Phoenix

Part Two: The Learning

“I didn’t grow up in a city, like most people do,” he started. “And I didn’t grow up on a farm, like the farmers do,” he added.

“Where did you grow up?” I asked him.

He looked me in the eyes. “On a Razzi settlement,” he said.

“Razzi?” I asked him, confused.

He nodded. “The Razzi are a group of people who rebel against the Government. All attacks on the Government, and the Riots, are planned by them.”

“I like them already,” I said.

Jazz glared at me. “Quit interrupting or I won’t tell you the story at all,” he said. I opened my mouth to reply, but then thought better of it and closed my mouth. Jazz smiled smugly and continued. “I grew up there, in a city of people who didn’t want the Government to dictate their lives.”

“It wasn’t perfect, and hell, life there wasn’t easy, but from what I’ve seen of the world outside of the settlement, it was paradise. There was no one to tell us how to live our lives, and we lived peacefully. That is, until the Razzi heard of the Shows, and began to start training soldiers. All settlers older than twelve learned how to fight and build their own weapons. However, that wasn’t all. When I was fourteen, they began a special program, to train Razzi who had more potential. I was selected, and became a part of an infiltration program,” he said. He paused, clearly trying to decide what to say next.

“The program moved me from the settlement where I grew up to the Razzi headquarters. I’m not even sure where it is, the location is top secret. There, they trained me to infiltrate the Government. After nearly two years in the program, I knew how to hack into computers, and fight. Then I was given an assignment. Infiltrate the Government’s Guard program and retrieve intel on the Shows.”

“That’s why you were in the Shows, even if you hated them,” I said as he paused. He glared at me.

“I said, quit interrupting,” he said. I shut my mouth and listened as he talked more. “I spent three years in a Government program, gaining their trust and passing their tests. I was eventually assigned to Show number 13, the Show I found you in. The rest, you know,” Jazz finished.

I sat there for a minute, just thinking about what he said. Then I thought of something. “What was the information you were supposed to get?”

He didn’t reply at first, just stared off in space. “Passwords,” he said cryptically.

I raised an eyebrow. “Passwords?”

He nodded. “Passwords to the Government files. Files on Mutants, among other things. I transmitted them to the Razzi settlement where I grew up, which is also an information stronghold,” he elaborated.

“Oh.”

“With the passwords, we can get into the Government database and hack into places, like we could hack into the security system of an arsenal, and acquire weapons,” he said.

“Why do you need weapons?”

“Because there’s a war coming. It might not be tomorrow, or next year, but it’s coming. We need to be ready, because it will be total war, with civilians involved.”

My mind raced. War would be bad for everyone. But, as he had said, it was unavoidable. The relative peace the world had seen since the end of the nuclear war could not last forever. It would end. And these people, the Razzi, would be one side. The Government would be the other.

“What next?” I asked. “We have to go back for the other Mutants.”

Jazz looked thoughtful for a moment. “We could see if the Razzi would help us. Maybe with a group of people we could attack the Show, and get the Mutants out. I mean, I think we could definitely fight off the Guards and the Ringmaster together, but unless we have more people, we’d never be able to hold them off long enough to get the Mutants out,” he said.

“I know what you mean. Daniel’s tank is not easy to move, and the Mutants are injured, so it’s difficult to get them to move quickly. You can only move as fast as who's in front of you,” I said.

“Shit, you’re still injured, aren’t you?” Jazz said suddenly, pulling away from me. I felt my side immediately get cold without the heat of his body to keep me warm. He lifted up the back of my shirt to reveal my bandage on my back. “Shit, you’re bleeding through the bandage,” he said.

“I’ll be fine,” I said, not wanting him to worry about me.

“No, if you keep bleeding like this you won’t be,” he said. I turned to look at him. He was pulling off his jacket and the grey shirt beneath. He pulled his jacket back on, then started to rip the grey shirt into long strips.

I stayed still as he tied the pieces of his shirt around my torso, covering the bandages I already had. “Thank you,” I said quietly.

“No problem,” Jazz replied, pulling the back of my shirt down over the new bandages.

“So how do we get the Razzi to help us?” I asked him, settling back into his arms to stay warm.

“Well, we’d have to physically go to a Razzi settlement, the transmission device I had was one use only. But,” he added, looking around, “I think I know where we are. There’s a town a two day’s walk away, and a Razzi settlement a day’s walk after that. I assume you don’t want to have to carry me the whole way if we flew.”

I shook my head. “I imagine that would get tiring pretty quickly. So, we’ll leave at midday tomorrow?”

He nodded. “We should get some sleep.” He pulled away from me, walked to a spot on the other side of our would-be campfire, and lay down on the ground. I shivered, cold now that he wasn’t next to me, but I lay down on the ground where I was. I fell quickly asleep, not at all bothered by sleeping on the hard ground.