The Rabbit's Den

Winter in the Mountains is Longer

It took a lot of effort for Trixie to reach the bottom of the stairs, more than she had. She stopped once on the way down, she could see Kaleb sitting with his back towards the steps. After resting for a moment, she continued, slowly and quietly towards the fire and his dark looming silhouette. When she was about two feet from him, he turned hearing the soft steps. Glaring up at her, he growled, "Go away." She took the last few steps to the other crate and sat. His eyes were roaring angry, but she ignored them while she rested, building up the strength to argue with him.

"I don't want to be around you." He growled again, this time not bothering to look at her. "I don't know how many times I have told you that, and you never listened." She said still huffing and out of breath. "This isn't the same." He snapped. Looking at his sullen face for a moment she said, "No, it's not. This time you're mad at me." It felt like the day in his room, back at the Den. Then he was mad about something that was none of his business, much like now. That made him turn his gaze to her again, "I'll leave if you don't" She shrugged, "And I'll follow you around like you do me until I collapse." His eyes narrowed as he turned away from her back to the fire. "What do you want?" "No Kaleb the question is what do you want?" His head snapped back towards her; his face twisted up. "Really?" She nodded.

His face was still twisted up, "I want the world back to normal." Trixie shook her head, "Things that are real Kaleb, unless you have a fairy godmother." "For starters I want what we all had at the Den." She shifted uncomfortably on the crate; her muscles ached. "So, safety, community, self-sustainability and family?" "Yes, I don't want to have to run anymore. I don't want to have WOLF hunting us down no matter what we do." He broke some pieces of chopped wood up and shoved it in the stove. "I don't want you to be a psychopath." She was rubbing a knot out of her neck. "How am I a psychopath, Kaleb?" His voice rose, "You're infecting girls with a virus that ended the world!" Her tired eyes looked into his irrationally angry ones. "You can't save the world Kaleb, it's done. It's over."

He huffed and turned back away from her, hanging his head. "All I ever wanted was a family of my own Trixie, and it's never going to happen." She let out an incredulous laugh, "What do you call the people upstairs? You know the ones who trust you, the little community that looks to you and Rhys for safety. The ones who are willing to work together to make this work? So, a hand full of them took something to protect against being used in medical experiments, what's it to you? Everything you want, wants you, and they are all up there." She said it so enthusiastically that she was now panting and pointing up toward the stairs. The guilt began to fill him up slowly as he thought about what she was saying. "If it's not about saving the world what is it?" He asked feeling defeated. "Living. Not surviving, but really living."

"If it's about living, why do you want to leave with your pink bottle?" His words were razor sharp on purpose. She clenched her jaw; she didn't have an answer good enough to suit him. "You can't leave if you keep having this debilitating pain, you might die out there. Or get captured. What happens if it hits you when you're going through Feral territory?" She closed her eyes and sighed, she thought the first time was going to be the only time, she hadn't thought about it happening again while she was out on her own. Kaleb was right, and she hated to admit it. This was just what he wanted, her to stay. "I thought you wanted me gone." She said flatly. He shrugged, "You really think that sterilizing the population and helping the end of us is better?" Trixie nodded, "You have heard some of the stories, would you want to live like that?" He sighed and shook his head, "You should have told me from the beginning." "Would you have listened?"

Trixie wasn't banished from the group or secluded either. The secret was out and now all the girls had the opportunity to become infected if they wanted to. To Kaleb it was an alarming number of girls that wanted to take the pink fluid and be done with it. It was discouraging to Trixie and Sadie when four of them chose to stay uninfected, but they respected their wishes. As the winter grew heavier and darker the group grew closer. Trixie felt like she was waiting for a bomb to go off as she waited for the next flare up that would leave her defenseless in a ball of pain. She spent much of her daytime with Petra and her twins, Jacque and Jesse; and her nights with Kaleb, the invisible wedge that was between them seemed to vanish.