If you were anxious to know about how the cliffhanger is continuing, do not worry as it is here!

Chapter 7: Follow the Black Rabbit

"Hunnh… hunnh… HUNNH!" Hazel limped away as fast as he could, wincing loudly with every step: Tab had shot him in the thigh. Throbbing, burning hot pain surged through his whole leg, and only adrenaline and the need to get away kept Hazel going. Then his bad leg tripped on a rock and he fell over again.

"AHHHH!" Hazel cried, trying not to go into shock at the pain. In some corner of his hazy mind he heard the yellow buck Tab gaining on him, and in another he heard and smelled water: he had reached the river. It was only a foot away, but the pain was so great…

"HAHA, I got you now!" Tab sneered, standing over Hazel's prone body and aiming his gun at his head.

No… don't die, don't die! Hazel mentally shouted at himself, gritting his teeth. Don't die, Fiver needs you! The mental thought of his brother's name sparked Hazel's mind again and a desperate plan formed: he grabbed a clump of mud and threw it into Tab's face.

"AAAH!" the buck flailed blindly and the gun discharged a foot from Hazel's head. His ears ringing, his body acting on instinct alone, Hazel rolled over and plunged into the river.

The cool relief of the river softly soothed Hazel and he fought hard to keep his head above water as the current carried him downstream. He managed to look back, and somewhere in the distance he saw Tab give chase, point the gun in his direction, and then scream and give up. Hazel enjoyed a second of relief before his mind started getting hazy and he started to feel exhausted from blood loss and the effort of swimming as he treaded the current. The throbbing in his leg kept him awake, but he had to get out soon or he was going to drown. His mind getting hazy, he spotted a large rusty drain pipe on the bank up ahead and desperately swam for it. He needed a place of cover, just in case those bucks were still looking for him, at least they were away from the others…

Dripping wet Hazel crawled into the pipe, curled up on his side, and let unconsciousness take him.

000***000

"HRRAAGH! HRAAGHH!" Tab screamed in frustration as he watched Hazel float away in the river, too far away for a decent shot. The orange buck was good as dead anyway from that gunshot, no one could find him out here in time, but Tab would have much preferred to eliminate the witness altogether. Hopefully Heinrich had dealt with that skinny other buck by now. Tab reluctantly holstered his gun and started running back for camp, eager to check on Louie and the hostages.

000***000

"How good a nice tasty s'more would be right now and... what?"

Tab paused himself as he found himself back at the camp but saw Louie tied up and unconscious mumbling in his sleep and the captured does gone. Focusing hard on how that happened, he didn't notice someone else behind him till-

WHACK! A huge object conked his head and he clattered to the ground rolling onto his head groaning. Struggling to regain his vision, he could make out the outline of two bucks and once he could properly see, they became clear: an elderly grey buck with dark grey eye circles in a green dress coat and black sweatpants holding a bat, and an orange coloured buck in a sun yellow long sleeve and grass green sweatpants clutching a can of lemon soda. Both looked ticked off.

"Where is he?" snarled the grey buck. Realizing who they meant Tab darted his paws into the back of his pants for the gun, but before he could draw it, Holly clouted him with the bat again. Tab dropped the gun and the orange buck scooped it up and pointed it at him. Blood dripped from the side of Tab's mouth as the grey buck held out the hand of the bat and used it to tilt his head up.

"I am only going to ask this once," Holly growled, "What did you do with the orange buck you were chasing?" Beside him the orange buck's paws trembled as he held the gun.

Tab could sense he had never held a gun before, and grinned: "Shot 'im. Good an' dead, you shoulda seen the scared look in 'is eyes when I snuffed 'im out."

Strawberry gasped, his eyes widening in horror. "You're – YOU'RE LYING!" he shouted, the gun in his paws shaking worse than ever. Tab internally cackled, waiting for his chance: just rub it in a little more and he could grab the gun while the buck was in shock. The grey buck, however, remained stoic, and Tab felt his grin shrink a little.

