This is a draft version of a chapter from John Saye’s book, The Attack of the Atomic Bunny Rabbits!

The kids in the jumping house didn’t know what hit them. They were in there, jumping inside the head of an enormous clown. Mike and Destin could see them through the eyes as the bunnies converged upon it. They bounded up, and up through the nose of the clown, jumped into the giant clown’s face, and were inside it.

The kids were jumping, and then they were surrounded by fluffy red bunny rabbits jumping with them.

Destin and Mike stopped.

Mr. Phillips looked another way. “They’re in the popcorn maker,” he said. Destin and Mr. Phillips looked at each other, nodded and then Mr. Phillips ran toward the popcorn maker.

The bunnies in the jumping clown jumped with the kids. There was a crowd forming around it, and the bunnies copied the kids, jumping into the air, and then landing on their backs with their legs splayed out.

“I’m going in,” said Mike.

“No, Mike,” said Destin, but he was already climbing through the nose.

He pushed himself in, and wiggled his way through one of the inflated nostrils, and popped through into the mass of kids and bunnies all bouncing around. The bunnies started hopping even faster, and soon they began trying all kinds of different tricks, bouncing off the floor, and the walls, this way and that.

Mike grabbed for one, was it his?

It eluded him and slipped free towards another kid. Then he rolled to the left and tried to grab another bunny, but that slipped free of him and started bouncing between the floor and the ceiling of the big domed inflatable. Mike counted there were seven or eight bunnies in the jumping playhouse and six or eight kids. Things were moving around a lot.

“Mike!” said Destin. He pressed his face against the plastic see-through eyes of the inflatable.

Mike was jumping with the rabbits. They surrounded him and we’re jumping in a circle around him. Together, all at the same time, the rabbits began jumping as one. Mike would go up while they were going down. He’d take a big leap, and they would take a bigger leap. He’d go up four feet, and land on his feet, bending his knees to clear a higher jump, and they would do the same, but they’d put the power of their rabbity back legs into it and jump even higher, almost holding hands in a circle around him.

To Destin’s left, the popcorn maker exploded. Fire shot from the rabbits who were climbing in it and the popcorn was popping in the tin before it normally would have been ready.

Popcorn was everywhere.

People started to run, and it was while Destin was looking away from that the rabbits surrounding Mike all turned around and started breathing fire onto the walls of the bouncy clown. The plastic melted, burned, peeled away, and soon they were bouncing in an open area surrounded by melted plastic walls. The side blew out, and the bunnies all left Mike behind and bounced out of the playhouse and over the heads of the people gathered around.

Mike caught up with his dad and they ran for it.

Mr. Phillips brushed the popcorn off his body. He stumbled back into a booth for drinking birds and little water toys.

It was like a wave. Little red rabbits bounding through the expo, leaving a trail of fire and destruction in their wake.

Outside, the van pulled up, and Mr. Red and Mr. Green stepped out of it. They sauntered into the Expo, and took notes, holding their phones to their faces and speaking into them.

“Minor damage, here at the School Science Expo. The bunnies are definitely here, or at least, they were,” said Mr. Green.

“Evidence suggests that their numbers are growing. They’ll double soon,” said Mr. Red.

“They can do that?”

“According to the lab, they can do a lot of things.”

“Sir, were you a witness?” said Mr. Green.

Destin turned, and he and Mike were face to face with Mr. Green.

“I should think so,” said Destin. “They’ve been all over town this morning.”

Mike looked up at his father, who was casually talking about the rabbits now.

“You seem to know a good bit then,” said Mr. Green.

“One snuck into my class materials this morning.”

“And into my backpack on the way to school,” said Mike.

Mr. Green turned and knelt down to talk to Mike. “You say on your way to school then?”

“Yeah, these rabbits were all over our neighborhood.”

Mr. Green looked up, “Your son sir?”

“Yep, he’s mine,” said Destin.

“You’ve got a smart boy there Mr. Kelly.”

“How did you—“

“Know your name? We’ve met before. Probably will again. You get in a lot of trouble scientifically speaking.”

“Do I then?”

“You have no idea.”

“Is my dad a secret agent?” asked Mike.

“Kid, your father has helped us more times than he knows.”

Mr. Green winked, and gave a short salute, and said “Mr. Kelly, we’ll be in touch later,” then he and Mr. Red were sweeping from the room, tracking the rabbits as they went.

“I wonder what all that was about?” said Destin.

“Dad, you’re a superhero!”

“Of course, I am.”

