Richardson was never one to be a "team player".
He was a solitary rabbit, always watching Gerry and Kevin make plans and lead the rest of The Collective into one thing or another, never speaking up, never making his feelings known. But sitting here, watching Kevin defend leaving The Lab to the other rabbits while Number Four got sicker and sicker, he couldn't leave well enough alone anymore. His ears laid back, he felt a presence to his side and glanced over to see another rabbit standing there, with a small, round piece of metal attached to one of her ears and attached to a small piece of tubing that attached to another round piece of metal that was stuck to her fur.
"What are they doing?" she asked.
"Arguing. Always arguing," Richardson said.
"Why?"
"I don't know, Mipsy, it's just what they do," he replied, sighing, "It's all anyone does."
Meanwhile, in the crowd, he wasn't wrong. It WAS all anyone did. Most of The Collective thought it was stupid to not take Four back to The Lab and leave her there, but Kevin wouldn't hear of it. Thankfully, he had Number Two on his side as well.
"Imagine if one of your kids were sick, Meadow," Number Two said, "Would you want to just leave them by themselves at that place?"
"Well, of course not, but if it meant it might save them, then-"
"No, you're saying that, but when it comes down to it, you wouldn't be able to do it," Kevin said, "Four is one of us. She's just as important as any one of us. She's not contagious, she's not a threat to our health, and I will NOT even entertain the concept of leaving her alone there with THEM."
"But she COULD be helped!" Meadow said.
"Meadow, THEY didn't help her before. They simply stuck her in The Sick, and gave her a small treatment every day that basically did nothing but stave off further problems," Number Two said, "Trust me, you don't want to go to The Sick. Kevin knows. I took him there to see her. It isn't a pretty place."
"I'm with Kevin," Richardson said, speaking up, hopping forward, "Much as I may disagree with him on many things, I do agree with him that taking her back to THEM is simply a step backwards and a betrayal. We already left half our group behind, but if we start taking some BACK too? That's unforgivable."
"Thank you...whatever your name is," Kevin said.
"That's Richardson," Number Two whispered, leaning towards Kevin.
"I'm a really bad leader," Kevin whispered back, making Number Two smirk at his joke.
"I don't necessarily agree with how the escape was handled, or with how things went down during The Incident, but I think here Kevin has a point. If we start turning on ourselves, how can we really depend on one another? You know? How can we build a community if we don't have trust with one another?" Richardson asked.
"Richardson gets it," Number Two said, "Richardson understands that we need to stick together, no matter what. That the moment we send someone back, that's the moment we lose ALL credibility. Someone sees that and thinks to themselves 'what's to stop them from sending ME back?' and that's not the sort of attitude that we want to cultivate for this burrow."
"I has a question," Mipsy asked, hopping forward, but stumbling a little, "Okay yeah?"
"Yes...?" Kevin asked.
"Mipsy," Number Two whispered, leaning towards him again.
"How do you know all these?!" Kevin whispered back.
"What THEY do to her?" Mipsy asked, blinking out of unison.
"Well, near as I can figure, they meant to test something on her and they gave her too much of whatever it was, and it made her ill, and since we've left, she's only gotten sicker, and I'm terrified because I don't know what to do about it," Kevin blurted out quickly, and then turned and looked away, hoping Number Two would take over, which he thankfully did.
"This is a community, but this isn't a community decision. This one is up to Kevin, and he's made up his mind, and frankly myself, and apparently Richardson, agree with him. That's that," Number Two said. With that, the group broke up and went back to their own spaces to spend the remainder of the evening. Number Two hopped over to Richardson and he sighed.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to come off as rude or anything," Richardson said, "I hope I didn't offend Kevin in any way."
"No, he'll be fine," Number Two said, "I know for a fact he's happy to have as many other rabbits on his side as he can get."
Number Two turned and looked at Kevin sitting near the front of the burrow and began hopping over to him. He had his head against the wall and was gently banging it as Number Two came up to his side.
"I'm an idiot," Kevin mumbled.
"Oh, I wouldn't go THAT far. Moron MAYBE but..." Number Two said, making Kevin chuckle.
"Hey," Kevin said, glancing at him, resting his forehead on the wall, "Who was the other rabbit, the girl, the one with Richardson?"
"Mipsy? She's part of a group from another lab that was transferred to ours. Did you see that little metal thing attached to wire on her? They were supposedly testing out this new technology that would track brain waves. Anyway, from what I've gathered, it sort of...didn't work and she had a really bad reaction and it...how do I put this delicately...it's made her rather challenged."
"Yeah, I'm sure she'd LOVE to go back to THEM..." Kevin mumbled as Number Two sighed.
"Richardson is trying to help, strange as he may be," Number Two responded, "He really is against THEM. Now listen, there's no reason to worry, okay? Number Four isn't going anywhere, nobody can make her leave, and she will get better, alright? I promise."
