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	Alex Reynard's
	WAR IS PEACE

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*Prologue*


No matter where or who you were, if you were among the millions who saw it happen live, you remembered the broadcast forever.

At the same moment in every area of the country, all screens went dark. From the lowest Pred slums to the most affluent Prey heights. People got up and banged on their televisions. People shook their cell phones. Internet users checked their connections. Patrons in digital theaters looked around, puzzled and angry. No matter what it was, if it could receive a signal, there was only one signal to receive that day.

After five seconds of darkness, an image appeared.

It was a desk in a dim office. The camera lingered on it just long enough to draw in the viewers' attention. In their homes, people leaned in closer to their screens. In the streets, crowds clustered around TVs in store windows, or craned their necks up at digital billboards.

Then the image was intruded by a man. A Pred. Half the country felt mild curiosity, while the other half flinched as if stuck with a pin.

He was either a small wolf or a large fox. His fur was dazzling white; a powerful contrast to the gleaming black vinyl of his uniform. Its style was a ridiculous parody of military regalia. It started with with a sweeping hat, complete with chinstrap and goggles on the brim. His jacket's sleeves were festooned with tiny, purposeless belts. His collar recalled old Dracula movies. The white canine strode casually to the desk, his knee-high boots clunking on the carpet, buckles and spikes jangling. He sat down, intentionally highlighting the most obscene part of his costume: an enormous golden codpiece engraved with a spread-eagle rooster, worn over black leather bicycle shorts.

He could not have looked more like a cartoon supervillain if he'd tried. Some viewers turned away, repulsed. Some laughed. Some felt their cheeks flush...

The video continued. It was a single shot which drew in closer so gradually it was almost imperceptible. The white Pred picked up a red rose from a glass on the desk, twirling it in his fingers, regarding it wistfully.

Then he looked up and said, "Oh. Hello."

Just like that. As if appearing before an audience of millions was merely a pleasant surprise.

He grinned, then looked directly into the camera, as if meeting the eyes of every single viewer. From this point on his gaze never wavered.

"Behold the face of your enemy."

A knowing grin unpeeled across his face as he spoke. "I am the voice of the Great Predator Army. You will know us well in the coming days. We have our eye on your society, Preys. We have had our eye on you for a very long time now, and we do not like what we see." His voice was clipped; more of a reprimand than a threat.

"For generations you have kept us segregated into filthy ghettos. We starve, and become the literal skeletons of your closets. Meanwhile you grow fatter and weaker and more fearful of us. An irony so measureless it... can't be measured. You? Afraid of us? You've herded us into pens, and every year you tighten the borders. You always need more land. We wait behind the Fences and wonder when the day will come when you'll simply bring the gas and bullets and end us once and for all." His grin became quite smug here. "Could it be you're just playing with us? The way a cat... plays with a mouse?"

He paused, either to let the irony of his statement sink in, or to bask in self-pride for thinking of it.

"But dear Preys, please do not blame the Preds, whom you have already abused so much, for tonight's broadcast interruption. We are not they. What we are is quite separate. We are as much their enemies as yours. We have nearly as much contempt for their weakness in not rising up to oppose you, as contempt for you in causing their pain. You are the cruel master, yes, but they are the cowed puppy who has forgotten his teeth." Here he bared his own. They were even whiter than his fur.

The canine sat up straighter. His vinyl jacket squeaked. "This is a formal declaration of war," he said with relish. "Neither of your societies is worth saving, so they won't be. Our aim is to smash the old and ring in the new. A new and glorious dawn ruled by the Great Predator Army! Fear us if you like." He tossed such a blatantly sexual 'come hither' smirk at the camera, it was a wonder it didn't melt. "...But we'd much prefer you join us."

Then his melodramatic mannerisms fell away and, for once, there was sincerity in his eyes. "All of you watching: you know this world is old, dead and ending. Choose to come with us. Choose our new beginning."

But the savage grin soon returned.

"Only we can win the war."

Here his stare into the lens somehow deepened, making every viewer across the country feel as if they alone were being personally spoken to.

"If you don't believe me, dear viewer," he whispered lovingly, "Let me prove it."

He blew a kiss to the lens.

"Be seeing you."

And here the transmission ended. There was static for a few seconds, followed by regularly scheduled programming.

Pred and Prey citizens from coast to coast felt like they'd just exhaled after holding their breath. For an instant, the nation was paralyzed. For a few brief seconds, most people were only capable of staring, thinking about the Pred's words, and feeling dread close its hand over their hearts.

It took only a few seconds for the screens to go dark again. Many people screamed or passed out; certain that awful canine was returning to taunt them again. But it was the emergency broadcast channel; the reason the All-Screen Override had been created in the first place. A rabbit at a desk summarized the previous illegal broadcast and personally apologized for his channel's first-ever failure in protecting their outgoing signal.

Seeing the newsman helped calm many citizens, even if most of the Preds grimaced at yet another reminder of which side was fully in control. The presence of the newsman meant things were getting back under control again. Things would revert to normal. It was easy to begin believing that the man in the silly uniform had been playing a massive hoax.

Then, another man in a headset rushed into the shot and whispered something to the newsman, handing him a tablet. The rabbit read it and, even before he spoke, the look in his eyes demolished all hope.

"I've just been informed that the president has been abducted. Along with several hundred citizens, security personnel and police who were attending his speech."

A nation of people stopped breathing.

They listened as the newsman related how the speech had been progressing normally, then, from outside the lecture hall, citizens had noticed clouds of gas emerging from every door and window. Cameras inside showed everyone present, including President Kincaid, suddenly rise up out of their seats as one. Then a voice instructed them to walk, and they obeyed. By the time police had been able to break down the doors, everyone who had been inside the building was gone.

The newsman's voice shook. "One of the officers on-scene was reported saying, 'It was like they were stolen by ghosts.'"

The nation had only seconds more to process this, when the newsman was interrupted again.

Five members of the Predator territories' parliament had been vanished away in exactly the same manner.

For the next twenty-four hours, the country shut down. Those who were not dispatched to face the new threat could do nothing but continue watching the news. As the hours wore on, the nation saw a man slowly losing his mind as he was forced to report on disappearance after disappearance. Some were reported in real time, others hadn't been noticed until people started looking. Sometimes there was video. Again and again, citizens watched as some of their most powerful leaders willingly surrendered to unseen abductors.

The gas, a simple command, and gone.

By midnight, 2,500 had disappeared.

As the days passed, panic took firm control. The Great Predator Army issued further videos. The white canine taunted them all, each time ending his little speeches with the words, "Only we can win the war."

By the time a single week had passed since Broadcast Day, one hundred and fifty thousand had gone missing.





--Chapter One--


Cody St. John had not seen the sun in two weeks and four days.

The young chipmunk sat on his bed with the lights out. Kenny was out somewhere, so he wouldn't be bothering his roommate by shielding himself in shadow. The light in this place was constant. Inescapable. Fake like plastic. Like fiberglass being ground into his eyes day and night. Simple darkness was one of the few comforts here in The Box.

Cody stared absently at the clock. It told him it was mid-afternoon. But it could have been lying for all he knew. The sun could be shining outside. The clouds could be pouring down rain. There could be goddamn tornadoes. There was no possible way to know. Like everyone else, he was sealed in an airtight, soundproofed cube. At least, that's what it felt like.

When his father left to fight the Preds, he had, with great unease, signed his son up for the government's VIP child protection program. Sons and daughters of the country's remaining bigwigs would be taken to a place referred to officially as Farron's Keep. It was an emergency bunker, designed decades ago in case of full societal collapse (and if that wasn't what was happening now, it was as close as anyone had ever seen). After the Great Predator Army's attacks had begun, the place had been quickly updated into the most high-security daycare ever imagined. While the remaining scraps of the government worked to prevent the end of civilization, their children would be protected 24-7 from all possible threats.

Parker St. John was a tall, agile man whose eyes reflected an unmatched alertness. His every mannerism was keen with years of skill. On the day before Cody had been transported to The Box, his father was dressed in his best blue uniform.

He had knelt and hugged his son. "I don't want this," he said softly. "But you know I can't take you with me."

Cody had merely nodded. His father already knew how much he wanted to fight the Preds at his side. Damned age limits.

"They say this place is as secure as anything's ever been, but you know as well as I do how much faith their idea of security deserves. Locking you in a box isn't right. And I'm only doing it because it's better than leaving you out in the streets."

Cody nodded. "Yes, sir. I understand."

General St. John gave his son one final squeeze. Neither cried, but their hearts wanted to. Cody felt Dad's medals pressing into his shoulder.

Finally, Dad spoke the words again. They were almost a family motto. Cody knew them by heart, and they comforted him.

"Because we are prey, there will always be people who want to harm us. Our safety is our own responsibility. We must always, always be alert."

Cody nodded. "I will, Dad."

His father stood, then kissed the boy on the forehead. "Of course you will. If I have faith in anything in this world, it's you."

Cody felt a pang of love and pride in his heart so strongly it was agonizing.

Then his father had disappeared out of his life. Gone, as if snatched up like all those stupid Preys who'd gotten themselves captured. Cody took in a deep breath and kneaded the bed's sheets in his paws. There was no communication in this place. No emails, no calls. He knew the only way they'd ever give him news of his father was if he were killed in combat.

This place... The chipmunk felt familiar fire pulsing underneath his skin. These cowards that ran this place... Putting him in a cage when he should be out there, fighting and taking lives for what those fucking Preds had done. Instead they had all gone to ground. Just like frightened nonevs; holed up in their dens and hoping the danger would pass by itself. Fucking cowards.

He hated the Preds. There was no hate that could compare to that. It was a white-hot wire inside him at all times. But did he hate the administrators of this goddamned Box nearly as much? Nearly, yes.

The chime for Second Class rang, reminding the young chipmunk of how much he hated his classmates too.

Cody grunted like an old man as he stood up, despite being only fifteen and in good physical shape. His species was cursed with chubbiness and cuteness, so the best he could do was to keep himself lean, wiry and ready. In the dark, the only light he could see was the clock's display and the crack under the door. He could hear feet shuffling past outside. Not needing to see, he checked his uniform to make sure everything was in place. (Not that he cared what anyone thought of his appearance. Dad would want him to look his best out of simple pride.)

After two weeks in this hellbox, it was easy to keep the tears back when he thought of Dad.

He opened the door and snarled as the bright light ripped at his eyes. 'Stupid!' he thought. He should have given himself time to adjust.

He stood there blinking for a few moments as other kids passed him. Sons of senators and congressmen. Secretaries, diplomats and generals. The Vice President's daughter was even in his class. Cody didn't care how many guards patrolled this place. He didn't care if they wrapped chains around the building top to bottom. He knew that putting the offspring of so many powerful fursons in one place had created a big, fat juicy target for the Preds.

Not for the first time, Cody wondered if he and his classmates were bait. His father had told him many stories about the sociopathic incompetence of the men who commanded him. Cody could not rule out the possibility that they'd use their own children as a lure.

His vision returned. Preykids of all ages passed him by. Boys in smart blue uniforms, girls in forest green. The youngest ones, the ones who didn't know anything about the war, still had expressions of joy or sadness. Like this was an adventure away from their parents, or they wanted nothing more than to be at home again. Kids Cody's age had blown through all that already. They were bored, restless and fed up.

Though of course Kenny was still smiling. That magnificent bastard could grin during the apocalypse. Cody's handsome, athletic roommate spotted him further down the hall and waved him over.

Kenny was nonchalance incarnate. In normal life, a golden boy like him wouldn't be caught dead speaking with a prickly 'conspiracy theorist' like Cody St. John. But random chance had made them roommates, and they bonded over the one thing they did have in common. They both knew the only way to peace was a world without Preds. (The irony was exquisite; Kenny was the son of a top diplomat.)

"Well, you certainly look like shit," Kenny remarked. He strutted down the hallway, hands in pockets.

Cody snorted.

"Sittin' in the dark, hating the world again?" the bunny asked with that damned grin.

Cody smiled slightly. "Yeah. Like the lights don't get to you, too."

Kenny smiled up at the everpresent fluorescents. "I honestly don't notice them anymore."

"You're a freak," said Cody. Kenny chuckled.

The Box's walls were white. The floor was white. The ceiling was fucking white. The everything was white, except for the colored doorways that indicated classrooms or restricted areas. It was so easy to get lost in here. This place was designed as a military bunker; efficiency trumped every other consideration. Anyone housed here was meant to survive, period. Too bad no one realized that anyone who did would be crackbrained crazy by the time they got out.

The sameness of Cody's days was numbing. Time ceased to exist sometimes. No night or day; only boredom. Wake up; breakfast; First Class; morning break; Second Class; lunch; athletic break; dinner; freetime; bedtime. Every day. Every day. Every day. Every day. Weekends were a myth, holidays a legend. There was no communication in or out. For students addicted to online games and social sites, the withdrawal was not pretty. There were offline games aplenty though. More than enough to keep the kids stationary and docile. Cody swore he could *hear* some of them getting fatter. (That could have been planned too, he'd considered.)

In the hallway near their classroom, Mason and Scott were at it again. Cody held back bile.

The deer and the mouse were handing out printed flyers. Mason was a pureblooded revolutionary. The buck had a constant twinkle in his eye, like he was gonna save the world tomorrow. On the other hand, Scott Quint was a fucking pipsqueak. The mouse was barely there.

Kenny smiled ingratiatingly at the pair. "What's this? What do mine eyes perceive?"

Mason snorted. "I know *you're* not interested, Loughtner."

"Oh, but I am!" the bunny insisted, snatching a flyer away.

Cody simply stared at Scott. The mouse backed up behind Mason, trying to melt out of sight. Cody mouthed one word: 'Faggot.'

"A sit-in?" Cody asked. "In the cafeteria? And this is supposed to do what, exactly? Tell me, Mason. Educate me."

The buck took a steadying breath. He kept his voice calm, but barely. "We're all going to stay in our seats after lunch tomorrow. We'll stay for as long as it takes to get them to realize we want this unjust war ended."

Kenny's smile was the zenith of condescension. "That'll certainly work, won't it Cody? I can just see the guards and the teachers all holding hands and shouting, 'Hallelujah! Mason Kellway, the prophet, has shown us the way!' Then we'll all march out to the Fences, cut them down, embrace our Pred brothers and sisters ...and find out what being eaten alive feels like!"

"Shut up," Scott spat.

Kenny took a moment to admire the tiny bit of spine this chewtoy was showing. "Oh, look! It thinks it has the right to speak to me! Isn't that cute, Cody?"

"It thinks it's people," Cody replied, unsmiling.

The mouseboy rolled his eyes. He was used to this kind of treatment by now.

Mason sneered at Kenny. "You could never understand. The outcome isn't nearly as important as making sure our voices get heard." He snatched the flyer back. "I'll give this to someone who cares."

"You'll be standing there waiting an awful long time," the rabbit replied without missing a beat. He and Cody walked past the two hippies into the classroom.

Everything was as expected. The little square room seared with the same light as the hallways (Cody was quite sure Satan must have invented the fluorescent lightbulb). The desks and chairs screeched spine-grindingly against the floor. Mrs. Buchanon sat behind her desk like a frog waiting for flies to come circling. Yola and Tycho were already in their seats, reading. Typical.

Cody heard Hydra Kensington approaching, trailing along her little army of disciples. The bunnybitch always had at least three other girls circling her like asteroids. Always eager to drink in her wisdom. Which usually delved into such topics as hating everything, and hating everything else.

Of the classmates Cody could stand, Frank Tanondo was the only one he wished he knew better. The zebragirl had a body like a marine and didn't show respect to anyone she didn't think deserved it. Cody thought that was admirable.

Nobody disliked Trudy. The poor little piggy was overweight, had glasses and spoke softer than a falling leaf. She was such a perfect trainwreck that no one had the heart to bully her. And Jayden was such a mouth he was usually good for a laugh, even if his family was mixed. Cody still didn't know how to feel about having a classmate who was a quarter-Pred.

The recipe for Mrs. Buchanon included only three ingredients: Old, Fat and I-Don't-Give-A-Damn-If-You-Little-Bastards-End-Up-Stewed-Tomorrow. Cody wasn't sure if she had been a teacher before the war started or an aircraft carrier.

The chime rang again. The room filled with about thirty assorted Preykids. Everyone was on time as usual. Where else were you gonna be? As bad as class was, it broke the monotony.

Mrs. Buchanon nevertheless called the roll. Cody wondered how it was possible she couldn't just *look* and see that everyone was there. Maybe she did it to simply eat time.

When the P.A. beeped, Cody's class of 13-to-15 year old P.O.W.s all rose. Hands over their hearts, they chanted with all the enthusiasm of an empty cemetery. The Pledge was a relic from the days of humanity, and a few decades ago, some patriotic senator had decided it needed an upgrade to fit the spirit of the times.

	"I pledge allegiance to all Preykind,
	To my nation, and to my leaders who keep me safe.
	Our fences are strong, and we are stronger.
	We are a wall;
	Allied in strife, we will prevail.
	Our enemies can never take our hearts, our spirit, or our unity.
	Until the day when all wars end,
	Amen."

Cody actually didn't mind the Pledge too much. He had to admit, he liked the imagery: all of Preykind standing with linked arms, forming a wall against the Preds. But that part about trusting the glorious leaders always made him feel like someone had rubbed shit over his lips. Dad worked with the 'leaders'. He took orders from them. They were men ruled by money and narcissism. Content to talk all day about how *their* administration would keep Preykind safer, while the number of deaths and abductions always stayed the same.

The other kids all thought Cody was crazy for believing what he did. But his Dad had told him, and his Dad knew. There was a reason the stats never changed. There was a reason why the Prey territories' greatest defense was simply a series of Fences and guards, and not a thirty-foot-thick wall encrusted with guns and electric traps. It all came down to money. It was cheaper for companies to keep their factories in Predzones, where they could charge Pred workers half normal wages. To transport those goods, the borders needed holes. And holes meant Preds could come in and do what Preds did. Nothing would ever change, because there was too much money to be made by keeping everything just the way it was forever. Cody had learned to stop trying to convince people of the truth. The looks he got from his classmates disgusted him.

"Attention please!" Mrs. Bullfrog shouted. The beaverfemme waddled out from behind her desk and began passing back worksheets. "Your performance is still a disappointment. I can't flunk you out because there's nowhere to flunk you to. So as much as it pains me, we're going to keep going over this material until all of you can at least pull Cs."

The class groaned. Hydra looked like she was about to grab the flagpole and harpoon the woman.

"Once again, Miss Denton, you have the highest grade in class. I only wish that whatever it is you have would spread out to the others."

The vice president's daughter looked up as if she hadn't heard a word. The tall otter took back her worksheet. "Oh. Thank you."

"And look, class! Once again, just like usual, Mr. Winters has scored the lowest. It's almost as if we're in a time warp!"

Mrs. Buchanon handed Jayden's paper back. The rattish mouse let it fall to the floor. "It's almost as if you think I care," he drawled. "I couldn't give less of a fuck if you stuck me with a syringe full of fucks to give."

The whole class stifled laughter.

Mrs. Buchanon was used to this kind of response from Jayden. "Two hour's detention for your filthy mouth, Mr. Winters."

"C'est la vie," the mouse tossed off.

The fat beaver returned to her desk and turned on the TV screen behind her. As always, class started with a news broadcast. Cody had the unpleasant feeling that it was a specially censored program made just for The Box. It was never anything except propaganda. 'Oh look, we're winning the war again. How nice. Oh, look, those Grand Predator Army assholes released another video and abducted another nonspecific number of citizens. Eek, so scary!' Cody couldn't help noticing there was always a lack of specifics. The cops or soldiers would raid Preds and label it a victory over the enemy. But those Preds could be anyone. None of them ever had the same insane outfit the guy on Broadcast Day was wearing. Cody, and a lot other kids, suspected that the government was striking blindly.

One day Cody had seen his Dad on the news. Just briefly. They were interviewing him about possible overseas operations. Cody didn't even remember what his dad had said; he'd been stunned by the gift of seeing his face again for a few seconds.

That had been probably the best moment of Cody's whole time in The Box. Even hanging out with Kenny and flicking away sympathizers like Scott didn't compare.

The news was blessedly short at fifteen minutes. Then 'learning' began. Mrs. Buchanon stood at the blackboard and listed some names from recent Prey history. She asked the class to identify them and list their accomplishments. Cody's hand wasn't going up for anything. Not that he didn't know the answers, he just didn't have anything to prove to Mrs. Bullshit. He got high scores on his worksheets and she left him alone. Fine by him.

As usual, Yolanda answered most often. Cody liked hearing her talk. Her voice was calm and clear, with a slight musical quality to it. Meanwhile her father was off running the country in the President's absence, and doing a bad job of looking like he had any idea of what the words constantly coming out of his mouth meant. How that loudmouth had helped give birth to Yola, no one knew. When she talked, it was always with as few words as needed to effectively convey meaning. She was a know-it-all, but not a suckup. She just happened to actually know it all.

Kenny answered sometimes too, but was wrong as often as he was right. Neither outcome phased him. The world around him was just a mildly diverting television show. Sometimes that drove Cody crazy, and sometimes he actually envied his roommate. Sometimes worrying so hard about the war and caring so hard about his dad hurt. Like his heart was shot through with cancer. Being able to turn that off would be nice sometimes.

Hydra Kensington threw up her hand and announced to all that she knew who Pierce Ludlow was. Well lah-dee-dah. As if knowing who one of the presidents was deserved a medal. But of course, Chloe-Sophia was giving Hydra a look like she was basking in the glow of a goddess. Chloe had the fur of a squirrel but the heart of a lamprey.

What else was there to do in class but pick apart the details of his fellow students' lives? Listening to Mrs. Buchanon's mooing was out; this was stuff they'd already gone over for seemingly the fourth time. 'How hard is it to remember history?' Cody thought. He knew he put in a minimum of effort and got decent-to-good grades. Was it possible that everyone else just cared less? Or was Cody somehow exceptional without realizing it? He didn't like that idea for some reason. He wanted to just be average, at least in terms of schoolwork. He didn't want to excel at something he considered not worth excelling at. There were more important things in life to put his effort into.

If he spent his classes scoping out his classmates, he knew a lot of them did the same. What did they think of him? Not much, apparently. Frank never acknowledged him. Tycho looked at him like a dirty spot on a tablecloth. Cody and Jayden hung out sometimes, but the mouse usually had a dozen scams going and not much time to spend on any one furson. And Kenny still got incredulous looks when he was spotted talking to Cody. Like, 'Why's he dignifying that *thing* with his presence?'. They didn't know that Kenny understood.

Cody had always understood. All their problems in here? Just petty shit. Nothing mattered as much as the war. Not just the one they were fighting now, but the one they had always been fighting. Cody looked around the room and, even among the kids he almost respected, saw nothing but a bunch of furs only concerned with their own problems. Their grades, their sleep schedules, the food. Yes, Cody complained about the lights and never really knowing if it was night or day outside. But he understood that those concerns were secondary and temporary. Nothing could be more important than the war until the war was over. The Pledge had gotten that right at least.

He lived in a patchwork country. It was carved up into Preyzones and Predzones, all separated by miles and miles of Fences. And everybody thought it could just stay that way forever. Cody hated zombie movies because they felt too plausible. He was living in a country where nothing but chainlink and distance separated him from entire cities' worth of bloodthirsty killers. If the Fences fell, it would all be over. Sometimes he'd spend the night thinking about it so much he wouldn't be able to sleep. Everything he knew could be taken away if the Fences ever fell.

Everyone talked about solutions. 'Give the Preds more food aid and then they won't need to come over here and hunt.' 'Give the military more money'. 'We need bigger Fences.' 'Why can't we all just get along?' Squawk, squawk, squawk. Cody knew there was only one real solution.

Them or us.

If it came down to exterminating them all, oh well. He wasn't about to cry over the idea that a bunch of murderers got murdered. But Cody wasn't like them. If the government could simply cut the country in half down the middle and relocate the Preds to where they wouldn't be a threat anymore, he was fine with that. As long as they kept to their side. If that ever happened, he was sure their hunter's instincts would go berserk with no Prey around to hunt, and they'd probably start turning on each other. But again: oh well. So long as Prey citizens didn't have to lock themselves inside in fear anymore.

Mrs. Buchanon moved onto math. Tycho Max perked up, unsurprisingly. The guy was kind of a weirdo. He was an albino gerbil, which was odd enough, but he just *loved* doing him some math and science classwork. He didn't rub anyone's faces in his academic prowess; he just got oblivious to everything else when certain subjects came up. Cody was content with letting Tycho live on his own little nerd planet.

He watched Frank struggling to keep up though. The cute zebra was obviously frustrated. Cody was decent at math, and had been trying for a while to get up the courage to ask Frank if she maybe wanted him to tutor her sometime. He didn't exactly have a crush on her. He just thought she seemed... like she understood personal honor. For that reason alone Cody wanted to get to know her better.

Then the P.A. beeped again. An announcement? Had something, anything, actually happened? Gasp of disbelief!

The kids looked up at the speaker, but the voice that came out wasn't Principal Kern's.

"Please remain seated," a woman's voice said.

And that was it.

Cody tilted his head. What the hell did that mean? He was already seated. He didn't have any reason *not* to remain seat-

He realized suddenly that he couldn't move out of his chair.

He looked around the room. Everyone else was noticing it too. They were struggling in their seats, twisting back and forth, pulling at their pants. Nothing. Even Mrs. Buchanon was frozen to the spot.

What the fuck was this!?

Frank was struggling harder than anyone. Cody could see the zebra's muscles straining as hard as they could to pry herself off of her chair. She had her eyes closed and was groaning from the effort. The veins in her neck stood out.

Trudy was looking in every direction like the end of the world was about to come flying at her. Jayden looked slightly concerned, which was the most amount of fucks Cody'd ever seen the rodentboy give. Tycho's lip was curled in a pout, his expression showing that he was frantically trying to reason this out. Yolanda was doing the same, but far more calmly. Behind her large wireframe glasses, her eyes scanned all around the room.

Kenny reached across the aisle and tapped Cody. "Any idea what the hell's going on, bro?"

Cody didn't know and didn't answer. He only gave his friend a look that said, 'Nothing good'.

Chloe-Sophia started crying hysterically.

"Please, class! Calm down!!" Mrs. Buchanon bellowed. "I don't know what this is, but I'm certain someone is about to get everything under control!"

The P.A. beeped again. Same woman's voice.

"Please be quiet. Relax if you can. You will understand soon."

Chloe-Sophia's cries ended as abruptly as if she'd been shot.

Cody opened his mouth and tried to say something. Anything. Any words! Any fucking words, for fuck's sake! Nothing!! It was like his larynx had been stolen. He looked around and everyone else was moving their mouths soundlessly like goldfish gasping for water. It creeped him the hell out.

This was bad, worse than anything else imaginable. Cody didn't know exactly what this was, but his senses were on their highest alert. He hated himself for daring to curse the monotony of this goddamn place. Whatever was happening, he knew in his gut it would end in death, and he was sitting here powerless to defend himself. Whoever had done this had stolen that from him, had rendered him helpless as a baby with just WORDS. Cody tried to keep his breathing calm. He felt violated down to his soul. This wasn't fucking FAIR! What kind of enemy didn't even give you the slightest chance to fight back!?

Then the door opened, and Cody saw his enemy.

A statuesque lioness strode grandly into the room, dressed in the same cartoonish crap the canine from Broadcast Day had been wearing. She wore thigh-high boots, a leather military jacket with a fishnet undershirt (her shoulder epaulets rose up like skyscrapers), a tall hat and a belt with a silver buckle. And a red armband. Inside was a symbol Cody knew from TV. It was a white 'happy face', but the smile was a predator's open jaws. A stupid, cruel joke.

The Great Predator Army had caught them, and now they were all going to disappear forever.

This was the end of his life, Cody knew. No one who had ever been kidnapped by the GPA was ever recovered. The most likely explanation was that none of the missing *could* be recovered. They had been turned into rations to feed this new army.

Cody thought of his corpse stuffed in a meat locker. Frozen at the bottom of a pile, with all his classmates' bodies lying on top of him. Motionless forever. Until some Pred cooked his flesh and ate it.

For a moment, he had a flash of heartsick terror. But no. His father's training kicked in just like it always had. That was just panic he'd been feeling. Feel it and let it go. Panic is useless. He was still alive. That made all the difference in the world. Until the moment a bullet, a blade or a set of fangs tore through his flesh, he could still think. And that meant he could still fight back.

All this had gone through Cody's mind in the few moments it took the lioness to walk to the center of the room. She positioned herself before the teacher's desk. Then two prey soldiers entered the room.

For an instant, Cody felt hope. 'Yes! Arrest her! Beat her face in!'

Then the two soldiers flanked the lioness and it was clear whose side they were on. Cody couldn't believe it. He felt like his heart had been shot out. 'YOU TRAITORS! YOU GODDAMNED WORTHLESS TRAITOROUS SONS OF BITCHES!!! WHY!?'

The lioness took a moment to let the young ones' terror pass. She gave them a smile. Then she addressed the room in a booming baritone voice, rich with undefinable accent. "This is a day of celebration for you! You have been captured by the Great Predator Army! Isn't that wonderful? Hooray!!"

Now all the kids were looking at her like she was insane.

A third Prey soldier came in, carrying a cardboard box. He didn't look brainwashed. He wasn't walking like a zombie with blank, dead eyes. He looked eerily normal.

"I am sure you are afraid right now and have many questions," the lioness said. She gestured towards the box, her regalia jingling. "I will explain as I have you put on these collars. They come in a variety of nice colors. You will be wearing them for a while, so pick whichever one you like best."

The soldier with the box, a squirrel, went over to the first row and Cody was astonished to see his classmates calmly reaching inside and selecting collars. Why were they agreeing to this? But of course; the only explanation was that they had to. It was the same as the commands to keep seated and keep quiet.

Oh god, that meant that soon his hand was going to dip into that box and choose a collar. Which he would then put around his neck with his own two hands. He wondered if there was a way to kill himself first.

"You remember the gas we used when we snatched up the president and parliament members?" the lioness asked everyone. She paced back and forth, her lucite heels clopping loudly. "That time, we added some smoke for show. The real gas is colorless, is odorless, and you've all been breathing it in for the last half hour or so. It creates a state of hyper-suggestibility. I see some of you are struggling to resist. This is perfectly understandable. Do not feel as though you have failed if you can't. The effect is purely chemical and is no reflection on your individual will."

Frank looked somewhat relieved to hear that. Cody could see she was near tears. The zebragirl was a gracious loser when the fight was fair, but he could tell a situation like this was torture to her. He empathized.

Of course, the lion bitch *could* be full of shit. It could be a lie to keep them from trying to resist hard enough to break through the chemical's control. Cody was determined to try. Subtly, so it wouldn't be noticed, he tried to whisper a single word. He couldn't. So he tried again. He would keep on trying for as long as he could.

The students continued to choose their collars. They were simple plastic, like what nonev pets wore (or at least they seemed to be). Chloe unconsciously chose the same color as Hydra. Cody kept track of which kids looked resigned to their fate and which ones glared with defiance at the lioness and her traitor puppet soldiers.

"When all of you have your collars on, we will ask you to link them together by cords we will provide. We want all of you to make one big line; all of your class connected, so nobody gets lost."

Yolanda realized she could ask a question without speaking. She looked directly at the lioness, then cocked her head towards Mrs. Buchanon.

"Your teacher? We don't need her. We will leave her here, unharmed. Your concern for her is commendable."

Yolanda didn't seem to know how to react to that.

The box of collars was coming closer. Cody was still trying his damnedest to whisper something. One word! His name! His Dad's name! The word 'kill'! Any fucking thing!!!

The squirrel soldier stopped right in front of his desk. Cody willed his arm to stay where it was, but already it was lifting up and reaching inside the box. Without conscious thought, he picked out a black one. The soldier moved on. Cody's hands slipped the plastic around his neck, and their touch filled him with sick hatred. His fingers felt like centipedes.

"This building is under our complete control," the lioness said triumphantly. "Right now we have soldiers in every classroom. They are all passing out collars. Every child is putting one on. When we are ready, you will be led up to the roof where we have a helicopter waiting. You will not be able to resist our commands, so do not cause yourself undue stress trying. You cannot resist, so do not worry."

Cody couldn't say it, but at least he could mouth the words 'go to hell' at her.

Soon enough the entire class was collared. By this time, one of the other soldiers had begun unspooling lengths of plastic cord. The students in the front rows each clipped one end to the back of their collar, then fastened it to the front of a classmate's.

The lioness practically beamed with delight. "It is wonderful to see things going so smoothly! All your colorful collars! Don't be sad, little ones. Don't be afraid. This is a great day for you!"

Tycho couldn't speak either, but he pounded his desk with his fist. Cody had to give the nerdboy credit for that little act of wordless protest. He wished he'd thought of it.

"What? Do you think we are taking you away to butcher you?" the lioness laughed. "Understandable, considering the terrible lies your news tells about us. But lies they are! We have no desire to hurt you. You will be kept safe and comfortable. You are all useful to us, and you will help us change the world." She smiled and repeated the canine's words from Broadcast Day: "Only we can win the war!"

Trudy reached across the aisle to connect her collar to Cody's. Her cheeks were completely soaked with tears. Cody grimaced. He didn't have anything against her personally, but walking behind the squat piggirl was going to be annoying as hell, trying not to bump into her. His hands betrayed him again by accepting his own leash from the soldier and connecting it to Kenny's.

The rabbit reached across and started tickling Cody's shoulder. The chipmunk thought his friend had lost his mind at first, until he realized Kenny was spelling a message:

'at least were together'.

Cody was surprisingly touched by that. He turned and gave his friend a solemn nod of solidarity.

When all the children were connected, the lioness asked them to please stand up. Without hesitation, every single one of them did.

The lioness walked over to the door. "Please line up. And I apologize if you are still afraid. I can see some of you crying. Try to relax. Things are not as bad as you imagine."

At the words 'try to relax', Cody felt a slight wave of sleepiness hit him. The voice on the P.A. had told them to relax before. He supposed that was the reason no one was flailing around in hysterical panic. Everyone in the room looked scared to death, but were facing it calmly. Cody wondered how much of that was their own will, or the command.

"Say goodbye to your teacher."

With a single voice, every student said, "Goodbye, Mrs. Buchanon."

As the lioness led them one by one out of the classroom, they each took their final look at their teacher. Cody did not believe the obvious lie that she would be left behind unharmed. He knew he was seeing the woman for the last time. The _last_ time. He remembered with shame all the cruel things he'd thought about her. She was a rude, uninspiring teacher, but she was still Prey. Cody had forgotten that. And now, as soon as the children were out of sight, Cody knew the last thing *she* would see would be a bullet, a blade or a fang.


*****


Each time the lioness said, "Try to relax," it became harder and harder to think.

Cody and his classmates were led along like a trained snake. Their chain curved through the hallways of Farron's Keep. They passed other classes full of children who had the same half-dreamy, half-shellshocked expressions.

Cody's heart broke. 'All of them. Every last one. They will never see their parents ever again.' He pictured the frozen bodies in the meat locker. That was his fate, and no rosy bullshit from that lioness was going to fool him.

If he had to die, he promised himself he would go in defiance. If they held him down on a chopping block, he would stare into the eyes of his murderer until his last second of life.

Up the stairs now. The classroom snake wound around and around the stairwells. Thirty or so children moving in lockstep.

"We are next to go up to the roof," the lioness called down to everyone. "Be careful of the rotor wash! If you have anything that could blow away in strong winds, hold it down now!" With that she opened the door, and everyone was suddenly deafened.

The Box was soundproofed, but no one realized just how much so until they were suddenly less than a hundred feet away from a twin-rotor military behemoth, bearing a great big Prey army logo. Its motors were a constant scream in their ears. The lioness and the soldiers seemed used to it. They led the children along towards the gaping back hatch of the copter. Cody's blood ran cold when he saw what was inside.

He thought at first it was skinned bodies. But that image lasted only a second. Inside the helicopter were racks upon racks of Preykids. All of them tucked into cocoon-like sleeping bags. Only their heads poked out.

The lioness had to shout at the top of her lungs to be heard. "One by one, you will disconnect the cords from your collars, enter the helicopter, and be directed to an empty sleeping bag! A soldier will help you climb inside! Once we are in the air, you may go to sleep! When you wake up, you will be in your new temporary home!"

Cody thought he knew why it would be temporary.

He watched his classmates walking one by one into the helicopter, like willing sacrifices into a whale's massive mouth. There was a huge pile of discarded leashes lying on the concrete roof. It occurred to Cody that he'd gotten his wish: he was seeing the sunlight again, finally. Maybe for the last time, but at least he was out of that goddamn fluorescent light. At least the breeze on his fur was real, and not air conditioning. He clung to that small bit of comfort to keep despair away. Despair led to depression, and depression killed alertness.

Cody readied himself when it was his turn to remove his leash. He dropped it in the pile with the others, wishing he could get rid of his goddamn collar too. As he walked up the ramp into the belly of the copter, he glanced behind to see Kenny repeating the same actions.

Inside, the helicopter bay was bathed in red light. More children than he could count hung from the racks in their sacks. They looked like ripe fruit. A stocked pantry. Some were already asleep. He wondered how that was possible with all the noise.

More prey soldiers directed him to where the unoccupied bags were. A deer lifted him up gently so that a skunk could slip him feetfirst into one of them.

It wasn't too bad. It was cushioned inside so at least he wouldn't be slamming around back and forth while they were in flight. Cody felt a strong desire to just relax and drift off. But he knew he couldn't. He knew that he was going through a traumatic experience and his body was trying to shut down to protect itself. But he couldn't let that happen. There were windows in the helicopter. There were windows. If he kept awake, he could see where they were going. That might mean the difference between rescue or death.

Kenny was tucked in beside him. The boys didn't know if the no talking command was still in effect or if they just couldn't think of anything to say to each other. They were fucked. What else was there to tell?

Cody drifted in and out of dozing as more and more children were led into the helicopter and pouched. He'd had no idea this many children were kept in The Box. He felt sorry for the first ones who'd been put in sacks; they had to wait through all the other classes' worth of kids. It seemed like ages before they took off.

Cody watched through the windows as the ground lifted away. He half-heartedly expected to see fighter jets on the horizon, coming to intercept them. Being shot down would be better than whatever the Preds had in store for them. But nothing of the sort happened. It was smooth sailing all the way. Cody wasn't terribly surprised. He had to give his enemy credit; they had prepared this beyond what anyone could imagine. They probably had all the right codes and words to say to make everyone on the ground think this was a perfectly normal flight away from a massively-guarded military safehouse. 'Then again, maybe it *is* normal. Maybe this is how the food and supplies come in and they took advantage of that.'

Cody knew that he must not underestimate his enemy. They were not stupid. He could not count on them making mistakes. He would have to carve out his own path to freedom; they would not show him an easy route. He would have to observe and be patient. A chance would present itself, and he would seize it.

He remembered being a little cub, sitting on Daddy's lap. Daddy would teach him all about Preds. What to do if he ever saw one. What to do if he was ever kidnapped by one. Cody learned his lessons and made Daddy proud.

Cody was so sleepy...

He watched through the window for as long as he could. Longer than almost anyone else who was trying the same thing.

But every time he thought of that word, 'relax', he sank a little bit deeper... and a little bit deeper...





--Chapter Two--


Cody dreamed of summer. He and his father camping. Cody's heart was at peace.

Then he was waking up surrounded by the ungodly roar of helicopter blades.

Class by class, the children were being unloaded. Cody looked around, instantly alert again, cursing himself with every rancid word he knew for failing to keep awake. It was dark outside, not long after sunset. That meant they'd been flying for hours. Cody had no idea if they were in a Predzone, a Preyzone, or even another country.

Through the copter hatch, Cody could see sand and wooden fences. Maybe a military base? Prey soldiers in Prey uniforms lifted kids out of sacks, handing them over to Preds. It was too surreal to believe. What had been done to these soldiers? What kind of mad scientist brainwash horseshit was going on? What if they used it on him too? What if he found himself joining up with these murderers without any chance to resist?

'I'll kill myself first. I'll will my heart to stop beating,' Cody thought. It gave him a small measure of solace. 'Dad will understand.'

Soon enough the soldiers were lifting him up by his armpits and setting him on the vibrating metal floor of the helicopter's belly. Preds shouted out orders, and Cody felt his skin crawl as he obeyed them. "Keep with your class! We don't want anyone getting lost! Stand together outside the aircraft and you will be directed where to go next! Don't be afraid! Try to relax!"

That relaxation line again. Cody fought it. He forced his imagination to churn out the most horrific images it could. He had to keep his adrenaline flowing. Keep alert no matter what.

Outside the helicopter, most of the clustered kids were crying, looking to each other for comfort, staring off into space, or smiling sickly like none of this was really happening. But Cody's eyes were wide open. He looked all around him, drinking in every detail. This might be his only chance to gather info on this place before they locked him in a cell.

It was a military base disguised to look like a summer camp. Evil but clever, he had to admit. The base seemed circular, judging by the enormous pine trees that bordered the perimeter. So some kind of coniferous forest. Not too helpful, but it might help rescuers determine the general area if he could get a call out.

Some kind of massive wireframe dome covered the entire base like a transparent turtle shell. Maybe electrified. Cody didn't know what purpose it served, but he guessed it might somehow shield the place from being seen from the air. He wondered what it was made of and if there was a way to find out.

Little low buildings were everywhere. Mostly made of wood. They looked like they'd been assembled in a moderate hurry. This was not a permanent installation. Good. Might mean sloppy work; cracks he could exploit. Pred soldiers were all over the place. Most of them didn't have on the ridiculous, ornate black vinyl stuff. Some wore simple brown or white or red uniforms. Color might indicate rank or classification. A few Prey wore the same uniforms.

No flags or insignias anywhere. Made sense; they wouldn't want to advertise this place's location. There were trucks and jeeps and... Holy jackpot. That bigass dome might've covered the entire camp, but there was a *gate* in it. A big damn gate! They probably brought in supplies through there. If there was one hole in their cage, there'd be others.

Cody stood with the rest of his classmates, watching as other groups of children were led away to different buildings. Each by another one of those GPA Preds in black. Cody noticed there were as many women as men, and they all looked like magazine models. 'Maybe it's a cult. Maybe they've got stolen hardware but no real military training.' It was a theory worth covertly testing.

