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

“The rabbits look like they are doing well this evening,” said Dr. Barnes.

“I suppose they are,” said Dr. Roberts.

The laboratory was large, stark and white. A glowing orb of energy hung low from the ceiling. Reflectors surrounded it and concentrated beams of light on a fabricated patch of grass in the middle of the room. On the grass, a dozen healthy white rabbits hopped and played. They munched on celery, carrots, and lettuce from two larger bowls. They bounded around and chased each other.

Barnes watched them, clipboard in hand while Roberts checked a readout on his laptop. He was jotting down things, making little tick marks in different columns.

Roberts put his glasses up on his head while he read some of the data coming in. Transmitters behind their ears sent in data.

Some of the rabbits were playing a little rough, pouncing on each other. They smacked each other with their large hind feet and rolled around a lot.

“They are becoming more aggressive,” said Roberts.

“I agree,” said Barnes. “The light is doing its job well, though.”

“At least, we aren’t working on mind control anymore.”

“No doubts there. The Television industry has that pretty well bottled up.”

“Did you see the game last night?”

“No.”

Barnes searched through the pocket of his lab coat to retrieve a new pen. He had just gone dry.

“How did we get into this anyway?”

“You mean you never wanted to grow up to become a mad scientist?”

Barnes shrugged. “Are the lights too high?”

“They seem to check out okay. I think we’re still within the parameters of our test. Wouldn’t be much good if we lost that.”

“I’m not sure it should matter. We haven’t seen that much of a change already in their temperaments.”

“True. Tonight is an interesting example, though.”

“Not much more than a little roughhousing. I think they are bored.”

“Possible.”

“Maybe we could throw in some enrichment? A couple of toys to get their attention.”

“Sorry, that would invalidate the test for sure. No, we’ve got to ride it out.”

Barnes put his clipboard down and looked on at Roberts’s computer station.

“This reading is a little high,” said Barnes.

Roberts waved it off. “Not likely to cause much of an impact.”

“Are you sure?”

“Positively. I think that’s a result of them getting too riled up tonight.”

One of the rabbits leaped up, three feet in the air and landed on the other side of the enclosure.

“What was that?” said Roberts.

They both looked, but in just a moment could no longer tell which rabbit had made the jump.

“Interesting,” said Roberts.

“I’m getting my lunch,” said Barnes. “Can I get you anything?”

“I don’t think so.”

Barnes nodded and made his way down to the lab’s lunchroom. It was a cramped back room with a table, sink, refrigerator, microwave, and one chair, yet enough table for five or six. Barnes remembered many nights coming in here to eat while they were waiting for an experiment to finish. There used to be two chairs, but now there was just the one. He couldn’t remember where it had gone to.

He pushed his way past a filing cabinet, closing the middle drawer with his hip as he passed it. This had become second nature to him, and he no longer realized he did it anymore. It slammed with a rusty thud.

He pulled open the fridge and got out his lunch. It was a sandwich and some soup in a Thermos.  He opened the Thermos, and a waft of warm air greeted his nose. He set that down on the little table and opened the sandwich. He slid that into the microwave and turned it on. Beneath the sandwich, a long strip of torn foil still remained.

Barnes walked out on it, in search of the bathroom. The sandwich would be waiting for him when he got back.

The sandwich turned and burned. It began to spark, and then it caught fire. Flames burst out from the microwave, and the door flew open. Now fire was belching from the open door.

The fire alarm blared.

Roberts looked up from what he was doing.

“What was that?”

The alarm continued to ring. Small lights around the lab began to blink.

Then the microwave completely exploded.

The burned sandwich covered the walls. The refrigerator toppled over, and three months of leftover containers fell into the floor.

Part of the wall was on fire.

Somewhere beyond there was a larger explosion.

Barnes popped out of the bathroom.

“What was that?” he said.

He ran down the hall, past the burning break room, and down the hall to the laboratory.

Pushing open the doors, he found Roberts face down by one of the tables. Barnes checked his pulse. Roberts was still alive. “Come on there Roberts,” Barnes smacked the side of Roberts’s face. He didn’t come around.

He looked up.

The lights were pouring down on the rabbits.

“That’s not right,” he said. “That’s way too high.”

Rabbits were beginning to cook.

