Leroy J. Salvador

***Leroy J. Salvador*** is one of five secondary protagonists, although he begins as a antagonist he redeems himself throughout the novel; *Cataclysm: Definitive Edition* (and the original).

Leroy was an old work associate of Robert Charlton and would try and fail in scamming the group of; Robert, Doctor Will Samson and Katrina Davenport, by helping the doctor gain D.T.U. Credits through poker games and then getting the doctor to buy his horse (Baxter) and stating he will guide the group through the Black Mountains only to try and steal Baxter back and make a run for it, whereby he was caught by Robert in the barn.

***“Ain’t no pine boxes ‘round here. The fuck’s happened to you, Robert? Principles of Purgatory, man... You’ve changed”*** - Leroy J. Salvador commenting in confusion towards Robert Charlton. (*Chapter 19: Consequences)*.

## Pre-Book History:

*Leroy J. Salvador* was born in the western-half of Tradesville, a booming trade-city under the control of the Democratic Trade Union, to two Jamaican parents.

Leroy's mother worked in Tradesville's cotton community, making clothes, pillow cases and curtains, while Leroy's father worked in the Grant Caravan Guards Company (G.C.G.C.), which was a predominately Jamaican caravan guard company.

Growing up in Western Tradesville, Leroy grew up in a predominately black and Jamaican originated based community. Throughout the centuries, due to the post-cataclysmic event drastically changing the English language, the Jamaican twang and variant of English became an almost separate language. Those who could speak this Jamaican English could and would speak this variant of English in front of the other black and white people and not be understood at all.

Not being understood by the majority of other people who lived in the city meant that the Jamaican community was outcast by most and they suffered from prejudice. The prejudice and even racial treatment of Leroy and his people came at the hands of the Democratic Trade Union Defence Force's Tradesville Town Guard Branch (D.T.U.D.F.T.T.G. or T.T.G.).

Leroy and others within his community fought against this through riots, this did nothing and the riots were brutally suppressed, with live-rounds being authorised to be used by the C.O.'s of the D.T.U.D.F. The Jamaican community quickly condemned these riots due the loss of life and the desire to preserve their unique, limited heritage.

Those who incited the riots were killed or imprisoned. Those who were imprisoned or were let free due to lack of evidence were placed on the D.T.U.'s Black Register, which was a register of citizens who were known trouble-makers, risks to society, ranging from low to high, and could be stripped of their citizenship if further law breaking occurred, whereby they would be caste out of their cities and shot-on-sight upon returning.

Leroy was lucky enough not to be caught and or placed on the Black Register during his youth. After graduating from the West Tradesville Democratic High School in 2228, Leroy realised that to help his community he must join the T.T.G. and so he and others worked at suppressing their Jamaican accents by visiting the Tradesville Community Cinema on a daily basis, so that they would not be picked out by racist drill sergeants for their accents. By mid 2229 Leroy and other Jamaican joined the D.T.U.D.F., passed their training and joined the T.T.G. at the beginning of 2230.

For two years Leroy was a member of the T.T.G. and then was offered a job by his father to become a caravan guard with the Grant Caravan Guards Company. He used his Jamaican English to speak with his co-workers and used his suppressed and stand English with his employers and members of community. The advantage the G.C.G.C. had was that when they spoke about their defensive or offensive tactics during battle or when under-attack, their enemies would not be able to understand what they were saying. It had got to the point that by 2232 Roadside Trappers and other gangs and thieves would hire Jamaicans from Western Tradesville and another Jamaican community in Tond, so that they could translate what the G.C.G.C. guardsmen were saying.

George McLevar saw the value of the G.C.G.C. and in 2234 bought the company from Mr. Arthur Grant, the owner of the G.C.G.C., and absorbed the existing contracts, from employers and employees, into his McLevar Caravan Guard company.

Nearly a third of the employees chose to terminate their contracts, as did nearly a quarter of the employers, who were from the Jamaican community, during this merger process. Leroy's father chose to retire, living of the money he had earned throughout his decades as a G.C.G.C. guardsman, while Leroy chose to stay on and become a guardsman for the McL.C.G.

George McLevar treated his Jamaican employees fairly in the initial years, but began to grow annoyed of hearing Jamaican English. Leroy was not classed as a Jamaican by George and the other guardsmen due to his suppressed accent however Leroy still did not like the way his fellow brethren were being treated and so plotted with other Jamaicans to screw over George and his company at some point in the future.

During the years of 2234 to 2236 Leroy would work a lot with Robert Charlton. To the point that Robert, being the quick learner he was, learned Jamaican English, and would be attached to Jamaican guardsmen groups and be put with Jamaican employers.

