Alex Reynard
The Library
Alex Reynard's Online Books
--Chapter Eight--
There were no more volunteers that day, but Vera didn't mind. She'd had one, and one was more than she'd hoped for. For the short remainder of class, she talked about some of the nanobots' other uses. How the scientists had found ways to shape them into prosthetics that could move and register touch just like the real thing. Body modifications too. She explained that Gilda was able to do her swallowing trick due to nanobot-reinforced elasticity in her skin and digestive system. And Kady blushingly told the class that, before the GPA had given her a nanobot bath, she had used to be a he. (This killed off a few of the crushes some of the boys had on her, while simultaneously creating an entirely new one.)
Ever since Yolanda's procedure, Vera had noticed that chipmunk boy staring at her with a hatred that utterly terrified her. She had done her best to conceal her fear from everyone else, but she kept her eye on him. It was no surprise when, as soon as she dismissed her students, he was up out of his seat and headed straight for her.
Vera braced for impact.
Cody actually shoved Trudy out of the way to get to the fox woman's desk. Her cry of pained surprise was inaudible to him.
Vera tried to keep her face a blank. The boy radiated loathing like a blast furnace.
"They're both dead, and I will never forgive you," he said.
He suddenly clenched his fingers in a fist and cocked his arm back.
Flinching, Vera put her hands up in front of her face.
But Cody didn't swing. After a moment of staring at her with those cold eyes of his, he put his hand down and threw her a look of 'It wouldn't be worth it'.
He made a point of pushing past Kady as he left the room.
The nursecat turned to her friend. "We're going to have to deal with him soon, hon. It keeps seeming like he's getting better, then all of a sudden he gets worse."
Vera's heart was thudding. "I know. I know. But if we push him, he'll push back harder. I'm still hoping if we let him work through this, his anger will burn out eventually on its own."
Kady shook her head doubtfully. "I hope you're right."
"I have no idea if I am or not," Vera replied.
*****
He considered going to the tower. He considered going back to his bunk. But Cody was too furious to keep still. He felt like if he didn't do something physical right this moment, his fur would all burn off.
To the archery range then.
He'd hoped there'd be different instructors there this time. But no. Gilda was showing a badger how to notch an arrow and Rick appeared to be teaching a group of Preys about correcting for the wind. Cody stormed past him to the farthest end of the range. He grabbed a bow and quiver. He did not want to talk. He didn't even want to think. He just wanted to get lost.
He'd already made two shots when he saw the elk in his peripheral vision coming closer. 'Get the hell away from me,' he thought. He tried to force the thought into becoming visible, like a warning beacon.
Rick could see the extreme tension in the boy. He looked a second away from snapping. "Hey... Are you okay, amigo?"
Cody whirled around like a cobra. "I AM NOT YOUR FRIEND!!" he screamed.
The elk backed up several steps. A few other kids dropped their arrows or fired wildly.
Cody advanced, pointing right between Rick's eyes. "AND YOU'RE NOT MY FRIEND EITHER UNTIL YOU TAKE THAT FUCKING ARMBAND OFF!!!"
Rick looked down at the logo on his arm. "This? Look, kid, this doesn't mean-"
"ONE OF YOUR FRIENDS JUST MURDERED TWO OF MINE! RIGHT IN FRONT OF MY EYES! AND I DIDN'T DO A THING, SO JUST... just..."
Cody suddenly came very close to fainting.
Rick rushed in and caught him barely in time before he hit the grass. He kicked the boy's bow away, not wanting it anywhere near him in a state like this. "Whoa, whoa! Calm down if you can; tell me that again. I have no idea what's going on with you. I just want to help."
"You just want to help Preds," Cody muttered bitterly. But he didn't resist being held.
"I want to help everyone," Rick insisted. "Now tell me exactly what you mean by 'one of my friends murdered yours'." He noticed Gilda looking at him with deep concern in her eyes and he told her with a glance that he could handle this for now. "Do you mean during the Rejuvenator demonstration?"