"Calm down Strawberry, he didn't do it," Holly stated. He turned to Tab: "If you really were close enough to see the look in his eyes as he died, you would have blood all over you," said the grey buck, "Take it from a soldier, who knows what it's like to see someone die."

He reached into a pocket, and pulled out an ordinary ballpoint pen. "Let's try that again, shall we? Strawberry, hold him down." The orange buck swatted Tab across the head with the gun and pushed him over. Tab struggled, but Strawberry was much stronger than him, and he knelt down on his knees over Tab's chest and arms, pinning him completely.

"Whatcha gonna do, make me draw you a map!?" Tab barked up at Holly.

"Actually no," Holly answered angrily. "Although once I've used this pen on you, you'll wish it were that easy." He clicked the pen's point out and grab Tabs' left paw first. "You see, part of my training as a soldier, especially as a rabbit and one of the smallest in my unit, is to learn all the weak points of as many species as I can. And there's one in particular that all mammals with fingers and claws have, that you can easily exploit with any little pointed thing." And with that he drove the tip of the pen under the claw on Tab's index paw.

"AAAAARGHH!" Tab screamed as the tip stabbed into the end of his finger, digging further and further under his claw.

"You see? I barely applied any force at all," declared Holly, pulling the pen out for a moment's respite, "Perhaps only a tenth of my full strength, let's see what happens when I push it to twenty-five-"

"AA –AA – AAAGH!" Tab screamed as Holly drove the pen back under his claw, deeper and deeper drawing blood, his legs flailing helplessly behind Strawberry's rear. The orange buck felt shocked to see this darker side of Holly's personality, but determination to learn what happened to Hazel kept him going.

After a loud and very painful minute, Holly finally stopped. "Feel ready to tell us where our friend is?" Holly asked.

"Go to Hell!" Tab shouted, and spat in Holly's face. Holly growled, his fingers itching to grab the gun and shoot the yellow buck, but he had another idea: "Alright, you asked for it. This weak spot is very specific to rabbits."

Holly moved from Tab's side to the top of the yellow buck's head, putting him face to face with Strawberry, and Tab's eyes widened with realization before Holly grabbed his yellow ears and stood on them.

"AAAAAAHHH!" Tab screamed louder than ever, and then kneeling down Holly grabbed the ends of his ears and dug his claws into them, causing more pain than the yellow buck had ever felt in his life.

"WHERE – IS – HE?" Holly snarled as he dug his claws in further.

"AAA – OKAY! Okay!" Tab gasped, "I shot 'im in the leg and he fell in the river! Dunno where he is, but last I saw he was alive! I swear!" Breathing hard, Holly nodded, satisfied that he was telling the truth. He released his grip and got off of Tab's ears, making the buck cry out in relief. Holly retrieved Bigwig's bat, and put the yellow buck out of his misery with one final blow to the side of the head.

"Don't worry, he's just out cold," Holly assured Strawberry.

"You sure scared me Mr Holly, is the terrors of war really what made you resort to those techniques?" Strawberry Asked still shaking a bit.

"Yes indeed," Holly responded. He spotted some leftover rope on the ground left from the tied Does and began securing Tabs' wrists. "Believe when I say that wars can make you do brutal things for staying alive and saving lives."

Suddenly they heard a rustling in the bushes nearby. Both bucks quickly stood and braced for another fight, but then a familiar voice emerged: "Guys?"

Dandelion and Hawkbit emerged, both wide-eyed and scared.

"I… we heard the shots, and then the screams…" mumbled Dandelion, "What happened?"

"Hazel's been shot," Holly answered grimly. Both Dandelion and Hawbit gasped in horror.

"This buck shot him in the leg, but said he's still alive, we have to find him!" Holly clarified.

"What happened to the other buck?" Strawberry quickly asked.

"Here he is, mate!" Hawkbit dove back into the bush, and Dandelion helped him pull out the unconscious body of Heinrich, still bound with creeper.

"How did you two do that?" Strawberry Asked.

