CHAPTER TWENTY
"If Nicholas catches you here, he'll kill you!" Angus hissed.
"I know," Peter told him. "But this is more important than that..."
"More important?" went Angus. "Peter, what is it?"
"It's Mopsy." He swallowed. "Angus, she's still alive."
Angus wobbled in shock, speechless. Travis looked at his brothers.
"What about Cottontail? What about Cottontail?" Benjamin squeaked, running around the gathering excitedly and catching his back on the thorns but just not caring because this was such great news. "Is he alive too? Is he? Is he, Pete?"
"Benjamin, hush!" Angus snapped. "You'll draw attention to us!"
Peter bit his lip. "No, Cottontail isn't alive," he said.
"Why would he be?" Mark growled under his breath. His patience with the manic Benjamin Bunny had worn out yesterday morning.
"It's a miracle! It's a miracle!" Benjamin cried.
"Go and keep watch, Benjamin," Angus told him sharply.
Benjamin scowled. He wanted to hear this. But he obeyed anyway.
"H-how?" said Travis meekly, afraid to speak up.
Mark and Tom glared at him. Injured or otherwise, he was still their enemy.
"How did she survive?" Angus spoke for him.
"It's a long story," said Peter. Then he summarised what Damien and Eleanor had told them on the other side of the A12, up to but not including her departure for Roadkill Turnpike. Angus listened, nodding sagely.
"This is truly great news," Angus said when Peter had finished. Travis nodded, lying on the ground behind him. "But... I don't understand why you have come back here, if she's alive and safe on the other side of the road."
Peter looked back at Mark and Tom pointedly.
"What?" said Angus in a low voice. "What is it?"
"She's not there," Tom said.
Angus looked to Peter for confirmation.
"Not anymore," Peter added.
"That's why we're here," Mark said.
Angus' eyes lit up. "You think she's here?!" he cried delightedly.
"No," Peter said in little more than a whisper.
"Go on," Mark said, eyeing his father much like Angus used to eye him when he was found responsible for yet another misdemeanour. "Tell him where they think she's gone on the other side of the road, Pete."
Angus frowned and looked at Peter.
"Angus," Peter began. He looked uncomfortable with implicating somebody he had always revered as being partway responsible for this turn of events. "Angus, did you ever tell Mopsy stories about Roadkill Turnpike?"
"Roadkill Turnpike?" Angus said, though not in a way that would suggest he had never heard of the place before.
"Yeah, the stories you told us," Tom piped up.
Angus nodded slowly. "I suspect so. Why?"
"Did you ever tell her it was a real place, Angus?" Peter said, an iota of anger creeping into his voice. "Did she think they were more than just stories?"
Angus glanced at Mark and Tom. They had never believed what he'd told them about Roadkill Turnpike. Obviously his stories had been too terrible for them to accept and obviously Peter was the same. Angus rose to a more formidable height, took a deep breath and sighed loudly.
"Peter," he said quietly. "What do you know about Roadkill Turnpike?"
Peter frowned. "Just what every rabbit knows," he said. "It's the mythical place where bad rabbits supposedly go when they die..."
Angus began shaking his head.
"Yeah," Mark sneered. "And it's bullshit. It's something rabbits like you and Alexander and Nicholas made up generations ago to keep everyone in line. Oh, look, bunnies, do what we tell you or you'll spend the hereafter stuck in a never-ending battle with bloodthirsty humans."
"Yeah," Travis and Tom murmured.
"Which is precisely why I didn't tell my kids those stories," Peter said.
"You're all wrong about this," Angus maintained, shaking his head.
Peter sighed. "Angus-"
"No, just hear me out," Angus continued. "Roadkill Turnpike is indeed a real place. Sure, the reality of it may have been clouded by generations of storytelling, but that's the pitfall of the oral tradition. Everyone who tells it adds to the story and dilutes the truth of its existence. I at least tried to tell you all the truth."
"What makes you think you know it?" Tom snarled.
"Because I didn't tell you all the stories I knew couldn't be true," Angus said sharply. "About humans who can shrink to the size of rabbits and travel into warrens to take prisoners, rape, torture and pillage. Or what about the humans who can disguise themselves as rabbits? Did I ever tell you anything like that?"
His three sons remained silent.
"No, I didn't," he went on. "Just like I didn't tell you the story about the lone human that set up home near one warren and struck up a deal with the rabbits that lived there that he would protect them from other humans as long as they fed him one of their own once a week. Completely apocryphal."