"No. I mean that fox bitch Vera sucked two of my friends' brains out and pumped a bunch of silver shit into their heads."
Rick sighed, understanding now. The Newbrain was a concept that sometimes scared the living hell out of people. "They're not dead and they're not gone," he reassured.
Cody looked at him with loathing. "Now you're gonna tell me you've got one too?" He pushed himself away harshly.
"Actually, I don't," Rick said.
Cody was honestly surprised by that.
"But I'm not scared of them either," the elk continued. "I just don't want one. But I know plenty of co-workers and friends that have them, and I've never noticed any difference in them. They're not emotionless zombies. They're the same people they always were. In fact, they're usually a lot happier with themselves. You think I wasn't skeptical of the idea at first? Everyone was. Everyone. But I trust my own eyes and experiences. I understand it now when they say 'we're not our brains'. That makes sense to me. We're something more. And the Newbrain, from everything I've seen, doesn't take away that essential part of us."
Cody could feel his heartbeat pulsing in his ears. He wanted to believe Rick, he really did. It would be so nice to. But the mental image of that silver slime coming out of Jayden's head... How could that possibly leave him the same furson as before?
Rick could see the boy still wasn't convinced. "You know what? Don't believe me. Don't believe any GPA. Just trust yourself. Go talk to your friends. Watch how they act. See if there's any difference."
Cody had to admit, he couldn't argue with that. He could feel himself slowly cooling off.
Rick took a step closer. "I heard you say you just sat there and didn't do anything about it. I know how guilty it can make you feel when something like that happens. You feel like you have to act, but you also feel paralyzed. Look up the Bystander Effect sometime. It happens to everyone: if a whole crowd of people see something terrible happening, they'll all stand and watch. They're all waiting for someone else to act. They all think, 'I'll just screw it up if I do it myself'."
His breath-rate slowing, Cody nodded. It had felt just like that. And when he was watching the lambgirl get killed too.
The elk decided to take a risk. He pointed to his armband. "As for why I wear this? You probably think I'm insane. I'm a Prey working for the Preds. Except that's not how it works. They call it the Great Predator Army just for theatrics' sake. Half the staff here are Prey. Half the GPA is Prey. This isn't some Predator plot to take over the world. It's just a bunch of us on both sides who are sick of all the suffering in it."
Cody felt his cooldown turn to cold. He stood up straight and looked the elk in the eyes. His expression became one of sad pity. "I'm sure you believe that. And I'm sure that's what the Preds told you."
He turned away and left silently.
'I've lost him,' Rick thought.
*****
Cody spent the rest of the hour running. Direction didn't matter.
At lunch, he told Kenny he wanted to be alone for a while. The rabbitboy nodded and went off to sit with some of his other friends, but he cast a worried glance back at the chipmunk. His friend seemed calm on the surface, but Kenny could almost hear ticking coming from him.
Cody felt sorry for Rick. He was sad that they might have been friends in another time and place. But the guy was brainwashed. He was compromised, as Dad would say. As much as Cody would have liked someone else to trust in this place, there was no way to trust whether what came out of the elk's mouth was his own beliefs or Pred propaganda.
Rick did have a point though. As much as the mere thought of the Newbrains sent sick chills down Cody's spine, he couldn't deny that the elk's advice about making his own observations held weight. His gut told him that Jayden and Yolanda were casualties. But his eyes told him that they were sitting across the cafeteria from him, talking and laughing and acting like they always did. They seemed to be getting more attention than normal, too. Probably for the exact same reasons as Cody's. He couldn't hear the conversations, but he could tell the mouse and otter were being asked lots of questions. Tycho was sitting right beside Jayden looking fiercely fascinated. It was definitely the first time Cody had seen those two pass more than a couple of sentences between them. Yolanda seemed to be reassuring Frank and Trudy. Even Hydra and her mini-army kept giving Yola unsure looks.
Cody wasn't sure, but he thought Chloe-Sophia looked envious of the otter. 'How surprising. The little conformist wants to be a robot for real,' he thought.
