Silas woke up that morning dreading the events he knew would follow. He collected all his things, and promptly walked out of his room, into the communal area. 

“Silas-! It's time to go!” An older woman shouted from the kitchen. Her name was Mrs. Harmont. 

The other younger children ran over to him, hugging his legs and begging him not to leave. “Listen, I know you all love me, and I know you wanted me to stay forever...I-I’m sorry...I’m sorry everyone.” Silas felt regretful after uttering those words. 

He had gotten too old to stay here, a group home. He felt horrible. These kids here thought of him as their older brother, their everything. They had all been there so long they knew this would happen eventually. 

One of the younger children walked up to him, a girl named Margo. “Pssst! Silas! You gotta take the pet bunny with you! He will miss you sooooo much!” She frowned, looking up at him expectantly. 

“Sure thing, Mango,” Silas replied. He teases her with that nickname, she always giggles after pretending to be mad when she hears it. This time though, she didn’t even react, she just looked up at him with no emotion.

Silas was like a brother to Margo, She adored him. Maybe she knew about what day it was. Maybe she had been shutting down since she woke up. She had that dream again didn’t she?

He walked over to the cage, dropping his black backpack onto the floor and picking up the pure white rabbit out of it. He petted its head with two fingers, feeling it nuzzle against his hand. Silas giggled, smiling from ear to ear. Probably the only thing keeping him happy in this situation. He then grabbed a Ziploc bag, the gallon size, and filled it with the rabbit’s food, then stuffed it into his backpack before anyone noticed. 

He didn't know where he would hide it, the bunny was fairly large, well-fed. He took his bag and opened it, pulling out the jacket he knew was way too big for him, nearly twice his normal size. It belonged to his father, well before it happened. He shook off the memories he regretted remembering, and put the baggy jacket on, still holding the bunny, switching it in his hands to put his arms in the sleeves. Then he put the bunny gently into the inner pocket, smiling with glee as its cute little head poked out from it. 

Margo smiled at him, she didn't even need to say anything, he already knew she was so happy. She loved that bunny just as much as he did. She wouldn't remember it though, she was too distracted by everything. All the kids her age won't remember. Someday they will forget Silas. That thought scared him. He loved these kids more than anything, he hoped they would find their new homes one day, but he knew it wouldn't turn out that way. The orphanage hardly had even 3 visitors in the last 2 years.

He then picked up his backpack and walked over to the front door, he did not want to leave everything behind, everything he knew. He had nowhere to go. He looked up pretending he knew what he was doing. The children were a mix of emotions, some of them still half asleep, some crying, some not doing anything, and then there was Margo. The only one that was smiling, a small tear rolled down her cheek, and Silas knew she couldn't handle all this. She wanted to scream, she wanted to beg for him to stay, she just wanted him there, the only person in here she was comfortable with.

Margo tugged on the pocket of his jacket. He flinched for a moment, but never turned around. If he turned he would have to see the fear on her face. This would feel real. It would be something. 

“I’m sorry Margo.” He walked out of the door and closed it behind him. He kept walking and let his tears fall on the pavement behind him.

✰ ✰ ✰ ✰ 

He walked down the dirt road, still letting tears fall from his face. He picked up the bunny out of the inner pocket and set him onto the ground, letting him hop around. The rabbit started jumping forward, seemingly knowing where he wanted to go. So Silas followed the bunny. 

It led them to the woods that Silas would visit often, when he was too annoyed by the kids, or when he was mad at the mother of the orphanage. It was a place he valued a lot, he had spent some hard times in these woods. The rabbit stopped, standing up slightly with its front paws. It looked around sniffing the air.

“What do you smell buddy? Go on, show me what you're sensing.” Silas said crouching down to pet it, then standing up again and following the rabbit as it kept walking. 

Silas started to hear a faint noise, like ticking or some sort of clock-like sound. The bunny stopped again, getting back up but looking around more haphazardly. It's almost like it knew something horrible. Something that Silas should've not been searching for. They stayed in that spot, but now that clicking sound got louder. Silas looked down at the bunny and decided to pick it up, running in the opposite direction, realizing what the noise was coming from, and why it got louder. 

Silas started running, searching for a place to protect himself and the bunny, but he hadn’t found anything in time before a loud boom. It pierced his ears and he dropped to his knees, setting down the rabbit and leaning over it to protect it. Silas’ back felt hot, too hot. It felt almost like it was burning. He screamed out in pain, however, he refused to move. He promised that girl he would take care of the bunny. He was willing to risk his life for it, even if it was bound to die with him.

