As it turned out, Benjamin Bunny wasn't as hopeless as they expected. For the first seven or eight hours of their journey, he set the pace with Kurt up front. Both of them believed they were the one leading the group and it was only when they reached Kurt's short cut did the first clash occur. Kurt wanted them to cross the road and take the side road. Benjamin wanted to stick to Angus' main road route.

In the end, Peter arbitrated and decided to go Kurt's way, much to Benjamin's chagrin. Funnily enough, Mark found himself coming to Benjamin's aide and reminding Peter that he himself had said they were retracing Mopsy's route, rather than actually heading toward a specific destination. But as Peter reminded him back, this situation had changed, and that indeed, Roadkill Turnpike was a real place. By going Kurt's way, they would arrive even sooner after Mopsy.

Tom had to hand it to Benjamin, though. He had guts. Not many rabbits would stand up to Kurt, who was almost three times his size. Perhaps he had been the ideal candidate for this mission, after all. His reckless confidence and total unawareness of danger had served him well. Even the pair of them had to admit to each other that they had been afraid numerous times en route. After that, a disgruntled Benjamin Bunny slipped back to walk with them and they changed the subject.

Peter spent the rest of the journey speaking with Kurt, who was growing increasingly apologetic and kept interrupting the flow of conversation to once more express disgust with himself for killing Tyler. Peter, his bitterness assuaged by Kurt's deep regret, was more interested in hearing about Roadkill Turnpike. He still had a lot of questions, but Kurt was evasive. He kept on bringing the topic round to his little three-man rebellion against Emperor Morellius.

They walked through a country park. There were roads, a car park, even a small manor house - all abandoned. They didn't see a single human being, which even Kurt found a little strange. Meanwhile, he managed to turn the questioning with Peter around, and soon Peter was telling him his own story. All about Beatrice and the kids, his own war against mankind, the barbed wire, the ambulance crash, the paramedic, and his exile. Kurt listened quietly and nodded sagely. Peter soon realised that he and the thug had much to relate upon after all.

When the sun rose the next morning they were still walking along the Writtle Bypass, albeit at a much slower pace now. They just didn't have the energy to keep it up, and despite his threat, Kurt didn't leave the smaller rabbits behind. Mark and Tom were completely thrown by the sunrise. As far as they were concerned, it was rising above the northern horizon. Of course, it was rising above the eastern horizon as normal, but all this travelling had sent their sense of direction awry.

They saw their first rabbit shortly after noon. By this time they were all thoroughly exhausted - even if Kurt and co wouldn't admit it. Peter was giving serious consideration to Tom's request for five minutes' rest when suddenly Dave spotted the mottled grey rabbit foraging along the hard shoulder up ahead.

"We must be getting quite close now, then," Kurt announced.

"How much further is it?" Tom asked between pants.

"Not sure," muttered Kurt, shrugging absently.

"Well, you're leading us there," Peter reminded him.

"Yes, but these roads all look alike," Kurt grumbled.

Peter smirked. "Perhaps we should go and ask him," he suggested.

"No!" said Kurt quickly. "I mean, no, I wouldn't."

"Why not?" asked Peter suspiciously.

"I thought you wanted to go in incognito..."

"I never said that," Peter told him.

"No," Kurt admitted. "But we should..."

Peter looked round. The grey rabbit was a captive bred, the size of Kurt, Chris and Dave. His coat wasn't the same dirty brown-grey colour as Peter's, but a softer grey, like the colour of the clouds. His fur looked fluffy, downy. He was oblivious to being watched as he stood up with a mouldy old apple core in his teeth.

"I'm going to talk to him," Peter decided.

"Me too! Me too!" Benjamin Bunny whinnied.

"We'll all come," Kurt murmured.

So they set off once more. They hadn't got very far, however, before the grey rabbit heard them coming and looked round. What he saw was a mismatched grab bag of rabbits bounding toward him looking ravenously eager about someone or something. He immediately dropped his apple core and ran.

"He thinks we're chasing him!" cried Mark.

"We've gotta catch him!" Kurt hissed.

"He's too fast!" Tom wailed, already trailing at the back.

"Peter, if he thinks we're hostile..." Kurt began.

Peter nodded, understanding. He found some untapped reserve of energy he'd not yet expended on this odyssey and ran full pelt after the grey rabbit. He'd left the others behind before he'd even reached the abandoned apple core, though Kurt was catching up fast. The pair of them darted blindly into the bushes.

The vegetation was thick. It wasn't like the homely hedgerows that grew where Peter had come from. These bushes were dense, dark and dank. Hardly any sunlight got through to the ground, which was hidden beneath smelly mulch. Peter's size helped him get through the smallest gaps, and soon Kurt began to lag behind. The same obstacles were slowing the grey rabbit up ahead.

Peter was right behind him when he broke out of the bushes and came out between the trees. A little more sunlight broke through their boughs. Peter could see the beams taking form in the moist air. However, the grey rabbit now looked lost, and faltered. Just before Peter reached him, he suddenly stopped running, turned round, stood up on his hind legs and balled his forepaws into little fists.

