The Armor of God

by Diego Valenzuela

  His mother got up and walked the length of the table to kneel next to her son. “Are you scared?” He nodded. “Of course you are. Uncertainty is a monster that can only be fought with patience; but it fades, Ezra. All this pain you’re feeling will disappear in Zenith, once you know exactly what that new life is going to be about.”

  “Can’t you do something about it? You’re rich, you’re powerful enough to—”

  “No, son,” she said. “This is something you can’t run away from. I know it’s scary, but there is a reason why these things happen, even if you can’t tell what it is right now.”

  “That’s not fair,” Ezra protested. He felt like a child.

  “Tara, why are you handling it like it’s some kind of curse?” his father said after he finished lighting a cigarette. “No, Ezra, it’s definitely not fair, but to the other kids your age. You will learn how wrong you are soon. Like your mother says, the uncertainty inevitably fades. You’ll have a new home in Zenith, and a new life. A lot of the questions that terrify most people your age will be answered, and you will be protecting Roue from—”

  “Patrich,” she silenced him.

  It became immediately obvious that his dad had said something he wasn’t supposed to say. So the Creux were used to protect Roue. Did that mean Ezra would be trained to use Creux—whatever they were—in battle?

  His future became immediately scarier.

  “Sweetheart, just remember that it’s something you’ll have to do. It may be painful, and scary, but it has to come. You need to be strong enough to let it come, and let it transform you into someone new.”

  She sounded like Susan. All this talk about growth and change. He wasn’t ready.

  That night, Ezra went to sleep in his room, crying and letting his mother hold his head and play with his thick hair. She did her best to comfort him with stories, wisdom, and lullabies. Outside, the night was heavy, playing the song of dozens of nightbirds that didn’t really exist.

  He woke up early the next day, and his mother was still there in the room that he had made his own the instant he had been deemed old enough to sleep alone. All the art he had put on the walls, his drawings, pictures, books, and toys were still in the exact same places he had left them.

  “Mom,” he said. “Is there anything you can do to help me?”

  “I can be there for you,” she said. “And I will. Me and your father and your sisters. You’re not going away, Ezra, and we’ll always be here for you.”

  It was exactly the answer Ezra was hoping for.

  Ezra took a bath and got dressed. He found his mother sitting at the breakfast table, waiting for her husband to finish cooking breakfast. The Blanchards were unreasonably rich in Roue—one of the richest families, in fact—and despite having hired a cook of incredible talent, when it came to breakfast, it was always Patrich Blanchard standing in front of the stove. His dad put before him a plate of eggs, bacon, and sausages fixed to look like a smiling face, as he always did when it was one of his children’s birthdays. Looking at that abstract face made him laugh for the first time in days.

  “Thank you, Dad,” Ezra said and began eating.

  “I heard from Dr. Mizrahi that you’re doing a physical test today,” Tara said, pouring what could be her second or third cup of tea. “How do you think you’ll fare? Better than in the Moreau?”

  “How do you know about the Moreau?”

  “Numbers fly,” she replied and winked, drinking her pleasantly scented tea that would always remind him of her.

  “I don’t know what they’ll make me do. If it’s running a few laps and doing some sit-ups, I’ll probably do fine.”

  Two hours later, Ezra was vomiting his breakfast all over his new boots.

  As he had told his mother, he was somewhat confident in his ability to perform in a physical test, supposing that it wasn’t a truly brutal affair. Though this could barely be classified as such, it was still an unexpected onslaught on a weakened body.

  He had said good-bye to his mother and father at the entrance to the base, where he found Susan waiting, a large black duffel bag in her hand. The corporal had saluted and greeted Tara Blanchard like she was talking to her CO, expressing what a great honor it was to work with a member of the Blanchard family.

  “We’re happy he’ll be working with Zenith, Corporal. He’s going to make you proud,” Tara had told her.

  “I am sure he will, ma’am. We’ll contact you later today and let you know what proceeds. Thank you for bringing him,” Susan replied before saluting and leading Ezra away. His mother was smiling when he walked into the base.