The bunny got closer to him, cuddling up to Silas's neck. The rabbit squeaked out of fear. Silas tried to get up but his back was so burned that he had to crawl with the bunny. He looked behind himself eagerly trying to see how bad this explosion was, and as he turned his head a giant mushroom cloud filled the sky. The air around him is getting thick and foggy, hard to breathe in. Everything started getting hazy. That's when he spotted it, a cave. 

He crawled quickly over to it, holding the bunny with him and screaming out in pain with each movement he made. He crawled into the cave and collapsed, putting the bunny next to him as he drifted into the darkness. The only thing he heard was distant squeaking and he felt the bunny nuzzle into his arm. Silas was unconscious.

Tokito was a sick boy. Since he was born he was thin, small. He was born prematurely. When he was young he often would pass out. He would get pale, almost a yellowy sort of hue took over his skin. 

Marlena and Taryn, Toki’s Parents, had adopted him from Yanaka, Japan. The birth mother had died in childbirth, and the father had been deceased 4 months into the pregnancy. The center Toki was held in got shut down for neglect and mistreatment shortly after his mothers adopted him.

His mothers had a feeling his condition had developed due to the neglect he faced as an infant. They didn't want to think about it. They never got him tested until his 18th birthday. They were tired of having their son suffer, but they were scared they waited far too long. Small visits to the hospital for his little escapades and dizzy spells occurred often, but the doctors never caught what was wrong with Toki. 

Oftentimes there were dangerous situations he would get himself into. Going outside in cold weather, when he knew he would have to go right back into the hospital again. But he didn't care, he loved going to that place. 

He had so much time to himself being in hospitals, so he would research animals, specifically bats. He loved them. The Common Vampire Bat, Hairy-legged Vampire Bat, White-winged Vampire Bat, Masked Flying Fox, Honduran White Bat, Dwarf Epauletted Fruit Bat. He loved them all. His favorite was the Vampire Bats. He knew a place where they would stay, a cave nearby to the hospital, he could see it outside his window. At night he would stay awake just to see them all swarm out of the cave. 

He had been in the hospital for a week now. The doctors were saying how they are right on the tip of finding out what's wrong with him. Toki doesn't believe them, they didn't even really try that hard to figure out what was wrong with him. Maybe now they were going to. Maybe this time.

The doctor walked in and moved the curtain slightly, looking over at Toki and his mother. “We have come to a diagnosis for your son, ma'am. He has a disease called Hemolytic Anemia. That means his red blood cells are being destroyed faster than they can be made. We do believe this case may have been inherited rather than from underlying conditions.”

Toki’s mother sighed. She held onto her son’s hand and looked at him and then back at the doctor. “How bad is it? I-I mean, could he die??” 

“It isn’t the first case we have seen of this. We could try immunosuppressants, however, it is getting into dangerous territory. With the variation he has, we may even need to do a procedure that would involve removing his spleen-”

“No! Is the surgery necessary? He can't be THAT sick…” She interrupted.

“Mom...please just listen to the doctor…” Toki sighed.

His mom always was like this. He couldn't tell if she just wanted him to not be sick, if she was just neglectful, or if she didn't want to believe that he could be this sick. She blames herself. She would never admit that to Toki, she would rather die than admit that. She wasn't willing to let people do surgeries on her son if she knew it wasn't necessary, but in truth, she had no clue what was happening with Toki. He looked paler and death-like each day that passed. 

Toki wanted to leave, he wanted to see the bats. He just wanted to feel freedom. He hated hospitals. Even more so the people inside. The sickly-looking people stared at him through their room windows. The people who never leave that place. He didn’t want to become like them. He would rather experience what he did as a baby instead of being a vegetable stuck in a hospital bed.

✰ ✰ ✰ ✰

On the drive home, his mother began to scold him, blaming him for his condition. Toki was fed up, he was so tired of his mother trying to shift blame onto people. Nobody could have controlled his illness. She was finally holding on too tight and losing control. He couldn’t let it go any further. 

“Mom, stop. Stop the car.” 

“What!? Why??”

“Just...stop.”

She pulled over regretfully and looked over at Toki. He sighed and looked back at her. Rage filled his face. “You always are blaming everyone else for things they cannot help...Just stop it, mom. Stop. I hate you!!” Toki opened the car door and got out, slamming it closed behind him and running into the woods. 

“TOKI!!!! Get back here now!!!” She yelled trying to choke back her tears. 

