Alex Reynard
The Library
Alex Reynard's Online Books
Epilogue
"Wake up, please."
Parker St. John found his mind suddenly shoved towards consciousness, images of his son's death still burned into his vision.
He had known in his deepest guts that putting Cody in The Box was a bad idea. But everyone, all his coworkers and friends, had kept on telling him, "It's the safest place in the world! It's the SAFEST PLACE!" And look how that'd turned out. When he'd gotten the news that the Preds had used their fucking magic to swoop in and steal every last child in the place, Parker had felt something detach from his soul and disintegrate. He had sat on the edge of his bed for four hours straight, staring at the floor, while half of him insisted that Cody might be alive, and half of him insisted that that was a fool's hope. Not knowing was the worst feeling in the world. Like having a knife buried deep inside him, constantly turning.
He'd been scheduled to deploy to a tiny island country where satellite photos had shown a compound in the jungle that was damn-near proven to be the Great Predator Army's base of operations. Many people had asked him if he wanted to take a leave of absence to deal with his grief. He had nailed them to the ground with the look in his eyes. It didn't need to be said: 'I will deal with my grief through action.'
The Preds had taken the best part of his life away from him, so it was only fair to repay suffering with suffering. Parker did not feel pleasure at the thought of his assignment, only an ice-cold sense of rightness.
He had led a massive troop deployment. They had surrounded the Predator base from all sides, including sea and air. But it had been a trap. Right from the beginning it had been a trap. What they found was a sprawling abandoned sugar factory. The satellite photos had been fake. The Preds had pulled off, on a global scale, the old trick of taping a still photo in front of a security camera.
But that wasn't their best trick. The entire country was a pitcher plant. As soon as his men had hit the ground, problems started cropping up. Travel routes became blocked. Vehicles started breaking down one by one. Everything that could have gone missing did, including all their gas masks and anti-bioweapons gear. He had been informed there was a small native population on the island, mostly rabbits, but they were either all gone when they got there or ghosts. It was like the island itself was alive and taking delight in toying with them.
Once they reached the sugar factory and found out the truth, that was when all hell had broken loose. Every plane they had in the air was hit with targeted electrical attacks, forcing the pilots to either bail out or pull off near-miracle landings. Unseen mines had been detonated along the hulls of their ships offshore. The ships sank just slowly enough to give everyone aboard time to escape. Parker had to give his enemy credit. They were far more skilled than anyone had been prepared for. He didn't know whether it was honor or passive-aggressive sadism that had compelled them to send such a clear message: We could have killed your men, but we chose not to.
The disappearances started. And for days they were relentless. The sugar factory was the only solid structure on the island capable of housing his men, so, knowing he was likely playing into the GPA's hands but unable to do anything else, Parker had ordered it transformed into a fortress. Teams that left the base for recon or supply-gathering simply never came back, no matter how many there were, no matter how well they were armed. Like quicksand had swallowed them up. The only option became 'never leave the base'. And even then the abductions didn't stop. If there was ever a gap in their security, the Preds would get in, invisibly as always, and take another five, seven, a dozen soldiers.
It had seemed a miracle that the radio still worked, despite everything else going tits up. Parker had called home and demanded drone surveillance of the entire island, plus air transport for as many of his remaining men as possible. The wait for his request to be granted was excruciating. Several days later, three fat choppers came out of the east like descending angels. Parker had let his men choose for themselves who wanted to stay and fight and likely die. He did not think less of those who chose to leave. Most of them had families. He made a point of telling them that he respected their choice to prioritize their loved ones over striking blindly within the heart of a deathtrap. He watched his troops board and the helicopters rise into the sky with relief. And then the markings on their sides dropped away to reveal the logo of the Great Predator Army. He had delivered his men into the hands of the enemy. He screamed his throat raw.
From then on, it was a waiting game. He kept his few remaining men as safe as he could behind the walls of the sugar factory. Huddled in the center, surrounded by traps. He knew the Preds would not be able to resist coming after the last holdouts. So he would wait for them. As long as it took. He would not leave this island until he had felt warm blood running down his wrists.
