by Mikael Aizen
"Because of me?"
"You took out two Enforcers, they wanted you bad. They have a pretty touchy revenge clause..."
"What’s two of hundreds of men?" Jay asked.
"Two of fifteen. I'm surprised you know so little of them. You, their mortal enemy."
"I avoided the Enforcers as much as I avoided Lair. Probably why I never found out about Casa."
Bitch shook his head. "Well, after you showed up in Morir they’d already almost run out of men. You pushed them over the edge. Those Enforcer prisoners you saw earlier? Fresh recruits from the Gamer teams in exchange for comforts." Bitch pointed at himself. "I’m Enforcer Bitch now, just so you know."
Enforcer Bitch...the jokes he could make. "I had no idea," Jay grunted.
"That was why many did not want you to join Esperanza," Xiaos said. “They thought you were too large a liability."
"Well they were right," Jay said.
Xiaos shook his head. "We were glad for your leadership." He said the words mutely.
"Leadership? I flew solo and got Esperanza destroyed. What kind of leadership is that?"
"We looked up to you. Even I defaulted to you," Xiao said.
"You did?" Jay hadn’t noticed.
"I did. I never once said ‘no’ to you, did I?" Xiaos sounded...bitter? "You are an idealist that does not compromise. You are passionate and a leader-through-example. You are heroic and charismatic."
Jay snorted.
"And you were, most importantly, Hope. Inspiration to everyone you met." The bitterness in his voice swallowed the flattery up like a big fish.
"You’re Jesus!" Bitch piped.
"You’ve got to be kidding me,” Jay said. "What the hell are you two sniffing? Xiaos, you built Morir from the ground up. You created the only safe haven in a city of murderers."
Xiaos didn't smile. "You were never around to see how people looked up to you and relied on you. My sons did to their ends. Evo cursed his killer in his last breath and Ti begged that I tell you of his courage in dying. I was their father, but it was you they wanted to honor." Xiaos' eyes became very still.
"You were their father,” Jay said. “You raised them and taught them. Not me."
Xiaos said nothing at first, only nodding. "You are a leader, Jay. You are our leader. Esperanza was mine, but now...Hope is yours."
The way Xiaos said it... Jay understood. He knew Xiaos well enough to get what he was saying. Xiaos was stepping down because Jay had destroyed everything he'd created. Jay was responsible for everything that had happened and should suffer whatever consequence there was. This was Xiaos-ian justice. "Hell," Jay sighed.
"Jesus saves," Bitch said.
Jay frowned at Bitch. "Why do you keep calling me that. Fine, I’m your leader. I can’t move my head, I’m missing an arm, and I’ve got a bar through my face. If you want a cripple to lead you, fine." It was his responsibility.
Bitch grinned at him. "You seem pretty immortal so far. Maybe 'Immortal Leader' has met his match. You can be Crippled-But-Still-Immortal-Too Leader. So what’s the next step, Gamer?" Bitch asked. "Hey! We can be 'The Fuckers' and collect Koree dick as our badges!"
"No, Bitch. I'm not Gamer. Call me Redeemer, or King Arthur, but don't call me Gamer."
"Sorry, Jay." If Bitch were a dog, his ears would be flat on his head right now. Like Jay had yelled at him or something.
Jay managed a smile. Bitch looked relieved.
He hadn't realized how stupid he'd been. He'd assumed it'd been just him out and around Morir. He hadn't considered that others had been looking up to him. Each time he ran out, barely surviving, being heroic, he'd risked everyone's lives. And Esperanza had paid for his rashness. Xiaos had paid with his own sons.
He couldn't be stupid anymore. Xiaos deserved better and Esperanza deserved better.
"I’ve been thinking," Jay started. He explained to them his theory about The Code and how people with The Code were the defenders in any society. "Hunter said that the DPRK is planning on escaping so that they can take over the U.S."
"Sounds like a stretch, but you’re the Ga...Redeemer." Bitch said. "What’s your point?"
"We can’t let the DPRK escape Morir."
"Since we care what happens to the people who put us in this frickin' place?" Bitch scoffed.
Xiaos didn't say anything.