"It's a great story mate, let's get the police here for this lot and go find Hazel ASAP!" Hawkbit declared.

"Dandelion, run and get the others!" Holly ordered. "On it!" Dandelion bounded off into the wood, and then suddenly they heard a thump: "Oof!"

"*Sniff*, sorry Dandelion."

"Ow! Sorry – Fiver?"

Everyone at the site suddenly tensed up, and watched as Dandelion emerged back from the thicket, accompanied by Fiver, whom he had just run into in the woods. As soon as he saw Fiver's face Holly knew: Fiver knew what they did.

"I saw it," Fiver whimpered, "I – I saw it, I had a vision on the bus – Hazel's been shot!"

Holly turned back towards the knocked out buck. "That one called Tab said he shot Hazel in the leg and he escaped into the river, can you make out any of it?" Breathing fast and trying to keep himself calm Fiver thought hard and slowly the sequences in his head began clearing up as if it were a movie changing from a night scene to a day scene.

"Hazel's running, a tree root trips him," Fiver began, his voice quavering, "He – he gets up, a bang, he falls and gets up again, he's bleeding, he's limping away…" Fiver's shut eyes clenched and he gritted his teeth, trying to keep going, "He falls again, the yellow buck and points a fire stick at him, Hazel threw mud in his face and the fire stick missed! Now Hazel's in the river…" Fiver opened his eyes, shuddering, "And that's all I can see. The buck didn't kill him, he's alive, we have to find him!" And with a jolt he started running towards the river.

"Fiver, wait!" Holly yelled back.

"No, we can't wait, we have to find him!" Fiver yelled, "He'll die without us!"

"I know, but we have to wait for the police! We have to explain what happened, and they can find him faster than we can. And I'm not letting you search alone - we don't even have flashlights!" Holly pointed out.

"Wait, maybe the does had one in their stuff!" said Strawberry. He ran over to the does' nearby tent still left untouched since their rescue, unzipped it, and searched inside until he pulled one out. "Here we are!"

Holly didn't like it, but time was of the essence. He knew that without help Hazel might die of blood loss, or worse. "Okay," the elder buck mumbled, "Strawberry, you help Fiver search. Dandelion, Hawkbit, you stay with me – you'll need to explain what happened to that buck. Strawberry-"

"Don't worry, I'll look after him, I promise!" Strawberry declared. And flicking on the flashlight, he and Fiver took off into the dark forest.

000***000 20 Minutes Later Fiver shivered with dread as Strawberry led him through the deep, dark woods. His gut still told him that Hazel was alive, but he could not suppress the fear that he was wrong, and he might never see his brother alive again. He shone the flashlight every which way, desperately searching for any possible sign. Then he spotted something orange, lying next to a nearby tree. He waved the flashlight over it and gasped out loud. It was Hazel, lying prone and still at the base of the tree, his eyes shut and a pool of blood collecting around his leg.

"HAZEL! HAZEL!" Fiver yelled, and ran over to his brother's body. He knelt down next to the body, rolled it over and shook it frantically, trying to wake him up.

"Come on Hazel, please!" Fiver pleaded. "Wake up! Please, wake up!" He shook Hazel some more until the buck's eyes lolled open, and Fiver gasped: Hazel's eyes were nonresponsive, and he wasn't breathing. He was dead.

"No... NO!" Fiver wailed, "No…" Tears welled up, and he began sobbing with grief, "Please… don't leave me!" He choked, "…Don't leave me alone." And he began sobbing into his brother's bleeding form, his tears staining Hazel's red checkered shirt.

"Fiver…" Strawberry whispered from behind him, his voice full of tremulation, "What's – what's going on?"

"Hazel's gone, Strawberry…" Fiver croaked, trying so desperately not to break down. He looked back at his friend, tears running down his cheeks, "He's… gone."