"Okay, who are you and what do you want?" he demanded.

Peter also slowed down and kept his distance.

"I'm not going to hurt you," Peter told him.

"Oh, yeah?" the rabbit said nervously.

Peter nodded. "I'm sorry I frightened you."

"You didn't," the rabbit said, so quickly he almost interrupted.

"I didn't mean to chase you. I just wanted to talk to you."

Kurt suddenly blustered into the clearing and the grey rabbit lurched back nervously. He didn't start running again, however. He just started to weave about on the spot, swinging his little hands around as if ready for a rumble.

"I can fight you all!" the grey rabbit claimed.

"Sorry?" said Kurt. Then he was momentarily stricken by a hacking cough from yet another burst of unrabbitlike exertion. Before he recovered, Benjamin Bunny also joined them. The other five weren't too far behind.

"You dropped your apple," Benjamin told the grey rabbit. He'd brought it with him in his teeth and had now dropped it. He pushed it forward with his feet but the grey rabbit just took another step back so Benjamin left it.

"Look, we just have some questions," Peter explained.

"Oh, yeah?" the grey rabbit said again.

"Yes," Peter continued, trying to make his voice sound calming even though what he really needed to do was inhale deeply and noisily for a few minutes. "Y'see, we're looking for Roadkill Turnpike. We know we're in the right area. We just need to know if it's this-a-way, or if it's that-a-way."

"Oh, I see," the rabbit muttered, stopping his ducking and weaving. From looking mightily petrified a moment ago, Peter now thought he looked a little bit disappointed that he wasn't going to get into a scuffle.

"So, which way is it, then?" asked Kurt.

"You'll be wanting to head back to the main road," the grey rabbit explained in a voice that was still shaky. "There's an exit somewhere out here in the trees but not many of us use it anymore." He shook his head, sniffled.

"How much further along the road do we go?" asked Peter.

"Until you can see the junction," the grey rabbit replied. "That's Roadkill Turnpike itself. As soon as you can see it up ahead, turn off of the road, and go into the field. There should be rabbits there. There always are."

Peter glanced at Kurt and Kurt nodded back at him.

"I truly am sorry if we gave you the wrong impression," Peter told the grey rabbit again. "But thanks for all your help."

The grey rabbit nodded uneasily. Mark, Tom and the others turned back into the bushes to head back to the road, but as Peter and Kurt were about to follow after them, the grey rabbit called out to him.

"So, are you here for the festivities, then?"

Peter turned and frowned. "Festivities?" he said slowly.

"Yes," he said, and he motioned the shrivelled brown apple core that now lay between them. "The festivities."

"Well, actually, we're-"

"Really looking forward to it!" Kurt cut in.

Peter glared at him. Kurt nudged him back.

"We've heard all about them," Kurt continued.

"I didn't know outsiders came to take part," the grey rabbit muttered to himself, then he shook his head. "Oh, well, I might see you later, then? I hope you enjoy yourselves. This month's feast is going to be grand."

Then he came and reclaimed his apple core proudly.

"See you later," said Peter absently.

"I'm Fox Mulder, by the way," the grey rabbit added, stopping and remembering to tell them before he picked up the apple again. "Stupid name, I know, but what can you expect from those humans?"

Peter was opening his mouth when yet again Kurt cut in to say, "I'm Boris, and this is Horace. Back there's Maurice and the guys..."

"Nice to meet you all," said Mulder. "Welcome to Roadkill Turnpike." Then he picked up his apple core again, nodded at Peter and without further discourse, trundled away happy and oblivious once more.

Peter waited until he was out of earshot.

"Okay, what's going on?" he demanded.

"Keep it down," Kurt warned. "We're on enemy territory."

"No, you're on enemy territory," Peter retorted.

"Look, you're lucky, Pete," Kurt growled. "I just played that whole scene your way. If you and your friends weren't here, we would have killed that little punk. It's probably stupid of us to let him see us and get away as it is..."

Peter sighed and shook his head. "You're paranoid, Kurt," he said. "And anyway, what was all that about festivities? And why did you interrupt when I tried to tell him about our search for Mopsy. He could have helped."

"No, he couldn't have," Kurt said. "Trust me."

"You should trust him, Pete," Dave muttered.

"There's some things you don't know," added Chris.

"Which I'd like to hear all about," Peter said. "Right. Now."

"There's not enough time," Kurt explained, his demeanour softening. "But needless to say, we, you and your daughter especially don't want to be around for the start of this feast. I say we find her then get the fuck out of here." He paused. "Now, is that acceptable with you, Pete, or do you have a better idea?"

Peter chewed his tongue. "Okay, but when we do get out of here, I want some short, sharp answers to a few pertinent questions, all right?"

"Fine," said Kurt under his breath.

"Are we going to split up?" asked Mark, trying to break the ice as the pair of them stood glaring at each other across the root of a tree.

"I don't know," said Peter. He glanced from Kurt to Chris and Dave. "Would you three all recognise Mopsy if you saw her again?"