He wondered if Mason and Scott had also gotten their brains 'fixed'. Maybe that was a hidden requirement of joining the glorious GPA.
His meal was pretty good, but Cody could hardly taste it. His cheeseburger was just flavorless textures in his mouth. He couldn't concentrate on anything but his two classmates. He wanted to believe it was still them inside. But he couldn't believe something simply because he wanted to. He didn't know how to test them. (Though he had to admit, Yolanda's sudden bizarre demands of Jayden earlier were very clever.)
If Jayden had gotten his brain swapped yesterday evening, that was when Cody had to start looking for changes. Yolanda was easier. Though she'd already switched over to Vera's side, so doing so wouldn't be a sign that the Newbrain was controlling her. Jayden though... Cody couldn't imagine Jayden switching sides otherwise. If he suddenly sprouted an armband, it might be proof the Newbrains could be used to control behavior.
Cody blinked.
He hadn't thought of that before. The Newbrains actually might leave the furson's personality intact, but make them susceptible to having their actions changed at the GPA's whims. Jayden and Yolanda might have just let the Preds put a remote control in their skulls.
His eyes widened. If this were true, it would mean that, even if they acted exactly the same as before, they still might change in an instant. At any time, their programming might activate. Was this the GPA's overall plan? Soften the kids up, get them to accept the happy, shiny new technology and then use them to get to...
Cody nearly choked. Their parents.
It all made sense now! If the Newbrains could be activated and controlled by Preds, then they could make any furson into an unwitting assassin. Kidnap the children of the most powerful players in the Prey government, get them to believe the GPA's 'let's all get along' bullshit, then reunite them with their mommies and daddies. Get them right snug close to their targets. Then just press a button and the kids would pull out hidden weapons. Bam. The Preds would topple the biggest obstacles to their takeover in one fell swoop.
Cody had to tell Kenny. He had to tell him to NEVER accept one of those goddamn robot brain-things.
He looked at Jayden and Yolanda. A few sweet words had convinced them to give the Preds total access to their minds. He felt so sorry for them. It had seemed a little implausible that the Newbrain process would eradicate everything they were. Vera was right about one thing; she certainly didn't act like a robot. Neither did that cat nurse. So maybe they had been telling the truth. Dad had taught him that the best way to make a lie go down smooth is to coat it with a layer of truth. Maybe the Newbrains did grant wondrous improvements in mental clarity. No one would volunteer for one if they caused people to stare straight ahead and speak in an emotionless monotone.
'Another honey trap.'
Make the Newbrains seem so appealing that all the kids would want them, despite how obscenely wrong they obviously were. Make them willingly stick metal brain slugs in their own heads. Make them willingly become unknowing drones.
Cody found himself smiling. Not because he was happy, but because he'd found purpose again. He had felt so helpless before. But now he knew something about the Preds. Something they didn't want him to know. Information is power. The more he knew about his enemy, the better-equipped he was to fight them.
*****
When second class began, Cody walked through the door and made eye contact with the fox woman. She stiffened up in genuine fright.
Normally, Cody might have felt a little bad about that. But right now, the sadistic side of him enjoyed a dark chuckle. Without words, he carefully crafted an expression of, 'I'm sorry about my behavior earlier; I'm calm and ready to listen now.'
She gave him an appreciative smile. 'No hard feelings'.
As he walked to the back of the room, Cody tried to keep the grin from his lips. Perfect. He'd been too careless with his anger before. Far too careless. But the nice thing was, the Preds were stupider about one thing than he'd anticipated. They were far too ready to forgive.
The nursecat wasn't there anymore. Just the grey fox at the front of the classroom by herself. And the chair-thing was there too. Cody couldn't stop himself from imagining how it'd feel to have that thing bite into his neck and start replacing his brains...
Vera clapped her paws. "Everyone here? Allright then. As you can see, the Newbrain chair is still here, and it'll remain here for the next few days. If you want to volunteer at any time, come right on up. Or if you want one but are a bit reluctant about it, you can come by after class. I know it might be intimidating to go through with the procedure in front of everyone else." She turned to Yolanda. "By the way, how are you liking it so far, Miss Denton?"