"It's our responsibility to choose to defend others. It's our responsibility to give hope to everyone we can and to preserve as many lives possible. It's our responsibility to be wise about our society and wise in the direction we lead it in." Jay said it to Xiaos, but Xiaos had turned his back to them.
"Wise? To face head on a few million armed and trained North Koreans?" Bitch said sarcastically.
Jay nodded. "You’re right."
Bitch exhaled.
"We need more people," Jay finished.
"Fuck Jay, you’re crazy!" Bitch exclaimed. But he was grinning and Jay could see the flush in his face and the excitement in his eyes. "What’s our team gonna be called, Redeemer?"
That was the easy question. "No Team. We're just Redeemers, we're all Redeemers." Jay answered.
"Aaand our badge?" Bitch verbally nudged.
Hot shower that burned and hurt his sensitive skin but he didn't care because it felt so good, soap and bandages and disinfectant for his wounds, electricity for the microwave oven and food food food. Dear GOD how he missed it all.
Jay shaved the best he could. He recognized himself only barely. Even clean shaven from the top of his head to the bottom of his neck he still looked like a monster. The bar through his face really distracted the eye. And his eyes were sunken, his flesh looked raw and red--flea chewed, cracked, and infected. Kyle definitely wouldn't have recognized him.
The thought of Kyle stung. For a while, he'd forgotten--no, he'd purposefully stopped thinking about his son. Kyle who frowned too much when he was alone because he always had something thoughtful going on in his head. But when he talked to you he couldn't stop smiling because he seemed so happy to see you. He made you feel special, everyone said that. He was a smarter kid than Jay had ever been, and Jay missed him. A lot.
Looking at himself in the mirror, at the two bells left on that damned bar, he saw a murderer, a killer, someone who couldn't be a nurturer. A father. A leader.
Jay looked away from the mirror.
He grabbed the box of first aid supplies and threw it in the bag with the other stuff. He rummaged around as he looked for anything else that might be useful. Tools, rope, duct tape. A chocolate bar. The Enforcers had been living the life.
Bitch came in through the front door and Jay turned his head too far. The electric zap zipped down his spine again, but it was mostly dulled and bearable. His neck was healing.
Bitch had a backpack on, stuffed full of guns. He looked like a porcupine. "Rifle, handgun, super-taser?" Bitch asked.
"Knife is fine," Jay answered. He pulled out Mike's knife which had so far managed to stay at his side through everything.
Bitch gave the knife a look. "You plan on harvesting fucking penis in their sleep instead of killing Korees?" He held out a gun. "Take it. They disarmed the exploding shell when they began recruiting."
"Too bulky," Jay said.
"You realize you can't be working alone anymore, not as our leader."
Jay hesitated, put away his knife and took the gun. "How's Xiaos doing?" Xiaos had been scarce, like he was keeping his distance from Jay. Jay didn't blame him.
"No idea. He left to make sure the perimeter was still set on 'zap fucking intruders to death.'" Casa was surrounded like a cage with a "huge electric zappy perimeter," Bitch had said.
"How'd we get in then?" ...Nevermind." Jay caught himself. It was Bitch. Bitch could get into anything.
Bitch grinned. "I got the code from Hunter."
"Got?" Stole.
"Yeah," Bitch answered.
"And Hunter might come back anytime, for what we know."
Bitch grinned. "Yup. So you
done here?"
"Almost, I haven't hit the basement yet."
"That's where I got these babies in the other houses," Bitch patted the backpack. "I swear, Enforcers have no fucking imagination, hiding weapons in the basement?"
They made their way towards the stairs. "Hey," Jay said. "If you're so good at finding ways out of things, why haven't you found a way out of Morir?"
"I fucking did," Bitch said.
"What?"
"Same way you get in, Jay."
"Oh." He didn't remember too well the details. They'd kept them sedated the whole way.
"All we gotta deal with is the checkpoint right outside the city and the automated security systems on the way out."
"That easy, huh?"
"Sure. If I were a techno guru and invisible and could get close enough to take a look at things with enough tools to supply an army of engineers." Bitch shook his head. "I've seen enough to know that I don't want to be anywhere close to that part of Morir.