Kevin shrugged and headed down the burrow towards his hole where Number Four was waiting, asleep. as Number Two watched him go, he felt Mipsy come up to his side.
"Hello," he said softly.
"Why...um...why everyone wanna...go back?" she asked.
"Nobody wants to go back, Mipsy, no, they're just worried about Number Four, and they think THEY would be able to help her more than we can out here," Number Two replied.
"THEY won't help," Mipsy said, her voice low and shaky, still blinking out of unison, "THEY don't help. THEY just hurt you. THEY hurt me. THEY'LL hurt everyone."
Number Two looked at her and knew she was right, and that she of all rabbits would know for sure about this as well, given what THEY had done to her. He sighed and smiled, patting a front paw of hers with one of his own.
"You are very smart," he said, "Don't ever let someone tell you otherwise."
Mipsy smiled and nodded as Number Two headed outside of The Burrow.
Back in his little space, Kevin found that Number Four was awake now, but only barely. She yawned, stretched and scratched her ears before really looking at him and smiling. He sat down beside her and she nuzzled her nose into his neck.
"What's going on?" she asked, coughing a little.
"Nothing much, just Collective discussion, you know, boring shit," Kevin said, "...can I ask you a question?"
"Of course," she replied.
"If you thought it would make you better, would you want to go back there?" Kevin asked, "If...if you thought THEY could fix you, cure you, would you want to-"
"No."
"I didn't think so, good," Kevin said, "That's exactly what I would've said."
He never came clean as to WHY he'd asked this, but he didn't really need to. She'd been getting the vibe lately that most rabbits were scared of her now, so she was pretty much able to figure it out on her own, and yet...yet she didn't care. She had Kevin. All they had was fear. Meanwhile, Number Two found himself outside, watching the stars overhead, feeling the cool forest breeze against his fur. He shut his eyes for a moment until he heard a crunching noise in front of him, and opened his eyes to see Salt standing there, chewing on a nut.
"Oh," he said, "It's you."
"What're you doin' out here?" she asked.
"Oh, you know, pondering my evergrowing despair and eventual demise,"he responded, as she nodded and finished her nut, wiping her paws on her fur.
"Right, right. How's everything?"
"Terrible, honestly...things are falling away quickly. How the hell can we have solidarity in our group if we can't even achieve it amongst three rabbits? There's no hope for this, Salt. I'm starting to really believe, hard as I try daily to believe the opposite, that we screwed up coming out here."
"Hey, you guys did what you had to, and now you're trying to find a new way to survive, alright? Things will work out," she said, "Number Two, life is a series of decisions. Good, bad, mediocre, right, wrong, whatever. Every single decision leads to a new decision, and it's up to us to make those decisions and then hope we picked the right ones down the line. BUT, just because we might've made a wrong decision that led to a bad reaction doesn't mean there isn't a right decision to be made from that wrong decision later on, you feel me?"
"I guess you're right. There's always ways to fix things," Number Two said, exhaling slowly, "I just feel so tired, Salt. I feel so tired from everything. I'm constantly having to back Kevin up and defend him to others, and that's when I'm not defending him to himself! It's exhausting."
"It'll get easier, man. Every day it's gonna get a little bit easier," Salt said, smiling as she patted him on the shoulder and then looked around, "I better start to go. Not safe for someone my size to be out here at night. Owls and all."
"Right," Number Two said, smiling, "Thanks for talking."
"Anytime."
With that, Salt turned tail and raced off into the forest.
"You guys really trust that mouse, don't you?" Richardson asked, surprising Number Two.
"Yeah, I mean, we wouldn't even BE out here if it weren't for her," he said.
"This is true. She's not like the other one. But she did fail us too. She didn't get us ALL out," Richardson said, "Gerry, Six, god knows who else is still stuck in there, or if they're even ALIVE. She did her best and her best wasn't good enough. That's sort of the situation we're all in right now, isn't it?"
"I'd think so sure, but that doesn't mean we can't continue to do our best and make it better," Number Two said, "I have a lot of faith in Kevin. I've watched him grow as a rabbit, grow into a leader, into something he claimed, and still claims, that he could never be. He won't do us wrong."
"Wish I could believe in something the way you do," Richardson said.
"Maybe one day you will. I'm heading in," Number Two said, yawning as he passed him by, "Night."
"Yeah. Goodnight."
Richardson was never one to be a team player.
Sitting out here, solitary once again, he thought about the friends they'd left behind, the friends they were endangering now, and how stupid it was to care about others. How it only put a target on yourself. And yet, he did care. He cared for Mipsy on some level, he cared that Number Four was sick, and most of all, he cared about her. She wasn't here now, but he cared about her still, and always would. And sure, Kevin had grown, and Kevin was being a good leader.