After Robert left the McL.C.G. the Jamaican guards would be exclusively placed together during jobs and this granted them the time needed to plan a heist, in revenge for how they were being treated. From 2233 to 2235 the Jamaicans had fought to cover contracts to white employers and it was not until they banded together under Leroy and demanded these contracts or they would take the matter to the Tradesville Elected Official that George allowed them these contracts. This was the last piece of the puzzle for the heist, as Leroy desired to build up the trust of George so the Jamaicans could gain more lucrative caravans of interest until they gained one worth robbing.

In September 2237, Leroy and the remaining Jamaicans, along with some white employees, who were also treated poorly by George McLevar, which included Patrick Benson, were given a contract with a highly lucrative white caravan of interest. A caravan comprised of a Mormon community savings, being escorted from Tradesville to a Mormon community past the Red Valley, to a place called Pine Pastures in the North-East.

Leroy guided the Mormon caravan through a southern trail, rarely explored by the Red Valley Tribes, and it was there that he and his fellow Jamaicans and white allies held up the caravan and robbed it. The group split the loot and went into hiding. The Mormons who did not die from starvation or dehydration were captured by the Red Valley Tribes's Slavers and sold into slavery or killed.

Leroy left westwards, towards Buddington with a group, acquiring a horse named Baxter from the Mormons as well as the loot. Once George McLevar heard of this he sent bounty hunters after the looters and traitors and attempted to get them on the Black Register. George failed in getting the looters and traitors on the Black Register due to lack of evidence and had mixed results in hiring bounty hunters.

Eventually George McLevar would come to desperate measures and begin a secrets arms deal with Clan Claw in return for the Clan actively seeking out the looters and traitors. The Clan had more success than the bounty hunters and managed to dwindle down Leroy's group to eventually just Leroy and Patrick, albeit at the loss of many of their clansmen. Over time Leroy and most the other Jamaicans spent their loot recklessly, on partying, hiding or other unimportant things, meaning for most the looters and traitors they had to resort back to their own thieving and scamming ways.

Leroy and Patrick go to Lempton where they begin to run scams on travelers and merchants who were passing through the town.

## Appearance & Personality:

### **Physical Appearance:**

* **Eye Colour -**Brown
* **Hair Colour -**Black
* **Hair Style -**Short Afro
* **Facial Hair -**Thick goatee
* **Skin Colour -**Black
* **Height -**6'1" (185cm)
* **Weight -**12.3st (172lbs)
* **Accent -**Northern Mancunian with hint of Jamaican.
* **Age (in 2238) -**26-years-old.
* **Other Features -**Leroy has a small, yet deep scar, across his right-eyebrow.

### **Attire & Arsenal:**

Leroy wears brown rags, brown slacks, black leather boots and has a brown leather duster jacket and a regular black leather jacket with both jackets having shoulder padded support on right shoulder, to help with rifle control and most or all of the right sleeve taken off to help movement of his arm in combat. On his jackets Leroy has extra padding on his lower left-sleeve to block strikes and lashes from blades without hurting his forearm. Leroy also wears black, now weathered brown, leather gloves, with fingers missing so he had better grip on his weapons and their triggers.

Later in the novel between the incident at the barn in Lempton and up until Leroy's death, Leroy adorns a knee brace, that was given to him by Doc Samson, so he could walk after having his knee damaged by Robert, who had hit him in the knee with a pair of bolt-cutters.

Leroy has a knife hidden away in his boot. Other than that Leroy is completely weaponless so to not cause any attraction to himself. Leroy and Patrick however do share a pistol, which they use in desperate situations only.

### **Personality:**

Leroy is a very conniving and intelligent man. He can be very cowardly at times and only takes calculated risks. Leroy's intelligence is show by the amount of people he has successfully tricked, robbed, conned and scammed over his twenty-six years on the planet. He uses both his Jamaican and suppressed English to get the best out of both communities and uses his knowledge as an ex-caravan guard to move across the North-West with ease, knowing all the best shortcuts and places to eat and or sleep.

Leroy also has leadership qualities which he has shown on multiple occasions. He abides by the Principles of Purgatory without fault, with these laws often playing his Leroy's favour. Over the course of the book, due to his past experiences with Robert, Leroy begins to help the main protagonists selflessly, after the murder of Patrick, at the hands of Robert, to the point that Leroy saves Rob and the doctor from imprisonment in Buddington, helps them fight off renegade D.T.U. patrolmen and even aids in the coup at Arch-Tiberius's War Camp.

