"What do we have here, then?" snarled the leader.

They were the strangest rabbits Peter had ever seen. They were all twice the size of Mark, who was easily the largest of the three of them. The one that had spoken was a mousy, speckled colour, whilst his two companions were purely white and purely black respectively. If it was possible, they were even larger. The purely black one also had a large chomping perma-grin, much like a horse.

"We're trying to find someone," said Peter, hoping that by showing no fear and maintaining an air of civility, this would not get hostile. "They were looking for Roadkill Turnpike. Do you know which way they would have gone?"

The leader glanced knowingly at his two companions. "Aha! More bounty hunters, eh?" he sang, his dark eyes glinting with excitement. "After your little friends failed so pitifully earlier, we were expecting they'd send some more, just... not quite so soon." He cackled with glee.

"Bounty hunters?" spat Mark.

"We're not bounty hunters," Peter said, trying not to let the fear that was managing to creep into his voice to be mistaken for dishonesty. "And, if you're talking about my cousin in that bush, he wasn't a bounty hunter, either."

"Your cousin, eh?" said the leader. The other two chuckled. "Keeping it in the family, are we? And who was the little girl? Your daughter?"

"Actually, yes."

"Ha!" the leader snorted. "What a pathetic cover story! It'll take more than that to fool the Roadkill Turnpike People's Front, little man."

"Er, the what?" said Peter.

"Your cover is blown," the leader said dismissively. "There's no point trying to keep up the façade now. We know you've been sent by Emperor Morellius to track down our whereabouts so that he can send his army to crush us."

Peter, Mark and Tom looked at him blankly.

"Of course," the leader went on. "Now that you have found us, we can't possibly let you leave here alive."

"Honestly," said Peter. "We haven't been sent by anybody to find you. We don't even come from Roadkill Turnpike. That's just where we're heading. We've never heard of any Emperor Morellius, and we've never heard of you."

This statement seemed to aggravate the leader more than any other. "Funny, this is just what your little friends... I mean, your 'cousin' and your 'daughter' said." He paused for effect. "Just before we killed them."

Peter ground his jaw to calm himself. "Did you kill Mopsy?"

"Mopsy?!" the leader roared with laughter. Obediently, he was echoed in his mirth a second later by his two subservient lackeys. "Mopsy?! What kind of name is that for a rabbit? Are you some kind of poofter?"

"Mopsy's a great name!" Tom retorted angrily.

"No wonder she was running away!" the leader laughed.

"She wasn't running away," Peter said in a flat, sinister voice.

"Oh, no, of course not," said the leader, sardonically. "Now, what was the cover story she told us, boys? Oh, yes, I remember. Something about wanting to join the great Roadkill Turnpike war against mankind."

"Something like that," murmured the black rabbit.

"You really should get your stories straight," the leader warned Peter. "Y'see, daddy, now we know you're a bounty hunter. After all, she said you were dead..."

"She thought I was," Peter explained, realising that telling the truth, convoluted as it was, was doing him no favours.

"Didn't she know?" the leader scoffed.

"It's a long story," Peter mumbled.

"One we've already heard in sufficient detail at least once before," the leader said. "Chris, you take the blind one. Dave, you take the other runt. I'm dealing with daddy here. And don't let them run away again."

The three rabbits began to close in again.

"When we've killed you, we're going to leave your three corpses out here by the roadside. Then when they invariably send some more bounty hunters to try and track us down, maybe we'll let them return to Emperor Morellius alive and tell them what happens to our enemies." He paused. "Or maybe we'll just kill them, too."

The black rabbit, Dave, and white rabbit, Chris, both laughed.

"Look," Peter said, as the unnamed leader almost came nose to nose. "How can we have come from Roadkill Turnpike when we've only just come round the corner? Isn't Roadkill Turnpike further down this road?"

The leader hesitated. "Oh, that doesn't mean a thing," he said. "You could have cut across country from Roadkill Turnpike and then double backed on yourself, couldn't you? No, you're not talking you way out of this one."

"Yeah, that's what the other one tried," sneered Chris.

