Chapter 22:
So, life has become very routine, we work out at the DOJO three times a week, and play at the park on off days, and sometimes go to the library. Sometimes William is there, most of the times not. Peter has moved in, but he is more of a ghost than mom and dad. He does work hard for the hospital, Vivian does not begrudge him the time, as she knows that it will be hard for him to slow down after all this time. What time they do spend together is quality time, and that makes up for the times he is not there. Some times he joins us on Saturday's in the park, and we all play like kits on those days.
This is our daily lives till about early December, when I receive my red belt and Vivian receives her brown belt. From this point I am being taught by most of the masters in the DOJO, and most are not as easy on me as Mr. Delaront, if by easy you mean being only smacked down to the mat once a minute. As the masters are all species, I have been learning the strengths and weaknesses of different species. This is hard to keep straight in my head, but started to go easier, if I just let the primal side of my brain do the fighting. By this I mean that is if stop analyzing what I am learning, and just let myself learn it, I pick it up a lot faster.
It was cold off of central square where we lived, but not cold enough to snow. I have been to tundra town a few times, and have seen snow, played in it, so it was no big surprise the night of the big snow storm. The cold wall for tundra town was shut down "for maintenance" while the storm blew through. Fist time in a long time the climate wall had been shut down. Sahara square was hit the hardest, as this was the hottest zone in the city. It got down to a chilly 10 degree C, and snow was even falling there. It melted as fast as it hit the ground, but the residence were not to be seen, as it was much to cold to operate outside. Consequently, the only ones moving on the streets were crooks, cops, and emergency personal. and some people who just had to get some where. Power had a hard time keeping up with the demand, but to their credit they came through for us with flying colors.
During the storm is when I received a summons to the meadow. (I didn't know Gab could do that) Mom and dad were out on patrol, Peter was at the hospital, and Grandma and I were curled up with each other watching a movie, when the summons came in. I looked at grandma, but she was already asleep, so I headed to the meadow.
When I got there, there were two adult rabbits (jack rabbits actually) waiting for us with Gab. They were taller than mom, so would come up to about chin height on dad. They carried themselves with a bit of an air. Evening all, says Gab, I would like you to meet Thumper and Juniper. As Gab had been teaching me about power use, and drawing, I could see a slight power usage on the ear of Thumper. I thought this was strange, it made me think of a cover up. All of us were introduced, but they were more interested in the rabbits of our group. So, the rest of us either watched or blinked out. I watched as the only ones left were my littermates. They played silly games, laughed and jumped all over each other. They bounded through the meadow with my littermates, while Gab taught me more about power usage. Gab what gives with the rabbits? I can't tell you about that right now Daniel, maybe you can figure it out on your own, now back to your lesson.
The next morning, we were stuck in the house, snow was still falling, and it was kind of deep for me. So, I played silly games with grandma, did our routine, and practiced some moves I knew grandma could do. Then we watched some more movies. Mom and dad came home tonight as the roads had been plowed. They were so tired they fell asleep almost immediately. Grandma had to wake them up after supper, to get them to go to bed. Shortly after that I went to bed myself.
I went to check in with Susan but found her missing, so I went to the meadow. It was a repeat of last night, but I watched it all unfold. Gab wasn't around and I wondered were he went when he wasn't here. But I watched, and memorized some of what went on as I felt it would make a good picture.
The next morning, we could get out of the house. The snow had stopped falling, and I wanted to go to the library. Grandma took me to the library, and left me alone, she went to gossip with her friends. I started a search for victims of the snow storm, there were none that I could find on the news feed. But as a foot note to one story, I found a reference to an accident in central when the snow storm had started. I clicked on that and read the story. It appeared that the couple had lost their brakes and slammed into the side of a building.
I searched all the news outlets I could, and finally came up with a picture of them. It was thumper and Juniper, and he had a black spot ¾ of the way up his ear and just slightly off to one side. Their real names we Justin and Jenifer O'Hare, and they were millionaires. So, I did some research on them, and came up with a lot on them. They were always claiming that they were robbed of their kits, when the fertility clinic had been fire-bombed. There was a 1-millon dollar reward for information leading to the apprehension of the perps, and the return of their children. I checked the dates and they matched up perfectly, the only conclusion I could come to was my littermates were their children. Wow, this was big.
I did some more checking and found that they didn't die in the accident but were in comas at the hospital. His brother one Larry O'Hare, had medical control over them, and was asking the media to let them have their privacy, and to stop asking questions. I later asked Grandpa if he could find out anything about the O'Hare's, he said he would try, but this could be seen as a breach of ethics, was it really that important to me? I said yes it really was. He said he would find out all he could. When he got home later that night, I could tell the news was not good. Daniel, Why the sudden interest in the O'Hare's? As we left the library, Grandma and I had talked it over, and come to the conclusion that a partial truth was better than none, the whole truth would come out later. I told Grandpa that I had interaction with their children. Well Daniel, the O'Hare's are in comas and appear to be brain dead. Larry O'Hare was going to pull the plug on life support tonight. Do you know what time? Yes, he said 11:59 just before the stroke of midnight, why at that time I wondered, seemed kind of strange, but I still had time to do something.
