The Beginning of The End

Luther: King Of The Bunnies

Bleary-eyed, I went downstairs to get breakfast. Everything was empty. I wouldn't have been surprised since my parents were normally gone by the time I wake up, but usually, there's a note and some food left out for me to eat, today there was nothing. I went to my parent’s room and saw the room in a huge mess. This morning was certainly not normal. I looked around the room and found clothes scattered across the floor with mirror shards at the bottom of where the mirrors used to be, I looked upon their unmade bed and saw claw marks on the wooden frame and small bunny droppings. We don't own bunnies, nor do we have any pets. I tried to call the police but got no answer, it was then I got a text from my friend. "Your parents are gone too, right?" I answered her as fast as I could type, she told me to stay put as she was coming over.
"What is going on?" She asked. Her brown hair messy from the long bike ride she took.
"I don't know, Jay. We should check on our other friend's, we'll start with Kane and Gray since they live the closest to me."
"Alright, but we should hurry. On my way here I saw cars broken into and windows broken like someone or something was breaking into houses."
"Wait really? Did they happen to look like this one?" I led her to my parent’s room and showed her the window that was shattered in my parent's room.
"Yeah, almost exactly like that. And it was the same as my parent’s room. Do you know what was most strange? My dogs and cats are gone and there were bunny droppings throughout the house, in every room but mine and the basement."
"Mine too, let's check on Kane first. Then we go to Gray's house. Deal?"
"Yeah, and while we're going, let's call Kai and Oli, you call Kai."
"Why don't you call Kai?"
"I don't have her number now let's go or else whatever happened last night might happen again." I nodded to her and we started out the door. I went to my garage and grabbed my bike right after Jay left for Kane's house. Once we arrived We rushed to her door and knocked, I was trying to call Kai but was receiving no answer. I looked at Jay when she shook her head telling me she wasn't getting a reply either. We knocked on the door again and we saw Kane appear opening the door. She looked like a mess. Her hair tangled looking like she had just woken up. "What are you two doing here?" She asked, still half asleep.
"We need to come in, but first I'm getting Gray," Jay said, leaving me and Kane at the house.
"So see your parents today?"
"No, they’re normally gone by now, why?"
"Let's go check their bedroom." Kane looked at me confused before letting me in. We went to her parent’s bedroom and as I expected, it was just as messy as my parents.
"What is going on Leo?" I sighed before answering her.
"Mine and Jay’s parents are also gone, Jay is going to check on Gray.” She looked even more concerned as we heard a sound from the front of the house. I grabbed a baseball bat and motioned to Kane to keep quiet. She nodded and we began to walk towards her front door. I raise the bat as we get to the door. I see Jay throw her hands over her face. I slowly put the bat down and see a shocked Gray behind Jay.
“Wow, good thing we know you're ready to knock something out if it attacks us,” Jay said with a slight smirk.
“Glad you're back, but next time knock,” I said in return.
“We have something to show you guys,” Gray said, breaking the stillness. “It might be where your parents are, I know my family is there.”
“The school is providing a shelter, everyone can go. Gray’s parents left a note saying her siblings were with them. I still don’t get why they left you though.” Jay said as Gray began to pull out a flyer. I had just noticed her bag.
“What’s that?” I asked, pointing to the bag.
“My apocalypse survival kit. You never know, we might need it.” Kane and I nod. We start to look at the flyer.
“Our dad's are probably not there Leo. It says their lab is where this started.” Jay said, looking me in the eyes. "I know it's weird without adults here, but we have to go now, they could be coming back."
"This says that what attacked last night was… bunnies?" Kane said, really confused. "How can bunnies attack? They're small and adorable."
"That's the thing, they think they were genetically modified. The lab our fathers work at was supposedly the one they broke out from." Jay said.
"That's what they were working one? Why didn't they tell us?"
"I'm not sure, but they said they didn't experiment on animals. That's whats confusing me. Why would they tell us they weren't when this says they were?" We look at each other before heading out of the house to bike to our school. We arrived at the school and saw a mass board up. "Think we're too late?"
"No, let's knock." Gray said, knocking on the door.
"Like someone's going to answer." Jay said right before the door opened and a teacher pulled us in.
"What took you four so long? Nevertheless, you are now a group, got it?"
