The Roach

Kevin Malone never felt any different than anyone else. Growing up in the foster care system in Baltimore his prospects were slim.

An unremarkable student, he passed highschool with C’s and D’s. Thereafter he had a brief and unremarkable stint as a drug dealer. His pusher said he was too nice to be a dope dealer.

He couch surfed for a time until he saw the “Be all you can be” posters.

A house full of insurgents in Fallujah said otherwise. In a flash of gunfire and reality he felt the impact of the bullets as he dove out of the room. “I'm hit!”

He felt for any wound, his grimy hands were only met with his raging heartbeat.

A corpsman dragged him away. “You're gonna be okay!” He pulled off Kevin’s perforated vest, there should have been blood; a broken rib at the least.

Instead to their shock; smashed to his chest were the bullets intended to kill him. With a forceful pull the bullet came off his chest and rattled on the floor harmlessly.

It made no sense, he was jabbed with dozens of needles at boot. Was it some kind of miracle? Kevin thought back to his past, he had never been injured. Nothing, but surely that couldn't mean he was bulletproof thats crazy...

The miracles became commonplace. To protect his squad, Kevin began to clear buildings alone. He would emerge his uniform in tatters, covered in blood. The bullets falling from him like hailstones.

After much debate, the men of his squad landed on a nickname for Kevin. Roach. Their reasoning was that Kevin could survive anything up to a nuclear armageddon.

Roach could only do so much to protect his friends.

An IED sent their humvee upside down, leaving Kevin to watch his squad burn alive. He emerged without a scratch, but on the inside he was broken.

Days later he was sulking. What use was it to be invulnerable if your friends died?Kevin enjoyed a smoke and some whiskey to himself under the stars when he was startled by a figure in the dark. He hadn't noticed them standing in their all black three piece suit, it was like a shadow.

Kevin was intially startled, but remembered there wasnt anything that could hurt him. Still a thought that was new to him.

The man gave the aura of a CIA spook which was common in Iraq. When he spoke it was monotone. “Kevin Malone you’re the most uninteresting bulletproof person I know.”

“Thanks?”

He stepped closer, his face a ghostly pale. “How would you like to be a part of a fight that matters?”

“Where are you from Delta?”

He scoffed. “Similar names but not quite, we handle things that you may call unnatural.” His beady eyes looked Kevin up and down. “Like you.”

Kevin stood up, his hands clenched to his sides. “Look, nows not the time to fuck with me, I asked where you from? If you can't answer, you wont like what happens next.”

To his surprise the man stepped closer, his face held no emotion. When he held up a folder with “Classified,” written on it, Kevin stepped back.

A hint of a smirk. “You're Not the only one out there that's bulletproof… Roach.”

The two held a long stare. Kevin shook his head and took the folder.

The man's pebble black eyes glimmered, “It's Delta Green, welcome to the conspiracy.”