AUTHOR'S NOTE: Acorn, Buckthorn, Speedwell and Toadflax come from the original book. Tindra and Flesca come from TFWD.

Also this is the last chapter of 2018. I will be taking a break for a few weeks, hopefully giving some people a chance to catch up. I should start posting again in mid-January. Until then, merry Christmas, and enjoy the new WD miniseries! It will air on BBC One in the UK on December 22 and 23, and internationally on Netflix on 23. I'm rather nervous about it, but hopefully it won't disappoint.

Chapter 32: Artificial Disasters.

"You know what makes me crazy, Susie? Being crazy, that's what. Try staying sane when everyone treats you like you're insane."

-Martine Leavitt, Calvin

Acorn slowly opened his eyes. His tail was in great pain. He got up and started cleaning it, soon removing the piece of glass embedded in it. There was slight bleeding, but he didn't seem too concerned.

As he looked around him, however, he saw the devastation. There were two flaming hrududil further away. It was just after sunrise, and the authorities had not come to the scene yet. The ground was covered with debris, and the road and field were full of rabbits. He could also see lots of rabbits from Marli-rah, but he left them alone. Instead, he examined the rabbits of Woundwort's owsla, to see if any of his friends had survived.

He soon came across Woundwort himself; the one-eyed rabbit looked dead. Acorn smiled: this was probably the only good thing that had come out of the whole accident. With Woundwort gone, there would be no more fighting. He then continued his search for survivors.

He didn't find many. Most of his former friends were dead; he only found three who weren't. Speedwell was an old friend; they had known each other ever since they were kittens. Buckthorn, meanwhile, was only a more recent arrival to the warren. Finally, there was Tindra, the only remaining doe; Acorn had only met her a few times at silflay, but Speedwell seemed to know her rather well.

The four rabbits hid behind a bush, so they could discuss the next course of action.

-"Woundwort is dead," Speedwell said. "Cowslip is dead too. Nearly everyone is dead."

-"Silverweed?" Tindra asked.

-"He's nowhere to be seen." Acorn said. "It's just the four of us now."

-"What do we do?" Buckthorn asked.

-"I have no idea," Speedwell said. "The elil will come soon. We have to go."

-"But where to?" Acorn asked. "That warren, Marli-rah, is too close. The elil will come there too."

-"I want to go back to the old warren," Buckthorn suggested. "And continue life as usual, before before Woundwort came."

-"Nobody knows the way back," Tindra pointed out. "And I'm not sure I would want to go back there anyway."

-"But I know the way!" came another, mysterious voice.

-"Oh no, not him..." Tindra sighed.

-"He was one rabbit I wouldn't have minded seeing dead," Speedwell added.

-"Who are you talking about?" Buckthorn asked.

-"Toadflax," Acorn said.

-"That's me!" Toadflax suddenly burst through the bushes, follow soon afterwards by a doe, who was covered in soot.

-"And who is she?" Buckthorn asked.

-"I'm Flesca," the doe replied, faintly laughing. "Isn't that a weird name?"

-"We're going back to the warren," Toadflax decided. "I think I know the way back."

-"And if we choose not to follow?" Tindra asked.

At this, Flesca started to laugh again.

-"You make it sound like Toadflax is giving you a choice."

-"Shut up!" Toadflax told the doe threateningly, before turning to the others. "You can choose not to follow, but if you don't, Woundwort will kill you."

-"But Woundwort is dead, I saw his body!" Acorn interjected.

-"I saw his body too, and he is NOT dead, he's just unconscious. You either follow me, or you follow Woundwort. Your choice."

Speedwell looked at his three friends, and sighed.

-"We don't have much of a choice, do we?"

Woundwort slowly opened his eyes; the first thing he noticed was that he was able to move again. He briefly wondered whether the previous night's events had been nothing but a dream, until he saw the two flaming hrududil further away.

Woundwort walked through the area, staring at the dreadful scene. The ground was covered with debris, which he took care not to step on. The road and field covered with dead bodies. At first glance, all the rabbits of Marli-rah seemed dead, dying or unconscious. However, as he looked closer, he saw fresh pawprints on the ground, indicating that some of them had escaped alive.

Woundwort carefully inspected the bodies of the rabbits who had followed him. Some were missing, but all those who remained were dead, killed by debris from the hrududil or burns from the fire. He came across Cowslip, bleeding from the front paws and with a metal rod through his ears; his hostage was nowhere to be seen. At first sight, he looked dead, but suddenly he opened his eyes and shouted:

-"Darling! You came back!"

-"I am not your darling," Woundwort replied.

-"I always knew you wouldn't leave me for long! Come, meet the kittens!"

Woundwort shook his head; Cowslip had clearly gone insane.

-"You have outlived your usefulness to me."

With that, he pushed down on the metal rod, smashing it into Cowslip's skull and breaking it open.

Eventually, Woundwort came across Silverweed, sleeping in the middle of the field, completely unharmed. He woke him up.

-"Wha- oh. It's good to see at least someone is safe around here."

-"You saved my life, Silverweed. I won't forget that."

-"I'm sorry I couldn't save everyone else."

-"They were useless anyway. I'll have to build myself a new owsla. Come with me."

-"Where are we going?"

-"I don't know. We'll find out when we get there."

-"But...what about the others?"