"Why do we need to be a group?"
"The bunnies have begun to get into the school, we are training people to fight them off. We are organized into groups of four." The teacher told us as we walked down the long corridor to get to the gym. "Do any of you have experience with this stuff?" We all looked at each other and shook our heads. "Then we have a lot of work to do."
Training started everyday at dawn. We ended up in the same training group as Gray's family and four of our other friend's, two of them being Oli and Kai. There was a lot they had us do, the worst part or the training was how much cardio we had to do. Oli and Kai were good at it but the rest of us were lagging behind compared to them. While we continued to train. More and more bunnies entered the school. When we had finished ‘basic training’ they gave us jobs, each group was assigned a different one. Ours was to find the lab. They thought it would be the perfect task for us as Jay and my fathers worked at the lab, but they had never told us where it was or how to find it. They kept everything top secret. "This is impossible! I've searched and searched through every satellite image I could find, it's like this lab doesn't exist!" We had been searching for the lab using satellite images for days now, but we haven't left the room. Jay was the first of us to say anything about how it sucks that we are stuck with this job.
BANG! We turned to face the door, we heard another bang then a bunch of screams. We heard one person yell, "The bunnies are here!" Jay bolted to the door to make sure it was locked. Kane ran to the window. "Guys, we need to jump."
"What? No way! Are you insane?"
"Kane's right, if we stay here the bunnies will just get in, we’ll be better off leaving.” Jay said not convincing us. “If you two want to stay then stay, I’m leaving with Kane.”
“Fine, we’re coming.” I sighed before we all began to jump out the window and run away from the school.
We ran for hours before making it to a shed on the opposite side of town from the school. We investigated the area to make sure there weren’t any bunnies or ways for the bunnies to get in. We started to make the shed into our temporary base before deciding what our next plan of action would be. “I think we should continue to look for the lab, I saw outlets here. If we find some computers or laptops, maybe there's electricity.” Gray suggested.
“That's a good idea but first we should get some sleep. I don’t know about the rest of you but I’m exhausted.” Jay said. We all nodded and agreed on sleeping in shifts, the same way we did at the school. We figured the next few months would be long but we never figured how long it would be.
    After 6 months of searching we finally found it, there were only two problems. One, we were almost out of supplies. Two, the lab was on the complete opposite end of town, and to get there we would have to go through the bunnies main area. "Maybe, just maybe, the school still has some supplies in it?" Gray suggested not sounding convinced.
"It would make sense but it's crawling with bunnies not to mention it's in the opposite direction we need to go." Kane mentioned, as she had been the one to map where we needed to go.
"I don't think it would be that hard Kane, we just need a new plan." Jay said, smirking again."Before you start questioning me, hear me out a bit." Jay began to draw out her plan on one of the few maps we had of the town. As she explained it I could see it coming to life in my mind. She managed to convince Kane to go along with the plan as well. We decided to start the plan the next day and to try and not to use too much of the rations just in case we can't get through right away. "Hey have you guys noticed it?" Gray asked, receiving a questioning look from all of us. "It's just since we had to evacuate the school we haven't seen a single one of the other groups. Not even heard one of them talking. When we got here I had seen Kai and Oli running in the opposite direction of us but other than that there was nothing."
"Our town is a wasteland right now Gray, maybe if we do this it'll go back to normal. But until this whole bunny fiasco I'd over and dealt with, we probably won't see another standing human being." Jay said, bringing the rest of us into a somber mood. "We may not want to think this way but the fate of the town relies on us, maybe even the world. This isn't something we can take lightly and wait for someone else to fix. We have to do it ourselves and if we fail… let's not think about if that happens. All we should focus on is getting to that lab and finding a way to stop this, okay?" We all nodded still not wanting to accept our reality. We all looked at each other for a while before beginning our night schedules. None of us talked the rest of the night, most of us were still trying to settle into the idea of what may happen if we fail. Even as we were switching shifts we never spoke.
The morning came quicker than any of us were hoping. The plan we had all pushed to the back of our mind was about to be in action, we were just waiting for the right time to go. "It's time."
We began to run as sneakingly as we could have. We got as close to the school as we could without one of the bunnies spotting us. Then we decided to split up. Me and Gray went towards the south side of the school while Jay and Kane went towards the north side of the school. "So please remind me why Jay thought it was a great idea to split up."