Then yesterday morning, the impossible had happened. Lt. Kittering had spotted a small figure running along the beach. It was a child, a prey child. His torn clothes and slight limp suggested he'd escaped from somewhere. And he was a chipmunk, who happened to look a lot like Cody.
Parker had debated for a moment simply ignoring the child. This felt too good to be true. But looking through the binoculars himself, he knew his son on sight. And he knew that if anyone could have outsmarted these unholy bastards, it was Cody. Parker had ordered a flare sent up and a single door left open with as many guards as possible aiming guns at the entrance.
The moment when his office door had opened and his men led Cody inside was one of indescribable joy and relief. Father and son ran to each other and hugged, vowing in their hearts to never let go again.
And then, Cody had looked up into his eyes and said, "I'm sorry."
Before Parker's eyes, his son had detonated himself into a cloud of nerve gas.
He was unconscious before he hit the floor.
Now he was waking up here, an unknown amount of time later. As his bleary eyes adjusted to the bright light, all he could see for a moment was white and silver. He looked down and realized he was handcuffed to a metal chair, his legs and torso strapped down too, seated before a metal table.
On the table was a lightsaw; a surgery tool with a laser blade, meant for emergency amputations. Parker guessed where this was heading.
The rest of the room was mirrored. Twin giant mirrors, tilted inward slightly, made up the whole top half of the room. Two-way glass undoubtedly. He had an audience. At the end of the room was another door. Beside it was a large machine with an oval bubble dominating the center. It looked like a stasis pod from a sci fi film. Was that what they'd transported him in? Or was that going to be another part of his torture?
"Are we fully awake?" came the voice again.
Parker's ears twitched. The voice was behind him. Female. Younger than thirty. Pred.
Lieutenant Vera Delamoor stepped out from behind the chair, eyeing her captive carefully. Her shoes tap-tapped on the tile floor. Her tail sailed along gracefully behind her like a little grey cloud. "I apologize for the restraints, Mr. St. John, but I wanted to speak to you without worrying that you'll jump up and kill me."
His eyes followed her every move. He gave her a polite, charming smile. "That's a smart worry."
She nodded. "At least we know the situation. I'm your enemy; you are mine. I can't tell you where you are right now-"
"...But I can see that logo on your armband just fine. That's all I need to know."
The man's voice was quiet but she could hear a dangerous strength in it. She watched him as he watched her move around the room.
Parker St. John was a lean, canny man. His eyes were terrifying. Though the rest of his face and body seemed relaxed, keeping a professional attitude about things, his eyes were red-ringed and pulsed with a deep, calm hatred. They were black voids of infinite murderous intent. They followed every move she made. She swore he could even see her heart beating.
Vera gulped, trying to keep in control. She reminded herself that this man had a right to his hatred after what her colleagues had put him through.
He did not ask what they wanted from him. He waited, and made her speak first.
Vera sighed. "Your defiance feels so familiar it gives me goosebumps. I look at you and everything about you says you're Cody's father."
The man twitched visibly. "You don't have any right to speak of my son."
"He and I know each other quite well," Vera replied.
Parker held the chair's armrests tight enough to make the veins on the back of his hands stand out. "Your people took him away from me. I watched him die. You scooped my heart out and made me into a man with nothing to lose." A single bead of sweat ran down his forehead. "Ma'am, whoever you are, I hope you plan on killing me. Because I promise you, if you leave any part of me alive, I will end you. Wherever we are, I will lay waste to it with no thought given to my own safety. Because I have nothing to live for at this point. Nothing except becoming the worst monster of your deepest nightmares."
Vera actually had to brace herself against the table after that.
He saw the tremble in her arm and his smile returned. "That's good. That's a good reaction. A smart one. I can see you're smart enough to take me seriously, Ma'am. I am the kind of man who would take up smoking purely to justify keeping your severed head on my desk as an ashtray. It's smart of you to believe me on that."
Vera stood up a little straighter. "I do. And I completely understand."
"You can't," he said immediately, very quietly.
"You're right. I don't yet have any children of my own, so I can't know the loss you feel right now. But maybe I can help make it better."
His eyebrows went up. It was an effort to keep the bile down in his throat. "Was that meant to be an insult? Because I think you really don't understand the loss I'm feeling, if you think ANYTHING you could do could make it better!!"
