, getting a snack and Adam is playing in the other room.”

Adam was having a hard time. He had pulled out his old Xbox and threw in Halo to kill some aliens. He needed a distraction from what was going on inside of him. Walking home from school made it clear just how wrong something was. Never had so much emotion just flowed through him. The emotions didn’t even feel targeted towards anything. Was he disappointed he hadn’t gotten a class? Sure. Was he concerned that he had been told his soul was corrupt? Of course. Yet he didn’t feel like he was missing out strongly enough to justify the anger.

While walking from the school to home, the hot pulses tried to spread. They were mostly blocked from his head, but they were now moving through his limbs and stomach. There would come a pulse, followed by heat, then anger, and a strong desire to lash out at people. A desire to take down those around him. Maybe he was becoming a monster. No one said that the invaders were physical, right? Could he be taken over by one? Possessed? If he really focused, Adam felt like he could almost hear a voice within the pulse. Not through his ears, but through his whole being.

The text from Nick on the way home just made him feel isolated. Nick had almost missed his bus standing at the gates while checking for another tagless person and found no one else in the school. While it showed that Nick was a good friend, and concerned for him, it also highlighted his situation.

More aliens died in the video game as Adam continued to play, able to ignore the pulsing and just veg thanks to the game he had mastered years ago. Then a gasp caught his attention.

“Adam! Are you alright?” His mom was standing in the doorway, though Emily pushed past her and plopped on the second sofa, perpendicular to the one Adam was on. Pressing pause, Adam looked at his mom.

“He has been like that since I got home,” Emily said. “He barely speaks, just grunting. He won’t even tell me how he hid his class tag.” Glancing first at his sister, Mage [0], then to his mom standing in the doorway, Support [0], he tried to speak.

“I…” Adam’s voice cracked and he realized how dry his mouth was. His throat barely moved as he tried to swallow. He had to take a sip of water before he could continue. “I didn’t hide the tag. I didn’t get a class.”

“You didn’t take one?” Emily jumped in before his mom could question it.

“No, I tried to take [Protector] but it told me my soul space was full.” Talking about soul corruption seemed like a very bad idea to Adam. Being studied or imprisoned seemed likely should more people find out. Just being called corrupted had made Adam scared. He regretted mentioning it to Nick and just hoped the outgoing guy could keep it to himself.

“Is that why you look sick? Your skin is reddish, and your eyes are a bit bloodshot.” Concern showed on his mom’s face.

“I definitely don’t feel right. My body is hot, and I feel more angry than normal. In fact, I feel more everything than normal.”

“Hmm…I’m going to post on my social networks to see if anyone else is missing a tag,” Emily said as she whipped out her phone.

“Just don’t tell anyone about me!” Adam snapped uncharacteristically, growling at his sister.

“Adam!” scolded his mother. “I’m definitely getting concerned. I’m going to call our doctor and some urgent care centers.”

“Just don’t try a hospital,” Emily said without even looking up from her phone. “The news feeds say they are completely full with people concerned about the [System]. The parking lots are so crowded that no one can reach the emergency room.”

Unsure of what to do, and trying to ignore the pulses, Adam turned back to the TV and went back to playing. His mom went into the kitchen for her calls and Emily sat around for a while trying to engage Adam, then left when he wouldn’t respond.

***

Dinner was difficult. Adam kept his head down, grunting responses. He was surprised to see his dad’s tag, Protector [0], but couldn’t really see his dad using any class, so he just accepted it. His mother and father discussed how he might be sick, why he was tagless, and that no doctor, clinic, emergency center, or hospital could see him. Eating his whole meal and then having seconds and thirds at least reassured his mom, though Adam was confused why he ate so much, as if his body was burning more fuel. No one else at dinner had that trouble. Adam just sighed and kept his head down.

