Chapter 5: Pomp and Circumstance
Zootopia…MIA Training facility 'The Pit'...3 years later
The rumble of the crowd was reaching a fever pitch, the thump of the pugil stick against Kaiden's helmet, rattled him for a moment. He was in a duel with a Cheetah girl, wiry and fast. She may have been 'recruited' in the class a year after Kaiden's but she was already fighting at their level. She would strike is soft taps or try to trip him up and then go in for the power strike. She hit him again in the side of the head, if it wasn't for the helmet or the padding on the pugil stick, she probably would have killed him just now.
Kaiden got frustrated and aggressive, he clashed sticks with her. The loud encouragement and cheers of the other classes only heightened the rush of adrenaline; he growled and snarled, pushing her back and trying to swipe at her.
Jarod didn't cheer but was standing nearby, arms folded with a grin on his face. Echo squad had become something of a legend around here in the time since their arrival. Under Jarod's leadership, Echo squad had managed to rise in the ranks and achieve top ladder at the competitions, which meant a guaranteed opportunity at the choice positions out in the world when the time came. The squad had even earned a nickname from Chief Kerberos himself. After a particularly rough training session the squad had decided to raid the Chief's quarters in a prank. Raising his boxer shorts sewn end to end in a mélange of colors to make some haphazard flag, which was promptly then risen at Reveille the next morning, much to the cheers of the camp.
After several shouted expletives, and the insult that Echo squad were 'fiends' and in fact spawned by 'the devil' himself, the nickname stuck. Echo squad was known across the camp as 'the fiends' a group of mammals who forged in a crucible of the chief's training and the fires of hell itself were some of the most hard-core cadets there, which earned them fair bit of respect, fear and the occasional challenge which they would promptly answer.
Chief Kerberos realized that trying to quell such a spirit would only make things worse, so in that vein he let that belief stand, despite his best attempts to break the spirit of Echo squad. Whatever it was seemed to inspire the younger cadets and in that vein it created a hierarchy which the chief was more than happy to exploit to achieve the goals set out by his superiors. The flurry of cheering and excitement came to an abrupt halt with a loud 'thwack' of a pugil stick. The chief rushed through the cloud of cadets to see what had occurred. Kaiden stood, the young cheetah girl was lying unconscious on the ground, Kaiden had managed to get in a good shot, in fact too good because despite the padding on both the stick and in the helmet, she was out cold. Kaiden stood panting his expression vacant as if like a robot standing by awaiting further instructions.
"Clear out of the way!" ordered the chief.
"Corpman!" bellowed the chief.
Within seconds two corpsman appeared, one a panther, the other a wolf and tended to the young cheetah, removing her helmet, trying to bring her around with smelling salts, checking her neck and skull for fractures.
"Cadet!" exclaimed the incensed Chief and stood in front of the fox.
Kaiden instinctively stood at attention, snapping out of his daze.
"What the Sam hill did you do?"
"I got in a good hit, Master Sergeant." Answered Kaiden.
"You knocked her unconscious, you know that?"
"Yes, Master Sergeant, I didn't…" Kaiden hesitated.
"You didn't…what? Mean it?"
Kaiden stood silent unable to answer, conflicted.
"Well son, if that's what you do when you don't mean something; I would hate to see what would happen when you do."
The corpsmen manage to get the young cheetah onto a stretcher and carry her off to the infirmary.
"And break it up, this isn't some kind of a show!" ordered the Master Sergeant.
The crowd broke up and Jarod came over and patted Kaiden on the back.
"Good work, you definitely represented the best squad in the camp."
Kaiden shrugs away from Jarod's paw, the realization of what he did sinking in.
"What's wrong Kaiden?" asked Jarod.
"I…hurt her."
"It is what it is…a challenge. There had to be a victor and a loser. You won, she lost, simple as that."
"No…Not as simple as that, it was just training, there was no need for that."
"Then why did you do it?"
"I don't know…I just…reacted."
"You snapped you mean?"
Kaiden stood silent.
"What do you think we are being trained to do, Kaiden? Do you think this is fun and games, that at the end of all of this they are going to say 'Oh, it's all good you can just go home, we don't need you anymore.'"
"I don't know."
"Well you better start knowing, graduation is soon."
"So?"
"One final test."