The otter grinned. "It's great! At lunch I realized I could focus all my attention on a certain sense. I'd take a bite of my sub, close my eyes and turn down my hearing, and taste every single molecule in my mouth. It was incredible!"
"Wonderful!" Vera smiled, remembering how long it had taken her to realize she could do that.
Trudy's mouth watered at Yolanda's description. That chair scared her, but her otterfriend seemed overjoyed with what it had done to her...
On the desk was another box of clickers. Vera gave it a shake. "Who still has theirs?"
A few kids dug little white ovals out of their pockets.
Carlos the skunk was sitting closest, so Vera asked him to pass clickers out to everyone else. "Today's lesson won't be as focused as some of the others. Just a general discussion of Pred and Prey societies, a bit of psychology, some of the GPA's ideas, and a quick species-bias test later on which I think you'll find amusing."
She watched as Carlos finished up dispensing the little ovals. "Allright then. I'm going to ask some more questions and these are more for my sake than yours. This is basically a survey; the GPA is curious how much of Pred history and common knowledge carries over Preyside."
Cody smirked. 'Something else I'll bet you didn't want me to figure out.' How would the GPA know about this survey unless they were monitoring the results? Each click might not just send a signal to the blackboard, but to a Pred computer as well. They could be tracking everyone's responses, figuring out who was most sympathetic; who to go after next. Hell, they could be filming each class with secret cameras. Cody started nonchalantly looking up at the ceiling.
"Clickers out?" Vera started. "Okay. How many of you have ever gone to a website run by Preds, for any reason?"
A decent amount of 'yes' clicks.
"A Pred news site?"
Mostly no.
She started bringing up photos on the blackboard. "How many of you have ever heard of James Valjean Valentine?"
The board lit up completely pink. Everyone had heard of that guy. And it had galled many a Prey over the years that furkind's first indisputable national hero happened to be a Pred.
"How about a young coyote named Lydia Blackwing?"
Almost entirely no this time, though Vera was quite happy to see any 'yes'es at all.
"Ever heard of a banned children's book called My Best Friend?"
A surprising number of 'yes'es.
"What about the names Alex Stone and Sonya diPaulo?"
Nothing but no.
"Not surprising, sadly. They were pioneering anti-Fence activists. What about Tommy Towland?"
Hardly any 'no's at all this time.
Vera smirked cynically. Tommy was one of the few Pred actors who'd managed to gain some fame among Prey audiences. Unfortunately, his roles were mostly villains or buffoons.
She rattled off a few more names, events, places and books until she could see the class was getting bored of not knowing what she was talking about. "Allright then, I think that's enough. Sorry if that was confusing, but I'm sure you'd either laugh or stare in disbelief at some of the names we read over on the Pred side and got just as many blank looks as we did from you. There's always been a little bit of overlap between the cultures, but not nearly enough. There's so many amazing Prey writers, musicians, artists and historical figures that I never even knew existed until I joined the GPA!" She blushed like a schoolgirl. "I bought all of Lizzie Tux's albums within a week of hearing Our Game for the first time."
Quite a few Preykids got a laugh out of that. Lizzie Tux was someone their parents would listen to. It was bizarre thinking of her being new to anyone.
"But just think of it; how many of you have ever gotten bored with your music, or what's on TV, or what's playing at the movies? There's an entire hidden universe of pop culture you guys have never been allowed to see before! If you take a chance on some Pred media, I can virtually guarantee you'll find something you'll fall in love with."
Cody did raise an eyebrow at that. He'd never really thought of Preds doing much more than crossing the Fences and hunting for Prey. He'd never considered they'd have their own music and movies, their own shitty TV shows. The Prey Family Viewing Association kept a tight reign on how Preds were allowed to be depicted in pretty much everything.
"Speaking of broadcasts," Vera went on, "I wanted to talk a bit about Broadcast Day and why we chose to make ourselves known in that manner. As I said, we knew we'd never be listened to if we simply asked Preds and Prey to stop fighting and end the war. So we had to do something to get people's attention.