Sleeping was even harder. The pulses burned through his body and even when his mind felt cool he just couldn’t relax or sleep. There was too much. He tried bringing up different windows that the [System] had made available, tried commands to see if there were help docs, but nothing would come up. Everything was so brief and unexplained. Over and over, he would bring up his broken status and the message about soul corruption, but no matter how hard he looked or what he tried, no new info was forthcoming. Eventually, around 4am, he finally fell asleep but still woke at 8am, sweating through the sheets.

While Adam ate breakfast, he watched the news. The news was full of people panicking, but no police or military had found the invaders that the [System] mentioned. Doctor interviews explained that no tests had shown differences in people, whether brain scans or physical tests. It all felt much ado about nothing, unfocused panic in the public.

Adam’s mom had stayed home from the bank she worked at, while his father went out. His mom would switch between focusing on the phone, trying to find any doctor with appointments to see him, and babying him. Brushing her off and trying to reassure her got him some space but that was about it. By 10am he was sick of being home, feeling ready to burst in anger, and decided to go for a walk, much to his mother’s discouragement.

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Wearing a light jacket with a hood to cover his red tinted arms, he went out. His body had craved exercise after he ate a box and a half of cereal and an entire carton of milk. Even though Adam was in adequate shape for his age he had never craved exercise. Now what started as a light walk turned into a jog, which would turn into sprints, and while that increased his heart rate and the pulses, it didn’t seem to make him tired.

The outskirts of Jackson weren’t huge, but they did support enough businesses, most small locally owned, with enough chain stores included. The main street branched off and there were about eight longer streets with businesses and stores. Adam had run through those and around the border of the commercial area. It surprised him to see so little traffic and few cars parked at this time of day. Many stores were closed.

“I guess there is concern everywhere, not just for me,” Adam said to himself. Now that he was finished running and had slowed down, he felt the pulses pulling back and staying in his chest, no longer flooding his arms and legs. The coolness in his head exerted itself and almost cleansed the rest of his body. All the concern began to feel silly, and peace filled him. A smile crossed his face.

Thump! His heart beat hard and collided with the cool peace. Thump! Again. The smile quickly turned into a frown. Something was wrong. How could he go from angry to hunky-dory at the drop of a hat. The concern returned. Something was manipulating Adam and he needed to figure out what.

Stopping to look around, Adam realized he was near some junky warehouses a few blocks from his school. It was midday and the lighting caused the two-story buildings to shadow the wide streets and entry ways. These buildings weren’t used any more. Adam didn’t even know who owned them and they weren’t kept in good repair.

Mocking laughter two warehouses down caught his attention. Cautiously Adam moved from the road into the shadows of the nearest building. If people were causing trouble, he wanted to stay out of it.

Looking more closely, Adam saw the bully Tom stooped over with his arm around Brandon’s shoulders. The position was clearly more for intimidation that comradery or hurting him. Joseph and Randall were on either side of them, hedging him in. Elias was leaning against a building with a small book in his hand, barely even paying attention to the scene. Lucas was facing them all several paces away with his arms crossed, like he was an adult watching children play.

Tom was reaching down with his other hand and tapping on something hanging from Brandon’s side. Focusing in on it, Adam thought it looked like a sword. Heh, he almost laughed himself thinking of Brandon wielding a sword.

“Really? You gonna go fight something? Maybe a dragon?” Tom snickered. Brandon’s head was down, not willing to make eye contact.

“Well, I just think I should be ready for the invaders,” Brandon mumbled in response, so quietly Adam could barely hear. “If we need to level up then I have to work on my fighting skills.”

“Fighting skills?” barked Tom. “You have fighting skills? That’s a laugh! Have you ever done any training?”

At that Brandon sunk even further into himself. “Just karate when I was in second grade. But I can learn.”

“How can you learn out here?” This time Randall dug into him, poking his shoulder. “Besides that isn’t even a real sword. Just some bought movie prop.” Tom and Joseph snickered.

