The Predator Militia
Nick and his mother, Olivia, watched nervously from the window of their apartment as, out in the street, the tiny fox family's prey neighbors were forced from their homes at the barrel of a gun by scowling predators in red uniforms.
Olivia would have never imagined the Militia was this powerful. For months, ZNN rarely spared the rebels more than a passing mention between sports and weather. Then suddenly the news was filled with images of tanks panted in the red of the Predator Militia and drone strikes were launched on Zootopia itself, with Militia ground forces not far behind. The mother and son foxes had spent days in their apartment, waiting and hoping for the hellish melody of war to end. And now the militant predators effectively controlled all of Mammalia.
How did this happen? Where had the Militia even gotten their paws on tanks and drones? How in the name of Saint Robin was there so many of them all of a sudden? Had they really pulled this off alone, or did someone help them?
The Wildes were pulled from their thoughts as they noticed commotion around a family of sheep. From their vantage point, the foxes could just make out what was being said as a puma sergeant loudly ordered the family into a truck.
"No," the father sternly said stepping toward the militiamammal, "My family's not going anywhere."
The puma shot the ram between the eyes before anyone could blink.
Olivia jumped back from her window with a short yell, clapping a paw over Nick's eyes before he could catch a glimpse of a screaming lamb with glasses covered in her father's blood. A second later, her Tame Collar sent a painful shock coursing through the mother vixen's body. Caught off guard, she fell to the floor taking Nick with her.
"What's going on, Mom?" the nervous kit asked, moving back toward the window.
"No, no, no, Nicky! Don't look out there!" Olivia hastily ordered, raising to her knees and pulling her son into a hug, as much to comfort herself as him.
Just then there was a knock. The two foxes looked at the door apprehensively for several seconds until another patient knock was heard. With a deep breath, Olivia rose to her hind paws and approached the door, Nick fallowing behind.
Standing in the doorway was a beautiful white cat in a well-kept Militia uniform, the same shade of red that Olivia now thought looked a lot like blood, though without body armor, a matching beret perched on her head in lieu of a helmet. She was holding a folder in her left paw.
"Ms. Wilde?" the cat asked with a pleasant smile and an aristocratic accent.
"Yes," the vixen answered nervously. The cat's friendly smile grew as she extended her paw in greeting.
"I'm Lieutenant Duchess O'Malley, of the Predator Militia." The two shook paws cordially, then O'Malley leaned down to be roughly at the younger Wilde's level, sweetly saying, "And you must be Nick."
How does she know our names? Nick wondered
"May I come in?" the militiamammal was already walking into the foxes' meager apartment, giving it a cursory once over before turning back to the Wildes. "Now before we begin, there is one important thing to attend to."
At that moment, Nick noticed the cat had reached for a knife on her hip as she spoke. Before the kit knew what was happening, the Militia officer had stepped forward and slipped the blade between his mother's neck and the collar the vixen wore. O'Malley flicked her wrist and, just like that, Olivia's Tame Collar clattered to the floor.
The mother fox's paw quickly reached up to feel her now naked neck as the officer turned to removed Nick's collar. Olivia had first had the collar put on when she turned ten. Since then she'd never had it off for more than an hour. The constant fear of being electrocuted had hung over nearly her entire life. Worse yet, she'd been forced to inflict the same fate on Nick. And with a flick of the wrist, the Militia had freed them from the collars forever.
"Much better," O'Malley smiled, resheathing her knife. The cat gestured to the Wildes' couch. "Please, take a seat, there's much to discuss."
Just as mother and son foxes had sat down, another gunshot rang out from the street below. Nick felt his mother put a protective paw on his shoulder as their visitor pulled a chair across from them. Sitting up straight, the cat officer folded her paws and spoke, "As you've no doubt noticed, the fascist Prey Government has finally been destroyed on this glorious day. Just this morning, this city's corrupt leadership paid the ultimate price for their tyranny."
"You killed the mayor?" Olivia asked in shock.
"His entire cabinet," O'Malley corrected, still smiling, "The president and her cronies will meet the same fate this evening. But, I digress."
The militia officer set her folder on her lap, opening it and setting photos and documents on the Wildes' coffee table as she spoke. "So the Militia may more easily protect the predators of this nation, every city in Mammalia now has a designated Predator District, exclusively for omni and carnivores. These papers will provide you and your son all the information you need once you have been transported there."
Nick and his mother curiously glanced at the papers laid out before them, pictures of what they presumed to be the Predator District, and documents containing addresses and other information. Olivia looked up at the cat curiously, "Why are you moving the prey mammals too?"
"I simple security matter," O'Malley said quickly, she pulled a brochure from the folder and held it out to the kit. "Nick, you've been invited to joy the Militia Youth Corps."
Nick looked at the offered pamphlet hesitantly. "Uh...I don't know..."
"He had a bad experience with a group like that." his mother explained, remembering how the only night her son had worn his Junior Ranger Scouts uniform had ended with her holding him as he cried.
"Oh, some cruel prank, I presume? By prey?" Olivia nodded to confirm both questions. O'Malley turned to Nick, gently pushing the brochure toward him and speaking reassuringly, "I assure you, Nick, you won't have to worry about that in the MYC. Every meeting has adult supervision, and it will be all predators. My three kittens will be in MYC's Zootopia unit as well."
Nick finally accepted the brochure, which featured smiling young predators (a wolf, a tiger, and a badger) in simple red uniforms. There wouldn't be any prey and the feline officer seemed sincere, her kittens were probably nice, too. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad.
O'Malley and Olivia talked for some time about the details of their relocation, her and Nick's respective levels of education, any and all family members they would like to be found or contacted, and Olivia's job experience and skills. The mother vixen had had to cover Nick's ears while she awkwardly explained that she worked as a waitress in the daytime and a stripper at night. To Olivia's relief, the ladylike officer wasn't the least bit scandalized or judgmental.
That afternoon, the mother and son climbed onto a large and comfortable bus with other hitherto impoverished predators. They passed by many things on their way to their new home.
A wolf militia officer smiling warmly to the passengers as he waved them through his checkpoint, only to break a horse's jaw with butt of his rifle seconds later.
The handiwork of the Militia Volunteers; local predators who'd been given red armbands and baseball bats.
A field hospital giving proper medical aid to chronically sick predators, sometimes for the first time in their lives.
'Wrong minded' predators being detained for reeducation. For their own good, of course.
Imprisoned predators being freed. Nick's father, James, was among them.
Teachers, police officers, soldiers, government officials, and journalists being executed.
Finally, the bus pulled into the newly christened Predator District. Olivia led Nick to the address she'd been given, twice given directions by polite militiamammals. They arrived at a large house and were surprised to find a garbage truck parked outside and several predators apparently cleaning the place.
The badger in charge seemed just as surprised as the Wildes, apologizing and saying their new home would be ready shortly. Nick noticed pictures of an upperclass prairie dog family among the things tossed into the garbage truck. That night, the overwhelmed mother and son slept on the couch for mutual comfort.
The next day, they were tearfully reunited with James, the first time they'd seen him in four years. Nick's little sister, Lily, was conceived that night. The day after, Nick attended his first meeting of the Youth Corps, were he met and befriended Duchess's kittens, Marie, Berlioz, and Toulouse, as well as a fiery young desert fox named Finnick.
Nick grew to love the Militia in those early days. They'd removed his collar, returned his father, and, for the first time in his life, they had told him he should be proud to be a predator, to be a fox. By the time he was in high school, there was no doubt in the young tod's mind that he would join the Militia.
After all, what better way was there to make the world a better place?
