Predators and Prey
We are rabbits.
We are the prey. We hide in warrens during the day,
as dogs and cats and foxes prowl the field above. Every night our friends are killed grazing. This is perfect nature.
The adults say this is how it must be. They graze us, they subside on us. We will go to heaven, peace will reign,
nature is not scary. It is normal, how things have always been. A cycle. We need them as much as they need us.
We scream as they dig up our tunnels. We cower silently as a ferret takes the other nest. I'm young, terrified, naive;
this can't go on.
We are cowards, we have to be. We are weak, small, powerless. But I have a team. We think it through.
They are parasites. They only live when there are more of us alive, and they die when our population is at a norm.
Maybe I will touch a world where no rabbit has to hide.
Rabbits are fragile, but we can bite. When backed into a corner, we will fight.
And there is no escape from the world.
It's a perfect trap. One will bait, two will collapse the tunnel, three - me - will bring the wood down.
We're comrades. Brought up together, lost ones together, we will make a new world together.
My ears twitch as I wait for the signal. I shit myself. All I can hear is my panting.
The yelp of the bait rabbit as he is wrought. Topsoil tumbles. The dog is caught.
I emerge in a flash, adrenaline in my veins, my animal self telling me "go back!". The stick is in my mouth.
From all directions we attack. The dog, suprised, snaps back. My sister is in its jaws.
I do not see the third, for I am upon it. I stab the stick into its leg, the twig snaps.
Stunned, a rabbit in the headlights. Death comes to me from the dog's eyes. Run! No choice but Run!
But then my comrades will die. I go against nature and bite down on its leg. No human could predict what I did, what I would have said.
Blood soaks my tongue, a terrible taste. It howls in pain. That's enough, I jump back with my hind legs, kick it, and run.
I make it a step before a leg strikes me, powerful, angry. The field becomes red, I scream in agony,
and rage, and sorrow, and victory, and fear.
I kick at the earth, bones broken. Rabbits are fragile. I'm fucked.
I'm not really that brave. I bit because I was scared, saw it look at me. Now I'm going to die. No heaven for me,
nothing waiting for us.
We didn't take it down, but some escaped. The dog is a little hurt, at least. Not much consolation for death.
We won. Maybe we didn't kill the thing, but there'd be more if we did. We… I - I showed the warren the predators aren't invincible.
What good does that do for me. Can't enjoy fame when you're dead.
The dog approaches, its time for the end. I'm scared. I cry, I'm going to die.
Courage means a bit, intelligence a bit more,
the real strength of rabbits is we've got more.
You can kill me, kill all my comrades, but you won't win the war, because you need us, we don't need you.
I made a difference. More will follow me. There will always be more. They will resist for me.
Comrades, don't avenge me. I won't exist to thank you. Just win, and make a world where there aren't predators and prey.