Peter blinked. "So what did you tell Mopsy, then?"
"What does it matter what I told Mopsy?" Angus said defensively. "Why this fascination with the place if you don't even believe it exists?"
Peter looked back at Mark and Tom again.
"What is it?" asked Travis from the ground.
"Tell them," Mark urged Peter.
"Tell us what?" Angus said.
"It's where Mopsy's gone," Tom blurted out.
"Where we think she's gone," Mark corrected him.
"Where she thinks she's going," Peter corrected them both.
He glared at Angus. The old man frowned. He opened and closed his mouth, as if thinking of things to say. "But... why?" he cried. "Why would she ever want to go to that horrendous place?"
"Something you told her must have appealed," Tom growled.
"No," Angus said sternly. "I told her all the terrible things I told you. Horrific, nasty things. No rabbit in a fit state of mind would choose to go there." He paused. "Surely, Peter, she must have gone somewhere else."
"They don't seem to think so," Peter said, "on the other side of the road."
Angus shook his head. "It makes no sense," he spat.
"Yes, it does," Peter sighed. "You told her that Roadkill Turnpike is a place where rabbits are locked in a perpetual war with mankind. That's why she's gone. She wants to join in." He snorted.
"Join in?!" Angus hissed. "But... but... It's a human war on rabbits, not a rabbit war on mankind. You don't join in. You get sucked in. The rabbits of Roadkill Turnpike aren't fighters, they're victims!"
"Yes," said Peter through his teeth. "But Mopsy doesn't subscribe to your theory about man's intentions. She subscribes to mine. She believes just as I do that they're a race of clumsy oafs who kill us accidentally and unintentionally. Doesn't mean she doesn't hold them to account, though. As far as she knows, I'm dead too. She wants someone to punish for that."
"Sounds familiar," Travis muttered.
"Shut it!" barked Mark, though he secretly agreed.
"Obviously," Peter continued. "That's what Mopsy thinks the rabbits of Roadkill Turnpike are doing. Punishing man."
Angus chewed his tongue. "She'll die there," he whispered.
"Which is why I'm glad I don't believe it exists," Peter announced confidently. "However, she believes it exists, and you believe it exists, so that means you're our one and only hope of finding her."
"Me? Why? This is my fault..."
"Yes, but if she thinks she knows the way to Roadkill Turnpike then it must be because you've given her some idea where to find it."
"I... I..." Angus spluttered.
"Do you know where it is?" Mark growled.
Angus glared at him. "I have a vague idea, yes."
"And did you tell her this vague idea?" Peter asked.
Angus blinked guiltily. "Well, she asked..."
"And you told her?"
"I didn't think she'd end up going looking for it!" Angus cried. "Did I? She asked me where Roadkill Turnpike was and I told her where I'd always been told it was. But Peter, I was giving her a warning, not a suggestion."
Peter nodded. He ran his tongue over his teeth. They were furry. All of a sudden he felt hungry. He hadn't stopped to graze properly in days. Something told him it would be days before he got another meal, as well.
"You have to come with us, Angus," he said.
"W-what?" Angus said.
"We need you to take us there."
"I couldn't possibly..."
"Angus, I'm not asking you to leave the warren for no good reason," Peter began. "Listen to what I'm saying. This is my only child now. Twenty-four hours ago you thought all your grandchildren were dead. But now you know one of them is still alive. Just. And probably in great danger. A granddaughter who, as it happens, also thinks she's an orphan when she's not. You have to understand why-"
"I do," Angus interrupted. "I know why you have to go. But you're free to. You can cross the forty-metre limit and you'll actually be safer on the other side. But if I go, I can't come back again. This might all be futile."
"Futile?" Peter shook his head. "A minute ago you were telling me how terrible this place she's going to is. Surely it's not futile to attempt to save her from that fate, Angus. Isn't it worth losing your citizenship here for that?"
"Don't waste your rhetoric on me, Peter," Angus cried, but he looked pained, as if Peter wasn't wasting it at all. "You yourself said you don't believe Roadkill Turnpike even exists. Why do you fear it, then?"
"Maybe I don't believe it exists." Peter shrugged. When he spoke again, his voice had deepened. "Or perhaps I don't want to believe it exists. And I'm thinking that perhaps you don't either. Not now, when Mopsy's going there."
Angus shook his head. "Peter, I can't!"