"She said that Watching the way the bunnies move that the north and south entrances would be the easiest to get into but if we went all four of us in one we'd be too noticeable. But this way we can watch each other's backs and we can meet each other in the middle of the school since the halls are linked up."
"I guess that makes sense but why wouldn't we just go in one by one from one entrance then we'd all still be together?"
"I really don't know, I've learned not to question her when she comes up with things like this. She does tend to get carried away when coming up with these plans though." Me and Gray chucked before ending up on the south side entrance. "I guess now we have to be even more careful and aware of our surroundings." We began to sneak towards the door trying our best to avoid the gaze of the bunnies. We continued until we made it to the door. We noticed there weren't any bunnies in the hallways as we entered, we looked around suspiciously before a bunny came flying in front of Gray’s face. We look to where it came from and see Kane and Jay standing in a pile of knocked out bunnies. “What took you two so long?” Jay said, panting. “Were there a lot of bunnies near that entrance?”
“There were some but I’m more shocked by the pile of bunnies that you two are standing in.” Gray spoke to us, still looking shocked.
“Oh yeah there was a lot in the building, but I’m hoping we got most of them.” Kane said, chuckling slightly. “Leo, you know where the supply room is, right? Then you lead the way and we'll watch your back.”
"Alright but this maybe a long walk depending on how many bunnies are still in the building."
"Don't worry, we have to stick around anyway." Jay said jokingly. "But we better hurry before more come in." With that we made our way down the hallway knocking out every bunny that crossed our path. We had managed to get pretty close to the supply room when we suddenly heard a bang. We all turned around and huddled back to back. We watched our surroundings carefully, ready to knock any bunnies we saw. That's when we heard a voice. "I think it's this way. I remember Layne coming from this direction before after getting the supplies." We heard the voice say. It sounded somewhat familiar but I couldn't quite make out who it was.
"Oli, your memory's been wrong before we can't afford another accident. There's only two of us left, our supplies will last us long enough." That's when I recognized the voices to be Oli and Kai's. They turned the corner and saw all of us standing there shocked. "You guys are still alive?" Oli asked half shouting.
"You guys are too! We thought something happened to you guys since we haven't seen you since the day the bunnies invaded!" Gray said, barely hiding their excitement. "Where's the rest of your group though? Shouldn't the four of you be here together?"
"Layne and Matty got taken by the bunnies. We were asleep since it was their shift but we never heard anything." Kai said, sounding distraught. "I'm glad you four are safe though. I know it's a long shot but did you guys manage to find the lab? Maybe it can give us a hint to what the bunnies are doing with everyone they captured."
"Yeah we did, we'll tell you in the supply room that way we'll be out of sight for the bunnies." Jay said, motioning us into the room. "Unless you guys want to be taken by the bunnies." We all made our way into the supply room and to our surprise there were still a lot of the supplies left. We began to tell the others our plan and they told us what they've been doing the past 6 months. For a moment while everyone was talking I thought I saw Gray leave the room but that wouldn't make any sense. We all agree to never leave the sight of at least another one of us. But then we heard a scream. We ran out the door and saw Gray being dragged away by bunnies. We darted towards her as a herd of bunnies began to gather at the end of the hallway. “We have two options, try and rescue Gray and most likely get carried away ourselves, or go to the lab and make a way for this to stop once and for all.” Kane said. We knew we had to go to the lab but all of us were uncomfortable with leaving Gray behind. Hopefully we can save them before the bunnies do anything to them.
“Let's hurry. We don’t know how many are at the school now, and I’d rather not wait for more to show up.” Jay said running to the same window we jumped out of the first time this happened.
“This feels a little familiar, almost like the first time we were jumping out windows to get away.” Kane chuckled, “It makes sense that you know how to open it.” I could tell they were trying to lighten the  mood. We jumped out the window and began the long run towards the lab.
By the time we had gotten to the lab we had all become exhausted. The afternoon's bright sun had burned into the night's cold moon. The lab seemed to be abandoned, there were beakers on the floor, some broken. It had looked like a similar struggle to the ones that laid at our houses. Scratches all over the wall and floor, and bunny droppings all over the place. “What happened here? I know the whole thing started here but you would think this place would be more destroyed. And why is all the sciencey stuff still intact?” Oli said, picking up a beaker filled with some glowing white liquid.