"I've heard, the senior trainers say it's going to be something unlike anything we trained for."
"I've heard the same, but of course the Master Sergeant has put us through our paces, I don't see what it could be that we can't face."
"I want to go check on her." Stated Kaiden.
"Of course, I understand."
"Do you?" the fox fired back.
"I know you think of me as apathetic but you'd be wrong, I care. I just realize that we have worked hard to excel."
"Is that all you care about, always being number one?"
"Not for the reasons you think, the one thing I've learned is it's better to bring your enemies to their knees, that way you're in a far better position to dictate terms."
"Maybe."
"Go check on her." Jarod dismissed.
Kaiden went to the infirmary to check on the cheetah he had sat by her bedside till she regained consciousness, he started chatting with her found out her name was Mckayla Green, she was from the Rainforest district, her story was the same as everyone else here, broken home, foster care, picked up by the MIA because of some prescreened latent talents. But mainly this camp was full of the unwanted or unmissed children, no one was coming to look for them and no one was coming to rescue them. No one to miss them.
Kaiden guessed it made the whole thing easier; see the chief and whomever was running the show here as mother and father and it would go a long way to create a sense of loyalty to them. Their training was clearly military in nature as well as things relegated to that of intelligence, sabotage, assassination and covert operations. In fact Kaiden to venture to guess this whole place probably didn't exist on any maps as he knew it, recruiting children, turning them into killing machines and letting them loose onto the world against enemies they knew nothing about.
'Yeah, somebody would go to prison if word got out.' thought Kaiden. It was times like these that when he could stop and think that he could contemplate his station in life, where he was, what he was doing. And sometimes think of home and her. Other times it was the strain of being so caught up in things, so exhausted that he would be stuck in the here and now, unable to have a spare moment to think past the next challenge, the next obstacle. Which he believed was the point, to be kept too busy to think too long on what's going on and where they should be.
The young cheetah turned her head and looked at the fox.
"Sir? What are you doing here?" asked McKayla, pawing the bandage on her head.
"I wanted to see how you were. And to say that I'm….."
"There's no need, sir. You clipped me pretty good."
"Yeah too good in fact, I knocked you out."
"It was a good shot, sir."
"Mckayla…drop the brave soldier routine, ok."
The cheetah pulled up her sheets a little bit, getting more comfortable.
"I know you're concerned but you don't need to worry about me."
"Why the hell not?"
"For the same reason you tell people not to worry about you."
Kaiden sat back in his chair a bit and blinked a few times trying to figure out what she was referring to.
"You don't deserve this, none of us do." He replied turning back to her.
"Of course not, sir…But it's where we are."
Kaiden huffed and rolled his eyes, acknowledging the fact of her statement.
"Yeah…it's where we are." He repeated in defeat.
"Foxtrot's been keeping an eye on Echo for a while, they want…we want your spot."
"What about what you want?"
"Doesn't matter what I want."
"It always matters."
"There's no point in wasting energy changing something you can't control. It is what it is; you just have to accept the choices that are handed to you. Make the best choice given the options and just go with it." She explained.
"Remarkably astute." He complemented.
Several weeks later…
The final test and graduation was upon them, all of their training was coming together into a demonstrable set of skills, final measurements and scores were tallied, Echo squad seemed to be riding high. But there was a palpable sense of foreboding and dread, at least among Able, Baker, Charlie, Delta squads, there had been rumors of what the final test was, some kind of really tough obstacle course another rumor was some kind of pain endurance trial. The truth is, it was all rumors and hearsay, no one knew for certain, but if Master Sergeant Kerberos had anything to do with it, it was going to be tough.
This bear was sent here to break the cadets down and build them back up, and that's what he did, but also to separate the weak from the strong and that had always been a fear in the back of everybody's mind 'what if it turns out they were 'the weak'?' What would that mean for them? Their squad? Echo squad had earned a bit of a reputation here, and the expectations were doubly high for them to succeed all of them, despite whatever challenges they might face.
Echo squad was taken from the familiar area of the facility to one that was very unfamiliar, almost prison like, escorted passed a containment door into a large room, concrete. Inside it was four small tables. Each cadet was ushered in front of the tables and told to stand at ease. Jarod, Nala, Barrett and Kaiden were all very nervous, each wondering what this test must be. Kaiden noticed a large mirror at the end of the room and could have sworn he saw a shape move from behind it. There was another prison containment door to the right of the mirror. The doors opened and several black uniformed soldiers came out almost in cadence with each other. Walking, each one stopped two meters in front of each table and opened the folding chair each had tucked under their arm, placing it facing towards the table.