  Not slowing their pace, she put the black duffel bag in his hand. “You’re signing your contracts after the test today, so you’ll be wearing uniform at all times while you’re in the A-District base. In Zenith it might be different, but I’m still not certain; they do things their own way.”

  Still walking, he unzipped the bag to see what was inside: fatigues, underwear, socks, and boots. Not his first choice in clothing, but his mother had convinced him to stop resisting and let the army and Zenith transform him into what they willed, as it would be something greater.

  They reached a large field behind the base normally used to play sport but presently the setting for the training of dozens of soldiers. Ezra hoped his test would be taken elsewhere; he didn’t want to do it in front of so many strangers—he didn’t want to be made fun of.

  Susan led him to a locker room and stayed outside. “I’ll go wait for Jena. When you’re done changing, wait by the flagpole for Sergeant Barnes. I’ll see you for lunch when the test is over. There’s a lot we need to discuss, and someone you have to meet—another member of the program.”

  There’s a fourth one?

  Ezra had found the locker room almost empty except for Akiva and a woman stepping out of the adjacent shower stalls. Akiva had been sitting on a bench, all dressed up in uniform and boots, apparently waiting for Ezra so he wouldn’t have to be alone outside.

  “Morning,” he said, shaking his hand, and motioned at the uniform he was wearing. “How does it look?”

  “Like it fits,” he said, and it did. Akiva actually looked like a soldier, while he would look like a child wearing a costume. “Do I really need to wear their issued underwear? What’s wrong with mine?”

  “I don’t know, but I’m afraid so,” Akiva said and began to tighten the laces of his boots. “I don’t get it either.”

  Ezra stripped down to his skin and got dressed again with the clothes in his duffel bag. To his surprise, Susan’s eye had been very accurate, and the clothes fit him as well as they did Akiva, even if the fatigues hung more loosely on Ezra’s scrawny shoulders.

  “Pants go in the boots,” Akiva said, and showed how he had stuffed the bottom of the pants inside his boots. “Like this.”

  After arranging his pants as directed by Akiva, Ezra was fully dressed. The uniform had the effect of equalizing him with this environment, which made him feel and look more confident, so when he followed Akiva out into the field Ezra actually felt ready.

  Jena had joined them only a few minutes later, fully dressed in uniform like Susan’s, her family name also stitched onto her chest.

  Ezra was surprised to find Private Bullring—whose real rank and name was Sergeant Lucius Barnes—joining them exactly at the agreed-upon time, to the second. There were no introductions, conversations, or pleasantries: Sgt. Barnes got down to the test even before he reached the flagpole.

  The huge man started by making them run around the entire base, and by the third lap, Ezra felt sick and regretted his dad’s heavy breakfast. After that, with no rest at all, they were asked to drop to the ground and do fifty pushups, followed by fifty sit-ups, followed by another five laps around the base (a distance of about five miles, according to Barnes, who would time this last run). Ezra did well in the sit-ups and the run, but could barely finish the pushups in a way Barnes found satisfactory.

  Ninety minutes after s
tarting, Ezra was out of breath, feeling like a corpse and trying to wipe vomit off his clothes. Ezra was a bit relieved to see that both Jena and Akiva seemed almost as exhausted as Ezra was: they were on their backs, looking up at the sky and laughing.

  It was Jena who was first on her feet as Barnes came to tell them the test was over and that they had all displayed acceptable physical fitness. “Your physical training in Zenith will be the standard,” he said with something like a smile curling under the nose ring.

  Akiva grabbed Ezra’s shoulder in an affectionate gesture. “We did pretty well, eh?”

  Barnes laughed. “Don’t feel too bad, Blanchard. People puke more often than you’d think in this test. Maybe next time you’ll keep it in your stomach.”

  “Next time?” Ezra said, finally managing to speak and to get up without feeling he was about to faint.

  “Oh, you have to complete this test twice every year. Now go shower. You have twenty minutes before you meet with Corporal Higgins and you sign your contracts. Congratulations on getting this part done. See you later,” he said, and left them.