He knew there was an angle here; he just had to find it. His father had taught him well. 'When you're in a crisis, hold back the urge to fight or flight. Get yourself calm. Think. Be patient and the solution will present itself. When the moment comes, you'll know it. Make your move without hesitation.'

When all of Cody's classmates had disembarked, the lioness took a head count. "Please follow me, little ones! Everything will be revealed shortly!"

She took off walking in a campy mockery of a military march. The Preykids followed behind, unconsciously mirroring her gait. They hoped they weren't about to be led into a kitchen or a meat locker. The lioness directed them to one of the many semi-identical wooden buildings in the base. She stood by the door and watched them all enter.

As he got to the door, Cody gathered up his courage. He turned to the Pred woman and gave her a look of purest hatred. Quietly but clearly he said, "I'm going to kill every Pred here for what you've done."

The lioness looked startled, but only for a second. Then she regained her cocky smile. "Oh really? That seems like quite a large task."

Cody didn't reply back. If they underestimated him, good. He followed along with the other Prey.

He had expected a lot of things in here, but not nothing. It was simply a plain, unfurnished room. The lioness bade the children bunch up against the back wall. The same two Prey soldiers entered and flanked her. She struck a pose at the front and announced, "Welcome to Camp Carnivore!"

"Well that's cheery..." someone muttered sarcastically.

"You are hereby designated K Group!" the lioness boomed. "Try to stay with your group whenever possible. We don't want anyone getting lost, certainly! You will be given three meals a day, a bunk to sleep, two instructional periods per day and your own uniform. You are all intelligent young furs and we expect your full cooperation. If not, there will be DISCIPLINE!!" Several kids flinched when she bellowed that word.

"W-what kind of discipline?" some idiot just had to say.

The lioness' muzzle curled into an overflowing smile. "I'm so glad you asked that question!" She turned to the door. "GILDA!!!"

Who the fuck was Gilda!?

The knob turned. Cody felt part of his brain melt when he saw an arm as thick as a telephone pole open the door.

Gilda was easily eight feet tall. She was a snow-white malamute with tidy raven hair. Her Great Predator Army uniform was stretched clingfilm-tight across her impossibly muscled body. Her biceps were the size of skulls. Her legs looked like they could kick tractors in half. Her veins bulged like sausages.

She gave the kids a dainty wave and a friendly, "Hello!"

"Gilda! Show these children what happens if they do not obey!" the lioness shouted with delight.

The monolithic dogfemme scanned the terrified crowd of Prey. As scared as they were, they all felt a wave of unreality. This wasn't happening, right? People like this didn't exist in real life, right!?

Gilda extended her pointer finger and traced it through the air. Several kids ducked out of its deadly path. "Hmmmm..." Gilda settled on a small grey mouse nearly hidden in the middle of the crowd. "Oh yes, him!"

"You heard her, mouse!" the lioness exploded, grinning madly. "Step forward!!"

The crowd of kids parted around Scott Quint like he was riddled with leprosy. He stood there quaking. But his expression was not wholly one of fear. Was there a trace of an excited smile on his muzzle as he approached the herculean husky?

He stood before her, his head barely taller than her crotch. Gilda effortlessly lifted him up in the air by his shirt collar. The mouse wriggled, but didn't struggle. He was sweating like crazy.

"Have you been a bad little Prey?" Gilda asked in a singsong voice. "Do you need to be punished?"

Scott gulped. His cheeks were red hot. "I th-think I do. Please."

She knew she'd chosen well. She nodded, then tipped back her head and stuffed him in.

The rest of the kids freaked out. Cody knew he wasn't dreaming, but this shit had to be a hallucination. He wasn't at all surprised to find out how much of a mealie Scott was. Give him the chance to be eaten and he hopped right to it. He knew some Prey were like that. Clearly a mental disorder. But what he was seeing now was literally impossible. The big bitch's throat had opened up like a snake's. Scott's head had already disappeared. Now she was stuffing his shoulders in. He wasn't resisting a bit. He even seemed to be helping. Freak.

The lioness stood to the side and watched with glee.

The other kids' jaws were all on the floor. Like Cody, they weren't exactly terrified. To be scared of something, you have to believe that it's real. This was too... *cartoony* to be true. Yet Cody couldn't see any way they could be faking it. Gilda obviously wasn't an animatronic. He didn't see any seams where she could have been stuffing Scott into a fake pouch.

The canine finished pushing the mouseboy's shoes into her mouth. All that was left was a tailtip. She slurped it up like a spaghetti noodle, then smiled with satisfaction. "Ahh, so filling!" She patted her huge, wiggling belly in gratitude.

"Now you see what can happen if you defy the will of the Great Predator Army!" the lioness cackled. "Please go on into the next room and choose a seat. Your instructor will be along shortly. Gilda needs to go lie down now and have a nice nap while she digests your classmate."

None of the kids moved. They just stared in utter bafflement.

"You heard me! Into the other room with you! Shoo, shoo!"

Tycho was closest to the door and he held it open for everyone. The rest of the kids filed through, most of them unable to resist glancing back at Gilda's Scott-filled gut.

Jayden hung back while everyone else went through. Eyes bulging, he tentatively crept closer to the towering malamute. She had her hands on her hips, regarding him bemusedly.

The mouse reached out a hand to touch her stomach. It wiggled.

"Ffffffffffuck!" said Jayden, as he ran out of the room to join everyone else.

They were in what looked like a typical college classroom. Typical, if a little small. There was a desk and a digital chalkboard at the front of the room. Several dozen smaller desks were arranged on the opposite side in a stadium seating style; each row slightly higher than the one before it.

The kids of K Group crowded to the side of the room, talking about what had just happened. Many had their cell phones out and were frantically clicking buttons, but no one could get a signal.

"None of this makes sense! She just took out Scott in one gulp!!" Kenny said.

"She couldn't have," Tycho insisted. "Even if that woman could dislocate her jaw, no one's mouth is that elastic. Her lips should have split down the sides. And if nothing else, she should have suffocated trying to get him down!"

Trudy had her hands over her mouth in horror. "Listen to yourself! You're talking like you're criticizing a bad movie! Scott just DIED! Our classmate just died!!" One of the other girls hugged her.

"He didn't seem too unhappy about it," Cody interjected.

"Oh shut _UP_, St. John!" Tycho spat back immediately.

Cody was rather stunned. The gerbil was showing a surprising amount of backbone in this situation. 'He might make a useful ally at some point,' he noted.

"It wasn't no illusion!" Jayden said. "I felt it! I actually touched her stomach! Totally him in there. Fuck this! This is crazyshit!"

Yolanda pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose. "We're going to have to think of a way out of here as soon as possible," She spoke up.

Hydra rolled her eyes. "No shit. And of course, *you're* going to lead us? Chip off Daddy's block?"

Yolanda fidgeted a bit. "I didn't say that. Whoever's got any ideas should, um..."

"Are there any weapons in here!?" someone near the back shouted.

That got everyone's heads swiveling to and fro. The room was pretty spartan. Desks; chairs; blackboard. Not even a flagpole or some books to throw.

"Could we take big doglady down if we all jumped her at once?" Jayden asked.

"She would crush your head to a pulp like making orange juice, dumbass," Kenny pointed out.

Cody noticed that Frank had been quiet this whole time, silently observing events and looking around the room for possible escape routes. He liked her even more now.

Chloe-Sophia tugged on Hydra's sleeve. "You've got some ideas, right?" the squirrel pleaded. Britney and Michelle, the bunnygirl's two other acolytes, nodded expectantly.

Hydra pushed them aside. "Bitches, back off! Gimme some room to think!"

Trudy was sobbing. "What happened to Scott... That's what's gonna happen to all of us..."

Cody saw Mason Kellway standing in the corner, looking lost and conflicted. The chipmunk walked over with a reaper's smile. "This is what you wanted to make peace with," Cody said. "_This_ is what happens when you try to make nice with the enemy."

The buck looked up and his eyes were fierce with tears. "I just watched my best friend die. Back off."

Cody didn't. "Oh, I'm sorry. Did I misremember you handing out flyers earlier? Wanting to have a sit-in to protest the war? Excuse me: the *unjust* war!"

"Leave. Me. Alone," Mason said, quietly and dangerously.

The chipmunk backed up only one step. "It hurts because you just saw the consequences of your idiot beliefs. You don't like how it feels to be proven wrong, do you?"

Mason shoved Cody in the chest with both hands.

Cody did not topple. He braced himself on the teacher's desk and just grinned. "Thought not." He walked away, leaving Mason to his well-deserved misery.

Yolanda was waving her hands in the air to get everyone's attention. "Does anyone want to try helping me break that window over there? It's got bars, but we might be able to smash through them with a chair."

Jayden joined her. "Fuck this place, I'm up for it!"

Cody chuckled. It was definitely the first time he'd seen those two working together on a school project.

He felt strangely calm right now. Maybe it was just smugness from seeing everyone else running around panicking. Maybe it was an odd kind of relief. The thing he'd feared for so long, his worst nightmare, was finally happening to him for real. He'd prepared for it and dreaded it for so long. Now it was here. In a way he was glad. This was his chance to test the skills he'd worked on for so long. This would be, in an odd way, his graduation from his father's teachings.

The door opened.

Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked.

Scott Quint was standing there, soaking wet, with a shit-eating grin bigger than his whole face.

"SCOTT!!" Mason screamed, running to his friend.

"What the hell!?" someone shouted.

"How in the world did you get out of there!?" Frank cried.

Scott found himself for the first time the center of attention among his classmates. He was hugged by a hysterically-relieved deerboy. "Don't worry, Mason. I'm fine."

"HOW are you fine!?" Mason sputtered.

Scott addressed everyone. "She spat me up! Right after you guys left! She apologized, and she and the lion lady hosed me down and said I did a great job helping them out. They said it was just a prank, really."

"WHAT!?" several people shouted.

"Just to freak everyone out," the mouse said. His clothes were dripping on the hardwood floor. "Catch you guys off guard."

Jayden's mind boggled. "Well yippity-dip! First we get kidnapped, then they wanna pull haunted house bullshit on us! I should'na even woke up today!"

"What sadistic monsters are these people!?" Michelle yelped.

"They were pretty nice to me, after I got upchucked," Scott said, shrugging.

"What was it like in there!?" someone asked.

At that, Scott smiled. "I don't care what any of you think of me; that was the awesomest thing that's ever happened to me in my life."

Chloe-Sophia winced hard. "Ewwww! Pervert!!"

Scott brushed it off. "Warm and wet, squeezing me all over. I've never felt anything like it. I was scared out of my mind, but man, once I was inside, I never wanted out!"

Kenny looked disgusted. "You are fucked up beyond belief."

Scott was unfazed. "Nothing any of you guys say can make me stop grinning. Gilda's the best."

Then someone knock-knocked lightly on the open door. A vixen stepped into the room clutching an armful of papers. "Didn't someone tell you all to choose your seats?"


*****


She was nothing like the other Preds they'd encountered so far. The woman was in her mid-twenties with a petite build and dark, short hair. A grey fox; salt-and-pepper fur streaked with copper. Her uniform was olive green and looked soft and comfortable. Nothing like the monstrous, campy nightmares the others had worn (though her tiny pleated skirt was a little risque). She sat her papers on the desk along with her officer's cap and walked over to the blackboard.

Some of the kids started drifting over to the rows of desks, and soon all of them were headed that way. Years of schooling had conditioned them to find seats as soon as a teacher entered the room.

One kid summed up everyone's emotions, whispering to his friend: "I'm still scared to death, but maybe she'll finally tell us what's going on."

The vixen switched on the blackboard and drew her name with a fingertip. "Good evening, K Group! My name is Lieutenant Vera Delamoor. Though you can call me Miss Vera or just plain Vera if you like. We don't take our titles very seriously here."

She turned around and faced her new students. She smiled happily at seeing them all seated. "Thank you very much for cooperating. I'm sure you're all confused right now, so I appreciate you being orderly." Her voice was cheerful, friendly and surprisingly guileless.

Hydra decided to take control. The bunny stood up furiously. "ExCUSE me. Do you have any idea who my father is? If you don't let me go, your pelt's gonna be our bathmat by tomorrow!"

Vera smirked. "Do I know who your father is? Would that be Patrick Brookstone Kensington, of 221 West Strathmore Boulevard? Where you, Heidi, previously lived with your mother Judy and your brother Grant, until you were relocated to Farron's Keep? Do I have all that right?"

Hydra looked unpleasantly surprised. "How in Satan's ass do you know all that stuff!?"

Vera tapped her pile of papers. "We have good intelligence, and I have a good memory."

Yola turned in her seat. "Also, Heidi, I think it's pretty obvious that we were all taken precisely because of who our parents are." She spoke calmly, but there was a tiny trace of one-upsmanship for that minor embarrassment earlier.

The bunnygirl fumed. "You want a slit throat? You call me my real name."

"Miss Yolanda is correct," Vera spoke up, defusing the ire between the class' two queen bees. "I'm sure it's crossed all your minds by now, and you're right. You were chosen because you're the sons and daughters of some of the most powerful people in Prey society. Just like we've also taken a roughly equal number of Pred politicos' children. I'll get to the full explanations in a second, but for now, how about a nice round of applause for Mrs. Tina McNeil, from the Stony Heights community theater group!"

At that, the regalia-clad lioness entered the room, giving the kids a bow. Her mannerisms had changed almost completely. "Was I evil enough, you think?" she asked in a perfectly normal voice; no more accent.

Vera explained to the group of bewildered Preykids. "A big part of this whole Great Predator Army thing is satire. Plain clowning. If we took ourselves seriously, we could never hope to accomplish our goals. If we acted like normal soldiers, the only reactions we'd get would be fear or hatred.

"We knew we'd never be seen as anything but villains, so we went with it." The vixen smiled playfully. "We gave you your most exaggerated nightmare of what we'd be like, to confront you with how ridiculous it'd be. We hoped to get past most of your fear by being too outlandish to be frightening. I'm sure some of you *were* frightened though, and from all of us, we apologize. But the fact that we're having a conversation right now, and none of you are screaming your lungs raw and scrambling to escape, suggests we succeeded as well as we needed to."

Several kids exchanged glances, forced to admit that she might be right. Trudy had stopped crying by now and was looking almost hopeful.

Cody, of course, didn't buy it. This was where the con job started. This was where they spoke nice and made everyone feel relieved. Maybe the Preds weren't planning to butcher him and his classmates just yet, but they damn well would after they got what they wanted.

Tina took off her hat and brushed her hair back. "Jeeze, this outfit gets hot!"

"Go change then, hon," Vera said. "You did a great job. Get some dinner and relax."

The lioness nodded. "Will do. See you later. Bye kids!" She waved and walked out the door.

Jayden put his hand up and didn't wait to be called on. "Two questions: where's that dog lady and is she gonna eat any more of us?"

Vera chuckled. "Oh, don't worry about Gilda. As I'm sure you can tell by the fact that your friend Scott is still alive and kicking, she's not mean. I'll explain exactly how she's able to do that neat trick of hers later on."

Jayden still seemed wary. "He ain't _my_ friend, lady..." he muttered under his breath.

"I'm sure all of you have questions and I'll let you ask them in a little bit," Vera said. She walked over to her desk and sat on it, facing everyone. "But first there's something I'd like to say to all of you."

She paused a moment, composing herself.

"First off, I'm compelled to apologize. We kidnapped you. We used hypnotic gas on you. Our only excuse for this is that we believe it serves a greater good.

"My purpose here is to explain that greater good to you. The Great Predator Army might wear silly costumes, but at our core we have some very serious beliefs. The fox you saw on Broadcast Day was telling the truth: we believe that both Pred and Prey societies have reached a point of catastrophic failure. We believe that, if things stay the same, our future will lead to nothing but misery. We want to change things." She smiled bashfully. "Corny as it sounds, we want to save the world."

"Bullshit," someone near the back loudly whispered.

From her frown of disapproval, everyone could see that Vera had heard. But her irritation turned to sadness. "No. I expected that. That's... what this is all about. We know it's going to take an almost-impossible effort to get people to listen."

Vera stood up. She gestured with her hands as she spoke. "I want you all to humor me and take a second to imagine what it would be like if you had been born blind. I'm quite serious; try as hard as you can to imagine your life if you had never been able to see."

A few kids closed their eyes. Vera was overjoyed at such a good sign so early.

"But you weren't blinded by nature," she continued. "When you were born, someone wrapped a cloth around your head, and as you grew, you were told again and again that if you ever took that blindfold off, the worst things you could possibly imagine would all happen to you. The people who put the blindfold on didn't do this because they were evil. They did it because they were blindfolded too. And they were *also* told that if they ever took theirs off, horrible things would follow. And it's been going on like this for generations.

"Now, imagine that one day someone tries to take your blindfold off. You would resist them, of course. You would fight to keep it on, because everyone you love and trust has told you more times than you can count that you must always keep it on.

"But that other furson has taken theirs off. And nothing bad has happened to them. In fact, they can see now. They can see the sky and the grass and other people, and it's so beautiful and so much better than living in darkness, they want to share this wonderful new sight with everyone."

She paused. Her classroom was dead quiet.

"I know," she continued, "that you might not like being told you're blindfolded. I know it might seem like I'm insulting everything you believe in. That's why I'm only asking you to trust me long enough to take a small peek. That's all.

"You're going to be staying here for exactly one week."

Several incredulous, "WHAT!?"s

"One week," Vera repeated. "After that, you're free to go. We will reunite you directly with your parents and what you do from then on is totally up to you. In the meantime, we will try to make your stay here at least more enjoyable than it was in that Box they've kept you cooped up in so far."

Cody's eyebrow raised. How did she know their nickname for the place?

"During the next week, I'll be talking with you twice a day. Once after breakfast, once after lunch. We're going to examine what you believe about Preds and Prey. I'll try my best to persuade you that things aren't anywhere near as awful as you've always been told. I'll outline the GPA's plan to fix things, and I'll be showing you some of the tech we've developed to help make our ideas realistically possible. You are all free to agree or disagree. If you choose to join us, you'll be welcomed with open arms. If you choose not to, then you get to enjoy a week's worth of our hospitality and then go home."

Cody couldn't take it anymore. "That's real nice, you talking about us being free to agree or disagree, when you've got that gas that can make us all dance when you tell us to!"

Vera nodded. "I understand your concern. But I promise you, we will not use it on you again. It's an unfortunate, necessary evil. I'm guessing by the way you're glaring at me Mr. St. John..."

His spine went cold to be so suddenly addressed by name.

"...that my promise doesn't mean much to you. Well, for starters there's the fact that if we used the gas here, all of us in the GPA would be affected too and it would become quite a clusterfump. Secondly, in case any of you were wondering, the gas' effects wore off hours ago."

Many of the students didn't believe her. "But in the helicopter... When they told us to go, we went! We didn't have any choice!" someone said.

The vixen smirked. "That was simply an aftereffect, similar to hypnosis. If you assumed the commands still worked, your mind made them work. I'll be getting into that later. But for now..." Here she stood straight as an arrow and pointed to all of them at once. "...I want you all to hop on one foot and pick your noses!!"

None of them did.

Vera chuckled. "See? Your free will's intact again. I know some people get the heebie-jeebies at the idea of being mind-controlled, and that is perfectly understandable. You can test it anytime you feel a need to. Just ask one of us to give you a command you can disobey. Oh, and now that I remember it, you can all take your collars off too."

Many sighs of relief. The room filled with sounds of fur rustling as the kids removed their collars. Cody noticed some of his classmates kept theirs. Scott left his on, unsurprisingly. Though so did a beaver girl in the back of the room.

"Those collars didn't... mess with our minds too, did they?" Chloe-Sophia asked.

"Oh, no," Vera reassured. "They're just ordinary pet collars. You can keep them or throw them away, whatever you like. Their purpose was more for psychological reinforcement than anything else. Now that you're here, we won't restrict your actions any more than necessary."

"So... could we just walk out of here right now if we wanted to?" Kenny asked.

"Well, the door's locked," Vera admitted. "For now, at least. We'll let you move around the camp more later on."

Frank raised her hand. Vera pointed to her. "What if we try to escape?" the zebragirl asked. Her tone added a defiant subtext: '...because I will.'

Vera shrugged. "Good question. You're welcome to try. But for several reasons, it's a bad idea. Did you all see that big dome thingy we've got set up outside?"

The kids nodded.

"Yes, what exactly does it do?" Tycho asked, badly concealing his eager interest.

"It serves two purposes," Vera explained. "Firstly, it provides camouflage if anyone flies overhead. From inside, you can look up and see the sky. From above, you'd look down and see only a big bunch of trees. It's not quite a mirror and not quite a hologram. There's other GPA members here who can explain it better than I can, and you can ask them if you like. But the second thing about it is, if you try to squeeze through one of the holes, you're in for a surprise."

"Forty thousand volts?" someone guessed.

"Not at all!" Vera reassured. "We don't want to accidentally fricassee anyone! But it will cause some interruptions in your little nervous systems. Simply put, if you touch it, it'll be like when your foot falls asleep, but all over. It's painless and temporary, I promise. You'll go limp and numb until someone pulls you away. You're free to test it if you like, but even if you get through somehow, the effect extends out quite a ways. You won't be running away afterwards, I can guarantee that."

Vera looked back at Frank. "Also, Miss Tanondo, I will try to be as open as I can and answer all questions honestly. But I will not tell you, or anyone else, this camp's location. This place must be kept a secret. If either side knew of it they'd bomb us to cinders. So if you're planning on leaving early, you have to factor in that you don't know whether we're in Prey or Pred-controlled territory. If you manage to get out, you're taking a 50/50 risk that the first people you run into will kill you on the spot and eat you. And that's *if* you don't starve in the forest first. If your heart is dead set on escape, I suppose there's nothing I can do to change that, and I sincerely hope you survive if you try. But I also hope you'll choose to stay a while and listen first. Does that answer your question?"

Frank nodded, and smiled slightly. The zebra had a very deep sense of honor. She believed in testing people she met. She would oppose them just enough to gauge their reaction. If they flew into a rage, they lost. If they respected the challenge, they won. Frank was willing to give this Pred the benefit of the doubt, at least for now.

"Anyone else?" Vera asked.

Yolanda raised her hand.

"Yes?"

"What exactly will we be doing here over the week? I gather that this is basically a reeducation camp, but you said we'll be free to move around when we're not in 'class' with you."

Vera seemed pleased at the ottergirl's respectful skepticism. "It's not 'basically' a reeducation camp, Miss Denton, it *is* one. But in this rare case, it's not a blood-curdling euphemism for some kind of gulag. We literally intend to reeducate you, nothing more. We see ourselves as similar to cult deprogrammers." She winced at her word choice. "...Not to imply that you're stupid or 'wrong'. There's a world of difference between that and being taught a bad idea."

"You didn't answer my question," Yolanda challenged.

"I'm getting to it," Vera said apologetically. She turned and addressed the whole group. "We know none of you asked to be here, so we want to make your stay as not-miserable as possible. This place has pretty much all the amenities and activities of a regular summer camp. There's no lake, but we do have a swimming pool. There's sports, arts 'n crafts, movies every night. There's a creative thinking workshop. There's archery."

Cody perked up a bit. A chance to get a weapon in his hands? Definitely worth looking into.

"Each bunkhouse has a bookshelf for you to make use of. There's also a game room. Several consoles, plus billiards, air hockey, ping pong... I know The Box didn't allow incoming or outgoing communication, but we have internet here."

Several students became VERY interested.

She smiled at their eagerness. "Hold your horses, class. Lest you think we'd risk you sending messages to the outside world, we've got a specially-developed read-only connection here. You can look, but not post. The only thing the keyboards here are good for is typing in search bars."

A few groans of disappointment or frustration.

"No emails, no social media. You can try to get around it, but we've had the sneakiest people we could find put it through every test and cheat they could think of, and we're satisfied with the results.

"We'll also have special activities from time to time. Team sports and competitions. Nature walks. There's a bulletin board outside your bunkhouse where you'll be able to see the week's schedule. Oh, and that brings me to your uniforms. There should be one right..." She trailed off as she walked around the desk and checked its drawers. "Ah! Here we go." She pulled out a pair of shorts and laid them across the front of the desk, then held up a T-shirt. Both were a vibrant pumpkin orange.

'Well, the color's not terrible,' Cody found himself thinking.

"I am NOT wearing that," Hydra said immediately.

Vera looked over at the bunny and, noticing the few alterations she'd managed to make to her Farron's Keep outfit, deduced that her refusal was not simple defiance. "We knew clothes can be a source of pride or competition for fursons your age. We tried to pick something simple enough to not be embarrassing to anyone. But if you think it's *too* plain, you're allowed to customize yours. Cut them, sew them, draw on them; it's all okay so long as you keep the color."

Hydra went "Hm." She gave the fox an 'I will begrudgingly consider that idea' pout.

"Wait, um... do we only get one? Won't it start stinkin'?" someone asked.

Vera laughed. "No, we wouldn't do that to you. I can just imagine all of you by day seven, walking around making the flowers wilt." A few kids laughed mildly at that. Vera was glad to see that the icy distrust in the room was beginning to thaw a bit. "You'll each get three. They're one-size-fits-all, so you don't have to worry about keeping track of yours specifically unless you want to personalize them. There's a laundry room just beside your bunkhouse. It's up to you whenever you want to do washing."

At the mention of manual labor, several kids grimaced. These were the offspring of senators and congressmen; other people were meant to do stuff like that.

Vera put the shirt down and reached into the desk drawer again. This time she held up two armbands, one in each hand, and her tail wagged a little. "That brings me to these."

'I knew it,' Cody thought. The recruitment pitch. It wasn't bad enough the Preds wanted their flesh, they wanted it given freely too.

"You might recognize this one from Broadcast Day," Vera said, indicating the red armband with the Great Predator Army's logo. She patted her left arm. "I've got one, and so do all my other colleagues. If you choose to join us, we'll give you one too. But-" she hastily added, "-I'm not expecting any of you to sign up right away. I know a lot of you have plenty of reason to think of us as the enemy, and it's our burden to prove we aren't. If you're not quite ready to switch sides, you can kind of 'dip a toe in' and take one of these plain red Pred Helper armbands. Scott, you've already earned one if you want it."

The mouse was out of his seat with a grin on his lips almost immediately. He walked up to the desk and claimed his prize. He slipped the smooth fabric up his arm and admired it. His classmates were giving him hateful looks for defecting, but he flipped them all the double bird as he returned to his chair.

Kenny held up his hand. "Okay, so that's great for mealies like Scott, but what about the rest of us who don't have a deathwish? You really think we want to help you!?"

Vera nodded. "Despite your tone, that's a perfectly valid thing to ask. For starters, I want you all to know that we don't believe in negative reinforcement here. We know we can't force you to join us. Even if we just used the gas on you, all we'd have then would be a group of furs who'd rebel at the first chance they got, and rightly so. For this to work, it has to be voluntary."

The fox started slowly pacing. "To that end, we promise not to punish you if you decline our offer. But that doesn't mean we can't make it the more appealing choice. I hope that at least some of you will choose to come to our side because, when I present our case, you'll agree with us that it's the best path to a better future for everyone. But we want some positive reinforcement too, so there's incentives to helping us."

"That's just blatant manipulation," Yolanda pointed out.

"Yes," Vera said simply. She shrugged. "We want greater numbers, and our lack of time is too important for us to care how. So if you join because you believe we're right, or just because you want the perks, we're happy either way."

"Well what ARE the perks!?" Hydra blurted.

Vera chuckled at her impatience. "If you agree to be a Pred Helper, you can volunteer to help us out with simple tasks and chores, but it's not mandatory. In return, you get access to a second food line in the cafeteria; more choices if you don't like what's on the main menu. You'll also get an extra hour in the games or computer rooms, and there will be special helper-only events.

"For those of you who want to fully join the GPA, you'll get all of that and more. There will be some responsibilities, but nothing major. A third lunch line will open up for you with even more choices. You'll get an extra hour in the games AND computer rooms if you wish. Best of all, you get to move up to a new bunkhouse where you'll have a private room. Plus you'll get your very own custom-tailored Great Predator Army uniform."

"That ain't much of a reason to betray my genus," Kenny said.

"You don't have to agree to any of it if you see it as a betrayal," Vera replied. "We didn't want to stack the choice too much anyway. It's possible to have a perfectly nice little vacation here even if you completely decline our offer. We just wanted to sweeten the pot a bit and reward anyone brave enough to choose to join."

Cody was paying careful attention to the words Vera used. The chipmunk had noticed a lot of very subtle manipulation at work. Always doing everything she could to make becoming a traitor sound as enticing as possible. He imagined a trap greased with honey. It'd be so easy to just slide down inside and get caught. He had to keep his mental walls up. Everything any Pred said to him here was a lie; he knew this with 100% conviction.

Jayden put his hand up and was called on. "You mentioned a cafeteria? What kinda shit they got there?"

"We do not serve fecal matter in our cafeteria, Mr. Winters," Vera replied without missing a beat. At this, quite a few kids laughed. Vera's tail wagged. Laughter was one of the GPA's greatest tools. It was the natural enemy of fear, and was very good at slipping new ideas past people's natural defenses. "We've got about the same menu as The Box did. Pizza, burgers, salads, desserts. I know some of you aren't vegetarians, and I assure you that all of the meat we'll serve you came only from nonevs." She bit her lip, knowing this was tricky territory. "I'll be honest, some of us Preds do eat meals prepared from volunteer Prey, but with heavy emphasis on _volunteer_. Choice is one of the Great Predator Army's most fundamental principles."

The mention of Preds eating Preys quieted the class. As a group they'd been starting to relax a bit. Not entirely; the kidnapping was still fresh in their minds. But now they were remembering where they were and who had taken them.

Yolanda's hand went up again. "Will any of us be eaten?" she asked apprehensively.

Vera looked at her, then around the room at her captive audience. "That is entirely up to you."

The fox paused to compose her thoughts. "For starters, let me reassure you that NO ONE will be eaten here unless that is their 100% freely-made choice. You are all safe here. This was bound to come up eventually, and it's better to talk about it now than let the worry linger in your minds. If we're going to save the world, we have to address the fundamental divide between Predator and Prey. Our kind eats your kind."

"Do you want to eat any of *us*?" Trudy asked fearfully.

Vera bit her lip, looking around the room at all the cute, plump Preykids. Her tail twitched. "Yes. A little."

Myriad gasps, gulps and sounds of fidgeting in seats.

She was quick to reassure them. "It's not like it's a *compulsion*, I promise you! Just my instincts acting up. Every now and then I'll notice a small movement in my peripheral vision, usually one of your ears twitching, and I'll have a momentary desire to just... *chase* something." She tapped her fingertips together. "But it's not difficult to ignore. It's quite easy. I'm sure all of you have the self control, whenever you walk into a candy store, to not just start gobbling down handfuls of everything in sight," she weakly joked.

And it got a very weak response.

"Ahem..." Vera looked back up at them, getting serious again, unafraid of being judged. "I'll tell you now, while my job here is to ease your fears, some of them are perfectly rational ones. In truth, you're not likely to meet many adult Preds who wouldn't brag about taking a life, even though sometimes it's *just* bragging. It's... too big a topic right now to explain the 'why' and 'how' of how we got to this point. For now, I'll just say that it's shameful, it's cruel, and it's unchangeable."

That last word got several puzzled reactions from the class, as they assumed she was going to condemn the idea entirely.

'Here come the excuses,' thought Cody.

Vera tried to detach herself from her emotions. "Throughout history, people have tried to regulate behavior through laws. This can never fully solve the problem, because punishment is often the least-effective part of a total solution. Without trying to understand the root causes of a behavior, and accepting when something is so entrenched that we can never eliminate it entirely, the *most* we can hope to accomplish is getting vengeance for the victims. But if we're smarter, we can find ways to prevent suffering, instead of just avenging it.

"I am a Pred. You are all Prey. We are natural enemies, and all the words and laws in the world can't change that. What we *can* do, however, is work around it."

Vera smiled. "Right now, both of our societies exist in a state of, 'You're different, and that's scary'. That keeps us paranoid and prone to violence. But what if we could tweak our natural instincts? What if instead, we could change it to, 'You're different, and that's interesting'?

"...'You're different, and that's kinda fun'?

"...'You're different, and that's beautiful'?"

Tycho angrily raised his hand. "You're saying 'why can't we all just get along', but you also say it'll never change that Preds like you kill us! That can't work!"

"As things are right now, you're absolutely right," she replied. "That's why it's going to take more than just philosophy. I'm glad you, Tycho, raised that point, because I read in my report that you are very interested in science. The GPA has developed some new technologies that we believe can change everything. Everything. Technologies that will allow all of us to be who we are without causing any more suffering. You'll see tomorrow, when I show you all the Rejuvenators."

That word sparked everyone's imaginations into overdrive. There was heavy skepticism, but if the thing was in any way worthy of its name...

Vera was glad to see the fascination in their eyes. "I think, on that rather tantalizing note, I'll let you go for the night. I have so much more to tell you, but it's all interconnected and if I let myself get started we'll be here till one o' clock in the morning. There'll be more time tomorrow, but for right now there's still boring old camp business to get to. Another GPA member's waiting outside to take you to the bunkhouse. After that it's dinnertime. I'm sure you're all getting hungry by now."

Mason hesitated a bit, then put his hand up.

"Yes, Mr. Kellway?"

"You mentioned the armbands," the deer said softly, looking down at his desk. "You said we could join the GPA. Does that... does that mean anytime?"

Vera was proud of the bravery it took to defy the rest of the group so openly. "Yes. Anytime."

The young buck stood up. He stared straight ahead, doing his best to ignore the stares from his classmates. Some looked repulsed. Some looked terrified for him, or simply baffled by his choice. It didn't matter. Peace, to him, was more important than his own life. And he didn't believe Lieutenant Vera could speak so eloquently about it and not be sincere.

He passed by Cody St. John's seat and could not resist whispering, "This is what happens when you try to make nice with the enemy. It works."

Cody was caught off guard and only managed to reply with a mumbled, "Your funeral."

Mason approached Vera's desk and she gestured for him to pick up the red GPA armband. He slipped it on carefully, giving this moment the dignity it deserved. He was defying his genus, his government and his classmates. Even his own parents. This was the most important moment of his life. It meant there was no turning back from his cause.

"Welcome, Mr Kellway," Vera said softly, patting him on the shoulder.

"Just tell me what I can do to help," he replied.

Scott's hand went up. "Um, can I upgrade my membership?"

This surprised no one.

Vera waved him over. "I'm sure I have another armband here somewhere."

Jayden called out, "Man, you motherfuckers must *really* want to get in that extra lunchline!"

The class broke up laughing. Mason winced, but Scott took it in stride. It was far from the worst thing he'd expected someone to shout at him for his decision. In truth, nothing mattered to him more than getting to know Gilda better. She was, quite literally, his dream come true.

Vera also let it slide. A joke was better than an accusation of being a race traitor. She addressed the whole class again, "I'll see you all tomorrow at ten A.M.! Or earlier if we happen to meet at dinner. I'm really hoping that you'll all enjoy your stay here. If you're curious or confused about anything at all, please ask someone. We want to be as open and honest as we can!"

As Cody and the others left their seats and headed for the door, he thought to himself, 'If you're lying, it's easy enough to test. And if you really do believe the bullshit you just fed us, then all that openness just means it'll be easier for me to find a way out of here.' He'd been thinking about what she said before, about not knowing if this was Pred or Prey territory. It made sense it'd be Pred. That meant he'd be escaping into enemy country. It was sobering to realize that he very likely wasn't going to get out of this alive. He might not ever see his father again. But it'd be worth it if he could reach a phone or a computer and tell someone about this place. He'd die happy if he knew the bomber jets would be on their way.

He might have simply left then, if not for the dumb-as-shit grin on Mason Kellway's face. He was standing beside that Pred bitch, looking like his birthday had come early. Cody headed for the desk, bumping classmates out of his way.

Vera saw him coming. This one was dangerous. The group as a whole seemed promising. Two joiners already was a good number, and many of the others seemed willing to listen. But this one...

The chipmunk looked directly into the vixen's eyes. "I know that everything you told us is a lie. I just want to know when we can expect to feel the knife slide in. While we're asleep? Or are you going to try to use us to get to our parents somehow?"

She didn't let him intimidate her. "I'm a bit too tired to slaughter you all tonight. How's tomorrow sound?"

Scott and Mason chuckled. Cody was not amused. "That's the first thing you've said so far that I've believed."

Well, humor didn't work. Vera addressed the chipmunk as professionally as she could. "Fine. You want to know our plans? You were right about us wanting to get to your parents. Minus the part about the knives, of course. Any of them would be a prime strategic target, and we're not hiding the fact that we hope to recruit as many of them as we can."

"You'll never have my father and you'll never have me," Cody said. He could feel the fire in his lungs. Her smugness was like a slap in the face. She didn't take him seriously, but she would.

She regarded him for a moment. It was clear this one was not to be underestimated. "That's your choice," she said simply.

Mason gave the chipmunk a dirty glare. "Poor Cody. Can't stand the thought that some of us don't want to solve the world's problems through genocide."

Cody looked at him coldly. "I don't want to wipe out the Preds. I just want them to stay in their place. You're welcome to join them. Nothing I could do to you will be worse than what they will. You really believe her about the special private bunk for joiners? That'll be her explanation for when none of us ever see you or Scott again. What do you want to bet that your private room has a meat grinder in it, and your custom-tailored uniform is made out of butcher paper?"

"Don't listen to him," Vera told Mason calmly.

Cody grinned at her. A grin of infinite contempt. "Aw, you don't like me warning them?" He turned back to his former classmates. "You really willing to trust her that much?"

"Please go," Vera asked, as politely as she could.

"Of course," Cody said as he took a step back. "Bon appetit."

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

"Peace is worth the risk!" Mason called out firmly.

Cody turned away. "You keep telling yourself that," he said as he followed the last of the other kids out the classroom door.

Some of them were bunched up at the doorway in the nothing room. Cody pushed forward to see what was causing the bottleneck.

Standing just outside, chatting casually with the group, was the white fox. The leader of the Great Predator Army himself.





--Chapter Three--


'This is my chance. I can end it all right now.'

The fox was wearing a different, much more subdued uniform, but there was no mistaking that face. That mocking, sneering face that had been smeared all over television for the past few weeks.

Cody willed his body to dump adrenaline into his veins. He shoved a few more classmates out of the way, not even hearing their insults. The air felt calmingly cool on his fur. Night had fallen. The white fox's fur stood out like the moon.

'If I get to him, it won't matter what they do to me in return. I can end this.' He looked down at his claws. They were small; evolved for climbing trees, not eviscerating. But they'd do. 'I'll go for the throat,' he decided.

He watched the Pred talking to the others. He felt a bone-chilling fear oozing through his body, but that was okay. Dad had taught him that courage wasn't the absence of fear; it was doing what you need to do despite the fear. And he had every reason to be scared. They'd execute him for this. They'd barbecue him alive. Cody had to focus on how many lives he could save by losing his own.

He waited until the fox's head was turned. Distracted.

He could feel his heartbeat pulsing throughout his body. He readied his legs to run. He readied his claws to slash and his jaws to clamp down on anything soft.

The moment came. The perfect moment. Cody took off.

And someone grabbed him by the back of his shirt.

"Plenty have tried," Tina the lioness snarled. "I guess you didn't hear the part where he explained to the others he's just an actor like me."

A bolt of confusion shattered Cody's adrenaline high. "What!?"

Tina did not let go of him. "They were all as shocked as you were to find the leader of the GPA right here in camp. He's not our leader. Our real leaders are far away, and keeping them unknown keeps them safe. Guy over there took this job knowing there'd be people like you who'd try to take him out. So *I* went with him to keep that from happening."

With easy strength, the feline lifted Cody up to meet him eye-to-eye. She whispered words as firm as concrete. "I remember what you said about wanting to kill us. I believe you meant that. But I'm not going to let you hurt my friend, or anyone else here. You marked yourself. I'll make sure everyone watches you, got it?"

She let him back down. Cody was breathing hard, trying to rein in his fury. His cheeks burned with humiliation. For starters, he now realized how stupid his defiant threat had been. He'd given up the element of surprise. He could have kept his fucking mouth shut and made all his plans in secret. That was blown. He felt doubly stupid for being fooled about that fox. Of course, the lioness might've been planting disinformation: tell everyone he's not the leader so they can hide him in plain sight.

"Go with the others," Tina said. "If you hurt him, or anyone else, I'll punish you. I don't want to have to do that. Let it go, kid."

Cody kept his eyes on her a moment longer, not quite ready to turn his back until she moved away. Yeah, he really believed that she had no desire to hurt him.

Tina took a few steps back and crossed her arms.

Huffing, brain dizzy with anger, Cody turned and joined his classmates so he could hear what the fox was actually saying.

It seemed they were mobbing him with questions like he was an actual celebrity. "Yes, this is my real voice!" he said, sounding nowhere near as suave as before. "Put a script in front of me and I'm a chameleon. Without one I'm a duck on land."

"What'd that metal crotch-thing feel like?" someone asked.

"The codpiece? Heavy," he replied with a laugh. "Heavy and *tight*! Couldn't wait to get it off!" Several chuckles. "Now can we *please* get going over to the bunkhouses? I'm sorry I fascinate you guys so much." He pointed in the direction they needed to go and they followed.

Cody took the time to observe more of the camp. He was still seething about how easily the lioness had stopped his assassination plot. Now that he was thinking clearer, he was almost glad for it. If this guy really *was* just a nobody, killing him wouldn't have meant anything. Cody would have given up his own life for nothing.

The moon was strong overhead. Trees looked like black, jagged shadows. The sandy gravel crunched under his feet. Now that the adrenaline was going away, Cody felt his energy going with it. He'd been on high-alert since the kidnapping and for the first time he was starting to feel like a drained battery.

Guy the fox led them to a series of long, log-cabin-like buildings. "Here we are. There's four bunkhouses and you guys in K Group will be in number three. THREE. Remember that; it's the one with the green stripe along the side. One's yellow, two's blue, four is red. You guys are in green. Sorry if I'm beating you over the head with this, but you have no idea how many kids I have to redirect who forget it."

