Halloween

The Fourth of July Mad Bomber


“What was that?” Bounds whispered, jumping straight up out of his bed of soft leaves. Leaps, wide awake and staring, just shook his head.

Both rabbits sat very still, watching down the long corridor to the main back door escape hole. The sound had come from that direction, though neither could tell what it was that had wakened them so abruptly.

It was always more frightening to hear something from that direction. Attack, if it came, should come at the main opening, the more public entrance to the family burrow. All the escape holes were well hidden for obvious reasons, especially the main one at the back, which was larger than the others. If the threat was coming from there, it felt as if it left them completely exposed with little hope of escape.

The two stared at each other for a couple of minutes, afraid to move. Finally, Leaps took a deep breath and shook himself.

“Don’t know what it was,” he said in a normal voice. “But it seems to be gone. Let’s get back to sleep. I’ve got a lot….”

His sentence was cut off by the loudest bang either had ever heard. Both recognized the sound as the one that had woke them but this time the sound was much louder. It shook the ground around them, sending dirt from the ceiling down on them.

Suddenly, they were surrounded by chaos. Family members who had been sleeping closer to the escape hatch were running past them, shouting that the tunnel was collapsing. Family members who had been sleeping closer to the main opening were running toward them shouting that they were being attacked.

Leaps grabbed Bounds and held him tightly. Bounds had a tendency to panic in situations like this and Leaps knew if he didn’t hold onto his brother, he’d start running and not stop until he was in another county.

The elders of the family quickly took over. The strongest and best fighters were sent to the front entrance to fend off whoever was trying to break in. A group was sent to the back to assess the damage from the collapse and to make sure no bunny was trapped or hurt. The rest of the family huddled into the deepest of the burrows and waited.

Leaps, still holding Bounds, whispered that he was going to go up to the surface to see what was going on. Bounds nodded. Leaps explained that he wanted Bounds to stay there and help the family. Bounds shook his head.

“I’m going with you,” he said.

Before they could argue the point, another loud bang shook the burrow. It was much further away this time and they heard no cries of further collapse. Without discussing it, the two turned as one and hopped along the corridor toward the main entrance.

They found the entrance well guarded but peaceful. The remains of several broken twigs told them the potential breach had been attempted by a human. Only people stuck sticks down a hole before trying to enter it. Not even the oldest and wisest of the rabbits knew why.

But the guards weren’t paying any attention to the twigs. They were gathered in a circle, staring at something on the floor in the middle. Nudging their way in, Leaps and Bounds saw the object the others were staring at.

Lying on the ground was a very strange thing. It was long and round and bright red. It had a long white cord running from it that had been burned. The cord still smelled of fire. But it wasn’t burning any more, it was just laying there smelling of fire.

“What is it?” Bounds asked. He was answered only by confused looks from the others.

“Never mind,” Leaps said impatiently. “We need to go up there and find out what’s happening.”

The ground shook again, sending a fresh rain of dirt onto the group.

Bounds, distracted from his fear, grumbled as he followed his brother up and out onto the desert floor.

“Whatever it is,” he muttered. “It’s going to take me a week to get my fur clean again.”

The smell hit them instantly. A mixture of human and fire. Neither was a good smell but the two together was deadly and both rabbits froze a moment before shaking themselves and stepping out.

They didn’t speak. Silence was one of their best friends at the moment, they knew. They searched the horizon until they found what they were looking for. There, silhouetted against the night sky, was a huge people carrier and sitting around a campfire in front of it were several people.

The two ducked instinctively, even though there was no way the people could see or hear them from that distance. They were safe enough. The main entrance may not have been hidden as well as the escape hatch, but it was under a large bush and so the two were fairly well protected from view, even close up.

“What are they doing?” Bounds whispered.

“Just sitting there,” Leaps said.

“Sitting there isn’t caving in our escape routes and shaking the ground,” Bounds insisted.

Looking around, Leaps nodded.

“There must be more of them,” he said.

His thought was confirmed by another explosion, not quite as load now that they were above ground, but close-by and followed by laughter.

Bounds jumped and looked around wildly. Leaps grabbed him and drug him to the ground.

Silently, Leaps pointed behind them, in the opposite direction to that of the campers. Both rabbits flattened themselves and froze as boots crunched desert floor in their direction.

The boots stopped just on the other side of the bush. They could only see part of what they identified as one of the small humans. Leaps shuddered. Everyone knew they were the worst.

They could see he was poking a small hole with another twig.

“Nothing here,” he said, softly. Then, standing up and turning toward the campfire, stepping within inches of the bush, he shouted.

