Xenophobia

I dreaded this, but I knew it would happen again.
Luke and I were sent on a scouting mission.

Once more, treating innocent people as “enemies”.
Once more, someone is likely to die for no reason.

Once more, Luke…

I looked towards him.

Stern face.
Dull, ice cold, blue eyes.

Android-like movements.

This is Luke during missions.

He analyzes people and situations with accurate results.
He hits and kills his targets with one gunshot or one strike.
He follows orders as they're given. No questions. No hesitation.

Right now, he is the notorious Human War Machine.

And I hate when he’s like this.

“Luke…”

No response in any form.

“Holland.” I corrected myself.

“I can hear you, Hansen. I advise that you should lower your volume or to not talk right now. Three men and a woman are sixty-one meters away and incoming.”

A voice without emotion.

I hate when he’s like this.

I pulled out a pair of binoculars and put them to my eyes.
Three men and a woman, now fifty meters away, just like he said.

“They’re going to enter the house soon. Are you ready?”

He already had a pen and notepad out with his earphone plugged into his left ear.

I looked back at the men and woman, who had now just entered the house.

“Alright, the microphone is now live.”

And he already began to write.

I sat back against the wall and closed my eyes, hoping for the best outcome.

“Holland, you will gather information from the group by listening to the conversation through the recorder that has been placed inside the building and taking note of everything. Hansen, you will keep a lookout of the area while this is occurring. Neither of you are to leave each other’s side. Holland, if you hear mention of any attack on the Nation, you take note of every single detail. When the conversation is over, both of you will move in and kill everyone in the building. If there are witnesses, dispatch of them as well. Is that clear?”

“Open your eyes, Hansen. Your order is to keep a look out. Continue to follow it.”

I did so.

Luckily it was nighttime, and almost everyone was inside their homes, asleep.

There is no plan for an attack.
Everyone will go home safe.

Luke and I can go home and he will return to his normal self.

“Mommy?”

I froze up and Luke stopped writing at the sound of the voice of the little girl.

No.

“Anika, what are you doing up?”
“Alex was thirsty…”

“Take your brother back to bed, I will bring you both some water in a minute.”
“No, let them stay.” The deep voice of a man.

A moment of silence.

“Anghel—!”
“They need to learn the reality of this world at a young age so that they may be prepared for the future.”

Luke was back to taking notes. I was silently praying for everyone’s safety.

“As Oamenii, we are threatened. We are treated inhumanly, attacked, beaten, and killed on a weekly basis by Inamicul – the Nation. We are raised to be proud, to be true to ourselves and our people. I’m afraid that soon, we would have no choice but to fight back.”

“Is…Is this why you have organized this meeting? You want us to fight back?!”

“If Inamicul continues to attack us, we will have no choice but to attack back! Think about your children, Maria! What if Inamicul attacks and they’re the first ones to die! We have to protect ourselves and our people!”

I bit down on my lip, tightly gripping the binoculars.

“Codrin and I will enter their territory; we will try to negotiate with one of the leaders. If he does not comply, then we would have to use force.”

With those words, I knew it was over.

The group had finished their conversation, and Luke didn’t hesitate to load his gun, locking the silencer onto the barrel.

We left the rooftop, quickly and quietly making our way towards the house.

Luke calmly opened the door and stepped inside, shooting the three men without hesitation.
The woman screamed as she gathered her children into her arms.

A gunshot to the leg before she could make it out the door.

She cried out in agony, but held her children closer to her.

“P-Please! Please spare us!”

Luke aimed the gun without a word.

“A-Alright…! You may kill me! But please! I beg of you: spare my children! They had nothing to do with this!”

“Luke! Don’t shoot!”
“It’s an order, Hansen.”

Before he could pull the trigger, I stood in front of the woman and her children, shielding them.

Luke’s eyes widened slightly.

“Hansen. Move.”

I shook my head.

“Hansen. This is an order: move out of the way.”
I didn’t move.