"Wait, there's not a separate girls' bunk!?" Hydra piped up.

"We assumed you guys were mature enough to handle a coed sleeping space," Guy replied. At the front of the building were three stone steps. He walked up and opened the wide wooden door. "Come on in."

Cody had to admit, at least the Preds were committed to keeping up their act. He'd expected some dusty cabin in the woods. This place was bright and nicely furnished. The bunkhouse stretched for seemingly a block-length. One whole enormous wall was nothing but bunkbeds. There was a curtain between each of them that could be pulled around for privacy, like in a hospital. The other wall had more beds, but also a large bookcase, plus entrances for boys and girls' bathrooms, a water cooler and two snack machines. The floors were polished wood. Near each bed was a small table with a little lamp. Several other Preykids were already here, having already chosen their beds at the far end of the room. There looked to be enough space for another full group.

"Not the Taj Mahal, but hopefully not too shabby, huh?" Guy said. "As you can see, there's drinks and snacks if you get hungry. Plenty to read. Through those doors are the toilets and showers. Inside each one of those little beddyside tables is a bunch of pajamas. Laundry machines are just out back."

"We don't really... *do* laundry, buddy," Kenny said.

Jayden lit up grinning. "Not a problem, bitches! My mom always makes me do chores to make sure I don't grow up like you pampered little princes and princettes. You don't wanna wash your shit? That's fine, I'll do it. Cost you five bucks a pop though."

Plenty of kids expressed disgust towards him, but the mouse's grin never wavered. They'd come crawling to him eventually. Even if The Box had provided staff to do the laundry, he'd already made plenty of money doing the little cleanup chores the other kids couldn't be bothered with. Though he did worry he might have screwed the pooch by announcing his plan in front of the Pred.

Guy shrugged at Jayden. "Far be it for me to stifle entrepreneurial capitalism."

"Allright!" said Jayden. This guy wasn't a douchebag. Nice.

"What's that little box over there on the wall by the water cooler?" someone else asked.

At this, Guy blushed visibly through his white fur. "Um... Not my decision, but the camp planners figured some of you guys might be at, uh, 'that age' and they just wanted everyone to be safe if th-"

"That's a condom dispenser!" Jayden burst out. "You sick motherfuckers!" he giggled.

Almost everyone else went 'Ewwww!!' or looked at Guy like he was a pervert.

"I didn't install it!!" he defended, waving his hands frantically. "And you don't have to use it! It's just there... You know. In case. They told me they knew they couldn't stop anyone from... 'experimentation', but they wanted you to be cautious if you did. There's, uh, also a tampon machine in the girl's shower room. If anyone needs that sort of thing."

"That's thoughtful," Yolanda said.

Some of the kids were already starting to wander towards the machines, and soon the whole group drifted in that direction. "There aren't prices on the snacks," someone pointed out.

"Oh, right. That's actually pretty nifty." Guy went over to one of the vending machines and pulled off one of his gloves, stuffing it into his pocket. He touched his thumb to a red plastic square. It lit up and squealed electronically. "It doesn't take money. Everything in it's free, but it can recognize your print. You can only get one item every three hours, but that should be enough for anyone."

"What about the water?" Kenny asked.

"Oh, that's always free. No worries."

While everyone else had been looking at the machines, Cody had been looking at the other furs at the far end of the room. He recognized a few of them, but then... "What in the fuck is *he* doing here?"

Every head turned.

The boy Cody was pointing at hung his head, but did not flinch. He was clearly used to this kind of reaction.

He was wearing a Prey uniform, but he species was Pred.

Guy sighed, knowing this would come up eventually. "That's Walter. He's transgenus."

Cody looked at him like he was speaking nonsense. "You don't expect me to buy that crap, do you?"

The white fox was a pretty easygoing guy, but he liked the young bobcat a lot and hated the endless stream of prejudiced garbage the boy had to put up with. "It's a real medical condition! He was born a Pred but in his heart he knows he's Prey. It happens sometimes. He chose to stay in here, knowing full well it meant he'd have to deal with attitudes like yours."

Cody sneered at him. "Don't insult my intelligence. I know what transgenus means. Personally, I don't know if they're faking it, or if they really believe it, and I don't give a shit. What I meant is, do you really expect me to sleep in here with him? Even if he really does think he's a bunny rabbit, how the hell do I know he's not a spy for you guys?"

Many of the Preykids were rather grateful towards Cody in that moment. He was rude but useful. He'd said what a lot of them felt as soon as they saw the Pred among them.

The bobcat boy had started walking over. His face was calm, but his eyes were deep as the sea. He had been through plenty. "You're right, actually," he said to Cody. "I *do* think I'm a bunny rabbit."

Cody turned to him. "Seriously?"

Walter nodded. "But I'm not a spy. Believe me or don't. I don't care what any of you do, or what any of you think of me, so long as you let me alone." He looked around the crowd of Prey. There was almost universal distrust towards him. Being around a Pred adult was somehow different, more easier to accept, than having someone their own age sleeping in the same room as them. The bobcat had been alone when J Group came in, and was not surprised when they had made him take the bed farthest away from them.

Frank eyed the Pred kid cautiously. She would test him later on. Not letting on what she was doing, she would commit some sort of transgression in front of him. Badmouth the GPA or trash something in the room. See if she got in trouble for it later. If she did, the little spy was dead meat.

Trudy didn't say anything, but she looked down at herself, and then at Walter, and felt some empathy for him.

Guy spoke up. "I get that you kids probably don't want him here. But all you have to do is leave him alone and there'll be no problems. I've known him a while, he has never caused trouble with anyone. He is not a danger to you. *I* am not a danger to you. The whole point of this camp is to teach you that we Preds aren't mindless zombies who'll eat you the second we lay eyes on you. Just be cool. If I find out any of you has given Walter a hard time for no reason, I will come up with the most humiliating punishment I can think of."

Walter shook his head. "Mr. Swansea, you don't need to. I can handle myself."

Guy turned away from the Preykids and patted Walter on the shoulder. "I know. But you're my friend, and I don't like seeing you getting messed with."

The feline nodded. "Thank you."

"Um, does this mean he thinks he's a girl too?" Hydra suddenly asked.

Walter winced with his entire body. "No! I'm fully a guy! I'm not transgendered too!" It was quite clear he got that a lot.

"But you think you're a bunny," said the bunny.

"I _know_ I am," Walter replied, defiant but polite. "I look in the mirror and I see the wrong skin. That's the only way we're different."

Hydra did not look convinced. She sneered at him and crossed her arms.

"What do your parents think?" Yolanda asked. She'd heard about cases like this before but had never actually met one. It was a fascinating condition.

At the mention of his parents, Walter got very still and quiet. "They... disowned me," he said simply. It was not hard to guess that he'd just made a considerable understatement.

Some of the suspicion among the Preys melted, replaced by sympathy. Some. Though not all.

"You gay?" Jayden piped up.

Walter grit his teeth. "NO!! Geeze! Why does everyone assume I've got *everything* all at once!? I am completely normal! I like girls. I don't wanna be one. I just have this stupid bobcat pelt on me instead of the one I'm supposed to have, that's all!" He tugged at his skin as if hoping one day it'd finally rip off.

Jayden put up his hands. "Whoa, no biggie! Just curious, bro. I don't wanna offend anyone more than I offend everyone else," he chuckled.

Walter gave him a 'thanks for that' look.

Guy tried to steer the conversation back to where it was supposed to be. "Hopefully, that's settled. I'm supposed to be telling you guys about the bunkhouse and camp rules and things of that nature. Do we have any questions *not* about Walter?"

"Okay, what ARE the camp rules?" someone asked.

"Good. That's on topic. Good." Guy nodded. "There's not too many, just basic common sense and decency. For starters, don't go into any other group's bunkhouse."

"What if we're invited?" Frank challenged.

"That's acceptable," Guy said. "We're fine with anyone making new friends, or visiting a friend you met in The Box who's not in the same group as you. Just don't go around unasked. We don't want people worrying about their stuff getting stolen, or prank wars, or any of that horseplay. The second rule is, don't fight."

'I'll be breaking *that* one,' Cody thought.

"That means other campers; staff; anybody. If someone pisses you off, tell me or one of the other staff members. If you feel like you have to settle it yourself, we've got a gym. Go blow off some steam there. We'd much rather you beat someone's ass at basketball than beat their ass literally."

A few laughs here and there.

"Is there anyplace in camp that's off-limits?" Cody asked carefully.

"Not really, aside from what you'd expect. The staff's bunkhouse is locked, fr'instance. So's the cafeteria when we're not using it, and the medical clinic. There's an administrative building, but it's not off-limits, it's just, why would you wanna go there? Um... anything else..." He tried to remember. "There's a few storage areas where we keep the supplies. If what I think you're asking is, 'is there anywhere spooky and dangerous you don't want us to see', then the answer is no. We tried to make the camp as open as we could, specifically so you won't be worried we've got some secret torture chambers hidden somewhere. If you're that worried, you can even just ask a GPA to show you one of the locked areas."

Cody hadn't expected that.

"Other than that, you guys can go wandering about as much as you like. I'm sure Miss Vera told you about the wiredome and what it does, but I'm guessing a lot of you will have to test it before you'll believe in it. If you do, all I ask is that you *please* bring a buddy with you. You'll find out why for yourself."

"There's Predkids here too, right?" Chloe-Sophia asked. "W-where are they?"

"On the opposite end of the camp," Guy replied.

The squirrelgirl looked a bit relieved.

"Their bunkhouses and their cafeteria are way over in that direction," he pointed, "near the athletic field. We knew both groups would be a bit spooked to have anything to do with each other for a while."

Kenny snorted. "What the hell do they have to fear from *us*?"

Guy looked at the rabbitboy and gave him a quietly cryptic smile. "You didn't grow up Predside, kid. Vera will teach you about it tomorrow, and you'll understand."

Kenny looked dismissive. Their kind killed and ate his kind. That by definition made them the bad guys. Nothing was going to change that.

The white fox checked his watch. "Almost time for dinner. Does anyone else have any questions?"

"Miss Vera mentioned a pool. Where is it?" Yolanda asked. The Box hadn't had one. The ottergirl had been going slightly insane without one, and had been taking frequent showers to compensate. She knew she was an evolved, civilized furson, but nonev instincts still sometimes nagged at her.

"It's pretty close; that circular building we passed."

"Oh, good!"

There were a few more questions after that, then Guy let everyone wander around a bit. He said they didn't have to choose a bed now, there'd be plenty of free time before lights out. But the room was divided into sections big enough for each lettered group (he pointed out a subtle line made by differently-colored strips of the floor) and there'd be another thirty kids coming in soon once they got done with their class.

Guy called over J Group and had all the kids stand together. Only a few kids recognized anyone else. The Box hadn't made it a priority to let their internees get to know one another outside assigned classes. Guy laid out their route to the cafeteria first, pointing out which landmarks they needed to remember, then checked his watch again and led the way.

He marveled to himself how easy this was going overall. Vera was amazing at calming the kids down. When he'd signed up for this, he'd assumed he'd be dealing with bunches of squalling, crying kids, terrified out of their minds and begging every second to be set free. And yes, some of the younger ones were like that. It would take more coaxing with them. But the older ones were often like this group. A bit rude and restless, but far from panicking. He supposed they were used to being shuffled around by now. Whether Pred or Prey, being herded by adults was routine for them.

Cody was looking forward to dinner. He was still feeling out of energy and half-wondered if it was another kind of gas they were using. 'No. Don't get paranoid,' he scolded himself. A few other kids looked tired, but plenty more didn't. He knew in a place like this there was a danger of second-guessing absolutely everything to the point of madness. He had to be smart about what risks were likely and which were farfetched. True, _anything_ was possible here, but he knew he couldn't prepare for every possible threat his brain could imagine. He had to stay sensible.

He kept an eye on the bobcat. Cody still wasn't sure if he was a spy. Maybe not. It'd be easier and simpler to just put hidden cameras in the bunkhouses. (He made a mental note to make damn sure he had the curtains drawn when he got undressed tonight.)

Kenny caught up to him. They walked side by side. "We bunking together?"

Cody nodded immediately. "You're the only one in this place I trust completely."

The rabbit nodded. "Watch each other's backs. Ten-four. If we live through this freakin' place, I'm going to find someone who'll buy me some whiskey and get shitfaced."

That led Cody to a thought he was surprised, and a little ashamed, to not have considered before. "I've only been thinking about getting myself out so far, but... What about everyone else?"

"Fuck 'em," Kenny replied offhandedly.

"No, seriously," Cody insisted. "If possible, we have to think about rescuing the others too. If the only way I can escape is on my own, so be it. I'll even leave you behind if I have to. And *promise* me you'll do the same if you see a chance at escape! None of us is as important as getting word to the outside about this place. The more of us that live, the better. That's great. But we have to be realistic. This is a war, and ending it is top priority."

Kenny looked stunned and sobered by the coldness of his friend's reasoning. "I... That's more than I think I can handle, pal. I just want to go home."

Cody nodded. "I understand. That's okay. But my Dad's been teaching me almost from birth to be a soldier, so I think like one. And Kenny," he patted his friend's arm, "if you want to see home again, you're going to have to think like one too."

The rabbitboy stared at the ground as he walked. This was some serious shit. He was not used to taking anything seriously. But Cody was right. One of the big reasons Kenny stayed friends with him, as much of a grating prick as he could be sometimes, was because Cody could think differently. Kenny wasn't wired for this kind of situation. The chipmunk was wired for nothing but. If he was going to survive, Cody was his best bet.


*****


Food was a problem.

The cafeteria was a huge single-room building, shaped like a D lying flat on its side. The noise was tremendous. As Vera had said, there was one main line where most of the Preykids had gathered. Separated by ropes and poles was a second line. Everyone in it had red armbands. There was a third line too. Everyone there was marked with the Great Predator Army logo. Some of the Preys were even wearing the GPA's uniforms. It nearly killed Cody's appetite.

As he got in line and took a tray, it occurred to him that the food here might be drugged. It made sense from a tactical standpoint: if the Preds wanted compliance, dumping chemicals in the food was a great way to ensure it. That fox lady's promises were for shit.

Then again, it seemed like the adults were eating the exact same food as the kids. They were standing in the same lines and held the same trays. Hm. They might be immune to whatever it was, or it might be chemically calibrated to affect only Prey.

Cody rubbed his stomach. He was hungry as hell. But for his own safety, he knew that tonight he had to observe instead of eat. He would watch everyone else. Try to remember what they ate. Pay close attention to their behavior and see if it changed.

Another idea came to him. The snacks in the bunkhouse. Everything there had looked like the normal, individually-wrapped crap he saw in other vending machines. Unless the GPA were so OCD they'd inject every single candy bar and bag of chips, it was a food source with a far higher probability of safe consumption. He didn't want to eat nothing but junk food while he was here though. Maybe they'd have granola bars or something?

All this was made worse by the fact that the cafeteria food did smell good. Cody craned his neck to see what they were serving. It looked like a caesar salad with chicken strips, plus deep dish onion and black olive pizza. Over in the second line, they seemed to have fish 'n chips and grilled cheese. He bit his lip. It was all tempting. Looking behind him, he could see kids sitting and eating. Some of them had surprised looks, nudging their friends and complimenting the food. Cody cursed his training. It'd be so easy to just ask for a nice big freakin' salad and chow down on it. But he couldn't. He couldn't.

'Think of it this way,' he told himself, 'you don't know for sure that's *chicken* in those chicken strips.' It could have been dissidents. Eeugh. That suppressed his appetite nicely.

When he was closer to the front of the line, a compromise showed itself. Along with the main courses there were several side dishes, as well as little extra tidbits the kids could add to their trays. Among these was a big pile of fresh fruit. Cody couldn't resist. If the Preds would go so far as to chemically treat the produce, he was screwed no matter what.

The lunchladies were a Pred and a Prey, interestingly. A bat and a cow. Cody wondered how the bat lady could hold a spatula in those weird wing-hand-whatever things she had. He shook his head at both of them when they asked what he wanted. He passed right by and put an orange, a plum, a carton of milk and a bunch of grapes on his tray.

Leaving the line, he looked all over for... Ah, the bathrooms. He didn't care if anyone wondered what in the hell he was doing. A little embarrassment was the price of being smart.

In the restrooms, he rested his tray by the sink and washed all his food carefully. He inspected the skins, checking for needle marks or any other signs of tampering. For a moment he thought he'd found something on the plum, but it was just a natural dark spot. He sighed in relief. Part of him felt like a buffoon. Part of him insisted he was taking this too far. He knew he had to ignore that little voice. No matter how silly some of his actions might feel, he had to hold onto cold rationality. This was necessary.

Cody returned to the lunchroom with his tray, doing his best to ignore the 'what a weirdo' stares he was getting from some people. He looked for Kenny. The rabbit's sandy ears weren't too hard to spot.

Kenny had two huge, hot, steaming slices of pizza on his plate. Cody wanted to kick him in the shins for that.

The bunnyboy looked at his friend's tray and cocked his head. "You feeling particularly herbivorous today?"

"I was worried the food here might be drugged, so I just took what looked the least likely to be tampered with."

Kenny looked down at his pizza with sudden suspicion. "Well gee, thanks for warning me."

Cody blinked; he hadn't even thought of that. "I'm sorry," he said, feeling guilty. "I should've. I'm sorry. I was just thinking of myself. It... comes naturally."

The rabbit shrugged and, eyeing his pizza for a moment, took a bite. "Tastes normal. Pretty decent, actually." He took another chomp while Cody started popping grapes in his mouth. "Well, if it *is* drugged, I guess you can observe what happens to me."

Cody nodded. "That's what I was thinking. I was going to keep an eye on you and some of the others. See if your personalities change any. Frank, definitely. Tycho's been pretty defiant also."

"Jayden," Kenny pointed out.

"Yes, him too."

"No, _Jayden_."

The rattish mouse slid his tray into Cody's and startled the chipmunk. "Yo yo yo, douchebags! How's it going? Looks like you got the fruit going on, St. John."

Cody just looked at him while taking a bite of plum.

Jayden reached across to poke Kenny. "I've been going around, trying to see who might be interested in my laundry idea," he said. He crammed a breadstick in his mouth and kept talking. "You get in early; I give you a discount. Whadayasay?"

Kenny was used to dealing with the little chiseler. "How much of a discount?"

"For you? Fifty cents."

"Make it a dollar, you asshole."

"Done!!" Jayden reached across Cody's plate to shake Kenny's hand.

"Your sleeve is touching my grapes," Cody snarled.

"That's what she said," the mouse tossed off. "You want in on this laundry action?"

"I'm fine with washing my own clothes," Cody said pointedly. He swatted Kenny's shoulder. "Why are you *paying* him for this?"

"I hate doing laundry," Kenny said simply. "Hate it. Did it once. Hated it. Not doing it again." He reached in his pocket for his wallet. "This covers the whole week, right?" he asked Jayden.

The mouse grinned. "Nope. Each time."

"Oh fuck *you*."

"Hey, I'm gonna be up to my armpits in you guyses' sweaty ball funk every day while you're out enjoying the sunshine. That's gonna suck. I wanna get handsomely compensated, what's wrong with that?"

Jayden had his wallet out too. Kenny grumbled, but got out his Talkcard and touched it back-to-back with the mouse's. "Four dollars and zero cents," the rabbit over-enunciated.

The little plastic rectangle chirped, then spoke in its tinny voice, "You are transferring... four dollars and zero cents... into the account of Jayden G. Winters. If this is correct, please say 'yes'."

"Yes," groaned Kenny.

"Transaction complete," said the card.

Both boys put their cards back in their wallets. "I want to set my clothes out, go to class, and when I come back, have them be clean and folded neatly exactly where I left them," Kenny demanded.

"You know me. I blow off everything unless there's money involved. You'll think the Good Fairy herself is personally washing your shit with her fuckin' tongue."

"Go stiff someone else," Kenny said.

"My pleasure!" The grinning rodent took his tray and was off looking for more customers.

Cody had acted annoyed, but in truth he'd kind of enjoyed the diversion.

"He's a complete dickhead, but you gotta admit, he's smart," Kenny said. He nudged his chipmunk friend. "Kind of like you!"

"Thanks a lot."


*****


The fruit was quite filling and Cody was feeling considerably better once he'd finished his meal. He waited for Kenny to drain the last of his soda, then suggested they go pay someone a visit.

Cody had been scanning the room the whole time he ate, looking for anything of interest. Apparently there was another of those transgenus kids here; probably from another bunkhouse. A mutt-type dog was chatting rather easily with some Preygirls her age. It was kind of unsettling, but not his concern at the moment.

Walter Bennect was sitting by himself, polishing off a grilled cheese sandwich. From his distant expression, he seemed to consider himself the only fur in the entire cafeteria.

Cody dropped his tray an inch away from him. The clatter made the bobcat jump nearly out of his seat. Kenny did the same, but it only produced a flinch.

Walter looked up at Cody, fuming, looking ready to swing at him.

"Let's make this clear," Cody said calmly, as if discussing a business deal. "I don't feel safe with you sleeping near me."

"What a coincidence. I don't feel safe knowing *you'll* be sleeping near *me*."

Kenny sat down a little too close to Walter. He said nothing, but he smiled.

"Then why don't you make everything easier for everyone?" Cody said with mock concern. "Leave. Ask one of the staff to reassign you. Go over to the Pred side where you'll be happier."

Something changed in Walter's eyes; became colder. "I shouldn't have to," he said simply.

Cody blinked. He'd underestimated this Pred. He could see years of stress in the kid's glare. He would not be intimidated. The cat's eyes said, 'I can take this as far as you force me to.'

"You stay on your side," Cody whispered. "I don't like you or trust you. You say you want to be left alone? Fine; do the same for me. It'll be like we can't even see each other."

Walter very slightly nodded. "That was my plan anyway."

Cody gave him a 'that's settled then' look. "Let's go, Kenny."

The rabbit stood up, gave Walter a last appraising look, then left at his friend's side.

As they exited the cafeteria, he could tell by Cody's expression the chipmunk was thinking hard. "What do we do about him?"

It took Cody a moment to snap out of his thoughts and respond. "Nothing. Like I said."

Kenny scoffed. "You were serious? You, the Pred-hatingest bastard I know, are actually going to let him stay in the bunkhouse with us?"

Cody looked insulted that Kenny would think he'd break his word. "He said he'd keep out of our way. Unless he goes back on that, he's nothing but a low priority target for now. I'm not happy he's here. But you gotta pick your battles. Fighting with him, or bitching to the staff to get him thrown out, would be a wasted effort." He tried to think of a way to illustrate it. "Picture you're in a room with two open chemical containers. One is a deadly poison and the other just smells bad. Which one are you going to take care of first?"

Kenny considered that. "Okay, I see your point."

They chatted about nothing of importance as they walked slowly back to the bunkhouse. The forest surrounding them was actually very beautiful, and the night air smelled good. It was a shame they had to be here under these conditions. If this had been a place Cody's dad had taken him for a vacation, he would have loved it.

Back in bunkhouse three, Cody went over to the vending machines and examined their contents. Mostly junk. Candy, cookies, chips, pretzels. The pretzels didn't actually look too bad. He swiped his thumb over the red pad, then realized Guy hadn't said what to do afterwards. The problem solved itself though. The pad lit up with numbers and Cody made his selection. The little bag dropped down to the bottom. "Kenny! You gonna be hungry for the next three hours?"

"Highly doubtful," the satisfied rabbit said, patting his stomach. "Even if it was drugged, that pizza was excellent."

"If you're not a zombie by tomorrow I might try it myself. For now though, swipe your thumb and get me that granola bar."

While he did so, Kenny asked why Cody trusted the food in here. Cody laid out his analysis about the contamination risk of various edibles. Kenny was impressed and slightly unnerved by how much thought his friend had put into it.

The bunkhouse was mostly empty, but kids trickled in as they finished up eating. Kenny said he felt all wired up and was going out for a run. He asked if Cody wanted to come along, but the chipmunk declined. He was feeling stressed and just wanted to relax for a while.

"You? Relax?" Kenny joked.

Cody smiled genuinely for what might have been the first time that day.

He looked over at the bookshelf. "I think I'll just grab something and read it until I fall asleep."

"I'm kinda surprised you don't want to get out and enjoy the fresh air more. We haven't breathed any for a while. And I figured you'd want to be in training all the time."

Cody smirked. "I've got a plan. If I sleep early, hopefully I can wake up in the middle of the night when things'll be quiet. I'm going to check out that dome. If I can get through tonight, hey great."

Kenny patted him on the shoulder. "If anyone can, it's you," he said sincerely.

"Thanks," Cody said. It helped to know someone else had confidence in him. "Have a good run. Let me know if you see anything interesting."

"I will." The rabbitboy turned to walk away.

Then he glanced back briefly. In a place like this, they both knew, people might disappear without warning.

When Kenny trotted off, Cody grabbed a drink from the bathroom sink (avoiding the possibly tampered-with water cooler), then walked over to the shelves of obviously-used paperbacks. A lot of girl stuff, he noticed. Lots of part twos and fives of incomplete series. These were all probably donations. Cody scanned the titles for a while, then settled on one about a boy surviving in the snowy woods. 'Fitting. I might get some ideas for if I make it out of here and have to go dicking around in the forest until I find something to make a call with.'

The bunks were all pretty much the same. Cody picked one and flopped down on the bottom bed. He found himself pleasantly surprised. 'These Preds are going all-out with the honey trap,' he thought. He'd expected a limp noodle mattress, or one as flat as a board. This was actually very comfortable. Pillows were fluffy. Blankets were soft. At least he wouldn't have trouble getting to sleep later.

He sipped his water, not allowing himself to worry it might also be drugged because there was no way to avoid it even if it was. He munched some pretzels. For a while, he stared into the open pages of his book while keeping his ears open to the other kids talking. He couldn't make out much, but he could guess the tone of the conversations. Some furs sounded scared, or annoyed. Surprisingly, a few seemed to think this was an adventure.

Cody couldn't fathom it. They were all cows in a slaughterhouse, plain and simple. Did everyone else not notice? Or did they just not care? He knew that virtually everyone here was the spawn of a VIP. Maybe they'd lived such privileged lives they honestly couldn't imagine something truly bad ever happening to them.

Dad was an important man in the military, but he'd brought Cody up with the understanding that each man makes his own future. Their house didn't have servants. Cody did his own chores and earned an allowance. Dad had taught him responsibility.

Cody was glad he had the book, because if he held it close, no one would see that his eyes were starting to tear up.

Fuck this war. Fuck this stupid goddamned war for taking his father away from him. 'I miss you so much, Dad,' he thought. He missed his father's smile. Dad had a way of smiling sometimes like he could look off into the distance and see the future, and everything was going to be fine.

Dad was fair and strict but also loving. Dad had never hit him, never. Not unless they were sparring or boxing, and then it was only a game. Dad challenged Cody constantly. Always with that smile that said, 'I know you can do better than last time. Make me proud.' And Cody did. Often. Whenever he did, his Dad's hugs were the most amazing thing in the world.

One time, Dad had invited over some of his military friends to the house to watch some sports and unwind. Without being asked, just because he thought it'd be a nice thing to do, Cody had gone in the kitchen and made up a tray of snacks for them. When he brought it out, Dad's eyes had lit up with a spark of, 'I have an amazing son.' He'd hugged Cody right in front of his buddies.

And one of them said, "Jesus, St. John... You treat him like that? Over something so little? Aren't you afraid he's gonna grow up a fag?"

He'd said it half-jokingly, but then Dad turned around and looked at him with that intensity in his eyes that Cody had never seen anyone else possess.

"Get out," his father had said.

"Oh come on, I was just-"

"Get out," Dad repeated.

It seemed like all the sound and air had been sucked out of the room. The two guys on the couch went silent as their friend got up and grabbed his coat from the hall table.

Just before he left, Dad shouted out quite clearly, "I pity your son!"

The man gave him a look that could melt steel and slammed the door.

The other two men, suddenly quite uncomfortable, made weak excuses and left too.

Cody had felt like it was his fault for driving away his father's friends. But Dad had gotten him in a loving headlock and pulled him down on the couch with him. He put his arm around the boy and reassured him he'd done nothing wrong. He kissed his son between the ears and said, "I couldn't be more proud of you. You're more of a man than he could ever hope to be, and he'll never understand that."

Cody was crying for real now. The tears were hot and stinging and he scrubbed them away with his sleeve. This was not the place for it.

He looked down at his book but the words were all blurs. He loved his father so much. If Dad had ever asked him to run off the edge of a thousand-foot cliff, Cody would have. He would have leapt into the air without worry, confident that there was either a net below, or a greater purpose to fulfill. His Dad had never let him down.

But life kept on pulling them apart. His damn career. Cody could never get too upset about it, because his Dad's work was so important. But it tore at him inside whenever Dad left him with Aunt Cherise for another five or seven or twelve months. Aunt Cherise was fun and sweet and they got along great. But she wasn't Dad. She tried her best and he did love her a lot, but he loved Dad more, and she knew, and she understood.

'I've gotta get my mind off of this...' Cody thought to himself.

Wiping his eyes again, he forced himself to concentrate on the words 'Chapter One'.

By chapter five, the book was splayed open beside him and he was fast asleep.


*****


Like an alarm clock, Cody's bladder woke him in the dark of the night. He had planned this. The last time he'd peed was back in The Box.

He blinked away strange dreams and waited for his eyes to adjust to the darkness. It was frighteningly quiet. No sounds but snores and crickets. He looked up and saw Kenny's arm dangling from the top bunk, swaying in time with his breath. He smiled. He was glad his friend had made it back from his run safely.

The rustling of his blankets sounded loud as thunder as Cody slipped out of bed. Thankfully, the floorboards were quiet. He crept across the gauntlet of sleeping classmates to where the bathrooms were. His plan had worked a little too well, and he felt like an overfull water balloon.

He made use of the urinals but didn't flush. Might make too much noise.

He could still feel his uneaten granola bar in his pocket and, as he passed the snack machine, tried to decide whether to gamble on another one. They were pretty low in the machine so it wouldn't thump too loudly when one fell to the bottom. If he made it out of here he'd probably starve regardless, but with two food sources he'd starve a little less quickly.

'Fine then.' He rubbed his thumb on the red pad and it lit. He entered his selection. The machine's whirr fried his nerves. He looked all around to see if anyone's ears were twitching. The granola bar made a tiny 'wump' as it landed. Cody reached in and took it, then touched his thumb to the pad again. It *had* been over six hours since he'd first used this thing. Maybe Guy had meant 'every three hours' literally? Nope. He keyed in another bar and the panel simply went dark.

"Well suck my dick," Cody whispered.

This was it. If he got through the wiredome tonight, he wouldn't be seeing any of his classmates again for possibly forever. But he was doing this to save them, and maybe all Preykind.

He chuckled. 'Don't get full of yourself.'

He crept towards the bunkhouse entrance, praying it wouldn't be wired with an alarm. He heard a strange squeaking sound. 'The heck...?' He listened closer and realized it was Yolanda's snoring. The ottergirl sounded like she was blowing on a tiny party horn. Cody smiled. 'I hope you make it out of here,' he thought.

He turned and looked back to Kenny. Sound asleep. 'Goodbye.'

He scanned around for Frank and didn't see her. Too bad.

Cody took a deep breath when he put his paw on the door handle. He opened it in one quick motion, wincing in anticipation of horns blaring and lights flashing. Nothing. One good sign so far. He hopped down the stone steps and thought about the book he'd been reading. If he had a single regret about leaving this place, it was not being able to finish it. It had been a good story.

The chilly night, and his nervousness, made him shiver. Cody kept his ears up. He tried his best to stay in the shadows and away from the larger buildings as he snuck towards the perimeter of the wiredome. It loomed above him, looking impossibly big. And the hexagonal holes looked far too small to squeeze through.

The moon was enormous above him. It shone coldly, turning everything below blue.

He briefly debated eating one of the granola bars. 'No. Better to wait until I'm so hungry I can't stand it any longer.'

Behind the cafeteria was a woodsy patch. The wiredome cut through and it looked like a secluded place where Cody could examine it. He pushed through the weeds and bushes. He found the edge of the dome digging into the dirt like it had grown up out of the ground. He wondered how deep down it went. He looked up and up and couldn't believe something this huge didn't collapse under its own weight.

The first thing was to test it. He kicked at the grass until he found a decent-sized stick. Getting as close as he dared, he reached out and smacked the wire with it, wincing.

No flash. No sizzle. He poked it again.

"Not electric apparently."

The crickets were a lot louder out here. Cody felt his heart speed up as he prepared to touch the wire. He held his hand out. He moved it closer.

He couldn't bring himself to touch it.

Up close, the holes were clearly large enough for a kid to wiggle through. There had to be something else in place to keep everyone in. The fox woman had been vague about what it might be.

Cody suddenly darted his finger out before his brain had time to stop him.

*tap*

Well, he was still alive.

And nothing had happened to his finger. He'd just touched the metal for an instant. It felt the same as any metal. He waved his hand around near it, and this time something did happen.

His palm and fingertips tingled. Subtly. Now that he thought back, the fox woman had said something about it being like that 'foot fallen asleep' feeling.

But it apparently took a short time to take effect.

Cody realized what he had to do. First he'd tuck as much of his shirt as he could over his exposed fur. Then he'd make a run at it. With skill and luck, if he got his head and arms through, he'd have enough momentum to drop through to the other side. It would not be easy. The holes were big enough to crawl through, but *jumping* through would be like threading a needle. While running.

Cody took a moment to imagine his father standing beside him. He made himself feel an imaginary hand on his shoulder. 'You can do this.'

"I will, Dad."

Cody pulled his sleeves down and tucked his collar up over his mouth. He backed up as far as he could, kicking around the grass to knock away any rocks or sticks he might trip on.

He stood with his back to a tree in the moonlight, staring at the wiredome. All those holes blurred. He had to focus on one. Make it the only thing that existed. He took in the deepest breaths he could, letting them out nice and easy.

'Get calm. Get focused,' he told himself. 'You're doing this for more people than just you.'

Cody waited until everything felt right. Until the world faded away, and all that mattered was his feet, the ground, and a single hexagonal hole.

He took a last breath and held it.

Then he ran.

His feet pounded the grass. Momentum. He needed as much of it as possible. Kinetic energy. Enough to push him through.

He put his arms out in front of himself. He was a needle.

He jumped for the hole.

Before he was even halfway through, he knew he had failed. The tingling which had been barely there before suddenly clenched around his entire upper body.

He'd never had a chance. From his stomach up, he was paralyzed. Completely numb. He hung half-in and half-out of the hole like a limp washrag. The most he could manage from his arms and torso was a sluggish, helpless wobble.

He couldn't even open his eyelids.

'FUCK!!! FUCK, FUCK, GODDAMNIT! IT'S NOT FAIR! I FUCKING TRIED MY HARDEST! DAMN YOU! YOU SONOFABITCHING PRED PIECES OF SHIT! FUCK YOU AND YOUR FUCKING FENCE! I'M GOING TO KILL EVERY LAST ONE OF YOU FOR THIS!!!'

He tried to push himself back out with his legs, but every time he pressed against the metal the numbness would spread to whatever was touching. He had zero leverage. He was stuck here.

He was stuck here and nobody knew where he was.

He might be here for days.

His skin was numb, but he could feel a growing pressure in his gut from where he was draped over the metal bar. It was pushing up into his stomach. Paralyzed like this, he knew if he vomited he might choke to death on it. That was probably the most humiliating death he could imagine. They'd find him dead, covered in his own sick. Dangling like a doll. And they'd drag him to their kitchens, hose him down and carve him up for supper. 'One less we have to do ourselves!' they'd say.

For just a moment, he imagined his father screaming at him for his stupidity. But no, that was his *own* reaction. Dad wouldn't do that. Dad would have patted him on the arm and said, 'We all fail sometimes. If you play, you sometimes lose. Don't dwell on it. Just don't lose next time.'

That was assuming there'd be a next time. He had to get himself out of this. If he could get himself down somehow, he might be able to slip back to the bunkhouse and no one would ever know. He could try again tomorrow. Something else. He'd prepare better. 'I'm still alive. I'm still thinking. That's all that matters. Until I'm dead, there's always a second chance.'

He struggled to find some way to kick against the metal without it paralyzing his leg. When he'd touched it the first time he hadn't felt it's effects. Maybe speed was the key. Or maybe the wiredome's effects were multiplied by how much mass passed through it. That made sense. He'd felt nothing on his fingertip; a tingling on his hand; and an almost instant reaction when his arms and head passed through.

The metal bar was sinking deeper into his gut. He could feel it with every breath. He was glad the paralyzing effect only applied to the surface of his body, otherwise he'd have died the instant his brain passed through.

He tried bunching his foot as far back into his shoe as he could get it. Try to push off against the fence with just the toe. It didn't work. He tried seven times. Still not enough leverage.

With every moment, Cody's panic rose. The sun would come up in another few hours. When would they start looking for him? Dammit, he couldn't even scream for help...

He heard footsteps.

'Oh shit.'

Someone was coming this way. Of course. Of course they'd have guards patrolling this place. Just because he hadn't seen any when he ran from the bunkhouse didn't mean they weren't there.

So now he was in a dilemma. Should he stay silent and avoid capture, or make noise and try to alert whoever it was? It might not even be a guard. It might be another Preykid who'd had the same idea bout escaping. Each breath Cody took seemed more difficult.

If he kept quiet, he might end up hanging here all night. His weight would push him down more and more onto that bar. He might really suffocate to death.

But would that be worse than the consequences of getting caught?

Cody would have to make his choice quickly. Those footsteps were coming closer, and soon they'd pass right by.

'Decision time,' he told himself. His face and ears felt like they were filling up with blood. 'If you stay here you might die. If you try to alert the guard, you are going to get punished, but you'll be alive a little bit longer. Certain death or half a chance. Fine. Choice is made.'

He hated doing this, but the logic was clear. He kicked his legs back and forth, making hollow clunks against the wiredome. The dull noise wasn't very loud. His choice might not have made any difference.

Or maybe it did. Those footsteps were definitely coming closer.

Cody couldn't see behind him. He'd been blind this entire time. It could be *anyone* there. Maybe that dog lady with the freakish mouth. She'd slide him in, and unlike Scott, she wouldn't let him out. He'd digest alive and no one would ever know.

The footsteps changed. They got louder as the furson stepped off grass and into the rustling brush of the clearing. They were zeroing in.

Cody had no idea how long it would take for the paralysis to wear off. He might have a very, very small window of attack if he needed to fight whoever this was.

The footsteps were passing the trees and pushing past the bushes.

'Don't focus on your fear. Focus on what you need to do.'

From directly behind him, there was a grunt of annoyance. "Thought so."

Suddenly gloved hands were around his waist.

In his mind, Cody screamed. A Predator's hands were on him! A Pred was holding him! This was his ultimate nightmare, and it was happening to him Right Now!

The hands lifted him up and out. Cody readied himself to kick out as hard as he could and run, and hope his top half wouldn't stay so numb it'd unbalance him.

"See, this is why I told you kids, if you're going to try this, take a buddy with you! Honestly!"

That voice... The tingling feeling was fading. When Cody could open his eyes again, he saw white fur.

Him. The actor from Broadcast Day. The voice of the Great Predator Army. The face that had made Cody spit at his TV in sheer hatred. This man had just possibly saved his life. The irony made Cody nauseous.

Guy put his hands on his hips. "Do you have any idea how bad you had it just then? I don't even know how you managed to get yourself into that position! If you'd stayed there much longer, that bar would have pressed up into your lungs and suffocated you!"

Cody barely looked at him. He felt humiliation oozing across the surface of his fur like tar. "I know."

The white fox sighed and shook his head. He gently took Cody's arm in his hand. "Well, come with me."

Cody let himself be led. Rarely had he ever felt like such a complete failure. He walked along beside the Pred. The moonlight lit up the fox's white fur like a glowworm. Cody looked up at his expression. He didn't even seem annoyed now. He looked like, 'just part of the job'. Cody didn't know if it was better or worse to have been captured by someone with such a professional attitude. The fox might be reasonable. Or he might simply snap his neck while humming a tune, then go about the rest of his business.

"How'd you find me?" Cody asked.

The fox patted a lump on his belt. "I got a beep. The wiredome sends out a signal when it activates. Then I just track it down like Marco Polo."

"Oh."

Cody considered running. The Pred wasn't holding him very tightly. But he still felt disoriented from the wiredome effect and his constricted breathing. If he took off, he'd be easily caught. There'd be no point in it. If he cooperated for now, he might feel better by the time they got within sight of where the prisoners were taken. He could try to bolt then.

Guy led him past the cafeteria, past the laundry room, then stopped at the door to the bunkhouse.

Cody looked up at him. "What now?"

"Now? What do you think? Now you go back to sleep."

Cody was dumbfounded. "What!? You just caught me red-handed trying to escape! You're not going to punish me? What kind of passive-aggressive mindfuck is this!?"

The white fox chortled and crossed his arms. "Do you *want* me to punish you? Maybe a spanking? Would that make you feel better?"

"No. Obviously," Cody snorted.

Guy leaned on the steps' railing, getting closer to eye level with the chipmunk. "For the most part, we don't 'do' punishment here, unless you've really done something to deserve it. You tried to escape. Fine. That's a perfectly natural response to being stuck someplace you don't want to be. We'd have to be jerks to punish you on top of that."

Cody's head was swimming. He had no idea what to believe. "You're kidding..."

"Why would I kid? Listen: we get it. You don't want to be here. But if you can just be patient, we will let you go in a week. We'll take you straight to your mom or dad or whoever. It's too dangerous for us to let you go any sooner. If you hate it here, I'm sorry, but just wait it out and it'll be over."

The fox smiled. "Tell you what; you go back to bed and I won't tell anyone about this. I mean, I do have to report that someone tried to breach security, but I can just say that as soon as I got there, they ran off. I know getting stuck must have been embarrassing."

Cody arched an eyebrow. His natural instinct was to be skeptical of this Pred. Preds did not do nice things for Prey without a hidden reason. Maybe this was to try to build trust among the captives. Lure them into a false sense of security.

'Or,' a nearly-foreign voice in his head spoke up, 'he's just a guy doing his job and he actually means what he says.'

