"Are you-," I manage to sputter out, copper coming out with my words, and the rabbit nods. He's white, three black tiger stripes on each cheek… and then I squint and I can see that it's a really shoddily done fur-dye job, that he's really kind of a sandy tan like Mister Lionheart's.
"Jack Savage, at your service," he says, winking and sticking out a paw for me to shake. I do, not feeling the same happiness that I can tell that he does. "Or you can call me Tyler, that's what my parents called me…:"
"You said I was your sister's son?" I mutter, beginning to get the picture but still trying to make sure that I get it clearly. I don't need to be any more confused than I already am… and I'm really, really, really really really confused, to be honest.
"Bonnie Hopps is your mom, isn't she?" the rabbit asks, and I nod. "She's my sister, Nick, she's missing, and you're going to have hoards of SWATters on your ass unless we run…"
"W- where- where's- where," I stammer, my brain deciding that it doesn't want to work, the blood that's slowly been filling my mouth not helping much either. Instead of words, my stomach chooses to empty itself right out all over the place…
"Ugh, well that was delicious…," I moan, my tail suddenly finding that it's been slammed into the floor, my legs buckling under me. "So what's the plan now, huh?"
"Look, Nick," Jack- excuse me, Tyler Hopps- says, frowning, "I have no idea… I have a place that I can bring us to, but we'd always be watched there. That could be good, it could be bad. Who knows these days… Y2K is a little crazier than I thought it was gonna be. But yeah, I have a place there, always watched, or I think my wife here knows a place we can go completely off the grid…"
"Your wife?" I ask, stomach still tumbling, roiling, giving me gas that makes me queasy.
"Yeah, we were the first really open interspecies pair, but um, yeah, that's not really important right now-"
"Oh, it's plenty important," Mason says, tone harsh, but we all see her smile- oh...
"It was both of you, you're um-?"
"Very much so," Tyler says, smiling back, paw starting to tap, thump, thump, thump, against the ground. "But seriously, come on, we've got to go!" he says, taking a grasp on my paw, pulling me along through worn tunnels and dirt shafts lit by candles that have burned right on down to the stubs, wax coating their stands, and Mason takes up the rear right behind us. She makes sure we're not being chased, thank the Celestials above that we're not.
I'm barely on my paws, but hell, it is what it is, live in fear and fight it or feel at peace and never make a change, right? What's the saying that I'm thinking of?
It's either 'no rest for the wicked' or that I can sleep when I'm dead, both of which apply themselves pretty darn well to what's going on here…
After what feels like days and days (and hell, for flock's sake, it could very well have been days and days, after being stuck inside for as long as I have been, day and time all just blur together, kind of like a much-too-long quarantine), we find ourselves, one hare, one fox-who's-not-quite-a-fox, and one actual fox, in a huge chamber that stretches out forever in front of us, all over, around us too, and the ceiling is so high that even the huge cut crystal glass chandeliers that are strung from the rafters seem like tiny little specks of light. Looking up is making me dizzy, and I feel my stomach start to surge again. I don't need that, I don't want to deal with that.
My stomach's empty as it is anyways, I'd just be wretching up more crap…
Okay, where the heck are we, anyways? It's bright in here, so, I mean, I kinda think that there should be some mammals living in here, right? But it's completely quiet… and I know I'm not the only one here thinking that. Everyone else with me is looking around for more people too…. After being chased everywhere by everyone, we've kinda gotten used to always having more people around, so quiet is scary.
Quiet is like the dark these days, you never know what could be hiding in it. For all you know, there could be people out to plot against you… okay, Nick, you're scaring yourself, and you know it, I think, feeling my heart start to pound in my chest, thumping hard against my breastbone, my breaths coming fast and shallow… light-headedness, oh yeah. Panic attacks, real fun, oh mt god, oh my head, ack… this is awful, yeah…
"You alright there, Nick?" Mason asks me, and I force myself to nod.
"I'm doin' just about as well as I think I can be right about now, Skye," I mumble. "But oh my gods, how long were we even walking for, my paws hurt…"
"Nick, if you'd like to stop just thinking about yourself like you're the only god damn fox left in the world, I'd really, really, really appreciate it," the vixen says, sighing and pinching her snout, letting a frustrated breath out, her nostrils flaring as she does, the light going out of her eyes. "Sorry, I know that that was uncalled for…"
"No, please, I get it," I sigh. "I'd rather get shot down than get shot for real."
"Well, as long as we're both on the same page," she says, smiling sadly. "That's-"
Scuffling behind us grabs all of our ears, everyone flipping around, the three of us forming a triangle with me as the only side who doesn't have a gun drawn, mostly because nobody's given this here fox a sidearm.
Unfortunately for all of us, it looks like we're in a rabbit warren, and every single one of them, well, this is their home, and as far as I think they can tell, we're invading. I've never seen this many guns before, they're rare in the Burrows these days- or at least, I thought that they were, guess I'm really, really, really wrong.
An older rabbit, a tan one wearing a ragged pair of denim overalls, speaks up, a pistol replacing the worn muskets everyone has. "Normally, we like our guests to introduce themselves at the front door, you know…"
"Um…" is the only answer any of us can come up with to that, and the rabbit sighs.
"I don't want to do this, but if you don't answer me within the next thirty seconds, I promise I know how to use this…"
Well, flock me again, I guess!