Disclaimer: They aren't mine.
Last night I did a bad thing. I wrote a story when I should've been sleeping. Not unusual for me, really, but what is unusual for me is the story's content. Blame it on the sprained ankle bad mood if you like. I'm really sick of crutches right now. We all know that the ending of The Believers can't be what it looked like. But I was sitting there unwrapping my ankle and I thought, *What if it was? How could it be that one minute Eddie gives Cade that incredible moment of the phones ringing off the hook with calls from believers and the next minute kills him?* Because that blows the Eddie-as-GenTech-duplicate theory for me right there. No clone would have done that beautiful thing. So if it was exactly what it looked like, if Eddie killed him, then why? That was the question I sat down with, and this was my answer. Death, darkness, and an unhappy ending (duh) follow, as we enter the mind of a...
Lone Gunman
by Tiriel
PG-13, death, angst
He was too good for this. When I say that, I don't just mean his moral goodness, his Boy Scout in thief's clothing nature, I mean all of him. He deserved better than a life on the run, always searching, never able to rest. He would never have had a moment's peace, even if we'd won the war. He would have spent the rest of his days wary and watchful, afraid they'd come back someday for another try. That's why I had to kill him.
The Paranoid Times site says that the Gua did it. I've passed the quatrains on to our most dedicated believers. They'll keep up the fight. He is a martyr now, something I always thought he half-intended to become. Not for glory or fame, but because if he'd ever thought his death would help the cause, he'd have pulled the trigger himself.
Pulling the trigger. I hate guns. Always have, always will, and there's a particular irony there. Back in the days before Cade Foster, when I thought it all tied in to Lee Harvey Oswald somehow, I learned to shoot. Research on the plausibility of the whole lone gunman theory. History records them all as the victims of lone gunmen. We conspiracists know better. I even did a dry run of an assassination back then, just to see what was possible. It's surprising. Nearly made a believer out of me. Pulling the trigger on Foster was the hardest thing I've ever done. And the easiest, because I knew it was right.
He never knew what hit him, that's what I have to believe. He died thinking we were about to get our message out to millions. He died as close to happy as he could be. I gave him everything. Then I gave him one last gift, that map lit up like a Christmas tree with our believers calling in to show their support. Then I took the weight of the world from his shoulders in the only way it could ever happen. I did it because I loved him.
There is no more pain for him. No more responsibility for the fate of mankind. No more missing his wife. He's with her again now. I saw him look up at her picture there on the set, when he thought no one saw.
Now he is a martyr, and our believers will fight even harder in his name. History will record his death at the hands of the Gua conspiracy, not a lone gunman, and in time he'll be known as the hero he was, not the killer most of the world believed him to be.
The Second Wave is near, and he was right, we needed to do something drastic to gain more support for the cause before it's too late. Going on TV, that would have made him look even more like a lunatic. My way, he'll come out looking like a saint.
And what about Crazy Eddie, his partner, sidekick, friend, murderer? The one person in the world who loved him enough to take away his burden and set him free? He's going to take his own life, his natural instability too much for him to handle without Cade Foster and the purpose he brought to a solitary pathetic life. The guilt too heavy. If I were to live long enough to see how it all ends, to question whether or not what I did was right, that would be too much. The pain of what I've done is hard enough to bear now, when I still know it was the right choice, the only choice, and I haven't had time to begin to doubt. If I'd had any second thoughts, his behavior at the studio would have cleared them away. He was so desperate, in so much pain. I did it for him, I do this for me, and if I go to hell for what I've done, it can't be any worse than this. But why would I? I've saved humanity. And, more importantly, to me at least, I've saved him.
The End.
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Feedback to Tiriel if you're still speaking to me.