"Fiver..." Strawberry muttered as he stepped closer, looking scared, "…There's nothing there." Fiver jerked back to look, and with a shock realized that Strawberry was right: there was nobody there. He jumped up in fright, half-running away with his eyes locked on the spot where his brother had laid dead, and then he noticed something more. The forest had gone unnaturally quiet. There was no rustling of trees, no sounds of birds, no gushing of running water from the river, not even the sounds of his friends and the police calling Hazel's name. He could not even hear Strawberry's breathing anymore.

"Strawberry?" Fiver looked back, and gasped: Strawberry was gone. Fiver's eyes darted around searching desperately for the red buck, but he was nowhere to be seen. Fiver was alone, all alone in this dark forest. His heart pounding in his ears, Fiver suddenly felt a strange presence. He still couldn't hear anything, but he knew someone was there. He slowly looked at Hazel's spot again, and there it was: There stood a large dark shadow in the shape of a crouching rabbit, with an outline that flickered and swirled like smoke and glowing red eyes that seemed to stare into Fiver's very soul. But despite the frightening sight, a strange calm came over Fiver. Somehow, he knew this rabbit wasn't dangerous.

"He is still alive…" whispered a deep voice that came from the rabbit, "…He needs you. Come." And the rabbit bounded away a few yards, making no sound as it moved, and then stopped and looked back, waiting for Fiver. Slowly, Fiver began to follow.

000***000

"Fiver, what's wrong with you!?" Strawberry asked desperately, holding the orange buck by the arms and shaking him, but Fiver was still unresponsive, kneeling and staring catatonically at the spot where he had seen some inexplicable vision of Hazel's dead body. Strawberry remembered Fiver's vision from the dormitory back at Cowslip's, and hearing about an apparition of Bigwig's dead body that led him to save the maned buck; he wondered if this was another such event.

Then suddenly Fiver raised one knee, then another, and slowly stood up, his glassy eyes staring blankly and without blinking at a spot somewhere up ahead. Strawberry had no idea what to do, until Fiver started moving forward, walking with his paws at his side and his head tilted a little forward like a sleepwalker, and Strawberry's decision was made for him: he followed Fiver.

000***000

"Wake up, Hazel," whispered a voice from somewhere. Hazel blinked. With a groan the rabbit stirred, and managed to sit himself up. Looking at his surroundings he remembered what happened, and recognized where he was: he had been shot in the leg, and had managed to throw himself into the river and drift until he had found sanctuary in this large drain pipe. With a start he realized he felt no pain in his leg and looked down at it: he wasn't even bleeding. But there was a mass of orange fur around his feet that, when he looked closer, made him cry out in fright.

It was himself. Somehow he was here standing up, and he was also lying prone in the drain, his eyes shut and blood pooling around his leg. Dread then sank in as Hazel realized what this meant: he was dead and looking at his own body. Then Hazel got the sensation that he was being watched, and turned around: Standing at the entrance of the pipe was what looked like a black shadow with glowing red eyes and the head and shape of a rabbit. Fiery-looking smoke pooled around what would have been its feet, and when the creature spoke it was in a deep, echoing voice that felt like it was coming from inside Hazel's own head.

"Hello, Hazel Shawnson," the rabbit greeted.

"Who - What are you…?" Hazel asked, although deep down he already knew the answer.

"I have had many names," said the expressionless rabbit, "And many, many forms. Your people know me as the Black Rabbit of Inle."

Hazel looked down at his still body, "Then is it time for me to walk with you?" To his surprise, the Black Rabbit shook his head. "No. You are not dead, but you may die if you stay here. You are losing blood, and that wound will fester without help."

"If I am not dead, then why are you here?" Hazel queried, trying to hide the fear in his voice. "I am everywhere that I am needed," the Black Rabbit answered, "As of this moment that I am talking to you I am also speaking to an elderly stag passing away in his bed six miles to the west, and to a litter of kittens being stillborn in another country, and to a fly about to be devoured by a spider." He paused, then added: "And as we speak I am also talking to your brother."

"Fiver… NO!" Hazel cried at those words, "No, please! Don't take my brother!"

