Disclaimer
The following is a work of fiction. Any real names, real events, non-original content, or likeness of celebrities are used in a fictitious and parodic manner. All other character names and events are fictional and any resemblance to these names or events are purely coincidental.
Dedications
• To my family - even though we don’t see eye to eye anymore. C’est la vie.
• To Tom Cruise - for keeping us safe from Xenu.
• To the 2008 World Series champions Philadelphia Phillies – uh, because baseball is king?
• To Sean, Kristin, Leah, and Heather – thanks for putting up with this for the next 30 days.
• To Ice Cube – because gansta rap made me do it.
• To all the women I have met in my life – it’s nothing personal, really.
• To The Honky Tonk Man – because he’s cool, he’s cocky, he’s bad.
That is all I have for now. Please enjoy.
Dane Woychuk
Nov. 1/08 12:01 a.m.
Prologue: A Sign of Things to Come…
Ponoka, Alberta. Year: 2033
Darkness was all he could see. He was regaining consciousness slowly. Then a bright white light came across his face…
Kevin Brody looked around his new home, the home he had inherited from the man who would have been his father-in-law for all intents of purposes – Harold “Beardo” Toroshenko. He looked around the living room and saw his life partner Ariel, holding their newborn daughter Willow.
“Our work is not done.”, said Ariel to Kevin who had a perplexed look on his face. “Last time was only the beginning.”
“Beginning of what?” asked Kevin, looking confused. “I thought I was done with all of this last time. You promised me it would be the last time…”
On the old grounds of the Edmonton branch of the Alberta Research Council, Penny Fields – covered in her own blood and showing wounds of a fierce battle – approached Kevin. “Was my sacrifice in vein?” she matter-of-factly asked Kevin.
“What? No? I don’t know!” Kevin replied back, hesitation in his voice. “Why am I back here! I thought the past was the past!”
Dean and Karen Williams walked towards Kevin out from a pile of rubble. Karen held her newborn daughter Faith.
“The past cannot be changed.”, said Dean.
“But events in your present have drastically changed the future.”, said Karen. “Someone in the present has broken the rules.”
“There are new players to the game.”, stated Doctor Sarah Bellum, who also emerged from the same pile of debris. “They wish to bend the rules to their favor. They have to be removed.”
“Removed? How? Last thing I remember was…”, Kevin paused in mid sentence, unaware of what exactly his last memory was. “…I… don’t remember.”
“Try to remember.”, Ariel urged her life partner. “The game changers need to be removed.”
Just then, three women in their early 20s approached Kevin. They were older versions of his daughter Willow, Dean’s daughter Faith, and Hailey Bellum.
"He is not ready for the future.”, cooed adult Hailey.
“He will see things that may or may not come to pass.”, adult Faith whispered in Kevin’s ear.
“Yet they are the only hope to chase away the corruptors and the head corruptor himself.”, stated adult Willow. “But pain and suffering must they go through before they can stand with us in unison.”
“Pain and suffering?” Kevin looked at the future version of his daughter. “Haven’t we been through enough. How can I make things…”
“… Okay?” Kevin woke up, semi-conscious, and surrounded by darkness. Was he blindfolded or masked to his where his captors were taking him. Kevin felt groggy still. He felt two arms dragging him on either side of him. Then he heard the opening of a door and felt being tossed to the ground.
An unknown male voice spoke. “Leave the hood on him until the doctor sees him.”, the voice commanded
An unknown, yet familiar female voice spoke. “Pity,” she said. “I was looking forward to finishing him off myself.”
“I’m pretty sure Mister Saxon saw to that already. Isn’t that why he’s here?” the male voice asked.
“I really don’t care,” the female voice snapped. “Inform Doctor Reese-Shaw that prisoner eight-four-seven-two is ready for questioning.”
Dr. Kimberly Reese-Shaw felt like she was far from home. She had come a long way from listening to spoiled celebrities dealing with whatever parental issues they had to trying to be beneficial in the psychiatric profession. Now here she is, head of the Alberta Hospital in Ponoka, trying to solve a mystery of a rapid increase of patients suffering some kind of dementia.
