Part II.

About three of her siblings were in an unpolished room, the floor dusted with a slightly greenish powder. More of the powder was in ugly molding barrels around the room. They had been pouring the barrels into the water, but stopped when she appeared.
She raised her hand up to show the leprous hand with fear in her eyes, but no help was offered. “Brothers, what is this?” she cried, with too much emotion. She pulled herself towards the shore, but once her good paw touched the shore encrusted with the powder, it started burning even more than before. The skin wasn’t just blistering and turning white; it was bubbling and melting into a bloody valley. She had to let go, it hurt too much. Into the water she went again, the coolness offering some comfort but the now-paste still etching into her.
Arms wearing special gloves pulled her up. Her feet were dragged a bit against the powder, setting the nerves aflame and she screamed. They kept dragging her, into a room where there was no powder, just large vials of an amber-hued liquid. One of her siblings grabbed one of the vials from off the wall and proceeded to envelope her with the surprisingly thick liquid that smelled of vinegar. The bubbling stopped and the pain faded to a dull ache.
The brothers started arguing. She couldn’t hear too much through her water (and goo) filled ears, but she heard something about “can’t let this out” and “end this”, which are never good things to hear. Her eyes darted around the room, and rested upon one of the labels. Beneath the mold and dank mildew that streaked the tattered paper label it said “Jade Dawn” She had a feeling that she should know what this was.
OH! It had come back to her. Something about a war. Her sister had been a scientist, and they were studying a new form of chemical warfare. Jade Dawn was the code name for a poison powder that could be put into enemy camps water systems and placate them without any permanent damage. However, the shelf life was very low, and it was found that within two months of production the powder would lose its simple knockout affect and cause brain damage to anyone exposed to it. When mixed with water, the effects were doubled. It was quickly banned from all war zones and production was stopped in favor of making some other kind of poison. Something pink, she had forgotten what it was.
…They were poisoning them? Suddenly it made sense how life had been a blur, how they could all sleep without dreams. Also, it explained why no one left. A sudden wave of betrayal swept over her. They weren’t really trying to help her, they were trying to turn her and every other rabbit there into a robot.
They pulled her up and threw some robes about her, then marched her out of the room on bleeding paws, her fur dripping amber fluid as she went. They went through another room filled with barrels, and into a corridor of doors. For a moment they let go of her, each to fish into his pocket, most likely for a key.
Fate smiled on her. She jerked backwards and ran with the fear of an animal. Back through the room of amber. Back through the room of powder. Into the water she dove, trying to fight against the current. But it was stronger than her, and just pulled her through more tunnels. Her mind reeled from this information, she had to get out, she had to get everyone out.
Wait. The river pulled her into a familiar room, the room where this had all started. The waters ebbed, and she was able to heave her waterlogged self onto the smooth ground. She wanted to lie there, but she knew she had to tell the others. So she pulled herself up and set towards the door, her diaphragm aching, eyes watering, and breaths coming out shallow and rapid. The wet robes dragged, her feet bled, and she wanted to just give up. But she had to go on. No longer was this a haven to flee to, but an enemy to hide from. Into the room where they all slept. She started grabbing robes and pulling the sleeping people to the floor.
“Beloved siblings, I have discovered a grave secret. Our brothers have been lying to us; the crystals we divan from are not a gift from the divine but Jade Dawn, a poison that dulls our senses and weakens our brains. Before I came here and started consuming this venomous water, I knew what this did. Siblings, I am not lying! Please, hear me out.” She pleaded, but they just stared back emotionlessly. “Sister, you need to sleep. You are getting emotional. Your dreams give you false emotions.” One of her sisters said, crawling back into her bedbox. The others wordlessly agreed and also went to bed.
She screamed. All logic left her, and she stood alone on the floor, with blood streaming from her wounds and the sensitive flesh of her ears. Nothing could be gained from it, but too much was happening. Too many emotions were flooding. Images were coming back. It was as if now she knew what the poison was; now she could fight it.
She ran. She had to get out. Maybe if she saw the outside world, she could help them. But how did she leave? She had to get down here somehow. But that was so long ago, so many ages ago that she had been trying to forget. It was in her mind somewhere, and in these halls somewhere. She’d start by going to the bedchamber of the new recruits.
So she thudded along the hallways, occasionally skidding due to the water left by her robes. The room was hard to find, she walked by it twice. Once inside, she found that there were no new recruits. Odd, she could have sworn that there were more…
But then the siblings from the room with the barrels stepped out at her. They were wearing protective suits, and holding little grenade-like white balls with a five-pointed green flower on it, the symbol of Jade Dawn.
She knew it was coming but her reflexes were too numb to do anything other than blindly try to charge past them. One of the grenades exploded, white powder filling the room. She closed her eyes and raised her arms expecting sudden pain, but none hit her. She thanked whoever was watching over her, and kept running, hearing them shouting behind her but not stopping to listen. She wasn’t that stupid.
There was an odd room in front of her. It was very small, only big enough to hold about six rabbits, with an odd lever of sorts. It struck her as familiar, but it took her a while to realize that it was an elevator. Sudden strength was given to her as she dove into it and pulled the lever. The chains pulling it screeched and made her already bleeding ears ring. She couldn’t handle it, she fell to her knees and put her aching hands to her aching ears.
It was almost slow motion as she painfully raised her eyes to see them bearing down the hall upon her, but the lift was almost half up. It was gaining momentum, thankfully, and she would soon be hidden from them by the ceiling. But fate would not be so kind to her as to let her escape, one of them threw a Jade bomb into the elevator with her just before the ceiling closed her off.
She panicked. The room was now completely closed off. She tried to force it down the space between the lift and the wall but it wouldn’t fit. Her eyes filled with tears as she pulled it into her hands to try to disarm it but it was a solid piece of work that would not open to her. Fearful eyes tore over the elevator looking for a place to hide, but nowhere was there any escape. Maybe she could get off the elevator before it exploded? It was going very fast…
A sudden cloud of white blocked her vision with a click as the bomb went off. Her fingers were singed from the explosion, and otherwise she felt fine, for a moment. But the protective endorphins wore off all to soon, and her previously fine feeling eyes felt like someone was putting burning needles deep into them.
Animal like screams escaped her lips as she fell over and tore at her eyes, trying to either stop the pain or remove them altogether. She felt the elevator stop moving, and she rolled out of the elevator, onto her back.
Through the static-like stars filling her eyes, she saw something she hadn’t seen in years. The stars. The sky was a deep royal blue filled with diamonds so fantastic. She hadn’t seen them in so many years. Tears started mixing with the blood and the poison in her eyes and she felt sobs rising in her soul. She extended her arms to feel the ground, a rocky composition of crystals and sand, but something she hadn’t felt in years. She closed her eyes for a moment to breath in the dry air when she felt the wind. The glorious wind, pulling at her fur and caressing her lips.
It was so beautiful. It was so alive. It suddenly made everything she had gone through worth it. She was alive, she was a part of this beauty now.
She tried to open her eyes, to see her beautiful sky one more time.. It didn’t work, so she raised her fingers to rub them but stopped and recoiled with a cry when she felt the open sores on her eyes. Her lids were not down. She had opened them. She couldn’t see.
And on that deserted stretch of land, beside a broken down elevator, she curled up and wept like a child, her soft cries carried off in the beloved wind.