He had gone from a whisper to a roar so abruptly it made her stumble back a few steps. This man was cuffed and restrained in a metal chair, and she was deathly afraid of him.
Vera gulped. She walked over to the cooler to splash some water on her throat. "Nothing at all, Mr. St. John? Not even if your son walked through that door right now?"
The look of contempt he gave her was like sinking his fingers into her intestines. "How dare you even suggest that."
Vera reached up to tap twice on the mirrored wall.
The door opened.
For a moment, Parker St. John lost every trace of his sanity.
His son walked through the door. His son. His Cody. Alive. But...
God no.
He was wearing their uniform.
The young chipmunk was dressed in black jeans and a black leather bomber jacket with a white shirt underneath. He had a fighter pilot's cap with sunglasses resting on the brim. And a red armband. He was branded with their logo.
Cody shuddered as he entered. He loved his father, but it was torture putting him through this. It had broken his heart to participate in the plan to kidnap him along with the last of the island's holdouts. Yet Cody knew that what the GPA had told him was true: their plan was the best way to end the situation without anyone dying, and no one could have gotten through those factory doors but him.
Parker St. John's aura of control began to fracture. Vera could see his breathing speed up. The man kept rigidly still in his seat, but she saw his eyes swirling around, desperate to explain the impossibility across the table from him.
"This is a trick," he said in a cracked voice.
"No it's not, Dad," Cody insisted gently. He kept his distance for now, but he did sit down at the opposite end of the table. "I'm me."
"You CAN'T be!" Parker shouted. He stared into his son's eyes, wanting it to be true but not willing to fall for yet another of his enemy's mindscrews. "I watched you die."
"You only thought you did," Cody said. "I was completely safe the entire time. These guys have tech like you wouldn't believe."
That was just about the only thing he did believe. The Preds had proven beyond his satisfaction that they possessed stealth technology far beyond anything he could imagine. Parker was not a man to concede a fight easily, but one couldn't win against something one knew nothing about. When that had become clear, he had simply tried to keep as many of his men as he could safe from it. From them. From the enemy that did nothing but take until nothing was left.
"Why?" he asked his son. His eyes had moistened slightly.
Cody didn't need clarification. He looked down at his shiny new uniform. "Because they're right, Dad."
Parker shut his eyes tight and shook his head. Vera heard a single sob escape him. He looked up at her suddenly, his eyes blazing. "What did you do to him? What did you put in him? This isn't my son anymore. It's not enough you have to take him from me physically, you have to steal his mind too? Do you think you can break my will, is that it?"
Vera lowered her head and turned away. Nothing she said would be listened to.
Cody smacked his hand down on the table to get his father's attention. "Dad!! Listen to me. When they first kidnapped me, I remembered everything you ever taught me about Preds, and I fought them for as long as I could. I stayed on alert the whole time. I kept my eye out for any holes in their security. My only goal was to get free and find you and bring in the soldiers so we could clean this place out. Together. I fought and resisted and resisted and resisted for as long as I possibly could. I fought with every ounce of my heart, and do you know why I eventually gave in? Because they're right. It's that simple. We were wrong about them. I gave in because all my suspicions kept ending up wrong, and I turned against my friends, and I tore this camp apart trying to justify keeping on hating and fearing the Preds, until I couldn't do it anymore."
Parker seemed to pull himself back to sanity. He took a deep breath and met Cody's gaze. "If you're really my son, you would have never given up, because I know my son never would. You saw what they wanted you to see."
Cody shook his head angrily. "No! Dad, I held onto that conspiracy-thinking for as long as I could, and all I was doing was inventing stuff to scare myself with. If you know me, then you know I love you more than anything, because you're the best Dad in the world, because you're fair. You're fair and you're smart and you listen. You have to listen to me now. I wouldn't be wearing this uniform," he tugged on his jacket, "if I didn't believe in what it stands for. They're not our enemy, Dad."
"I believe you," Parker said sadly. "I believe that you believe everything you're saying. But I also know that they got to you somehow. They set up a show, and you took it for real, and I'm sorry."
