I wasn't expecting a shock the moment we stepped out into the summer air, but it hit me all the same. I had been gone a week, in a sphere of solitude with Saris, training nearly non stop. I thought that going outside, seeing the world in motion as it always had been would be comforting to me. Going back to everything I knew and seeing everyone go about their day by day routine would make me feel normal; even if it was something I could not return to. But it didn't happen. The outside world was strange and quiet. This was downtown. It was the weekend again but it was empty. No, not empty. Soft shadows were wandering around. It was early, but not that early. Saris said that people would slowly disappear. He called them 'Shades'. The soft outlines of shadows that I could see moving around were the shades of normal people. People who were not a part of this awful game. I knew that things would be different, I just didn't realize how different it would be.

The reality of my situation stung. My old life was gone, replaced with hiding and war. Before now, it was just training. Now, for some reason, it felt more real. I couldn't even pretend that everything was normal because I could no longer see or talk to my friends or family. Then I had an idea. I dug in my pocket and took out my phone. I had turned it off after following Saris to the safehouse. I turned it on and waited for it to load. It buzzed. I had messages. A lot of them. I checked the texts from Tommy first.

Dude. What is going on over there? Did anyone find out why the cars were breaking like that?

The next message was four question marks.

Do you have your phone off? Call me when you get this.

The next day, he wrote:

Worried about you. You ok? Mike and I went to your place but you weren't there. Call us when you can.

He had also left me a voicemail:

"Xander? Where are you, man? Everyone is worried. There's even a missing person's report going on for you." He paused and sighed. "Just call me back or something."

I had no idea if a text would reach him or not. But I tried anyway:

Tommy. I'm ok. I can't explain what's going on right now. But I will try to someday. Just know that I will not be back for a while. Please text me if you get this and I'll try to keep in better contact when I can. Sorry for being vague.

I read my other messages and listened to similar voicemails from Michael, my sister and my boss. I sent messages to Michael and my sister and left my boss wondering. I was probably considered fired anyway. My sister had only started to get suspicious about things yesterday. I didn't leave her an ominous text. Instead, I just told her that I've been swamped with work and might take longer to respond for a while. Then I got a message back. It was from Tommy.

I got your message. And I trust you. Tell me what's going on when you can.

I told him I would and breathed in relief. I still had some kind of contact with my life. I had no idea what to say about my situation, but it was enough just to know that I could tell someone what was going on. At least as long as the phone lasts. I would just need to preserve my phone's life. I looked at the small device in my hand. I still had most of a full battery; 83%. I turned off the phone, hoping to make it last and trying not to think about what I might do or say when the battery finally died. Maybe I could still charge it? I would test it later. Right now, Saris was staring at me.

I cleared my throat. "Sorry." Saris just rolled his eyes and waved for me to follow. I didn't want him to be irritated with me the minute we walked out the door. "Oh, come on. I just needed some kind of connection with my friends and family. You get that, right?"

Saris looked confused. "You can still communicate with them?"

"Well, yeah. Why?"

Saris' eyes darted around as if he was searching for something. "Could you-" he stopped, letting out a sharp breath.. "Nevermind."

"What? Do you want me to call someone? I can do that."

Saris balled his hands into fists at his side. "No. Forget I said anything. Let's go." And before I could argue, he started walking so fast that I had to jog to keep up.

I didn't want Saris to be angry with me and I couldn't tell if I was frustrating him, or if it was something else. "Look, I'm sorry. I know we're out in the open and that was probably stupid. I wasn't thinking."

"It's fine. Don't worry about it. Just try to find a better time to do that, alright?"

I nodded. "Sure."

"Come on. We need to find allies. Otherwise, we'll be easy to take out."

We started rounding a few corners. I was either unfamiliar with this part of downtown, or we were just in a section that seemed strange to me after being cooped up in a house for a week. I felt like I didn't know my own home as much as I used to. It's not like anything's changed, it just felt like I had been on vacation for a while and forgot some of the details that I used to know by heart. Almost like the roads didn't have the same bumps they used to or the signs had gotten old. The thing that made this place feel so alien to me, was the fact that the streets were so empty. It was a hard thing to overlook.

This game made everything so much quieter. The streets were eerie and empty of noise or joy. Music that had once poured out from bars, apartments and buskers was completely absent. Everything that had once been so vibrant and alive was now dead quiet and abandoned.

The silence didn't settle my nerves as we walked down the street. Every inset entrance, alley or cross street had my heart pounding, anticipating a surprise attack. I was not eager to rush into combat and I had no idea of the capabilities or powers of the other people in this game. I stepped a bit faster at the horrifying thought of Saris getting hit first and me not being able to help because I was too far behind or not paying enough attention. I kicked myself for being on my phone moments ago. As we walked, my head swiveled constantly, trying to take in every detail and be prepared for anything.

I shook my head; dwelling on the past was not a good way to move forward. If I wanted to get back to my normal life I needed to focus on the present. Feeling stupid about taking my phone out wasn't going to help anything. I just needed to learn from my mistakes and move on. Worrying about Saris dying was also not a healthy use of my energy. He could fend for himself and I would do my best to stay by his side, both for his benefit and mine. We're looking for allies together, which means I am one of his allies. I needed to act less selfishly and be a better contributor for the team.