He didn't react, he didn't even say anything at all, he just kept walking. Going deeper into the woods. She hated herself for what she did, she regrets even blaming him. She ran after him into the woods. He had already gone too far in, she couldn't even see him. 

✰ ✰ ✰ ✰

As he walked up to the very familiar cave he peered inside, searching for the sleeping bats he saw nearly every night outside that hospital window. They were nowhere to be seen. He curiously walked in deeper, out of breath and shaking slightly in his legs. He approached a fork in the cave, a forced decision. He looked back and forth a few times before going into the left pathway. Small screeching noises echoed from the cave within along with Toki's short breaths and footsteps. 

He then approached another set of pathways, one too small for him to fit into, the other too low to the ground, and the third, lit up by a bright blue pool of water. He looked inside and searched the ceilings of this room not finding anything at first, but then seeing all those bats he once saw outside. Dozens of them, maybe even hundreds. He began to walk closer to them. An ear-piercing boom echoed throughout the cave from outside. Not just some piece falling off the top of the cave or anything. It could have only been an explosion. The type of explosions he saw in movies before. 

The bats jolted up suddenly and flew all over the place as hazy rust-colored smoke filled the cave. They flew everywhere, swarming around Toki. Their wings smacked against him, the sharp points on them scratching all over Toki's body. Toki quickly sat on the floor huddled in a fetal position hoping the bats would leave him alone, but he started to notice they formed some sort of barrier around him like they were all protecting him. He began to cry, remembering those last words he had said to his mother before his vision went blurry, turning to nothingness.

“M-mom...where are you…?” He said slurring his words before passing out.

Margo jolted awake from the sound of a fire alarm blaring from the hallway outside her bedroom. She was still half asleep but managed to wiggle her way off her bed and walked out of her doorway to see flames covering the entirety of the exit. Huh? Why is there fire?? I can’t get out… 

“Mommy? Where are you, mommy? I can't get out of here!” Margo’s heart started pounding furiously.

She ran back into her mostly empty room and looked at the window. She psyched herself up and approached it. It was already cracked open slightly, but she was far too little to reach it to put it up, so she climbed onto the window sill, and pushed the glass up, the screen already being broken. She wiggled her way out of it. Her room was on the second floor, but she had no other way. Hoping she would get caught somehow, she jumped without thinking of the repercussions. The wind blew through her long black hair as she fell. 

✰ ✰ ✰ ✰

That's when she woke up. Margo sat up fully in her bed sweating. Dried tears covered her face and pillow. She looked around the room to see some of the other children still asleep, some not in bed, some just getting up. When she moved the blanket she was met with wet sheets. 

Not again, She thought to herself. She woke up from that dream many times before this. It reappeared a lot. She didn’t want to remember what her mother had done to her and her family. She hated it, she missed her brother. She missed the woman she thought was her mom. She missed having people to love her. She missed having a normal life like all the other six-year-old girls she saw on the television. 

She got up hoping nobody would look at her. Hoping that if they saw she wasn’t met with laughter and judgment. Her feet hit the soft rotted floorboards with a small pap pap pap. She ran into the bathroom and quickly closed the door behind her, her back up against the door and her breath nearly escaping her lungs. 

✰ ✰ ✰ ✰

Once Margo had taken care of everything, she went out into the kitchen only to hear Mrs. Harmont say, “Silas-! It's time to go!” 

No. It can’t be that time already can it? Silas’ birthday came already? How? He can’t go, her thoughts faltered for a moment, not now. Silas, please stay! Tell me you will?”

“Listen, I know you all love me, and I know you wanted me to stay forever...I-I’m sorry...I’m sorry everyone.” Silas said from the main hallway. 

The other kids that were awake all surrounded him. Holding onto his legs and begging him not to leave. All she could do was stand behind the crowd and watch. She couldn’t even look at Silas without wanting to cry, but all her eyes did was stare at him. His eyes looked droopy, still half asleep. His dark brown hair was still frizzy and unbrushed on the top. His large blue eyes met her own and they seemingly smiled at her. She looked away and began to sob.

She thinks so loudly sometimes, Silas is good at picking up on it. He knows her too well. She remembered the bunny. The small albino Mini-Lop they kept in the living room, even though Silas and Margo were the only two who cared for it. She knew it wouldn’t be good if he left it behind. She worried so much. Way more than she needed to. 

She saw him walk closer and to ease her anxieties she blurted out, “Pssst! Silas! You gotta take the pet bunny with you! He will miss you sooooo much!”