He turned to Vera. "I had almost begun to think that your people had some honor. Almost. But this... This is unconscionable to a degree I couldn't have even imagined. To fuck my son's mind in order to get to me. My child. You people are soulless. You are garbage. Whatever it is I have that you want? I will die to keep it from you, just because you want it."
Vera shook her head.
Cody looked over at her. "I told you," he said.
She nodded.
Cody started climbing up onto the table. "Looks like we have to do this the hard way."
The young chipmunk crawled closer to his father, then rolled over onto his back. He took off his hat and set it aside. He tipped back his head, meeting his father's eyes while exposing his neck. Vera walked over and picked up the lightsaw.
Realization flashed in Parker's eyes. "NO!"
Cody spoke as calmly as he could. They'd already rehearsed this once before but it still made his stomach flutter. "Dad, you have to listen to me."
Parker ignored him. He pulled at his restraints with all his strength. "WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME!?" he bellowed at Vera. "You have my troops! You have my son! Is it information? I don't have any! Nothing that your people wouldn't already know! For the love of everything sacred, do not do this!!"
"Dad, look at me," Cody insisted. "I chose this."
Confusion was drilling holes into Parker St. John's head. "What!?"
"It's the only way," Cody said. "You need to listen to me now. Something's about to happen. Something awful and traumatic and bloody and horrible, but I PROMISE YOU that everything will be okay. Allright? I promise you. Me; your son. I promise you with all my heart. You have to believe me. If you don't, if you freak out and scream at Vera and threaten to kill her after it happens, then you'll have proved that you don't trust me. And if it turns out I'm right? Then to make up for you not believing in me, you have to promise to listen to whatever I say afterwards and accept that you might be wrong and I might be right, okay?"
"Don't put me through this, Cody," his father said, starting to weep.
"I have to, Dad. Now promise me."
The man shook his head, fighting to hold in tears. "I can't. I can't watch this."
The lightsaw came on with an insectile hum. The laser blade glowed bright blue.
"I WILL DO ANYTHING!!" he begged Vera. "Whatever you want, just tell me!! Don't fucking make me live through losing him twice!!!"
"I already told you what I want, Dad," Cody said solemnly, looking upside-down at the furson he loved most, watching him having a nervous breakdown.
Parker struggled against his bonds again. He wrenched his wrists against the cuffs so hard they bled.
"I made a promise to you, Dad," Cody said. "You need to remember that."
Vera brought the blue blade closer to the boy's exposed throat.
"ANYTHING!!!" Parker screamed. "KILL ME INSTEAD! SKIN ME ALIVE! JUST LET HIM GO! WHAT PURPOSE DOES THIS SERVE!? WHAT COULD IT POSSIBLY DO FOR YOU TO KILL A CHILD IN FRONT OF HIS FATHER'S EYES!? I'M SITTING RIGHT HERE!!! USE THAT BLADE ON ME, GOD DAMN YOU!!!"
"You're still not listening, Dad," Cody said. He nodded to Vera.
Parker screamed until his vision nearly turned black as the vixen brought the lightsaw down in one swift arc.
The blade flashed brightly as it passed with little effort through Cody's neck.
The boy's eyes snapped open at the not-quite-painful sensation. There was no blood. Cody's head simply rolled sideways, nearly off the table.
Vera caught it in time. She held it up by the hair so Parker could see. "Your boy died trying to get you to listen to him. Maybe you should have," she said regretfully.
Parker had stopped screaming by now.
He was clearly a broken man. He quivered uncontrollably in his chair. His face was blank. His eyes were dead. "You've taken everything from me," he said to Vera.
"Yes," she admitted. "And now I'll give it back." Without a word more she gestured towards the mirrors. The door opened immediately and more Preds swarmed in.
Two of them, a lioness and an elk, both in full uniform, dashed over to the table to scoop up Cody's body. Another, a skinny fox on crutches, hobbled over to the machine with the dome on it and began pushing buttons.
Parker watched all of this without emotion. There was no reason for him to live a single extra second longer, so none of it mattered.
The dome on the big machine opened and the two soldiers placed his son's limp corpse inside. The vixen placed Cody's head atop his cauterized neck.
