Six awoke to the sound of chirping.
Her eyes fluttered open, her ears raised a bit, and she sniffed around for a few seconds before getting up, stretching and carrying herself best she could over to the other side, next to Gerrys cage. He and Doug were standing in their cages, watching another cage on the metal table in front of them. Six took a few glances, then looked back at Gerry when finally Kevin broke the silence. "It's just a bird," he said out loud, "Nothin' special to see here. Just an average, ordinary bird." Six was about to respond when she noticed the mouse in front of Gerrys cage, watching with them. She looked from the mouse up to Gerry, who had finally noticed her. "Six, this is Dodger," Gerry said, "Dodger, this is Six." "I heard the tweeting from the other room. Figured I'd come on over and see what all the noise was about," Dodger said, "Though now that I see, my instincts are telling me to stay away from it. I don't need to be eaten, that'd just ruin my day." "How's your leg?" Gerry asked, and Six looked down at her paw, which had been bandaged from the time being, still nothing more than a stump. "I'm sure THEY will do something about it," she replied quietly, before the bird start twittering again, and they all turned their attention back to that. Kevin, however, was not amused in the least. He just sighed and crinkled his nose. "It's nothing unusual," he said loudly, "It's just a bird. They're probably going to just let it go anyway. A lot of times they tag animals for the wild so they can track them, see how well they do. What their mating rituals are." "How do you know that?" Six asked. "Because THEY did it to me," Kevin said, "Before I was here, that's what I was part of. I got tracked for a long time, before I was eventually nabbed and not rereleased. They do it to birds, mostly, from what I've been told. You wouldn't believe how many birds I ran into in the wild who had those little metal rings around their legs." "Well, as fun as this has been," Dodger said, "I think it's time for me to go. I don't want to get caught and it's dangerous to be out in the daytime." With that, Dodger turned and started to head back up through the pipe and into the airvent, disappearing within seconds. Kevin, meanwhile, continued his rambling. "I think for birds, if I remember right, they're tracking migrating patterns. That's probably all this is. They're going to put a little metal ring around his leg and then let him go again, to see where he goes to. If only we could all be so lucky," he said. "You don't know the meaning of lucky," Six said under her breath and Doug groaned. "Oy, 'ow's about we don't get into all t'is right now, yeh?" he said, "Last t'ing we need is a mutiny." "Oh please, dear exalted one, tell me how I don't know anything about being lucky. Miss 'my life is so hard, I have to go to press conferences and get my photo taken'," Kevin said mockingly. Six could feel her blood begin to boil. "Last week I chewed my own back leg off because THEY thought it'd be a neat thing to show children, so don't you dare try to lecture me on the concept of luck, you slow witted troglodyte!" Six shouted across the lab, "You've been out in the wild, you've lived a free life! You think I have? You think that poor rabbit in the other room has? She was born here, and this is all she ever knew, so the next time you think about opening your mouth, first decide if you have something to say worth opening it for." The room went quiet, and then the bird tweeted. "Nest?" they called, and the rabbits all snapped their heads in its direction. "What did it say?" Gerry asked. "Nest?" it repeated, then looking at Six, "Mama?" Six felt her ears droop. No. Not a child. This was too far, even for her. She started to pray that Kevin would be right, that all they would do is tag it and rerelease it, but she knew in the pit of her stomach that that was never the case with THEM. That mercy was never on the menu, not even as an appetizer. She wanted to retreat, huddle back into the sanctity of the back of her cage, but instead she just stayed glued there, staring at this poor, frightened little bird. "Mama?" it called again, and she lowered herself into the hay a bit, to try and escape its gaze. A few seconds later, a female scientist came into the lab and headed for the cage, putting her finger through one of the slots and smiling at the bird, cooing a little at it, probably to make it feel safer. Six wanted to like this. She wanted to think that there was someone in this place who didn't want to hurt animals. For a second, just a split second, she got this feeling of hope. She'd soon regret letting her guard down like that. The bird twittered at the scientist, who just chuckled and pet its little beak, then went into the back room, where they kept Jasmine, and shut the door behind her. A few minutes went by, and nobody said a thing. Finally, when it was evident she wasn't coming directly back, Six started to head back into her spot in the back of her cage when Kevin spoke softly. "I'm sorry, Six," he said, "I guess you're right." "...it's ok," she mumbled, before curling up in her little space. Doug went and laid back down as well, but Gerry and Kevin stayed at the forefront of their cages, watching this little bird hop around its cage, peeping every which way, filling the lab with noise and life. "So where's your tracker now?" Gerry asked, and Kevin shook his head. "THEY removed it when they brought me in," he said, "THEY cut it off. I guess that was the moment I resigned myself to this fate, because once that happened, I knew that meant they weren't letting me back into the wild. That this was my home now." "Do you want to go back?" Gerry asked. "Well, I sure don't want to be here," Kevin said, and then they heard the sound of scuffling feet above them, and a few seconds later, Dodger popped out of the air vent. "Uh..." he said, "I have some rather distressing news...this isn't the only bird they have. On my way back to my section, I could hear more birds, and I just assumed it was this bird echoing through the vents, so I followed the noises but it turns out there's an entire room filled with birds." "Did they have the little tracker rings?" Kevin asked. "I don't know, it's not like I was going to get up close to them," Dodger said, "I just think that's a good sign. It means THEY aren't just going to outright hurt it." "Maybe THEY'RE rehibilitating them," Six said flatly, "Getting them prepared for living in the wild again." "That's a fair enough assumption, but then why take a child?" Kevin asked, "A child wouldn't need to be rehibilitated as they've never lived in the wild really." "A child sometimes falls from the nest and loses their mother," Six replied, "Could be the situation here. I can't believe I'm defending THEM after all THEY have done, but I guess I have to believe, on some level, that there's some sort of good being done here, for the sake of my own sanity. I can't let myself believe that the entire world can be this cold and cruel. There has to be somebody who cares. There has to be." "Mama?" the bird asked again, before the door reopened, and the scientist came back in. Dodger quickly scurried into Gerrys cage and hid in the hay, as they all waited on baited breath to see what would happen. The scientist picked up the top of the cage, opening it, and reached inside. She wrapped her hand gently around the bird, taking them out, and then with their other hand, slapped a little metal ring around its leg. Six had never felt a bigger sigh of relief in her life. As the scientist exited with the bird in hand, the rabbits all let out a collective sigh, thankful that nothing terrible would be happening to this poor baby bird. Six laid her head down on top of her paws and smiled. She had been right. There was some good somewhere. Just not for them.
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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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