“Nothing in most of these holes, Dad. But you should have seen that last anthill! Ants running everywhere! It was really funny!”

One of the people sitting around the fire shouted something back, but neither rabbit understood what he said.

“Ah, Dad,” the kid whined. He started toward the camp, stopped, turned and looked back. Leaps and Bounds, just starting to relax since he apparently hadn’t seen them, froze again.

The kid took a few steps back to the small hole he’d been poking and took something out of his pocket and something else out of another. The rabbits were startled by a sudden flash of bright light, then watched, terrified, as the light dropped into the hole, followed by another loud explosion.

Dirt, pebbles, pieces of cactus and twigs flew everywhere. Leaps grabbed for Bounds but this time he was too late. Through the dust and smoke he could see his brother heading for the hills at full speed.

“Ha! Dad! You see that? I woke up a rabbit!” the kid shouted, laughing.

The people around the campfire laughed and pointed at Bounds as the kid trotted toward them.

Leaps, brushing dirt off his fur for what seemed like the hundredth time that night, sighed and slowly hopped back into the burrow. He’d better warn everyone to stay as far away from any of the openings as they possibly can. That kid was crazy! What could possibly possess someone to do that to them? He shook his head in disgust.

Bounds, finally tiring enough to slow down, realized that once again he was a long way from home and not sure exactly where he was. He’d never understand why he did this to himself! He just reacted without thinking, as he brother was very quick to remind him every chance he got, and ended up getting himself into trouble more often than not.

He stopped and looked around. Not only was he a long ways from the burrow, but it was very dark out and he wasn’t used to finding his way in the dark. Smart bunnies were well tucked into their burrows by dark, something his brother would gladly point out to him, he was sure.

At least he could still see the fire the people were sitting around, though the people were too small to be made out clearly. If he started toward it, he should be able to find the burrow by putting the fire at the same distance and same angle as it was before.

He took a hop toward the light but froze. In the stillness of the night, the sound of his feet hitting the desert floor seemed to vibrate loudly. He looked around nervously. The reason smart bunnies were in their burrows after dark was there were other creatures that roamed the night, creatures who would just love to have a nice rabbit dinner.

“You really shouldn’t be out here on your own at night.” The disembodied voice seemed to come from all directions and Bounds squeaked involuntarily. He spun around helplessly, panicked but not knowing which direction to run.

Laughter brought him up short. Finally able to focus on the sound he whipped around to face the grinning bobcat.

Recognizing the bobcat as his friend, Mason Cummings Boogaloo, the Boogaloo bobcat, his fear melted into anger.

“You scared me!” he said with as much dignity as he could muster.

“I sure did,” Boogaloo said with a laugh. “That was quite a squeak. What on earth are you doing way out here this late at night?” he asked.

All the tension and fear that had been building since he had been so frightfully awakened burst out of Bounds. He was so excited as he tried to tell Boogaloo his story, he hopped up and down, his ears flapping.

“It was terrible!” he said. “A mad bomber! A kid people! Blowing up our home! Blowing up the whole desert! No telling how many bunnies died! I saw him do it! I saw him myself! I saw him drop fire down a hole and the whole world exploded! It was terrible! Rocks flying, it’s amazing I got out alive! The worst thing I’ve ever seen! It was just terrible.”

Boogaloo watched him with a mixture of amusement and concern. Finally, as Bounds wound down, Boogaloo patted him on the back gently with his huge bobcat paw and asked, “Is your brother okay?”

Bounds, out of breath now, just nodded and looked at Boogaloo with pleading eyes.

“Can you help us?” he asked softly.

Boogaloo sat back and looked at the camp fire in the distance. Another blast rocked the ground again.

“Not much we can do about them,” he said. “People!” he hissed in disgust.

“You can scare them! You’re the scariest creature in the desert!” Bounds said.

Boogaloo, his trademark laugh suddenly missing, shook his head.

“People have guns,” he said. “I like you, you know and would like to help your family out, but I’m not taking a bullet for anybody! I’ve seen what they do to bobcats.”

“Oh,” Bounds said, disappointed. But Boogaloo wasn’t paying attention to him anymore. He was suddenly alert and tense and watching.

From the top of a small ridge just out of range of a bobcat leap, two coyotes appeared out of the dark.

“You gonna eat that rabbit or talk to him all night?” The larger of the two asked.

Boogaloo, still sitting quietly, reached out a powerful paw and pulled Bounds to him and turned his head to scan the horizon. Coyotes, like bobcats, usually hunted alone, but if there were two of them for some reason, there could be more.

“What’s mine is mine,” Boogaloo said with a low growl. “None of your business what I do with it.”

