[S] "Life Inside", part two: The Cute Life?

[Scott Robert Dawson]

"Life Inside"
Part Two: The Cute Life?

Red was troubled.

He frowned slightly as he pushed a cart down one of the Human-size
corridors of the great underground rabbit city known as Algonquin Main
warren. A mother rabbit and her kittens dozed lightly in their
blanketed nest atop the cart.

For almost as long as he remembered, Red had lived with the other
Humans among the Bunnies of Algonquin Main. He was quite happy: he
lived the Cute life, and he enjoyed the complex social life of the
warren.

Red knew that there were some things Humans just couldn't do, and he
missed out on some warren life as a result. The Bunnies did their best
to make up for for his Human handicaps, however, even providing such
things as gesture prostheses and training in interpreting lapine body
language. But no Human would ever be a master of the fluffy gesture.

This did not bother Red though; he hoped one day to undergo Conversion
and be promoted to the status of a rabbit.

The thing that bothered Red was his reaction to his latest trip
Outside the warren.

It was quite rare for a Human to leave the warren. The surface of the
earth outside the warren was a harsh place; whenever the rabbits took
Red Outside, it seemed to be windy, or hot, or wet, or dark, or
bright, or infested with stinging insects, or full of huge and scary
animals, or (and this was the worst) bitterly, unbelievably cold.
Usually Red needed special protective equipment.

Red didn't like going Outside, but he had a special duty: it was his
job to meet wild Humans.

Yes, somehow, Humans existed outside the warren. Red guessed that they
had come from other warrens far away, but he was puzzled as to why
they didn't just use the underground Mover cars. Perhaps they didn't
have Movers?

Not far from one of the observation warrens was a "road", a flat
surface like the floor of a corridor, crudely leveled across the
surface of the earth. Red had often seen odd noisy smelly vehicles
moving along it. Sometimes they stopped and Humans emerged. With the
help of a troop of accompanying rabbits, he would introduce the Humans
to the advantages of life in the city.

On his latest expedition, Red had put on the special protective
equipment, the "clothes", and had gone outside into cold, wet and
unpleasant conditions to rescue a Human doe.

After getting her back to the warren, he was assigned to care for her
as she healed and joined the community. The Human doe did not speak
HumanSpeak; one of Red's jobs would be to teach her it. He knew
"English", the crude irregular language of the wild Humans, and could
speak to her. As she got better, he cared for her.

There were a lot of strange rules Red had to follow so that the Human
doe would not be alarmed. His Rabbit mentors explained that she had to
learn the ways of the warren gradually. But when she cried out for her
former home and warren-mates Outside, he was at a loss as to what to
do; he could only try to calm her and appeal to his mentors for help.
Often, there was nothing he could do but sedate her, and walk sadly
home at the end of the day.

In the city, Red's home was a den overlooking the central atrium of
the Human living-quarters. His life was a simple and pleasant routine.
He woke to the cheerful sound of the Morning Song. He ate his
vegetables, greeted his Human neighbours as they headed off to work in
the gardens, and looked to his terminal for new work assignments.
Sometimes rabbits would hop by his den for a visit. They were always
solicitious of his health, and became very concerned when he became
ill. But that wasn't often.

Red's life did not demand deep reflection. He was therefore very
puzzled when he found himself repeatedly awake at night, thinking
about the Human doe. It wasn't sex; there were other Human does
available to him for that. It was some other quality she had, some
wildness she brought, that was not shared by the other Humans in the
warren, even the few that had come from Outside.

When he went to speak to his neighbours, he discovered that it was
very hard to even translate his worries to HumanSpeak, so he never did
describe his worries to them. And for some reason he was very
reluctant to share his worries with his Rabbit counselors.

It seemed, somehow, a Human thing.

TBC!