There has to be a pattern somewhere, I just can’t find it! Dr. Reese-Shaw thought to herself as two men in black military fatigues marched up to her and motioned for her to come. How am I supposed to solve anything with the military doubling my facilities as a P.O.W. camp? She thought again to herself, glancing over towards a television monitor where she saw Claudia Daring - a petite young woman with black hair and tanned skin – speaking in front of what appeared to be a set similar to the old style evening newscasts. Reese-Shaw caught the telecast in midsentence: “… Our enemies know the recent strike would be to their advantage. However, they do not realize that we are more than ever resolved in bringing them all to justice,” Claudia said in a stern tone. “These so-called ‘Angels of Mercy’ are just as dangerous, if not more so, than the Vegreville Six… and we all know what they did on July the seventh over twenty three years ago. These terrorists will be caught and dealt with like the Vegreville Six were. Justice will be served. Our Protectorate will remain safe, strong, and sec…” Dr. Reese-Shaw kept on walking as Claudia Daring kept on with the propaganda that has been said so much over the years. One of the guards handed an old-style manila folder. She briefly leafed through the documents inside it as the guards walked and stopped her in front a door. She opened the door and walked into another room with a table and a two way mirror which was adjacent to another door. In front of that door another woman with short brown hair and wearing an all leather ensemble walked towards the doctor.
“Another headcase for you, doctor.”, the woman said with disdain in her voice.
“Maybe if you were willing to cooperate more, I would have figured out what makes these people ‘headcases’ as you so glibly put it, Miss Sloane” Reese-Shaw politely replied back.
“Mister Saxon brought you here to maintain order, not to create more chaos.”, the woman known as Sloane snapped back. “Order leads to loyalty. Loyalty leads to victory. Victory is life.”
“Yes yes, I’m aware of your little oath to Mister Saxon.”, Reese-Shaw said trying her hardest to restrain herself from completely going off. “Just let me do my job here once and let me interview this man.”
Sloane simply rolled her eyes and then looked straight at Dr. Reese-Shaw. “For whatever reason, Mister Saxon wants to keep you around. The very second he changes his mind, make no mistake, I will enjoy having the Viisk eviscerating you in public!” Sloane barked at the doctor as she marched out in a huff. Once Sloane had left the premise, Dr. Reese-Shaw removed a digital audio recorder and began to speak: “Patient eight-four-seven-two, subject is a while male, Caucasian in his late 30s. According to documents provided by Protectorate Officers, patient was exhibiting delusions of grandeur and signs of dementia similar to a majority of patients in this ward. However, age difference is a major point of contention with the exceptions of an accountant named Tim, a female known as Stacey Noble, and most recently, an orderly from this very institution. It should be noted that patient should be in his early fifties if timeline is correct. As per instructions, I shall interview the patient.”
Dr. Reese-Shaw stopped the recording and entered the next room. In there she saw a man, crouching in the corner muttering to himself: “The chain cannot be broken in the past, but in the present so the future won’t turn out the way it has.”
Dr. Reese-Shaw walked slowly towards the patient. “Mister Brody, I presume?”
The man looked up from his scared position. It was indeed Kevin Jay Brody, former assistant (to the) regional manager of Cargill. In what would be best described as hysteria mixed with grief, Kevin spoke to the doctor.
“It wasn’t a chicken! It was a baby!” Kevin cried out in between sobs of sorrow.
Befuddled by that comment, Dr. Reese-Shaw matter of factly asked “What do you mean?”
Kevin then got up and angrily shoved the doctor up against the wall. “The chain can’t be broken here!”, he screamed. “Why am I here? This isn’t real! Nothing here is real! They’re all dead because of me!”
“Wh-who is dead?” Dr. Reese-Shaw asked nervously as she discreetly reached into her pocket to activate a silent alarm.
“Dean! Karen! The Squints! My god! I let them all down! Donnie, I’m so sorry about Sarah!” Kevin bellowed as he slumped down on the floor and curled up into the fetal position as two orderlies showed up. Dr. Reese-Shaw looked at them and handed one of them a syringe.
“Give him 10cc of this every hour until he calms down,” she instructed them. As Kevin remained sobbing on the floor, Dr. Kimberly Reese-Shaw wondered to herself: was this the man Jericho sent to save them? And how can do it from this position?
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