"If Mopsy gets to this place, she'll die, you said it yourself," Peter continued, knowing Angus was close to breaking. "And if it isn't there, what will she do, anyway? Try and get back? Die trying?"
Angus continued to shake his head, screwing up his face and baring his teeth, as if Peter's voice was entirely inside his head.
"Isn't it worth being exiled for, Angus?" Peter went on, going in for the kill. "You're the only one who knows where she's headed, whether Roadkill Turnpike exists or not. Surely you can see this is the right thing to do."
"Oh, stop preaching, please!"
"The right thing to do isn't just what they tell you," Peter concluded.
Angus looked up and shot him a teary glare. Then slowly he glanced over at Travis. Beneath the swelling on his face, Travis smiled slightly. Angus looked back up at Peter, who had finally shut up.
"Reminds me of something Travis said," he murmured.
Mark and Tom looked perplexed.
"Of course I'll come," Angus finally announced.
Peter, Mark and Tom got straight up.
"What? Right now?" Angus said uncertainly.
"How far away is Roadkill Turnpike?" asked Peter.
"I'm not sure. Days, at least. Perhaps a week. Maybe even more."
Peter nodded. "And Mopsy's already got a day on us. We have to go now."
Angus got to his feet. "Travis..." he began.
"What do you want me to tell them?" Travis said pre-emptively.
"Tell them the truth," Angus told him. "But what about you?"
Travis shrugged. "Don't fancy my chances here without you somehow."
"Will he be welcome across the road?" Angus asked the others.
Mark and Tom tensed up. They hadn't forgotten their brother's betrayal, even if the sight of him bleeding over the grass inspired some pity in them.
Peter sighed. "The really fucked up thing is," he said. "I think even Nicholas would be welcome across the road..."
Mark and Tom both snorted with laughter, but neither Angus nor Travis was sure whether he was saying yes or not.
"That means yes," Peter whispered down at Travis.
Travis smiled. "But... my legs," he began.
"Yes, can you carry him across the road?" Angus asked.
Peter shook his head. "We're not going back that way."
"It's okay," Travis said. "Find Mopsy, that's the important thing."
"Thank you," Peter said with a curt nod.
"Good luck," Travis wished them.
Peter nodded again. Then he looked around. The last of the rabbits had disappeared underground and the long grass behind the hedgerow was empty. The corn was still, so there were no rabbits moving around there either. The only rabbit in sight was Benjamin Bunny, who was basking in the warm springtime morning sun that had started to rise above the eastern horizon. It was time to go.
"Okay, Angus, you're leading the way," Peter said.
Angus nodded. "We're heading due south for now," he told them.
"All right. Travis, can you tell Benjamin when we're gone?"
"He'll kick up a fuss if you don't take him with you," Travis warned him.
"Yes, but at least we won't be here to listen," Peter quipped.
Travis grinned. Mark and Tom grinned. Even Angus grinned.
"Okay, then. So let's go."
They left Travis beneath the bramble bush. He reassured his father once more that his wounds weren't as bad as they looked, even though that was a lie. He watched the four of them make their way through to the other side of the hedgerow and then start along the long grasses by the roadside. Then he hissed to Benjamin.
Peter's group headed quietly through the long grass along the curb. They were approaching the roadside exit, but all was quiet. They crept past the tunnel opening silently, careful not to even break a twig underfoot. There were a few rabbits sleeping beneath the hedgerow, oblivious to the exiles passing by. Peter got so close to a few of them he could even hear their barely audible snores.
Once they were past the roadside exit, the four of them started to relax again. Peter, Mark and Tom recalled the last time they had come this way, as they were marched past the forty-metre limit just a matter of hours before. It seemed so long ago already. For a time he'd thought that would be the last time he would ever see this side of the road. He wondered the same thing this time.
The huge rabbit came out of nowhere.
Angus was walking ahead of the others, leading the way. He was setting quite a sprightly pace, but as he approached the forty-metre limit - within which he'd stayed his entire life - he slowed down. He stopped right on the boundary and looked back at Peter, almost as if he needed his permission to do it.
It was then that Hazel launched himself out of the hedgerow and landed squarely on top of Angus. Mark and Tom jumped and froze. Peter heard Angus' ribs crack and the air scream out of his old lungs. Then he ran full pelt at Hazel.