When I fell asleep, I went straight to the meadow. I had beat everyone else tonight. Gab corralled me as soon as I appeared. Daniel, come with me please. We walked over to a quiet side of the meadow. I know you know the truth now Daniel, but you can't tell them. But why not? They deserve to know. Because Daniel, it would put you all in jeopardy. How would the institute see it if they all started to cry at the same time? I could see his point. But Gab I don't know if I can keep this secret from Susan. You have to Daniel, no one else must find out for the time being. They will all find out when they are free, but it could put you all in danger if they find out now. God, I don't like secrets. It's like a festering wound that never heals, until you let it out.
When my littermates appear, they run to the O'Hare's and they have the time of their lives, I'm kind of sulky, but I tamp down hard on my emotions. I can tell the time is getting close, when Gab gets up and walks over to them, he looks at the O'Hare's and says it is time. All my litter mates give them hugs and kisses goodbye, and both of them get up, and follow Gab. Can I walk with you guys, I ask? Gab motions me to walk with them. They are holding each other and crying as they walk towards the veil. As we are now far enough away form the others, I speak. Thumper and Juniper, I will never let them forget you. I'm glad that you got to meet your kits, and know that they will be taken care of. With this they stop and look at me, you know who we are? Yes, I do Justin and Jenifer O'Hare. But how do you know? I'm not trapped like everyone else, I'm in Zootopia now. We wanted to see them grow up, we wanted to see their first school day, we wanted to see their prom, their first crush, we wanted to see their marriages to their loves, we are going to miss all that. Well, part of that can come true. How is that? Susan is my love and I am hers. When they look back at the others, they can see them playing together. Terry is Cindy's mate, Davis is Suzy's mate, Rick is Ava's mate. How do you know this? I look at them and say, we are all empaths, we speak to each other in thoughts and pictures, there is nothing hidden in our hearts, we see each other to our deepest roots. That is why we love each other. How can we believe you?
Think of something only the two of you would know, they speak softly to each other and turn around and look at me. I start to laugh, Oh, that's going to be a funny story to tell them later. You were being picked on as a child, when he stepped in, and beat up the bullies who were picking on you. You though of him afterwards as Thumper. But you became his shelter and helped him grow just like the juniper tree you planted in the court yard. Wow you got all that from us? Yes, thoughts can speak louder than words. And you are absolutely sure they are going to be safe? I give you my word. With that Jenifer leans down and gives me a hug, I'm glad I met you Daniel. I look at Justin, and he looks at me, with that "you better be right" look. Daniel, I'm not an easy mammal to get a long with, but I believe what you say, love my little girl like she deserves, I will sir. With that he leans down and gives me a hug as well. They both turn towards the veil, but Justin turns back towards me, be wary of my brother Daniel, I believe he is responsible for our accident. With that they turn hand in hand and step through the veil.
As I turn back, Gab takes my shoulder. That was well done Daniel, but you need to lock your feeling down before you go back to them. With that he walks off leaving me with my conflicted emotions. I tamp it down with everything I have learned about this, and when I have everything under control I head back. Susan meets me half way back, I wrap her in my love, but she senses something is off. Daniel, what is it? I can't tell you right now, but I will in the near future. Just know I love you deeply. I can tell she's not happy with this answer, but she accepts it as we kiss.
Sir, we have a big development. What is it? The old computer that "N" was playing with stopped working, "O" took it apart, and rewired it. It now works better than ever. We have had reverse engineers look at it but they can't figure out how it's working. Also "N" appears to be using some sort of new computer language. New language? Yes Sir, as you know computers work on a binary system, 1's and 0" s, well her system works on a trinary system. We have had some of our best programmers look at it, and they can't make out heads or tails of it, or how it's even working at all. "N" has even tried to explain how it works, but her explanations make no sense to us, also she has compressed the data in the old computer. "Doors 10" takes about 10GB of the hard drive, with her system it only takes 1GB of space, and it is faster, its load rate is nano seconds, instead of the normal seconds. Can we exploit this new system? Not sure how Sir, we need to understand it, before we can exploit it. All right call in some more experts to study the computer and it's programing. I want you to take this old computer away, and give them a better one, still not tied to the main frame. Take the old one and let them study it, maybe they can come up with something. Wouldn't that be great, a faster more powerful computer, and we would own it. Yes Sir.
Subject "J" did a search on the computer yesterday, looking for storm related accident victims. Did he find any? No Sir, he did look at some auto accident victims, that happened just as the storm started. Do they have any connection to him? No Sir, it appears to be a random thing, the accident victims have since died. Should we be concerned that "J" has become a little morbid? I don't think so, he seemed to be more interested in their back ground than in the accident, sort of a mammal-interest kind of thing. All right continue as before. (from the files found at the institute).