Cody wasn't quite ready to believe that, but he supposed, purely from the law of probability, that some Preds could have normal emotions.

He tentatively put his hand out. "Thank you."

Guy shook it promptly. "You're welcome. And like I said; if you're going to try that again, I can't blame you, but at least take someone with you next time so I don't have to pull you out again."

"I will," Cody lied. If this experience had taught him anything, it was that the wiredome was a dead end. If the Preds were this cavalier about it, it meant the thing really was as escape-proof as it could possibly be, so they had nothing to worry about from Preys testing it. From now on, Cody would ignore it and look for other options.

Guy opened the bunkhouse door. "Goodnight, kid. Try not to wake anyone else up."

Cody nodded and walked past him.

The Pred shut the door, leaving Cody in darkness and snores again.

He couldn't believe he was back here. When he had left, of all the places he'd imagined ending up, this was not one of them. He'd thought if he got free he'd have to spend the rest of the night running through the forest, sleeping under trees when daylight came. He'd thought if he'd been caught they would have taken him to a kitchen or a jail cell or an interrogation room. But no, he was right back where he started. Like what he'd done had never even happened. Like it hadn't mattered at all.

'That's not true,' he reassured himself. 'Failure is useful if you can learn from it. I know about the wiredome now. I know not to mess with it again. Remember that gate you saw? Focus on that next. Maybe you can find out when it opens.'

Yolanda was still snoring her squeaky little snore as he passed her bunk. It put a brief smile on his lips. Kenny made snoozing sounds too.

Cody took off his shoes and socks and slipped under the covers. He didn't think he'd be able to get to sleep for a while.

Thankfully, the moon was just barely bright enough to read by.

Cody opened his book, then thought 'what the hell' and unwrapped one of the granola bars too.





--Chapter Four--


Cody was dreaming about visiting a museum full of masks of all his classmates' faces. When suddenly a symphony orchestra came barging into the room.

Blinking, Cody realized that the music was real. Some kind of cheery classical stuff was being pumped through speakers outside. At first it was disorienting, but then he realized sunlight was pouring through the windows. The music was a wake-up call.

Man, he'd slept hard that second time! He felt like his limbs were battered old railroad ties. It wasn't too surprising he felt so bad, considering that damn metal bar from last night. 'I will not be telling anyone about that,' he vowed.

Just as he was getting himself into a sitting position, the doors at both ends of the bunkhouse opened and Preds came pouring in.

"Good morning, campers!" an overly cheery hyena shouted. He was short and spindly and looked flat-out goofy in his elaborate black uniform.

A cat lady was entering from the other end. Same uniform as his, but with a skirt and, bizarrely enough, spurs. "Rise and shine!" she chirped.

Both of them were followed by even more Preds, wheeling in long, rattly racks of clothing. "Here's your uniforms, kids! Enough for everyone!" shouted the hyena. "We'll also be bringing in socks and underwear in a moment." And like magic, in came the Preds with the boxes of undergarments.

A lot of kids were blinking and just staring at these hap-hap-happy schmucks. Some kids, remembering where they were, had brief panic attacks.

The hyena hollered instructions. "The cafeteria will open in a few moments. Until then, you can shower and dress and leave whenever you like. Class will begin at ten o' clock. You won't be going to the same rooms you were in last night though. You'll all be heading towards the medical clinic, which is the tall building near the center of camp; the only one with white paint. Group J, you'll be going to room 103, Group K will be in 104, and Group L will be going to 105. If you need that repeated, just ask me or your teacher."

The cat gave the uniform rack near her a rustle. "Come on up and get some! Up to three outfits per furson. If you want to wear just the shorts *or* the shirt with your Farron's Keep uniforms, that's okay. But nobody gets breakfast without some orange on them!"

Cody's first inclination was to pitch a bitch and insist on wearing his own clothing. And oh look, that's exactly what some kids were already doing. But it'd be a pointless gesture. If they wanted to give him free clothes, why not accept?

He dragged himself up to a standing position, then gave his back and tail a good stretch. With a 'THUMP', Kenny hopped down from the top bunk.

The rabbit scratched his ass. "Well, you're still here. I conclude your escape attempt didn't work."

"You conclude correctly," Cody muttered. "I tried. I really did. The dome is..." He sighed. "We're not getting past it."

"Shit," said Kenny.

"How was your run last night?"

He cheered up a little. "Pretty nice actually. I wish this was just some spot I was vacationing in. The scenery's great, especially at night."

Cody nodded. "Just what I was thinking. So, shall we go put on our jail jammies?"

A chuckle. "Surprised you're going along with it."

Cody shrugged. "I slept in these all night." He gave his shirt a sniff. "And they're not exactly fresh anymore."

"Fair 'nuff."

Both boys walked over to the nearest rack of uniforms, which were surrounded by a cloud of kids. Hydra Kensington was holding her shirt up and examining it from different angles, trying to figure out how to make something unique out of it. Trudy was asking with very flushed cheeks if they came in larger sizes. Cody reached out to feel the material. Not bad. Kinda stiff, and with that nose-wrinkling 'new shirt smell'. He decided to take a shower first. Kenny joined him.

Just past the toilets and the urinals in the bathroom, the room curved around into a wide shower area. There were plastic partitions between each one to reduce embarrassment a bit. When Cody looked them over, he saw that inside each stall there were two clear plastic 'envelopes' on the walls. He wondered what they were for at first, until he saw writing at the bottom: CLOTHES HERE. "That's clever." He stuffed his new uniform into one pouch and started undressing out of his smelly shirt.

The water was wonderfully relaxing. Sleep hadn't done much to reduce his stress, but this definitely did. Cody was starting to accept that in order to figure this place out, he'd have to go along with the bullshit for a while. He'd messed up when he threatened the lioness. He'd let the Preds know how he truly felt about them. But he was sure other Preykids had made similar threats. If he stayed relatively quiet for now, he could get back under their radar. Let other kids act out and take the focus off him.

Cody finished washing up and got dressed. His uniform was uncomfortable in the way new clothes always are. But when he went over to the mirror to grab a disposable comb and take care of his fur, he had to admit, the color looked pretty sharp on him.

It was surreal to emerge from the showers and find almost everyone dressed identically. Well, technically they'd been dressed near-identically *before*. But at least you could tell the boys from the girls. Now it was like looking at a bunch of little heads floating in lava.

He was eager for breakfast now. He left his dirty clothes in a pile by the bed and picked up his book. "Is it all right if I take this with me?" he asked the hyena with as much politeness as he could muster.

"Sure. Just don't lose it."

Cody promised not to. Heck, if he could take it with him when he got out of here, he would. It spoke to him particularly strongly.

In the cafeteria, the sea of orange was nearly blinding. Cody smelled scrambled eggs and it was painful to resist them. But he remembered the rules: produce or prepackaged only. At least until he was sure it was safe. He got himself some fruit, several juice boxes, a carton of milk and a single-serving box of cereal.

To his utter surprise, he spotted Mason and Scott in the third lunch line. "I'm surprised they let you live through the night!" Cody called out.

They didn't even hear him. They were talking to Walter and some frog kid. Cody ignored them for now.

He took a careful look at the room as he walked around, pretending to find a table. No one's behavior seemed particularly different. A bit sluggish maybe. Though everyone had just woken up; some grogginess was to be expected. The real test would be to see if everyone was still their normal selves at lunch and dinner.

Just as Cody sat down, Hydra entered the room like she owned the place. She'd ripped the sleeves off her shirt and added gill-like vents along the sides. Her acolytes had all customized their uniforms accordingly. There were several hoots and cheers at her appearance. She soaked it all up, every drop.

'Even in a prison camp. Wow...' Cody marveled.


*****


Finding the medical building was easy, and so was finding room 104. It looked like a small science lab that someone had cleared most of the equipment out of. Folding chairs were set up. It'd be a tight fit squeezing everyone in.

Lieutenant Vera Delamoor was at the front of the room looking over some papers. Cody stopped to regard her when he walked in. She did the same. Neither looked particularly happy to see the other.

While there was still space, Cody took a seat near the back.

Besides the fox woman, the room also featured an enormous machine that looked like a giant clear tube tilted at an angle, with massive piles of random electronics grafted onto both sides. Nearby was a small wooden table. Seated on it was a young sheepgirl wearing one of the GPA's uniforms. All black and glossy. She even had the hat and boots.

'Well, your species is accurate,' Cody thought at her.

The room slowly filled up with kids. After Hydra entered (gaining an approving thumbs up from Vera), she and her posse sat down, but one of them lagged behind. Michelle the hedgehog waited until Hydra wasn't looking, then scooted over to Vera and whispered something to her.

Cody leaned forward. "Oh, don't do it... Please..."

The grey fox nodded to the girl, then reached in her pocket and covertly handed her an armband.

'Damn it!'

The hedgehog girl trotted to her seat beside Hydra like nothing had happened. 'One more gone,' Cody thought.

Vera had been counting heads and knew when the class was complete. Jayden was the last to enter. He'd ripped off his shirt collar and made a headband out of it. "That's inventive," she told him.

He was briefly befuddled at getting complimented on something he'd expected to be yelled at for. "Oh? Thanks, fox-teacher-Pred-lady-ma'am."

She hid a laugh. "There's one last seat over there," she pointed out. He nodded and took it.

Vera clapped her paws. "Now that we're all here, we can get on with today's lesson!" She was effervescent; clearly excited about what she had planned. "I'd originally planned to go into some Pred and Prey history, philosophy, social myths, etcetera, but then I figured you might not be up for that right after breakfast. So instead, I went for razzle-dazzle."

"I cannot believe sentient beings exist who still say that," Kenny whispered to Cody.

"For starters, this is Audra." Vera showed off the sheepgirl with a little 'ta-da' gesture.

The girl hopped down off the table and stood at attention. She waved enthusiastically. "Hello!"

Several girls in the class said 'Awwww'. Audra was quite cute despite her uniform. She was several years younger than everyone else. Her eyes sparkled with happiness to be the center of everyone's attention.

"Audra, why did you agree to join up with the Great Predator Army?" Vera asked.

"'Cause they're nice!" the little lamb burst out, unhesitating.

This got chuckles from about half the room. The other half thought it was kinda fucked up.

Vera walked over to the weird tube contraption and gave it a pat. "Audra is going to help me demonstrate a machine the GPA has developed. It's taken us a long time, but it works, and we've got about a hundred of them made so far. We're making them as fast as we can get the materials. We honestly believe that this thing can change the world, and play a big part in ending the war."

"What does it do?" Tycho asked impatiently. The gerbil was rotund, but also tall for his age. When he leaned forward in his seat, he looked like an eggplant.

Vera smirked. "I told you its name last night. It's called the Rejuvenator. And it does exactly what you'd expect with a name like that."

The gerbil's eyebrow went up skeptically. "It's a medical device, then?"

"It's *the* medical device," Vera replied. "It's like a printer for people. It scans you, makes a picture of your body inside and out, then remembers that picture. If you're injured, it restores you to the condition you're supposed to be in."

"...Bullshit," someone in the crowd said. But they'd said it with awe.

Tycho growled. "That can't be possible! Even if it works like you say, wouldn't it revert your brain too? You'd lose whatever memories you had up till the previous scan!"

"We thought of that," Vera reassured. "The machine is smart enough to target only the areas that need repairing. It can even be programmed to change or ignore specific body parts. But that by itself isn't what makes it so impressive. If that was all it could do, it would merely duplicate what doctors and other machines are already capable of.

"Let me show you its real purpose."

The grey fox walked over to the wooden table and picked up a pair of blue latex gloves. She pulled one on with a snap. "I have to warn you, what's going to happen next will seem traumatic at first. It's going to produce an overwhelming emotional response. I know you don't have much reason to trust me, but I am asking for your trust anyway. Just for a few moments." She flexed her fingers inside both gloves. They squeaked.

Vera walked back to the little lamb girl (who was still obediently standing at attention) and patted her on the head. "Audra, are you ready?"

"One hundred percent, Miss Vera!" she said, giving a thumbs up.

"Are you scared?"

"Not one bit!!"

Cody was watching with a hand over his mouth. He had a sick premonition about where this was going. But would the Preds really be so cold-blooded as to do this in front of an audience!?

From her pocket, Vera took out a toothbrush-sized plastic case. She popped it open and held up what was inside.

A fresh new surgical scalpel.

Several kids jumped out of their seats. "NO!" "You can't!" "Don't you dare hurt her!!"

'Holy shit, she's going to KILL her!' Cody thought. There were too many people in front of him for him to rush at the fox and wrestle the blade away. He stood and watched the scene unfold, hoping someone else who was closer would be brave enough to stop this.

Someone did. Showing uncharacteristic fury, Yolanda Denton, daughter of the Vice President, took a step forward and put up her fists.

Vera immediately whirled around and slammed her hand down on a black button set into the wall.

Instantly, Yolanda collapsed. Her glasses went skidding across the floor.

"Yola!!" Chloe-Sophia cried out. She actually shoved past Hydra to get to the ottergirl's side. She and several other students started helping Yolanda up.

"WHAT DID YOU DO TO HER!?" Frank roared.

The grey fox pointed. "Look! She's fine!!" she pled.

Yolanda was blinking a lot and clearly startled, but also clearly alive. "I'm okay," she told everyone. "What did you do to me!?" she snarled at Vera.

The fox laid the scalpel down and held her hands up in a 'let's all calm down' gesture. "That was the same neuro-electric effect I was talking about yesterday. Remember what I said about the dome over the camp? I was going to take you all out after class and show you what it does, but it looks like now I don't have to." Vera pointed out the emitter embedded in the ceiling. "It temporarily incapacitates your striated skeletal muscle; what you use for voluntary movement. You can try to get through it, but you'll just end up on the floor again."

Yolanda reached out her arm to test where the invisible forcefield was. Everyone saw her fingers suddenly go limp as she discovered it. Other kids in the first row reached out to touch it too.

Vera walked closer, tail curling low behind her. She looked directly at Yolanda as she handed back the girl's glasses. "I am sorry, Miss Denton. I greatly admire your courage for what you were about to do." She looked around at the others. "I don't blame any of you for not trusting me. I'm not angry. And I apologize for putting up this barrier, but it's vital I show you this. I told you it would be hard to watch."

Yolanda did not often show emotion. But her usual stoic expression betrayed a world of swirling thoughts going on behind her eyes. She did not sit down.

Vera walked back to Audra and picked up the scalpel again.

"It's okay, really!" the little sheep told the other Prey, her eyes full of sympathy for their fear. "I was scared too! I was terrified! But then after the first time, I could hardly believe it! I wanted to help the Preds right away. I want to help them get Rejuvenators in every hospital in the world. Just watch and don't worry. You'll see."

"Thank you, sweetheart," Vera said warmly.

"You're welcome."

Vera held the scalpel up and every pair of eyes in the room followed it. "I am going to use this in exactly the way you think I'm going to use it..."

All the blood had drained from Cody's face. He thought he might vomit. It was enough to know Preds did these things. It was enough to have seen videos. He did not want to see a live performance. He did not think he could watch this and stay sane.

"...And then I am going to show you what the Rejuvenator can do. Audra, again, are you ready?"

"I'm ready," she said, more seriously this time.

Vera walked behind the young lamb and held the blade to her throat. Audra tipped her head back cooperatively.

Many kids were crying, moaning and tapping at the edge of the paralytic field, searching for weak spots.

"Do you agree to this freely?" Vera asked her victim.

"I agree," Audra said. She closed her eyes and smiled peacefully.

Vera glanced up at her audience. "You don't have to watch if you don't want to," she said.

And with that, she quickly and efficiently slid the little knife across the girl's throat.

There were screams. Two students threw themselves at Vera and ended up thudding to the floor, unmoving. Girls and boys alike were crying their eyes out. The blood was redder than they could have imagined, and there was so much of it. Frank snatched up her chair, planning to throw it, but the zebra couldn't figure out how to without whacking a classmate.

Vera had quickly grabbed a nearby plastic bag. It was clear green and had a curved plastic opening at one end. The vixen held it over Audra's spurting wound and fiddled with some straps to secure it in place. She caressed the girl's headfur soothingly. "Almost over. It's almost over. You're being so brave," she whispered.

Cody was slumped against the back wall. He didn't think he'd ever be able to close his eyes again. He was in shock, plain and simple. The horror of what he'd just witnessed, combined with his failure to prevent it, had rendered him every bit as paralyzed as the wiredome had.

Vera waited until Audra's bloodflow weakened some. The bag was nearly full. The sound of blood spurting inside, making the plastic crinkle, was absolutely skin-crawling. The little lamb was completely limp now, held up only by Vera's other arm.

The fox plucked her Talkcard from her jacket pocket and used its walkie-talkie function. "Now, please."

A tabby in a nurse's uniform entered. Well, sort of a nurse's uniform, except for the fact that it was made of red rubber. A hand went to her mouth when she saw all the blood. "Oh geeze..."

"Need some help, Kady." Vera nodded towards the Rejuvenator and the nursecat nodded back. She crossed the room and started operating a control panel. The Rejuvenator's tube part split in half with a hydraulic hiss, opening like a clam.

Vera was clearly holding back her emotions as she listened to Audra's blood pour out with progressively quieter splashes. Cradling the girl tenderly in one arm, she lifted her head towards the shocked, silent faces of her students.

"Audra is now dead." She turned to her colleague. "Kady? Microphone, please."

The nursecat picked up a small black box with a stethoscope tube attached and brought it over. She pressed the metal disc to the girl's chest. Silence.

No one spoke as the fox and feline lifted the dead girl and carried her to the Rejuvenator. They laid her down inside; it was slightly diagonal and padded for comfort. Kady returned to the controls and closed the lid. She keyed in some commands, producing some beeps and a hum.

'It's like watching a magic trick,' Cody thought numbly. 'The sickest, most evil magic trick ever. They kill a kid in front of our eyes, and expect us to believe that by putting her in a magic box, she'll come back to life.'

"This won't take long," Vera said. She opened a hatch on the side of the machine and placed the bag of blood inside. "The machine doesn't have much to repair. If you'll look closely, you can actually see it happening. In fact," she hesitated a moment, "I'm going to lower the neuro-electric field now so you can watch."

Her hand trembled as she reached for the black button. But she knew pressing it was the right thing to do, so she did.

Immediately, chairs screeched as the kids shoved them away. They clustered around the Rejuvenator machine, looking in at the stone-still girl inside.

Kenny walked slowly over to Vera with tears in his eyes. Cody realized it was the first time he'd ever seen his friend cry. "If she stays dead, you don't leave this room alive," the rabbit said in a cracked voice.

Vera gulped, then nodded acceptance. "If she doesn't, I won't fight back," she replied sincerely.

"LOOK! HER THROAT!!" Tycho suddenly screamed.

Both boys turned and ran over to the machine. The students had crammed themselves in like sardines around it, so Kenny and Cody had to jump to see over them.

Inside the machine, a number of tiny arms were probing around inside Audra's wound. Two of them had hoses attached, and they seemed to be pumping blood back into her body. What Tycho had noticed was that two needle-thin robotic devices were seemingly *erasing* her wound.

The kids gasped and stared as Audra was made whole again right before their eyes.

"Heartbeat's starting back up," Kady announced.

A smile of relief broke over Vera's face. "Excellent! You can go tell Jared to come up then."

The nursecat nodded to her, then struggled to squeeze past the crowd of gawking Preykids. She gave Vera a quick co-worker hug. "It always works, but it always scares the crap out of you until it does, doesn't it?"

The vixen nodded. "Absolutely." She'd tossed the scalpel in a plastic box with a biohazard symbol on it, then added her gloves. Kady took the box with her when she left.

Cody couldn't believe it. Could Not Believe It. Technology like this was impossible. It had to be a trick. Some elaborate illusion. No one could reverse death. No machine was capable of-

Audra's eyes opened.

A moment later, so did the Rejuvenator. Students jumped out of the way as the tube-half swung slowly open.

Inside was one perfectly alive little lamb with the biggest smile in the world on her face. "See!? It worked!!!"

Gasps of relief and astonishment rang out. Audra was swallowed up in a tidal wave of hugs

Cody took a shaky step backwards, hand covering his mouth. He was completely unable to deal with this. This was like watching reality unravel itself. He kept backing away from the sight of his classmates crowding around the lambgirl, asking her questions and touching her to see if she was real. His mind completely rejected what it was seeing.

He nearly bumped into Vera. "Look out," she cautioned.

He whirled around. "If this is a trick..." he hissed.

The look in the boy's eyes was pure venomous malice. Vera renewed her promise to not underestimate this kid. "I promise it isn't! If you won't, or can't, believe me, then you can come back here after lunch and I will get in that machine myself and let you cut my throat."

The mere fact that she'd say such a thing sobered Cody. "You can't be serious."

She straightened up a little. "I wouldn't have taken this position if I was afraid to do whatever it takes to show the world we have a better way."

Cody was beginning to get the feeling that this whole thing was more than just a simple honey trap. These Preds *believed* their line. It wasn't just con men he was dealing with. These were fanatics. And they seemingly had magic on their side. Cody pointed behind him at the machine. "How does it work? How can it possibly work!?"

"If you'll be patient a few more moments, you can ask the inventor yourself," she replied.

Still feeling the fur on the back of his neck standing up, Cody turned away from her, towards the sheep girl.

"Five times!" she cheerfully answered Yolanda's question. "I love volunteering for this!"

"But why!?" someone asked.

"Because I think it's important," Audra said. "I think about all the people we can save now."

"But... *dying*!? You let her slash your throat with a razor five times!?" Frank sputtered.

"A scalpel, actually," the girl smugly corrected. "It doesn't hurt. Maybe it stings a little. Then when all my blood comes out, that part *is* a little scary, yeah. But it gets easier every time. The best part is when these little sparkles start popping up all over my vision just before I black out. It looks like fireworks! Then all of a sudden I'm waking up in the Rejuvenator again, safe and sound!"

Tycho was about to ask another question when someone knocked on the door with what sounded like something metal.

Vera dashed to the door. "Everyone! I'd like to introduce a special guest: Mr. Jared Ravensfire, the inventor of the Rejuvenator!"

She flung open the door, and what wobbled into the room then made nearly everyone suppress a snort of laughter.

He was the most unthreatening Pred any of them had ever seen. He was a rust-colored red fox, hobbling along on two gleaming forearm crutches. He was young, barely on the edge of twenty. His plaid shirt and twig-skinny frame made many of the Preykids think of a scarecrow.

Jared brushed his mop of brown hair out of his eyes. "Hi, kids!" he said in a cutely nasal voice.

"You're joking," Hydra said flatly.

Jared straightened up as best he could. He spoke quick and lively. "If you're referring to me being the inventor of that device which you've just seen in action, then it's no joke. My plans built that sucker."

Vera spoke up towards the class. "How about you all return to your seats and then you can ask Mr. Ravensfire any questions you might have?"

The Preykids obeyed her. They were too drained from their emotional rollercoaster ride to do much else.

Cody and Tycho both put their hands up. "How does it work!?" they shouted near-simultaneously.

Vera gave Jared room to back up and brace himself against the wooden table. He started unstrapping his crutches and Audra helpfully took them from him. "Thanks, cutiehooves."

The sheepette grinned sweetly at him, then left to go sit in the corner for the remainder of classtime. She'd earned a break.

Jared looked back at Cody. "I got recruited by the GPA while I was still in college. I'd started getting some attention for my theories, but it was mostly people angrily telling me why they wouldn't work. I'm a 'big picture' thinker. While a lot of people who study medicine specialize in a single area, I wanted to know everything about everything."

He pointed to his legs. "I broke these as a kid. The accident gave me plenty of time to sit in bed and read. So I read medical books. I wanted to fix myself." He chuckled. "Ironically, I ended up making a machine that'll do everything but. The Rejuvenator only works with what it's given; it can't 'think' enough to repair what your body's already healed from. Short-term booboos only. Hence, why I still got these," he said, indicating the crutches.

With obvious difficulty, and also obvious practice, Jared walked over to the Rejuvenator taking tiny, careful steps. "Inventing it didn't really take any kind of supergeniusness on my part. I just looked at all the brightest breakthroughs in medical technology and thought, 'Why does it all have to be separate machines? That's so inefficient. Why not *one* machine that does *everything*?' So I started designing. I took concepts from everywhere. Not just medtech, but anything even slightly related to what I wanted. I looked into assembly plants that used micro-robotics to build mind-bogglingly tiny things. I looked into 3D printing technology. I looked into cell regeneration. All of it came together in this." He patted his machine and it gave a hollow 'whump'.

"Sensors inside 'read' every inch of you. Everything that can be recorded, is. It extrapolates what about you is healthy and what needs to be changed. It knows how to prioritize. For instance: it might notice you have an unhealthy cholesterol level, but it'll take care of a shotgun wound first. It can compare your injury to a previous bodyscan, or if it's your first time in one, make educated guesses as to what it needs to do. Because it can see everything, it can know on a far *deeper* level than any doctor exactly what needs to be done to get you up and running again."

"Wouldn't this thing put a lot of doctors out of business?" someone asked.

"Yes," Jared admitted. "But of the ones I've asked, they all say it's worth it."

Tycho raised his hand. A scowl was etched onto his face; a desperate need to understand. "But how can it reverse *death*!? We saw her throat get cut. We saw the machine sew her back up. But closing a wound and replacing blood doesn't magically bring someone back to life!"

Jared nodded in respect to Tycho's question. "You have to get dispassionate. You have to stop thinking of life and death in emotional terms, and think of the body as no different from a machine. We know how to fix a car that's stopped running. We know how to restart a crashed computer. Up til now, restarting a furson has been simply too complex a task for us to understand how it's possible. Too many things have to happen all at once. Impossibly small repairs. The right chemicals at exactly the right time in exactly the right place.

"You only saw the robot arms that fixed Audra's throat. You probably didn't notice the ones that poked into her back and spine. They took readings of her heart, lungs and brain and extrapolated exactly what was needed to start her working again. Then it was just a matter of, well... hot-wiring her."

A few students laughed at such a blunt comparison.

Tycho was rapt. "What's the longest time?" he asked breathlessly.

Jared smiled, knowing by the boy's expression exactly what he meant. "We've done a lot of experiments. I've volunteered for some of the most dangerous ones myself, because I wouldn't let my friends risk themselves. One time I inhaled helium until I asphyxiated. Don't laugh; your body can't tell the difference between it and air, so it's a surprisingly easy way to commit suicide. Anyway, I died. I ordered my staff to wait thirty minutes. It seemed like only a few seconds to me before I was waking up inside the machine."

The fox smiled a perfect mad scientist's smile. "From then on, it was just a contest of going longer. We had thought three hours was the maximum limit. Then we got a call from the nearby hospital where one of my friends was working. Paramedics had just brought in a fisherman who'd fallen out of a boat and been trapped under the ice for four hours. It took another sixty minutes for him to be rescued, taken to the hospital, pronounced dead as a doornail and then brought to us because, hey, why not?

"We pushed our prototype so far past its limits we ruined it. We drove it into the ground. We practically melted that poor thing."

Jared paused dramatically.

"His son still has a father today."

Several students started applauding.

Jared took a few more questions and answered them to the best of his ability. Not surprisingly, many kids still couldn't bring themselves to believe that the Rejuvenator was really real. Jared said he'd be here all week working on improvements to it and anyone who was interested was welcome to come by and watch it being tested. Tycho practically floated when he said that.

Soon though, Kady knocked on the door and poked her head in. "L Group's ready," she stage-whispered.

"That's my cue, sorry," Jared told everyone. "Another cute little brave volunteer just got resurrected and now I've gotta go help pick all of *those* kids' jaws off the floor."

Vera handed the fox his crutches. "Can we get a round of applause for Mr Ravensfire?"

Jared smiled at everyone as they clapped. Cody was surprised to find himself clapping along with them. He had to admit, Pred or not, if this wasn't all just a gigantic, heartless hoax, then this man deserved all the praise anyone could give.

The rusty young fox wobbled himself to the door and gave the Preykids a last wave before he left. "Remember; stay in school! Maybe you'll grow up to cure death too!"

Vera rested her tush on the wooden table and waited for her students to stop buzzing amongst themselves. She cleared her throat and addressed them. "I apologize again for the shock of watching Audra die. But we have to be shocking. We understand how resistant people can be to new ideas. So sometimes it's necessary to ram them through using the most brutal, undeniable proof possible. We believe that sometimes we have to confront people with their worst fears, in order to show them that those fears are unfounded. Still, if any of you have nightmares tonight, I genuinely am sorry."

"I probably will," Trudy admitted. "When you took out that knife, I just about felt my heart stop!"

"Hey, no prob: this thing'd fix it!" Jayden said.

That lightened the room's mood a bit more. Vera was very glad to see no obvious signs of trauma from any of them. 'Maybe desensitization to violence through the media can be a good thing sometimes,' she considered.

Tycho's hand was up again. "Sorry if you don't know this, but what if... Like, what if you're not all there when you get put inside? It can't regrow a limb, can it?"

"Actually, I *can* answer that," Vera replied. "Remember when I put the bag of blood in that side hatch?"

Several kids 'eww'ed at the mental image.

"That was important, because obviously the machine can't make matter from nothing. But it *can* make matter from similar matter. Inside it, each Rejuvenator needs a supply of, well, meat. Plus blood, bone and a few other natural materials. One of the things Jared's been working hardest on is a way to make the machine accept *any* kind of organic matter. I may not know how in the heck it can do this, but I do know that, essentially, it can somehow 'blank' the DNA of whatever raw materials you put into it. So if you need a limb regrown, it can take a chunk of meat of equal mass, rewrite it with your DNA, and create a perfect replacement that your body won't reject."

Tycho looked like he'd just got done having insane, exhausting sex. "Fascinating..." he breathed.

Vera remembered her notes. "There's something else I wanted to talk about. The medical applications of the Rejuvenator are obvious. But there's another area of society that this machine will change forever. Can you guess which?"

Several blank looks. Other students tried their hardest to puzzle it out.

Surprisingly, it was Trudy who cracked the answer. She shyly held up her hand. "Meat processing?"

A stunned grin spread across Vera's muzzle. "Very good! And why's that?"

"Because, well..." The pig girl fidgeted, unsure of her idea. "If, if the Rejuvenator can regrow parts like you said, then that made me think of when you Predators... well, when you... eat us. But am I right that, if you had one of those, you could cut an arm or a leg off and... and then you could eat it but the Prey wouldn't have to lose it or die?"

Stunned silence. From every single student.

Every single one of them realized how much Trudy's idea, if true, could change everything in both societies forever.

"Yes, Trudy," Vera said. "I am endlessly proud of you for figuring that out."

The piggygirl squirmed in her seat, smiling and blushing.

Vera's foxtail wagged. "She's exactly right. With this machine, the war can end. This is what I meant yesterday when I said that if we can't stop our natural instincts, we can find ways around them. If I can't stop my society from preying on yours, then at least I can help take death, permanence and loss out of that equation."

She began to pace. "Our biggest problem now is efficiency. The Rejuvenator works, but it's slow, it's hard to build, and it uses a whopperload of power. All those problems are solvable with more research and more money, which we can't get if we're hiding in the woods under a wiredome. We need corporate and government support. From both sides. We can't get that until the war ends. Sometimes you can end a fight by introducing a common enemy. But other times you can end it by adding a common goal."

Vera smiled hopefully. "Both sides want to save lives. We can give that to them. We can give that to everyone eventually."

Yolanda's hand went up. "Let me make sure I understand. In the future you're hoping for, the Preds would have meat factories filled with Rejuvenators. Prey would be taken there and killed, like with nonevs, instead of each Pred citizen hunting for the sake of their own families?"

Vera nodded. "That's about right."

"Who would volunteer for that though!?" the otter asked. The idea made her a little queasy.

Vera sighed. "That, unfortunately, I can't answer right now, because I don't have time to get into the whole context of the answer. But I will. If not in today's next class, then tomorrow's for sure."

"I'd like an answer *now*," Kenny piped up. He was obviously even more unsettled by Yolanda's idea. "You're basically saying that your wonderful new world is one where Preys get kidnapped, killed for meat, then a machine just resets them and they go home and everything's happy!?"

Vera spoke evenly, "Even if all that were true, exactly as you said, isn't it still better than how things are now?"

That shut Kenny up.

He tried to find a way to say 'no', but he couldn't. His emotions raged against the idea, but his reason couldn't refute it. He did come up with another objection though. "But what if the Preds don't let them go afterwards? What if they just keep them in the factories, killing them over and over and over?"

"We would definitely make sure there were laws against anything like that," Vera said.

Tycho turned around in his seat to face the rabbitboy, "And you could still make the argument that that's better than what we've got. I'm not saying I know for sure whether it'd be worse to get enslaved and killed repeatedly, or to have my consciousness not exist anymore forever. But the fact that I can't answer that question is, I think, important in and of itself."

"Thank you, Mr. Max," Vera said. "And Mr. Loughtner, you've raised a valid point. When almost any new technology emerges, someone will find a way to use it to harm others. It's always a possibility. But we have to weigh that risk against the gain. The Rejuvenators *might* be used to create the kind of nightmare factories you describe. And without strict regulation, I can see that scenario being very profitable for a company, sadly enough. But on the other hand, Rejuvenators *will* be used to save lives. We've asked ourself if we think the benefit outweighs the risk, and we think the answer is a very solid yes."

Kenny scowled. He wasn't quite convinced, but he had to admit she had a point. He thought about car accidents and plane crashes, and how many people they'd killed. Would the world have been better off if cars and planes had been banned? Obviously not. But this Rejuvenator machine had power over life and death. Literally. Kenny didn't know if he trusted that people in general were good enough to use it well.

Vera glanced at the clock. "We've still got time for some more questions, but free period before lunch is coming up soon. You can relax or get some exercise, or you can check the bulletin board outside your bunkhouses to see what activities are going on. The computer room will be open too. Remember; you can always ask a GPA member to tell you where something is. Oh, and if you're still interested in the Rejuvenator, I'll be here for a while and we can talk more. Or you can visit Mr. Ravensfire."

Tycho slowly put his hand up.

"Yes?"

The white-furred gerbil stared for a long time at his lap, methodically licking his lips, before he managed to convince himself to speak. "I think I've heard enough."

She tilted her head. "What do you mean?"

Tycho was clearly wrestling with something deep inside him. His hands moved over each other compulsively. "I've listened to everything you've said about the Rejuvenator and..." He finally looked up into the vixen's eyes. "I don't care about your new world order. I don't know if I even believe anything else you've said. But that machine... I'm looking right at it and I saw with my own eyes what it does. It's more important than anything else. If you have another of those armbands, I will join your army and do whatever you tell me to, so long as you *promise* me it will get those machines distributed around the world and I can know I'm helping save people's lives."

He had spoken softly, but with a determination that awed her. Vera was nearly moved to tears. "I have plenty of armbands, Tycho. And I can make that promise right here and now."

He stood up, walked to her, and held out his hand. "Okay then."

She shook.

"I don't want to move out of the bunkhouse and leave my friends though," the gerbil added firmly. "I want to stay with them, and stay in your class, and hear you tell me exactly what the hell I just got myself into."

Vera smiled. "I hope I don't disappoint you. Welcome aboard, Private Tycho Max."

'And another one down...' Cody thought to himself.





--Chapter Five--


When class ended, a few kids stayed behind to stare in awe at the magnificent anti-death machine. One girl even asked if she could test it by having it heal a bruise she'd gotten the day before. Vera was happy to let her. Though she had to pause to tell Tycho where Jared would likely be. The gerbil thanked her and scurried off.

Cody wandered out of the building with his head swirling. He had a lot to think about.

He spent his free hour simply wandering around the camp. It was a nice warm day and the weather helped calm him. He watched the other kids running around. In just a single day, a large portion of the fear he'd seen in their eyes had gone. He could still sense a lot of skepticism. But anyone who had seen that Rejuvenator in action was forced to rethink this place.

That included Cody. The Preds, his enemy, had a technology that could change the entire world. And that changed Cody's situation. Now it wasn't simply a matter of getting out of here and having the Prey army scorch this place to a stain after rescuing the hostages. He had to mention the Rejuvenators too. It didn't matter that a fox was its inventor. Cody thought of all the Prey lives it could save.

'This is too much for me to handle,' he thought. 'There's only one of me.'

He walked past a cluster of trees where dandelions bloomed wildly. His sneakers made pebbles skitter out of the way as he walked.

'But... I have to.'


*****


At noon, Cody looked up when a chime echoed through the air. For the first time, he noticed a towering pole in the exact center of camp. It had four loudspeakers at the top, arranged like flower petals. 'So that's where the music came from this morning.'

The chime obviously meant lunch, so Cody headed for the cafeteria.

On the way, he was still looking up at the speaker-pole when he noticed something nearly hidden by the trees. It looked like a tollbooth in the air. He squinted. It was an observation tower. Bleached and paintless with age.

He thought about asking a Pred what it was, but then reconsidered. He would go explore it himself. If he was lucky enough that A) it was inside the wiredome, and B) it was climbable in some way, then it might prove very useful to him. He could view the entire camp from up there. And as he looked around, he realized the tower had a direct line of sight to that gate he'd noticed earlier. Well, that certainly settled it. Cody knew where he'd be heading after second class.

In the cafeteria, he again observed how his classmates were behaving. Frank and Yolanda were talking rather intensely. Jayden was staring at the ceiling and lip-synching to some song in his head. Chloe was trying to get Hydra to stand still so she could draw on her shirt with a marker. It looked like she was adding a necklace.

Cody grabbed a tray. As he looked around for Kenny, he saw Tycho walk in with Jared Ravensfire. Both were talking a mile a minute with wildly excited grins. They were both about to get in the third lunchline, but then the gerbil spotted Cody. He asked Jared to give him a moment and started walking over. His intention was clear: head off a conflict before it started.

Cody kept his face blank.

"I don't want to hear it, St. John," Tycho started. "I know how you feel about Mason and Scott, and if that's how you feel about me; fine. But I don't want to-"

"Actually..." Cody said softly.

"Actually what?"

Cody's eyes were calmer than Tycho had seen them before. "Actually, I understand."

Tycho eyed him suspiciously. "Oh really?"

"Yeah," Cody said. "Mason and Scott are fuckin' Predlovers. They joined up the second they could, and that's why I call them traitors, because they are. You didn't join until they gave you a reason to. I get it."

The gerbil blinked. "That's... more reasonable than I would've given you credit for."

Cody shrugged. "I'm in a good mood." Then he poked Tycho lightly in the shoulder. "You just promise me something, okay? You find out if that thing is a hoax. If anyone can confirm that it really works, it's you."

He laughed. "I intend to. I *fully* intend to. And if it is a fake, you bet your ass I'll be just as pissed as you'd be."

Cody nodded.

Tycho took a step away. "Allright then. So no bad blood between us?"

"None." Cody shook his head. "Go eat lunch."

"Okay," Tycho said, and walked back over to Mr. Ravensfire.

Cody jumped a little when Kenny suddenly spoke from behind him. "That's not how I expected things to go between you two."

The chipmunk shrugged. "Me either."


*****


Cody loaded up on fruit again, wondering if he was gonna start shitting rainbows tonight or tomorrow. He also decided to try some individually-wrapped pastry things. Not bad.

After lunch it was back to the classroom; same building as the night before. Another lesson with the fox woman.

As the students filed in, Vera was scampering to and fro, checking her notes on her desk as well as fiddling with the electronic blackboard. To Cody's surprise, Jayden was helping her. And that smile on his face... Cody winced. The mouse could not possibly have a crush on her. Sick.

Cody looked over at Michelle. Her red armband stuck out like a beacon. Surprisingly, Hydra was still allowing the hedgehog to sit in her presence. Cody was sure the bunnygirl would have cast her out for being a genus-traitor. Worse still, Michelle's friend Britney was eyeing the armband with barely veiled envy.

'Dominoes,' Cody thought.

Vera shifted from foot to foot as she waited for the classroom to fill. Finally Frank ran in. "I was, (pant) jogging, (pant) sorry."

"Nothing to be sorry for; you just made it in time," she said cheerfully. "That looks like everyone, so let's get started. Michelle?"

The hedgehog's head popped up.

Vera brought out a cardboard box. "Would you please pass these out to everyone?"

"Yes, Miss Vera," Michelle said, hopping out of her seat and taking the box. She seemed quite pleased to be obeying.

The vixen addressed the rest of the class. "While Michelle takes care of that, let me explain a bit of what we're going to be discussing today. Also, this class might run overtime, so don't be surprised. We're going to be talking about Predators and Prey. We're going to be talking about propaganda, from both sides. We're going to be talking about what you've been taught, and what the truth is."

Cody drew his mental drawbridge and started readying the flaming catapults. He'd been waiting for this. He'd expected them to start cramming their agenda down everyone's throats much earlier, but this was crafty as hell. Soften the Preys up a bit. Give them a day to get acclimated, give them food and a bed, show them a scientific miracle to wow them. Then when they were receptive, when their little minds were nice and open, pour in the bleach and start scrubbing.

"I'm going to say some things that I'm sure you'll disagree with," Vera continued. "I'm not asking you to blindly trust my words. But I will ask, please, if you disagree, to make sure you know WHY you disagree. This is crucial. It's so easy to defend your beliefs reflexively and get angry instead of thinking."

She put her hands down on the desk. "So I'm asking you, when that happens, to take a second and really look at your *reasons* for disagreeing. It's easy to believe something because you want to believe it. But you can't make two and two equal eight, even if you wish with all your heart for it to be eight. If you object to anything I say, check your beliefs to see what they're anchored to. Are they anchored to facts? If so, where did you learn them from? From a teacher? From television? If you don't even remember, that can be a bad sign."

She gave them all an apologetic smile. "Don't feel bad though if you catch yourself holding onto a baseless belief. We all think this way. Pred or Prey, our brains all tend to prioritize pride over facts."

Vera let everyone digest that for a moment. She watched Michelle winding her way around the room, being careful as always not to accidentally poke someone with her little spines. "Finished yet?"

"Almost!" she handed the last of the little white pill-like objects to Jake and Dinah, then skipped down the stairs and back to her seat.

"Thank you very much, Michelle."

The girl beamed.