  It was only minutes later that Ezra found himself showering sweat off his body and vomit out of his hair.

  Jena was in the next stall, naked. Though he couldn’t see her, the thought alone was exciting, and made him have thoughts that he probably shouldn’t be thinking.

  The showerhead was poorly maintained and the water pressure too high, making the shower more a chore than a relaxing reward, but Ezra still wanted to stay in there for hours, washing it all away.

  Ezra was finishing the shower when he heard the faint weeping sounds coming from Jena’s stall. He wasn’t sure if what he was hearing was actually her crying (there was too much noise to know for sure), and because of that, Ezra felt unsure whether he should say something or not.

  When he had finally decided to ask her if she was okay, he heard it come from Akiva’s mouth first. “Jena? Is everything all right?” Akiva’s voice came from outside Jena’s stall.

  “Yeah,” he heard her say before shutting off the water. “I’m okay.”

  “Wanna talk about it?” Akiva said. Why had Ezra taken so long? That could have been him offering a shoulder.

  “No, it’s all right. Thank you, Kiv.”

  “All right. If you need anything—”

  “Yeah, I will. Thank you.”

  Ezra cursed and began wrapping his towel around his waist. When he was about to step outside, he saw two girl’s feet under the door. Was Jena waiting for him just outside the shower stall? Maybe she had something to say to him.

  With the towel still wrapped around his waist, Ezra opened the door.

  “You’re in my stall,” the semi-naked girl outside said.

  It wasn’t Jena.

  “Who was that?” Ezra said as the trio began dressing in the fresh uniforms they had found in their duffel bags. The girl who had taken Ezra’s shower stall was fairly small and lean, and definitely pretty, even if her eyes had regarded Ezra like a lesser creature.

  “Beats me,” Jena said, sliding into her boots. All remains of her tears were gone from her eyes, and she had returned to being the confident girl he had met the day before. “She seems pretty young, so it’s hard to tell. So, have you decided who you want tutoring you?”

  Ezra shook his head. “I told you to decide.”

  Jena looked at Akiva and laughed, then shook her head. This began a short conversation between Jena and Akiva that started with the Moreau test, then their former schooling, then their wager, which hadn’t yet been paid by either, and eventually the physical test. They rarely invited Ezra into the conversation; what was starting before his eyes was a rivalry that didn’t include him at all.

  Ezra finished dressing by stuffing his pants into his boots like Akiva taught him, and the mysterious shower girl stepped out of the stall, very long, wet hair sticking to her lean and muscular back. She regarded him, and just the sight of Ezra appeared to bore her.

  He grabbed his duffel bag and left her. Ezra was glad she was in the military base so he wouldn’t have to see her again. In Zenith, he’d be far from her and those judgmental violet eyes.

  Upon stepping into the dining hall, the trio found Susan in the company of another girl. “First Lieutenant Alice Nolan,” was her introduction. She was someone who wouldn’t always be perceived as beautiful, but she definitely struck Ezra as such. She had a pale complexion and a very sincere way to her expressions. The gray hue in her eyes was rare and gave her an aura of intelligence Ezra really liked. “I’m pleased to finally meet the last new ones,” she said and kissed each of the trio on the cheek, having to stand on her toes to reach Kiva.

  So this was the fourth one.

  “Alice is one of the most senior members of the Creux Defense Program, and the leader of the Defense Squad,” said Susan. “You’ll be working under her and learning from her. She has more experience with the Creux than almost anyone in there.”

  “Anyone that’s left,” Alice said, and it made Ezra’s heart freeze. What did she mean? Had the others left Zenith, or had they been killed? “I’m always excited to meet new members. I’m sure you’ll be great additions to the program. Please have something to eat so Corporal Higgins and I can tell you about your transfer to Zenith.”

  “Where exactly is Zenith?” Jena asked, grabbing a tray of food from a counter. Ezra did the same, taking one that had a bowl of what looked like tomato soup, diced chicken, and rice. “Is it here in the A-District?”

  “Oh, no,” Alice said. “We’re going to go a bit farther away. Outside of Roue.”

