“Maybe,” said Luciele. She assumed that Kozz had his own plans for Erde and saw the look in his eyes when Caleb mentioned the thought of following him. She knew Kozz cared for them, but she understood that he never intended for them to follow him to Erde.
They stood where they were, not knowing where to go or what to do. They each had their own separate paths to take and knew that they were at a crossroads, but no one knew where to take the first step. They each took the time to absorb the chaos which surrounded them. Military presence was everywhere, on the ground and in the sky. Men, women, and children were scattered all across the streets, staying at a distance from one another in fear that anyone could become infected at any moment. Was there no answer? Was there nowhere safe to go?
As they stood there staring off into the distance a heavy slap hit Kozz across the back. Kozz turned as quick as lightning and was reaching for Red when he stopped in mid-motion, recognizing a face from his past.
“Cosmo you devil dog,” said a soldier who was as large as Kozz, “I never thought I would see your ugly mug ever again.” The soldier's attire was more decorated and polished than most of the other men and women in uniform, and he wore a short-brimmed hat rather than an armored helmet. His hair was neat and trim, face clean shaven, and his smooth skin was dark like a stout beer.
“Jammer,” said Kozz. “Look at what they've done to you. It's been a long time.”
“Cosmo?” asked Caleb.
“And who do we have here,” said Jammer. “Did you run off and start a new family?”
“These are my friends. That's Caleb, his mother Luciele, and this is Kelly and Richard. We've been surviving this mess together for awhile now.” Kozz stood in disbelief for a moment before he thought to introduce his old friend to the others. “This guy is Jammer, my buddy from a long time ago. We grew up on the streets together.”
“And now I'm a commander for the Cooperation,” Jammer said, tugging on the chest of his uniform with both hands.
“Nice to meet you,” said Kelly.
“You already remind me of Kozz,” said Luciele. “You both share the same...charisma, or something to that effect.”
“Well like he said,” responded Jammer, “we're old buds. We went through a lot together, up until he started working as a bodyguard for that senator. Didn't see him much after that, then one day he just disappeared. Now what is it, twenty years or so later and I find you on this ice block. What have you been up to all this time?”
Kozz sighed. “I have a history that I've been meaning to tell to my friends here, but I've been too scared to share it. I've kept it secret for over a decade now, hiding from my past to protect it. It's not necessary to keep quiet any longer, because it's helping nothing. My friends here have saved me from myself and they deserve to know what they've saved me from. If you have some time, Jammer, I'll share with you what I want to share with them. Is there some place we can go to rest other than that hell hole in the arena?”
“Yeah,” said Jammer. “It's about time for me to be relieved for the night anyway. I can get you and your friends into our barracks, give you an area for yourselves to rest and grab some food. The barracks used to be full, but we've lost quite a few soldiers. How about we get over there, grab you guys some dinner, and set everyone up for the night, then we can talk.”
“Sounds good old friend. Thanks.”
“Thank you, Jammer,” said Caleb.
“Thanks man,” said Richard.
Jammer led the crew over to the military barracks. Several more infected were taken down by soldiers and carried off.
"What are they doing with those poor people?" Luciele turned to Jammer. "Are they going to be alright?"
"We're trying to save as many people as we can by tranquilizing the infected, rather than killing them. They're carried across town to a military barge that's been converted into a medical storage and research facility. The crazies are being put into medically-induced comas until someone comes up with a way to fix 'em."
"Are they studying them?" asked Caleb. "Are they doing experiments on the infected? How can they help them?"
"They're doing what they can, kid. Someone will find a cure," said Jammer. Caleb tried to pry further, but Jammer ignored him. He turned away from the curious boy and feigned interest in a small conflict down a side street away from the barracks. "Come on. Let's get the bunch of you inside and away from all this trouble." Confidentiality was part of Jammer's position and Caleb was left with more questions than answers.
Jammer greeted the guards at the entrance and gave specific instructions that Kozz and the others were to be granted entrance to the facility as they pleased. He then led the group to an empty area of the barracks and showed them to the mess hall. Jammer warned that armed soldiers patrolled the barracks for infected. He made sure that, as civilians inside a military facility, they understood to remain calm and not make any extreme movements or sounds. Every soldier was instructed to keep their weapon ready at all times and act swiftly if one of their fellow soldiers turned infected.
The military had discovered that keeping a weapon handy at all times was necessary in dealing with the infected. The weapon did not present immediate danger if its wielder became infected because it took some time before an infected understood that they had a weapon and figured out how to use it. It was as if their minds had erased the knowledge of such things and had to relearn them.
They all grabbed some dinner from the mess hall and headed back to their section of the barracks to unpack their belongings and settle in for the night. Jammer went to his own room and changed out of his uniform and into more relaxed military garb. He returned with his pistol still strapped to his side. They sat together on their beds as Kozz collected his thoughts and prepared to tell his story.