The dome closed again. The two soldiers left the room. The crippled fox pushed a few more buttons, then departed also.
Vera stood by the closed door and turned to look at Parker. "You should watch," she recommended.
Parker could hardly drag himself away from thoughts of slaughtering her to look at what the machine was doing. Maybe it was an oven. Maybe it was going to turn Cody into a lovely casserole so she could sit at the other end of the table and eat it and destroy every last bit of his mind.
He saw something going on inside the machine. Though he couldn't tell what from so far away.
After a minute or so of quietly thrumming, it peeped. Then with a hydraulic hiss, the dome reopened.
Parker's whole body began to tingle at what he thought he saw. It looked like... No.
No, his head couldn't have been...
Cody's eyes opened.
His father's jaw dropped.
"Dad!!" Cody shouted joyfully. He jumped up out of the machine and ran as fast as he could over to his father. As well as he could manage with the chair and restraints in the way, he hugged the older chipmunk. "See!? Look, I'm okay! I'm fine!!"
Parker was breathing in short, gulping bursts. His mind had dealt with too much impossibility too quickly. He thought he might just float out of himself at any second and go away forever.
Cody saw that vacant, loopy look in Dad's eyes and grabbed the man's cheeks roughly. "I said LOOK at me!!"
Those lost eyes slowly turned and focused on his.
"I'm fine," Cody restated. "You know what that means."
Parker didn't think he could control his body enough to form words, but nonetheless a weak, "...No," managed to pass his lips.
Cody touched his forehead to his father's. "It means I kept my promise and you broke yours," he said. "I promised you everything would be okay, and you wouldn't listen. I knew you wouldn't. But it's okay. Because we had to do it this way. I knew that too. Vera made me confront my worst fear, and then when I saw it was nothing to be afraid of at all, everything changed for me. I had to do that for you, too. I knew nothing would scare you more than losing me. And you did. But I'm back and everything's okay now."
His head was still reeling. But his mind was clearing up. This was his son's voice. His son's real, true voice and there was no denying that. Cody did not sound drugged or brainwashed. He sounded as sincere as Parker had ever heard him. He didn't know what the hell to believe anymore.
He looked past his son's shoulders to the fox woman. "If you're really not my enemy like he says, prove it. Unlock these cuffs, at least one of them, so I can hug my son."
She smiled. "I don't have the keys; he does."
Cody pulled them out of his breast pocket and jingled them.
A tiny laugh escaped. Parker looked back at the fox. "That was smart too."
Cody set about unlocking the cuffs. "Don't strangle me, Dad," he warned teasingly. "I know you probably have plenty reason to be pissed at me right now."
"I'd never hurt you," Parker replied instantly. "Not even if you joined the Preds. Not even if you ordered my execution and it was the only way to save my life. I would never hurt you."
He proved his words. As soon as the first cuff was off, he didn't wait for the other. He threw his arm around his son and pulled him close and tight. He fiercely kissed the boy's forehead. His voice was muffled by Cody's hair. "I have no idea what's going on or whether this is even real," he said. "I just know that I love you."
Cody's heart soared. He could feel the tension leave his father's body, replaced by relief. "I love you too. More than anything. You have no idea how much I missed you all this time. I went so crazy missing you. I'm so happy to see you again. I promise I won't blow up this time."
His father gasped a laugh and kissed him several more times.
Cody rested his head on Dad's shoulder and felt the warm tears trace lines down his cheek onto the fabric of their uniforms. "I'll explain everything, Dad. I promise."
"You did promise," Parker acknowledged. "I can admit that. You said everything would be okay and to just trust you... But dammit, Cody, you could not have expected me to think straight in that situation. I nearly ripped my wrist off trying to get out of these cuffs to save you."
That reminded Cody to unlock the other one. There, that was better. A two-armed hug was much nicer. "I never expected you to listen. I knew you couldn't. I knew you had to get shocked before you could. But now you have to," Cody insisted. He pulled back to look his father in the eyes. "You owe me now. You've got to at least listen to why I joined the GPA. Why I chose to. My choice; not anything they forced me to do."
Parker nodded. "That's fair. I will listen."