Dave ducked his head. Chris nodded sheepishly.

"Okay, then. We'll split up," Peter announced. He looked around the whole group. "Chris, Dave and Benjamin with me. Mark and Tom with Kurt."

"Er, what?" Mark began. Kurt echoed his sentiments.

"Think about it," Peter said, rolling his eyes impatiently. "If she sees Kurt, Dave and Chris together, she's hardly going to come running. But if she sees them with us, then she'll know they're friends now, won't she?"

It was flawless logic. So the search began.

The seven of them returned through the bushes to the Writtle Bypass and went along the road together. Fox Mulder was already nowhere to be seen, which made Kurt suspicious, but they continued regardless. As per Mulder's instructions, they kept going until they saw the M1 junction ahead.

And what a sight that was to behold.

Peter, Mark, Tom and Benjamin had never seen anything like it. It wasn't just the road splitting, offering a choice of direction; it was an unholy conflagration of human roads, all meeting at this one point with another island at the centre.

A chill trickled down Peter's spine. All of a sudden, he wasn't so sure all the stories about this place were apocryphal, after all. He pitied any hypothetical rabbit that got caught in the middle of the junction. There wasn't just one road to cross with a couple of carriageways. There were so many carriageways colliding around that central island he couldn't even count them all. Had there been traffic careering around that junction, Peter wouldn't have liked to get any closer.

But there wasn't any traffic. Roadkill Turnpike was still and quiet, empty and abandoned, just like that old manor house they'd passed. Instead of feeling safer, however, this made the place feel laden with ominous undertones of doom. Behind Peter, Tom audibly gulped. That brought Peter back to the here and now.

"Okay," he said loudly to get back their attention. "So this is where Fox Mulder said we leave the road. We'll split up here, and meet back here in an hour or so. If you find Mopsy before then, come and find us."

Kurt shook his head. "If you find Mopsy before then, you get her out of there and you make sure nobody sees you do it, Pete."

Peter looked at him bizarrely.

"Let's go."

So they split up.

It was with some apprehension that Peter led the way through the bushes at this roadside. They weren't as thick as the ones they'd chased Mulder through, but it was the thought of what lay on the other side. Before he'd even broken through the foliage he had seen and heard the rabbits there. He held his breath coming back out into the sunlight, fearing being seen. But as it turned out, nobody noticed.

Nobody noticed because, quite simply, there were so many rabbits spread out across the gently sloping field of grass beyond, nobody batted an eyelid when seven more swelled their numbers. There were three hundred, four hundred, five hundred, perhaps more rabbits all sitting in the grass, grazing, talking, snoozing, playing...

Peter couldn't even put an estimate on how many there really were. A rabbit like him has no need to be aware of such proportions. Even during mealtimes back home there was only a fraction of this number present. For a moment, the seven of them all stopped dead in their tracks. Perhaps for Kurt this was a humbling reminder of what his rebellion was up against, thought Peter.

"This is going to take forever," Tom squeaked.

"Where do we even start?" wondered Mark.

"With the women," Peter remarked with a frown.

"Obviously," laughed Benjamin, running an excited circle around their ever-growing party. Then he suddenly stopped and realised why Peter was frowning. "Hey, wait a second, where are all the females?"

Neither Mark nor Tom had noticed, but as they looked around, they realised what both Peter and Benjamin were alluding to. Amongst that never-ending swarm of several hundred rabbits, they couldn't see a single one that wasn't male. They swung round to look at Peter, who was already looking at Kurt.

"What's going on here?" Peter hissed.

"Okay," Kurt sighed. "It looks like I'm gonna have to explain..."

But he didn't get the chance to. At that point, Dave started hopping up and down behind his leader, squeaking in his ear and nudging him in the back. Kurt snapped his jaw at his underling, before spotting what had alarmed him.

"Courtiers! Run!" Kurt cried.

"What?" Peter demanded.

"Morellius' henchmen!"

But by then it was already too late. Three rabbits that looked just like Peter emerged out of the mass of multicoloured former pet bunnies and before he'd turned full circle that number had risen to twelve. They were surrounded and these rabbits didn't look like they were here to issue a friendly welcome.

"Emperor Morellius wishes the pleasure of your company," said the natural born leader of the pack. He had a shrill voice and a smarmy tone. All the rabbits nearby were silent and watching. Fox Mulder stood some distance behind.

"Oh, shit," said Kurt under his breath.

NOTES:
So, some 30,000 words later than I'd envisaged, Peter Rabbit reaches Roadkill Turnpike. This chapter hints further toward the "A Handmaid's Tale"-esque truth of the place. The whole Fox Mulder interlude took numerous rewrites to get spot on. Originally he was a lot more confrontational and in the end he was just an unnecessary obstacle to Peter learning what he needs to learn. As for the name, yes, of course it's from "The X-Files". After Kurt, Chris and Dave from the last chapter, I thought I'd develop the idea that the 'captive breds' (i.e. the abandoned pet rabbits) keep the names the humans gave them. Well, it makes coming up with anymore character names easier.