"Immortal Leader has to have a plan. What else could it be?"
Bitch shrugged. "Maybe he has an army of engineers."
Maybe. They opened the door to the basement and flipped the light on. The basements were even finished with wooden floors, foam-brick walls. "Where were the weapons in the house you checked out?" Jay asked.
Bitch led the way. "Crawlspace, in the back."
The basement had stacks of books in every corner and a ping-pong table it its middle. In the far end, Jay could see a tiny square door at roughly eye level. Bitch walked right up to it and opened the trapdoor. Just as he did Jay saw something move and he dove forward, yanking on Bitch's back leg.
Bitch dropped just as the rifle went off. They both rolled to the side and out of sight. Jay pulled his gun out and cocked it. "Who's there!" he yelled. He'd showered here and hadn't even thought to check that someone might be in it. Stupid.
"You first!" a woman's voice shouted back.
"We aren't here to hurt anyone. We're Enforcers," Jay said.
There was a snort. "Not likely."
"OK, we aren't Enforcers, but Bitch here is."
"True. Honorary member," Bitch chimed in.
"We aren't here to hurt anyone,” Jay continued. “Watch, we're putting our guns down."
Bitch gave Jay an incredulous look, and then nodded admiringly when Jay pulled out a rifle and a gun from the bag and slid it in front of the open trapdoor. He saw the tip of a bare toe stick out under the open door's edge, and then a woman hopped out wearing a light blue nightdress and holding a rifle.
Jay sidestepped away from Bitch, aiming his handgun at her head. "Drop it," he said before she could raise her weapon. The woman had wavy black hair with chocolate dark skin, she gaped at him and her arms shook. She was pretty. "Don't do it," Jay warned as her arms shook. Jay heard a stifled hiccup from the inside of the trapdoor. "Who else is in there?"
She let the gun's tip drop but didn't let go of it. "Please," she said. "My children."
"Drop the rifle and I won't hurt you. I promise. I'm not here for blood." Jay risked a glance at Bitch who'd been awfully silent. Bitch was staring at the woman. "Bitch?" Jay said.
"She's so beautiful," he whispered.
"Damn Bitch, really?" Jay looked at the woman. "That's his name, I swear."
She nodded uncertainly. "Who are you two?"
"Just two people trying to survive."
"What happened? What's happened to our men? How'd you get in? Is the perimeter down again?"
Again? Her arms were shaking again. "Put the gun down and we'll talk," Jay said. "We aren't the bad guys."
The rifle shook so badly that Jay inched forward nervously. She suddenly squeezed the trigger and the gun went off. The bullet narrowly missed Bitch who didn't even react. The woman stared at her own hands and Jay rushed forward and kicked the rifle from her shocked hands, making sure he remained invisible to anyone still hiding in the crawl space.
"I'm sorry!" she gasped. "I didn't mean to!"
"Fuck, you could've killed him," Jay said. He pointed his gun at her head and wiggled the barrel. "Move away and don't touch the guns on the floor. Tell everyone in there to come out."
"I thought you said you wouldn't hurt us."
"I won't," Jay said. "I just want to be sure we're safe." He put his body close to the wall as the woman sidestepped against the opposing wall him. "Bitch, would you make sure the guns are out of the way?"
Bitch shook his head like he'd just waken up. "Sure Jay." He used a rifle from his bag and nudged the trapdoor closed. He waited a moment before sweeping up the guns and jogging back to their corner.
"OK, now have them come out," Jay said to the woman, pointing his gun right where the emerging kids would appear.
She stared at him.
"I won't hurt them, I promise. We just don't want a bullet in the back of our heads, that's all."
She nodded and wrung at her fingers. "Kids, come out," she called.
Two tiny black kids wiggled out of the trapdoor. A boy and a girl. The boy was younger, he looked five, and the girl maybe seven. They ran to their mother and she knelt and embraced them. "Is that everyone?" Jay asked.
She hesitated.
"I said all of them!" Jay bellowed.
"Crap Jay, you're scaring her," Bitch said.
Jay ignored him. "Now!" he said.
She didn't do anything. Her lips got tight.