  “Outside?” Ezra said, almost choking on his first spoonful of lukewarm soup. “There’s only a diseased wasteland outside the dome.”

  “Well, yes . . . that, and the Zenith Headquarters,” she said, grabbing a cube of chicken from Ezra’s plate with her hand. “Don’t be too frightened, Blanchard, you’re as safe from the virus and the creatures outside there as you are in here.”

  “I’d argue even more so,” Susan added.

  “Yes, you’re right, Corporal.” Alice laughed. Ezra loved the musical sound of her laughter. Ezra also appreciated that she had been the only one who hadn’t made a big deal about his family name. “Well, business time: as the senior member of the program, I’m here to officially enlist you, and Corporal Higgins will serve as a witness. I’m sure you understand that the signature you’ll be giving us is merely a formality.”

  She appeared to be talking specifically to him. Ezra nodded and licked his dry lips.

  “That being said, I recommend you read the contract, because it’s not entirely nonnegotiable. Zenith will be taking a lot of your time, but we can tweak certain clauses to better accommodate you. We know it’s not fair we’re taking a future from you, so I’ll try to do what I can to make the transition easier. Crescent?”

  “Yes?” Jena said as Alice slid their respective contracts across the table; they were thick, and Ezra was sure none of them could read them and understand them in their entirety.

  “I was told about the situation with your father, and Dr. Mizrahi suggested that we transfer him to the medical wing in Zenith. He’ll be very close to you at all times, and we guarantee he’ll receive even better treatment than he does right now.”

  “We don’t have money to—”

  “Money isn’t a concern. For either one of you: Zenith pays better than the military. This extra clause, Crescent, is already included in the marked section of your contract. Should you prefer he stay within the limits of Roue, we can do it, but I’m not sure how often you’d get to see him.”

  “I’d have to talk to him, but it sounds like something we’d both appreciate,” Jena said, and a bit more light returned to her.

  Alice smiled. “I’m glad. Now eat and read. I want them signed before dessert.”

  There was no dessert, and none of them finished reading their contracts before signing with shaky hands.

  Just like that, the blank canvas was
entirely gone. Ezra no longer knew if he could get a girlfriend, marry, have kids. If he could get a new home in another part of Roue. If he could get work as a waiter, as a writer, or as an executive. The precious realm of possibility was taken away as Alice stuffed the three contracts in a backpack.

  Susan looked proud of the trio as Alice spoke. “As of now, you’re part of Zenith. According to the results of your tests, you’re now Private First Class Crescent, Private First Class Davenport, and Second Private Blanchard.”

  “Ha! I outrank you,” Jena told Ezra playfully and stuck her tongue out at him.

  “Congratulations. You have free time until tomorrow,” Alice said. “I will expect you here at eight in the morning, and we’ll make our way to Zenith. Your training will begin immediately.”

  “How long will it be before we can return to Roue?” Kiva said.

  “At least four weeks, so say good-bye to whomever you have to. For your initial training, it’s very important that you disconnect from your civilian lives.”

  “I didn’t even have one,” Kiva said in a joke that seemed too honest, and Alice smiled.

  “I’ll stay in here today, if that’s okay, Susan,” Ezra said. His mother and father surely knew the details of his transfer, so it would be easier to just go—their farewell had been satisfactory, at least until Ezra saw them again.

  “That’s okay,” Susan replied. “But you’re gonna have to call me Corporal, or Corporal Higgins now, Private.”

  Ezra nodded.

  “I’m joking. You can call me Susan.”

  Ezra didn’t laugh. He really hoped being outranked by everyone he knew in Zenith wouldn’t be a problem to his self-esteem. It all depended on how Jena and Kiva treated the matter, and he was certain they would use their rank to amuse themselves. He’d try to play along.

  “I’ll stick around too,” Kiva said. “But I think Jena has an appointment with her father.”

  Jena nodded. “I’ll tell him the good news. Thank you very much, Lieutenant, Corporal.” She left, and Ezra watched her walk away, hoping she wouldn’t go.