They then walked out of the room, leaving the cadets in silence. After several moments the odd feeling returned, Kaiden leaned forward a bit and eyed Jarod, who turned to meet the gaze of the fox. Nala and Barrett looked back and forth.
"Some kind of interview or something?" asked Kaiden.
Nala shrugged as did Barrett, Jarod shook his head.
"Couldn't be that simple." The Lynx stated.
The sound of pawsteps again, the four guards came back with some kind of covered trays, placing one in front of each cadet, as they walked back out, Master Sergeant Humphrey Kerberos walked in and stood in between the middle two tables.
"Cadets, welcome to your final test and assuming you pass, your graduation."
"Make no mistake, this will be perhaps the hardest exercise you have ever done."
"The mirror to your left is a two-way mirror, the administrators of this program wish to see the final test themselves and gauge your response."
"More than anything, the MIA looks for the best candidates for its covert operations, the agents chosen must be strong, fast, smart and most importantly…Loyal."
"Everything else I've put you through has tested your physical and mental readiness, you're standing here because you're strong and fast and smart. You are the best that I've ever trained."
"But the last test here is loyalty. How far you willing to go for the allegiance you take, are you willing to believe in something and trust that the orders you receive are for a good reason. Because most of the time you won't get all the information, sometimes you will have to take a few things on…well, faith."
The cadets looked puzzled at what the Master Sergeant was referring to, and what the test could possibly be. "How does one test loyalty?" they wondered.
"Just remember who you're loyal to. Not Zootopia, not the MIA but each other. You've taken care of each other, lived like a family these last three years. Shared victories and shared defeat."
"And much like all those previous challenges, the same rules apply here. You must ALL pass the test for the squad to be considered passed. Meaning if any ONE member fails, you ALL fail and must start over again."
"Do you understand cadets? You must ALL pass?"
"Yes, Master Sergeant!" the four called back.
The four guards had returned each holding an orange jump suited mammal by the arm, shackled by the ankles and wrists, each with a black hood on their heads. Each guard sat a prisoner in the folding chair and then securing their chains to the eyelet rings in the concrete floor to prevent their escape.
"Cadets, remove the covers from your trays." Ordered Kerberos.
The cadets reached forward and took off the lids and put them aside, on the tray was a pistol and a single clip of ammo.
Kerberos spun on his heels and walked out of the room, the guards left with him, leaving the cadets alone with the prisoners. It was deathly quiet, the sound of the sobbing of the prisoners, they sounded like they were gagged under the hoods. Kerberos' voice came out a nearby speaker.
"Your test is that you must be willing to kill the enemies of the MIA and by extension Zootopia, threats that exist, that can come from anywhere. Take as much time as you feel you need."
"You orders are to execute the prisoners. And remember, loyalty to your squad."
The cadets stood almost unsure of what to do.
Barrett was silent.
"You have got to be kidding me." Spoke Kaiden.
"They want us to…in cold blood?" said Nala.
A loud crack rang out into the room, everyone jumped and looked in the direction, Jarod had wasted no time, he had loaded his pistol and fired into his prisoner, slumped over the chains taught keeping them from falling to the floor.
"These are our orders, we must obey."
"But…" objected Nala
"But nothing!" Jarod interrupted.
"This is what we have been training for, this is what we have been working towards. Look don't think about it, just do it. Remember loyalty, not to them, to us, it's all about US!"
Nala and Barrett went cold realizing they would never get out of this hell if they didn't comply, they both picked up their pistols, loading the magazines, releasing the slides and pointed at their respective prisoners.
"On three, Lionel?" asked Nala.
"Yeah, on three" Barrett replied panting hard, his pulse racing.
"One…Two…Three." She counted down.
'Pop''Pop' rang out the shots, each prisoner slumped, now dead. All eyes turned towards Kaiden.
"This is wrong. Don't you see that, this is wrong!" he exclaimed.
Jarod put his weapon on the table and walked over to Kaiden
"Right, Wrong, it doesn't matter. It's here and now."