"Well, we're telling the truth," Peter said forcefully. "If you kill us now then you're just killing three more innocent passers-by who have no interest in you or this Emperor Morellius and whatever's going on between you."

The leader looked aggrieved. He at least wanted them to squirm and go out defiantly as the evil enemies that they were. He shrugged. "Whether you're bounty hunters or not, you're still heading to Roadkill Turnpike. You're still gonna tell them where we are after all this, aren't you, daddy?"

"How about we don't?" Peter suggested. "We've obviously been caught up in something that's of no concern to us. All we were bothered about was finding my daughter. Now, if she's dead, we can just turn back and go the other way."

"And cross country back to Roadkill Turnpike again!"

"No!" said Peter sharply. "You're not listening to me." He knew he was about to lose his rag with this buffoon. "We've been travelling over a week to find my daughter. That's how far away we live. Until about five minutes ago, we all thought Roadkill Turnpike was just a myth, anyway."

At this point, the black rabbit Dave started to look decidedly uncomfortable, but he didn't say anything. Only Mark noticed.

"A myth?!" the leader cried in a high pitch. "How could you possibly believe the most heinous place in all of rabbitdom was just a myth?"

Peter didn't know how to respond in a way that would appease him.

"Why is it the most heinous place?" Tom asked in a small voice.

"Because of the war on mankind?" added Mark.

The leader's eyes went huge. "War on mankind?!" he shrieked, his voice reaching an even higher pitch than before. "Oh, please! They're not still telling children those stories, are they?"

Peter, Mark and Tom nodded quickly.

"War on mankind," the leader grumbled, stopping so close to Peter that Peter could smell the mushrooms he'd recently eaten on his breath. "Bah! That was over before it even began. More's the pity. No, Emperor Morellius has no interest in dominating humans. Dominating other rabbits, however, is another thing..."

"What do you mean?" asked Peter.

The leader looked like he was about to tell him, but then he suddenly shook his head and scowled at Peter. "What am I doing?" he said. "Why am I answering questions? Now, you three, prepare yourself for painful deaths."

Tom began to whimper. Mark tensed up.

"One last request," Peter quickly piped up. "If I may?"

The leader's eyes narrowed. "Oh? What?"

"My daughter," said Peter. "I'd like to see her."

"Don't let him, Kurt!" Dave hissed.

The leader frowned. "I don't see why not," he said.

"They'll try and escape!" Dave cried.

Kurt snorted and looked down at Peter. "I think daddy's a bit smarter than his children," he said condescendingly. "He knows that our size means he doesn't have a chance of getting away from us. Don't you, daddy?"

Peter bit his lip and nodded.

"If he wants to die next to his daughter, it's no skin off our noses." Kurt shrugged. "You do remember where she is, don't you, Dave?"

"Er, no," Dave said slowly.

"That's not what you told me," Chris said, frowning. "You said you left her corpse in the undergrowth just down there..."

Dave chuckled nervously.

"Well, do you know where she is or don't you?" said Kurt.

"Er, I dunno," Dave stammered.

"Oh, well." Kurt dismissed his underling with a snort. "You chased her down that way. We'll just have to keep our eyes open."

Dave gulped. Peter noticed this time as well.

"She's in a pretty bad state," Dave said.

"It's up to you," Kurt said to Peter.

Peter saw how uncomfortable Dave had become and nodded.

"All right, Dave. Lead the way."

Dave stayed where he was.

"Well, come on!" snapped Kurt.

Dave scampered past with his head lowered and his floppy ears flapping against the side of his head. Kurt grunted for Peter, Mark and Tom to follow behind, and then he brought up the rearguard with Chris.

They didn't get very far before Dave stopped again, turned round and whimpered something none of them could make out.

"What is it now?" demanded Kurt.

"I can't do this!" cried Dave.

"Do what?" Kurt growled.

"She... she... she got away!"

"WHAT?!" screamed Kurt.

"She got away!" Dave sobbed.

Peter felt a flicker of hope.

"You said you killed her!" Kurt hollered.

"I almost got her!" Dave wailed. "She was so close! But then... but then, I tripped! I fell over! And when I got up again, she was gone! She'd got away! Oh, I'm such a useless revolutionary! Please, please, please forgive me, Kurt!"