“I was fourteen when my parents were killed in a vehicle accident, or at least that's what I was told. It was only a few weeks earlier that my father had given Red to me. He showed me how to use her and how to treat her right. When my parents passed away I was put under the supervision of the authorities who were responsible for setting me up in an orphanage. I had no other family to take me in. They wanted to take Red away from me. She was the only thing I had left to remind me of my parents and I couldn't let her go, so I ran and took her with me. I knew they would look for me if I tried to go back home, so I ran to the streets and lived in the darkened alleyways of Erde.
“I survived on handouts and favors for awhile, but it wasn't enough. I needed more to sustain myself, and that's when Jammer walked into my life. He was a boy about my age, living on the streets, but he told me about the people he worked for and how well they treated him for doing good work. We got along real well together and Jammer took me in one day to see his boss. They welcomed me with open arms and offered me work. I took a job as a delivery boy for some bad people and learned to defend myself in ways my father would have never taught me. It was a harsh life, but the people I worked for rewarded me well. I grew in size, eventually becoming the mammoth you see me as today. When I was first given Red I was barely able to lift her with both arms, but by the time I grew into her I had lived my life as a cold thug, the kind of person people feared to cross. My delivery jobs turned into bigger things, turned into making threats and collecting payments of money or broken bones. Jammer and I did our work together and we became good friends.
“One day, in my early twenties, a senator of the Cooperation representing Erde was checking out the slums of our glorious city. I can only assume that it was a public relations ploy, him wanting to give the impression that he cared about our little shithole. I was relaxing against a building, smoking a stogie one fine afternoon after collecting some late and unpaid debts, when the senator walked by with two sunglasses-and-black-tie bodyguards hugging his sides. The walkway was thin and one of the guards told me to move out of the way as they approached. I stood my ground, too proud to let some suited asshole tell me what to do. I figured they would just move around me, but the one
guard came over and pushed me. I didn't move, just kinda smiled and blew a little smoke in his face. He came at me again with the intention of bringing me to the ground, but I grabbed one of his reaching arms, turned his body around and snapped the arm in half at the elbow. I snatched his other arm as the second guard came running over to help his partner and told him to stop right where he was or I would break the guy's other arm as well. The second guard hesitated for a moment and then came rushing towards me. Snap the other arm went and the guy fell to the ground, pleading in pain. The second guard attacked me and I grappled him tight enough to make him useless and at the mercy of my whim. Before I could do anything to him the senator ordered for his guards and I to stop. If the suits weren't going to bother me any longer then I had no problem with them, so I let him go.
“Story goes that he was impressed with my abilities and wanted to hire me as one of his bodyguards. I wound up filling both positions.”
“And that's about the time I didn't see you around much anymore,” said Jammer.
“It was time-consuming work,” said Kozz. “You know I stopped by the streets as often as I could, but the senator didn't want any media catching his bodyguard hanging out with thieves and gangsters.”
“True enough,” said Jammer with a smile. “But it wasn't much longer before you disappeared completely. That's when I decided I had enough of being a lowlife and signed up for the military. All those long years passed by and I worked my way up to Commander. Crazy shit. I still don't believe it myself. And now I'm put in charge of the brigade stationed here in Port Town and find your ass running around in all this calamity. I suppose if I should have expected anyone to survive this shit it would be you.”
“I can't believe it either, but I'm proud of you, Jammer. You belong in that uniform. It fits you well. But there was a reason why I disappeared, why you haven't seen me in so long. I was the senator's guard for a good six years. It wasn't very satisfying work, but at least it was honest, if only because I was now beating people up to protect a government official. It was during my time working for the senator that I met my beautiful wife, Priscilla. We married a year after we met and had our son Jacob not much later. We were very happy and in love.”
“See, now I remember Priscilla,” said Jammer. “For a while there I thought that she was why you left the streets. Figured you didn't want her to know too much about your past, figured you wanted to forget me and all those jobs we did together.”
“That wasn't the case at all. I missed your crazy ass ever since we last saw each other, but Priscilla and I were happy and in love. We wanted to get off Erde and live a more rural life away from all the crime in the city and drama in the government, but as you all are aware, it's extremely expensive just to travel to another planet, never mind moving to one and starting a new life from scratch. It was at that time in our lives that a great opportunity came to me, a position as an Enforcer for the Presider of the Cooperation.”
Everyone was aghast except for Caleb who looked to his mother, not fully understanding the importance of the position.
“You were a freaking Enforcer?” squeaked Kelly through the hands covering her mouth. “You're the most important person I've ever met!”
“So that's the part of your past you wouldn't tell us about,” said Luciele. “No wonder why you wanted to keep it a secret. No one ever knows the identities of the Enforcers.”
“That explains why you're such a badass,” said Richard.
“What's an Enforcer?” asked Caleb. His mother told him that she would explain it later.