"We considered a lot of ideas. But what we eventually realized was that, whatever we fear fascinates us also. Why else would we go to see horror movies? Why else are we sometimes drawn to look at things that scare and repulse us? We knew if the GPA were going to be seen as bad guys anyway, we might as well be interesting ones. We might as well be fun bad guys.
"I know it was a bit different for all of you, since we did kidnap you." She blushed. "Sorry about that again." (Vera was happy to see how many kids responded to her apology with a chuckle. It seemed quite a few of them had gotten over it by now and were starting to like this place.) "But among the rest of the country, our idea succeeded beyond our wildest expectations. I don't know how many of you have caught up on current events since we've let you use the computers, but trust me; the internet exploded just seconds after Guy's appearance. Before, our ideas were completely taboo. Then suddenly they were being hotly debated everywhere! We had gotten the conversation started, and that's more important than I can convey. For any social change to happen, first someone has to get the ball rolling. And we carefully timed each new broadcast to build that momentum more and more."
Vera snickered behind her paw. "I shouldn't tell you this, but when we told Guy about how many death threats he'd gotten within an hour of his first broadcast, he nearly fainted. And when we told him how quickly fan clubs for him had popped up, he did for real!"
That got solid laughs.
Cody realized that he hadn't bothered going online all this time, even though he could have. He shrugged though. He'd kind of gotten weaned off the internet during his weeks without it in The Box. All those endless, pointless arguments with morons. He felt a lot better after just a few days away from that stress-pit. And getting online here? Why bother? There was every reason to believe the internet would be heavily censored to make sure the Prey couldn't see anything detrimental to the GPA.
"There's fanclubs for the Great Predator Army too," Vera said. "More than you'd think, and at least half are Prey sites. We underestimated just how much the general public is sick and tired of the war. People on both sides have been constantly told by politicians and the media, 'Fear the other side! Oh, they're so very dangerous! Fear, fear!' And it's fatiguing to be that scared for that long. Especially when there's a little voice in the back of many people's minds saying, 'Wait a minute... have I ever even MET a Pred in real life?'"
A few students were momentarily startled, realizing that, until coming here, they hadn't.
"Most people, we realized, were tired of being lied to. So then we stormed in acting like supervillains, and to a lot of people, even before we revealed our true aims, we still sounded like a better alternative! That's how fed up both sides are with their governments! A bunch of looneys in black leather who want to take over the world seem like a better choice of leadership!"
Giggles amongst the class.
"We get emails," Vera said, her grin a mile wide. "Hundreds of them every day. People asking to join us. People asking, specifically, for us to disappear them like they saw on TV. Some of them ask for that because they have no idea how else to find us, others because they just think it sounds fun!" There were a few snorts of disbelief at that. "Really! And you wouldn't believe how many people ask us to use the gas! It boggles my mind. Though I suppose there is something exciting about the idea of letting yourself be captured by the big, mean Preds. Helpless to resist!" She gave her hips a sexy swish and her class giggled.
"Whatever we fear also fascinates us," Vera repeated. "Whenever the brain encounters something unexpected, there are three main reactions to it." She counted off on her fingers. "One: fear. Two: laughter. And three, rarest of the bunch: sexualizing it."
Several kids blushed, especially the girls.
"It's simple psychology," Vera reassured. "Strong hatred or fear of something, so strong it's taken to an irrational degree, is very similar, chemically, to obsessive love. You're devoting an intense amount of energy and concentration to the subject either way. It is unbelievably easy for your brain to suddenly switch tracks from one to the other; sometimes for the good of a furson's own mental health. A pervasive phobia can cause a lot of stress, but despite what the moral crusaders would have you believe, a philia is often much easier, and more enjoyable, to deal with."
Trudy raised her hand. Biting her lip, she shyly asked, "So is that why Guy was wearing that big, gold... thing? On his... y'know, crotch?"