“Sure thing, Mango,” Silas smiled while saying. She didn’t understand how he was so joyful. Maybe she just didn’t read him right. Maybe he wasn’t okay. She couldn’t tell.

She let out a small chuckle. Forced, but only to ease them both. She had lost so much already, he had no choice but to go. She knew that too. She wanted to speak, but nothing came out. Nothing.

She watched from the couch as Silas packed up all of the bunny’s things. Watched him place him in the inner pocket of his huge jacket. She felt as if her entire world was slowing down, stopping. It all feels blurry. I’m so confused… What is this? What...why does it feel like this… The room is spinning...I feel sick…

Silas slowly walked over towards the door, And she walked up behind him, tugging on the back of his baggy coat. Her mind was so fuzzy and confused with her own intense emotion. He watched her face, her smile stayed as a tear rolled down her cheek. 

“I’m sorry Margo… Goodbye.” He whispered. He never turned around to look at her, just walked out the door. He wanted her to think he knew what to do, but his body language seemed scared, confused. Just like her. 

She dropped to her knees and burst into tears as the door closed in front of her. Mrs. Harmont ran over and hugged Margo. 

“Shhhh, hey hey Margo It's okay. It's going to be okay. Just breathe with me, here,” She paused for a moment, “In, out, in, out, in, out” Margo breathed with her, letting Mrs. Harmont hold her. 

Her voice was shaky as it stuttered out of her throat, “T-thank-k y-you…”

The other children stared at them from the living room, then scattered once Mrs. Harmont looked up at them. “C’mon kids, let's get some breakfast started while I go get the babies. Elders help the littles please!” 

✰ ✰ ✰ ✰

Margo sat on the couch as everyone else finished cleaning their dishes. She had been spacing out for a while now, but a loud boom broke her catatonic state and she fell from the couch as the ground rumbled beneath her. 

“Children! Please don’t panic! Come here, come sit with me in the hall okay? Come here, everyone.” Mrs. Harmont’s voice sounded so much more panicked than normal

Margo couldn’t move or speak. She began to have flashbacks of the events before she was placed here. Her mother. That woman. She was awful. Margo nearly forgot her. How that fire even happened. She seemingly got teleported to that house. The sounds of fire crackling. The noise of a man screaming, a woman’s manic laughter from her open window, another person screaming. The wind blew in the distance as she opened the window like all the times before. She heard everything. Then the loud snap, the house collapsing as she jumped out the window. Faint gibberish of men screaming and yelling haphazardly in the distance, then nothing. 

She was back in the living room. Huh? W-what? Wait h-how…? She tried to scream, but nothing came out. A small kitten walked through the door that had been blasted open slightly. It pawed at the floor in front of Margo. She stared at it as her world faded to nothing, the kitten sat politely next to her as she flopped onto the wooden floor.

A drop of water fell onto his face, causing him to jolt awake. His entire body felt as if it had been stretched out. His back ached, two points specifically felt as if it was burning. His legs ached as he attempted to stand onto his feet. He managed to stand up fully, feeling the ground under the soles of his black Doc Martens. He felt something that shook behind him. He reached his hands behind him, touching something slippery, coarse, and paper-thin, with round points that stretched down the rest of it. Wings? How is this possible? 

His head slowly turned to look at them, his eyes widened as the long dark wings unfolded and stretched. He was in shock, his mouth opening wide and then closing, one of his teeth catching on his lip, drawing blood from it. 

He poked at his teeth, a sharp point met his finger. Sharp teeth? What happened to me?

Confusion clouded his mind, he tried to remember anything that happened before this. He shook off his thoughts, he ignored them. He attempted to flutter the wings, slightly lifting himself off the ground enough to float, however, he ended up right back on the ground a few seconds later. 

He stood back up onto his feet, his legs shook slightly. His body still felt numb, and what he did feel was like random spots on his body were jolted on every nerve. He stood there for a moment, still trying to get a hold of himself. What is this feeling? I don’t understand.

His feet finally got to walk, searching for the way out of this cave. His mind began to think. How did I even get here? Wait. Where am I? Who am I? Think. Think, you idiot! Something with a ‘T’ maybe? To…  Ti… no. To… Toki! Tokito.

He continued walking, still searching his brain for the missing memories. Had he really forgotten his entire life? He saw light. The entrance! Hm? A person…?

He ran over to the boy lying at the entrance of the cave. He was thin, small. He was laying in a fetal position with a black backpack on his back, it hung off of one shoulder.. He seemed like an angel to Toki. He was pale, His hair was cream-colored, nearly white. He had these long floppy bunny ears sprouting from beneath his hair, and coming out of his black skinny jeans was a fluffy white tail, twitching and blowing in the wind. 

