Murder Genes (34 page)

I was born this way and I've always been this way, who are you to judge me?
 
If it was choice, why would I choose this path?

If God didn't want me to be this way, why would did he give me these desires?
 
Why did he create me this way if he didn't want me to fulfill my desires?

Because he didn't.

I was born this way and I am blessed.

-Unknown

"Ahhhhahhh-haa," Jay groaned.
 
He had a thing for waking up in pain.
 
He grabbed at the back of his head where it throbbed deep inside, deeper than he could actually touch.
 
"Fuuuckkkk."

"Rise and shine, Jay, time to move."
 
Bitch sat on a rock looking like a perched hawk.

"Bitch?"
 
He tried to move his head but a lightning shock sensation shot down his spine.
 
"Aaahhggg," he groaned again.
 
Someone glided into Jay's peripheral.
 
"Xiaos?
 
Is that you?"

"Yes, Jay.
 
Welcome back to the living side."

"I died?"

"Nearly."
 
Xiaos knelt above Jay's head.
 
"Can you move your neck?"

Jay tried again, the electricity shot down his spine again.
 
"Arrggh.
 
No.
 
I can't move my head more than an inch in any direction."

Xiaos grabbed Jay's head and wiggled it.

"AHH, you FUCKER!" Jay bellowed.
 
"What the hell are you doing, Xiaos?"
 
Jay jerked his head away from Xiaos's hands and pain shot through him again.

Xiaos looked at Bitch.
 
"He may have broken his neck.
 
Or bruised his spine.
 
We'll have to keep carrying him."

"You've got to be kidding me," Bitch said.
 
"I told you we should've left him."

Xiaos looked back down at Jay.
 
"He's kidding.
 
Bitch was the one that insisted that we carry you."

"And you...?" Jay said.

"I believed it wise to leave you for dead."
 
Xiaos smiled softly--humorlessly.
 
He wiggled Jay's head again, gentler and with minimal pain this time.
 
"Based on the fact that you moved your head--foolish as that was--and the fact that you aren't paralyzed because of it, I feel that we can assume you didn't break your neck.
 
Probably a spinal bruise.
 
You should recover with time if you rest and the bleeding inside your spine stops."

"If it doesn't?"

"We leave you for dead."

Jay rolled off his back onto all fours and despite the immense pain he stood quivering to his feet, head locked face forward.
 
"Where we going?" he asked.

"That was foolish," Xiaos said again.
 
"You might have damaged your spine further."

"Maybe," Jay answered Xiaos.
 
"But I'm not going to be carried around like a sack of grain any more than I already have.
 
So tell me boys, what happened?"

Bitch chuckled.
 
"In a nutshell?
 
After you tried to commit suicide?
 
Nothing happened.
 
We found you napping and got you the fuck out of there."
 

"Where's Karah and Hunter?"

Bitch shrugged.
 
"Karah was with the Korees president last I saw her.
 
But I lost sight of her when you tried to blow them up."

"What about Hunter?"

"Your guess is as good as mine," Bitch said.
 
"He went running off when the commotion started."

"So what about before this, after Karah betrayed us?"

"Just about what you'd expect.
 
I led Hunter to Esperanza.
 
Sorry about that by the way." Bitch winced.
 
"Didn't have much choice...anyway.
 
Hunter teamed up with the Gamers since apparently no one's a fan of Esperanza.
 
Fighting, killing, etcetera etcetera.
 
Hunter kept me and Xiaos because he thought we'd be useful.
 
Xiaos refused to help him so Hunter keeps Xiaos in a prison, I joined and worked for Hunter.
 
Boom Blah Bang, Korees win, we get captured, Xiaos gets taken along.
 
We find you."

"
All
of Morir belongs to the DPRK?"

Xiaos answered.
 
There was a darkness in his eyes as he spoke, without spark.
 
"Almost.
 
There's still fighting amongst Morir's survivors," Xiaos said.

"And do we have any idea what the DPRK want?"

Bitch spoke.
 
"Yeah, Hunter said that they had a plan to escape Morir and take over the U.S."

"Damn," Jay said.
 
"I was right."

"What about you?" Xiaos said with an accusatory tone.
 
"What did you accomplish since we last saw you?"