Vera looked around the room, noticing all the students who were fiddling with their plastic ovals. "Now, you're no doubt wondering what those little doodads are. I brought them in because I'm going to ask you a few questions about how you feel about Preds, and the war, and I want you to be able to answer anonymously. You'll be able to say what you truly believe without feeling pressured by anyone.

"Behind me you'll see a graph. When I ask a question, just push 'yes' or 'no' on your clicker. Your answers will show up on the board. You can hide your clicker under your desk or in your hands if you want to absolutely sure no one knows what you picked."

Each clicker had a raised Y or N on either side. As the kids tried them out, a purr of multiple soft clicks filled the air, like someone walking on rice.

"Let's try it out now," Vera said. "Everyone please click 'yes'."

As the kids all clicked, a pink bar on one side of the screen grew until it reached nearly the top. There was one solitary blue sliver on the other side.

Vera blinked. "Who clicked no?"

Jayden grinned. "Fffuck the system!"

Everyone laughed, even Vera. "Well, we can see it works. Now, how many of you want the war to be over soon?"

It was almost a repeat of before. The pink 'yes' bar soared high, while the blue side was maybe three clicks high.

Vera looked wholly unsurprised. "Every time I've done this, it's the same result. The politicians may go on and on about what the people want, but the majority are simply tired. They're tired of having to hate the other side, or just tired of being scared."

Cody couldn't take it. He stood up suddenly. "How do we know you're not cheating? Manipulating the numbers to get the results you want?"

She looked mildly reproachful. "You didn't wait to be called on, Mr. St. John. If you're skeptical, then how would you propose testing to make sure I'm on the level?"

Put on the spot like that, it took Cody a few seconds to think of something. He honestly didn't know if Vera would be willing to fake the results or not, but he was damned if he was going to naively trust her word.

"Allright. I've got an idea." He left his desk to stand by the blackboard. "You guys; that first column of desks," everyone looked towards him, "when I point to you, you click 'no'. Then I'll go across the room. If everything's fair, the bar on the screen should rise at exactly the same rate."

"Quite clever," Vera praised.

He pointed at her. "And *you* keep your hands up. Fingers spread. Kenny; watch her and see if any part of her moves, even her tail."

"Right!" Kenny shouted from the back.

Cody pointed at the first column of desks. The blue bar expanded four times, just as it should have.

Then the next column. Four more blue clicks. Then four more, and four more. It didn't matter how long Cody paused between each group and the next.

The clickers, it seemed, were legit.

Then a pink bar showed up

"Oh!" Trudy squeaked. "Sorry, I wasn't paying attention."

The class chuckled.

"That's allright," Vera said. Then she turned to Cody. "Are you satisfied?"

He sighed. He still didn't trust this situation, but the uneasiness was all in his gut. Partly, he was able to admit, he was afraid of what the honest answers to Vera's questions might be. "Yes," he said, and walked back to his seat, feeling humiliated.

A few students laughed under their breath at him.

Vera noticed and shushed them. "Don't feel like you've wasted anyone's time, Mr. St. John. I don't want anyone to think these answers might be faked. Hopefully, if his suspicions are laid to rest, all of yours will be too."

Cody was surprised she'd take the embarrassment off him like that. Maybe there was a chance his opponent had some honor as well. (He glanced over at Frank and she seemed quite approving of the whole situation.)

"Back to questions," Vera said.

Everyone got their clickers ready.

"I already asked how many of you want the war to end, but how many of you would like it to end tomorrow? As in, both sides declare peace and the hostilities come to an immediate end?"

There was a majority of 'yes'es, but quite a few 'no's too. Vera expected this. "It can be hard to let go of hostility. Revenge is a strong urge. It can feel deeply upsetting to imagine your enemy getting off without punishment, and this is a huge roadblock to peace. Next question. Yes or no; how many of you have felt scared of Predators before?"

Not a single speck of blue.

Vera nodded sadly. "How many of you have ever lost a family member, or someone you knew, to a Pred attack?

There were fewer 'yes'es than anyone expected. The blue bar loomed over the pink.

"How many of you know someone who was ever involved in a Pred attack, whether they were injured or killed or neither?"

The pink bar rose higher this time, but not by much.

"Now," Vera spoke, "how many of you know someone, including yourselves, who has ever killed, injured or attacked a Pred?"

The answer shocked everyone. It was almost a perfect repeat of the previous two results.

The very idea that the numbers could be anywhere near equal was unthinkable. The whole class started muttering amongst themselves.

"That can't be right," Kenny burst out.

"It can," Vera said firmly. "And I can explain why. Partly it has to do with how the news reports on events. On my side of the Fence, any attacks by Prey are always a top story. The newsanchors report on them endlessly, calling the perpetrators cowardly thugs. Their reasons for attacking are never given; they are nothing but shadowy boogeymen for us to fear. Whereas most Pred attacks on Prey are shown as heroic. *Then* they use words like 'courageous' and 'defender' and 'protecting the community'. Whether a violent act is good or bad seems to depend entirely on the genus of the aggressor. Does this perhaps sound like a mirror of what the news is like on your side?" she smirked darkly.

A lot of the kids didn't bother watching the news, but the ones who did got goosebumps at how dead-on she was.

"The other part of the explanation is that you are all the sons and daughters of powerful people. Families of at least more than average wealth. And I'll bet none of you live within twenty miles of the borders, do you?"

No one disagreed. A few blue clicks even showed up on the blackboard.

Vera walked over to it and touched a small square in the corner. A map popped up, showing the location of all the country's Pred and Prey territories. It was like a quilt sewn by a drunkard, though with a glance anyone could see that both sides controlled approximately equal amounts of land.

"The most expensive properties, on either side of any Fence, are always in the center of the territory," she said, pointing out spots on the map. Most of the students knew this. The most famous and prosperous Prey cities were always farthest from the Fences. "Conversely, where do you think the slums are? The poorest places?"

"Near the borders," Yolanda answered.

Vera nodded. "Right. The simple fact is, as much as you have been told to be afraid, you of all Preys have the least reason to be. Let me show you some statistics."

Vera tapped the board again and a graph appeared showing the country's total population plus the total numbers of Pred/Prey acts of violence. "As you can see, the number is high. But unfortunately, this isn't very useful data because it lumps in *all* violence where one furson is Prey, the other Pred. It doesn't differentiate between who attacked who, and neither side is interested in accurately tracking that number.

"But here's something we can do," she said, tapping the board again. This time, a new graph showed the numbers of violent acts committed between Prey and Prey, and between Pred and Pred. Then the animated screen began adding up each years' totals and comparing them to Vera's previous graph.

"Similar, aren't they?" Vera said, though she didn't need to. Everyone could see that, with alarming consistency, the rates of inter-genus violence were roughly identical to the rates of same-on-same. "We all seem to hurt each other equally," Vera said. "I'd also like to point out that *all* of the numbers are decreasing year by year. Slowly but noticeably. Our leaders may shout that we're in ever-increasing danger, but every reliable statistic you can find shows the opposite. All of us are a little bit safer, decade by decade."

Frank raised her hand. "How do we know your statistics are real?"

As always, Vera did not mind skepticism. "There's a free period after class and the computer room will be open. You can do the research yourself. I recommend going directly to the Pred or Prey government websites and looking for police-gathered data. I'm not at all surprised you don't believe me, because a lot of people on both sides are paid good money to make sure the perception of the war doesn't match the reality."

"Why?" the zebra asked.

For the first time, the students saw a brief flash of hatred in Vera's eyes. "Because there's always a way to make a profit off of suffering."

The grey fox shook her head, took a breath, and looked back at the board. "Speaking of money, there's another very important set of statistics I need to point out. I've shown that Preds and Prey can be as violent to one another as they are to the other side..." She clicked rapidly through a series of slides showing Pred/Prey murders, rapes, assaults and violent property crimes; all compared to same-on-same crimes, all with similar numbers. "So Pred/Prey violence is not the society-defining crime we think it is. It *is* a crime, but it's hardly the most pervasive one. It's not even the most common cause of death. Far from it!" She brought up another slide. "Car crashes take more lives! Workplace accidents take more lives! And the number one killers are always diseases! Of the terrible things that could happen to you, violence, from *anyone*, is simply not the most of your worries."

Vera scrolled back to the map of both sides' territories. "Saddest of all is the way the violence is reported. The news makes Pred attacks, or Prey attacks, seem like something that can happen to everyone. But remember what I said about the most expensive homes and businesses being farthest from the borders?" She clicked the board again, bringing up a new graph. "This shows the number of Pred attacks on Prey per income bracket. I don't think I need to point out which way the chart tilts."

On one side, the richest Preys had an infinitesimal amount of attacks. On the opposite end, the poor's numbers went nearly off the chart. A few students gasped.

Vera brought back the map. "Pred/Prey violence is not an everyday crime that anyone is equally likely to be a victim of. It is a crime of _poverty_." Her words trembled with restrained sadness. "In the areas around the border Fences, the poor live frightened lives and attack each other out of desperation. Then the politicians use the stories of horrific violence as proof of how evil the other side is."

Kenny's hand went up. "But you Preds *eat* us!!" he objected.

"Yes," Vera admitted. "And you Preys hunt us for it, and feel justified because we eat you. And so we feel justified in eating you. Clickers out, please: how many of you have parents who own some article of clothing made of Pred fur? And taxidermies count."

The number was not low.

Kenny paled.

"This is what I said earlier about revenge. It's instinctual to want the other side to suffer because they've made you suffer. But the problem is, enraged people rarely take the time to lash out at those who've truly hurt them. A Prey father loses his son, and he crosses the Fence to kill the first Pred he sees; the family of that Pred then cross the Fence to get revenge on the first Prey they see! This is what happens when we see each other as 'the enemy' instead of as people!!"

Cody was taken aback by her forcefulness. He knew he was not so radical that he couldn't admit she had a point. She was obviously trying her hardest to make both sides' violence against the other seem equally bad, which he knew was a lie. But he could accept that not every Pred on Earth was his enemy. Babies and little children, for instance. At least until they reached the age where they were taught to kill. Taught that Prey are mindless walking food, existing only to be harvested. Cody knew all about First Prey. He was waiting for just the right time to spring that knowledge on Miss Vera. Watch her sputter helplessly as her carefully constructed house of lies crashed down with one blow.

Vera pointed at the map again. "Neither side's leaders are willing to view the conflict between us as a poverty problem. It's so much easier to say the other half of society is simply evil. Then you don't have to think, just hate. The leaders are too afraid of being seen as 'soft on Prey', or in your case 'soft on Preds', to think that maybe part of the solution is to put more money into poorer areas so people aren't starving."

Yolanda's hand went up. "Starvation isn't an excuse for taking an innocent life," she said.

Vera smiled. "I agree with you 100% percent. It isn't an excuse, just an explanation. We can either focus on going with our instincts and seeking revenge, or looking at the situation dispassionately: as a problem to be solved. Until we start looking for what works to decrease violence, instead of what we *wish* would work, nothing is going to get better."

Vera took a second to catch her breath. She'd been getting rather worked up. "One final statistic. The most damning one. The one every Pred knows, and every Prey leader wants to keep you from seeing." Vera pointed to Yolanda. "Miss Denton, your father is currently the leader of the entire country; you should know this. Are the Predator and Prey populations roughly equal?"

The ottergirl blinked, feeling unsure about answering such an obvious question. It was like being asked if water was wet. "Well, of course."

Vera nodded, expecting her to say that. She touched the blackboard again.

"That's BULLSHIT!!" Cody immediately screamed. And he wasn't alone.

The blackboard showed a graph comparing the country's total Predator and Prey populations. The Prey outnumbered the Preds by more than a third.

Vera stood quietly and let them react. It was always like this. No one could believe it at first.

Yolanda's cheeks were burning. Either Vera was lying to her, or her own father was, and either possibility was enough to make her nearly lose her cool. "That can't be true! Just look at the map! The territories are scattered, but anyone can see they're equal!"

Vera brightened. "Miss Denton, I can't tell you how happy I am that you brought that up! You just pointed out the *other* Big Lie! The one every Prey knows and every Pred leader wants to keep secret! The territories are indeed equal. Parliament does everything they can to roar with outrage whenever Prey leaders move the Fences and they lose a bit of land, yet they're silent whenever they actually *gain* ground. Whenever my colleagues have told this to a group of Predkids, they've reacted exactly the same way you just did. 'It can't be true!' But it is."

She tapped the blackboard again. This time the map returned, but it was overlaid with a representation of population density. Everyone could see that the Pred areas were more sparsely dotted. "Pred leaders go on and on about how much the Preys outnumber us, exaggerating the numbers in any way they can. They make us think we're in danger of being swallowed up, and we have to fight back if we want to survive. You would not believe how sick I am of hearing the phrase 'thin the herd'!" She restrained herself from spitting in disgust.

Cody admired how good a speaker she was, but he forced himself not to listen. Those statistics could be faked oh so easily. And if the Preds could rig the camp's computers to not send outgoing messages, they could rig them to redirect certain searches to mock-up pages. 'Lo and behold, the fox's statistics are true! The Preds must be right about everything!' Cody would not be fooled so easily.

Vera had been keeping an eye on Cody, plus Kenny and a few other of the more quiet holdouts. Watching their expressions for disbelieving sneers. "Again, I understand if some of you don't believe me," she said. "I'm your 'enemy', and I'm telling you that everything your parents, leaders and teachers have told you is a pack of lies."

'At least you're honest about that,' Cody thought.

"But I'm also saying that *I've* been lied to as well. By my teachers, by my leaders, and even by my parents. Not because any of them are evil people, but because they are simply carrying on a lie that began long ago. If something is 'common knowledge', we tend to hold tight to it, no matter how poisonous it really is.

"I hope I'm conveying that I don't think Prey are the 'bad guys' and we Preds are the 'good guys'. There are good people on both sides of the Fence. *Mostly* good people. But there are also liars and killers on both sides too, and some of them have far too much money and power." Vera wisely did not point out that some of the people she was referring to were undoubtedly parents of those in her audience.

"Please get your clickers ready again," she requested.

The room was tense. Everyone was uncomfortable. No one likes having their beliefs challenged, and even less so when the challenger's arguments could not easily be ignored. The students held their little plastic pills in sweaty hands.

Vera looked down at the floor and spoke softly. "I want you to answer the following questions without any concern given to what I might think. Remember, this is all anonymous. You won't hurt my feelings."

A few eyebrows were raised.

"How many of you have been taught that Predators all smell bad?"

The pink yes bar easily won out over the blue.

"How many of you have been taught that Predators are naturally less intelligent?"

Again, pink was higher.

"How many of you have been taught that Predators are more aggressive than Prey, even towards each other?"

Again, pink was higher.

"How many of you have been taught that Predators can't run their half of the country? That they can't handle businesses or leadership?"

Again, pink was higher.

"How many of you have been taught that a Predator will take a Prey's life as easily as swatting a fly?"

And again, pink was higher.

Vera had not looked at the board, because she knew what the results would be. What the results always were. "On the other side of the camp, my colleagues ask similar questions of the Predator children. They ask if they've been taught that Prey are fat, stupid, lazy, unable to make decisions for themselves-"

Cody slammed his fist down on his desk. "THAT'S NOT TRUE!"

Vera's head snapped towards him immediately. "No, it isn't. Those are ugly, ugly stereotypes. Every bit as ugly as the ones you have all been taught about my kind. But when you're never given the opportunity to *meet* someone from the other side, and you're fed a constant stream of slurs against them, it's easy to believe those slurs. It's all you have."

A wave of shame rippled through the room.

"Again," Vera said, and her voice cracked with emotion, "there are no 'good guys' and 'bad guys'. It is only two groups who both teach their children that the people on the other side of the Fence are inferior. Something less than alive. Something it's okay to kill..." Vera shuddered, and had to brace herself against the edge of her desk.

Yolanda Denton got up out of her seat and hugged her gently.

The entire class was silent. Cody's mind spoke up, 'That's a hell of a performance, Miss Vera.'

But he was ashamed of the thought as soon as it entered his head. It was easy to believe his opponent was simply lying. But she probably did believe everything she'd said. Her tears were probably real. It didn't mean she was right though.

Cody already knew both sides demonized the other. He knew the Preds were people too. People who felt and believed just as strongly as he did. But people who were still nevertheless a threat. And until that changed, they were all his enemy. He had not decided that. They had.

As Vera dried her eyes on her sleeve and Yolanda tenderly patted her teacher's arm, Cody rose, and calmly deployed his most devastating attack.

"Why don't you tell us about First Prey, Miss Vera?"

Her head slowly rose, and in her eyes he saw lightning bolts of unimaginable hurt and fury.

He kept his face still, but inside he smiled. 'Checkmate.'

Other students turned to look at her. What was First Prey? Why was their talkative teacher suddenly so silent?

Kenny knew what First Prey was. Cody had told him. He relished his friend's attack and savored Vera's squirming.

The grey fox stared for a moment at the horrible boy who had so skillfully cut her at her weakest. A part of her hated that smug look on his face, but another part of her could not help but respect the accuracy of his attack. "Go back to your seat, Miss Denton. And thank you," she whispered.

Yola nodded to her teacher and sat down.

Vera straightened up. She sniffed and wiped a last tear from her eye. "First Prey..."

She stood by the desk, bracing herself against it with both hands. "Mr. St. John has just pointed out the dirtiest of Predkind's dirty secrets. It's something that, if more Preys knew of it, or regarded it as more than an urban legend, it would escalate the war into an unimaginable bloodbath. With good reason."

The students fidgeted uncomfortably, dreading whatever it was she was about to say.

"First Prey is a ritual. It is kept secret from Preys. When a little Pred boy or girl comes of age, sometimes as young as eight though rarely older than sixteen, their family will capture a Prey child..."

There were gasps of horror already.

"...and bind them so they can't move. Traditionally, to a tree. The young Pred is surrounded by their entire family. They are given a weapon..."

"No," Chloe-Sophia choked out.

Vera's voice trembled. "Then, with their entire family chanting encouragement, they must prove their worth as a Predator, and kill."

"You fucking monster," Kenny said.

Vera looked up at him, eyes blazing. "You think I'm not ashamed, Mr. Loughtner? You think I don't know exactly how evil and sick and twisted this ritual is? Something so unspeakable it sounds like it could only be a stereotype: 'Did you hear? Preds make their children kill the children of their enemies!' It sounds like something that could only happen in the most backwards, fundamentalist, lunatic parts of the country. But it happens in homes all across the Predzone. Every kind of family. It's insidious. It's a virus infecting my people."

The vixen drew herself to her full height, standing in judgment for her entire genus. "First Prey is a depraved and monstrous tradition that everyone in the GPA is committed to eradicating. It is horrifyingly cruel to the Prey children who are captured. This is undeniable. But it is also horrifyingly cruel to Pred children as well."

From somewhere in the back she heard a snort of disbelief.

"No? Imagine it's you then," she snapped. "Imagine you're a Pred and you have been raised to believe that there is one special day that will make you truly and forever a part of your family. A day when you can make everyone you love proud of you. You are told this again and again and AGAIN! And when the day comes, your family surrounds you. Every eye is on you. You cannot *imagine* the pressure. And then they bring out a child. A child no different from your own friends you play with after school or in the park. A child who is gagged and tied, struggling in terror. But you have been taught since birth that this child's species makes them *less* of a child. Less deserving of life than you. It is no different than picking fruit off a tree, your family tells you. And then they put a knife in your hands. And they chant. 'Make us proud. Make us proud. Kill it, kill it, kill it...' And you are forced to choose between the love of your family, and your own innate knowledge of right and wrong."

She paused, breathing so hard she was trembling. "Tell me, in that situation, that you'd make the right choice."

No one said a word to her. Not even Cody.

"That's why I called it a virus. Because it _infects_ each new generation with the sickness of the past. It uses a family's love to force good-hearted children to commit acts of unforgivable evil. It keeps children from growing up and speaking out against the belief that Prey deserve to die. I told you that Pred and Prey violence is roughly equal, and it's true, but the *belief* is still there, even when it isn't acted upon. And thankfully, *thankfully*, the statistics show that the number of First Prey rituals has been declining for years. But it's not gone yet. It's still not seen as wholly unacceptable. Most Preds, even ones who won't participate in it, still see it as simply a choice. They won't condemn their neighbors who still practice it; they just look away and close their eyes."

"Miss Vera?" Yolanda spoke up.

She blinked, as if waking from a dream. For a second there she'd forgotten she even had students. "Yes?"

She did not ask the question out of malice, but a simple need to know. "What was your First Prey like?"

Vera laughed sadly. "I didn't have one."

"What?" several kids blurted.

The grey fox took a deep breath and thought, 'I'm going to need a lozenge after this. Thank you, Mr. St. John, for making this class so much more *interesting*...' She took herself back into her memories and tried to decide where to start.

"First Prey is typically more widespread among the poorer cities, the ones near the border. Not to say that's the only place it happens mind you, it's just more likely there. I grew up in one of those poor cities. At my school, even though all of us lived in the same area, the poorer your family was, the more of a target for ridicule you were. For anyone who wanted to look tough, the best way was to brag about your family's hunting prowess, and how much you were looking forward to your First Prey.

"My father loved me. He knew the other kids teased me because of him, and that a First Prey ritual would bring us honor in the community. I wanted it. I wasn't thinking about anyone but myself, I admit it. I only cared about wanting to go to school with something *I* could brag about for once. I was sick of being one of the kids who was teased and mocked for not sufficiently proving that my family was a pack of killers."

Cody got a sudden, very unpleasant flash to when he was younger, when he and his friends would gang up on the boys who weren't manly enough to suit the social order. Cody remembered punching and throwing sand at boys he called 'faggots'. He remembered calling Scott Quint that word just days ago. And he suddenly felt very sick down in his soul.

Vera smiled sadly. "My father had the best intentions, but he ended up dooming me," she said. "He had tried several nights in a row to make it past the Fence and go hunting. But he was overweight, and a bit of a coward, and simply too tender-hearted to possibly succeed. So he did what he thought was the next best thing. You've probably never heard of a 'kid-roast' before, but it's a slab of nonev beef or pork shaped like a Preykid. For families too poor or too weak to capture a real child for First Prey. The one my father brought home was shaped like a bunny. It even had olives for eyes." She laughed through her tears.

"When I saw it, I called him horrible names and kicked over the kitchen table and locked myself in my room. At school, everybody knew that if your parents brought home a kid-roast, it was even worse than not having a First Prey at all. It meant your family was the lowest of the low. It proved they were unworthy Preds who couldn't kill. My father had doomed my social status. I knew my classmates would find out, and somehow they did, and they humiliated me endlessly."

She sniffed again. "A few weeks later, I decided to do what my father couldn't. At night, I snuck out of the house and headed for the Fence. As you can guess, we didn't live far away. As I was looking for a way through or over, a Prey border guard spotted me. He shouted and I ran. I realize now that he probably only meant to chase me away. But I panicked. I double-backed and ran at him. He pulled his gun. I grabbed for it, and I squeezed his hand, and it went off in his face."

Some of the students were crying now.

Vera continued, numbly. "He died so quickly, I didn't even realize it. I saw his face for only a moment, and it was the most awful... I'd never..." She took a moment to compose herself. "I ran away. I ran as hard as I could and I never looked back. It was nothing like what I'd been told killing a Prey would be like. I felt hollow. I felt like I'd scooped out everything that made me a decent furson and thrown it in the sewer. I couldn't imagine anything but the kind of furson that guard might have been. He might have had a wife or children. I thought of my father. I remembered the nights I'd worry about him not coming home, and he was just a store clerk. I had taken someone away from the people who loved him.

"And the sickest irony was, I had done it for honor. To have something to brag about at school. The stupidest, pettiest reason imaginable. And now... I couldn't tell anyone. Who in my class would believe me? They'd think I was lying to sound tough. When that's what most of *them* were doing. I had done it for real, and they'd never know."

Vera brushed a hand through her hair. "When I found out about the Great Predator Army, I joined up immediately. Not because I wanted to destroy Prey society, but because I wanted to destroy my own."

She blinked, cleared her throat, and stretched her arms. No one said a word. The classroom was deafeningly quiet.

Vera turned and looked directly into Cody St. John's eyes.

"Does that answer your question?"





--Chapter Six--


His attack had backfired completely. Cody had tried to undermine Vera's control over his classmates and turn the tide against her. He'd tried to show them something so horrible that they couldn't help but realize what their enemy was capable of. He'd hoped to eradicate their trust in this woman who spoke such pretty lies. But she'd caught his weapon and thrown it back at him. Somehow, by admitting to _murder_, she had made them trust her even more.

Cody felt shattered inside. This woman was the most skillful enemy he had ever fought.

Vera took a cleansing breath. "Well, enough about me," she said weakly, trying to improve the mood. "There were a lot of other topics I'd hoped to get into today, but I think Cody's question was just as worthwhile."

Frank held up her hand. From her expression, she was deeply conflicted inside. "Were you planning on telling us about First Prey eventually?" she asked.

Vera nodded. "Yes. Though not so soon."

'Liar,' Cody thought.

The grey fox skimmed over her notes again. "We don't have much time left. I'd wanted to get into some discussion about how *some* Pred and Prey stereotypes have a little truth to them and how that affects our governments." She reconsidered. "...Actually, I think I can condense that."

She took a moment to go over her ideas, trimming out all but the necessities. "I want to talk about dominant and submissive personalities more later on, but for now I'll just say that a lot of studies have found that the stereotypes of Preds being more independent and Preys being more collectivist have some basis." Before anyone could object, she held up her hands. "Not _everyone's_ like this, obviously. There's plenty of independent-minded Preys and Preds who prefer to go along with the crowd. But on average, for most of us it's the other way around. This leads to the two biggest stereotypes about our governments: the Preds talk and talk about problems without ever getting anything done, because no one wants to admit that anyone else is right. Meanwhile the Preys all stand around waiting for someone to tell them what to do. Or hoping that if they do nothing for long enough, their problems will all solve themselves."

A few kids got a bit pissed off at that, but none of them could deny that they'd heard their own parents saying those exact same things when complaining about both sides' governments.

"There's a biological aspect to these stereotypes, but culture plays a big part too. Obviously, to some degree our personalities are shaped by our species and instincts. But culture can reinforce behavior. 'Acting this way is what Preds do; acting that way is what Prey do'. I doubt any of you have never been told by your parents or teachers to 'act more like your genus'."

Everyone groaned a little. It was as common an adult cliche as 'brush your teeth' or 'eat your vegetables'.

Vera started pacing a little as she worked towards her last big point. "We need to really look at the biology side though, because there's something that doesn't add up. I'm going to take another gamble and bet that all of you have noticed this. All of you. But it's not polite to talk about.

"The line between Predator and Prey doesn't make any sense."

If she had said that at the beginning of class, there would have been angry dismissals. But by now there was merely an irritable silence.

"Sometimes it does. Sometimes it's clear," Vera admitted. "Canines and felines on one side; rodents and ungulates on the other. Makes sense. But then what about all those problem species in the middle, hm?"

The Preykids were getting more and more uncomfortable. This was the sort of topic that, if you dared to talk about it at school, you got your ass beat when the teachers weren't looking.

Vera walked back over to the blackboard and tapped the screen again. Various illustrations of nonev animals popped up. "Are bats Predator or Prey?" she asked.

"Pred," said many students.

She tapped the bat on the blackboard. "In nature, most nonev bats eat fruit or insects. Even among the larger species, it is rare to find any who will eat anything larger than a bird, mouse or amphibian. Even vampire bats, one of the most feared kinds of Predators, are, in the nonev world, tiny creatures the size of your thumb. They are so gentle when feeding, their 'victims' usually have no idea they've even been preyed upon." She brought up a picture of a zookeeper holding a nonev vampire cupped in one hand. A lot of the kids thought it was kind of cute.

"What about rats?" Vera asked.

"Pred," said almost everyone.

"Why?" she replied. "Mice are Prey. Along with rabbits, they're practically the first image that comes to mind when you hear the word. Rats and mice in the wild have similar eating habits, similar behavior, similar habitats... Their biggest difference is their size. Yet in our society we force them to live on different sides of the Fence. And those who have a mixed heritage, like your friend Jayden..." The quarter-rat mouse didn't mind being an example. "...have to deal with prejudice so unfounded it would make a scientist cry."

Jayden liked that. "Yeah!My grandpa porked a rat and I ain't ashamed of that. He's got some old pictures of her; she was hot!" he admitted.

"Possibly too much information there, Mr. Winters, but your self esteem is refreshing," Vera chuckled. "Monkeys and apes are another example. Virtually all of them have mostly-vegetarian diets in the wild. But they're lumped in with Preds because of their similarity to humans. And we still can't quite get over our grudge against them, now can we?" She smiled knowingly at the discomfort that question caused. Humans were the last boogeyman that everyone could agree on, despite the fact that they were so near to extinction they were a threat to no one.

"What about raccoons? Preds too?" Vera asked.

The class nodded.

"In the wild, their diet is practically identical to opossums, who are Prey. So maybe a bit of unconscious prejudice towards that bandit mask?" A few chuckles. "Skunks are Prey too, including Mr. Tempe." Carlos gave a little bow to his classmates. "Yet they are also omnivorous. Nonev skunks eat fruits, roots, small prey... Hmm, just like grey foxes." She gave the class her toothiest smile. "Are we seeing a pattern yet? Or lack of one?"

Yolanda raised her hand. "It's all about prejudice."

"Prejudice and aesthetics," Vera concurred. "It's all based on *perceptions* of species, rather than reality. The very idea that you can corral every species in the world into one of two classifications is ludicrous. It's stupid on a level only politicians are capable of. ...No offense to your parents," she teased. The kids, for the most part, took it in good humor. "Bats and rats and raccoons, by any objective standards, should be living Preyside with you. The fact that they're not is due entirely to the fact that the line between Pred and Prey was drawn by politicians, not zoologists. And it never should have been drawn at all."

Tycho couldn't resist putting up his hand. "Um, I had a theory about skunks. I remember learning they were omnivores when I did a project in fourth grade. I asked myself the same questions you just did. I think they're similar to porcupines though; if your body evolved to become a defensive weapon, that kinda doesn't suggest Pred."

Vera nodded approvingly. "Very insightful, Mr. Max."

The gerbil smiled.

"The last thing I want to leave you with before I let you go..." Vera looked at the clock and flushed. "Oh dear, I've kept you too long as is. But anyway, I want you all to think about this very hard. Consider it homework. You all remember the genesis of furkind, right? It's been in all your history books, it's been on TV countless times, there's several movies about it. So you all know that we all originally came from the same source.

"At the very beginning, when the first of us were made, we were all made together. No Preds or Preys. Just individuals."

Vera took a moment to look across the classroom, at every one of her students.

"We *chose* to separate ourselves. And now you have to live with the consequences of your great-great-grandparents' choice. But they could have chosen differently. And it's not too late for us to change back."

Vera pointed to her midsection. "You've seen the motto that most of us have engraved on our belt buckles? The one we had Mr. Swansea say on Broadcast day? Then over and over again whenever he appeared?"

"'Only We Can Win The War'," Yolanda remembered.

Vera nodded. "It's meant to sound arrogant at first. Like a declaration of superiority. But it's not."

She smiled with deep affection at her classroom of Preykids. "It's an acknowledgement that war is always a losing game for both sides. It is the worst thing we are capable of. It shames us and lessens us. Both sides suffer losses, and inflict them, and in the end maybe one of them is less battered than the other and claims victory.

"But we know better. The only way to win a war is if both sides agree to stop fighting it. Victory can only ever be shared. Only we can win the war. Only WE can win the war. _We_. Us. All of us." She held out her arms to them. "Me and you and everyone, or not at all."

She sighed. "And that's about it for today."

Slowly, applause filled the room. Yolanda started clapping first, fiercely ignoring what anyone else thought of her for doing so. Tycho and Michelle followed. Not willing to let one of her subordinates hog the spotlight, Hydra followed. And as Hydra Kensington went, so the class followed.

Vera was staggered. It was only the second day of camp. Only the second day, and she'd reached them enough for them to applaud her words. She was flabbergasted. She was joyfully stunned. She had to actually sit down to take it all in. Her students' hands fluttered like butterflies. Everyone but Cody, which was no surprise. Though even his friend Kenny was shyly joining in.

The vixen's smile radiated bliss, satisfaction and triumph. "Class dismissed, everyone. Have an absolutely wonderful day, and I'll see you all tomorrow."


*****


After class, Cody was unsurprised to see Yolanda skitter up to Miss Vera's desk and begin talking with her animatedly. 'She'll be wearing an armband the next time I see her,' he thought bitterly. And that was a bad, bad sign. If their class had a leader, Yola Denton, by virtue of her father's status and her own levelheadedness, was it.

Two of the smartest kids in class had let themselves be brainwashed. The last bastion of hope was Hydra Kensington; the leader in popularity. If she turned, so would everyone else. Even if Kenny and Frank held out, they'd end up in the minority.

Cody was deeply discouraged. He needed to get outside and give his mind something to do other than dwell on how badly things were going. Almost everything he'd tried so far had failed. Yet he couldn't let himself sink into depression over this. His father had taught him that when you got yourself stuck in a rut, you ended up staying there. Focusing on your problems kept you trapped by them. Whenever Cody was having a particularly crummy day, Dad would take him out for a run around the neighborhood. It worked wonders.

Thinking of Dad reminded Cody of something Vera had said. One of the camp's activities was archery. That sounded extremely appealing at the moment. Something he could focus all his attention on. Something he was good at. He headed towards the bunkhouse to check the bulletin board for directions.

The archery range was uncomfortably close to the Pred side of camp, but Cody figured having a weapon in his hands would make him feel a whole lot better about that.

The range was in a nice sunny spot. Pockmarked wooden targets were lined up at one end, kids lined up at the other. The instructors were a Pred and a Prey; a rather handsome elk who had eyes like Cody's dad, and that gargantuan dog lady who'd swallowed Scott. 'How the hell can arms that bulgy handle a bow!?' he thought.

There were a couple of Predkids in the lineup; a cat and some sort of sandy-furred canine (Cody didn't know every species out there). It was the first time Cody had seen the other side's uniforms. Same shirt and shorts, but colored a bright electric blue. Cody wondered if it was random chance, or a surprisingly shrewd move, to give the Preykids the aggressive color and the Preds the calm, soothing one.

One of the kids who'd showed up was Mason Kellway. When the buck spotted Cody and envisioned the chipmunk wielding a deadly weapon, he decided that maybe he didn't want to stick around any more. Seeing him run off got a solid laugh out of Cody and made him feel a little better.

The elk guy gave out some instructions while Gilda mostly stood behind him looking intimidating. He introduced himself as Rick and talked about basic safety and strategy. "...Also, I assume most of you have been shown the Rejuvenators by now. If anyone gets clumsy, or suddenly feels trigger-happy, we can get just about anything fixed up quick. So don't get any ideas. So much as *pointing* your weapon at another camper, or at us, will result in me kicking your ass. Figuratively speaking."

Cody liked this guy.

Trying his best to ignore the Predkids on the other end of the range, Cody chose a decent-looking compound bow and filled his quiver. He gave himself a moment to forget the day and relax. He looked ahead to his target. He remembered running for that hole in the wiredome the other night. If it hadn't been for the paralyzing ray, he'd have made it. Cody was proud of his aim.

The elk walked by and could see at a glance that Cody was no novice. Even before he'd taken his first shot, the boy was standing and holding his bow correctly. He gave the young chipmunk a small hint about where to position his shoulders.

Cody nodded appreciatively. He liked that this guy wasn't babying him.

Cody's first shot nearly missed. It thwacked into the very edge of the target and drooped downwards.

Rick gave the chipmunk a short encouragement. Cody thanked him and lined up his next shot.

"Much better."

Cody had hit the second ring this time. Not bad considering he was rusty at this and the bow was unfamiliar. He re-planted his feet and took aim again.

Time passed. Cody was like a machine. He let his mind drift away completely. All that mattered was the target, his arrow and the tension in his bow. He made quite a few bullseyes. Not as many as he felt he *should* have gotten, but he wasn't unhappy overall.

Eventually all the other kids got bored and left, leaving Cody standing alone. He was oblivious.

One more shot. He could do better. One more.

Rick eventually patted him on the shoulder. "I hate to tell you this, but my shift here's up. I've gotta go help out at the cafeteria before it opens."

"Oh," Cody said.

"I'll be back tomorrow. Would you like to help me gather up the equipment?"

"Yeah, okay."

Cody helped him in silence. The elk kept his ears open, sensing the boy had a lot he needed to talk about. But he didn't push. He simply waited to see if this talented young archer would open up.

Cody wanted to. As he picked up stray arrows from the grass, he thought about how much of a relief it would be to have someone like his father that he could sit down with and let out all his frustrations. Tell them about all the hell he'd been going through here. All his fears and plans and terrors.

But he couldn't trust Rick. As much as he wanted to. As much as he seemed like a really nice guy who, in any other circumstance, Cody would have become fast friends with.

The reason was wrapped around Rick's arm and bore a Great Predator Army logo.

He might be Prey, and he might be a nice guy, but he still bore the brand of the enemy. So Cody could not allow himself to show the man anything more than politeness.

He helped Rick stack all the bows together in the nearby equipment shed, then left without a word.


*****


On the way back to the bunkhouse, Kenny appeared from around a corner. "Hey, Cody!" he called out as he ran closer.

The chipmunk managed a smile. At least he had one friend in this place. "What's up?"

"Did you know this place has a rock climbing wall? I've always wanted to try that. You up to joining us?"

That actually did sound really fun. "Who's us?"

Kenny pointed behind him at a group of kids walking along the path together. "Frank asked Trent if he wanted to go, then they both asked if anyone else wanted to come along."

Rock-climbing *and* time with Frank? Today was getting better.

Cody was just about to say yes when he looked back at the little group and saw who else was with them.

That bobcat kid. Walter. The one who thought he belonged in a Prey uniform.

Kenny could practically see Cody's enthusiasm shut down. He looked to where his friend was glaring and guessed why. "You don't have to say anything to him. Just ignore him. Frank said she thinks he's an okay guy."

Cody deliberated with himself for a moment, but the choice was clear. "No. You go on."

"Seriously? Just because Walter's gonna be there too?"

The chipmunk shot his friend an ugly scowl. "You say that like it's nothing! Yeah, I'd like to go. But if I did, all I'd be thinking about is him. I'd be *smelling* him. Seeing him dressed like us, as if that's okay. Did you forget what this place is and why we're here? You think we're here to fuck around and have fun!?"

Kenny backed off. "Damn, Cody! Calm down. I know. But maybe I just want to relax for a while. Is that okay?"

Anger rose inside Cody's chest. It had been almost twenty-four full hours since he'd been kidnapped. Twenty-four hours of fear, frustration and disgust. And apparently, twenty-four hours was all it took for his friend to lose his mind. "Fine! Go relax! Go play in the sandbox with your Pred friend like we're all on a fucking field trip!!" He shoved past Kenny and made a beeline for the bunkhouse.

Kenny turned and called out to him. "I'm sorry! It's just..." He stopped trying, realizing it was pointless. "You know what? Fuck it. I'll see you at dinner."

Cody didn't reply. He didn't look back.


*****


The young chipmunk spent the remaining hour until dinnertime lying on his stomach in bed. His book took him away from thoughts of friends and Preds.

Though not very well.

He couldn't concentrate. Even though the book's action was ramping up and nearing its climax, Cody kept snapping out of the story, looking around at every new noise. The bunkhouse wasn't quite empty; there were a few Preys here and there who were either too lazy, tired or frightened to spend their time outside. Whenever any of them made a sound; rolled over, sat up, coughed, etcetera, Cody noticed. His focus was completely shot.

It wasn't the book's fault. It was his goddamn brain.

It kept kicking him for being a jerk to Kenny. His one friend, and Cody had used him to vent his frustrations at. Like a punching bag. It wasn't Kenny's fault he was trying to make the best of the situation and have a little fun. Wasn't that exactly what Cody had been doing at the archery range? And hadn't there been Predkids there too?

But somehow, seeing Walter had just clicked something on inside Cody. The bobcat somehow represented everything that was wrong with this place. Everything that was upside down and backwards. He was a Pred pretending to be Prey... and being *accepted* for it! That was really the focus of Cody's revulsion. Walter might have been an okay guy. He'd even proven he had some honor by upholding his half of the bargain for them to leave each other alone. But the mere fact of his presence tore at Cody's nerves. Even if Frank thought he was an 'okay guy'.

Frank... Cody still didn't know if he had an actual crush on the zebragirl or if he just wanted her for a friend. But this would have been a great opportunity to spend some time with her. They could have had a fun hour, seeing how high they could climb, hearts pounding as they tried not to fall. It could have been great.

They were out at the rock wall right now, Frank and Kenny and the others. They were having fun. And he'd blown them off to go lie on his bed and sulk.

It felt like a nail in his heart.

But... even though part of him regretted it, he knew the stink of that Pred would have tainted every moment. He wouldn't have been able to concentrate on Frank, or the wall, or on having fun. He would have been constantly looking over his shoulder at Walter. Not necessarily out of fear. Just constantly aware of the *wrongness* of the situation. Like something stuck in his eye. Like a tickle in his throat.

He partly regretted saying no to Kenny. And he definitely regretted being so rude. But he also partly knew that, even if he'd gone along, he wouldn't have been able to enjoy himself.

For a moment, he wondered what it would be like if he simply let go and stopped fighting this place.

He winced. Hard. That was what they wanted. They wanted him to have those thoughts. It was a honey trap, he reminded himself. The sides were greased with sticky, sweet honey that smelled so good. It'd be so easy to just lean in and take a little taste. And the next thing he knew, he'd be sliding down inside with no way to pull himself out. Sliding down inside where the knives were.

He suddenly remembered the old observation tower.

That got him to smile again. After dinner, he knew exactly what he'd be doing.

And it gave him something else to look forward to. He'd been watching his fellow Preys and, though some had sold themselves to the other side, he at least saw their reasons. They didn't all abruptly switch without cause. That's what he would have expected if the food were drugged. Conclusion: it wasn't. Which meant he could finally let himself have whatever he was hungry for tonight. Maybe they'd have pizza again.

He felt better. He smiled and returned to his book, his purpose rekindled. It was easier to focus now.