Their fur grew, and got bushier, becoming more of a candy apple red color. Their eyes began to glow.

Barnes thought it was just the lights coming down, making beady eyes beadier. Then one jumped.

It flew through the air and landed on Barnes’s face. Then it kicked, pushing off and sent Barnes toppling to the ground.

“What the…”

Barnes fell back and hit the ground, clattering into a table that was covered with papers. He flew over the top of it and sprawled on the floor behind it. When he sat up, holding his hand over a small cut on his forehead, the rabbit was actually opening the gate for the other rabbits. It kicked the gate open, with what now looked like a clawed foot with deep red fur, and they all began to stream out of it. They ran over Barnes, each softly kicking him in the face with their big furry feet as they crossed the room.

“Hey!”

Their leader, the others were still in the process of turning gradually darker and darker red, looked him in the eye, with fiery white-hot yellow pupils. It opened its mouth and breathed a jet stream of fire on him, singing his hair before turning and bounding down the hall.

The bunnies jumped through the fire from the break room, bounced off a turn towards the front door, past the bathroom and then jumped into the iron front doors, and could not move them. They launched themselves, into the doors, and bounced off, or landed with silly looks of confusion on their furry faces. Then they started to gasp and gather air into their lungs before spitting a stream of flame on the door to heat it up.

One of the bunnies passed out, but the rest kept concentrating on heating the door up. The unconscious one’s fur returned to its original white, but only for a moment, then it blinked, looked around, woke up and started turning fiery red again. A moment later it was jumping and belching at the doors with the rest of them.

The doors came loose, and landed in a twisted pile of metal, surrounded by the ash of other burned materials.

In the lab, Barnes shook Roberts, who came around.

“What happened?”

“The rabbits are loose.” It wasn’t Barnes.

They both looked up, and standing above them were two official-looking men dressed in dark suits.

“Doctor Barnes, Doctor Roberts,” said one of them. “We’re going to need to confiscate all this material you have around you.”

“Who are you?” said Barnes.

“I’m Mr. Green, this is Mr. Red,” said Green.

“No, I mean who are you?”

“There’s no time for that. This building is about to come down.”

There was smoke coming from down the hall. The fire had spread beyond the break room.

“Don’t worry,” said Red. “The Fire Department has already been notified. Do you have any knowledge of which direction the animals may be going.”

Barnes shook his head.

“We’ll be in touch,” said Red.

Agents Red and Green made their way out of the lab, and into the night. Barnes and Roberts watched as other agents, who only identified themselves as Mr. Yellow and Miss Purple, took files, and destroyed computer records with some form of a handheld light-up device while the Fire Department doused the flames.

A big rabbit footprint appeared on Barnes’s face, where it had kicked him. It stung, red like a sunburn.

Mr. Yellow snapped a photo of the footprint and sent it to Mr. Green with his phone.

“Thank you, sir,” he says as the flash goes off in Barnes’s face.

Outside, Mr. Green and Mr. Red survey the grounds outside and the remains of the front door. They look around, through their scanning devices, and then shake their heads. They don’t see any sign of the rabbits.

Next to the fire truck, parked on the curb is a large silver van. Mr. Green and Mr. Red knock on the backdoors, which open. Inside Mrs. Orange is ready to drive, and Prof. Blue was looking over the data coming in from everyone’s scanners.

“Can you make any sense of it Blue?” said Green. “Our scanners aren’t picking up much of anything.”

“I’m starting to see a pattern,” said Blue. He slipped his hand into his pocket for a bite of chocolate, offered it to Green and Red, who refused, then stuck it in his own mouth and chewed while he thought. “They seem headed down into the valley. At least, that’s what this shows. The trails you are sending back peter out thirty feet from the door.”

“How is that possible?”

“If I knew that, we’d have the little devils back already, wouldn’t we?”

Green and Red looked at each other.

“Don’t worry,” said Blue. “If I’m right, they won’t stay hidden for long.”

Away from the lab, the rabbits rocketed through the underbrush and set it on fire. They fired their way down alleys and between houses as they reached the valley. Their businesses stopped and the village began. They nestled into backyards, tree houses and garages, finding cool spots to curl up and nestle down for the evening. Their fires cooled, and their eyes darkened, no longer glowing with fiery light, to wait for the morning.