The piggy's bashfulness was adorable. "Exactly," Vera said. "We know that most Preys' first response to seeing a Pred is option number one: fear. We wanted to do everything we could to derail that response onto one of the other two categories. Those silly, kinky outfits we designed for public appearances serve an important purpose. They're made to short-circuit natural responses. Fear makes people close up. But a laugh can be fear's perfect antidote. And arousal, well... it's obvious what that does."
"Do you got one of those kinda outfits?" Jayden shouted out.
Vera's fur almost turned red. "Yes..." she admitted. "It's white latex with shoulder pads big enough to land airplanes on and a teensy-weensy skirt. I look absolutely ridiculous in it. ...But I love wearing it!"
"We ever gonna see you in it, mamacita?" the mouse asked hopefully.
She gave him a 'naughty boy' swish of her pointer finger. "Maybe someday, but you'll have to be a very good boy."
"I'm always good!" he insisted.
Vera was giggling just as much as anyone else. She couldn't help but think of what a spot-on demonstration of her topic this had turned out to be. "Anyway, I think it's time we moved onto something else. I wanted to briefly touch on personality types.
"The common stereotypes are that Preds are arrogant, aggressive brutes and Prey are frightened little whiners," she said. That snapped them out of the previous mood quite nicely. She grinned slyly at the handful of offended looks she was getting now. "And let's be honest with ourselves. It's not polite to point it out, but stereotypes wouldn't catch on if there weren't some truth to them. More to the point, an insult based in truth has more power to hurt than one that doesn't."
She turned to Yolanda. "Miss Denton, would you be more likely to feel offended, or confused, if I called you a fatty-fatty two-by-four?"
The slender otter blinked. "Um, definitely confused."
Vera's expression softened, trying to convey she didn't mean any real insult by her next remark. "And what if I called you a beanpole? A giraffe? A lamppost?"
Yolanda's cheeks got hot. She looked down at her desk and fidgeted. Tall girls like her did not get through school without teasing, even if their dad was the Vice President. "...Offended," she meekly muttered.
The vixen comfortingly patted her student's paw. "None intended, Miss Denton. Thank you for helping illustrate my point."
Yolanda nodded. "Okay."
"But you see, class? Words that might mean nothing to you, because you know they don't apply, might be devastating to someone else who knows they're true for them. Or fears they might be true. So if any of you felt a sting when I said 'frightened little whiners', I felt one just as strongly when I said what I did about Preds. Because frankly, I grew up knowing too many arrogant, aggressive brutes for me to say there's no truth in that stereotype. Preds are simply more likely to have dominant personalities, and Prey are more likely to be submissive."
She held her palms up, warding off naughty chuckles. "Now, I know those words might have some... unfortunate connotations. But strictly speaking, what I mean is that Preds are more likely to feel comfortable forging their own path, and Preys are more likely to feel comfortable following someone else. I believe I touched on this briefly the other day. Preds tend to think of themselves first while Prey tend to put the needs of the group first.
"This is, I think, a huge reason why both of our societies are stagnating. The Preds have their own way of doing things, the Prey have theirs, and both sides are too prideful to try anything that's worked for the other. Both sides think they have one perfect way to do everything. And that's silly. A society is stronger when it has a lot of different people all proposing different solutions. Having more options increases your chances of finding one that works best." She suddenly rushed towards the blackboard and tapped it, revealing a devilishly complicated math problem. "Mr. Loughtner!"
The bunny jerked in his seat.
"Can you solve this!?" she barked.
Kenny stared at the problem like it was an inkblot test. "I... wouldn't even know where to start."
Vera made a 'join in' gesture with her arms. "Then all of you! Help him out! Share ideas! Let's see how quickly we can find the answer!"
All the class' best math students converged on Kenny's desk and started talking rapid-fire amongst themselves.
"Do we get calculators?" one of them asked.
"No, but you do get this," she handed a sheet of paper and several pencils to Carlos, who started passing them back.
After a few moments of frenzied discussion, Kenny shouted out, "X equals thirty-seven point six!!"
