Cave of Shadows

Epilogue

Epilogue- 3 months later, Roxanne’s POV

Clark will never walk again.

Not properly, anyway.  The doctors have put him through rigorous physical therapy over the last few months, trying everything under the sun to correct his limp.  Nothing worked, unfortunately.  This impediment should keep him out of danger, though, since he can’t be sent to fight in his condition.

Connor demanded to be sent to the front as soon as he saw Nate with who I now know is his daughter, not mine.  But the Collective demanded that he stay here with us to assist in the interrogation of the Ringmaster.  A lot of good it’s done; whenever he’s in the room with her all he can do is demand to know exactly how his child wound up inside of me.  All she ever does is laugh nowadays.  She hasn’t said one word worth hearing since the Minister appeared on television.  I guess she thinks he’ll be along to rescue her any minute, and so remaining loyal to him is her best bet for survival.

Melchior, on the other hand, was shipped off to the front despite his constant protests.  They needed a figurehead at the battles, a symbol of Collective pride, and the son of the Minister leading a rebellion against his own father was perfect for the job.  I haven’t seen him or heard from him in months, and if I’m being perfectly honest with myself, I don’t even know if he’s still alive.  If he was captured, though, I have no doubt that the Minister would make his execution as public as possible, meaning we would have seen it on TV.  I have to hold on to the hope that Melchior Thursday is still alive.

Recruits for the Colonial Army were not hard to come by, because all over the Colony every eligible man and woman was signing up.  The draft board had their work cut out for them.  In no time, just 1 short week, they had an army of 10,000 men and women, ready to fight to the death for their Colony.  In 3 more weeks, the army had gone through basic training, and so just 1 month after the Minister made his address, the Colony had a huge army with which to combat the once unstoppable Infinity Collective.

While they were building this army, the EM forces infiltrated the Ruins, smoking out Collective camps and burning them to the ground, taking anybody they found there prisoner.  By the time the army was ready for action, only a few Collective camps remained. 

Nobody on the Colony side took the time to remember that the values they were fighting to maintain were in fact being destroyed and desecrated by the very actions they were taking to maintain them. 

In this war, nobody was winning.

“And you still maintain that none of this was your fault, Ms. Bianchi?”

“Your honor, I never said it wasn’t my fault.  And I haven’t even told you the worst of it yet.”