The coyote chuckled. “Well, I just thought if conversation was what you were after, we could make a deal. I’ll leave you Tommy here.”

The other coyote looked up at him in surprise.

Chuckling again at his friend’s reaction, he repeated, “I’ll leave you Tommy here and I’ll take that scrawny little rabbit.”

“You can take em.” Whispered Bounds, not any where nearly as afraid as he should have been in the circumstance.

Boogaloo sighed. He really had no interest in taking anyone, let alone a couple of scrappy coyotes but it was touching just how much faith the little rabbit obviously had in him, so he couldn’t abandon him.

He signed again and pointed toward the camp fire.

“We’re discussing how to get rid of them. Any ideas?”

“We were sent out to watch them,” Tommy said. “We got dens, too, you know.”

Boogaloo cocked his head. “You just going to watch them or are you going to do something about it?”

Tommy shook his head and sat solidly. “You were just explaining to your odd friend, there about people and guns,” he said. “Frankie and me don’t like guns.”

“Yeah,” nodded Boogaloo, “Afraid of the guns.”

There was no criticism in his voice, just what he thought was a mutual understanding and dislike of the things. But Frankie took exception to the remark.

“We ain’t afraid of nothin’!” he said, standing as tall as his four skinny little legs would allow. “We’d go give them what for, if we wanted to! Coyotes ain’t afraid of a few people, no way, no how. We’re just making sure they don’t come near our dens, that’s all. But if they did, we’d show them a thing or two, we would!”

They all looked up as another explosion hit, this time on the other side of the campfire, off in the direction the coyotes had come from.

“Looks like the kid has expanded his range,” Boogaloo said.

“Hey!” shouted Tommy. “That’s too close!”

Looking at Frankie, who suddenly didn’t look quite as tough, he said, “Let’s go! Let’s show em like you said!”

“Wait!” said Boogaloo. Frankie looked relieved and held up a paw to stop his friend.

“Let’s hear him out,” he said.

“We need to think about this,” Boogaloo said. “We want to get rid of all of them, not just the kid. And we don’t want them coming back until next year.”

“Until next year!” said Bounds with a thump of his foot. Marching out from behind Boogaloo’s front feet, he demanded, “We don’t want them coming back ever! What do you mean until next year! What’s the matter with you guys? You afraid or something?”

The complete silence brought Bounds up short. The bobcat and the two coyotes were all staring at him and Frankie had a very hungry look in his eye.

Ducking his head and slipping back behind Boogaloo’s leg, he said apologetically, “I mean, we just… it needs to stop… someone’s going to get hurt… I mean… how could anyone… why would even a people…”

“Happens every year,” said Tommy. “That’s why we’ve come out looking. Every year. No body knows why. I mean most of the time the people that come out here are okay. They feed you the best stuff! Always laughing and handing out food. But once a year…” he looked back at the campfire just as another explosion was heard. “Once a year…” he shook his head.

“’Fourth of July’ they call it,” Boogaloo said.

Bounds cocked his head. “What’s that?”

The coyotes and Boogaloo all shrugged in unison.

“Nobody knows,” said Boogaloo. “Not even old Lee, the desert tortoise and he’s been around for fifty bobcat generations.”

Frankie looked at the fire and shook his head. “It’s like they just go crazy! No reason!”

“Okay,” said Boogaloo, patting Bounds. “I’m taking this guy home.”

Frankie stood up and started to speak.

“No arguments.” Boogaloo said, stretching his claws and dropping his voice to a growl.

Even though there were two of them, neither coyote relished the idea of taking on a full grown bobcat. Frankie sat back and shrugged.

He gave Bounds a smile that sent a chill up his spine.

“No sweat,” he said. “I’m sure we’ll meet again sometime.”

Bounds swallowed hard and looked at Boogaloo.

“Can we go now?” he asked timidly.

Boogaloo gave him a pat on his head and looked at the coyotes.

“You two take the group around the campfire. Act crazy.”

“What?” asked Tommy

“Crazy,” said Boogaloo, like it was the most natural thing in the world. “People aren’t that afraid of coyotes.”

He held up a paw to stop the protests. “Not nearly as much as they should be,” he added. “But they’ll freak if they think there’s something wrong with you. People are most afraid of things that have something wrong with them.”

“But what if they have guns?” Frankie asked.

Tommy slapped him across the back and said, “We don’t need no cat to tell us how to handle people and guns! Don’t be daft! We’ll just outsmart them, that’s all.”

The two coyotes took off in one direction and the rabbit and bobcat in another.

Bounds stopped as soon as he knew he was close to home. “This is fine,” he said to Boogaloo. “I want to watch you work.”

