A/N: So, this chapter is a bit short. There's a whole story I could tell about why, but what I'll say is that it all comes down to pacing.

And hey, look at that. Short author's note, too.

Hope you like this chapter. R&R!

"We have six straight hours of material and you have one year to decide. Go about your lives, Happy Tree residents. But heed the screen. It will be constantly streaming videos out of the series, twenty-four hours a day, for all of you to watch. Good day." With that, Dr. Grayski shut off the microphone and, closely followed by Dr. Wexler, entered the city hall and locked the door behind them.

Turmoil erupted in their absence. Everywhere, people were running, sobbing, fainting. Shouts of "We're all going to die!" and "Was he serious?" came from every direction, from men, women, girls, and boys of all ages.

Billy pushed past several frantic people, though he had no idea where he was trying to go. Away from all this panic, he supposed, but he knew that it would be everywhere in the town until this year was up. And he was panicked himself. As he'd watched the rabbit smash his head in on the cheerful, green, cartoon ground, he'd had a premonition that the rabbit was supposed to be him.

He would have to run away. Yes! Obviously, the problem had to do with the town of Happy Tree Estates itself, not him! Billy was involved in not a single crime circle. As an innocent waiting for an unfair death, he could save himself. He was born free!

And then, Billy's world came crashing down. A hysterical woman jostled him in the ribs, making his feet stumble and catch. He was ready for his forward fall to be broken by his face, but a pair of arms caught him before the grisly fate of the rabbit could be met.

"Oh, Billy! Billy, oh God, oh God!" His eyes made contact with Sue's. The pink color of her irises now tinted the whites of her eyes and her eyelids. She had been crying. "That chipmunk . . . it had my bow!" she whispered, voice shaky. She patted her neat bun which, lo and behold, was held in place by a full, bright pink bow that matched the one on the head of the chipmunk.

"The bunny had my slippers," Billy said breathlessly. The two trembled in each others' arms as they tried to avoid being trampled by the masses.

"All of you, stop it! Are you seriously freaking out over this shit?"

Like a deathly game of Stop and Go, the whole crowd froze to listen. A bespectacled young man had climbed atop the podium and now stood hands on hips with a look of pity for his townspeople.

"Really! Do you all believe that those loons could really do any of these things to us?" he shouted. "They're scientifically impossible!" He gestured above his head. Onscreen, an anteater was having its guts torn out through its snout. The image made several people cringe, but the boy demanded everyone's attention by virtue of being a teen genius. "There's no way for these 'scientists' to prove that they're capable of atrocities like this. Everyone, go home! Don't run around like gullible sheep!"

"How do you know this?" a woman shouted.

This offended Ty Sifford. Everyone knew he was a child prodigy and therefore knew that much more than anyone by default. "Trust me!" he proclaimed. "And if you don't believe me, come back tomorrow and I'll have a whole argument prepared."

Ty Sifford was so confident in himself that it was hard for him to not convince at least a few people. The atmosphere immediately grew calmer at his reassurance, not figuring in the nervous few who were still shaking and crying on the ground.

Among them, Nick, who continued to shake as she stood. "Yeah, why don't we all go home?" she cried. "Maybe we'll wake up tomorrow morning and it will have all been a dream!"

She was being sarcastic, but soon after she'd said it, she was trampled by a whole town of people running home.

"Ow . . . " she whined as Billy and Ethan helped her stand again. After being passed by a bewildered Ty Sifford leaving to follow his own advice, the group of friends (and Lombard) were the only ones left in the square.

Ethan was more shaken than any of his companions. Though he was trying to support dizzy Nick on his shoulder, he soon felt so weak that he had to sit down. "The beaver," he said. "He was me!"

"How could you tell?" Sue wondered.

Ethan replied by grimacing and exhaling. The air whistled as it passed through the prominent gap in his front teeth. Eyes widened as his friends realized why the beaver had seemed so familiar. Ethan then fell backwards, rubbing his neck tentatively all the while.

Nick and Petunia cried and grieved for their victimized friends. But Lombard was appalled by their sympathies. "Are y'all crazy or something? Like Ty pointed out, the scientifical impossibilites are so staggeringly big that you'd have to be a total moron to really believe it."

Petunia coughed. "Irwin," she said, "look at the screen."

Lombard spun around to look and spun back unconvinced. Petunia had spotted the Happy Tree Friend who was quite obviously him. "Just proves my point further," he said. "I would never, ever take a job in Animal Control. Those guys couldn't have been really watching us!"

Suddenly, Ethan jumped up with a violent stomachache. He ran home before he could vomit all over the square. He had just witnessed something that had unnerved him greatly: his character – resurrected – being strangled by the appendages of a giant squid. That was twice in ten minutes he'd seen himself killed, and though it was now the world record in frequency of witnessing one's own death, he was understandably not excited.

It unnerved Nick as well. She bolted home, screaming "Oh God!" repeatedly.

Four others followed her, Lombard haughty and the rest sad and scared. They hid where the rest of the town had gone – home – and that was where they remained.

The beautiful day was over. It was only 10:00 a.m. and the sun was still warm, but those scientists had taken a wet towel, dampened everyone's spirits, and started to suffocate them as well. Although the sun was bright and high in the air, it failed to register in Billy's eyes. The sky might as well have been gray to him. Gray was the color of sadness, and sadness was connected to death, and whether or not death was imminent, it was taking over his thoughts.

By nightfall, most people had calmed themselves. They couldn't see the screen from inside, and having been away for several hours let them start to forget what the Happy Tree Friends even looked like. They took to their beds, praying the next morning would in fact reveal that it had been a dream.

What nullified those hopes was the one woman who stayed awake and alert all night in what was clearly a very grim reality. She was convinced that Grayski spoke the truth. She feared for her family and she needed to know their potential fates.

That horrific curiosity made her sneak out of her home after the rest of the Estates were asleep. She sat outside the entire night, taking in every gory second of the continuous footage. She recognized everyone in the videos from their idiosyncracies – one of the things she had used to love about the Estates was how idiosyncratic everyone was. But at the same time, she noticed something that disturbed her greatly, much more than seeing the simulated deaths of friends and neighbors did.

Those scientists wanted to be cryptic, it seemed. But she needed answers. As the sun rose on a new day, she ran home, woke her husband and their young son, and marched her family to the Happy Tree, waiting for Grayski to unlock the front door.

A/N: Brief character update:

Ty Sifford is Sniffles (is it just me, or does he tend to have his guts ripped out through his snout a lot?)

The mysterious woman at the end is kind of an OC, kind of not. You'll see. She has a complicated relationship with the canon.

I hope the length didn't affect the quality at all and that it was still enjoyable. Stay tuned for chapter three!