“You are compromising our mission! Move out of the way!”

His façade was faltering.
He was actually showing emotion – anger and fear.

“No. They are innocent. I will not let any more innocent people die because of this damned fight!”

He scanned me and the woman with his eyes before he bit down on his lip.

“Then you leave me no choice…”
“Luke—!”

He pulled the trigger.

There was a pain in my stomach shortly afterwards.
I looked down to see a dark liquid oozing through my clothing.

I turned to see the children with blood on their faces and their mother on the floor, a bullet hole in the middle of her forehead, blood dripping from it.

I looked back at Luke before falling to the floor.

I heard the sound of two more gunshots before completely losing consciousness.

| x | x | x |

I opened my eyes to a bright light, squinting at the discomfort.

“Good. You’re awake.”

I turned towards the voice, seeing Commander Ivanov standing with his arms crossed over his chest.

“Where am I…?”
“Take a look around. Where do you think you are?”

I did as he told, seeing a heart monitor and an IV stand next to the bed that I was on.
I looked down to see the bandage wrapped around my stomach.

“That bullet wound is well-deserved for disobeying orders. Consider yourself lucky that Holland completed the mission regardless of your rebellion.”

He came close to me, bending down so that his face was close to mine.

“Listen to me well, Hansen. I know how weak you are with this sort of thing. This is exactly why I had you paired with Holland, so you could fuckin’ learn something from him. Now, if you ever even think about disobeying orders again, you might as well take a bullet to the head, because you’re not going to like when I get a hold of you alive. Understand?”

“Yes, Sir…”

He moved away before walking towards the door.

“Make sure to get up, Hansen. You’re going back home in three hours.”

And he was gone from the room.

| x | x | x |

“How long are you planning to pretend that I don’t exist?”

Luke hadn’t said a word to me or made any sort of contact with me since I came home.

He just busied himself with various things around the house, adjusting things that didn’t need to be adjusted, cleaning things that didn’t need to be cleaned.

I’m used to him ignoring me for a day or two after our missions, but I was a little impatient this time, especially with the fact that he had shot me.

I stood up from the bed and grabbed a hold of his wrist before he could walk into the bathroom.

He tried to pull away from me, but I wouldn’t let go.

He still didn’t say anything to me.

“Luke. Stop this ‘ignoring the fuck out of Zack’ game that you’re playing right now!”

Still nothing.

“You could at least acknowledge me after shooting me in the fucking stomach!”

I grabbed him by the shoulders and turned him to look at me.
I felt my heart drop into my stomach.

Tears were rolling down his cheeks as his eyes glowed violet – their true color.

He jerked away from me as he beat his fists against my chest.

“What the hell was I supposed to do?! You wouldn’t listen to me! You wouldn’t move! We would have failed our mission if I didn’t act! I saw the opportunity and acted on it!”

He continued to hit me as he yelled.

“I knew that if I shot you, then Commander Ivanov wouldn’t take action on you fucking up! I fucking shot you to keep you alive, Zack!”

His hits subsided.

“Because if you’re not alive, then what do I have left to live for…?! Tell me, Zack, cause I have no fucking idea…!”

I placed my hands onto his cheeks, wiping the tears away with my thumbs.

“I’m sorry, Luke…It was unfair of me to yell at you like that…”
He was about to say something, but I cut him off.

“Don’t you dare apologize. I was in the wrong. You were in the right. End of story.”

He nodded slowly.

His eyes were still purple, and I couldn’t help but to let out a sad smile.

“What…?”
“Nothing…”

I know that if I bring them up, he’ll change their color in a heartbeat.

“You should go to bed. You’re still injured.”
“You promise to wake me up if my nightmares get out of control?”

He kissed me deeply, entangling his hands in my hair.

“That should never be a question for you to ask.”
“Right. Sorry.”

We got into bed; Luke scooted close to me, minding my injury.

He placed a hand onto my stomach, rubbing it gently.

“I’m sorry.”