Stan woke up to a voice screaming in his ear. "Up! Get up! Now!"
"Wassamatter?" Stan mumbled as he sat up.
"Whasgoingon?" Kyle mumbled, next to him.
Last night, Captain Campion had brought Stan and Kyle to a room packed full of rabbits and told them this was where they would sleep. The burrow was so crowded there was barely room for them to lie down, but somehow they had managed to drop off eventually.
Now a different Efrafan officer was standing over them. "Ye must be the new recruits General Woundwort told me about," he said. "I'm Captain Bugloss. Yer in the Right Flank Mark now, me buckos! You've gotta be marked."
He bent down and bit Stan on his right hind leg. "Ow!" Stan yelled. Before Kyle knew what was happening, Bugloss had bitten him on the leg too.
"Dude, why'd you do that?" Kyle complained, rubbing his wound.
"Don't address yer commanding officer as 'dude,'" Bugloss admonished. "Call me sir, get it?"
"Okay, why did you bite us, sir?" Kyle demanded.
"Those bites will leave scars," Bugloss explained. "Then everyone will be able to recognize ye as members o' the Right Flank Mark by lookin' at yer right flanks. Now, up on yer feet! It's time fer mornin' exercises! We don't all have the priv'lege o' fightin' in the front line, but at least we can all keep fit."
Kyle and Stan stood up, and so did all the other rabbits in the room.
"Arms bending an' stretching!" Bugloss rapped out. "Take yer time by me. One, two, three, four! One, two, three, four!"
The other rabbits began shooting their arms back and forth. Stan and Kyle copied their movements as best they could.
"Come on, comrades, put a bit o' life into it!" Bugloss exhorted. "One, two, three, four! One, two, three, four!"
After several minutes of arm exercises, Bugloss made them put their paws on their hips and gyrate their bodies from the waist up. Stan and Kyle soon found themselves short of breath.
At last Bugloss barked, "Stand easy!"
Stan and Kyle sank their arms to their sides and slowly refilled their lungs with air. For a moment, they dared to hope the exercises were over. But only for a moment, because the next instant Bugloss was calling them to attention again. "All right! Time to touch yer toes!" he said enthusiastically.
Stan raised his paw. "Excuse me, sir? What's the point of this?"
"It makes us stronger so we'll be better soldiers," Bugloss said. "It was the General's idea."
"Since when do rabbits want to be soldiers?" said Kyle.
"Well, us Efrafans ain't part o' the common run o' rabbits," said Bugloss. "We are the master race of super-rabbits, born to rule the world! Ours is a high an' lonely destiny. An' now, let's see if ye can touch yer toes. Right over from the hips, please. One-two! One-two!"
Stan and Kyle sighed inwardly and bent to touch their toes. But they had not been doing it for very long when Bugloss suddenly screamed at a rabbit standing behind them. "You! Blackavar! Bend lower! Ye kin do better'n that! Yer not tryin'!"
They turned and saw the rabbit Bugloss was yelling at. He had black fur and he was trembling. "I'm sorry, sir! I'm doin' me best!" he wailed. He stretched as hard as he could, but he just couldn't reach his toes.
"You've been warned about this before, Blackavar!" said Bugloss. He pushed between Stan and Kyle, knocked Blackavar over, and kicked him in the stomach.
Kyle put a paw on Bugloss's shoulder, trying to restrain him. "Dude, what does it matter if someone can touch their toes or not?"
Bugloss whirled around and knocked Kyle to the floor too. "I told yer not ter call me dude! We all have ter be strong, an' those wot ain't strong enough must be made an example of."
"That's such hraka," said Stan.
Bugloss reddened. "Insubordination! I'm tellin' the General about this. He'll handle the two of ye!" He turned and marched out of the room.
Blackavar continued to lay on the floor, crying softly. Kyle sat up. "How can you guys stand this?" he asked the other rabbits indignantly. "This is like slavery!"
"General Woundwort says that slavery is freedom an' freedom is slavery," said one rabbit.
Another, a doe named Hyzenthlay, said, "It weren't always like this. My mother tol' me that afore Woundwort came here, rabbits could come an' go as they pleased. When Woundwort arrived, he killed the previous Chief Rabbit an' took over. He made all these new rules an' regulations. Now we can't go outside unless it's the appointed time fer our Mark, an' we all have ter do exercises every morning."
"But why?" said Stan.
"He's got this crazy idea that someday rabbits are gonna rise up an' kill off every other species on earth," said Hyzenthlay.
"If you don't like it here, why don't you just leave?" Stan asked.
Hyzenthlay shuddered. "Every time rabbits try to leave Efrafa, General Woundwort and his Owlsa track 'em down an' kill 'em. He has an elite force of soldiers called the Wide Patrol."
"Hm, that name sounds familiar," said Stan.
"When the Wide Patrol aren't bullyin' the rest of us, they're prowlin' the countryside, tryin' to kill anybeast they find who isn't a rabbit," Hyzenthlay said.
Just then, they heard General Woundwort calling from the hallway, "Stan an' Kyle, get out here now!"
"What if we don't want to?" Kyle called back.
"Then we'll come in here an' drag yer out. Trust me, that won't be pleasant. Ye'd do better to just step out here an' get yer punishment over with."
Stan folded his arms. "We're not moving!"
With that, Woundwort, Bugloss, and a bunch of other officers burst into the room. They dragged Stan and Kyle out into the hallway and started punching and kicking them repeatedly. Stan and Kyle were too outnumbered to fight back.
After a while, General Woundwort said, "Had enough?"
"Yes," they both gasped.
"Yes, sir," Woundwort prompted.
"Yes, sir," Stan and Kyle said in unison. All their defiance had been knocked out of them, for the moment at any rate.
"Good," said Woundwort. "Let that be a lesson to ye. Maybe next time ye'll think twice afore ye disrespect an officer."