Vera's smile lit up the room. "Fantastic!! Perfectly correct! Now Mr. Loughtner, could you have possibly done that on your own?"
The other students started returning to their desks. Kenny shook his head. "No way," he said.
"Don't be embarrassed. That was a college-level problem. I doubt any of you could have worked it out on your own in that short of a time."
'I could,' Tycho thought petulantly.
"I hope that demonstrates my point," Vera said. "Both Pred and Prey societies are riddled with inefficiency. Politicians are corrupt, laws are contradictory, infrastructure is crumbling, and both economies are barely holding on. Even if we all still hate each other, for the sake of the country it simply makes sense to cooperate."
'Hah,' Cody thought. 'Dream on.'
"Getting back to the idea of dominant and submissive personalities, it's easy to think that one of them is more 'right' than the other. Whichever type you are, that's what feels normal to you. And whatever we feel is normal almost always seems more 'right' to us. But we've got to get out of that kind of thinking. Whenever there's bitter disagreement about two options, the solution is usually 'do both'. Option A might be better in some situations, while Option B might be better in others. There is virtually never a single right way to do anything. Life and nature are full of exceptions.
"It's been said before that 'Preds innovate; Prey cooperate'. I rather like that. It's not a condemnation of either side, but a statement about our strengths. There tends to be a lot of authors and big thinkers Predside. People who are full of ideas and love to talk about them. But statistics consistently show that Prey cities have better hospitals, better city services, and more public transportation. Predside there's less business regulation and Preyside there's less government regulation. Predzones have more research and development labs, Preyzones have more manufacturing. Good or bad, our personal stereotypes carry over onto our societies as a whole. Natural tendencies get magnified by the 'normal equals right' viewpoint, to the point where we even begin to look down on behaviors we think of as being more like how the other side does things." She snorted in irritation. "I've heard idiot Preds bragging about how crummy their neighborhoods are! That it's too 'Preyish' to whine about the garbage not being picked up on time, or half the streetlamps being broken!"
Vera realized she was going off on a tangent. "Sorry. Got a little worked up there. Let's move on to something else."
*****
Vera passed around disposable tablet computers, each programmed with a series of bias tests. For most of the remaining classtime, the students hunched over in their desks, tapping their screens. For each test, the students were shown a series of faces. Male and female, Pred and Prey, sometimes specific species were the focus. The faces flashed by too quickly to consciously process, interspersed with words describing either good ideas or bad ones. With each face and word, the students had to tap either a red or green square to designate them good or bad.
Cody thought this was retarded. He didn't need a cheapo computer to tell him what he believed. And the damn words flashed by so fast he could hardly read them! Plus he kept getting flustered and forgetting which thumb was over the green and which one was over the red. He was probably fucking this up horribly.
Though when the first test finished and his result popped up, he had to admit it was accurate. It said he had a "very strong" bias towards Prey. 'No shit,' he thought.
Although he was a little unsettled when the next test told him he had a "strong" bias for males over females. 'Huh. That can't be true.'
Eventually the computer was telling him all sorts of crazy things. He preferred rodents to ungulates. He disliked canines more than felines. Bullshit. Cody knew he judged people only by their actions. If he hated the Preds, it was equal among all of them, and it was only because of what they had done to his kind.
When everyone had finished, the kids all passed their tablets up to Vera, who collected them in a box. "I hope you had fun with those, or at least found them interesting. You don't have to tell anyone else what your results were, even me. Just think about what they say about you. And before you ask, yes these tests were designed by Prey psychologists and have been thoroughly researched. They might not be perfect, but they're accurate far more often than they're not." She blushed. "I remember how flustered I got when I took them for the first time, let me tell you!"
The fox walked back to the blackboard, glancing up at the clock as she did. "We're almost done now, and we've got a special surprise lined up for after class." This made the kids squirm; some in anticipation, some in dread. "But until then, remember back when I was showing you all those statistics? About violence among Preds and Prey? There's one more I wanted to share, and it's kind of a doozy."