"And that's all we ask of you," Vera said from the other side of the room. She came closer with a tap-tap-tap. "That's all we asked of Cody too. We promised him when we kidnapped him; spend one week here and then we will let you go, whether you decide to join up with us or not."
"You expect me to listen to you for a week!?" Parker sputtered.
"You won't mind, Dad," Cody said with a smile. "This place is really nice. Lots of trees. It's like somewhere you'd take me camping. The food's even good. And they have a pool!"
He chuckled distantly, feeling lightheaded. "I've been captured by the enemy, and you make their P.O.W. camp sound like a resort."
"We try to make it feel like one," Vera said. "And just to reassure you further, none of your men are dead. None. The GPA does not kill. Our strategy is to win by recruitment. We picked off your men one by one with our special gas and transported them to another camp just like this one. You'd have been taken there too, but we thought you might prefer staying with Cody."
"I'm supposed to just believe you that they're okay?" he asked pointedly.
"Not at all," she replied. "You can video call the other camp whenever you like. We'll even fly you there to meet them if you absolutely insist."
Cody could not help but laugh at the look of confused disbelief on his father's face. "I know that look, Dad. You're thinking, 'It has to be a trick somehow. They'd never let me do that for real; it's bad strategy!' I went through that about a million times myself. Trust me, it's not a trick. When they say they'll do something, they mean it."
Vera's tail wagged just a little. "We want people to join us willingly, even if we have to trick them at first. Afterwards, we try to be as open and honest as we can possibly be to make up for it." She put her hand on her heart. "And please, allow me to personally apologize for the nightmare we've put you through, Mr. St. John. I'm not a mother, but I have been a daughter all my life. So I do have some experience with how much it can hurt when family ties are cut."
Parker nodded in acknowledgement. He had spent his entire life hating Preds, but he had also spent his whole life vigorously doing his best to not be stupid. His hatred wasn't the blind, unthinking bloodlust he saw among some of his comrades. His hate was practical: 'You are a threat. Stay away and there will be no problems. Come towards me, and I will make you regret it.'
He knew Preds were people too. The other side of the Fence was not populated by boogeymen. He understood and empathized with their complaints sometimes. But that didn't mean he wanted the Fences to come down.
He looked Vera in the eye. "You have a long hard road ahead of you if you're going to try and convince me that your side's in the right. But, an apology is a good start."
Relief washed over her like a sunset. "Thank you, Mr. St. John. I can't tell you how much I did not expect to hear you say that."
"I haven't joined your army yet," he warned. "Look me in the eyes and promise me that you will let me and my son walk out of wherever this is if I don't find your arguments convincing enough."
She looked him dead in the eyes. "I will let you walk out of here, with your son, if I fail to convince you."
He nodded. He hadn't seen any guile in her. "Allright then. You get your chance. You tell me your side of things: I listen. No bullshit, no propaganda. If I smell a lie from you, I walk out of the room. Period. I'll stay here a week, but you can't make me spend all of it with my ears open. Fair?"
"Perfectly," she said.
"And I will take you up on your offer to call my men. I want to speak with Colonel Mars and Private Kelly within the hour. At least."
She nodded. "I'll tell my colleagues it's top priority, and to pull them away from whatever they're doing, even if they're on the toilet."
"Well, you don't have to go that far," he conceded.
To see even a trace of a smile on his Dad's face was wonderful. "I'm sorry too, that you had to go through all that stuff. They even made sure to promise me that you'd sleep right after I blew up, because I knew you'd kill yourself or somebody else if they left you awake all this time."
"How long has it been?"
"Just since yesterday morning. Not long," Cody reassured. "And I'll explain to you how I did it later. I want to kinda ease into it though, because it has to do with Newbrains and I freaked the fuck out when I first heard about them, so you probably will too."
Parker raised an eyebrow. "Something is going to make me 'freak the fuck out'?"
"Only at first," Cody replied. "But it's the best thing that's ever happened to me, really."
"Whatever you say." He squeezed his son again, trying to remember how many weeks they'd been apart. "Cody... I have to be honest with you though. You know you won't convince me to switch sides."
Cody suddenly broke the hug and stood up. "You promised to listen," he said firmly.