*****


The sun was down and that was perfect. Cody had scanned the treeline from the middle of camp until he'd seen that tiny flash of pale wood. He'd been worried he might not be able to find the observation tower again. Now he was standing at the base of it, looking up, and realizing why none of the Preds had mentioned it before.

It was barely inside the wiredome. Hell, the roof was probably scraping the metal. The tower rose up forty or fifty feet from the ground on a square concrete base. The wood was old, flaky, pitted and dry. At the foot of the tower was a massive pile of planks and debris from where a nearby evergreen had apparently blown against it in a storm and took out three-fourths of the ladders inside.

Getting up there would not be simple, it seemed.

Cody wasn't deterred though. He grabbed one of the supports and shoved it as hard as he could. Paint flakes and pine needles showered down, but the tower didn't wobble or creak much. It was stable. That meant it was climbable.

Cody checked his pants pockets. He'd filled them to the limits, since he planned to spend the rest of the night out here (assuming the tower's lookout point wasn't uninhabitable). He had finished his book before dinnertime and tucked it carefully under his mattress. He was certain now that he wanted to steal it when he escaped. He'd grabbed four more interesting-looking paperbacks and crammed them in his back pockets. The sides were filled with water bottles and granola bars, including the now-squashed one he'd never gotten around to eating last night.

Cody looked up to the top of the tower. He walked slowly around the base, gauging which side had the best handholds. They all looked about equal, actually. So he picked the side lit with the most moonlight and hopped up onto the first crosstie. Cody was not usually fond of being a chipmunk. His species was considered 'cute' and not much else. Even the *word* was cute. But one thing he appreciated about his species was his short, strong, tree-climbing claws.

The ascent was slow. Cody was careful. He had plenty of time to get up here, and rushing would send him plummeting backwards to crack open his skull on the concrete base below. He suddenly pictured his head split open like a watermelon. 'Not helpful, brain.'

The wood groaned and creaked occasionally. Sometimes he'd come across a loose board. But for the most part, the tower was in better shape than it looked. As Cody climbed higher and higher, he'd periodically look out over the camp. He was higher than the bunkhouses. And now the medical building. Then he was higher than some of the trees.

Finally he came to the top. But there was a problem. He'd climbed up the outside, and the observation platform jutted out over the edge. He'd have to reach way out and pull himself straight up the side wall. 'Not very safe,' he thought. 'Wait; simple solution.' He climbed back down a few planks and squeezed himself through a hole into the interior. There he could simply grab hold of the remaining chunk of ladder and pull himself right up.

There was a hatch at the top. Cody really, really hoped it wasn't rusted shut. Or nailed in place. Or had a hawk's nest sitting on top of it and as soon as he opened it he'd have a mother bird sinking her talons into his eyeballs. The hatch didn't give way easily. But Cody looped one arm through the rungs for stability, then jammed his elbow up into it with all the strength his awkward position allowed. He felt the hatch pop.

More pine needles fell into his face and hair. He shook them away, grimacing when one got in his mouth.

When Cody pulled himself up onto the observation platform, he was surprised by how little housecleaning he needed to do. He kicked a bunch of needles and pinecones down the hatch. Brushed some cobwebs away. The roof was still in one piece and there wasn't any huge debris up here. Not even much birdshit.

For the first time in this nightmare place, Cody felt safe. Cozy even.

He had his own little space now. A place he'd found and claimed as his own. A little square house up in the trees. The view was fantastic. He could see the entire camp. Every building. And a nice clear line of sight to that gate. He thought it might be a good idea to come up here periodically to check if it ever opened. They couldn't rely on helicopters for everything, right?

Speaking of the copter, he didn't see it parked anywhere. The Preds had probably stolen it from a Prey base and then quickly returned it. Or maybe they had spies intertwined with the military and could take what they wanted whenever they felt like it? That was a chilling thought. He hoped his Dad's men were all trustworthy.

Cody knelt on the warped wooden boards and rested his head on his arms. He looked off into the distance, past the trees. Now that he thought about it, he really wasn't too worried about whatever his dad was doing out there. Everyone knew he was a great leader. Parker St. John was a man who believed that respect ought to be earned, and he did his best to make sure his men respected him. He wasn't one of those generals who cussed his men out all the time and smoked them for petty slip-ups. If someone fucked up, he reassigned them until he found whatever they were good at. 'Every man has his place,' he'd told Cody once. To him, every unit was a jigsaw puzzle. If he took the time to assemble the pieces correctly, everything would fit exactly right.

Whoever he was fighting against right now, Cody pitied them. Dad would annihilate them. Dad would do exactly what needed to be done to end whatever conflict he'd been assigned to. With his idea that respect was an earned thing, Dad sometimes made enemies with the higher-ups. He was not afraid to tell someone to their face when something they'd said was wrong. Not even if that man had five stars on his shoulder. Not even if that man was the Commander In Chief.

That had actually happened once. A few years ago, President Bradley had been on a diplomatic mission and Dad's unit had been assigned to help the local soldiers quell some rioting that had been going on. Dad had spent a few days studying the situation and was starting to get things under control. One day, Bradley had stopped by to see how things were going. He'd casually asked Dad if he was keeping the rebels in line. Dad had calmly and succinctly explained that the 'rebels' were mostly ordinary citizens driven to extremes by a government that couldn't care less about their suffering. This was not exactly a diplomatically sensitive thing to say. Some of the President's handlers had tried to shuffle him away, but he had paused long enough to shake Dad's hand and give him an 'I know, but I can't be caught saying it' smile.

When Dad had called home and told him this, Cody had beamed with pride for days. At school, he had bragged up and down that his father had corrected the President and gotten away with it.

Cody smiled. His Dad was the best furson he knew. He was glad to be so far removed from the other kids now, because it meant that if he got a little wet-eyed from reminiscing, he didn't have to worry about anyone seeing.

He watched the tiny people below walking around the camp. They looked like toys. Tiny orange Preykids and tiny blue Preds. The Preds' bunkhouses were identical in design to the Preys. Their cafeteria looked the same too. Instead of a pool, they had an athletic field nearby. From this height, Cody realized that the entire camp was laid out like a yin/yang symbol.

He burped. It tasted nice. There had indeed been pizza available in the cafeteria. Not deep-dish this time, but covered in crunchy green peppers and scorchingly spicy sausage. Perfection. For child-abducting bastards, these Preds sure could cook.

Kenny had let him sit next to him like nothing had happened. Cody mumbled an apology, and his rabbitfriend waved it away; it wasn't worth getting mad over. While Cody ate, Kenny told him all about the rock wall. He'd barely noticed Walter while he'd been there, he said. Mostly he'd been trying to outdo Frank. Even with her hooves, she had grappled her way to the top like she was daring gravity to fuck with her. Cody chuckled. He would've liked to have seen that. Kenny said there was no reason they couldn't all go again sometime tomorrow. Cody hoped so.

He burped and tasted sausage again. He was glad Scott or Mason hadn't been anywhere nearby. They would've loved to have pranced around, calling him a hypocrite for eating meat. He'd heard that before from Pred-sympathizers who wanted to believe that the two sides weren't really all that different. What a pile of horseshit. There was a world of difference between a furson and a nonev. Brains. Emotions. Self-awareness. Nonevs were bred to be eaten; it was their purpose. They didn't think about their families, spouses or children in the moment before they got a bolt gun right between the eyes.

He'd spotted Tycho in the regular food line. He kinda liked that. The gerbil wore their armband, but didn't change his bunk and didn't associate with with the Predlovers. His allegiance was to scientific progress. Cody could respect that.

Yolanda on the other hand... It killed him to see the brand new GPA logo on her arm. She was so smart. And, truth be told, kinda hot. Cody didn't have a 'thing' for her, but he liked her. Up until seeing her wearing that goddamn armband. Yes, that fox woman had said a lot of really impressive stuff in class. But if Yolanda believed any of it, it proved she wasn't thinking with her head. All of that stuff; all those statistics and questions and all her tearful backstory, could have been fake. But Yolanda believed it because Miss Vera had done such a good job of crying at just the right times. If Yolanda had waited and done research and confirmed it herself, Cody could have at least begrudgingly respected her choice, like with Tycho. But under all her smarts, she'd proven herself to be just another hippie who thought with her emotions first, reason last.

He wondered, by tomorrow, how many of the others would have switched sides too.

He tried to comfort himself by insisting that it really didn't matter. If he could just get out and tell someone what the Preds were doing here, the military would rush in and rescue everyone. They could send them to cult deprogrammers or something.

He briefly wondered what'd happen to all the Predkids then. He wasn't so cold-blooded that he wanted to see them all get rounded up and shot. If they'd been kidnapped from their homes and families, then they were victims too. He hoped the soldiers would just take them to the border and let them go.

Assuming they really were victims. If that was a lie and they were actually volunteers, if this was a Great Predator Army training camp and the graduation ceremony was to swarm the Prey bunkhouses and chow down, then fuck 'em all.

Cody allowed himself a brief moment of sheer wish-fulfillment as he imagined his Dad leading the charge against this place. A bigass tank would pound though the gate, crushing it to splinters. It'd roll right through the buildings. Soldiers would be everywhere; reassuring Preykids, locking the Predkids in their bunkhouses until everything was over, recovering the plans for the Rejuvenator. Then Dad would hand him a rifle and together they'd hunt down every last GPA member in the whole stinking camp. Line 'em up against a wall, put cuffs on their wrists and bags over their heads. Put THEM in a helicopter en route to an unknown location. See how they liked it. Cody grinned as he imagined himself hauling back and punching that fox woman in the nose until it bled all down her shirt like a-

Whoa.

Shit, did that really just come out of him?

Cody blinked hard. For a moment there, he'd felt savage glee at the thought of brutalizing that woman while she was helpless.

Yes, he understood why. She had kidnapped him and poured propaganda down his friends' throats and made them betray their kind. But there was a right way and a wrong way to do things, even in war. When you won, you didn't act like an asshole and abuse your prisoners just because you could. That's what the Preds did. Cody reminded himself that he just wanted to be home with his Dad and for the war to be over and for the Preds to just stay on their own damn side of the Fence where they belonged.

He took a moment to calm himself. He realized how fast his heart had been beating. He looked up at the moon and let his mind disengage from his anger.

He looked around the platform. He got down on all fours and swept some dirt and pine needles away from one corner. He made a tidy place to sit, and did so. He curled his tail around himself since it was starting to get a bit chilly.

He reminded himself to keep an ear open for sounds of trucks or anyone opening the gate, or anything unusual at all. Then he got out his paperbacks and tried to decide which one to start on next.





--Chapter Seven--


Cody woke up the next morning feeling even worse than the day before. He felt as though a very fat man with very big boots had been stomping on his lower back all night long.

Of course, it wasn't too surprising. He chuckled to himself. His sleep schedule last night had been a bit 'unusual'.

He rolled over in his bunk and stretched and thought about last night's adventure. He had stayed in the observation tower until long after everyone else's bedtime. Then he figured it might be a good idea to get to the bunkhouse so no one would start looking for him. The first big challenge was just getting to the ground without snapping his neck. He'd expected climbing down to be more difficult than climbing up, but since the tower's supports had a slight slant to them, he figured out how to carefully slide-hop quickly down them.

As he was heading back, he'd detoured to take a closer look at the gates. They were bigger and more well-fortified than he'd thought at first. Even a tank might have some difficulty getting through them, Giant stacked logs reinforced with half a scrapyard's worth of metal supports. There was no space big enough to squeeze through, so it looked like he was definitely going to have to wait until they opened to dash out and hopefully call for help.

That gave him a new idea though. He was dumbfounded he hadn't thought of it before. Why not try to call for help from *inside* the camp? There had to be phones or a radio lying around somewhere! Energized by this idea, he decided it was time to start snooping.

Cody had spent an hour testing every door he came across. Some were locked. And he wasn't about to risk doing much exploring on the Predator side just yet. He knew they had sharp noses. One whiff and he'd be caught and fried. So he kept mostly Preyside, looking around in every building he could manage to get himself into. The cafeteria was locked up tight, for instance. Except for a back window he was able to wriggle though. Not much more than the usual kitchen stuff he'd expected. And not much interesting in anywhere else he'd searched. No phones, no radio. But Cody was high on the sheer adrenaline rush of sneaking around where he wasn't supposed to be. Not finding what he wanted didn't deter him. It was enough to know he was finally *doing* something about being kept here. 'Process of elimination,' he reminded himself. If there was nothing interesting in these buildings, it just meant he could check them off the list and move onto the rest. If they wanted to lock him out, there were plenty of big rocks lying around everywhere that would make dandy window-smashers.

As he rolled himself out of bed, he stepped into the pile of clothes he'd left there yesterday. 'That's right, genius. You were the one who blew off Jayden and said you'd do your own laundry.' The cheerful cat and hyena were back again with a fresh batch of bright new orange uniforms, so he was covered for today, but he had more important things to do than mess with dirty clothes.

He said hello to Kenny when the rabbitboy woke up. They both got new uniforms and changed out of their old ones with the curtains drawn around their bunk.

Afterwards, Cody sought out Jayden. Unsurprisingly, he was taking money from someone else who'd come to the same conclusion. "Thank you for shopping J-mart!" the mouse called out as his customer walked off to breakfast. He turned and saw Cody. "Hey, Code Red! What's up? You come to your senses too, bro?"

Cody tried to smile ingratiatingly. "Maybe."

Jayden clapped him on the shoulder with a bigass grin. "Knew you would. You've got better shit to think about than dirty clothes. No one likes to do laundry!"

"Then why do *you* like to do it?" Cody asked pointedly.

Jayden shrugged. "Dunno. Everybody's got their own talents. Mine is not getting bored watching clothes go around in a circle, I guess. That, and while I'm watching, I can always take out my card and ask it, 'How much money do I have in my account, babycakes?' And it'll tell me, and then I just wish it had a hole so I could stick my dick right into that shit! Yeah!" He grunted primally and did a few pelvic thrusts.

Cody stared at him like he was a caveman. "You're severely demented," he said semi-affectionately.

"You can call me anything you want if you whip your card out and gimme five bucks," Jayden said. "Make it ten and I'll let you ride on my back and call me Grandma."

"Ew! What!?" Cody reluctantly took out his wallet and made the transfer to Jayden's account. "Here. You don't have to do anything special to 'em, just get them clean. ...And don't hump them at any point!"

The mouse displayed mock-outrage. "You mental, bro? That's nasty! I wouldn't hump your dirty-ass shorts if you paid me to. Besides, that's what Hydra's panties are for!"

Cody could not resist a hard laugh at that. "If she catches you doing that, she will tear your head off and punt it onto the roof."

Jayden smiled breezily. "That's what makes it exciting. Danger, man! Spice of life!"

"Good luck then. I'll see you later," Cody said, giving him a brief medium-five. He was looking forward to breakfast.

As he walked away he heard Jayden rolling up on another potential customer. "Yo, homeboy! You want me to wash your mothafuckin' undapaaaaants!?"


*****


Cody loaded up on scrambled eggs before heading to class. As he got there, a minor hurricane came rumbling past him in the form of Hydra Kensington. She looked frazzled head to toe. It was the first time he'd ever seen her allowing herself to appear in public looking less than perfect. Chloe-Sophia was trotting behind her trying to keep up. The squirrel looked like a zookeeper chasing down a runaway lion.

Miss Vera was standing in the nothing room with a clipboard, talking to that cat nurse from before who liked red rubber. Hydra nearly set the floor on fire as she approached.

"I want my own bed! I want my own clothes! If that means signing up for your stupid little clubhouse, then SIGN ME UP!!!"

Cody stopped dead in his tracks. This was an 'oh shit' moment.

Vera was so startled she nearly tripped backwards into the wall. "Excuse me?"

"The snoring!!" Hydra fumed. "The snoring is keeping me the fuck awake every night! I did my best yesterday. I tossed and turned and damn near shoved my pillow right through my skull. I can't take another night! You get me into that private room you promised and I'll wear your stupid armband!!"

Kady had her hand over her heart like she was having palpitations. 'This girl's got LUNGS!' she thought.

Vera tried her best to remain professional. "Well, Miss Kensington, that can certainly be arranged. I hope it's not the only reason you're choosing to join us though."

The bunnygirl tapped her foot. "Well... you Preds haven't been *completely* awful to us, I suppose."

Figuring that that was the best compliment she could hope to receive from this one, Vera smiled gratefully.

Chloe-Sophia vibrated up and down a bit. "Ooh, Hydra! Does that mean I can join too?"

Hydra raised an eyebrow at her minion. "Why are *you* so enthusiastic? I saw you; you slept like an angel both nights."

The short squirrel fidgeted cutely. "Um, it's not that. I wanna be wherever you go, of course, but also... I think their uniforms look kinda hot."

Hydra gave her an 'I concede the point' tilt of her head. "We can both get custom ones?" she asked Vera.

"Absolutely. Guy Swansea's not just a great actor, but a fantastic costume designer too. You can go see him after class and we'll have your new outfit ready by tomorrow morning."

Hydra grinned, imagining the possibilities. "I want black leather," she drooled. "And spikes. One of those biker hats. Can I get a whip?"

Vera blinked. "I guess so... As long as you promise not to use it on anyone."

Chloe squealed. "Oh, you're gonna look so good, Hydra! You're gonna make boys light their crotches on fire when you walk by!"

The bunnygirl was liking her choice more by the second. "Come, Chloe. I want you to start doing some sketches for me."

"I'd love to!"

"Ooohh... Daddy is going to throw a *fit* when he finds out!" she said as she walked into class, her voice dripping with schadenfreude.


*****


He'd anticipated this, but seeing it happen was no less of a blow. Hydra Kensington was the biggest domino of them all. Yola was influential, but Hydra was a superstar. A Great Predator Army logo on her arm would spell doom for everyone. They'd all want one. They'd shove each other out of the way to get one.

'I'm gonna be pretty damn lonely in the bunkhouse with Kenny and Frank soon,' Cody thought.

Still, he knew this was coming. It was disheartening, yes, but in the grand scheme of things it didn't matter to his overall plan. Hell, they could *all* switch sides, every last one, and it wouldn't matter so long as Cody could just make one phone call.

Inside the classroom, there was a thing.

Cody paused when he entered. The thing looked uncomfortably like an electric chair. Other students were gathered around it, wondering about it too.

It was a shining steel seat with leather and cloth restraints coming out of the armrests, back and legs. It had a high back, and around the head area there was a bulbous, insectile sphere with a stinger. Cody could only imagine that it was meant to drill into a furson's skull for some reason. Beneath the bug head was a tightly-packed collection of tanks and tubes. Whatever the hell this thing was, it was complicated. 'Good luck getting anyone to sit in this monstrosity, Miss Vera.'

Now that he thought of it, this was the first time she hadn't already been in the classroom, waiting for everyone else to show up. She might have been standing outside intentionally to give everyone time to check out the fucked-up torture device. 'Maybe this is the part where she stops acting so nice,' Cody thought. 'Maybe now she'll start in on how the GPA can't allow dissent, and if anyone opposes them they'll have to spend an hour sitting in the Pain Chair.'

Cody didn't have to wonder much longer. He took his seat and soon the last of the breakfast crowd drifted in.

Vera followed along directly behind, joined by Nurse Kady. "All here? Excellent! I've got something I'm really excited to show you today and I can't wait to get started!"

"Yeah, what *is* that freaky thing?" Frank called out.

"Oh this?" Vera said coquettishly. "This isn't what I wanted to show you. This is just one part of it. All will be revealed, Miss Tanondo, don't worry. First, let me reintroduce my lovely assistant, Kady Lewis!"

The class gave the tabby a smattering of applause and she blushed appreciatively.

Vera buzzed about, checking some odd apparatus on her desk that most of the kids hadn't noticed yet. "Kady's going to be helping me out a little later, but for now I have a very important question for you guys."

"Do we need our clickers?" someone kidded.

The grey vixen giggled. "No, not for this. Though if you still have yours, we might need them for second class this afternoon." Vera looked the chairlike machine up and down, pointed out something to Kady, nodded, then continued. "The question is a difficult one, and if any of you can guess it, I'll be amazed. It's simply this: What is our greatest enemy?"

Cody raised his hand. "Each other?" he said cynically.

"No," Vera said, "but if you mean Preds and Prey, you can be forgiven for thinking that. It's not as if there's a shortage of furs on either side who want you to believe that."

Yolanda raised her hand. "Ignorance?" she tried, hoping it would be a smarter answer.

"Also no, but you're getting closer: It's not a who, it's a what."

"Prejudice?" Chloe-Sophia tried.

"Close, but still only a symptom of the bigger problem," Vera said.

"Alien mind control rays?" Kenny blurted, getting a laugh.

To his surprise, Vera's eyes sparkled. "Oh, it's so *interesting* you mentioned mind control, Mr. Loughtner! You have no idea how close that is to the actual answer!"

The rabbit stared dumbfounded at her. "What!?"

Tycho narrowed his eyes. "Mind control?"

"Think about it," Vera encouraged. "There is something that affects each and every one of us, every day of our lives. Every decision we make, every thought we think. It opposes us when it ought to help us. It whispers bad ideas in our ear. It can be incredibly helpful to us sometimes, even life-saving, but most of the time it is simply an annoying and dangerous backseat driver."

Yolanda had a sudden flash of insight. Trembling, she held up her hand. "Is it okay if I try again?"

Vera was flushed with anticipation. She so hoped Yolanda would get it. "Of course."

"Our genetics?" Yola tried.

"More specific!"

"...Instinct?"

Vera whooped. "YES! Yolanda, I am so proud of you!" The vixen actually rushed over to give the ottergirl a hug.

Yolanda found this kind of awkward, but also kind of nice. She readjusted her wireframes. "Th-thank you, Miss Vera."

The fox excitedly trotted back to the front of the room. "Miss Denton is exactly right. Though I can already see that some of you are doubting her answer, and it's easy to understand why. We're told to 'trust our instincts' all the time. Following your instincts is an overwhelmingly common theme in all forms of storytelling.

"But allow yourself to see more than just the easy, familiar way of looking at things. Like I said, instinct *can* be our friend. But it's more likely to give us bad advice than good, and it has everything to do with how long evolution takes."

She whisked over to the blackboard and tapped it to bring up a timeline. She pointed towards the far end. "This is when life began on Earth. This is where fish evolved, then birds and mammals, then humans, and then finally, this almost invisible sliver of history over here, is us. *That* is how long we have existed compared to everything else that came before. And our instincts, honed by natural selection, are calibrated to deal with *this* environment," she waved her hand around the chunk of timeline encompassing prehistoric and prefur life, "instead of this one," she pointed out the tiny sliver at the end.

"Our brains are modern hardware that is running jungle software. We are still reacting to stimuli as if we were living as nonevs. Instinct tells us to act without thinking, and that can be good in some situations. Jumping out of the way of a car; getting a 'bad feeling' about ourselves that tells us we need to see a doctor. But how often does it make us lash out in anger when we ought to be calm? How often do we judge a furson's guilt or innocence based on their species, gender or handsomeness? How often do we misjudge the probability of risk, and let ourselves be deathly afraid of minor threats while ignoring major ones? How often do we stay in a bad situation, even when we know better, because change is so much scarier to us?"

She paused for a moment to let her words sink in. She was sure they could all remember examples in their own lives of at least one of the things she'd mentioned. She remembered plenty from her own.

"We are living in a rational society now," Vera continued, "and our instincts continue to supply us with irrational solutions to our problems. Worst of all, it is so much easier to go with our gut than it is to trust our reason. It feels so much more *right* to trust our instincts. And why shouldn't it? Thousands of years ago, a Prey who stopped to think about their situation would likely have been killed by the Pred chasing them. But we're not like that anymore."

"Yes we are," Cody muttered angrily. He did not like this topic.

Vera heard him. "Let me rephrase then: we don't _have_ to be like this anymore," she said ardently. "Instinct is what keeps the war going. Instinct is what keeps your side fearful and my side blood-hungry. It's stupid and pointless and *insane* that furs who can build cities and computers and airplanes still act like we're running around on all fours! It's a sick joke on all of us! We're living out roles that evolution wrote for us thousands of years ago, and it's doing nothing but blocking us from creating a better world that *could* be!!" Her passion seemed to radiate from her in a nimbus.

She went on. "Prey are not my enemy, and predators are not yours. We all have a common foe, and instinct is it. So much of our pain could end if we'd make an effort to think about our choices before making them, to not let paranoia and hatred make our choices for us. Hatred and paranoia, at their core, are nothing but forms of fear. We need to be better than fear. We need to not let fear rule us. We need to rule ourselves."

Tycho understood now, and was able to grasp the true horror of the situation. He held up his hand. "But... we can't really, can we? It's genetics, like Yolanda said. It's hardwired into our cells. We can't do anything about instinct without essentially erasing who we are."

Vera turned to him and smiled reassuringly. "You're correct. Or should I say, you *were* correct, Mr. Max."

He arched an eyebrow. "You're telling me you Preds have a solution? You've not only cracked death, you've solved instinct too?"

"The one solution led to the other," Vera replied. "Jared Ravensfire might eventually have built his machine on his own, but he was able to build it for *us* because we were able to look beyond our instinctual impression of him as 'just a college kid' and see the genius in his work. We ignored the instinct that said it was a terrible risk to give him mountains of money and assistants and equipment. Ignoring that instinct was one of the best decisions we ever made."

Vera tapped the blackboard again and a photo of a small, unassuming building came up. "If there was a birthplace of the Great Predator Army, this was it. This building housed nine scientists, handpicked by the Pred government for their individual talents, given whatever funding they wanted, to essentially muck about in the lab and hopefully discover stuff. And oh boy, did they.

"It started as an experiment in whether nanobots could do the work of living cells. Could you make a microscopic robot that could interact with other microscopic robots in a way that duplicated the functions of flesh? The answer was yes. The project soon became the nine scientists' number one priority. They discovered that nanobots could be configured to do the work of any type of living cell. They could patch skin, replace bone, do the work of blood cells and lung cells and liver cells. They created entire artificial organs out of the stuff.

"And even though nobody knew it, the entire world changed the day one of them asked the simple question, 'Can we replace brain cells too?'"

A shiver ran through the class. This was creepy-as-hell mad scientist shit.

"I'm sorry if I'm vague on the details," Vera said, "but in truth, those nine scientists ARE the Great Predator Army. They're our true leaders, despite what Mr. Swansea's little broadcast interruptions would have the world believe. The less anyone knows of the nine, the safer they'll be. Maybe after we win the war we can let the world know about them and get their names in the history books where they belong. I hope so.

"Until then, we have the fruit of their discoveries. When they tested whether the nanobots could replicate brain functions, the results were staggering. All memory and personality were retained. Even instincts. The nanobots retained everything they were meant to, but they had some incredible side effects: a brain that interfaced like a computer."

Vera's grin showed her excitement. "Imagine, for the rest of your life, never again getting an annoying song stuck in your head. Imagine never forgetting a name. Imagine no more insomnia. Imagine waking up on time every morning without needing an alarm clock. Imagine your favorite memories being almost as sharp as photographs. Imagine your worst ones no longer popping up constantly when you least want to remember them. Imagine being able to concentrate on whatever you need to without your brain constantly interrupting. Imagine no more headaches. Ever."

She seemingly switched topics. "Does anyone know what is the one common factor in all deaths? Absolutely all of them. Anyone?" Some shakes of heads, but no takers. "It's a lack of oxygen to the brain."

"Wait... what if you get blowed up?" Jayden inquired.

Vera grinned. "Then your brain would be getting a bit too *much* air," she quipped, getting some laughs.

"In the earliest days of computers," Vera continued, "there were models with power-based memory. That is, they could only retain the data you entered so long as they were hooked up to a constant power supply. This was frightfully inefficient. Imagine losing your entire hard drive every time you turned your computer off. It didn't take long for developers to correct for this primitive flaw.

"And yet, every single one of you sitting here today has a power-based memory up in your head. If your brain runs out of oxygen, permanent damage sets in almost immediately. It's unimaginably unfair. We have every reason to fear death. To think too long about how fragile all our lives are... It can drive people crazy." Vera grinned cannily. "But what if... Imagine you're drowning, or suffocating, or starving, or breathing poison gas. Or almost any other death that doesn't go so far as, as Jayden helpfully pointed out, getting blowed up. Imagine that you die and your brain goes into a protective hibernation instead of decaying. Imagine that, so long as rescuers can get to you in a reasonable amount of time, your life can continue as easily as rebooting a computer."

The class was stunned silent for a few moments. The Rejuvenator was nearly impossible to believe, but *this* was straight-up beyond the galaxy of possibility.

Frank had a worrying thought pop into her head. Her hand went up. "Um, wait a minute. If suddenly a whole lot of people aren't dying anymore... won't there be a terrible overpopulation problem?"

Vera looked extremely pleased that someone had realized that. "Yes, Miss Tanondo, exactly! And we thought of that also. One of the very few things we had the nanobots specifically change about brain function is that, for males, semen will not be released during ejaculation without a *conscious decision* for it to do so."

Frank blushed a little. "So guys're basically ...always on the pill?"

"You could say that," the vixen replied with a smirk.

"Man, you're gonna put condom companies out of business!" someone shouted.

Vera giggled. "Possibly. But we think the positives of a society where all pregnancies are chosen outweigh the negatives of a bit of lost profit." She turned to Tycho. "Getting back to the original topic, you pointed out that we could never silence our instincts because they're so tightly interwoven into our genes? You're absolutely right. We can't eliminate our instincts, and we wouldn't want to even if we could. But like I've said before: when there's a problem we can't solve, we find a way around it. Right now our instincts dominate our internal conversation. So what's the solution? You give your rational thought a *megaphone*."

The gerbil was intrigued but deeply skeptical. "That all sounds real nice, but the thought of you pulling my brain out and sticking a machine in my skull makes me kind of queasy. That would basically just kill me and replace me with a copy of myself, wouldn't it?"

Vera nodded to Kady. The nursecat went to the desk and started fiddling with the strange apparatus there. While Vera talked, the feline began connecting it to the back of the fox's neck, making her wince a few times. "Well-reasoned, Mr. Max. But believe me, the scientists who discovered this were every bit as worried about that possibility as you are. They didn't want to simply overwrite themselves. This chair was half of their solution, but I'll get into that in just a moment."

Kady finished fiddling around with Vera's neck and handed her what looked like a clear plastic frying pan.

"The first half of their solution came when they realized that every neuroscientist in the world had it wrong," the fox boldly stated. "It's true that the brain governs our behavior and makes us what we are, but for centuries we've had a fundamental misunderstanding: WE ARE NOT OUR BRAINS." She put so much emphasis on those words, a few kids in the front row flinched.

Hydra wrinkled her nose and put up her hand. "That sounds like bullshit. If we're not our brains, what are we? You're gonna tell us you guys found a soul in there?"

Vera smirked. "Kinda. If you define the soul as an unseen, unmeasurable thing that houses all our thoughts and memories, then yes, we did."

The bunnygirl snorted. Tycho too looked _extremely_ skeptical.

Vera kind of enjoyed annoying them. "Let me put it this way: is the internet the same thing as a computer?"

"Well, no," Tycho and several others admitted.

"Then what is it?" Vera asked.

"It's a series of computers all linked together, all over the world," said Yolanda.

"Not quite," Vera corrected. "Because you could have a series of computers linked up all over the world, and if their hard drives were blank, or if they were simply not turned on, then you wouldn't have the internet, now would you?"

Tycho thought he saw where she was going. "The internet's the information *on* the computers."

"Precisely! It is the cluster of information created when millions of people all over the world all put their ideas into one gargantuan cloud. It exists; we can access it every day. But none of us can touch it. Every furson who contributes to it and every computer that houses a part of it are each like a single brain cell. If cells die off or are replaced, the information itself remains.

Tycho's eyes got very big. "Holy heck, I think I get it..."

"Indeed?" Vera coaxed.

The gerbil held his head in his hands, feeling his brains nearly bubbling inside his skull. "I, me, the thing I call 'me', is not the matter in my skull. The meat is just what created 'me'. That's what happens when we die: the meat's still there, but the consciousness is gone. If you can have one without the other, that means they're separate things. Even if it's not measurable by science, the consciousness is something separate from the matter. It's information! Sweet hot damn, I am not my brain; I am the pattern of information *produced* by it!!"

Vera started clapping. Some of the students joined in too. "Marvelous, Mr. Max! Astonishing! That's one of the most difficult concepts we've ever had to wrestle with. Even more hard to accept than instinct being an enemy. Congratulations, Tycho. I'm very proud of you!"

The gerbil grinned and looked somewhat exhausted by his mental leap.

Vera spoke to the class as a whole again. "I know some of you may not understand all this right now, and that's okay. This is heavy stuff. It might help to think of it this way: your brain is the parent to your consciousness. Your grey matter gave birth to the collection of thoughts, feelings, memories and personality traits that is 'you'. Religion turned out to be right in a way: we all do have an inner spirit. But we're not born with it. Like all living things, it starts out a tiny seed, and grows and grows as we live and experience more of life.

"The problem is, the brain is a bossy, overbearing parent. Your subconscious is always trying to tell your consciousness what to do. In a healthy parent/child relationship, eventually the parent must let the child go free to find their own path. But instinct insists, all throughout our lives, that we have to keep on following ancient, outdated behavior patterns forever.

"That's what the Newbrain fixes. ...That's our word for it, by the way. Kind of simple, but as a nickname it stuck. And since I'm sure you're all thinking, 'There's no way I'm replacing MY brain!', I figured a demonstration would be needed. Kady? I'm ready."

The nursecat nodded. She took another device, shaped like a camera tripod or a tiny oil derrick, and planted it on the side of Vera's head. She pushed a button on it and there was a brief flash of light.

"Yipe!" Vera flinched as the thing made a perfect tiny hole in her skull.

Then, holding the clear frying pan beneath her temple, she tilted her head to the side and poured out her brain.

The class panicked. Kids jumped in their seats, swore, hollered and came close to passing out.

"Don't worry!" Vera said. "This tray I'm holding is connected to my spinal nerves, so I'll still be able to stand here and talk even when my brain's not in my head anymore."

As the kids watched, a syrupy-thick, gleaming silver fluid drained out of the side of their teacher's head. It looked like liquid chrome. It moved almost deliberately, like it was alive. When the last of it trickled out, it collected itself in the center of the clear pan in a perfect half-sphere.

"Well class, meet my brain," Vera said cheerfully.

How Tycho managed to not soil his pants is anyone's guess. "Do you mind if I..."

"Come right on up and have a look," she encouraged. "Don't touch it though. Germs."

He nodded and, staring blatantly, got up out of his seat and walked around the brain-dish from all angles.

"Wanna look inside?" Kady asked, holding up a penlight.

"Sure, I guess."

The nursecat shone the light into Vera's head and Tycho very carefully looked in on tiptoes.

His fur all stood on end. "It's completely hollow in there!!"

"Yup," said Vera. "Right now you could quite truthfully call me an airhead!"

Tycho had to go sit back down before he fell down.

"This is perfectly safe, by the way," Vera told her class. She was rather enjoying grossing them all out like this. "If you think of my brain as my hard drive, there's no danger in removing it from the casing, so long as it's still plugged in. Although I think I'll put it back in now; these wires are making my neck itch like crazy!"

The vixen held the pan up to the hole in her head and, like an obedient pet, her brain started pouring itself back up the side of her head into her skull cavity. Back at home, it began seeking out any microorganisms that might have floated in, to push them back out the hole.

"I am going to puke," Hydra Kensington said, her face a bit green.

"Do you seriously think you're going to get any of us to volunteer for that!?" Cody shouted.

She grinned at him while her brain continued to resettle. "You say that, Mr. St. John, as if you think I'm 'out of my mind'."

Many students groaned at the godawful joke. Cody was not amused.

The last of Vera's brain vanished from sight and Kady immediately applied a peel 'n stick bandage. "This is just to protect against dust and germs getting in, mostly," Kady told the kids. "Her brain wouldn't fall out accidentally. It knows to keep its shape most of the time unless we need to take it out for a checkup or a demonstration like this." She plucked the wires from Vera's neck too.

"But as to your question," Vera addressed Cody as she started furiously scratching, "Yes, I do expect volunteers. The GPA isn't going to force anyone to..." she chuckled "I was about to say 'change their minds'."

Another collective groan.

"But seriously, we understand that forcing people to do what we want simply cannot work. Instead we make the choice available, then do everything we can to show people that our way works better. False advertising just creates distrust when the consumer realizes they've been duped. We do our best to make sure our ideas and technology are appealing because we work our behinds off to *make* them appealing!"

Cody sneered. "What's appealing about getting everything that makes you a furson and not a robot scooped out and a bunch of metal poured in instead?"

Vera knew he'd heard her explain all the Newbrain's benefits and was simply challenging her. Well, two could play that game. "You want to know why someone would want their brain replaced with metal? Well, I'd like to know how anyone could possibly want their consciousness to remain dependent on a chunk of white fat sitting inside their skull! That's mostly what your brain is: nerve cells and fat. A hunk of meat. And meat can rot. The simple fact is, all of your brains will deteriorate as you grow old. You'll lose memories. You'll be at risk for horrific diseases like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. Do you want that? Do you want to spend the rest of your life knowing that a single accident could wipe out everything you are in a heartbeat? That an aneurysm could erase you before you even have time to notice? That, even if you survive to old age, you will inevitably find your consciousness trapped in a withering pile of meat that gets weaker and more fragile day by day!?"

Cody hadn't considered that, but he was still certain he didn't want any Pred to fuck around with his grey matter.

Vera scowled down at the floor. "I think death and mental illness are an obscenity. It's simply unacceptable that our time on this Earth should be imperiled by random chance, or doomed to deteriorate no matter what we do for ourselves. We in the GPA believe in choice. We want everyone to live as long, and as well, as they choose to. Maybe not immortality. But we at least want everyone to be able to decide for themselves when they're ready to die.

"Nature cares nothing for individuals. Natural selection chews up and spits out individual lives like they were garbage. Evolution is centered entirely around what is best for the species as a whole. But for the first time in the history of life, we have the tools to assert the importance of the individual. We won't force you to take those tools, Mr. St. John, but we will offer them freely if you decide you want them."

Cody's resolve was weakening a bit. Intellectually, he'd been impressed with that little speech. He agreed with a lot of it. But he reminded himself that words from a Pred were always to be considered suspect. They'd say anything to recruit new meat.

"If you're still not convinced," Vera said, "I've got another surprise in store for you all."

She looked out across the room with a crafty smile. "One of you has already volunteered. One of you has been walking around with a Newbrain in their head since yesterday evening."

Everyone started swiveling around in their seats, trying to guess who it could possibly be. Yolanda and Tycho seemed like the type to embrace new technology, especially if it'd make them smarter. But they'd both seemed genuinely surprised by Vera's demonstration. They couldn't have just been acting, could they? The Preykids muttered and cast suspicious looks at one another, trying to figure out if any of them had been acting different since last night.

"I'd have hoped you'd notice that I don't act like a robot," Vera said. "I still have all my emotions. But I'm a stranger to you mostly; I'm not the best example for comparison. What about one of your friends? What about someone you've known from all the time you've spent together in The Box? Would you notice the change in their behavior, assuming anything *had* changed?"

Kenny shot Cody a frantic 'It's not me!' look.

Vera made a 'come on down' gesture. "Will the student who accepted a Newbrain from me yesterday please stand up?"

Absolutely no one expected Jayden Winters to hop up from his desk and walk down the aisle to Vera's side.

Everyone was freaking out. If there was a least likely suspect, Jayden was it. Cody remembered talking to him this morning and he was still the foul-mouthed gregarious asshole he'd always been. Vera _had_ to be lying. Why would Jayden, of all people, possibly agree to this?

The mouse at the center of everyone's attention looked rather sheepish. He shrugged his shoulders and fidgeted.

Vera put her arm around him reassuringly. "Tell them why," she said gently.

"Ummm..." Jayden started. "Miss Vera actually came to see me yesterday afternoon when I was doing laundry. She'd heard about my little business and was, y'know, curious about it. I thought she was gonna shut me down at first. But, she just talked to me about it."

He looked thoughtful. For many of his classmates, they were witnessing a first. "I know I'm obnoxious," he admitted with another shrug. "I know I don't shut up unless I'm asleep or suckin' on a..." he paused dramatically "...lollipop, you buncha fags!" he grinned. "So, yeah. And I'm not used to people lookin' at me like they don't think I'm a freak. But Vera... she kinda talked to me like my mom does. Settle down, I ain't goin' pussy. It's just nice to have someone who, when I talk, they don't tune me out, unnastand?"

Vera smiled at him. He was actually a very sweet boy, once you got past his vernacular. "Tell them what you told me about the fog."

"Right, right. The fucking fog. The goddam fog." He looked around the class at his friends, customers and enemies. "My brain usesta not work right. Like, I'd try to think and concentrate on stuff, and then this fuckin' fog would roll in. I could even sorta see it sometimes. It was like some joker was stuffin' cotton balls in my ears until my skull filled up and my brain couldn't move. I'd be trying to do homework and goin' along okay, getting' a few right, and then That Muthafuckin' Fog! I swear, I wanted to just stab an icepick in there to let it out!" He pointed around the room. "I know a lot of you think I'm stupid. Just like alla my teachers. But I'm not, ya dicks. People think I got the retard because of how I talk, and I guess I can't blame 'em. But it doesn't help that I got this shit up in my head that keeps me from bein' able to think easy."

The mouse looked to Vera, and smiled quite handsomely. "So I told her all this, because she didn't zone out when I started talkin'. And she said she could fix it. I'm like, 'Gonna stick a vacuum cleaner in my head and suck it out?' And she's like, 'Kinda.' So, then she shows me this chair-thing that's straight outta a horror movie and at first my balls are telling me to run the hell out of the room. But she explained it, and I thought, 'Well, *you're* the one who was willing to jam an icepick in your head to get rid of that fog, chucklefuck! What seriously do I have to lose?'

"And it's gone," he said with a bit of awe. "It's just *gone*. Like I woke up from a dream. I can think now. And it wasn't like she sucked my old brain out and jammed in a new one. I sat in the chair, she dicked around with some tubes, and it all happened while I was awake! I didn't even hardly feel nothin'!"