Watching the scene, Adam just shook his head. It was too easy. Low hanging fruit. These guys were just so pathetic. At least he knew they wouldn’t really hurt Brandon. Turning to leave, Adam froze when he heard Lucas speak.

“Yeah, we should all learn to fight,” Lucas said as if it was all a matter of course. “How about you and I have a spar to sharpen our skills?” Lucas turned and walked into an alley between buildings. The other three followed, with Tom leading Brandon. When they were out of view even Elias straightened, not looking away from his book, and followed them into the alley.

A large sigh left Adam. So much for not hurting him. I really don’t want to get involved, but even Brandon doesn’t deserve it. Thinking of Brandon getting beat up did not sit well with Adam. Anger built in him. Little Brandon and big Lucas wouldn’t end in a David and Goliath situation.

Thump! His heartbeat spread the hot pulse and the anger flowed throughout his body. Thump! More heat flooded through him as his heart rate increased. The cool in his mind pulling back, as if allowing the heat, instead of trying to stop it for once. The word that Adam knew was in the heat but he couldn’t hear was influencing him.

Is the pulse showing concern for Brandon? That thought caused no change. Maybe it just likes fights? That thought got his heart to pulse. “Damn!”

He stepped as lightly as he could and moved cautiously as he approached the alley they went into. Bursts of laughter kept coming out from it. Looking around the corner, Adam saw that they were yet to start getting physical. Lucas was in front of Brandon in a boxer’s pose with his jacket thrown to the side. Randall and Joseph were blocking the path they had come from to prevent Brandon from running, as if he would. Elias was leaning on the wall and Tom was pestering Brandon to draw the sword.

Adam stopped paying attention to the taunting and set his phone on the ground to record what was happening. Even if he got beat up too, at least he could press charges. The alleyway was very poorly lit, shadows on both sides and almost completely devoid of light towards where three buildings connected. After checking to make sure the phone could show the scene, and hitting record, he casually walked into the alley.

“Really, Lucas? Is there any meaning to punching Brandon?” Randall and Joseph split apart and let Adam walk through. Elias looked up from his book.

Lucas crossed his arms and let out a fake sigh. “We were all just playing. If you heard this then you know we were all going to train together. For the invasions.” A charming smile appeared on his face.

Adam arrived at Tom and Brandon and, standing behind Tom, put his hand on the wrist that was around Brandon. He lifted Tom’s arm so that Brandon was no longer under its weight.

“Go home, Brandon. I’ll see you at school tomorrow.” The pulses inside Adam were throbbing heavily now, the sound as strong in his ears as someone talking. The coolness had let the heat and anger in, and he was sure he was unable to think clearly.

“B-But, Adam…” Brandon started to stammer. Then his eyes met Adam’s glare. Brandon flinched and unexpectedly trembled. When dealing with the bullies Brandon had seemed resolved to what happened, but the simple look from Adam caused him to radiate fear. He glanced at Lucas, Tom, and Randall in turn and then fled as fast as he could. “S-s-see you in school tomorrow.” Then Brandon was gone leaving Adam confused.

The confusion didn’t last long as a blow hit Adam in the back of the head, knocking him towards the ground. He caught himself with his front foot before falling, his knee bent forward. Adam had expected some kind of discourse before violence. Bringing his arms to the side to protect his head he felt a kick land on his left arm where his jaw was.

Tom was smirking down on him and raising his right arm. Now the discourse began. “What gives you the right to mess with us? You have the hero tag hidden somewhere?”

Adam felt stupid. He had forgotten about the classes. It was like his mind had ignored them. A quick thought and he realized everyone but Elias had the [Warrior] class. Even Brandon had it, with Elias having the [Mage] class. Damnit, that probably meant they had a skill too.

The punch came at Adam while he had one leg bent low, refusing to drop to a kneel.

Adam wasn’t sure who said it, but he heard clearly, “Maybe beating you will get us to level 1.”