"Yes, I did. And I will. But I know there's nothing you could say that could change my mind. In the same way that you could argue persuasively that gravity makes things fall up. But I would still have personal experience proving to me the opposite."
"I know you think that now, but so did I. Are you saying I fell for their line because I'm young and stupid?" he asked, turning the screw a little.
Parker winced. "You know I don't think that. Naive, maybe. I've lived longer than you and seen more. Preds and Prey are not going to forget their differences, now or ever. The bad blood has gone on too long."
Cody crossed his arms dismissively. "Maybe that was true in Grandpa's time, or yours. But things are different now. I never realized how many people are sick of the war and want it over, and all that's really stopping them is that attitude. 'Oh, it'll never happen!' Why not, if we all want it!?" he shouted. He took a moment to calm himself. "Dad, if we leave and everything goes back to normal, that means you'll go back to the military and keep on fighting. If you win, the war goes on forever. That's all the victory you can look forward to." He pointed to Vera. "If they win, the killing ends. Which outcome do you think is better?"
Parker was taken aback by the steel in his son's voice. "You've never stood up to me like this before," he marveled.
"I've never had to before."
Parker smiled a little, rather proud that his son was starting to show some independence. And not in the bratty, teenage way. He was acting like a man ought to.
Cody stepped closer again. "You have to keep in mind Dad, that's what this whole head-chopping-off show was for. You were a hundred percent sure that you were about to lose me forever just now. But you were wrong. And it wasn't even your fault. You couldn't have known about the Rejuvenator."
"Is that what that thing's called?"
"Yeah. And it also means that if you kill anybody here, they'll just come back pissed off at you," he said with a grin.
Dad laughed. "I'll keep that in mind. And... allright. I think I see your point."
"There was tons of stuff I didn't know before I came here," Cody said. "You taught me to never trust Preds, to keep me safe. I understand that. Just because you were wrong doesn't mean you lied. It's not so awful being wrong."
"It remains to be seen if I am," he pointed out.
Cody nodded. "Right. But can you accept that you might be? That 'Preds are bad' isn't as clear-cut as 'gravity pulls stuff down'?"
Parker took a deep breath. He looked back and forth between his son and the fox woman, both wearing the same logo on their arm. He couldn't deny that his son had an iron will. He almost felt ashamed for thinking that Cody would have succumbed to brainwashing. He'd been training him from birth to see through bullshit. But... The possibility scared him that he might have fallen prey to it himself. The idea that he'd been wrong his whole life about the Preds... It scared him in multiple ways. There was the simple, base anxiety of being wrong. But that was easy to ignore as the weakness that it was. Beyond that, there was the terror of guilt. He had done... cruel things to Preds throughout his life. He had done them not for the sake of cruelty, but because he believed them necessary. If they had not been, then that meant he had a hell of a lot to atone for.
But a man doesn't look away from his guilt just because it hurts.
He looked his son in the eye. "I can accept that I might be wrong," he said, solemn and soft.
Cody knelt again to hug him. "Thanks, Dad. Thank you. That's more than I expected. You're a lot smarter than I was."
"No," Parker corrected, "not smarter. I've just been through more."
Cody nodded.
His father sighed. "I can also admit that... It would be nice if it were true. If we could just go home. If the war could end. I don't enjoy worrying all the time, Cody."
"Trust is an extraordinarily hard thing to build," Vera interjected gently. "Especially among enemies."
Parker gave her a nod of acknowledgment. Then he kissed his son again. "Allright then, you've been their captive for almost a week now. Or is it over a week? How've they treated you?"
Cody grinned. "Just fine. They've even put up with more of my shit than science should be able to explain."
Dad chuckled.
Vera rolled her eyes. "When I tell you some of the things your son did while he'd been here, you are either going to be absolutely horrified or perversely proud of him."
He gave his boy an 'oh really?' face.
Cody nodded sheepishly. "I was kind of a giant prick to everyone for a while. But they forgave me. Which is one of the reasons I believe them when they say they want peace. And yeah, once I got through a bunch of apologies, things've been fine here. Kenny and I went rock climbing the other day. There's a video game and computer room they let us use. I've read some great books. I..." he blushed, "I even found sort of a girlfriend."
