Eleven Days Escape Time

Day 2.

September 8. 9 days until the competition.

After catching a Bun-Vac full of rabbits, and Wallace falling somewhat head-over-heals in love with the Hall's lovely Lady Tottington, and getting yelled at by the snotty Victor Quartermaine, they headed home to put away the rabbits they had caught, when Wallace was struck with an idea.

"Why didn't we think of it before, lad?" Wallace excitedly said as he opened the door to the cellar. "A solution to all our storage problems!" He motioned to all the rabbits and their cages that filled the cramped basement. "Simply by connecting the Bun-Vac," he grabbed the pipe to the giant bunny vacuum, "to the Mind Manipulation-o-Matic," he connected the tubes with hydraulic hiss, "we can brainwash the bunnies!" He clapped his hands together in satisfaction as Gromit eyed the bunnies in the glass cage, somewhat worried about them. "Rabbit rehabilitation! Once cured of their anti-social, veg-ravaging behavior, the rabbits can be safely released without fear of reoffending." Wallace explained as he sat down on the comfortable armchair and flipped a switch, opening lunar panels on either side of the large glass helmet. "Just a bit of lunar power to enhance the mind waves," he mumbled, "and we can begin!"

This is where it all went wrong.

Gromit watched as Wallace spouted brain-washing phrases into the helmet as it sucked them up from his mind and spit them into the rabbits' glass cage as they began floating from the vacuum suction, and began getting hit with the waves. The hound watched as the multicolored waves zapped the rabbits, and Wallace excitedly exclaimed as his plan seemed to be working, "Their tiny, bunny brains are being saturated in my veg-free mind waves!" sitting back, and saying that only another 30 minutes or so were needed. Then, as he propped up his leg, his shoe hit the lever, and changed the settings from suck to blow. Gromit watched in horror as a small rabbit was sucked into the tube and connected to Wallace, and he began hopping around the basement, the bunny brainwaves being forced into his head, and begging for help as Gromit panicked, finally realizing what was happening and what to do, grabbed a spanner and jumped, smashing the headpiece into shards and freeing Wallace and the innocent bunny.

"Oh, thanks lad," a dazed Wallace said from the floor, noticing the bunny that had a grip on his head, and ripped it off, testing to see if his idea worked, and to both of their surprise- it did! The little bunny, now named Hutch by Wallace, was immune to carrots and shoved into a cage.

Once upstairs and bandaged up, Wallace began acting strange, and Gromit began to notice some odd, but not too worrisome problems.

***

Gromit pulled a vegetable pie out of the oven. The smell of roasted vegetables filled his nose as he set it on the oven rack. He'd hoped Wallace would somewhat enjoy it for dinner, though he knew his master was not particularly fond of vegetables.

He walked a plate with a slice out to Wallace, who was busy fiddling with an old invention in the living room. "Oh, thanks lad," he hungrily dug into the pie with no problems or complains, which obviously gained an eyebrow raise from Gromit. No complaints? No foul frowns or expressions? This was odd. Maybe it was just the mood, or the evening- nonetheless, Gromit was somewhat relieved to not get any rambles from his owner. He walked back into the kitchen to prepare a slice for himself.

Another thing, Gromit had noticed, was that he requested carrot juice instead of the usual Snoozy-Choc before bed. This was unusually odd, coming from this anti-vegetable cheese eater. Once again, an eyebrow raise was necessary.

After tending to his prize marrow that night, Gromit headed to bed. "Good night, Gromit! Sweet dreams, ol' chum," he heard as he sat up in bed, doing a bit of knitting before hitting the hay. Minutes later, once the moon began to shine brightly through the room past the curtains, did Gromit begin to hear strange grunts and bangs coming from somewhere upstairs. He figured it was a loose bunny, but another part of him told him he needed to check it out. The lazy half of him spoke louder, and he ignored it, turning out the light and going to sleep.