"Bitch, you have a grenade in there?" Jay put his gun away, letting Bitch do the covering.
The woman gasped and put her hand over her mouth. They didn't have any grenades, Jay knew, but hopefully Bitch would catch his bluff. "Yeah," Bitch said. "Right here." A grenade was put in Jay's hand. Really? We have grenades? Damn.
"They come out or I throw this in. I probably will throw it in anyway just in case, so they better be out here when I do."
"We've explosives in there," the woman said. "If you throw that in, everyone dies."
Smart woman. Good excuse. "I'll take that chance."
She stared at him again.
"If it helps," Bitch said gently. What's gotten into him? "We won't hurt anyone. We just can't risk it. Honest." He even drew a cross over his heart as he said it.
The woman seemed to believe Bitch. "Come out everybody."
Everybody? The way it sounded...
A lot of people began coming out. "Slowly!" Jay yelled. "And line up on the wall." They were women and children. Lined up on the wall to the very end of the basement. Bitch, thankfully, snapped back into the present and guarded the opposite end as a second line began forming in front of the first. Forget it. If they all rush us even without weapons, we're done for. We can't monitor this many people. "Stop," Jay said. They all froze and it looked like a fucking concentration camp, him and Bitch, the Nazis.
"Give them guns," Jay said to Bitch, putting the grenade away and drawing his gun again. "Women first, kids second." Everybody looked at him in confusion.
Bitch didn't move.
"We're not here to hurt you. In these numbers we'll never be able to prove it to you, either. So consider this an act of trust on our part. Rather than killing you just to be sure none of you turn on us, I'll choose to trust you first not to kill us. We could use your help." Jay said it again. "Give them the guns, Bitch."
Bitch didn't hesitate this time. He unzipped the bag and began handing out the weapons. More people emerged from the crawl space, quickly now and without the air of tension that had been suspended around them just seconds ago. Jay handed the woman they'd first spoken to his own gun. "Take this," he said.
She took it and pointed it right back at Jay. Jay heard cocks from other guns turned on Bitch. "That was damn foolish," she said, jerking her head toward the trapdoor.
Men hopped out, armed to the teeth. Enforcers, five of them. "Cowardly to hide behind your women," Jay said.
One of the Enforcers smiled. "It was."
"Going to kill us now? After we slapped your families with an olive branch?"
/>
The Enforcer lifted his hand and lowered the woman's gun off Jay. "Put your weapons away."
"I appreciate that," Jay said.
"I appreciate you not killing my wife," the Enforcer responded, holding an arm out to the woman in the nightdress.
Jay glanced at Bitch, but he didn't seem phased at all, he was still staring at the woman with the strangest look, a look of...familiarity?
"We could always use more guns on our side," the Enforcer said. "Would you join us? My name is Adan."
Jay said. "I'm Jay."
"Actually," Bitch spoke loudly, still standing across the room, "He's Gamer Jay. And we're after Korean dick."
Jay rolled his eyes.
Adan smirked. "Really now?"
Jay saw a sudden movement in the corner of his eye. He dove for the ground and heard a BLAM and crowded screams.
He peered upward and saw the woman in blue with a hole through her chest. The gun began slipping from her limp fingers. He whipped his body up and around, sweeping the gun from the woman's fingers as he searched with his eyes for the shooter.
Another woman, with strawberry hair and green furious eyes aimed her rifle at him. Jay lifted his gun even though he knew he wouldn't be fast enough to stop her.
A hand came up behind the woman, holding a knife, cutting her throat.
When the woman fell to the ground, Bitch was behind her, grasping a knife. He was panting hard and had a wild look suspended on the woman in blue's fallen body. He stalked toward Adan's wife and dropped the knife before he broke down crying, holding her hand. Adan's gun hand lifted and pointed at Bitch's head.
Jay immediately aimed his gun at Adan. No one else moved. "What do you think you're doing?" Jay asked Adan.
When Adan looked at Jay, it was a dull look of a man in shock. "What the hell is his problem? She's my wife." He didn't pull the trigger.
"Put the gun down," Jay said. "Bitch, what the fuck are you doing?"
