"Gerry!" Kevin said, "Gerry, what're you doing?"
"This thing is clogged! If I can get it on maximum, it can unclog it and take you and Number Two with it!" Gerry said. "But...but you and Six, and the others, they won't.." Kevin started, but Gerry interrupted. "Kevin," Gerry said, his fur rife with sweat and blood, "You have to do this, you have to do it now or it's all for nothing. Just please, do it for me. I believe in you. You can do this." "Gerry," Kevin said, Number Two behind him, the tip of his right ear missing as he looked back and forth between the exit, Kevin and Gerry, "I can't...I can't just..." Kevin continued. "Do it for me, Kevin. Be. a. hero," Gerry said, out of breath, on the verge of tears, "You have to do this now, because...because we're out of time, Kevin. We're out of time." "I'm not going without you!" Kevin screamed, his face not even an inch from Gerrys, "Where is she, where's Salt?!" "It doesn't matter anymore, Kevin, just go!" Gerry shouted back, his eyes, like Kevins, brimming with tears, "Just go, man, get them out of here! They're counting on you!" "Gerry," Kevin said, looking in his eyes, "Gerry, you don't have to do this, you don't...it doesn't have to be this way..." "...Goodbye Kevin," Gerry said, shutting the hatch, and his paws finally feeling something he could twist, turning the water on full blast. The water shot through the ducts, drenching Gerry as he watched Kevin and Number Two get blasted down the tubes. The last thing Kevin saw of Gerry, he was being lifted out by one of THEIR hands. Then he lost consciousness. *** When Gerry woke that morning, the first thing he thought about, just like the last few months, was that day. Was Kevin, specifically, actually. The last words he'd said was "goodbye", which now seemed appropriate, seeing as nobody had come back for them. Gerry stretched, yawned and then hopped over to the little feeder in his cage and started nibbling on some breakfast. As he did this, he looked at the cage beside him and noticed Six was still laying there, just staring ahead. "You have to eat something," he said, sighing, "Come on. This isn't doing yourself any favors." "We were so close," she said softly, "So close and...and they haven't come back." "We don't even know if they're ALIVE," Gerry said, "And even if they are, I wouldn't blame them for not coming back." "You aren't even mad that they might be alive and not come back for us? After all you did for them. After putting yourself on the line so many times, after losing Doug? Fern? All their sacrifices mean nothing to you, Gerald?" Six asked, sitting up and glaring at him. He just sighed. It'd been like this since they left. Not even Salt had been back to see them, as she'd had to escape that same night to avoid being eaten by the dogs, so neither side knew what had become of the other, and Salt was too terrified to try and go back. Gerry looked around at their surroundings. He knew, deep in his heart, that Six had a point. He just didn't want to think that after all they'd been through together, Kevin or Number Two had simply abandoned them. "You know," another female rabbit named Crisp said from across the room, "Why SHOULD they care? They got what they wanted. If you had managed to escape, would YOU have come back?" "Don't pull that. That's what Dodger said to me," Gerry said, annoyed, "That none of your matter, that I could leave with him and let you all die here, but I couldn't do that, because you're all important to me." "Then you're an idiot," she continued, "Because that's exactly what you should've done. Once you're out of here, why would you ever care? You know why you care? Because you're surrounded by us daily, but if you never had to see us, why would you think about us?" "What would you be doing right now if you were out?" Six asked Gerry, making him ignore Crisp and turn back to her. "Um...I don't know, probably laying on some grass and resting, honestly. Just...relaxing without the fear that any second now that relaxation will come to an end for the sake of tests that benefit nobody but THEM." "That sounds nice," Six said, "I'd like that too. I'd like to go outside and smell some flowers or have a bath in a pond...it's not fair." "Six, it'll be okay, I promise," Gerry said, hopping to the other side of his cage so he could be closer to her, "You'll be alright, and you'll eventually get that bath and get to smell those flowers. We'll get to lay on that grass. I promise, okay?" Six merely nodded, silently, and then rolled to her other side, away from him, and went back to sleep. Gerry walked back to the other side of his cage and reached through with his paw, tapping the bars to the cage across from him. "Hey," he said, "Melvin, hey." A small, light brown rabbit with spots of white on him, turned around to face Gerry, a sunflower sticking out of his mouth. He swallowed it and turned fully. "Yeah?" he asked. "What would you be doing right now if you were outside?" Gerry asked. "I don't wanna go out there," Melvin said, "I'm glad we didn't escape. It's scary out there." "Yeah, but you...you're like, in control of your own life out there." "Yeah. I can't handle that much responsibility," Melvin replied, "If I was out there, I'd likely be trying to find a way back in here. That's what I'd be doing right now." Gerry couldn't believe his ears. Nobody who'd been forced to stay was