"Accomplish?"
 
Jay laughed.
 
"Are you kidding me, Xiaos?
 
I hid here the entire time without a care in the world until the Slant-Eyes appeared.
 
Then I hid some more until you bastards showed up."
 
He grinned at them.
 
"It's good to have you two around again.
 
I was lost without you guys."
 
He'd missed them both.

"Lost enough to light a match and get a fucking million DPRK blown up?" Bitch asked.
 
He raised an eyebrow.
 
"You don't seem to have enough bells to cover that."

"I didn't do it, I just sparked it," Jay said.

"Oh, is that the new rule?" Bitch asked.

"I can't be responsible for what others do, or else I'd be taking responsible for a lot more than just the Slant-Eyes."
 
Then again, maybe the DPRK weren't even human.
 
Humans weren't human anymore when they bowl heads at limb-pins and play water-balloon tag with beating hearts.
 
And, things were different now.
 
He'd realized something between the time he'd nearly disintegrated and the time he'd woken up.
 
Near death experience or something, or nearest death experience at least.
 
Issak had said it, but Issak hadn't realized just how right he was.

When Jay had rushed in to fight the whole DPKR by himself, it hadn't been because of his suicidal tendencies, it was because he'd been driven to rescue Bitch, Xiaos, and yes, Karah too.
 
He'd ignored his Murderer Survivor instinct entirely, choosing to act like a Protector instead.
 
When he'd tried to rescue people from Morir, bringing them to Esperanza, it'd been because he wanted to save as many people as he could.
 
Protector instinct again.
 
When he'd challenged Gamer the first time and gotten his face exploded out like a whale’s blowhole, it was the Thriller in himself.
 
And then when he'd found a way to kill Gamer in the Lair, it'd been his Murderer instinct.
 
He could've walked right by, but he chose to stay and kill Gamer instead.

Issak was right that The Code was a lie--that everyone with the Code was a murderer, but he was wrong in that people couldn't choose which sub-expression they chose to express.
 
The fact was that they had a choice to be
anything
they wanted within The Code's tendencies.
 
It made sense that society would have two kinds of people.
 
A kind of people that could fight and defend and kill without qualm, and the kind of people that built and developed and created for general progress.
 
Both were necessary in society, both were needed for growth and survival in a hostile world.
 
Without the defenders of society--those with The Code--the developers would die incapable of defending themselves against enemies.
 
Without the developers of society--those without The Code--the defenders would degenerate into their primitive selves like what Morir had become, self-destructive in their own nature.

But the fact was that BOTH were necessary for societal and social survival.
 
Both.

Jay realized this now.
 
It was time the rest of Morir learned this.

The US and every other country had exiled their defenders.
 
If Jay was right, these societies wouldn't and couldn't survive for long.
 
The Self-Genocide movement was too young for them to see it yet, but in short time Jay was certain the civilizations would fall apart.
 
They were destined to extermination by the countries that hadn't exiled their defenders.
 
The DPRK for example.
 
The world was a sitting duck to them.

Jay slowly shuffle-spun himself around, unable to move his neck much.
 
"Where are we?"

They were in a part of Morir that Jay didn’t recognize.
 
While most of Morir looked pretty much the same, the patterns of broken buildings and the landscape became landmarks for each area in Morir.

This place had houses.

Real houses with neighborhoods and streets and real world civilized crap.

Bitch gave him a strange look.
 
"You’ve never heard of here?"

"No.
 
Should I have?"

Bitch shrugged.
 
"Just thought you of all people would’ve checked this place out.
 
This is Casa."

"Casa?"

"You really don’t know."

"Just tell me, Bitch."

"Casa is where the Enforcers keep their families.
 
Kept
their families."
 
Bitch corrected himself.
 
"Enforcers were given special treatment for doing their jobs in Morir.
 
They got food, houses, running water, their families shipped in if they wanted, the stuff we only dreamt of.
 
When the Enforcers started dying off, they bargained with some of us and offered things in return for information and cooperation.
 
After the Esperanza raid, they decided to allow some of us to become Enforcers ourselves and live here with them."
 
Bitch laughed.
 
"That was your fault.
 
Before you they would’ve never considered it, they didn’t even think of themselves the same as everybody else with The Code."

"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."