So, what is our next move? I was about to ask Saris, but instead, I wanted to figure it out on my own first. Maybe that would seem more impressive to him. Let's see. We were at the house to train, which we did. Saris also explained the game to me. The point of the game is to eliminate all of the other players and we were trying to find allies. So, where is the best place to find allies? Somewhere that people gather? No. That's too obvious. If people are trying to kill each other, they'll avoid places that are usually high traffic areas.

I surmised that I really had no idea where to find allies. So instead, I thought about what to do after we found our ally. There didn't seem to be many options. We would be able to find a place to defend, or go out and attack. Going out sounded like the more risky thing to do, so I assumed that we would find a place to bunker down. The question then was: where? One option would be the training house that we had just left, but I assume Saris had picked it because it wasn't a high-traffic area and we wouldn't exactly be narrowing down the competition if no one ever came by. Another location came to mind: my apartment. Sure, it didn't have the extra space to train, but I know the surrounding area really well. I missed my bed and wouldn't mind a nice night's sleep, where I could have a mattress instead of a padded floor.

"Hey, Saris?"

"Hmm?"

"When we find an ally, do you want to use my apartment as a base?"

Saris paused to look at me. He looked mildly surprised, then continued walking. "A base, huh?"

"Umm...Are we not going to be looking for a base?"

"Seems like you've given this a bit of thought, huh?" He didn't wait for me to answer. "There are multiple ways you can go about the game after you're comfortable with the amount of allies you have. One is to make a base and defend it when it gets attacked. But what's the problem with this tactic?"

"Umm..." My mind was completely blank. I had thought it was a good idea. In movies, it's usually easier to defend a location that has been prepared for an attack than it is to go out and find enemies. "It's too good?" I suggested.

Saris chuckled. "The longer we're there, the riskier it is. This game doesn't like it when people use that tactic. The building could collapse on us if we're there too long. Or several teams could find us at once or one after the other. Making a base is a great idea, but more for a place to go back to at night. Not a place to stay all day."

"But we did that while we trained." I argued.

"Yeah. And I was getting pretty nervous about staying there much longer."

"Okay. But I get the impression you don't want to do a base at all. Why is that?"

"Training." I made a confused noise in response, which, I must say, is quickly becoming a skill of mine. "It will be good experience for you to see different angles of this game. Sometimes, you don't get the option to make a base. It's nice when you do, but you need to know what to do if you can't. That's why we're not gonna find a base. It's harder to do it this way, so if we do it now, you won't be so clueless if you have to later on."

"Doesn't that make the game harder for you? It's like we're focusing on my future here more than winning this game."

"Well, kind of. But to be honest, having a base or being out in the open isn't all that different when it comes down to winning. Using a base has obvious advantages like shelter, food and walls to defend against attacks. But being on the move is nice too. For one thing, you get to know the map better. That alone gives you a lot of tactical information."

"Okay." I said, sounding disappointed. I didn't mean for it to come out that way, but it was hard to be enthusiastic about doing something the hard way. "I just wish there weren't so many corners to go around. I keep thinking someone will be there, ready to attack."

"Don't forget the chills." Saris reminded me. "We'll know if someone is close by if we get goosebumps. I'm checking the corners for distant threats, not near ones."

"Right." That did make me feel a bit better. I had forgotten about the goosebumps since I hadn't had any after the first day or two with Saris.

"Not that it's a bad thing to be paranoid. Just don't let it exhaust you."

We turned a few more corners and found our way to a road I recognized. I passed this way to get to work during the week, when I didn't have classes. Judging from the general direction we were going, we were headed for the park.

"Why are we going to the park?" I asked

"Open space." He noticed that it did not help my understanding of the situation and elaborated. "We might be able to find more allies there. Preferably, someone who's not new. No offense, but it's hard to train one new person while still surviving the game. Two is asking a lot out of everyone. The park will give us plenty of room to view the area, find loners and recruit them. We'll want to stay away from teams, but we might be able to confront them if there's only two of them."

"I didn't think a place that's usually busy would be ideal for finding anyone non hostile. Wouldn't the people who go there be looking for a fight or something?"

"Not necessarily. Try not to overthink it too much. People try to stay hidden, but flock wherever they feel most comfortable. Parks, bars, theaters, they're all relatively common. Some people do avoid them, but not as many as you'd think. And those that do go there aren't usually looking for a fight any more than the rest of us."

"Won't we be easy to see too?" I asked.

"For a while. We'll want to find a good spot to scope the area without being seen. Up a tree or something. We'll need to dash to it and check to see if anyone's spotted us. If not, we can climb it and keep watch."

"What if we are seen?"

"Depends on who sees us."

"That's kind of...ominous."

Saris chuckled. "I guess it is. If it's a team I'm not confident we can take then. We'll have to make a run for it or find a more advantageous spot to fight them. But it could be a potential ally. Either way, we'll want to keep on our toes. Everyone starts as an enemy. Most people strike first and skip the conversation part altogether. Unless the person is rather desperate for an ally, it can be a bit tricky trying to convince them to join an unfamiliar team."

"If you get attacked right away, how are you supposed to make an ally?"

"Determination. Luck. Maybe both. I'm not saying that it's easy to get people on your side, I just think it's necessary."

Coming to an intersection I glanced around to see if I knew this street. I stopped and gasped. "Holy crap," I said. Saris stopped and looked where I was facing. A small building was smoking. It was on fire but it looked like the fire was already dying out. It clearly had been burning for a while, judging by the blackened walls. The smoke was also clearing out. It was only a block or so away from where we were.

"Come on." Saris said, glancing up and down the street as he took a step towards the blackened building, "Let's check it out."