He grinned. "So to all you babies who are pissin' your pants scared of this thing, don't be! Take it from the number one Laundry Commander. Winters don't lie. I might say 'fuck' more than I blink, but I don't lie. This thing is a miracle. Sit your ass in it and don't be a little bitch!"

Vera was biting her lip quite hard by the end of this, trying to neither censor Jayden or burst out giggling at him. "That's quite an *enthusiastic* endorsement, Mr. Winters."

"Hey, I aim to please." He nodded his head towards the nursecat. "You wanna pop a hole in my head too? I'll whip my brains out for these folks! Show 'em it's true!"

Kady looked at Vera, who made an 'I guess so' gesture. "Well, if you *want* to..." The tabby readied the tripod device.

"Yeah, these skeptical so-and-sos wouldn't believe in their own tails if they wasn't attached to their asses," Jayden razzed.

Kady positioned the machine a little higher than Jayden's temple. "This will hurt for a second. I don't think we need to go so far as to use the brain-tray; just let a bit of it out and then right back in, okay?"

Jayden nodded. "If it falls out by mistake, you can put it back in, right?"

"Absolutely. But let's not test that, okay?"

"Right on, nurse lady." He readied himself for her to push the button. He winced when the lasers cut a hole in his head, but didn't say anything. "My hair better grow back there, dammit."

Jayden held his hand just below the hole. The whole class craned forward in their seats to watch. As promised, a silvery dribble poured out and into the mouse's palm. "Check it out! I'm a mothafuckin' cyborg! Wave of the future!"

"You can put your brain back in now, Mr. Winters," Vera said.

The silver liquid schlooped back up into Jayden's skull. "Man, teachers have been telling me that all my life." Kady plugged his hole with a bandage and told him she'd get him Rejuvenated after class.

Vera chuckled. "So, everyone, I've got the chair right here. Would anyone like to volunteer for a nice new shiny Newbrain? It's free!" She gave them her best pitchman's smile.

There was a bit of muttering among the students then, with plenty of them saying they'd never agree to that, not ever.

But then, one hand went up.

Yolanda was blushing and squirming in her seat, but she looked almost hormonally excited.

"Miss Denton!" Vera was happily surprised, but not too surprised. "You're very brave. Are you absolutely sure you want to?"

The ottergirl got up and walked over to the chair-thing. "I'm not. Not yet at least. But... Everything you've been saying, about instinct and how the brain works, I've thought all of that before. But vaguely. I could never articulate it. It just feels like my brain is fighting me sometimes. I want to study, and all it wants to do is repeat some stupid song from the radio. I want to have fun with my friends, and I can't concentrate on the moment. I want that to go away. Will this really put me in control of myself?"

Vera patted her shoulder comfortingly. "That's *exactly* what it does. I couldn't have put it better."

Yolanda nodded. There was just one more thing she wanted to test though.

Jayden had been drifting towards the aisle, about to go back to his seat, when Yolanda ran over and grabbed his arm. "What's up?" he asked. Yolanda whipped her glasses off and stared into his eyes. "Damn, woman! You're freakin' me out!"

"Your pupils look normal..." Yolanda assessed. "What color is this?" She pointed to the jewel in her bracelet.

"Blue? Looks like it's made outta turquoise?"

"Quick; name a horribly embarrassing memory."

Jayden blushed. "Uh, I crapped in my dad's car when we were coming home from the beach this one time."

Lightning quick, the otter snapped her fingers in front of Jayden's eyes.

He flinched just like she expected. "What the hell!?"

"Smack me across the face!" Yolanda ordered.

He gawked bugeyed at her. "Did you swallow some insanity pills all of a sudden!?"

"JUST DO IT!!" she thundered.

Startled, Jayden obeyed without thinking. WHAP.

Yolanda touched her cheek. It had made a loud sound, but he'd really only tapped her. "Well, your conscience and reflexes seem normal. And I noticed you swung hard but held back."

He nodded. "Yeah, I kinda just reacted when you yelled. But halfway through I'm like, 'I can't hit a girl'."

"Did you think that or feel it instinctively?" she asked.

"Uhh. Think? I think?"

Yolanda nodded, satisfied fully now. She slipped her specs back on and walked over to Vera, leaving a very befuddled mouse to slink back to his seat.

Vera was suppressing giggles. "Interesting tests there, Miss Denton."

"I wanted to be sure the procedure wasn't like how a drug works. My mother..." she blushed and rubbed her arm absent-mindedly, "...had me put on medication when I was young because she thought I was hyper."

Cody blinked at that. Yolanda Denton? Hyper!?

"It was like being in an uncomfortable dream. The pills seemed to... block off certain parts of me. I don't want that. Like Jayden, I want the fog gone. But I don't want to lose any of myself in the process."

Vera nodded understandingly. "I know exactly what you mean. And I promise you won't. The process doesn't take away anything; it just gives you more power to tell your brain what you want it to do. If there's any loss, it'll be only what you choose to put away. And even if you do, you can bring it back when you need it. You will be fully in charge of you. The consequences of that may seem scary, but I can tell you from my own experience, I have never regretted my decision. Never ever."

Yolanda scanned the vixen's eyes for sincerity and found nothing but. "Allright then," she said bravely. She turned and sat down in the chair.

Everyone in class watched breathlessly as Kady began strapping her in. They felt like they were witnessing an execution.

"These are just velcro," Kady said as she secured Yolanda's arms. "They're just to keep you from wiggling around too much during the procedure. You can undo them yourself if you get scared. But not after it starts. There's a risk of rejection if we only do this halfway."

Yolanda gulped as the nursecat secured her chest. "So this is permanent?"

Kady nodded. "Yup. But hey, I've got one too," she said, tapping her head. "And I don't regret it either."

"Oh, okay." The otter took deep breaths to calm herself. She was starting to wonder if she'd made the right decision, but knew her worries came mostly from nervousness. She knew that Miss Vera had earned her trust. And she wanted to improve her mind so much it was practically her life's goal. If this thing didn't make her smarter, it'd at least make becoming smarter easier.

Kady moved the bug-head-thing into place after pulling a strap snug across Yolanda's forehead. "It's gonna hurt for a second when I make the hole, but after that you shouldn't feel a thing."

Yolanda nodded, or tried to. "Mm-hmm; I remember the brain doesn't have any nerves for feeling pain."

"Absolutely right," Kady nodded approvingly.

Vera came over to rub Yola's shoulder comfortingly. "It's scary at first, but in a few moments, you are going to be amazed."

"Go Yola!!" Jayden shouted out encouragingly.

The rest of the class was sharply conflicted. Some were impressed by Yolanda's guts, others thought she was insane. Some were terrified for her and others were terrified that this might end up happening to them too.

Yolanda squeaked in surprise when the machine made a hole at the base of her skull. Almost instantly, she felt something cold and metal poke into it. She clutched reflexively at the chair's armrests.

"It's starting now," Vera said softly. "Millions of tiny computers are rushing inside, each one taking the place of one of your natural cells. You'll be awake the whole time. You'll hardly notice a thing. Your personality, your feelings, they won't change a bit. Everything that is 'Yolanda Denton' will be safe. In fact it'll be safer. Better protected, more efficient, more adaptable."

Yolanda reached up to hold Vera's hand. "It's still kinda creeping me out though," she admitted.

Vera smiled. "You should have seen how big my tail frizzed up when *I* went through this!"

That got her to smile a little. "What happens to my old brain? If the nanobots replace my organic cells, where do the cells go?"

"There's a second tube that runs alongside the first. Nanobots come in through one; they push the old cells down through the other. Then we recycle it in the Rejuvenators. Your brain cells might become someone else's blood cells by tomorrow."

"Neat!"

Cody watched the otter's face and body language intently. He was sure he was witnessing the death of his classmate. He was sure that whatever she would become in the next few moments, it would no longer be Yolanda. He'd already written off Jayden; it talked like him and acted like him, but Cody knew it was a machine now.

"I think I can feel something," Yolanda said.

"Can you describe it?" asked Vera.

"It's... vague. It's kind of a 'cleaning up' feeling."

The vixen nodded. "That'll get stronger."

Yolanda was a bit worried about thinking too much during the process, but her thoughts didn't seem to be slowing down or becoming erratic. If anything, it was hard for her to believe she was actually undergoing major brain surgery. There was no sensation of the nanobots taking over. No wave of 'inorganicness' asserting control. Though that gave her a new way to look at things. "It just occurred to me... I was a little worried that this would turn me into a robot. But my brain was already a machine, wasn't it? Except, a machine made of chemicals."

"Pretty much," Kady concurred. "We're used to thinking of organic and inorganic things being completely different. But objectively they're really not. It'll be the same amount of cells in your brain, all doing the same jobs as before, just made of different molecular stuff. Really, this procedure isn't much different from how your body already replaces your normal cells as you age. We're just doing it all in one batch this time."

That made the otter feel a bit better. And that 'cleaning up' feeling was getting more noticeable. "Oh wow, I'm thinking about my memories... They're more vivid. Not quite like photos yet, but like when I have a really clear dream. And I can somehow... Oh WOW! It's not quite 'seeing', but somehow I can tell how they all link together! It's not just looking at one memory; it's like seeing all the rest of them in the background! Like a photo album!"

Vera was overjoyed to see Yolanda's nervousness becoming wonderment. "And you're only halfway done!"

Tears were falling down Yolanda's cheeks now. She was searching her memories and it was easier than it had ever been before in her life. In the far dark distances of her mind, she could sense fuzzy thoughts she hadn't recalled in decades. Old cartoons she used to watch. Distant relatives. Birthday gifts. It wasn't like before where she'd have a blurry outline and wouldn't be able to coax her brain to remember anything more. Whatever she directed it to focus on, it did. The memories weren't crystal clear, but it was the difference between stumbling blindly through a pitch-black room and doing the same thing with a flashlight.

"You're getting close now, hon," Kady said after a while. "About 90%."

Frank was clearly worried for her friend. "Tell me it's still you in there, Yola!" she called out.

"Oh, it is! It is!" Yolanda assured. "That's the most amazing part; I haven't felt any change at all in myself. It's like someone's been slowly unwrapping a thick towel from around my head. I'm still me, but all the background stuff is easier! My thoughts, it's like I can see each path they come from and how they interact. And it's not distracting at all! Anything I say or feel, I know exactly where it comes from!"

Kady watched the needle on the nanofluid tank finally reach zero. There was a chipper little 'ding' from the machine. "And there we go. All done!" She plucked out the nozzle and slapped on a bandage.

"Should I wait a moment for it to settle?" Yolanda asked.

"Nope, you're good to go," the nursecat said.

Yolanda stood up on shaky legs, then filled the room with her awestruck, joyful smile. "It's incredible... Everything is so much clearer. So much *easier*! I feel like I've been blind for years. I can actually multitask now! I'm standing here talking to you guys and I'm doing algebra in the back of my head just because I can! It's not like I'm magically smarter just... It's like getting better after the flu. It's like when I put on my first pair of glasses. It's like... Like this is how everything is *supposed* to be! How I've always felt like it *should* be!"

She turned and hugged Vera with all her heart. She buried her muzzle in the fox's soft uniform and cried onto the fabric. "Thank you. I can't thank you enough. Oh, this is wonderful. I'll never be able to thank you enough..."

Vera patted the back of her head lovingly. "I am so, so happy for you, Yola."

Kady joined in as well. "Hugs!"

After a moment of elated sobbing, Yolanda stepped back to wipe her eyes and nose. She giggled at how giddy she felt. Then she turned to all her classmates and gave them an undeniably pure smile.

"Anyone else want one?"





--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 and 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 about." (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, it's 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 guys 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.





--Chapter Nine--


Outside, Cody could see orange-costumed Preykids pouring out of multiple classroom buildings. All of them heading towards the Pred side. They looked like a platoon of fire ants.

Cody started looking around for Jayden. By happy coincidence, the mouse was already walking next to Kenny. Cody called out, "Guys! Wait up, I wanted to talk with you!"

Jayden turned around. "Code Red! 'Sup, munk? You're not still buggin' cause they gave me a robobrain, are you? I saw you lookin' at me funny during lunch."

The chipmunk winced. "Sorry. But you can't blame me for being suspicious, can you?"

Kenny smiled that breezy smile of his. "Blame you for being suspicious? That'd be like blaming fish for living underwater."

"Fair enough, funnybunny. But listen, this is serious. I've been thinking about the Newbrains a lot. Kenny, do NOT get one, no matter what anyone tells you."

Jayden looked a little miffed. "Hey, mine's pretty nice actually."

Cody nodded in understanding. "It might be. This isn't about how nice it is. Jayden, I want you to really, really pay attention to your own behavior from now on."

The mouse was a little unnerved by the look in Cody's eyes. "Allright. What for?"

Kenny's whiskers stuck straight out. "You're thinking the Preds might be using the Newbrains like a remote control, right?"

Cody was amazed his friend had caught on so quickly. "Exactly!" He gave Kenny a pat on the shoulder, but then fixed his eyes on Jayden. "I think what they're gonna do is, you remember how they said at the end of the week they'd reunite us with our parents? What if they're hoping that everyone has a Newbrain by then? And at just the right time, they push a button and take you over. Next thing you know your Dad's dead and you're the murderer."

"Holy shit!" Jayden paled. He thought about this for a moment. "But... fuck! He's just the secretary of agriculture! I mean, I love him but he ain't nobody important really."

"You've gotta think beyond that," Cody insisted. "Yolanda's got a Newbrain too, remember? And her dad's the goddam vice prez. Everyone from The Box is the son or daughter of somebody important. Government, military or big business. Hydra's dad has a lot of power in the senate. Frank's dad's an admiral. Shit, Kenny's dad is a diplomat. If they got to him, they could wait until he was with his dad in a roomful of Prey delegates from other countries and make him slaughter everyone he could get his hands on!!"

Kenny's spine turned to ice imagining that.

Cody could see Jayden was starting to feel like he'd make the worst mistake of his life letting the Preds tamper with his brain. "Look, it's not your fault," Cody said. "I'm sure Miss Vera said all the right things to you. I'm sure the Newbrain is really neat and makes that fog-stuff go away. I don't blame you for getting one. All I'm asking is that you keep watch over yourself. If you find yourself doing anything and you don't know why you're doing it, let me know. Even if it seems like nothing. If I'm right, they'll probably test the control first to make sure it works."

Jayden was shivering now, stumbling occasionally as he walked. "Oh fuck man, this is way more than I can take..."

"You have to try."

"I will but..." Jayden shook his head. "You weren't there when she talked to me, bro. I've got a good bullshit radar because I'm so full of it myself. She wasn't full of it. I can't believe she was just acting. I mean..." He suddenly sobbed. A part of him thought with awful clarity how much sense it made that someone could only act nice to a guy like him if they didn't really mean it.

Cody had a moment of regret. He hadn't meant to push the mouse this far. Jayden Winters, crying!? 'And you caused that. You're a real people person, Cody,' his internal self spat at him.

He patted the mouse's back. "Hey, hey. I might be wrong. She probably did mean everything she said. I'm starting to get the feeling these Preds really do think they're doing everything for a greater good. I'm just saying, their 'greater good' might not be so good for *us*. Just keep aware, that's all. If I'm wrong, you've got a shiny new thinker that works wonders and I'm just being paranoid, okay?"

Jayden blinked a bit. "Yeah. Okay. Okay." He harshly wiped his sleeve across his eyes. "You didn't fuckin' see that."

"Didn't see a thing," Kenny said.

"This place is hell. I've cried too," Cody said quietly.

Jayden nodded.

They walked without talking until they reached the athletic field; a big grassy rectangle with goals at both ends. There were bleachers set up on either side. 'At least I won't have to sit with *them*,' Cody thought as he saw the Preds pouring in from the opposite end. An ocean of blue. Cody thought for a moment that he liked their color better.

He noticed there was a quickly set-up snack booth equidistant from both bleachers. 'Clever,' Cody acknowledged. 'Force the rest of us who aren't playing to get near the other side if we want anything to eat. They really want us to play nice.'

Jayden was heading towards the snack booth. The mouse was silent but not crying anymore. "You okay?" Cody asked. "I didn't mean to mess with your head."

"Naw, I'm okay. And besides, they already did that, right?"

Cody felt better. If Jayden could still crack jokes, he was okay. Cody'd had the horrible mental image of Jayden getting so freaked out over his Newbrain he'd try to blast it out with a bullet. "Okay, I'm gonna go sit by Kenny."

"Allright. I'm actually thinkin' 'bout playing. I wouldn't mind running around, kickin' the ball and pretending it's a Pred's ass."

Cody laughed.

Jayden pointed at the booth. "Hey, you want me to grab you anything? Looks like they got snow fuckin' snow cones!"

A snow cone actually sounded like it'd be really good right about then.


*****


'They sure have a lot of staff on the sidelines,' Cody thought. 'They're probably worried there might be a riot.' Great Predator Army members stood at attention all along the perimeter of the field, every hundred feet or so. There were a few around the bleachers on both sides too. Tina the lioness was among them, looking again like a heavy metal pope. Though for the first time, Cody realized that most of the staff on the Prey side were Preds and vice versa. He noticed a mouse chick on the Pred side whose uniform made her look like a sexy maid. 'Why couldn't I have had *her* for a teacher?'

None of the Preds appeared to be armed, though Cody knew they might've had small weapons hidden on them somewhere. Their costumes were definitely extravagant enough to have hiding places.

Vera and some other Preds (fellow teachers, he assumed) were encouraging all the kids who wanted to participate to come down onto the field so they could assemble a team. To no one's surprise, Frank automatically assumed the position of team captain and started sizing other kids up. One possum boy challenged her authority. Cody didn't hear what she said back to him, but the guy slunk away like she'd snatched off his balls. Cody grinned.

Down in the grass, Frank was considering her options. There were lots of kids who had impressive size or species attributes, but she didn't know how they'd play. There were also plenty who looked a bit puny but really eager. The zebragirl started shouting out questions, asking who'd played sports before, what sport, what position, how long, etcetera. One jackrabbit boy had feet that looked like they could kick down a house. Frank definitely wanted to see what he could do to a ball. She chose Carlos as a winger, despite some other kids' protests. But she knew what she was doing with the skunk boy. Looking over at the other team, it appeared they'd chosen a big, slow bear girl for their goalie. Frank thought she'd counter with agility. A jumpy squirrel boy seemed like a good choice. She threw Jayden into the pack as well, hoping to weaponize that damn mouth of his.

After about twenty minutes, both sides had chosen their starters and benchwarmers. The crowds in the bleachers were snacked up and ready for the game to start. Finally, Guy Swansea strolled out to the center of the field in his full Broadcast Day regalia.

The white fox commenced his opening speech through a megaphone. "Welcome, Preds and Preys of Camp Carnivore! I hope you've all been having a jolly stay at our little vacation retreat!"

Cody suppressed his gag reflex.

"We've brought you all here today in the spirit of unity. Despite the Fences and our cultures, we're all pink and squishy under the skin. Someday soon we will all march forward into a new future where all species are equal and peace reigns in the hearts of everyone!"

Someone on the Pred side threw a popsicle at him.

It missed by many yards, but he still got the message. "Right. Okay then, let's get on with it. We sprung this on you young furs as a surprise because we didn't want you worrying yourself into a frenzy over what the other campers would be like. Or building a team like an army to utterly annihilate them. We just wanted to give you all a chance to meet each other and realize you're not so different. We figured a friendly competition would give you a chance to let off steam in a positive way. Plus, we all agreed that having a Pred/Prey dance would be exceedingly awkward."

This got a decently big laugh and a few shouts of agreement.

Guy pointed towards the scoreboard at the edge of the field opposite the snack booth. "Note the clock! In approximately ninety minutes it will be dinnertime, so we shall play till then and then it shall end, even if there's a tie. We'll have a big victory feast afterwards. And it will be a victory feast for all of us no matter which side comes out on top ...because I'll consider it a massive win if we get through this without anyone eating each other."

A bigger laugh this time. Guy smiled to himself, hoping that making a joke about it really would keep it from happening.

"Anyway, good luck to all! And remember, this isn't the world championships. It's just a friendly game. Fun is what it's all about. So have fun, everyone!" With that he strode off the field to moderate applause.

Both teams took their positions on the field. Cody noticed that the GPAs had smartly decided to have two referees, one of each, so there'd be no accusations that one side had an unfair advantage. He noticed Rick was one of them. The other was a poodle guy he hadn't seen before.

Frank placed her players as strategically as she could, but until she saw them in action, a lot of her choices were gut guesswork. She approached the other team captain and gawked at him. His rusty fur complimented his blue uniform, but his black-furred limbs were surreally long. "Someone grab you at both ends and stretch you, fox?"

The Pred tossed his hair and smiled at her with a dark edge to it. "I'm a maned wolf. I get that a lot. And shouldn't you really be a ref?"

The zebragirl smirked at him. Oh, this one would be a challenge. She could see it in his eyes. Good. She hated winning easily.

The poodle dude set the ball down on the field. Rick held out a coin. "Call it. Whoever wins gets first possession." He flicked the silver circle into the air.

"Tails!" Frank and the wolf shouted simultaneously. Frank noticed he'd been staring at hers as he'd said it. Though she had been doing the same.

Rick rolled his eyes. "Lets try this again. Just one of you call it this time."

"Heads!!" they both shouted as he flipped.

Rick growled. "Okay, THIRD time..."

Poodle guy was holding back guffaws.

Cody would have freely admitted to anyone who asked that he didn't know dick about soccer. But man, did everyone take off running as soon as Frank kicked that ball! Orange and blue uniforms swarmed all over the field. Everyone was after that bouncing ball.

Frank kept a steady eye on it. She hollered out commands to her players on the fly. The whole game was on the fly. They had no coach and no set rules (aside from 'no murder'), but that was okay. Frank was fine with thinking on her feet. Not having any set plays forced her to strategize on the spot. Adapt to what the other team did. She liked that.

"We're gonna chew you up and shit you out!" a cheetahboy shouted as he streaked by.

"Good luck with that!" she yelled back.

"You'll break your teeth off on my dick!" Jayden added for good measure.

Frank couldn't resist a giggle, glad the mouse was on her side.

Cody was starting to understand the appeal of this game. It hadn't taken long for him to get sucked in. That little spotted ball kept coming *so* close to the goals, only to be intercepted at the last second.

He realized how smart some of Frank's choices were. That bear goalie was a wall, but she couldn't move fast. The squirrel at Frank's end zipped back and forth like a bullet. And whenever Carlos had the ball, all the Pred players were wary as hell about getting anywhere near that black-and-white tail of his.

Frank watched Carlos making an unhindered run at the Preds' goal. 'Genius,' she praised herself.

When the Preys scored the first goal, Cody found himself cheering just as hard as everyone else.

Frank only allowed herself a small smile in celebration. In pro soccer, she knew that sometimes only one goal would be scored in an entire game. But this was a loose match with amateurs. She knew neither side could organize a solid defense, so they were both throwing their all into offense. This would be a messy, ugly game with goals scored all over the place. Fun, fun, fun.

In fact, the Preds soon took advantage of the Preys' stunned happiness and scored a surprise goal of their own. Frank had to give it to the fennec who'd made the kick; he'd kept his focus where it belonged.

The scoreboard changed to one and one. Cody sucked on his snow cone and tried to keep from crushing it in his hand. 'No need to worry. Frank'll pull off another goal.'

There were fouls aplenty as the game rumbled on. Though most were just accidental crashes. Frank had expected more aggression from the Preds. More kicks and shoves, and possibly biting. The Preds played hard, but not viciously. She hadn't seen cheating from anyone yet. She hoped it was because she'd encouraged her team to show no fear. Put up a wall of toughness. Let the Preds realize intimidation wasn't going to work.

Though soon enough someone did pull a dirty play. One of her players had accidentally fouled one of a pair of doberman brothers. The other brother retaliated with an elbow to the gut.

Frank noticed that even before the refs could call him out, the other team captain was charging over looking pissed as hell. He bared his fangs and ordered his player out of the game. Frank even heard him say something about, "We are *not* gonna be their stereotypes of us!"

'One respect point earned, maned wolf,' she thought.

The refs stopped play to confer with the team captains. By official rules, the doberman's stunt would've gotten him permanently ejected anyway, leaving the Pred team minus one player for the rest of the game. However, given the nature of this specific match, the refs weren't sure how the spectators would react to one side being given such a clear disadvantage. They asked both captains if they wanted to try a compromise. It was agreed: the Pred team would get a replacement player, but the Prey captain would get to choose them.

Grinning, Frank picked out a somewhat-overweight young persian cat. The wolf did not contest her choice, but she did see him cringe a bit.

Play resumed. Time to chase the ball again.

Frank was learning who on the other team was a threat. The remaining doberman boy was nothing without his brother beside him. And the replacement kitty was just following the others blindly. Though the maned wolf was one hell of a runner. Accurate too. Plus there was a ferret and lion duo who had fantastic chemistry. They'd scored another goal together and had tried to repeat their success multiple times since then. Each time they had the ball, Frank felt a wee bit of panic until her guys wrestled it away.

Meanwhile in the stands, Cody's enthusiasm was waning a bit. He'd been pretty excited for the first half hour. His team and the other guys had each scored two goals. But then both sides started to figure out the concept of defense and things got a little repetitive. Attack, block, attack, block.

It was nice just to see Frank run though. Her speed and power were really impressive. Equal to any Pred on the other side. Maybe after the game he could talk with her a bit.

Cody's snowcone was reduced to a sticky, dripping triangle so he tossed it aside, watching it ping off the bleacher's insides on the way down. He took his attention off the game and just watched the GPAs guarding the stands. It occurred to him that if he'd stayed behind when everyone else converged here, it would have been a fantastic opportunity for snooping. He winced. With everyone at the game, he would have had his best shot at breaking into some of the locked areas he'd encountered the night before. There just *had* to be some evil shit hidden in that medical building for instance. He'd blown his opportunity. If he tried to sneak away now, one of the Preds would undoubtedly spot him and drag him back.

As he watched the GPAs, he tried to pick which one had the most preposterous outfit. Guy came close with that golden junk-shield of his. Gilda the humongo-husky had an obscenely teeny skirt with a slit up the front, and Cody thought he could see little red hearts on her underwear. There was also a coyote woman with so many gold buttons down her jacket that it caused sparkly afterimages when Cody closed his eyes. The Preys on the other side looked no less crazy, but they were so far away it was hard to tell details. He did see a skunk whose hat seemed to have silver horns.

Down on the field, the jackrabbit was penalized for using his hands to deflect the ball.

"Next time use your ears!" Frank called out.

Not long after, the refs' whistles sounded and the game went into a fifteen-minute timeout. GPAs with coolers full of ice-cold water and sports drinks passed them out to grateful players. Kids in the stands made mass migrations to the snack booth or nearby porta-potties.

"Gonna take a leak. Back in a bit," Kenny said as he got up.

Cody nodded to him. They hadn't spoken much during the game. Kenny was way more involved in it anyway.

Cody did a bladder-check and all systems seemed fine. So he kept his seat, rested his head in his paws, and just looked out at the Predkids' bleachers.

He had never been so close to so many of his enemy before.

He watched them getting snacks and doing pee-dances in line at the johns. Some, just like him, were sitting and watching the Preys. One, a scowling red fox girl, was even seated in the same position. 'Are you thinking what I'm thinking?' Cody sent to her.

He supposed he could be man enough to admit that maybe not *all* of them were his enemy. He wasn't sure where they'd come from, but he'd heard a rumor discussed in the cafeteria that both sides had put their VIP's kids in a Box, so the GPA had swooped in and taken both targets. If that were true, Cody wondered which side had copied the other's idea. And he still wondered if he and the others had been meant as bait.

'Or,' he considered, 'the GPA obviously planned this for a long, long time. Maybe they had agents infiltrating both governments? Maybe they were the ones who'd suggested using The Box in the first place? Make their opponents do all the work for them?'

It was possible. One of the most frustrating things about this whole situation was not knowing how far the Preds' power extended and what their true motives were. Either the GPA were truly just a branch of the Pred military, and all their lovey-dovey speeches were lies, or else they really *did* believe their lovey-dovey speeches, weren't allied with the rest of the Preds, and wanted everyone to live in harmony. Either way, Cody knew the end result. The Fences would come down, and there would be a bloodbath.

Meanwhile, Frank was retying her sneakers and mentally reorganizing her team. Some of her players were doing just fine and could stay put. Her goalie looked a little tired, but seemed to still have plenty of energy in reserve. She'd put an armadillo and a hedgehog on either side to take some of the pressure off him. That boar kid had turned out to be a lot of grunt and no punt, so he was out. She scanned the benches, looking for the right spark; that look in someone's eyes that said they didn't just want to win, they were *going* to win.

Suddenly, her field of vision was full of shins.

She looked way up and saw the maned wolf boy towering over her. "Spying on me, team captain?" she asked playfully.

He brushed the hair out of his eyes. "Naw. I just wanted to tell you... you've been playing really good so far. For a girl, and a Prey."

Frank grinned and pulled her laces tight. She stood up as tall as she could, meeting his eyes. "I must *really* be doing well if you had to stick all *that* on the end of your praise."

He barked a laugh. "Fair 'nuff."

The zebragirl looked him up and down. "I liked what you said to your midfielder. The dog with the elbow."

"Oh, that," he remembered. "I knew you guys'd probably be nervous when you came out. Y'know, 'cuz we're Pred. I told my guys, 'No bully shit. You win by being jerks to them, we lose.'"

Frank nodded approvingly. "Very honorable."

"Thanks."

She made a decision about him and put her hand out. "I'm Frank Tanondo. Not Frankie; just Frank."

He nodded and shook, though she could tell he thought that was a little bit odd. "Ethan Carter. Pleased to beat you."

Her grin grew wider. "You haven't beat me yet."

He just smiled with a zen look in his eyes. "Sure I have. Not your fault, but I just know."

'Oooh...' Frank thought. She liked an opponent with this much confidence. It would be delicious to take that away from him. "Better get back to your team before they think you've switched sides," she said.

He turned a half-step, then looked back. "You kinda make me want to," he said after a moment of hesitation.

Frank blinked and felt her heart go boom. She had been undecided about the Preds up till now, and she still wasn't sure about all of them, but she damn well knew how she felt about at least one of them. As she watched Ethan walk away, admiring his tail, she hoped he'd still feel the same after she beat the pants off him.

Kenny returned to his seat beside Cody. The chipmunk noticed he was carrying a hotdog with a bite taken out of it. "Dinner's in less than an hour, man."

The bunny shrugged. "Yeah, but I'm hungry now." He took a bite, then suddenly laughed. "I ran into Walter in the snack line. For a second there, I thought one of the Preds had put on the wrong uniform!"

"They did," Cody quipped.

Kenny chuckled. "I shoulda said that to him."

Thinking about Walter, Cody rolled his eyes. "The Great Predator Army's got all this marvelous tech. I'll believe Walter's not full of shit when he lets them pump him full of nanobots and turn him into a fluffy little bunny like he wants."

Kenny looked slightly offended. "Excuse me? Bunny sitting next to you? One who doesn't particularly like the word 'fluffy' applied to him?"

Cody laughed. "Sorry, amigo." He tried to hold it in but couldn't. "...Your cheeks *are* kinda fluffy though."

"I will fuck you up," Kenny joked, making a fist.

Cody flat-out guffawed.

The game resumed shortly. Cody watched close to see who'd win the coin toss this time. It looked like it was Frank again, because she lit off a sizzling kick down the field that damn near reached the Preds' goal. "That was almost a hole in one!"

"Wrong sport," Kenny teased.

"Yeah, yeah. I'm sure there's a different word for it in soccer."

Frank didn't mind that one of Ethan's guys blocked her kick. She would have been stunned if she'd made it. No, it was just to rattle them. Remind them who they were playing against.

Her midfielders and his were screwing around now, kicking the ball back and forth without it really getting anywhere. She jerked her arm at Carlos to get him in there and break things up. It worked like a charm. She admired Ethan for asking his guys to not use their species as a weapon, but Frank wasn't having Carlos act any different from the other players. She was just letting the other team's fear of skunk stink work to her advantage. A glance at Ethan told her he didn't mind. As his team skittered out of the skunk's path, the maned wolf couldn't keep from laughing.

Though when he darted in and took the ball from Carlos like the skunk had been standing still, it was Frank's turn to laugh. Her plan didn't work on all of them it seemed.

Cody growled when the skinny fox kid scored a goal. That broke the tie that'd been in place since the first half. He started paying attention again. He watched the orange uniforms scamper across the field and shouted to them in his mind, 'Go, go! Get the damn ball! The goalie's way over there! Kick it in, you slow fucks!!'

He knew this was just a game. It meant nothing overall. But still... It occurred to him that his past self from just a few days ago would never have sat here watching PREDS play on the same field as Prey. As if they deserved to be there. As if they deserved to be forgiven for everything their side had done.

Had he actually just thought, a few moments ago, that maybe these kids weren't his enemy? He thought about all the things Vera had said about First Prey and cultural reinforcement. Some of these kids might've had their First Prey already. Their mommies and daddies bringing them a Preykid, all trussed up like a Christmas present, for them to open with their teeth. As for the ones that hadn't had it yet, it'd come. Right now they might be kids playing soccer, but in a decade they'd be chasing each other for blood.

It was so easy to lose sight of that in here. Cody's head hurt sometimes.

Everything in this place tried to lull him to sleep. To a dream where everything would be okay if everyone just had more love and tolerance for one another. Reality didn't goddamn work that way. He found himself wondering again about the GPA's ultimate plan. He figured they'd keep the Fences, they'd just move them. Slice up the map and give the Preys tiny little ranches to live on. Free range. Nowhere to run or hide. They could hunt them by helicopter. All the country would be theirs and their former equals would be nothing but livestock. It's what his ultimate fantasy of conquest would have been if he were Pred.

Down on the field, Frank was waging her own battle. Her team was finally starting to show some cohesion. Her players weren't just thinking of themselves anymore. Jayden and Trent had pulled off a magnificent deflection together. After a monotonous back-and-forth struggle, her team had even made a goal, re-tying the score.

But Frank didn't feel good about it. It had been an accident. She'd seen the shocked surprise on her left forward's face when the young bull made the kick. The game was tied, but they wouldn't win on luck.

And then her jackrabbit with the magic feet had to go and get himself injured.

She winced when she heard him cry out, and was ashamed that her first thought had been the loss to the team instead of her player's pain. She watched and caught her breath as the refs stopped play. The elk guy helped her player up and she saw red scrapes all over his knee. 'Ouch...' She trotted over and patted the bunny on the back as Rick helped him hop off the field. She said he'd done an amazing job and not to feel bad. He gave her a smile and said he'd help cheer them on from the stands.

Now she had to pick a replacement for one of her best players after swapping in the most promising ones at halftime. 'Shit...' She scanned over the hopeful faces on the bench. She hated to disappoint some of the ones who hadn't gotten to play. But the mouse from Group L, who'd looked completely wrung out at halftime, now seemed as alert as ever. She gave him the nod. He hopped up eagerly and took his teammate's place.

Cody didn't see any of Frank's concerns and strategy. He only saw that the clock was starting to run out and his team had just lost a player who'd been kicking some serious ass. If the Preds won this, he knew rationally that it wouldn't matter. But it would feel like dirt ground in his face. After all the shit he'd already been through here, he'd have to sit and watch the fucking Preds prance about on the field, celebrating their win over their inferiors.

Before play resumed, Frank scanned the other team's expressions. Only a few seemed happy with what had happened to the jackrabbit. The rest looked concerned, or simply seemed to acknowledge that this put them at an advantage. When Poodle Guy dropped the ball back in, Frank charged in and took complete control of it. Her mouse was open and willing, so she shot it to him like an arrow. Their goalie swatted his shot away, but it was close. 'Let 'em think they've got an advantage now,' she thought.

As Ethan helped his team push the ball back towards the Prey's goal, he couldn't help glancing over at Frank every now and then. Her legs when she ran... She looked like she'd been carved out of steel.

He suddenly knew that, if giving in to the GPA and wearing their uniform would get him closer to this girl, he would.

Frank noticed him too, but she tried her best to keep him out of her mind. She kept her thoughts only on winning. Not to give the other Prey bragging rights. Not for her friends in the stands. Not even for her own pride. But because, when you were on the field, You Gave It Your All. It was simply what you did. If that was too complicated a reason, you didn't belong there.

Minute by minute, the clock crept closer to five. Frank wanted to march into that cafeteria with her team and hear her friends cheer. But the time to score one last goal was running out. A tie would be nice. Might even be the best thing for everyone, since then neither Pred nor Prey could use the game as a way to say their genus was better. But no one really _wanted_ a tie. With either a win or a loss, they'd have a reason to scream. A release. A tie just left both sides feeling like, 'Oh well.'

Two of her forwards were zig-zagging the ball towards the Pred goal. Frank rushed towards them to give them all the help they could. A kick was made, but that cheetahkid blasted it back across the field like his foot was a cannon. Frank nearly fell on her ass getting herself turned around.

The ball was too close to their goal now. She tried to will her strength to her goalie and wingbacks.

Her heart felt like it turned to ash when she saw the ball streak past her squirrel's hands.

A goal.

Cheers from the Pred crowd. Frank ignored them. She looked at the clock. Two minutes left. Just enough time. A win was out of her hands now, but she could at least bring back the tie.

Jayden was closest to the ball. She told him wordlessly to get it to her immediately; she was going to make an all-or-nothing charge. As soon as the ball was hers, she became a black-and-white striped freight train.

The screams of the crowd faded. Frank could hear only her pulse in her ears. The other players were cardboard. She could have dodged them sleepwalking. She had this. She could see the fear in their goalie's eyes.

She kicked with everything she had. Everything. Every last drop.

As she fell backwards, she saw Ethan suddenly appear. Had he teleported?

Her perfect shot. The one that would tie the game. Ethan leaped up and knocked it sideways with a gravity-defying header.

Frank landed on the ground on her back and suddenly the noise of the crowd crashed over her like a tidal wave.

Her breath quivered in her lungs. She'd lost.

She opened her eyes to see one of her wingers trying for a miracle save, but Frank already knew it was over. The twin blasts of the referees' whistles came seconds later, making it official.

Both bleachers exploded. The noise level seemed to split the atmosphere. Preds howled in victory and Preys shrieked that they'd been robbed.

But suddenly, all their volume vanished when Frank heard a single word.

"Hey."

She looked up and saw a black-furred paw.

Ethan helped her to her feet. He smiled apologetically at her.

It took her a few seconds to find words. "You didn't let me win..."

"Yeah, sorry. I almost wished I had though." He rubbed his stinging forehead. "Ow!"

She chuckled. "No, no, I mean... Thank you."

He gave her an 'erf' of confusion. "'Thank you'?"

She took his paw in hers. "For not giving me the win just because I'm a girl. You did what was right for your team."

The maned wolf felt warmth tingle throughout his whole body, starting from where his hand touched hers. "You'll win next time, I'm sure."

Frank's heart fluttered. Truth be told, sometimes she liked losing. If it was a fair fight, and her opponent was skilled, and she had given it her all... sometimes it felt nice to enjoy someone else's win in second place. If Ethan had held back and let her shot go in, it would have meant nothing. It would have been tainted. Instead, she had lost honestly. That felt better than tying anyway.

"I guess we gotta go to dinner now," she said.

He nodded.

"Wanna... maybe meet later?" she asked.

Ethan grinned. Frank saw his shiny white teeth and felt a little tingle of forbidden excitement. "Yeah, I'd like that."

"Meet back here after we eat? We could kick the ball around if they let us."

"Okay. I'll be here."

She really didn't want to leave. She wasn't hungry anyway. But her team would expect her to eat with them. "I will too," she said. She waved to Ethan as she walked away.

In the Prey side bleachers, everyone was going nuts. Stomping their feet, yelling, throwing food wrappers, talking about Frank's amazing shot and that Pred's impossible deflection. All of them mourned their team's loss. All but one of them.

Cody had felt a flash of disgust when the game ended, but it was nothing compared to seeing Frank and that fox talking afterwards. The way they moved. The way they looked at each other...

In icy silence, Cody felt his blood turn to acid.





--Chapter Ten--


The young chipmunk ate his dinner in silence. Which was difficult because the cafeteria was packed wall to wall with noise.

Everyone was talking, and because everyone was talking, everyone had to talk a little louder than everyone else to be heard. The decibel levels were floor-shaking. It pounded in Cody's head like a tomahawk. Every facet of the game was dissected and discussed. Who'd gotten the best plays, who'd screwed up worst, which shots should have gone in, which side had cheated more.

Few Preykids held any ill will towards Frank or her players though. They'd received a heroes' cheer when they entered the cafeteria. Most everyone agreed that, even though the Preds had won, Frank's team sure as hell hadn't made it easy on them.

Cody watched everything around him. His nerves trembled. His teeth ground. His chicken sandwich was flavorless paste in his mouth. He was furious in a way he hadn't touched in quite a while. He looked across the tables at all the happy people and wished his gaze could have burnt them all to ash.

What the fuck were they celebrating for? They'd lost! To a bunch of Preds! Even worse was the fact that they'd agreed to play in the first place. Cody singled out Frank and watched her eat and talk with her teammates. 'You could have refused. You could've just sat down on the field and said, 'We will not tolerate murderers'.'

But she hadn't. No, the zebragirl, who he'd thought understood honor, had spent the game flirting with a fox. She'd put up a show out there of opposing him, but after what he'd seen when the game ended... after they'd looked at each other with hearts in their eyes and had practically kissed... She had to have been collaborating with him all along.

'Shit... what if the GPA got to her? Gave her a Newbrain, made her throw the game. Make the score just close enough to allay suspicion. Condition us to think that losing to the Preds isn't so bad.'

Kenny had been sitting beside Cody, not eating much. He felt kind of unsettled. The look in Cody's eyes was... not normal. "What's up, bro?"

Cody whirled around. "Huh!?"

Kenny actually flinched. His friend looked as tense as a bow string. "You're just really quiet. I was wondering what you're thinking about."

The chipmunk took a bite of his sandwich, still not tasting it. "Frank."

Kenny grinned. "That last kick of hers was phenomenal, right?"

Cody looked up at him like he'd just said the stupidest words ever uttered by sentient life.

"What?"

"Are you telling me you didn't see what she did with the other team captain right after the game!?" Cody shouted.