"It is not his time either," croaked the Inle Rabbit. "He senses you are not dead, and is being guided to your bleeding form. I advise you to move your body closer to the pipe's opening so he can spot you more easily."

"You can't lead him here, those fire stick wielding bucks are still out there!" Hazel protested.

"You have been unconscious for an hour. The police have come and taken those bucks by now. Your friends are searching for you… I am merely trying to help them find you in time," The Black Rabbit explained.

Hazel was shocked by the magnitude of those last words, confused at why the Black Rabbit would want to save him. "But how? And… why?"

The Black Rabbit paused again before giving his answer: "We are not speaking in the material world, we are now in the world in between. I cannot enter the material world save by… special means. Only the dead and near-dead can see me, and occasionally those blessed with second sight, like your brother. As for why, there are… plans for young Fiver and his gift, and he will need you."

"What plans? How can you possibly know that he will need me?" Hazel asked, stunned.

"There have been few seers throughout rabbit history, and several in the past have chosen to join my owsla upon death. They see things just as he does, and relay it to my ears. Trust me, the world of Frith will need your brother, and you will have your own part to play." Then the Black Rabbit began to move away, his shadowy form becoming less distinct. "Your brother is nearly here. It is time for you to wake up."

"How can I do that? My body is down there!" Hazel cried.

"Simply wish to be back in and step into it with paws as if you were putting on clothes," instructed the Black Rabbit of Inle. "I must go now; we shall meet again." He then started fading away.

"Wait!" Shouted Hazel. "Was my Friend Bigwig telling the truth? Is he important for the future too?"

"Yes; most of you will be, but some will not journey with you when the time comes," boomed the Rabbit as his body almost finished vanishing. Before Hazel could ask again, the Black Rabbit of Inle was gone. And the next thing Hazel knew, he woke up in the drain pipe again.

000000000000000000

"Urrgh…" Hazel groaned. He then tried to get up and winced. His leg was hurting worse than ever, but the bleeding seemed to have lessened; he had laid down on top of the wound and partially staunched it. Slowly he cast his head around, but no Inle Rabbit was there. Perhaps it had all been a dream?

"Hazel! Where are you?" Called a voice. Hazel recognized it, it was Strawberry! He struggled to drag himself to the edge of the pipe opening, and looked out: 50 yards to the right he saw what appeared to be Strawberry, accompanied by Fiver, searching with a flashlight.

Hazel's heart lit up at the sight of his brother, but then what he saw made him pause: Fiver looked like he was in some sort of trance, walking slowly with blank eyes and an open mouth. Remembering how the Black Rabbit said he was guiding Fiver to him, Hazel stuck his arm out.

0000***0000

On the bank 50 yards from the pipe, Fiver suddenly stopped and Strawberry walked into him, making him stumble.

"Uhh…" Fiver groaned, blinked, and shook his head. The world had changed again: the Black Rabbit was gone, and he could hear again. Suddenly he heard breathing behind him.

"Fiver?" Strawberry whispered.

"Augh!" Fiver jumped, and he whipped around to face the orange buck. "Strawberry! You're here!"

"I never left you! You've been… in some sort of trance," Strawberry answered, "I tried to wake you, but-"

"Fiver!" groaned a voice from somewhere. Strawberry shone the flashlight aimed at the pipe, and they saw him: Hazel's head and arm, sticking out of a large drainpipe.

"Hazel!" Fiver cried and he bounded over to his brother and hugged him tightly. "You're alive, alive!" He blubbered.

"No ugh, this isn't the end yet for me yet," Hazel laughed weakly. "A big brother needs to be there for his little brother right?" He stroked Fiver's ears and caressed his cheek, wiping away a tear with his thumb.

"Great Frith Mr Hazel, thank goodness you're alive!" Yelled Strawberry. He dug into his right pocket and pulled out a small grey set of tweezers. "I carry this around for my nose hairs but can try helping with the bullet wound if possible."