Boogaloo laughed and said, “See how it’s done!” as he turned and started toward the spot they had last heard an explosion.

Bounds could hear a commotion at the campsite and watched as the people suddenly jumped up and were scrambling around, covering the fire with dirt, packing their chairs and tables into the people carrier and pointing at a spot in the darkness past where Bounds could see.

He was relieved to see none of them brought out a gun. The coyotes might not be his favorite animals in the world, especially that one with the hungry eyes, but nobody, not even them, deserved to be shot by the people.

“Thanks to the Great Rabbit!” Leaps said as he came up beside his brother. “I had no idea where you went and I’ve been so worried about you.”

Bounds didn’t respond to him. Instead, he pointed to the camp and said, “They’re going! You can hear them calling to the kid. But don’t worry, Boogaloo’s taking care of him! He’ll leave and never come back I bet once Boogaloo takes care of him!”

“Don’t start that again!” Leaps said. The coyotes came into view, limping and winding around each other as if completely crazy.

“Those people are leaving because of those sick coyotes,” Leaps said. “Or are they you’re your friends, too?” he asked sarcastically.

Bounds nodded. “That’s Frankie and Tommy, yeah. Not friends, exactly, at least not my friends, but the acting crazy was Boogaloo’s idea.”

Leaps looked at his brother and shook his head.

“Frankie and Tommy?” he asked, incredulously. “Did you fall again? Why do you run like that? Someday you’ll fall and never get up!”

Bounds waved his brother’s idea away. “I didn’t fall,” he said. “You’ll see. Boogaloo’s taking care of the kid and then he’ll come and you can finally meet him.”

Their attention was drawn again to the campfire. The calls for the kid were more frantic than ever. One of the people started out toward the desert but was driven back by the coyotes.

Boogaloo had no trouble finding the kid. Sneaking up on him was also no trouble. The kid was watching in fascination the sudden chaos at the campfire.

Boogaloo let out a low growl and the kid jumped straight up in the air. Boogaloo would have laughed if it wouldn’t have ruined his vicious cat image. This was just he beginning. He would have the kid begging for mercy in no time.

The kid whipped around and faced Boogaloo. It was at that point that Boogaloo noticed he was holding a stick that was burning on one end. Boogaloo didn’t know what it was or why the kid was holding it but something told him it wasn’t a good thing. He decided to shorten the process and get out of there. He growled again, showing all his teeth, and swiped a paw full of sharp claws in the air.

The kid screamed so loud even the coyotes froze. A wail rose from the campfire and two of the people ran toward them, this time completely ignoring the coyotes.

Boogaloo decided this was a good time to split and turned to run. The kid screamed again, threw the still lit stick at Boogaloo and started to run. Still screaming, he ran past the two people, past the coyotes, past the now smothered campfire and into the people carrier.

The stick exploded. Fortunately, it had been thrown where Boogaloo had been and at the point of explosion he was several feet away. Unfortunately, he was still close enough the blast left him temporarily deaf.

He shook his head, not knowing why suddenly everything had gone so muffled, so quiet. He looked around, saw the coyotes running past him with their jaws flapping. He couldn’t hear a thing they were saying.

Boogaloo didn’t know what had gone wrong, except that crazy bomber had made him deaf, but he knew he’d better get home before anything else stopped working.

Bounds was jumping up and down with joy at the sight of the giant people carrier swerving off into the night. He saw Boogaloo coming toward them and waved and shouted for him to come meet Leaps.

The now deaf Boogaloo bobcat ran past them, not hearing Bounds shouts of joy and Leaps frantic attempts to quiet him. He was so intent on getting home and shaking off this deafness, he didn’t even see them.

Leaps was relieved. It was bad enough that his brother kept running away and falling and hitting his head hard enough he was having delusions. It was bad enough that mad bomber was blowing up their warren. The last thing he needed was his brother in the middle of one of his delusions drawing the attention of bobcat.

Bounds was crushed. He called after Boogaloo but was only answered by a cloud of dust as Boogaloo headed home. Why was Boogaloo ignoring him? It would be weeks before he had a chance to hear Boogaloo’s side and know they were still friends. But that night, he could only think Boogaloo didn’t like him anymore.

He didn’t resist as his brother led him back to the family home. He didn’t protest when his brother pushed him down the hole and told him to get to bed, hoping his head would be better tomorrow.

Leaps stopped at the top and looked again at the now quiet desert. This was no place for bunnies at night. He’d always known that but now, with coyotes, bobcats and mad bombers, he understood why. And someway, somehow, he would have to find a way to convince his brother there was no such thing as a Boogaloo bobcat.

The End