Por el Imperio
Disclaimer: This chapter involves harsh language, descriptions of brutality, and child soldiers, and isn't for anyone who can't handle the themes of this chapter. This chapter is intended to tie into Chapter 6 of TLOU Part 3 so this is some early access content. This story is set in Mexico and the entire South East and South West of the United States between the years 2013-2046. This is the story of Malaki/Malak "Blue" Leon Guzman a central character in The Last of Us Part 3. This is his past.
Chapter 1: Houston We Have a Problem
"Compelled to become instruments of war, to kill or be killed, child soldiers are forced to give violent expression to the hatreds of adults."
Olara Otunna
April 18, 2028
(Better Look Me in the Eyes – By Dan Romer)
Bullets crackled like lightning from far out in the distance. Flame troopers marched in single file lines burning every building across Houston suspected of having a single trace of spores or infected. Anguished cries and garbled clicks of infected screaming in agony filled the nearly quiet street Commandant's Sons were told to secure. Malak watched the flame troopers march in envy. Their large flamethrower canisters were filled with fresh petroleum extracted from Kingsville, Texas. The concoction was mixed with Benzene and Aluminum salts to create napalm.
Malak held Kyle's bloodied and tear-stricken face in his chest. Dario was also covered head to toe in blood. Both Kyle and Dario were given orders to behead the parents of the new recruits, while their children watched. It was Kyle's first time. Commandant's Sons was the name of their brigade. There were currently only 50 privates in the brigade, no one over the age of fifteen. Malak's squadron was resting on a still functioning M1 Abrams tank. Sancho chose to sit on the tank's massive gun, his bare feet dangling in the air alongside the feet of several other young boys. Dario was on the other side of the tank leaning against the turret muttering, "¡Deja de llorar como ese cabrón que decapitaste! (Stop crying like that cunt you beheaded!)"
Kyle only cried harder into Malak's chest. Kyle's blonde hair was still sticky with the mother's blood. Malak patted his fellow slave's head then raised his head to look at Dario before saying, "¡Era su primera vez! ¡Dario, es tu hermano! ¡Muestra respeto! (It was his first time! Dario, he's your brother! Show respect!)"
"Blue, I want her screams to stop! Please make em stop!" Screamed Kyle his tears and blood ruining Malak's olive-green USAF camouflaged shirt.
"¡Al Comandante no le gusta que sus hijos sean débiles! ¡Mejor deja de llorar ahora que decapitamos a otro hijo roto! (Comandante doesn't like his sons being weak! Better he stops crying now than for us to behead another broken son!)" Shouted back Dario his AR-15 raised high.
Malak glared at Dario. Before he could reply to the much younger sadistic boy the tank belts started to move. Sancho and several other young boys laughed as they felt the tank's turret gun shake under their butts. The tank's belts roared to life and all one dozen boys on top of the tank laughed, except for Kyle who was still being held in Malak's arms. Malak's light brown hair was covered by a dark blue Chullo (Peruvian alpaca hat) that was stained with blood. Kyle's crying grew louder when an artillery shell from far north of the city crashed 100 meters north of their location. Malak slapped Kyle's face once, then twice, before shaking the scared young nine-year-old boy, Malak's sapphire eyes were wide open with worry and seriousness as he said, "Calm down! Calm the fuck down! You're a slave and soldier of the Imperio de Nueva America (New America Empire) fucking act like a man! Know your place, Kyle!"
Kyle calmed down slightly at Blue's words causing the other ten children under Malak to look at the boy they all referred to as Perro Loco Azul (Mad Dog Blue) as if he was Comandante himself. Malak stabilized himself and crouched up to look at his brothers in arms and shouted out, "Brothers, we're going to meet Comandante over by Space City! Our orders are to kill every damn infected we encounter on our way there! If we encounter any adults shoot em! Por el Imperio! (For the Empire!)"
All eleven children screamed from atop the tank, "Por el Imperio!"
The tank rumbled and creaked turning down the burning streets of Houston. They fired bullets into clicking and screeching infected that charged past the flame troopers. Malak raised his AR-15 against his shoulder and pulled the trigger. Bright orange explosions appeared at the tip of his semi-automatics muzzle. White smoke filled the streets of Houston as infected fell to the torn bombed streets lifeless. Their mushroom-covered bodies were crushed by the underbelly of the tank as the children roared in laughter and madness. Sancho looked back at their leader with respect and admiration.
Malak's bare feet burned on the hot metal tank's outer shell. Empty brass cartridges shot out of his AR-15's chamber as he continued to shoot every runner, stalker, and clicker that charged close to their tank. The tank drove southward bound along Bay Area Boulevard past an abandoned Elementary school flame troopers were burning up. Malak and the children became quiet as the tank passed by a bombed-out playground. Malak looked at the empty playground in sadness. The desolate jungle gym and slides looked so enticing, everyone could only watch them pass by in envy. Dario fired several bullets from his gun into the air bringing the children out of their thoughts as the tank continued south before making a left onto Saturn Lane. Overgrown tropical trees and swampy waters covered the road leading up to Houston's Space Center. Everything along the road was green and alive, except for the eyes of every child on the tank as it rolled forward towards their comandante.
"Blue, you think once the warring and killing are done, we'd be able to play?" Asked Hugo, he was a small eight-year-old boy from Corpus Christi who looked up to their squad leader like Malak was his father.
"This is our playtime! Don't you understand Hugo?" Yelled out Malak to his little brother who simply cried. The little boy nearly dropped his .38 snub-nosed revolver from his hands onto the muddy tropical ground as the reality of what was going to happen sank in.
"¡Azul! ¡Nuestros hermanos no entienden lo asombroso que es todo esto! (Blue! Our brothers don't understand how amazing this all is!)" Shouted Dario who fired half a dozen rounds from his AR-15 killing two wandering stalkers walking out of the jungle surrounding them.