"Not a good idea to try and take the bullet out, Strawberry," Hazel winced, clutching his leg. "The bullet's keeping me alive – it's holding back the bleeding." Fiver looked down at Hazel's injured leg, let out a gasp and quickly looked away again, unable to stand the sight of his brother hurt.

"Then let's get you back to camp – they may have an ambulance there!" said Strawberry. And with a tear Strawberry ripped one of the yellow sleeves off his long-sleeved shirt and tied it around Hazel's thigh as a makeshift bandage. And then with a heave he picked Hazel up, and slung him over his shoulders firemammal-style.

"Thank you Strawberry…" Hazel smiled woozily, the blood loss starting to get to him. As Strawberry started walking him back to camp Fiver desperately started talking to his brother, trying to keep him awake.

000***000

Back at the campsite, the other Sandleford rabbits and the does were explaining things to the police when suddenly, Strawberry and Fiver parted the woods with a nearly-unconscious Hazel slung over the tall slightly chubby orange buck's shoulders.

"Oh Frith, Hazel!" Blackberry broke from the ranks first and ran up to Strawberry and clutched Hazel's face, "Hazel, baby, look at me! Say something!"

"Hi… Blackberry…" Hazel mumbled, his eyelids shuddering from the effort to keep them open, and then his head lolled to the side as he finally lost consciousness again. Blackberry gasped, checked Hazel's pulse at his neck, shifted towards Hazel's leg and lightly lifted up the makeshift bandage, and gasped at the sight of Hazel's bloody leg.

"What's happened to him?" Pipkin asked frantically.

"A fire stick got him!" Strawberry answered as a pair of deer, one buck and one doe, in white paramedic uniforms rushed over carrying a stretcher.

"Put him down here!" the buck ordered once he and the doe erected the stretcher on wheels. Strawberry gently lifted Hazel off his shoulders and set him down, and the whole group watched with bated breath as they inspected the wound and began checking his vitals.

"The Podunk clinic's not good enough, we need to take him to BBG!" declared the buck as he grabbed one end of the stretcher.

"Does he have any next of kin?" the doe called out to the group as she picked up the other end and they began carrying Hazel towards the ambulance.

"I'm his brother!" Fiver called out. "Please let me come with him!"

"Alright son, just get in here carefully," the deer doe said as she got into the ambulance on the right. The deer buck got into the left lifting the stretcher in. "Now you sit here on the left holding your brother's right paw okay?" Fiver nodded and frantically clutched Hazel's limp paw as the paramedics closed the doors and the ambulance started driving away, sirens blaring.

Fiver watched as the medics gingerly turned Hazel over so that they could access the back of his leg. The doe medic placed a breathing mask over Hazel's face and injected an IV needle into his arm while the buck pulled out a pair of sharp scissors and began cutting up the leg of Hazel's bloody jeans. He kept going until Hazel's pants were completely dissected and he was covered by just underwear from the waist down, exposing the bullet wound in his thigh. Fiver fought down a wave of nausea and gripped Hazel's paw tighter, trying not to faint at the sight of his wounded brother, as the buck opened a kit, pulled out gauze, applied disinfectant to it and firmly pressed it against the wound. The doe then filled a syringe with something and injected it into Hazel's leg near the wound.

"What's that?" Fiver asked frantically.

"An antibiotic, to prevent infection!" the doe answered. "Sorry, this 8s all new and more harsh than going to a clinic in my youth," Fiver replied.

"It's alright boy, this is just so your brother is treated right and the wound won't get worse," the doe answered as she reached over and patted his left shoulder. "He's a good guy right?"

"He is and I don't want to lose him," Fiver sniffled.

"I'm going to need to ask you some questions about him if that's alright," said the buck. Fiver quickly nodded.

"First of all, what is your name?" the medic asked.

"F-Fiver Shawnson."

"What is your brother's name?"

"Hazel Shawnson."

"Does he have any allergies?"

"No, none."

"Any pre-existing conditions? Epilepsy, diabetes, et cetera?"

"No."

"Do you happen to know his blood type?"

"No, I don't."