Kurt's breathing became shallow. "We're doomed!" he said, almost under his breath. His eyes flitted back and forth nervously. "In another day or so she'll reach Roadkill Turnpike and Morellius will send his armies."

"We're gonna die!" wailed Chris.

"This is your fault!" Kurt growled.

"I'm sorry!" Dave bawled.

Peter cleared his throat. "If I may," he said. "I don't think you have anything to worry about." The three hoodlums turned to look at him. "She's not a bounty hunter. Honestly. She's not going to report your whereabouts."

"Yeah, of course she isn't," grunted Kurt.

"The only reason she's going to Roadkill Turnpike is to join their war on mankind," Peter explained.

"There is no war!"

"I know. You said. But did you tell her that?"

"I dunno. Did we, boys?"

Chris and Dave looked lost.

"Y'see, whether you choose to believe it or not," Peter went on. "We're not bounty hunters and we're not from Roadkill Turnpike. Where we come from, Roadkill Turnpike is believed by most to be a terrible, terrible legend. It's a place where rabbits have been locked in a vicious war with mankind since the beginning of time and they will still be fighting it come the end of the world."

He paused to lick his lips and gauge their reactions, then he continued, "My daughter thought I was killed in the same encounter with one of those human vehicles that killed her mother and two brothers. She wanted the warren we come from to start a war against mankind, but they didn't want to. So she came this way to join the war that she believed the rabbits of Roadkill Turnpike were already fighting..."

Kurt, Chris and Dave all looked constipated.

"Oh, this is all a mess," muttered Kurt, shaking his head and wincing at the thought of their situation. "This wasn't how it was supposed to be."

"How what was supposed to be?" asked Peter.

"Our revolution," Kurt explained, suddenly sounding a lot more open but looking a lot more dejected.

"Against this Morellius?"

"Yes. Him." Kurt snorted.

"Who is he?" asked Mark.

"A rabbit like you," said Chris.

"Yes, he's a natural born," Kurt went on. "All of the imperial family are born in the wild. That's how you can tell who's better than you, supposedly." He sounded rather bitter about it. "The rest of us are captive bred."

"Is that why you look strange?" asked Tom.

"Hey, we're not the ones who look strange in this part of the world," Kurt said snottily. "You wait until you get to Roadkill Turnpike. That's where all the abandoned pets end up. You three could very easily pass for royalty."

"Abandoned pets?" said Peter. "As in, human owned?"

"Yeah, that's right," said Kurt. "I was once owned by a lovely little human boy who never took me out of my cage but liked to poke me with sticks through the wire mesh. Almost bit his bloody finger off when I got a chance, didn't I?"

"So he abandoned you?"

"You got it." Kurt chuckled. "Stuffed me in a cardboard box, bunged me into one of those metal machines, drove me out to Roadkill Turnpike and then tossed me out the window." He sighed. "Greatest day of my life."

"Fucking humans," muttered Chris.

"Are most of the rabbits at Roadkill Turnpike like you?" asked Peter.

"Most of them, yes," Kurt continued. "We're bigger, stronger, and if I may say so, altogether prettier, but we're still the underclass. You and your boring browny grey natural borns well and truly rule the roost."

"You'd be very welcome there," Dave sneered.

Peter nodded. "Well, at least my daughter will be safe, then."

Kurt, Chris and Dave glanced at each other.

"Oh, yes," said Kurt. "She'll be very welcome indeed..."

"What do you mean by that?" Peter began to ask, before being interrupted by Tom asking, "So, there is no war on mankind, then?"

"No," Kurt sighed. "If there was, do you think the three of us would be stuck living all the way out here on an island in the middle of the road? Look, I'm sorry about killing your cousin, man, but if someone just wanders into the middle of our home and says they want to join the revolution and can we show them the way to Roadkill Turnpike... well, you'd think them spies, wouldn't you? I mean, we're the revolution. Everyone knows that. At least, we thought they did..."

"Is that why they drove you out, then?" asked Mark, glancing briefly over at Peter. "Because you wanted a war and the rest of them didn't?"