Toki kneeled next to the boy, contemplating if he should leave him or wake him up. Before he could decide the boy slowly opened his eyes, looking around himself, almost like he wasn't able to see much clearly. The boy finally spotted Toki, looking at him in shock and moving away almost like a reflex. He genuinely looked afraid. 

“Hey, Hey no! It’s alright, I’m not going to hurt you, I promise.” Toki reached out one hand slowly, “Here, let me help you stand up.”

He stared at Toki and tried to make out any features, but his vision was so hazed over that all he could identify was lighting and the shape of a man kneeling a few feet away from him. His back smacked against the cave wall in an attempt to get away from the man. He curled up in pain, but it only made it worse the more he moved his body. 

“Oh god, don't move, you’ll hurt yourself more!” Toki looked at him, he was so worried you could hear it in his voice.

“Why are you trying to help me? What makes you think I need help?” The boy said through gritted teeth, sucking in more air to ease the pain somehow.

Toki spoke again in a reassuring tone, “Okay, well my name is Tokito, but you can call me Toki for short. I know this is weird for a stranger to ask, but I grew up in a hospital. Can I see how badly your back is injured?”

“I have no other options, do I? Go ahead” The boy moved his body around slowly until he was facing the wall his back was against. He spoke again, “I, well, I would’ve told you my name, but I can’t remember what it was.”

Toki lifted the back part of the oversized black sweater he was wearing, scanning for anything underneath. As he lifted enough to see what was under he was horrified. Burning and scarring covered nearly every inch of skin he saw. As Toki reached out to touch it he looked closer, it was seemingly healing on its own. He watched as the raw parts of skin healed into crusty dry scarring, then into a strange melty design.

“Hey, um something weird is going on. Your back, it's burnt, but it just healed itself.” Toki was riddled with intense curiosity. 

“Hold on,” he paused for a moment trying to gather words, “It just healed? My body just healed itself? You must be lying. You weird man.” The boy said, his eyes widened.

Toki peered under the sweater again watching the scar heal completely, “It looks like it's completely healed. Something like this would have taken years to heal. Tell me, does it still hurt?”

He sat to think for a moment, “It doesn’t. What the hell…?”

Toki still kneeled on the floor as the boy got up and stood in front of him. He moved his face closer to see better, to see anything. His eyes focused as much as they could on Toki, seeing all his unusual features. Wings sprouting from rips in the back of his shirt, pieces of it caught on the dark bat-like wings that were folded up behind the purple-haired man. Toki looked up at him and smiled, freaking him out a bit as he stared at the pointy teeth that rested on his bottom lip. 

“You are quite scary, Toki. You know that?” The boy backed up A bit, he still felt like this man was not able to be trusted.

“I’m aware, but are you? Take a look at yourself.” Toki tried to say it nicely, but then realized he might have come off as rude.

“Huh?” He looked down at himself, reaching up to feel the fuzzy ears that rested on his shoulders. His hair fell over his eyes, it looked significantly lighter than what he remembered it being before. His right arm reached behind him, patting his lower back, then feeling fluffy fur graze his fingers. A tail too? Why am I a bunny now?

He searched for any semblance of memories he had, but to no avail, they were gone. Locked away. 

“I couldn’t remember much of anything either,  just my name and a few little things about the hospital and my moms.” Toki looked down at the ground, I wonder where they ended up.

“Hmm… Well, until I remember, you can call me Bunnie, y’know, like with an ‘ie’ instead of the normal ‘y’! Cute, huh?” He smiled. It felt almost as if it was unnatural, the muscles to smile felt unused. His face contorted in an unsettling way, in response, Toki peered over at Bunnie with an expression of discomfort.

“Have you never smiled before? N-no offense, just, your smile looked as if you struggled…”

“What? Was it bad to look at? You know what bat boy?” Bunnie frowned, letting the anger show on his face.

“What?” Toki looked at him, this was amusing. 

“I like you, wanna be friends?” Bunnie’s face lit up again like before, but his smile was more normal. Bunnie knew Toki wasn’t someone he had to worry about, at least for now. 

“Sure, I doubt there's much else to do right now. I might as well figure out what happened with you.” Toki smiled back at him. He thought for a moment, remembering his past. He finally made his first friend at age nineteen.