The old bruiser dug claws and teeth into Angus. But only for another moment more. Peter was half Hazel's weight, but with the forward momentum behind him he pounded into Hazel's side and the pair of them rolled over Angus and off the curb and into the gutter. Mark and Tom immediately ran to help Angus.
Hazel growled and roared, snorting with aggression and drooling as his mouth watered at the prospect of slaughter. He'd wanted to kill Peter and the others all along and now he had the chance. He'd known they would come back to the warren eventually. He was just glad it was on his watch. That he could finally kill off Angus as well was a dizzyingly exciting bonus too. Hazel didn't even feel the pain as Peter fought back, nor when Mark and Tom hurled themselves off the curb at him.
With the three of them on Hazel's back, his size wasn't quite the advantage he had always believed it to be. Peter and Tom darted around swiftly, lunging in and attacking whilst Hazel turned slowly to avoid Mark's snapping jaws.
When Hazel turned his back to him next, Peter launched himself onto his back again. He drove his claws into Hazel's tough old skin and squeezed with his entire body, further constricting Hazel's movements. Mark and Tom lunged again. Growling with the effort, Peter pulled himself up to Hazel's neck. Then he threw his head back and opened his mouth. Then he flicked his neck forward.
Hazel reared up and screamed when Peter's two front teeth sliced right into the soft flesh on the side of his neck. He tensed up and tried to shake Peter from his back. Already he felt wet and hot as the blood streamed from the wound on his neck and ran down his chest. Disorientated, he couldn't fend off any more attacks from Mark and Tom. They charged at him again.
Mark went for his eyes with his claws. Then Hazel was blinded. The old rabbit began to panic and run round in circles. Peter had bitten deep into his neck, but he couldn't hold on much longer. Hazel sent him flying. He landed, battered and bruised, but still leapt straight to his feet to watch his old foe in his death throes.
Hazel's blood had reached his feet and he was leaving bloody footprints as he staggered about at the edge of the road. He stopped screaming, started whimpering, but not for long. He was dizzy again. But it wasn't with excitement anymore. His breathing slowed, then he sat down. It wasn't the fitting death he would have dreamt for himself, Peter knew. He stood and watched Hazel slip away. In the end, the old bruiser was just sitting there quietly, blinking. Then he stopped and was gone.
"Father!" cried Tom, after a moment to calm down.
The three of them returned to Angus, who was wheezing very badly and lying on his side. He was shivering, his feet were twitching and every intake of breath became a painful wince. Peter and his sons surrounded him.
"Must have been... a trap..." Angus said hoarsely.
"Why didn't you tell us they were still guarding the perimeter?" Peter cried. He still had Hazel's blood all over his face.
"Didn't know... Maybe... trap for me too..?"
"Let's kill Nicholas!" Mark hissed through his teeth.
"No..." whispered Angus. "Find... Mopsy..."
"We can't just leave you here," Tom cried.
"We don't know the way," Peter added.
"Head... south... then take-"
Suddenly, Mark cried, "Peter, look!"
Peter and Tom swung round. Even Angus tried to turn his head. They saw rabbits pouring from the roadside exit, obviously attracted by the noise of the fight. Nicholas led the way. He'd spotted Peter already. When they got here, they'd find Peter, Mark and Tom standing over Hazel's corpse and a grievously injured Angus.
"I'll be... okay..." Angus maintained.
"They don't know you were coming with us," Peter quickly pointed out. "If you tell them Hazel did this, they'll want to know why." He paused. "Angus, you have to tell them we attacked you too..."
"Noo!" Tom cried.
But Angus understood.
"Good... luck..." he called, trying to crane his neck and watch them vanish over the perimeter. The grass settled in their wake. Nicholas and the others arrived a few moments later.
NOTES:
Not an entirely successful chapter. Perhaps spending 3000 words on Peter trying to convince Angus to come with them is just more delaying tactics, and explains why this thing is already close to 60,000 words without even getting to Roadkill Turnpike. I'll learn the art of streamlining, but it'll have to wait until it's finished now. The other main goal with this chapter was to explain a little more about Roadkill Turnpike. It is supposed to sound like the rabbits' idea of Hell on Earth.
And maybe it is a little cheap getting Angus out of the way like this, but having an all-knowing wise man character in the Obi Wan Kenobi mould for too long won't allow Peter to shine, as I intend him to. I also wanted to show Angus has having a more vulnerable side. He's been learning he's not always right recently. This won't be the last we see of Angus, Travis, Nicholas or Benjamin, but too many characters are holding the story back.
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