Maria waited in line, the car idling while she was waiting for Annie to come out of her preschool class. The sun was hot, and she was waiting in a spot where the sun was just hitting her in the face between the visor and the rearview mirror where you could only block it by craning your neck around in just the wrong way. She took off her sunglasses and, squinted then put them back on.

The doors opened, and children began to spill out, heading for various cars when one of them was knocked over by a high jumping rabbit and went sprawling to the ground.

One of Annie’s teachers shrieked and watched as another of the rabbits jumped up on Annie’s head and looked left and right, its fur as red as a radish.

Horns honked. Parents screamed. Car doors slammed and flew open, and then parents and kids ran different directions. Teachers closed their eyes and the rabbits ran everywhere. They were all over the place.

Maria jumped across the street and ran for the rabbits.

One jumped over the mailbox and kicked it on the way by.

Maria backhanded one jumping for her. It landed on the ground and rolled away, scampering under another car.

She kicked the one standing on Annie’s head.

It squealed and fell to the ground and then hopped into an open backpack.

Annie ran for her mother.

One of the rabbits cut loose and blew fire that destroyed a compact car. It exploded, the engine blowing the hood off. It landed several feet away.

Another rabbit jumped on the remains of a tree stump and roared like a lion, bearing its razor-sharp fangs before breathing fire.

Maria got Annie in the car while the rabbits were chasing the other children. She slammed Annie’s door, kicked another rabbit on the way to her door. She pulled her close and another rabbit landed on the hood of the car. It twitched its nose, scratched behind its ears, then its fur brightened up, then it roared and blew fire up over the car.

Maria hit the gas and peeled out. The rabbit flew up over the windshield and off the car. It landed on the street, shaking its head and blew another plume of flame as the cars around it screeched around them.

She hit the gas and peeled around the corner.

Another rabbit landed on the windshield and rolled down to the hood of the car. It bellowed and screeched, and blew fire into the air.

Annie screamed in the back seat.

Maria pulled hard right, and the rabbit rolled off the car, landing in a bush by the side of the road.

“Where are these things coming from?”

Annie got quiet.

“Annie?”

“Mom…”

Maria turned around. One of them was in the back seat. Then she saw two. She pulled the car to a stop and flung open the doors.

One rabbit gave her a look and darted out of the car. The other looked up at her, blinking in the sun. She grabbed it by the scruff of the neck and hurled it away from the car. It spun in the air and spewed flame as it went before landing on the ground thirty feet away.

She jumped back in the car and turned on the radio.

“The science expo was the scene of chaos today as what appeared to be fire-breathing rabbits overran it and took down some of the larger booths. The so-named Mr. Science had this to say. ‘Mutated rabbits, I’ve never seen anything like it before. They were everywhere.’ Most of the booths are now lost to the flame. The fire department has been on the scene. Most of the booths are a complete loss.”

“Destin,” she said. She had her phone out and was dialing his number before she knew what she was doing.

He answered.

“Destin!”

“We’re all right,” said Destin.

“And Mike?”

“I’ve got him here with me.”

“Did you see it?”

“Yeah, we saw it. Fire breathing rabbits. Doesn’t make any sense.”

“They’re all over town. I just threw one out of the car.”

“It’s odd,” he said. “I don’t think they are that harmful.”

“What? They burned down the science expo!”

“I know, I know, but they were almost playing the whole time.”

“They are little monsters!”

Destin exchanged a glance with Mike.

“I know, I know.”

“What are we going to do about them?”

“We? I don’t know.”

“Think about it. Where are you?”

“We’re a couple of blocks from the expo now. We are on a bus back to Eagle Lake Middle School. I’m taking Mike back there with me instead of sending him back to his school. Worked it out with his teacher Phillips.”

“Good.”

“I think these little guys are fascinating. Had one in class this morning.”

“You what?”

“Had one in class. Found it on the way in. They’re almost docile.”

“Except when they are trying to blow something up.”

“True, and I ran into some of those crazy government guys again.”

“The agent guys?”

“Yeah, Mr. Green, Mr. Red. Funny names, like they are men in black or something. They thought they knew something.”

“Yeah, well I know something.”

“What?”

“I’m headed over to your school now.”

“We’re pulling around the corner now, we’ll beat you by a few minutes.”

“Just be ready to roll when I do get there. We are getting away from here as fast as possible.”

“We will.”

Destin hung up his cell phone. They were pulling around the cornerback to the school. It was already on fire.

A window burst in front of them, and a red, laughing, happy rabbit was there, spouting flame from its nostrils, then it ducked back in the building.