"Is there any other family we can contact? Your parents, a spouse?"

Fiver shook his head sadly. "No… nobody. We don't have any other family."

"Oh sorry sir," the deer doe apologized. "Don't worry, he is in good hands."

"We're almost there, Sonny," said the driver from the front of the van, "Look out the window, you can see the sign!"

Fiver moved upwards to look out the windshield at where they were going: at the edge of the highway they were approaching a yellow and pink sign in the shape of a rabbit's head, and beneath it was a set of numbers that was constantly running up, and when Fiver saw what the sign read, he gasped.

000***000

Hours later, Hazel's eyes blinked, and he stirred where he laid.

"Uggh…" Hazel slowly forced himself to sit up, feeling groggier than he ever had in his life. His head felt cloudy, like mist in a grey morning. And he felt a deep, dull ache in his right leg. He heard beeping noises to him, and turned and saw: he was hooked up to a monitor that showed his heartbeat steadily rising; he was in a hospital. Something was stuck in his arm. He reached over and felt thin tubes attached to his arm, which he traced with his fingers until he saw what they were attached to: an IV and a bag of blood labelled LEPORINE O-NEGATIVE.

Hazel's heart rate picked up as he began to remember what happened: he had been shot, he had passed out in a drain, Fiver and Strawberry had found him, they had started carrying him away… and then he had passed out and was now here, wherever this hospital was. He reached under the sheets and felt his leg: there was a heavy bandage around it, and he could feel a line of bare skin between it and the fur on his leg; part of it had been shaved in order to properly treat his wound. He looked around the room some more before he saw something orange that made his heart leap: Fiver was curled up in a chair near his bed, fast asleep.

"Fiver?" Hazel whispered aloud, "Fiver?" Fiver shifted a little, but didn't stir. Hazel didn't want to raise his voice because he didn't want to risk waking anybody else in the ward, so his eyes darted around for something he could use to wake Fiver without getting up.

Coming up with nothing long he could poke Fiver with he grabbed one of his pillows from underneath him, aimed and tossed it at Fiver's head, hitting it with a soft flump. "Fiver? Wake up," He spoke with a louder voice as he saw Fiver give a little stir. Fiver slowly opened his eyes, noticed the pillow on the ground in front of him, and then his vision shifted over to the bed and saw Hazel looking at him and his face lit up.

"HAZEL!" He rushed over to his brother's bed and jumped onto it, his lip quivering as if he were about to cry. "Oh, Hazel!" He sobbed, hugging his brother tightly, "I was so scared, I thought I was going to lose you!"

"Can't die yet," Hazel laughed weakly. "My little brother needs his family, please watch out for the leg though."

Fiver nodded yes and shifted carefully around the injured leg. Hazel then looked around the room a bit more. "I'm so sorry Fiver, I swear I wouldn't have done that if I'd known that buck had a fire stick." He winced at the memory, remembering the white-hot pain of being shot, and how afraid he had been of dying there in the forest. "…Are the does okay?"

"*Sniff,* I think so," Fiver replied, "It all happened so fast, I passed them in the woods when I was coming to the campsite. They were running for our bus and then when we got back with Strawberry, I saw them there but didn't speak to them. They didn't look hurt, though. Big brother, you saved them."

Hazel sighed in relief at those words, and laid his head back against the pillow. "Then I guess… it was worth it," His leg throbbed, but he could stand the pain. "Do you know where we are? Where are our friends?"

"They're sleeping on the bus, in a nearby vacant lot. Hazel…" Fiver looked intently into Hazel's eyes, "We're here. We're in a town that I saw in my vision, I saw the sign as we were coming here!"

"What did the sign say?" Hazel asked, his eyes suddenly alight with new hope.

"Welcome to Bunnyburrow," Fiver finished.

Oh my! Seems our survivor friends have arrived in their next destination and it is one from one of the visions! Next time, a doctor informs Hazel of his condition, the rescued does come by for a thanks and the group finds job opportunities from a friendly pair of faces!

Please review and leave feedback please!