“An Enforcer,” said Jammer. “Wow. That's why you just disappeared. Four Enforcers working directly underneath and for the Presider. The hand of power in the known universe, the Presider its thumb and the Enforcers are its fingers. And you were one of them. A diplomat, a spy, a warrior—”
“An army,” said Kozz. He turned his attention to Caleb, wanting the boy to know what he was. “An Enforcer is a sort of bodyguard for the Presider, a bounty hunter, an emissary, and a literal one-man army. There are only four Enforcers at any given time, and none of their identities are known by anyone, even the other Enforcers. The Presider appoints his Enforcers and only a couple of his top advisers are told minute details about their identities. The purpose of the Presider having Enforcers is to help him maintain his presence and authority in the ever-expanding empire of the Cooperation. I would wear this enormous, impenetrable, highly-advanced suit of armor that had all sorts of weaponry and gadgets attached to it. I would make threats to dangerous people on the Presider's behalf. I would perform top-secret and not-so-secret missions for the Presider. I would protect the Presider and his family. I would do whatever the Presider asked of me and I would only take orders from him.”
Kozz turned his attention back to everyone else. “It was really the same sort of work I had been doing all of my life, but I was so damn good at it that the Presider wanted me to do it for him, and if I'm doing it for the Presider...the beatings and killings had to be justified, right? My father was a former Enforcer, that fact and my skills are what led me to the position. I didn't even know what my father was until I joined the ranks.
“But I planned on keeping the job for only a couple of years, just long enough to build up retirement savings. Once we had the cash I was going to quit and take my family to a far away place where we could leave all of it behind. The position was too dangerous for me and my family. Turns out I was locked in until the Presider relieved me of my duties. Turns out I was his best Enforcer and he didn't want to let me go.
“The years rolled by, but we were safe enough. Priscilla and I became dulled by the danger of the position and grew too comfortable with it after some time. There was always a bit of worry, but time turned it into just another part of the day. No one knew my identity or the identity of my family and we were living a good life. We weren't out of the city, but at least we were living on top of it, as far as we could be from everything while still being in it. Jake was going to a good school and we were all happy. I eventually stopped asking to leave and I continued doing what I was doing for twelve years.
“That twelfth year I was sent to the Insurrectionist Moon, or the Rebel Moon as a lot of people like to call it. The place is full of high-profile criminals and fugitives, all on the run and hiding from the Cooperation. The moon isn't under Cooperation control, not that we haven't tried, and wouldn't be a habitable place if several wealthy crime organizations didn't band together to create an underground fortress fit with all the necessities for life. The Cooperation has battled and bargained with those anarchists for over a century, and there's nothing to show for it. It's crawling with villains of the Cooperation— thieves, convicts, terrorists, murderers, and gangs, all the scum of the universe that has found a way to make it out there. The people there knew what I was and who I was going for. I killed many men in the short amount of time I spent on the moon, fighting my way to the Narnkazi family crime lord, one of the wealthiest and most powerful crime lords in history. He had become a major threat to the Cooperation. I wasn't there to kill him, but to threaten him. He saw how powerful an Enforcer could be. How one of us, never mind all four, could break through his walls and tear apart his entire organization. He heard the threat and he heard it well.
“Six months later I came home from a different mission to find my wife in tears and my son, Jacob, lying dead on top of his blood soaked bed. It was Narnkazi. That was the first time I cried since my parents died all those years before. Priscilla and I held each other and wept all night long for our fallen son. The next day I went to the Presider and told him what had happened and that I was resigning with or without his permission, no matter the consequences. He accepted my resignation and told me that his Chief of Global Representatives Robert Densen had only minutes earlier confessed to answering to threats from Narnkazi against his family. He had given away what few details he had known about my identity. Apparently he knew enough.
“Presider Conway told me
that he had just dispatched soldiers to warn and protect us from any impending danger, but it was too late. I was going to kill the Densen sonofabitch, but Conway told me that he had already been locked up and relieved of his position. He would be prosecuted like any other person.
“I wanted to go to his cell and rip his head off. Conway ordered me to sit and calm myself before I did something stupid. I had just put in my resignation, but I was too adjusted to acting on the man's every word without question that I just did as he said. I sat in the Presider's chair and I convinced myself that the man, Densen, only did what was required to protect his family, not himself. I couldn't kill him for that.
“I left the office, never intending to return again. I went home to Priscilla. I told her that I love her and held her in my arms again for a little while. Then I explained to her that I had to leave, that I had to leave so that nothing like this would happen to her. I loved her so very much. I cried as I told her this.” Tears fell from Kozz's cheeks as he stared at the floor. He was uncomfortable appearing vulnerable to his companions and could not meet their eyes. “She fought against the very thought of it, fought with me. She said she would come with me no matter how far we had to run, but I knew that nowhere would ever be far enough. She didn't understand, but I would not back down. We embraced each other, said things to one another for the last time, shared sweet memories one last time. Then I left, not telling her where I was going. She would be safe with me gone. I failed my son, and I would fail her as well if I stuck around. I couldn't protect her. She would never be safe with me around.
Frostarc Page 20
