Back at the old warren, Captain Mackey was making a report to Chief McDaniels.
"They're gone, m'kay?" he said. "Completely vanished. We were out tracking them half the night an' didn't see hide nor hair of 'em, m'kay?"
McDaniels leaned back on her haunches. "Well, if they're gone, they're gone. No sense in risking lives by trying to follow them."
"What if they were right?" Mackey said uncertainly.
The Chief Rabbit straightened up. "Come again?"
"Well, those kids seemed awfully sure that somethin' bad was goin' to happen. Maybe they were tellin' the truth, m'kay?"
"And maybe you're getting too old to be an Owsla captain," she told him. "Imagine, getting all worked up over the words of a few silly children. This warren's still here, isn't it? We're just as safe as we've always been. Why, you can see for yourself what a fine day it…"
A loud hissing interrupted her. For a moment, Mackey thought it was a snake. But it was something much worse.
All of a sudden, they could hear rabbits screaming. They stepped out into the tunnel to see what was wrong and emerged into a scene of utter chaos. The warren had become a madhouse, with rabbits running every which way and bumping into each other.
Mackey started coughing. "All of a sudden I can't breathe too well, m'kay?" he managed to gasp.
McDaniels had her paws over her mouth. "Poison," she rasped. All of a sudden, she realized what a terrible mistake she had made not to heed the boys' warning. "Somebody must be spraying gas."
"We gotta get out of here!" Mackey spluttered. That was the last coherent thing out of his mouth for a while.
The two of them pushed their way through the crowd to one of the tunnels that led outside, but they found it jammed. A whole bunch of rabbits were trying to go up it, while others were trying to get back down.
"They've blocked it!" one of the rabbits near the top of the run- Stan's father, Randy- shouted. Then Randy stumbled and fell, and was trampled by the mob.
"This way!" the Chief Rabbit said to Captain Mackey. Mackey just stood there dumbly, so she grabbed him by the arm and pulled him along with her.
They headed for the Slack Run, a secret tunnel that led out the back side of the hill. McDaniels hoped the construction workers would not have thought to block this hole off.
Right when they saw a glimmer of daylight in the distance, they stumbled and fell. They tried to get back up again, but they were too weak. McDaniels cursed silently. So close, and yet so far.
They kept crawling along the ground until they were right at the edge of the tunnel, but just then, Mackey, who was in front, gave a whimper and collapsed on his face. McDaniels was stuck behind him.
With the last of her strength, McDaniels gave Mackey a mighty shove, so that he rolled out of the hole and onto the ground outside. At least one of us will live, she thought, as her eyes closed.