"Yeah. They talked. So?"

The chipmunk narrowed his eyes. They were ringed with red. "They didn't just *talk*. I saw them. They looked like they were ready to rip each other's clothes off and start fucking right there on the field."

Kenny grimaced in confusion. "What are you talking about?"

Cody looked down at the remains of his food, not even hearing Kenny's words. "I can't believe she'd betray me like this..."

Kenny felt a shiver of unease go down his spine. "*What* did you just say?"

"She betrayed us!" Cody snapped. "You and her were the last ones I thought I could count on! The ones I thought for sure wouldn't buy into the Preds' bullshit. And you're looking at me now like I'm crazy for being upset that she just gave us up for the other side!!"

Kenny put his hands up: 'calm down'. "Cody, you know I wouldn't. But... I haven't seen you talk to Frank once since we got here. I don't remember seeing you ever speak to her at *all*, actually. You just keep on saying all the time how much you want to. How do you know what she's thinking? You're assuming all this stuff and you don't even know her."

The look Cody gave him then gave Kenny chills. The rabbit thought he was about to get backhanded.

"Why the fuck are you making this about me?" Cody hissed. "I'm not the problem. The problem is how this place, and the Preds running it, are turning all of you against your own sanity one by one. They treat us so nice and tell us such huggy-sweet stories about how everything'd be perfect if we all got along. They are softening us up." He stabbed a forkful of salad and shoved it in his mouth, talking while chewing. "Then they spring a friendly little game on us. Just a friendly game. Bullshit. More indoctrination. More stuff to slide down our throats and convince us that the Preds are our friends." He pointed behind him in the general direction of the athletic field. "What I saw out there was a fucking disgrace! None of us should have allowed it! We just sat there and watched and didn't do a thing to stop it!"

A mouse walking by (the one Frank had pulled back from the bench, in fact), had to change course to maneuver around Cody's pointing arm. "Hey man, don't be a sore loser," he tossed off casually.

"_FUCK YOU_!!!" Cody screamed at him, loud as a cannon.

The cafeteria was suddenly silent.

The mouse stared at Cody, startled so much he was shaking. Everyone else stared too.

Cody was so consumed with fury he almost seemed ready to ignite. Spots swam like tadpoles around the edges of his vision. Bad chemicals were whirring around in his skull.

He stood up and stared back at all of them. He saw the shock and disgust and contempt in their eyes. And he began to consider that maybe they were his enemy too.

The mouse started to apologize. "Look, I didn't m-"

"I don't wanna hear it!" Cody barked at him.

Not looking back at his food or at Kenny, he stormed out of the cafeteria without another word, leaving confusion and unease behind him.


*****


He went to the pool. He felt like there were little maggots made of electricity burrowing around in his brain and he needed to do something to calm down. He couldn't remember the last time he'd felt this angry.

Well, yes he could. But this was still different. It felt out of control now. Like he could barely breathe. Like a big Pred fist was wrapped around his chest, squeezing. He ran towards the pool building, almost feeling like if he didn't get there quickly enough he'd explode.

'I have to defuse myself,' he thought with a strange laugh.

He knew where the pool was. Big circular building; looked like a giant aspirin. He'd considered going before, but hadn't had a reason to. Now he felt like water was what he needed. A lot of nice, cool water.

He pushed open the front doors and headed straight for the locker room. It was empty, thankfully. Most everyone else was still at dinner. Cody chose a locker and threw his shirt, shoes and socks inside. He skipped the shower and went straight to the pool.

The smell of chlorine surrounded him. The room was a huge half-moon with windows at the top of a high ceiling. Ripples reflected all along the walls. The water was an olympic-size sea-green rectangle. It looked incredibly inviting.

Cody didn't jump in. Instead he walked over to the metal ladder at the deep end and slowly began to climb down to the bottom.

Fully submerged.

He stood at attention at the bottom of the pool, feet flat on the tile, feeling the weight of the water all around him and above him. He'd started doing this when Dad had signed him up for swimming lessons one summer. It started as a game to see how long he could hold his breath. He liked how it felt to resist the pull of buoyancy trying to drag him back up.

He opened his eyes. It stung for a moment but he willed himself to get used to it. He hadn't checked if there was anyone else in the pool, but he thought he saw a pair of legs kicking far away in the shallow end.

He needed to breathe. He held out for a few seconds longer than he thought possible, then kicked off against the bottom, broke the surface and snatched in lungfuls of air.

Then it was right back down again.

The pool was warmer than he liked. It felt uncomfortably like he was swimming in pee. But overall, this was nice. This was calming him down just like he'd hoped.

Frank.

'Shut up. Don't start thinking about her again,' he scolded his brain. He'd been pissed and dejected and enraged by this camp so far, but somehow, seeing Frank get suckered over to the Pred side was the worst of it. He didn't know how it was possible. Just thinking of her and that Pred team captain standing together, holding hands... He envisioned a fire starting inside his stomach, lighting up the water, making steam rise out of him.

'That's what the water is for. To keep the fire down.'

He had to get his mind off Frank and onto something else. Something nice. Something that made him happy.

Aunt Cherise. Yeah. He'd been thinking about Dad a lot all through this kidnapping nightmare, but he definitely missed her too.

She was a chipmunk who looked like a chipmunk; soft and roly-poly. When she gave Cody a hug, she'd smash him into her generous bosom until he thought he'd suffocate. He chuckled at the memory. She really did love him. Every time Dad had to go away and she'd take care of him for a while, Cody could tell she really enjoyed it. She didn't have kids of her own, but she and Cody got along great.

Cody came up for air and went back down again.

Living with Dad was demanding sometimes. Dad ran the house like a boot camp. But he wasn't an asshole about it. He had schedules for Cody's chores and written guidelines for how they should be performed. If Cody came up with a better way, Dad changed the guidelines. That was what Dad was like. He believed in rules, but only to the extent that they served a purpose. He believed a strict daily routine gave a furson dignity. You kept yourself clean and you kept your living space clean. Not just because it looked nice, but because practicing efficiency and responsibility on a personal level extended to the rest of the day's activities. A furson who took care of themselves could take care of anything the world put in their way.

The Box's schedule had completely messed up Cody's personal routine, and this place had screwed it up even further. It was no surprise he was going slightly mental.

Staying with Aunt Cherise was a looser experience. He still made his bed and did his own laundry, but not because she made him do it. She was far from a slob; just more relaxed than her brother. When Cody was with Dad, he was a soldier in training. Being with Aunt Cherise let him simply be a kid for a while.

Another breath. As he sank down again, he thought about how the first thing he always remembered about Aunt Cherise's cluttered little house was the kitchen. She loved to cook and he loved to help her. He remembered the time they'd made peanut butter cookies and burned the first batch into little hockey pucks. They'd laughed their tails off as they scraped them off and tossed them into the garden. Then they followed the recipe more carefully a second time and the cookies had come out perfect. Cody could taste them now, the memory coming effortlessly. He remembered helping Aunt Cherise harvest her garden; making salads and pasta sauce with her. They'd made pie from the blueberry bush out back. It gave them both the purple runs the next day, but it had been so damn delicious it was worth it.

Cody remembered last November when Aunt Cherise had hosted Thanksgiving dinner for a whole bunch of St. John relatives Cody barely ever saw. She'd spent the entire day in the kitchen, making turkey and uncountable side dishes. Cody had been proud to help her. He had sat at the table, ever ready, and jumped up whenever Aunt Cherise needed him to stir something, take something out of the microwave, chop something up or rinse something off. The meal had been excellent that night. Everybody had congratulated Aunt Cherise, and in front of everyone, she had told them that Cody was the best kitchen helper any chef could possibly hope for.

That memory nearly brought tears to his eyes. He missed that. He missed Aunt Cherise and her kitchen, and even the lumpy little bed he always slept in. He missed her cat, Bell, and her loud old pickup truck, and all the bizarre little collectibles in the livingroom, and the huge backyard. He missed her taking him to the movies and going to the historical museum downtown. He missed just being able to hold her when missing Dad hurt too much.

Feeling so alone here was tearing him to shreds. He'd been trying for so long to do everything on his own. He had tried to stay strong and not let Dad down. Escape was so important and he had only himself to rely on.

He wondered if Dad had been told the truth about where he was now. The government might have lied about such an incredibly embarrassing incident. They might have told all the parents that there'd been a threat made against The Box, so the children had been moved to a secret location. Or maybe they hadn't been able to cover it up. Maybe that white fox had broadcast it all over the country that they'd snatched up the Prey leaders' children, nyah nyah nyah.

Maybe Dad and Aunt Cherise thought he was already dead.

Maybe they thought he was already sold to some Predator restaurant. Chopped up, grilled, served on a plate. His pelt hanging from somebody's wall. Maybe they thought they'd never see him again.

Maybe the Preds had killed Dad.

Cody shook his head, sending up a violent spray of bubbles. He shot up towards the surface and breathed in again. He didn't even know how long he'd been down that last time. He only knew his lungs were greedy for oxygen and he was sucking it in like he was dying.

He held on to the slick tile at the side of the pool. 'He can't be dead,' he reassured himself. 'No stupid Pred could ever outsmart Dad. And he wouldn't just kill himself rather than be captured. He'd be like me; let them take him, then scope out the place from inside to see how much damage he could do.'

Cody heard footsteps behind him.

He swiveled around, ready to defend himself.

It was just a little seal kid. He'd been the one Cody had seen swimming earlier. He was maybe seven. He looked spooked. Like he thought Cody was going to attack him.

Cody winced. He gave the kid an apologetic look and pulled himself down to the bottom of the pool again.

'I'm too jumpy. I'm not gonna be able to relax until I get the hell out of here.'


*****


Cody spent as much time in the pool as he could possibly stand. He wanted to isolate himself below the water, block out every sound. Just be held by the warm water for as long as possible.

He'd even thought about looking around for some kind of hose so he wouldn't even have to keep coming up for air.

Eventually, hours had passed and Cody was so sick of the water it outweighed his reluctance to be near other people. He climbed out, feeling frighteningly wobbly on solid ground, and headed for the locker room to try to remember where the rest of his clothes were. There were a few other kids there now. Cody treated them like mirages.

He dried himself off by running. It was awkward at first since his body had gotten so used to being underwater. But he found a good stride eventually, thinking about songs with steady running beats. The sun had gone down. The moonlight was a little chilly, but that was okay. Made him have to work to keep warm. It also helped his alertness.

After tiring himself out he returned to the bunkhouse. Mostly empty except for a handful of kids who'd gone to bed early. Cody quietly checked the bookshelf for something else to read. He'd left his four other books up in the observation tower, tucked in a corner. He assumed they'd be safe up there. He hoped so. It didn't seem to rain very often here.

On a whim he got himself a chocolate bar from the vending machine. He figured something sweet would help his mood.

For a while he was able to make his surroundings fade away. The book was about a murder mystery on a space station, and it was actually pretty good. Cody could empathize with the hero, And it was nice to at least *read* about someone who was doing something about their situation.

Eventually more and more kids started shuffling in for bedtime. Cody tried to concentrate on his book despite all the shuffling of covers around him.

Then Kenny came in. Cody heard his distinctive rabbit-paw footsteps. He turned around and sat up.

Kenny had been just about to climb the bunk's ladder onto the top bed. He paused and looked at Cody with an unfamiliar blank expression.

Cody had never seen his friend look at him that way before. "Hey... At dinner..."

Kenny spoke softly but firmly. "Look, you're still my friend, but... Could you maybe just not talk to me for a while?"

It felt like a bullet to the heart. Cody blinked for a second, mouth hanging open, but then just nodded acceptance to Kenny and rolled over. He heard the rabbit ascend to the top bunk and settle in.

Cody was angered and saddened, but unsurprised. 'I guess I knew this was coming,' he thought to himself. 'Now I don't have *anyone* I can trust in here. I guess it won't be long before he's got one of those damn armbands like everyone else.'

Cody felt hollow as he realized just how fully alone he was now.

'This place. It's all this fucking place's fault. I'll get it back. I'll burn it. I'll find some way to just set everything on fire. I am so goddamn tired of feeling like this.' Wanting revenge so badly, and not being able to attain it, was like someone slowly tearing strips of flesh off his heart. He imagined it thin-walled and juddering, ready to burst at any second like a water balloon.

'Well, why *don't* I get revenge then?' He asked himself. 'What's stopping me?'

In truth, the more he thought about it, nothing was. For a while now he'd been trying to lie low to keep the Preds' suspicion off him. But hadn't he done that for long enough? Sure they knew he was defiant, but they probably weren't expecting any real resistance from him now.

'So, okay, what can I do?'

He tried to think of something practical. If he couldn't escape, maybe he could at least get away with some sabotage. What was the best thing to sabotage?

It suddenly became obvious. The Newbrain chair.

Those brain implants had to be a big part of the Preds' overall plan. If he could wreck that fucking chair, that'd at least slow them down.

And best of all, that stupid fox woman had told him exactly where it'd be all week! Right there in the classroom!

He allowed himself a small grin. All he'd need to do was sneak in there before breakfast and push it over. Smash it open. It could work. Then he'd just sneak back to the cafeteria and act as surprised as everyone else by its destruction when he went to class.

Wait.

...Why bother going to class?

Were the Preds forcing him to? That cat and hyena only came in to wake everyone up in the morning. After breakfast, there were usually other Preds who'd point the kids in the direction of which classroom they needed to go, but no one escorted them there in handcuffs.

Cody felt a sudden chill at the realization that he'd been going along with the Preds' schedule simply because he was conditioned to.

After years of grade school and middle school and his time in The Box, he'd gotten used to unquestioningly going wherever grownups told him to go. Simply because he'd always had to. Screw that. This wasn't school anymore. This was a P.O.W. camp. And if his captors were stupid enough to not enforce his movements, he'd damn well better start taking advantage of that fact.

Weirdly, there was a part of him that resisted the idea. He kind of *liked* going to class every day. Not because of the crap that fox woman regurgitated at him but because... He tried to put his finger on it. Because it was familiar, he supposed. It was something he was used to, and that was comforting in this nightmare place. 'That's probably exactly why they set it up that way,' he realized with a shudder.

Well, fine. If he was already cut off from almost everything normal and comforting, then why stop at 'almost'? If he stopped putting up with their propaganda classes, at least he'd be able to hold onto the feeling that he was doing something. Making his own choice. He could go to the observation tower instead. Yeah! He'd have to go back there for his books eventually anyway. Why not spend the whole day there? He could keep an eye on that gate to see if it ever opened.

Part of him was energized by this plan and part of him was calling chickenshit. He honestly didn't know if he'd have the balls to go through with these plans or not. He supposed he'd know in the morning. And it wasn't like he had to do it immediately. If he didn't feel up to it right away, he could wait until he felt ready.

Oh, but it'd be so easy to use that as an excuse to not do it at all. He knew himself too well for that.

'I'll decide tomorrow,' he settled on. It was possible that choice might open the door to pussying out, but it was also possible he'd wake up feeling terrible tomorrow, with gummy vision and slow thoughts, and be in no condition for commando games. He'd need to be perfect. So tomorrow he'd see whether or not he could make himself perfect.

Cody returned to his book, reading by moonlight. He figured he'd keep it up until he finished the story or felt sleepy, whichever came first.


*****


Many chapters later, it was clear sleepiness wasn't coming first.

That was okay actually. Cody was a couple dozen pages away from the ending and doubted he could stop reading even if he wanted to. He was wide awake, brain humming, desperate to know whether he'd predicted the killer's identity or not.

The bunkhouse was near-silent except for kids' snores and the occasional papery scrape of Cody turning pages.

Then, just as the story was reaching its peak, Cody heard the bunkhouse door open.

He froze solid. The sound had come from behind him. He'd have to roll over to see who it was.

If it was a Pred, any noise might alert them.

Cody very, very slowly dog-eared his place in the book and set it down. He heard cautious footsteps behind him on the wood floor. Eyes wide open, he began to turn. Slowly. As carefully as possible. Every incremental rustle of fabric sounded loud as a hacksaw.

Cody first saw the moving shape in his peripheral vision. It was in shadow, but it still seemed distorted. Elongated.

'Maybe it's aliens.'

'Shut up, brain. Not helpful.'

Molecule by molecule, Cody rotated himself around just a little bit more, to fully see the intruder. He knew it could have just been a Preykid who'd gone out for a midnight jog. Or maybe to check out the wiredome like he had. But his instincts told him it wasn't. He took in a deep breath through his nose and was sure he caught a whiff of Predstink.

The figure was obscured by the long row of bunkbed posts. Cody could only see fragments. But it looked like the Pred was turning towards one of the bunks. Yes, it definitely was.

The figure was tall. It might have been one of the GPA, unable anymore to resist the temptation to snatch away one of the Prey campers. For what? Meat or rape? Both?

Cody could not let this happen.

For a moment he hesitated, still frozen in fear. He tried to fight through it, but it kept him paralyzed. He imagined himself punching through a wall of ice. If he could just make any part of himself move, he could jump up and run at the intruder, fists out and ready to kill.

His body refused to cooperate. He was a statue.

He screamed at his stubborn, stupid brain. 'MOVE! MOVE, FUCK GODDAMMIT! MOVE ANYTHING, YOU COWARDLY CHICKENSHIT ASSHOLE!'

Cody moved his foot.

An instant later he was out of his bunk, running across the floor at the stranger. The only sound he made was the drumbeats of his footsteps.

He slammed into the someone and drove them to the floor.

"What the hell!?" Frank hissed.

Her voice snapped Cody into confusion. He looked down. The voice hadn't come from her. He'd tackled that skinny fox kid from the soccer game. Frank was sitting up in her bed looking horrified. She got up and walked over.

Then she said the cruelest thing to Cody she could have possibly said:

"Who are you!?"

Before he could respond, the skinny fox shoved Cody roughly off of him. "That hurt, dammit," he growled. He started rubbing his upper arm. He'd landed on it pretty hard and it was throbbing.

Cody got to his feet and looked at the two of them in bewilderment.

"What do you think you're doing!?" Frank demanded. She tried to keep her voice low so as to not wake up anyone else, but it was clear she was furious.

Cody stuttered, "I saw... I mean I heard... He came in and I was just..."

The zebragirl went over to the maned wolf and helped him stand up. "You okay?" she asked. He nodded to her. "I invited him over," Frank snarled at Cody. She wasn't just pissed, she was humiliated. She'd been ready for an exciting little moonlight meet-up, possibly including some making out, and then this little nobody had run in and ruined everything.

Cody felt his guts rearranging inside him. Like someone had reached in and started twisting them up, making balloon animals out of them. He looked at Frank and the Pred standing there in the moonlight and shadow. Holding hands. Looking at each other like *Cody* was the asshole for breaking up their little rendezvous. "I just... I thought you were in trouble."

"Well I'm not," Frank spat back. "I'm fine. Would you mind going back to bed so I can see how bad you hurt Ethan?"

"I'm fine, really," the maned wolf told her, a little embarrassed. "He just knocked me over."

Cody stood there feeling like someone had poured all his blood out and replaced it with pure liquid disgrace. He'd just tried to do the right thing. "Listen..."

"No," Frank cut him off. She took a step towards him, nailing him to the spot with her glare. "I guess I understand why you got scared, but you didn't have to. I'm fine. We're fine. Just go the fuck back to bed and leave us alone, okay?"

Cody wanted to reply back with something vicious. He wanted to slap her. Instead he turned away and started to walk back to his bunk.

Shame stabbed at him with a thousand tiny needles. He felt foolish and stupid and worse than useless. 'You dumb bastard,' he thought at himself.

Then from behind him, he heard her laugh.

It might not have been about him. It might have been about anything. But the mere possibility that she *might* have been laughing at him hit Cody like a lightning bolt. In half an instant, every atom of his humiliation had turned into rage.

He stopped walking. He curled his hands into fists. He very slowly turned around.

He saw them standing there smiling, talking. Then they both looked at him and got quiet. They both looked confused for a second. Then scared.

Good.

Cody started walking back towards them, wordlessly. He let them be uneasy. Let them not know what he was about to do. Let them think that this guy who'd so rudely interrupted their romantic midnight tryst wasn't just stupid, but insane.

Frank opened her mouth to say something.

"No," Cody said clearly.

No to everything she might have possibly said. No to everything she and this repulsive Pred were about to do to each other. No to everything about this disgusting situation.

"No," Cody repeated, looking Frank dead in the eye. "_I'm_ not gonna be the one who feels humiliated over this." His voice was quiet and calm. Underneath it though was the sound and heat of a thousand demons pounding to be released.

Frank backed up a step. This kid was nuts. She should not have said a single word to him. She should have just grabbed Ethan and walked back to his bunk like he'd suggested in the first place. 'No way,' she'd said. It was safer for him to come over to the Preyside. Safer. Ha. The look in this chipmunk kid's eyes... If she'd seen him on the field, she would have known in a heartbeat that winning meant so much to him he would pull any cheat to accomplish it, including murder.

Cody focused his contempt into a blade and carved into her with it. "Do you know what happened to me a second ago? I'm lying in my bunk and I hear the door open. I hear footsteps behind me. I look, and I see a Pred walking around in the bunkhouse. Stalking around. Where we SLEEP!"

The word was spoken so sharply, several kids nearby were jolted awake.

Frank and Ethan took a step back.

Cody took a step towards them.

"I did what anyone with a conscience and an ounce of courage would do," he snarled at them. "I got up and tried to PROTECT you. You say you invited him over? Was I supposed to know that psychically, huh!? Was I supposed to magically know you were just fine with him looming over your bed like he was going to lean in and start taking bites? Like what any SANE mind would assume a Pred would be doing in here!?"

Frank held up her hands. "Okay. I'm sorry," she said very quietly. Ethan nodded too.

"You don't get to say you're sorry," Cody sneered at her. "You LAUGHED at me!! I was willing to RISK MY LIFE to protect you, and you LAUGHED AT ME!!!"

By now quite a few kids were awake and wondering what the hell was going on.

Frank looked terrified and Cody couldn't be happier. She looked like she thought he was about to haul off and punch her lights out. Hilarious. Cody knew she deserved it, but he didn't have to get physical to hurt her. She shamed him? He'd shame her. Have a little of her own bitch medicine.

He suddenly turned his wrath on Ethan. "GET OUT!" he screamed. "You turn around and run out that door right now, because if you don't I will break both your skinny arms. Believe me?"

The maned wolf hesitated for just a second, looking questioningly at Frank.

Cody took a stomping step forward. "Can't you LISTEN, Pred!? I said RUN!!!"

The force of Cody's scream propelled Ethan more than anything. He turned and did exactly as the chipmunk ordered.

"RUN!" Cody called after him again. "Tell all your Pred buddies that a Prey ran you off like a scared little mouse!" He grinned. Seeing that bastard run so fast felt fantastic.

He turned back to Frank. The zebragirl was standing with her arms clasped tightly around herself, looking terrified and ready to cry.

Cody gave her a look like she was the filthiest thing he had ever seen. "Go back to bed, whore."

And with that, Cody turned around and headed to bed himself. He heard Frank let out a choked sob, but he didn't look back.

Cody smiled; a smile that felt like it wrapped all the way around his face. He hadn't felt this good in weeks.

Other kids stared at him as he walked by. He got looks of confusion, annoyance and outright hatred. No one said a word though.

Cody returned to his bunk and pulled the sheet and blanket around him, still smiling. Then he effortlessly slid into a sleep of perfect peace.


*****


The next morning, familiar classical music echoed throughout Camp Carnivore. Cody woke to the sight of a book lying inches away from his face.

He wondered why it was there for a second. Last night was nothing but a hazy smear of emotion at the back of his mind. Then he remembered the story he'd been reading. He'd been so close to the end. Why had he stopped?

Oh. Right.

Suddenly, everything came back in a single flash. The door opening. The Pred. Frank's reaction. His anger. The word he had called her.

Cody felt for a moment like this couldn't possibly be reality. It had to have been a dream. He'd never call Frank a name like that. But it slowly dawned on him that, yes, he definitely had. For a moment he couldn't fathom how he could have done something so inexcusably ugly.

Then he remembered how his rage had felt. Last night, something new had happened to him. In that instant when he'd heard her laughter, his rage had overwhelmed him. It had overtaken him completely.

He'd been standing there feeling so much humiliation and helplessness and outrage that it paralyzed him. And then his rage had tapped him on the shoulder and asked politely if it could take over for a moment. It was like he'd given over the driver's seat and let rage step in to take his place.

He had never felt it permeate him so *completely* as last night. He'd been angry before, obviously. Sometimes so intensely it hurt. But this was anger so pure it almost wasn't anger at all. It was like suddenly, effortless knowing exactly what to do. Cody didn't think; he simply reacted. His purpose was to target those who had hurt him, and then hurt them back. Hurt them so devastatingly they'd feel it forever. Like a bee-sting in the eye. There was no mercy, no hesitation and no backtalk from his conscience. He had a purpose: he fulfilled it.

It had felt good.

It had felt powerful.

It also kind of scared the shit out of him. He wanted to feel that feeling again, but it was like letting a second self take over. One he wasn't in control of. No thought, just action. That was unsettling. But he remembered watching the skinny fox run out of the bunkhouse as if Cody had been chasing him with a shotgun. And he'd done that to the fox with just his _voice_! A little chipmunk had run off a Pred with nothing more than words and body language. This new thing, scary as it was, was also undeniably useful.

Cody sat up in bed and yawned. He felt more rested today than he had in a while.

Kenny plopped down a moment later.

Cody looked at him.

The rabbitboy gave him a short, disappointed shake of the head and walked away.

'Fine,' Cody thought. 'You want to hold a grudge? I'll let you. And I can hold out longer than you can.'

Seeing his former friend headed towards the showers, it gave Cody an idea. He suddenly remembered something else from last night: his sabotage plans. He felt fantastic this morning. There was no excuse not to go through with his idea. And a great way to start it off would be hiding in the shower room while everyone else went to breakfast.

He stood up and stretched. Unavoidable armpit reek poked him in the nose. 'Ew.' A shower might not be a bad idea on its own merits. He looked down at the endtable and there were freshly laundered clothes lying right there. 'I'll have to thank Jayden next time I see him.'

He took the new uniform and walked towards the showers. He glanced towards Frank's side of the room. He saw her sitting on her bed, but she didn't look up and see him. Probably a good thing. He didn't want her stomping over and whining at him.

'Actually, she'd be more likely to wanna kick my ass,' he realized. Something else he didn't want to have to deal with.

In the shower room, who should he run into but Walter.

The bobcat was combing his fur in the mirror. And impossibly, when he saw Cody in the reflection, he turned to talk to him. "Um, hey..." the cat started, not quite making eye contact.

Cody stopped in his tracks and gave the Predboy a look that said, 'You are making a mistake right now.'

Walter either didn't notice or chose to go on anyway. "Look, I... You woke me up last night and I saw what happened."

Cody grimaced. The last thing he wanted was some lecture about how he'd disturbed poor kitty's catnap.

"No, I'm not angry," Walter said, reading the chipmunk's expression. He moved a step to the side to let some other kids pass. "I actually... I thought it was mean what you said, to Frank especially, but I thought you were in the right."

Wait, what? Cody felt like he'd just been smacked in the head with a baseball. "Excuse me? I didn't hear that right."

"Yes you did," Walter replied calmly. "I might not have seen all of it, but I heard the 'thump' when you tackled that maned wolf kid."

'Huh. I'd thought he was a fox all this time. I guess Preds know their own kind better. Makes sense.'

"He really shouldn't have come in here without expecting something like that to happen. There could've been a panic, a stampede," Walter continued. "And if Frank invited him, she should've known better too."

Cody thought about the situation he was in. Walter, the Pred in Prey's clothing, was inexplicably agreeing with him. It was a nice thing to do. Maybe the kid was trying to extend an olive branch. Cody felt a tickle at the back of his mind. His friend Rage was there, asking if it could take over and play again.

Why not? Why not give it another test run and see how it felt?

Cody's muzzle curled into a slight smile. "Do you know what you just did there, Walter?"

The bobcat didn't like Cody's tone. He'd hoped to maybe fix a little of the rift between them. He preferred having as few enemies as possible. But he could tell already that he had somehow just made everything worse. "...What?"

"You broke our agreement," Cody said, smiling more. "Remember that? You leave me alone; I leave you alone? You forfeited your half, which means I'm released from mine." The chipmunk stepped a bit closer and put his paw down on the sink uncomfortably close to Walter's.

Walter jerked his paw back. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean anything more than... I was just trying to, I dunno... make you hate me less."

Cody chuckled. "The only way you could possibly make me hate you less," he whispered, "would be to let me string you up and skin that Pred fur right off of you. Although you'd like that, wouldn't you? You'd be hoping there'd be a cute bunny pelt underneath."

Walter felt a momentary pang of hurt. But then his timidity vanished and numbness took its place. He'd been through this too many times. He stood up taller in defiance and looked Cody directly in the eye. "You know what I hate?" he asked softly.

"Yourself?" Cody guessed flippantly, still smiling. "My attitude?"

"No," Walter said sadly. "I hate feeling stupid whenever I let myself have a bit of hope about someone, and then they stomp on it."

Cody felt his slick, heartless confidence waver for just a second, but then it came back even stronger. He grinned and replied, "You must feel stupid a lot."

Walter narrowed his eyes in disgust.

Cody thought for a second that the Bobcat might slap him. Oh what fun that'd be! He'd get to wail on this little bitch to his heart's content, then tell the Preds when they showed up, 'He hit me first and there's a dozen witnesses!'

Walter didn't slap his adversary. Instead he took a breath to calm himself. "I'm sorry, Cody."

"Sorry for what?"

"Sorry for _you_," he replied, and that last word had a knife's edge to it. "I've known a hell of a lot of people just like you. Even in my own family. I've seen them at every age. They all had that look that's on your face now like, 'I'm so cool! Look at how much I don't care how hurtful I am to everyone!' You know what happens to them, Cody?"

"What?" he asked challengingly.

Walter's tone became quieter, more deliberate. "They get old. And after they've spent their whole lifetimes hating everyone and feeling so great about it, they have no one left. My Grandpa looked at me and talked to me exactly like you just did. And he died. And he was such a vicious old man that his funeral lasted less than thirty minutes, *including* the drive to the cemetery. The only people who were there were the people who *had* to be there. Out of politeness. We went to dinner afterwards. And nobody talked about what a great guy he was. Not one of us. It was like he'd never even been alive.

"That's your future, Cody. Enjoy it."

Cody's mouth felt dry. His words were all gone.

He was about to try to respond when Walter simply walked past him and left the room.

Cody's arm trembled. His fingers curled into a fist.

Right then, all he wanted to do was run after that little fuckhead and hold him down and punch him in the mouth again and again so he could never say another word as long as he lived. That ASSHOLE! That prick! That little shitsmear! What the hell did he know!? 'I've got a family that loves and cares about me! Fuck your stupid dead grandpa! Fuck your whole family! Maybe Preds just don't love each other the same way Prey do! Ever think about that!?'

All of these things went through Cody's head, but he said none of them. He just kept on standing in the middle of the bathroom with people giving him dirty looks as they detoured around him.


*****


Cody was glad for his plans. It gave him a reason to go to the farthest end of the shower room, turn on the water, and just stay there until everyone else left. The water blocked out the sounds of other people. As he showered, he kept looking down, expecting to see blood running down his fur and trickling down the drain.

Fuck Walter. Fuck that smug little shit. All that stuff he'd said about Cody growing old and being so full of hate his family would turn their backs on him... Bullshit. He imagined his Dad and Aunt Cherise burying him and being glad to be rid of him. NO. No, that couldn't happen. That could never happen.

'Then why is your heart pounding so hard?'

Cody willed his inner voice to shut up. But he knew, inarguably, that Walter had cut him in half with those words. Walter had beaten the shit out of him. Cody had triumphed last night only because Frank and that Pred were surprised. Taken off guard. Walter had been through enough bullies by now that he was ready for anything. Walter had gathered up all of Cody's meanness, shaped it into a bullet, and shot it right back at him.

'No,' Cody denied. 'I'm just... He just got lucky. But it's not my fault. I wasn't ready.'

'So what makes you think you're ready to take on the Preds like you planned, dumbass?'

'SHUT UP! I can still do it!' He knew he could. The plan was smart and solid. One simple act of sabotage with a getaway hideout already planned. He could do this easily.

Cody stayed under the shower's soothing, pulsing spray for as long as he could. He didn't even remember to wash with soap, he simply stood and grappled with his inner self.

Eventually though, he thought to look around and check if anyone else was still here. He looked out and scanned the shower room. It seemed quiet enough. Just to be sure though, he pumped some liquid soap into his paws and scrubbed himself down. That helped him feel a little better.

He turned off the water. He took his fresh, clean uniform out of the plastic envelope and slipped it on. It felt nice. Even smelled nice. He left his dirty uniform where it was, since, if all went well, he wouldn't be here tomorrow so he wouldn't need Jayden to clean it.

The shower room was silent. The bathroom was too. Cautiously, he listened at the doorway for any sounds coming from the bunkhouse.

Nothing.

Excellent. He crept out into the long, bed-filled room. Nobody there. No cat and hyena. He glanced at the clock: breakfast was well underway.

Food. That reminded him. If he was going to spend the whole day in the observation tower, possibly several days, he'd need some nutrition. He looked over at the vending machines. The single granola bar his thumbswipe would get him wouldn't be enough.

His rage popped back in. 'I have an idea!'

And it was actually a pretty good idea.

Cody looked around for any uniform shirt anyone had left lying around. There was one beside the bunk right next to him. How convenient! He tied off the neckhole and sleeves, making himself a handy little grocery bag.

Then he looked around for something heavy. He could maybe go outside and find a big rock, but that'd be unnecessarily risky. And time-consuming. He looked at the bunks. Immovable. The bookshelf. Ditto. The endtable by his bed.

Oh, perfect.

He walked over to it and pulled out both dressers. He spotted his unfinished book. A bit of good luck; he might've forgotten it otherwise. He tucked it in his grocery shirt. Then he braced himself and prepared to lift the waist-high wooden table.

'Whoop!' It was lighter than he'd expected. Nice.

He turned and looked towards the vending machines. One had drinks, the other snacks. So he'd have to do this twice. He hoped to hell the table wouldn't just bounce off and hit him in the lip. That'd be real dignified.

'Well, he who hesitates is a douchebag,' he thought. He got as good a grip as he could and went running at vending machine number one.

He hurled the table with all the strength accuracy would allow.

**SMASH!!!**

Triangles of shattered glass went everywhere. Cody wobbled back a few steps. Then he almost burst out laughing at the sight of the table wedged diagonally into the guts of the machine with chips and candy bars scattered all over like internal organs.

Cody wasted no time. That crash might've alerted someone. He had to be fast. He ran back to his bed, grabbed his makeshift sack, then rushed to the machine and started filling it as fast as he could while being mindful not to slash his hand open. Thankfully, he'd completely missed demolishing the granola bars! A miracle!

He filled his shirtbag only half full. He'd need the rest of the space for liquids. And as warm as it had been the past few days, he'd need plenty. He gave the endtable a mighty tug and nearly toppled over. It was caught in the big spring-shaped coils that had held the food in place. He tugged wrathfully for a few seconds before stopping and giving himself a mental slap. 'Be smarter, idiot.' Instead of pulling like a dumb ox, he looked closer and figured out what the table was hung up on. He pulled carefully and managed to dislodge the stuck spring. Though he managed to scrape his finger open doing so. 'Ow!' He put his finger in his mouth and tasted blood.

'No time for this,' he remembered. He lifted up the table and, considering the ease with which he'd succeeded before, decided he might not need a running start. Making centripetal force his pal, he simply swung in a circle at the drinks machine.

**SMASH!!!**

'Home run number two!' Cody thought. The endtable fell out by itself this time. Dodging arterial sprays of soda, Cody reached in and collected as many water bottles as he possibly could. He also grabbed a fair amount of orange juice, since he thought he remembered hearing somewhere that citrus didn't spoil and ferment like other fruits.

There almost wasn't room in his shirtbag. Cody jettisoned some chips and chocolate bars. The less junk the better. He had to get out of here. Now. Someone who'd heard the first crash might've assumed it was none of their business. Hearing it again would undoubtedly bring someone curious. Or someone in a GPA uniform who'd tackle him to the floor and beat his brains out.

Cody got a solid grip on his shirtbag and ran out the north door. He looked all around outside. He didn't see anyone. No guards running. That was a-ok. He checked his position relative to the other buildings, gauging the fastest route to the classroom. He headed off like a bullet. He made sure to duck behind objects and walls whenever possible.

When the classroom building was in sight, Cody considered whether the door might be locked. Not insurmountable. His Dad had taught him once how to kick down a door in case of emergency, like if there was a fire or someone was trapped. Cody thought he was definitely full of enough fucking adrenaline right now that he'd have absolutely no trouble pulling it off.

He reached the door. He set down his supplies. He took a moment to pull in a deep breath and remember the procedure. 'Plant yourself. Aim for an area near the lock, but not the lock itself. Kick at waist-height and lean into it.' He rocked back and forth, psyching himself up, trying not to imagine what would happen if he twisted an ankle doing this.

'Check to see if it's unlocked first, retard.'

Oh. Yeah. He should probably do that.

He checked, and it was unlocked.

Well, that was ridiculously easy. 'Thanks, Preds!'

He dashed through into the nothing room, closing the door behind him. He checked the class door. Unlocked too. 'Home run number three!'

The classroom was dim, lit only by the sunlight streaming in through the windows. The rows of desks awaited students. The digital blackboard was dark.

And there, right beside Miss Vera's desk, was the Newbrain chair.

Cody stepped closer, panting, and sized it up. It looked even uglier now. The sun glinted off all the metal's curves. All the tanks and nozzles and screws and shit.

Cody didn't know exactly how to destroy the hateful thing, but he figured a good strong kick would be a decent start.

He walked over to it, as close as he had ever been to the machine. The machine that had made zombies out of his friends. The machine the Preds needed to carry out their assassination plot.

"Plant myself. Aim. Kick from the waist and lean into it."

He leaned back, then plowed forward.

The nightmare chair went skidding diagonally across the floor a good few feet before crunching into the ground with incredible force. Something clearly broke inside, because seemingly gallons of sparkly silver Newbrain fluid went cascading across the tile.

"Holy shit!!" He'd actually done it! "Bleed, you motherfucker, bleed!!!"

"Excuse me! What are you-"

Cody did not wait to see who was speaking. He turned like a clockspring breaking loose and shot towards the door. It was the hyena guy. Cody did not allow himself to waste time on fear. He simply moved as fast as he possibly could. He dodged the hyena's slo-mo grab and slid like a slippery bar of soap past him into the nothing room.

He shouldered the outside door open with a bang and burst into the sunlight again. He paused only a second to snatch up his grocery bag. Which he'd left by the door like a dope. 'Which is probably what alerted that guard, you indescribable genius.'

He heard the hyena shouting, but he was already streaking like a guided missile straight towards the observation tower.

If he'd ever run this fast before, he couldn't remember it. He knew he was fast. Dad challenged him to races sometimes, and he sure as shit did well in gym class. But this time he was running for his life. His legs felt like metal pistons pounding at the ground in rhythm. He was pushing himself so hard he almost expected his tendons to start snapping like guitar strings. He was gonna be blindingly sore when he reached the tower. But that was for when he got there. He told his body, 'You can put me through as much pain as you want when we're done, got that? When we're safe, then you can punish me. Deal?'

He was past most of the buildings now. He was in the more forest-y part of camp. Just a dirt path cutting through the trees.

And suddenly, up ahead, Rick was running towards him.

'OH SHIT!'

He didn't know how the elk had been alerted to his crime spree, but he clearly must have been. He was directly in Cody's path.

The elk had just been out for a jog before his shift. Suddenly there appeared a furry streak of lightning careening towards him. Rick was barely able to tell who it was, and had no idea what the hell was chasing the boy so fast.

Cody was not going to let anyone impede him. Not even someone who had tried to be nice to him. 'I'm sorry, Rick. Sorry it had to be you.'

"Wait, stop!" Rick cried out.

Cody adjusted his aim directly at the elk. He looked at the man's armband. That blurred white circle within the red. The symbol of his enemy. That made it easier.

Without a millisecond of hesitation, Cody threw all his momentum into a jump-kick directly at the elk's knee.

It was a bullseye.

Rick screeched out in agony. He swore he'd heard a crack of bone splintering. The nerves throughout his leg were screaming in electric pain. He and Cody tumbled to the dirt in a heap, but only Cody was ready for it. The boy actually stepped on Rick's shoulder to leverage himself up and back into a run.

"Wait! Wait!!" Rick shouted. "WHY!?"

That word stunned Cody for a brief moment. It didn't stop him from running though. He kept on as hard as before, but let himself consider that maybe Rick hadn't been pursuing him. Maybe Rick had just been in the wrong place at the wrong time.

He felt bad about that. A little. But it was the elk's own fault. He'd chosen to wear that armband. And if he honestly hadn't known what Cody was up to, then Cody couldn't have guessed that before he attacked. Rick had been wearing the enemy's colors. That was that.

Cody made it to the tower with no one else seeing him. He paused and looked around for a few seconds just to make sure. He listened in every direction, drew in a deep breath through his nose, and scanned all around for movement. No sounds, no smells, nothing to see. He transferred his shirtbag to his teeth and started to climb.

Halfway up, there was a terrifying moment when Cody's grip suddenly turned into a handful of paint flakes, wood splinters and air.

But he held on tight with his other hand and both legs. There was only a heart-stopping instant where he thought he might fall, but then it was over. He hugged the side of the wooden tower like it was his dad putting him to bed at night.

Then he started climbing again.

Once more he had to do his trick of threading himself through a hole in the beams to get at the hatch under the observation platform. This time it opened easily. Finally, a small relief.

Cody pulled himself up and inside.

He took a single second to look in the corner and check that his books were okay. They were.

Then he collapsed on the floor, spread eagle. Every limb burned. His heart was hammering against his ribs. He felt like he was breathing in sheets of gasoline. Every single one of his nerves was calling him a colossal bastard for what he'd put them through.

But he was safe now.

He spat out the grocery bag and just waited for the ache in his legs and chest to subside.





TO BE CONTINUED