A huge 'attaboy' smile lit up Parker's face. And then it suddenly fell flat. "Please tell me she's not a Pred."
"She's a Pred."
A low, injured whimper came from deep in the back of Parker's throat.
Cody grinned apologetically. "I kinda hate her though, which is why I like her so much."
Parker blinked. "You're going to have to explain that to me later. Right now..." He turned to Vera. "I'll understand if you don't trust me for a while. I admit, part of me is still thinking of ways to judo-flip you into a corner and run the hell out of here. But do you mind if I get myself out of these straps? This chair is killing my back."
"Go right ahead then," she said.
He nodded his thanks and started freeing his torso. Cody went to work on his legs. When he was fully unfettered, Parker stood up and gave his spine a good crack. His knuckles too. Then, simply because he could, he hugged his son again.
He looked over at the fox woman standing there not five feet away from him. His instinct still saw her as an enemy combatant. He needed to kill her quickly and get away from this place to keep his son safe. But he pushed that desire down. He would still keep alert, and he would quietly follow up on any suspicions he had while he was here, but he had made a promise to his son that he could not break.
He had been telling the truth when he'd said it would be nice if the war could end. Part of him relished his job, and he supposed he'd always have a need in his blood to fight against something. But another part of him was tired. Tired of feeling like his war was pointless, neverending and unwinnable.
He patted his son's head, felt the soft, handsome fur. 'He seems taller than I remember.'
"You'll see, Dad," Cody said, his face pressed to the fabric of his father's Prey army uniform. "You'll see. Like I did. It feels so much better to forgive, and let go, and just all be on the same side together. That's how it's always been, really. We just didn't want to admit it.
"Only we can win the war, Dad."
The End
...for now
*****
AUTHOR'S NOTES
For starters, some acknowledgments. I know most readers skip these, but this part isn't for you, it's for them. This story went through a record seven full proofreadings, and a lot of awesome people contributed to that.
~Cheers to Alfador, typo-finder extraordinaire, who read through this behemoth twice, giving feedback both constructive and supportive.
~Cheers to Zephon T'sol, my military analyst, who advised me on how to make sure the story's emotions came through clear.
~Cheers to Landon Caragas Fox, whose ideas on truth and introspection were one of this story's inspirations, and whose voice helped me flesh out Walter's.
~Cheers to Kanada, loyal reader, inspiration for Nursecat Kady, who also drew the story's thumbnail logo from the terribly vague description I gave him. ;)
~Cheers to Relee Squirrel, whose enthusiasm for the story awed me, and who spotted several continuity errors before they could become nitpicker bitch fodder.
~Cheers to Robby Rourke, who provided stellar voice acting when he, Kanada, Relee and I (and sometimes Landon) all gathered on Skype to read this huge motherfucker, in its entirety, over the course of many days. Hearing my words spoken out loud helped me tune them to fit more natural rhythms, and it also dredged up a ton of typos.
All of you made this story better than I could have on my own. Thank you so much, my friends.
I'd also like to acknowledge some of this story's inspirations.
-The Children's Story, by James Clavell
Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
-trillions of cheesy one-man-army action movies Hollywood poops out
-Animalympics
-ABBA's song Waterloo
-Erin Pizzey and GirlWritesWhat
-The Offer by Android675
-Sam's Club
-Limitless
-Jason Mewes
Lastly, I always like to write my stories as if they're an animated film. And that includes a voice cast. Having a voice in my head for each character helps a lot with dialogue. I just think to myself, 'How would [blank] say this?', and voila. So for War Is Peace, the voices included...
TRESS MACNEILLE -as- VERA DELAMOOR
JIMMY CARR -as- GUY SWANSEA
GEENA DAVIS -as- TINA McNEIL
MOLLY SHANNON -as- GILDA ZERQUETSCHENHÜNDCHEN
DIEDRICH BADER -as- RICK CROSLEY
KARI BYRON -as- KADY LEWIS
GRANT IMAHARA -as- JARED RAVENSFIRE
and
TOM CRUISE -as- PARKER ST. JOHN
"War Is Peace"
Started: 04/26/2012 Finished: 06/05/2012 Editing completed: 07/23/2012