## Biography:

Leroy and Patrick Benson resided in Lempton, continuing their conniving ways until Leroy spotted Robert, Will and Katrina enter the city. Leroy tells Patrick to leave when he sees Robert and Will at a table in a pub and successfully scams Doc Samson, once Robert leaves, by helping Will get D.T.U. Credits in poker games and then getting the doctor to buy his horse (Baxter), which the group needed for their bags, and hire Leroy as his guide through the Black Mountains to bypass the war zone which is Buddington, something the group wished to skip all together.

Leroy and Patrick's plan is foiled once they attempt to rob Baxter back, as Robert caught Leroy in the act and beat both the men up. The doctor soon arrived and a new deal, one very lop-sided towards the group's profit, was made. The deal entailed that Leroy and Patrick would gain some of their payment, only after they guide the group through the Black Mountains safely.

The group are led to the tunnels of the Black Mountains however this leads to a fight, outside the southern entrance to the underground tunnels, and Robert kills Patrick. Leroy is captured and guides the group the rest of the way out to the northern entrance of the tunnels underneath the Black Mountains. After an alternation and firefight with Clan Claw the group are saved by the D.T.U. A.A.V.R. (Armoured Assault Vehicle Rangers) and brought to Buddington.

After making it out of Buddington, having been jailed for not abiding by the Conscription Act and being freed by Leroy and escaping during a thunderstorm and Clan Claw bombardment and attempted assault. Doc Samson is wounded in a fire fight with mutineer D.T.U. soldiers and later dies sneak attacking a Clan Claw patrol. While Leroy continues to follow the Principles of Purgatory, Robert turns his back on these laws he had followed almost his entire life and gives the doctor a proper funeral, allowing Katrina to say goodbye before Robert buried the doctor and used Samson's own shotgun as a tombstone.

Eventually the trio with Leroy are captured by Arch-Tiberius's scouts led by the Kennel-Master, and taken to the War Camp. It is here that Robert reunites with Nigel who helps him to escape, committing suicide to do so. Robert meets up with Leroy who had found and returns Robert's bolt-action rifle. Leroy continued to lead the revolt to escape and Robert frees Kat, by killing the Kennel-Master, regains their belongings, then successfully escapes the War Camp.

Leroy is captured along with the other escapees, rounded up into a large open space and presented before an infuriated Arch-Tiberius. On the giant warlord's orders, all the escapees, including Leroy, were put on their knees, and had sledgehammers cave in the back of their skulls. Before Leroy died, he wept, as did many of the other captured men.

## Trivia:

* Leroy's middle name is Jenkins.
* Leroy's first and middle name are a tribute to the viral World of Warcraft video titled "Leeroy Jenkins..!" posted in May 2005. You can watch it re-uploaded in HD here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hooKVstzbz0
* Leroy's last name comes from Darryl hearing stories from a workmate who was in the military and had a Colour Sergeant in the British Army named Sergeant Salvador, who was also black, but from South American ancestry.
* Leroy is the first and only black protagonist in the entire novel.
* Leroy is the only antagonist of the novel who becomes a protagonist.
* Darryl M. Finch-Ellis has stated that Robert would have faced Leroy next in the Pit, after he had defeated and beheaded Freddy, if Robert had not staged the coup and escaped with Katrina.
* Leroy was originally supposed to be killed by Robert within the Pit in Chapter 23: Dead Man's Hand. This was replaced with Freddy in the later draft because Darryl M. Finch-Ellis believed Leroy had redeemed himself in the eyes of the readers by this point and deserved to die at the hands of an antagonist.
* There is a rumour amongst the fanbase of Cataclysm that Leroy and Patrick were in a homosexual relationship. If this is true then Leroy would be the first and only homosexual protagonist in the novel.
* Leroy is literate and can read and write English.
* Leroy's favourite song is; *Yellowman - Zungguzungguguzungguzeng*.
* Leroy is ambidextrous, meaning he can shoot Robert's left-handed Lee-Enfield bolt-action rifle.
* Leroy killed two opponents in the Pit before the coup and his eventual execution, Leroy was classified as a Aquarius.
* Leroy left the shovel for Robert to bury Doc Samson as a gesture of respect for the doctor.
* Leroy's parents were of Jamaican origin, stretching back all the way before pre-cataclysmic age.
* Tradesville, where Leroy was born, has a strong Jamaican and black community in the west of the city.
* Leroy does not speak with a Jamaican twang throughout the novel due to the fact Darryl M. Finch-Ellis has stated that the Jamaican twang is almost an entirely different language after the post-cataclysmic event, due to the change in the English speaking language, and so Leroy considers the two a separate language and did not want to confuse or not be understood by the English characters.
* Leroy has tried to suppress his Jamaican accent throughout the years to get by easier in the rest of England, outside Western Tradesville.
* Leroy is a D.T.U. citizen and holds a D.T.U.C.C.