Keep running!

RUN!!

Italic/diff font: the voice in his head

Bold: his thoughts

Run! Run as fast as you can!

The trees seemed to whisper to the little rabbit. They loomed down at him, shuddering in the wind. He didn't care about the dead branches that scratched at his fur and the rough rocks that blistered his paws as he passed them. He only ran. Where am I going? This isn't it, is it? There was no sun he dreamed to lay under. There was no fresh green grass for him to eat. Half of this forest was dead. He could smell the ashes that were still lingering along the dead trees. The smokey smell burned his lungs. It doesn't matter! Just run! Where are we going? Wherever the wind takes us...

The small rabbit kept running. His sensitive ears could hear movements and paw steps in the depths of the trees. He felt millions of gleaming eyes staring down at him as he ran. The trees blocked out the moon's shine, the only light source he would see for a long time... Is this it? Is this the freedom I always dreamed of? He sped up the movement in his paws, His ears lay flat along his head and spine. Front, back. Front, back. These words repeated in his mind. It was hard to breathe. The charred smell of the ashes seemed to block his nose, his whiskers trembling as he ran. His heart started racing. Faster, and faster. He came to an abrupt stop and looked around.

Where am I? The gaps between the pale tree leaves looked like faces. The same faces that 'freed' him. The same people who kept him captive in a place that smelled like death. The people who injected and fed him weird medications. His most recent drug looked like the normal pellets he would eat daily that tasted... a little off.

His eyes darted past every bush and tree. He crouched down, trying not to be seen. What was that? Who's there?! He stood still, trying to sniff out any predators, but could only smell acrid fumes coming out of the trees. This can't be it! What happened to the happiness i was told about? Was it only a lie? Was I too naïve? Thoughts ran through his head, his heart pounding as it it could come out his chest.

Maybe this isn't all! If I just keep running, I'll find it! The happiness I've always dreamed of--

The world seemed to slow down.

Trees stopped shaking. The wind stopped flowing. The ashes stopped contaminating the air nearby. He stood stiff for a brief moment, before collapsing onto the mossy rocks in the dirt. The pellets. The Pindone. The Pindone did its job.

Pindone: a type of poison used to kill lab animals and rabbits