"I'm not doing it."
"Yeah you are."
Jarod grabbed Kaiden's pistol, loaded it, released the slide and tried to stick it in his paw.
"No!" he called out stepping back.
The lynx grabbed him and pulled him closely.
"Listen to me god damn it!" he hissed.
"We did not go through 3 years of this hell hole to back out now, you understand me! We are NOT starting over. Do you think they are going to let us go if we fail too many times? Huh? Do you think for one fucking second that they will EVER let us leave this god forsaken place?"
"They will kill us all because of you, these people have no problem extinguishing lives for their own aims, I should know because my family is part of this, it's the reason I'm the only one here whose parents actually chose this for me. CHOSE THIS! Their own son!" Jarod teared up.
"Now, all you have to do, ALL you have to do is pull the fucking trigger and we get out of here. I don't care about your self-righteousness or your guilt. I don't want to be here anymore, THEY don't want to be here anymore and I know YOU don't want to be here anymore." Explained Jarod, the tears running down his face.
"Now DO it!" He choked.
There was a tense moment, and Kaiden felt tightness in his chest, his guilt crushing on his heart. He wasn't a murderer, but he couldn't take these tortures for one more second. At what point does a person's survival override even their basic sense of decency? Kaiden's thoughts drifted, his body moving almost on its own, he grabbed the pistol from Jarod and walked back to the table, his prisoner being more resistant trying to futilely wrestle free of his restraints.
"Come on Kaiden, please, don't condemn us." Pleaded Nala.
Barrett just held his hooves to his mouth completely unsure of what the fox was going to do, trying not to think of going through all of this again.
Kaiden raised the pistol and pointed at the prisoner, he just stood there frozen, every part of him telling him the wrongness of this, the guilt already racking him. The matter was made worse when the prisoner managed to wrestle off his hood.
The prisoner was a camel, his beard grown out, his eyes filled with tears and terror, he looked to the right and then back at Kaiden, and pleaded muffled words against his gag.
His eyes locked with Kaiden's, his vision blurred from the tears building up in them, he blinked, feeling them stream down his face.
"Kaiden please, we can't go through this hell hole again. Please, please please" pleaded Jarod.
The moment came, the turmoil seemed to fade, the broiling emotions in the fox went blank as if from an overload and time seemed to stop.
"I'm sorry." The fox whispered.
'Pop'
The momentary deafening noise and then eerie quiet, Kaiden felt a warm liquid splash on the left side of his face, all he was aware of was his panting and the fast deep beating of his heart against his chest. Everything else went numb.
A couple hours later…
They had passed, clearly, Echo squad was the first successful squad to complete the final test, they had done it. Yet no victory celebrations were being held in their bunk, in fact they didn't say a word Jarod stared out the window, Nala curled into a ball in her bed, Barrett sat against his bunk staring off into space, and Kaiden went to shower.
The warm liquid that splashed on him was the prisoner's blood, adding insult to injury, it dried in his fur making it sticky and he could smell the bitter metallic scent of it. Getting the water extra hot, he scrubbed and scrubbed trying to wash off a filth that wouldn't leave him.
He leaned his head out of the stall to make sure he was alone, a small reprieve, under the cover of hot steam and the sound of running water he sat on the stall floor and wept into his paws. He tried not to but his thoughts drifted to Bunnyburrow and Lily, neither of which he felt worthy of anymore. But in spite of it he fixated on her, thinking about simpler times, about carrot festivals and first kisses. About all those times when they just held each other.
"Why didn't I tell you? Why didn't I just say it?" He sobbed.
More than anything he wished he could be home with her right now, to feel her embrace, her fur against his, her scent in his nose and her taste on his lips, her soft supple form against his.
He brought himself to completion not so much as a sexual release, but a cathartic one, the tense and negative emotions replaced for a few fleeting seconds by a release of endorphins and a sense of wellbeing and calm. He prayed that Lily wouldn't mind thinking of her, 'in that way', especially given the emotionally devastating event that occurred only hours earlier. His first experience such as this and 'god damn it, it was happening on the floor of a shower stall.' He thought.
The prisoners it seemed weren't the only casualties that day, along with them was his innocence cast on the pyre to some demonic spirit that seemed to have a destiny planned for him.