But even leaders make mistakes.
He was a solitary rabbit, always watching Gerry and Kevin make plans and lead the rest of The Collective into one thing or another, never speaking up, never making his feelings known. But sitting here, watching Kevin defend leaving The Lab to the other rabbits while Number Four got sicker and sicker, he couldn't leave well enough alone anymore. His ears laid back, he felt a presence to his side and glanced over to see another rabbit standing there, with a small, round piece of metal attached to one of her ears and attached to a small piece of tubing that attached to another round piece of metal that was stuck to her fur.
"What are they doing?" she asked.
"Arguing. Always arguing," Richardson said.
"Why?"
"I don't know, Mipsy, it's just what they do," he replied, sighing, "It's all anyone does."
Meanwhile, in the crowd, he wasn't wrong. It WAS all anyone did. Most of The Collective thought it was stupid to not take Four back to The Lab and leave her there, but Kevin wouldn't hear of it. Thankfully, he had Number Two on his side as well.
"Imagine if one of your kids were sick, Meadow," Number Two said, "Would you want to just leave them by themselves at that place?"
"Well, of course not, but if it meant it might save them, then-"
"No, you're saying that, but when it comes down to it, you wouldn't be able to do it," Kevin said, "Four is one of us. She's just as important as any one of us. She's not contagious, she's not a threat to our health, and I will NOT even entertain the concept of leaving her alone there with THEM."
"But she COULD be helped!" Meadow said.
"Meadow, THEY didn't help her before. They simply stuck her in The Sick, and gave her a small treatment every day that basically did nothing but stave off further problems," Number Two said, "Trust me, you don't want to go to The Sick. Kevin knows. I took him there to see her. It isn't a pretty place."
"I'm with Kevin," Richardson said, speaking up, hopping forward, "Much as I may disagree with him on many things, I do agree with him that taking her back to THEM is simply a step backwards and a betrayal. We already left half our group behind, but if we start taking some BACK too? That's unforgivable."
"Thank you...whatever your name is," Kevin said.
"That's Richardson," Number Two whispered, leaning towards Kevin.
"I'm a really bad leader," Kevin whispered back, making Number Two smirk at his joke.
"I don't necessarily agree with how the escape was handled, or with how things went down during The Incident, but I think here Kevin has a point. If we start turning on ourselves, how can we really depend on one another? You know? How can we build a community if we don't have trust with one another?" Richardson asked.
"Richardson gets it," Number Two said, "Richardson understands that we need to stick together, no matter what. That the moment we send someone back, that's the moment we lose ALL credibility. Someone sees that and thinks to themselves 'what's to stop them from sending ME back?' and that's not the sort of attitude that we want to cultivate for this burrow."
"I has a question," Mipsy asked, hopping forward, but stumbling a little, "Okay yeah?"
"Yes...?" Kevin asked.
"Mipsy," Number Two whispered, leaning towards him again.
"How do you know all these?!" Kevin whispered back.
"What THEY do to her?" Mipsy asked, blinking out of unison.
"Well, near as I can figure, they meant to test something on her and they gave her too much of whatever it was, and it made her ill, and since we've left, she's only gotten sicker, and I'm terrified because I don't know what to do about it," Kevin blurted out quickly, and then turned and looked away, hoping Number Two would take over, which he thankfully did.
"This is a community, but this isn't a community decision. This one is up to Kevin, and he's made up his mind, and frankly myself, and apparently Richardson, agree with him. That's that," Number Two said. With that, the group broke up and went back to their own spaces to spend the remainder of the evening. Number Two hopped over to Richardson and he sighed.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to come off as rude or anything," Richardson said, "I hope I didn't offend Kevin in any way."
"No, he'll be fine," Number Two said, "I know for a fact he's happy to have as many other rabbits on his side as he can get."
Number Two turned and looked at Kevin sitting near the front of the burrow and began hopping over to him. He had his head against the wall and was gently banging it as Number Two came up to his side.
"I'm an idiot," Kevin mumbled.
"Oh, I wouldn't go THAT far. Moron MAYBE but..." Number Two said, making Kevin chuckle.
"Hey," Kevin said, glancing at him, resting his forehead on the wall, "Who was the other rabbit, the girl, the one with Richardson?"
"Mipsy? She's part of a group from another lab that was transferred to ours. Did you see that little metal thing attached to wire on her? They were supposedly testing out this new technology that would track brain waves. Anyway, from what I've gathered, it sort of...didn't work and she had a really bad reaction and it...how do I put this delicately...it's made her rather challenged."
"Yeah, I'm sure she'd LOVE to go back to THEM..." Kevin mumbled as Number Two sighed.
"Richardson is trying to help, strange as he may be," Number Two responded, "He really is against THEM. Now listen, there's no reason to worry, okay? Number Four isn't going anywhere, nobody can make her leave, and she will get better, alright? I promise."