She tapped the blackboard. Four different graphs popped up, all showing different results. "What we have here, basically, is a whole bunch of data. We've got Prey on Prey violence, Pred on Pred, Pred on Prey and vice versa, plus this small one here: violent incidents where the perpetrators' genus is unknown. These are all the recorded incidents over the last ten years, all grouped together so you can see how prevalent each category is. Now, when all these numbers are added up, the result is going to surprise you. You've been told the opposite your whole lives. But again, I repeat, these were taken from both governments' own statistics. These are the most accurate numbers we could find, and I encourage you to check them yourselves."
She definitely had their attention now. As the kids leaned forward, wondering what could possibly be so earth-shattering, Vera tapped the board again. This time the picture was animated: all the graphs fused together into a single result. For those with good enough eyesight to read the numbers, they gasped before Vera could begin explaining.
"We've checked this and checked it again to be sure, because even we were surprised by the result. It's not by a huge margin, but the statistics prove it: Preds are more likely to be victims of violence than Prey."
Cody was about to jump out of his seat and start spitting fire, but thankfully Kenny did it for him. "That's a complete lie! There's no way Prey do that much hunting!"
"I didn't say they did," Vera replied calmly. "I said violence. As in, overall." Another tap showed the lines between each type of violence. "As you can see here, the biggest difference between the two sides is in the area of same on same. Simply put, you Prey don't kill one another quite as much as us Preds do." She began to pace, sounding very ashamed of her genus. "As I said, there's no denying we're the aggressive ones. And the GPA is working on that. But that's only one part of the problem. Another is the haphazard distinctions made between Pred and Prey. Many species that rightfully should be on the Prey side, or even more correctly, considered omnivores, are instead stuck behind the Fences alongside far more carnivorous Preds."
She changed the screen to a series of facial photos. All different species, each with a statistic beneath. "These are the top ten species most likely to be victims of Pred on Pred violence. As you can see, most of them have preyish qualities; bats, rats, fennecs, weasels, etcetera. But then over here you also have wolves, dogs and cats. They're the ones most likely to get into bar fights about who's tougher; who's the most cold-blooded killer. It's not just genes that cause this. It's a culture that reinforces stupid bravado. Honor among peers means more than common sense."
Vera sat on top of her desk, looking up at her students. "I'm not telling you this so you'll feel sorry for us. I'm just trying to point out that life can be harsh on both sides of the Fence. There are cultural roles that are cruel to all of us. It doesn't excuse us from our individual responsibilities to one another, but it should breed some empathy. If life is hard for you sometimes, know that you're far from alone.
"And you can look at the data another way," she added, pointing to the board. "You've been led to believe all your lives that your kind are victims. 'It's simply nature's way and it's how things will always be.' Well, no. Prey are not always victims, and you don't have to live like victims."
That made them all think quietly for a moment. Whether they agreed, disagreed or didn't understand, at least they were thinking, and Vera was happy for that.
She stood up and clapped her paws crisply. "Well! That's about it for the day. Time to let you guys in on the surprise. We know that most of you have kept as far away from the Predkids' side of camp as possible, as if it's contaminated with cooties." She chuckled. "But no more! Today the staff has set up a Prey-and-Pred soccer match showdown!"
Many diverse reactions. Frank looked very interested indeed. Cody grimaced at the thought of being forced to interact with the enemy. Tycho looked down at his jiggly belly and hoped no one would force him to play. Hydra looked like she couldn't care less, so Chloe did too.
"All the classes will head over to the athletic field. No one has to play if they don't want to-" Tycho sighed in relief. "-but we'll give everyone time to set up their teams. It'll be an informal match; no cards or cleats. We pretty much just want to give everyone the chance to run around and have fun with one another. Sound good?"
A few enthusiastic 'yes'es, a few cringing 'no's, and a whole lot of apathy.
Vera's sunny mood was not deterred. She was sure their attitudes would perk up once they got into it. "Then let's go, everyone!"
Seats scooted as the kids got up and followed the vixen out the door.
*****