“I found a research notebook! It says, ‘The experiment was successful, they had turned Luther into a bunny. However there was an issue, Luthar had started to have this rage brewing in him the longer we were unable to turn him back into human. By the time we were able to finish the vial to turn him into a human he had started to bite us and tried to kill us. The first to be bitten was William  after a few hours he started to go into an odd shock, he began turning into a bunny. Then the second bite began to turn. I have been bitten, if anyone is looking for the  cure, it's the green vial.’ Well I guess we know what that is. I'm surprised they didn’t break it.” Oli slowly put the green vial down as carefully as she could.
“Well maybe we should work on making more. It doesn’t seem like they were prepared in case an outbreak of bunnies happened." Kai said. We all nodded in agreement.
“Wait, if they never got to test it, how do they know it works? Like what if we do all this work to make enough and it doesn’t work?” Kane said looking around, “Maybe there's another vial of the one that turns people into bunnies? Or one of us goes outside and captures a bunny?”
“I agree with Kane, two of us should go outside and see if we can catch a bunny to test it on. Leo, you wanna go with me?” I nodded to Jay as we began to head towards the door.
“Make sure you two are careful, we can’t lose two more people. While they’re out there we would work on copying the serum. If it works we can’t use it all just for a test.” I saw them all start to gather around a lab table while Jay shut the door behind us. We began to petrol the area looking for any bunnies that were near. “It doesn’t look like any of the bunnies have been around here in ages. Maybe we should head just a little closer to the school.”
“Jay, you and I both know how dangerous that would be. Are you sure we should take the risk?”
“We don’t really have a choice Leo. If we want to test the serum then we have to get a bunny, and it seems the closer we are two the nest or the school the more luck we would have finding them.”
“I know but it is just the two of us. Maybe we should have brought Kai or Oli too, three is better than two right?”
“I would agree if we didn’t need three of us there to make a match to the serum. Honestly, Kai, Kane, and you should have been the ones to stay since you three are the ones who took chemistry, but I didn’t really want to be on this hunt alone with Oli.” I could hear Jay chuckle.
“Yeah, if it was you two alone I don’t think both of you would come back. One of you would have sacrificed the other to the bunnies.” We both laughed as we rounded a corner then noticed a horde of bunnies. “We found our targets.”
“Look for one away from the crowd of them. We don’t need to alert the rest that we are here if we don’t have to.” Jay began to scan the crowd of bunnies looking for one not standing with the rest. She elbowed me and pointed at a small bunny standing at the back of the horde. That was the one we were going to take. We began a slow walk down the edge of the wall trying not to make a sound. Once we were close to the rabbit Jay picked up a rock and threw it towards the building next to the herd. As the bunnies began to look there I lept over and got a hold of the bunny. We began to sprint back towards the lab bunny in hand. I noticed Jay looking back checking if any bunnies were following us. Noticing how she slowed I knew none had noticed. We made it back to the lab without any of the bunnies realizing. “Wow you two took a lot less time than expected. We are almost finished with the copy of the surem. You two can put the bunny in that cage over there.” Kane pointed to a cage in the corner of the room. I locked the bunny up and went over to them to look at the serum. “What are we going to do if it doesn’t work?” Oli asked as everyone looked at her.
“Let’s watch how the bunny reacts. If it doesn’t work then we’ll either have to find another solution, or it's possible they work as a hive mind.” Jay said as we began to look at each other nervously. "It's done, now let's test it." Kane grabbed the copied serum and put it into a shot. Kai grabbed the bunny out of the cage and held it down while Kane put the serum into its body. At first the bunny was freaking out but after two minutes it passed out. "Well that's not exactly what we wanted to happen. But it's still alive, just not awake."
"Maybe your idea of the hive mind is correct, think about it this entire thing started because Luther bit other people. If it was the bites of the bunnies spreading it I would already be a bunny, but I'm not. So maybe Luther's the key to stopping all this." Kai said. We all stood in silence for a minute thinking.
"But what if that's not correct. What if Luther is the only one who turns back?" Oli said, sounding as nervous as I felt.
"We have to try. If we don't, this may never end." Jay said, putting her hand on Oli to try and reassure her.
"So do you three know where the nest is?"