interested in leaving, and it was starting to take a toll on his own hope. He walked back to a corner of his cage, settled down and rested his head on his paws. He felt tears swell up in his eyes, as he thought of Kevin. Where WAS he? Why hadn't he come BACK? *** About a week following The Escape, Gerry helped himself out in the evening to go and see Jasmine. Jasmine hadn't participated, hadn't even seemed interested, and yet he felt he needed to consult with her regarding the whole situation. He found her in her cage, as always, but she didn't seem right. She seemed cold and sad. As Gerry wriggled his way into her cage, he didn't even get to open his mouth before she spoke. "I figured you'd be coming to see me," she said. "Boy that's spooky," Gerry remarked, making her smirk. "What am I to you, Gerald? Your conscience? Your moral compass? I'm very curious why it is you keep coming to me, a rabbit so clearly disinterested in going along with your Collectives plans," Jasmine said, turning to face him. "I...I'm not using you or anything, I just-" "Gerald, I may be blind visually but I'm not blind mentally," she said, "I can still see perfectly clear how you view me. It's the same way you view everyone else around you. Kevin was nothing more than someone you could confide in, Six is nothing more than someone to find comfort in, Doug was nothing more than someone to find a laugh in. We're all just parts and pieces to your whole. I'm not saying that's a bad thing, you DO care, but...at some point you have to stop making us into something and work on making yourself into something." "...I'm sorry. I didn't realize I was coming off that way," Gerry said, lowering his ears, "I just...I needed to talk to someone about what happened. I feel like I failed, and-" "You always feel like you failed." "I know, but-" "Your problem, Gerald, is that you look at failure as a bad thing instead of as a learning experience. When I realized I'd never see, I thought to myself 'well this is just unfair, I am the worst' but it heightens other sense, and it makes you not take them for granted. These rabbits aren't just a cause, they're your friends. Don't take them for granted." Gerry nodded and then started crying. "I miss him," he said weakly. "Who?" "Kevin," Gerry said, "I feel like...like he was the only one who really understood what I was feeling. Sure, we didn't agree on everything and sure we had differences of opinions on how to go about stuff but he got it, Jasmine, he GOT it. He knew I only wanted the best and he went out of his way, even though he didn't believe in himself and was terrified, to help make my dream a reality. I feel like I've lost my other half." "Oh....darling," Jasmine said, hopping to him and nuzzling his ear, "I'm so sorry." "Why hasn't he come back for me?!" Gerry sobbed loudly, "Where IS he?!" Jasmine merely shook her head and tried to console this poor, lost little rabbit, knowing full well she wouldn't be able to give him what he wanted. No. He didn't need her. He needed Kevin. *** If there was one thing that Gerry had learned in his time being in this lab, it was this: Never expect someone to be there tomorrow. Steve, Doug, Fern...the list goes on and on. All these friends. All of them gone. Now more than half The Collective was gone as well, but for a happier reason at least. Laying there in his cage, staring at the wall, he could hear something shuffling. Gerry sat up and looked about, only to spot Crisp climbing out of her cage and heading to the air vent. He quickly followed, a little bit behind so that she wouldn't notice him. He found her at the vent where Dodger had escaped from, and he approached her cautiously. "I'm surprised they fixed this," he said. "Yeah...me too," she replied. "What're you doing out here?" "Just looking at the forest," Crisp said, "Sometimes when everyone is asleep, I'll come and look at the forest and the moon and think about being out there, and think about why I didn't get to leave too. It's not that I don't want to go, it's that I just don't think I'm allowed. I think I'm going to die in this lab." "No more rabbits are going to die in this lab, I can at least assure you of that," Gerry said, saddling up beside her now. "...it's weird. I never once believed anyone could get out, but then you got them out." "I didn't just get them out, Kevin and Number Two helped, so did Salt." "Yeah but you were the one, originally, who believed escape was possible. Who believed in a better life. I'm sorry that I snapped at you earlier. I'm just...confused. Part of me wants to think they'll come back and part of me realizes they never will, because why should they? They're free. Why risk capture again simply to save us?" "Because they're our friends." "If they're our friends, then WHERE are they, Gerry?" Gerry looked out at the forest and sighed. He'd been wondering this same question himself lately. Where were they? The only solace was that sometimes, when he did look out this vent, he would imagine Kevin sitting out there somewhere, looking at the same moon he was looking at, and knowing they were still connected in one way or another.
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The Rabbit Collective follows a group of lab rabbits struggling with their purpose, and hopeful eventual escape. Archives
October 2020
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