Mosquitos buzzed around the children on the tank. They fired their rifles and handguns at any infected they encountered as the tank driver maneuvered around burned and stationary vehicles that hadn't moved since the beginning of the outbreak. Sancho continued to laugh from atop the turrets gun saying loudly, "Comandante promised us if we catch a woman, we can have our way with her. Blue what is it like having a woman?"
All the children turned their eyes toward Malak who simply grimaced. They were all too young to even have sex, yet the promise of having a woman before they died enticed the boys older than ten. The ones younger than ten simply looked at their squad leader in confusion, causing Malak to say sharply, "Its scary at first. You don't know what you're doing but know what you need to do! Women always cry and scream when you take em. The screaming gets louder and louder until the only way to make it stop is to shoot em! Comandante promises us a lot of things. Our orders are to kill any adult we encounter! Por el Imperio! (For the Empire!)"
All the children shouted in unison, "Por el Imperio!"
The tank came to the end of Saturn Lane and turned left tearing through a wired fence causing the children on the tank to cheer and scream in joy. Pablo and Hugo fired their revolvers into the air as they plowed through the overgrown jungle the tanks belt heaving through fields and old research sites once belonging to NASA. Now it belonged to the Imperio de Nueva America! Malak joined in the cheering only to scream in worry as clickers tried to charge their tank only to be stopped by swampy vegetation.
Malak fired his last few rounds from his AR-15 and with little eleven-year-old fingers reloaded his rifle. He pulled back the charging handle and placed his left hand on the bottom of the handguard of his AR the stock resting on his right shoulder. Then he opened fire killing half a dozen trapped clickers in the jungle. The tank trampled over one of their corpses crushing the former human into a pancake. Hugo fired his revolver, Dario crazily fired his rifle at any moving object, Sancho crawled off the turret gun along with two other young boys. Almost every boy stood behind Dario and Malak as they cleared the way for the tank.
"Mommy told me this was where people would go to space," said Kyle as the tank passed by a rusted-up and weed-covered Orbiter Space Shuttle.
"Your mom was right," began Malak his face covered in black grimy gunpowder, "Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, were here a long time ago. Comandante says once we conquer North America. We'll be able to fly into space again."
"You really think so Blue? We can't even catch a woman and you think we'll go to space?" Questioned Sancho.
"Catching a woman is nothing. That Sancho!" Yelled Malak, his bronze finger pointing at the disappearing black and white Orbiter behind them, "That is our children's, children's, and their children's future. We are given Hell so we can make the world into heaven! The Texas Rangers, the Cartel, Fedra, everyone has been fighting for Space City. This is ours!"
All the children shouted, "Por el Imperio! (For the Empire!)"
The tank continued going through jungle-infested grounds passing by kudzu-covered buildings until it arrived with a dozen other tanks outside of a rusted white facility that had painted American Flags and the NASA logo on the outside. A weathered American Flag dangled from a rusted-up flagpole. Eleven other tanks surrounded the flagpole. Texas Rangers wearing Stetson hats watched Comandante's Sons cheering towards the flagpole on horseback. The rangers looked at the child soldiers in disgust, Malak looked back at them with just as much disgust. They were the very people who raised him and then abandoned his family when they needed them most.
The tank carrying all twelve boys creaked past a Texas Ranger's horse the old man on the horse looked at Malak in disgust and muttered, "Bunch of soulless bastards."
"Fuck you!" Dario yelled back.
All the children, including Malak laughed. Kyle punched Dario's side and both brothers laughed together. Sancho flipped the rangers his middle finger making the rangers growl. There were four hundred soldiers of the Imperio present when the tank creaked to a stop around the ruined flagpole. Several former members of Los Zetas opened the doors to the facility revealing an untouched Saturn 5 Rocket. The Comandante walked out of the facility with over a hundred soldiers who were cheering. Comandante stood on top of a machine gun-mounted Chevy 4x4 Truck.
Everyone remained quiet.
"¡Tus padres te dejaron atrás! ¡Te dejé atrás en el infierno! Fedra reclama facilidad, es nuestra! ¡Soy tu padre ahora! ¡Yo los crié, muchachos, les enseñé el camino! ¡El camino del arma, el camino del fuego y las formas de matar infectados! ¡Un hijo debe proteger a su padre! ¡Victoria! ¡Victoria! ¡Victoria! (Your parents left you behind! Left you behind in Hell! Fedra claims this facility, it is ours! I'm your father now! I raised you, boys, taught you the way! The Way of the gun, the way of fire, and the ways to kill infected! A son must protect his father! Victory! Victory! Victory!)" Shouted Comandante. Comandante, also known as Miguel Gaviria, wore a olive green beret on his head and was smoking a Churchill cigar. We wore a blood-stained olive-green Mexican military uniform.
Comandante climbed onto the tank with his fellow sons who were all screaming in unison, "¡Victoria! ¡Victoria! ¡Victoria!"
He placed his right hand under Malak's chin who looked up to his new father with loving eyes. Comandante smiled wide and blew cigar smoke into the air and said to his favorite son, "¡Hijo mío, Azul, nunca te preocupes! ¡Lo has hecho bien entrenando a estos chicos para que se conviertan en hombres! ¡Necesito que le muestres a mis hijos cómo fumar metanfetamina y luego quiero que lideres la vanguardia en nuestra conquista de Galveston! (My son, Blue, never worry! You have done well training these boys to become men! I need you to show my kids how to smoke meth and then I want you to lead the vanguard in our conquest of Galveston!)"
Malak hugged Comandante who hugged him back. Comandante looked down at his favorite son Blue and smiled. Together they'd change the world. Together his sons will burn the world and from the ashes create a new one.
(End of Song)