-"They are all dead."

-"Not all of them! There is at least one who is still with us."

-"Traitors. Cowards. They deserve everything that's coming to them."

-"Aren't you at least going to try to help them?"

-"Why would I? They refused to join me. They must suffer the consequences."

-"And I thought there was still a tiny bit of sympathy left inside your heart. I should have paid closer attention when I looked inside. If you won't help them, I'll do it myself."

-"Don't. You. Dare."

Woundwort jumped in front of Silverweed and raised his front paws menacingly. Silverweed was too afraid to do anything but follow Woundwort as they walked away from the area. As they vanished behind a row of trees, Silverweed cast a last look at the bodies, thinking about how he had failed to save them from the disaster.

It did not take long for Fiver to fall asleep following his vision. However, in his dream, he received a visit from another rabbit, one he hadn't met in a full year.

-"I'm being manipulated," Silverweed said.

-"Of course," Fiver replied coldly. "Cowslip uses you to keep the other rabbits under control and prevent them from rebelling against the wires."

-"Oh, Cowslip as you know him doesn't exist anymore. I was talking about someone else."

-"Why can't you say that he's dead, like any normal rabbit would say?"

-"Being manipulated is a painful feeling." Silverweed blinked a few times. "You want to build your own path, but instead they build it and make you follow it."

-"I can't help you, Silverweed. You're the one who has to stand up to them and leave the path they built for you."

-"I really should, but I'm not brave enough. You are, though."

-"What are you talking about?"

-"You're being manipulated too, Fiver."

-"By whom?"

-"Break free!"

Before Fiver could reply, Silverweed dissolved into the mist. Fiver woke up uneasily. He could not understand anything Silverweed had told him, but the fact that someone else was manipulating him terrified him. He hopped over to the flayrah storage burrow where, in an attempt at calming down, he nibbled a few loganberries. He did not swallow them, instead keeping the sweet fruit in his mouth, until he fell back asleep.

His next dream was pleasant: something about a river, and finding true love. When he woke up early in the morning, he felt refreshed. His mind drifted back to the two hlessil who had arrived at the warren the previous evening. Pipkin had presumably found them while on patrol, but Fiver had been unable to greet them properly. He would have to do something about that.

He soon found Leo in the Honeycomb, talking with Strawberry.

-"Good morning...Leo," Fiver said, "I think that's what you said your name was?"

-"Yes, that's my name. You're Fiver, aren't you?"

-"Yes."

-"I've been meeting the rabbits here, this seems like a great warren."

-"I'm glad you like it here. Where do you come from?"

-"This may sound quite unusual, but you see, I used to be a human. I was having a picnic with some friends..."

-"A what?"

-"Sorry. We were eating in a field, when suddenly a woman arrived and told us this was a protected area and we didn't have the right to be there. We started to gather our belongings, but clearly we weren't fast enough for her, so she chased us away. I was separated from my friends, I tripped and hit my head on a rock, I think. I fell unconscious, and when I woke up...I was a rabbit."

-"That's...quite a story," Fiver said. "Any idea what happened to your friends?"

-"I don't know. I hope they're not too worried about my sudden disappearance...

-"I'm sure everything will be all right. What about that rabbit who arrived here with you last night? I think he was called Blueberry."

-"He wasn't one of my human friends; I only met him yesterday. He left early this morning, he said he was gathering berries."

-"He should have just asked, we have some in our flayrah supply. I guess I'll tell him when he returns."

The doe slowly woke up. As she got up, she stood up on her hind legs to take a look at the area. She seemed to be close to a road, which was covered with sharp pieces of glass and metal, with dead rabbits here and there. Further away, the remains of a hrududu were spewing some smoke. The humans had finally arrived, and were pouring water on the hrududil in order to put out the fire.

Who were these rabbits? What was this place? What was she doing there? Her mind was filled with questions. She felt as if something was tickling her ear, so she scratched it. Something fell out of it, and upon closer inspection, she saw that it was a green feather. Deep inside her, she was convinced this feather had a purpose of some sort, but she didn't know what it was. She nevertheless put it back.

She lied back down and closed her eyes, trying to make sense of what was happening. Apparently, a terrible catastrophe had killed a large number of rabbits nearby, and she had somehow survived. But she did not know who these rabbits were, or why she was the only survivor.

She tried to remember what had happened, but could only recall one word: "Spartina". Was that her name? How weird. It doesn't sound like a name, but what else could it be?

She had no idea what was happening, but she knew one thing: staying there with all these humans around wasn't a good idea. She ran away behind a nearby bush. But she really needed to think of who she was.

She spent what felt like a long time lying in the grass, trying to think, but was unable to remember anything else other than the single word "Spartina", which was of little help to her. During this time, the fire was entirely put out, and another hrududu arrived to remove what was left of the debris.

Spartina eventually wandered away from the area. There was no point in staying there, and it was clearly not going to help her remember anything. Maybe if she were to travel, she might stumble upon a landmark of some sort, which would help her remember?

A short distance from the road, she came across some fresh pawprints, clearly those of other rabbits. The smell was very recent, and the tracks seemed to lead away from the area. It seemed likely that some of the rabbits involved in the accident had survived, and left. Maybe, if she were to follow the tracks, she might meet some rabbits she knew, and they could possibly help her?