Kevin shrugged and headed down the burrow towards his hole where Number Four was waiting, asleep. as Number Two watched him go, he felt Mipsy come up to his side.
"Hello," he said softly.
"Why...um...why everyone wanna...go back?" she asked.
"Nobody wants to go back, Mipsy, no, they're just worried about Number Four, and they think THEY would be able to help her more than we can out here," Number Two replied.
"THEY won't help," Mipsy said, her voice low and shaky, still blinking out of unison, "THEY don't help. THEY just hurt you. THEY hurt me. THEY'LL hurt everyone."
Number Two looked at her and knew she was right, and that she of all rabbits would know for sure about this as well, given what THEY had done to her. He sighed and smiled, patting a front paw of hers with one of his own.
"You are very smart," he said, "Don't ever let someone tell you otherwise."
Mipsy smiled and nodded as Number Two headed outside of The Burrow.
Back in his little space, Kevin found that Number Four was awake now, but only barely. She yawned, stretched and scratched her ears before really looking at him and smiling. He sat down beside her and she nuzzled her nose into his neck.
"What's going on?" she asked, coughing a little.
"Nothing much, just Collective discussion, you know, boring shit," Kevin said, "...can I ask you a question?"
"Of course," she replied.
"If you thought it would make you better, would you want to go back there?" Kevin asked, "If...if you thought THEY could fix you, cure you, would you want to-"
"No."
"I didn't think so, good," Kevin said, "That's exactly what I would've said."
He never came clean as to WHY he'd asked this, but he didn't really need to. She'd been getting the vibe lately that most rabbits were scared of her now, so she was pretty much able to figure it out on her own, and yet...yet she didn't care. She had Kevin. All they had was fear. Meanwhile, Number Two found himself outside, watching the stars overhead, feeling the cool forest breeze against his fur. He shut his eyes for a moment until he heard a crunching noise in front of him, and opened his eyes to see Salt standing there, chewing on a nut.
"Oh," he said, "It's you."
"What're you doin' out here?" she asked.
"Oh, you know, pondering my evergrowing despair and eventual demise,"he responded, as she nodded and finished her nut, wiping her paws on her fur.
"Right, right. How's everything?"
"Terrible, honestly...things are falling away quickly. How the hell can we have solidarity in our group if we can't even achieve it amongst three rabbits? There's no hope for this, Salt. I'm starting to really believe, hard as I try daily to believe the opposite, that we screwed up coming out here."
"Hey, you guys did what you had to, and now you're trying to find a new way to survive, alright? Things will work out," she said, "Number Two, life is a series of decisions. Good, bad, mediocre, right, wrong, whatever. Every single decision leads to a new decision, and it's up to us to make those decisions and then hope we picked the right ones down the line. BUT, just because we might've made a wrong decision that led to a bad reaction doesn't mean there isn't a right decision to be made from that wrong decision later on, you feel me?"
"I guess you're right. There's always ways to fix things," Number Two said, exhaling slowly, "I just feel so tired, Salt. I feel so tired from everything. I'm constantly having to back Kevin up and defend him to others, and that's when I'm not defending him to himself! It's exhausting."
"It'll get easier, man. Every day it's gonna get a little bit easier," Salt said, smiling as she patted him on the shoulder and then looked around, "I better start to go. Not safe for someone my size to be out here at night. Owls and all."
"Right," Number Two said, smiling, "Thanks for talking."
"Anytime."
With that, Salt turned tail and raced off into the forest.
"You guys really trust that mouse, don't you?" Richardson asked, surprising Number Two.
"Yeah, I mean, we wouldn't even BE out here if it weren't for her," he said.
"This is true. She's not like the other one. But she did fail us too. She didn't get us ALL out," Richardson said, "Gerry, Six, god knows who else is still stuck in there, or if they're even ALIVE. She did her best and her best wasn't good enough. That's sort of the situation we're all in right now, isn't it?"
"I'd think so sure, but that doesn't mean we can't continue to do our best and make it better," Number Two said, "I have a lot of faith in Kevin. I've watched him grow as a rabbit, grow into a leader, into something he claimed, and still claims, that he could never be. He won't do us wrong."
"Wish I could believe in something the way you do," Richardson said.
"Maybe one day you will. I'm heading in," Number Two said, yawning as he passed him by, "Night."
"Yeah. Goodnight."
Richardson was never one to be a team player.
Sitting out here, solitary once again, he thought about the friends they'd left behind, the friends they were endangering now, and how stupid it was to care about others. How it only put a target on yourself. And yet, he did care. He cared for Mipsy on some level, he cared that Number Four was sick, and most of all, he cared about her. She wasn't here now, but he cared about her still, and always would. And sure, Kevin had grown, and Kevin was being a good leader.
But even leaders make mistakes.