"We weren't driven out!" Dave exclaimed.

"Yeah, we left of our own accord," added Chris.

"There's a little more to it than that, but in effect, yes, that's why we left," Kurt explained in a low voice. "There are some rabbits there who want a war. But they are outnumbered by those who would have too much to lose if there weren't any humans around." He started looking uncomfortable.

"Emperor Morellius?" asked Peter.

"He's just one," Kurt said. "Look, it's beyond me to explain just how Roadkill Turnpike works. All you need know is, they have an infant mortality rate of almost fifty percent yet they never seem to have a population less than fifteen hundred."

He swallowed, almost gulped. "You think about it," he warned, averting his eyes. "Though I will say, your daughter's got four hours on you. You won't be able to catch her up before she gets there, but if you ever want to see her again, you should aim to arrive as soon after her as you possibly can."

"Why? What will happen to her there?" asked Peter nervously.

Kurt, Chris and Dave glanced at each other again.

"What will happen to her?" Peter said, more forcefully.

Kurt gestured with his nose down the A414. "Right, listen up, to get to Roadkill Turnpike, you need to follow this road for about seven hours. That's seven hours at our pace, it might take you longer. Then you have to cross the road. There will be a small road hidden by the trees. This isn't the most direct route, and I don't know if she would have taken it, but the long route is just that. Longer. If you really want to go that way, just follow this road until you reach the next junction, then-"

Peter held up a paw. "I think you should lead us there."

"Us? Go to Roadkill Turnpike?" scoffed Chris.

"Oh, no," said Kurt huffily. "Okay, so you'd never heard of the Roadkill Turnpike People's Front, but then, you don't come from Roadkill Turnpike, do you? No, for all we know, they're going to recognise us and kill us."

Mark sighed. "Come off it, there's only three of you," he said. "I hardly think they regard your mini-revolution as a very big threat..."

"And which is more," Peter said, going in for the kill. "You killed my cousin, so I reckon you owe me a big one, don't you?"

Kurt, Chris and Dave ducked their heads guiltily.

"Well?" Peter growled through his teeth.

"Fine," snapped Kurt, and then, as if to regain some semblance of authority in this conversation, "But we set the pace and you keep up with us. You lag behind and we just leave you behind, got it?"

"Understood," said Peter curtly.

"Well, then," said Kurt, standing up and ruffling his speckled coat. "We're going to Roadkill Turnpike, then..."

Peter glanced round at his two companions. Mark and Tom both nodded in approval. They were just glad that he had managed to talk his way out of yet another devilish predicament. Perhaps they'd survive this adventure yet...

The six of them were just getting ready to leave when suddenly Chris, who was bringing up the rear, called out, "Hey, is this guy with you?"

Peter, Mark and Tom spun round.

"Oh, no!" cried Mark and Tom together.

Angus' help had finally arrived.

"Hey, Pete! Peter! Petey! Pete!"

"Is he with you?" asked Kurt.

"I suppose he must be," Peter sighed.

Then the little rabbit bounded up and started running circles around them.

NOTES:
Now officially the longest single project I've ever worked on, and I'm quite happy with how this chapter turned out. After fearing things were slowing down and stagnating in the last couple of chapters, this one returned back to the incongruous mix of high danger and good humour. Yet still we're a chapter away from Roadkill Turnpike. It'll appear in the next one, I promise.

In this chapter I wanted to hint at certain nastier elements of what Roadkill Turnpike's actually like. Okay, so it might not be the horrific warzone Angus has led them to believe, but perhaps it's even worse, in another way. I don't know if I've hinted too much in this chapter. I had to use some careful, but awkwardly choppy cutaway techniques in the middle of the dialogue to prevent Kurt giving too much away.

Kurt, Chris and Dave are named after the three members of a little known Seattle grunge band known as Nirvana. Apologies to Dave Grohl for making issue of his horse-like mouth in the third paragraph. Keeping in theme with the musical names, Emperor Morellius is named after Tom Morello, guitarist extraordinaire with Rage Against The Machine and lately Audioslave. And yes, that is meant to be Benjamin Bunny at the end.