✰ ✰ ✰ ✰

He looked away from Toki and walked closer to the sun-lit entrance. A large cloud of rust-colored fog blocked their path of sight beyond the burning trees in front of them. Toki followed behind, looking further away into the distance, seeing muted light, but he had a horrible ache in his stomach. It was on fire. The town beyond the trees was most likely destroyed into ash at this point. 

Toki looked at the scenery around them with a look of despair spread across his face. He dropped to his knees, and tears streamed down his cheeks. Soft sobs escaped his mouth as he looked back up at Bunnie. 

He stood there, unmoving. It looked like he was a statue, he was frozen in place. The expression stuck on his face was riddled with terror. Then, in an instant, he also fell to his knees. He sat there, staring at the dirt in front of him. 

“M-Margo…” Bunnie let the name slip from his mouth, so quietly that Toki almost didn't even hear it.

“Hm? Who’s Margo?” Beyond his snuffles, he uttered those words with a calm tone. 

“I-I remembered something… Margo was like my little sister… I don’t remember where I knew her  from or how long… but she was just the sweetest girl ever…” His voice got higher when he talked about her. 

Silence fell between the two of them for a few minutes. So much to say, but nothing to talk about.

“Why us…” Toki’s voice hiccuped, His tone went from calming to depressing.

Why us. Why are we the special ones here? Who else is here? Is it just us? Their thoughts echoed through the air, they were nearly audible. They didn't have to speak, they knew all the questions, the fact was that they had no answers, nothing to ease their weary minds. Nothing. 

✰ ✰ ✰ ✰

After sitting there for a while, still attempting to process everything around them, they began to walk around exploring the area they thought they once knew. They walked past the leafless burnt trees, the fallen tree trunks, the crunchy leaves and ash all among the grass. As they walked out of the sea of fire-lit trees they noticed the air in the distance, its thick, hazy rust color. 

“That's not good…” Toki began, “Radiation. Probably worse than Chernobyl.”

“Oh god… what do we do?? Are we gonna die?? It's gotta be too late for us already… we're probably riddled with radiation poisoning by now…” Bunnie was shaking like a leaf, his voice hoarse, soft, but it wavered with his shaking body. 

“Well, we’ve been here outside for over 24 hours I assume? By now, with this level of radiation, we would be dead just like everything else. I don't know why we were different from them, but we are.” Toki’s voice had changed its tone, it sounded more analytical, sort of serious among the sobs he had just let out. 

They continued to walk, staring at the ruins of buildings that used to fill out the skyline. Windows blasted out of its sill, bricks, and pieces of drywall laying all over the streets. Cars on fire, others scattered around on the sides of the road, some blown up to pieces, some untouched by nature. The worst part was the bodies, all the people that had once been walking around and talking and enjoying their day, all to be forgotten, left on the roads and in their homes and where they last stood. 

“Toki, are you okay?” Bunnie looked over at him concerned. 

Toki did not respond at first, but then he let himself talk, “This is the sort of thing that gets me, the uncertainty of life, it's my worst fear. I'm okay, but I'm not. I have to be okay.” 

“You don't have to pretend to be okay dude, hell I'm so scared I've been shaking since we left the cave.” Bunnie looked down, he was embarrassed admitting that, but then continued, “I'm just saying, you don’t need to pretend. This is trauma right here.” 

They stopped walking for a moment, noticing just how bad this was. Bunnie was frozen in place when he spotted the large piles of people around them.

“That smell. God, what is that?” Toki looked over at Bunnie, he just pointed. Toki looked over to see what he was looking at.  

Their bodies were covered with boils, large splotches of black dead skin, burns covered a majority of them. They were all nearly unrecognizable. These people, they all looked deformed, mutated into horrible monsters. Yet the longer they looked around they wondered if they were the monsters. How were they able to survive something like this? 

✰ ✰ ✰ ✰

The two of them had been sitting on the road and talking, trying to forget the morbid things they had experienced moments before. They had finally gained trust in each other. 

“Hey bun, look at this!” Toki began to flap his wings, they stretched out fully and he lifted off the ground about 2 feet. Bunnie’s arms wiggled with excitement. Bunnie smiled

“Hey let me try something.” Bunnie got up off the asphalt and stood further back from Toki. 

Bunnie braced himself and then slowly bent over and disappeared as he sank into his sweater. Toki got back onto the ground and lifted Bunnie’s sweater. A fluffy white bunny emerged from beneath it. Toki smiled and let out a giggly laugh

Bunnie hopped around Toki and nuzzled into his leg, then got its front paws up and tapped on him, signaling Toki to pick him up. Toki held Bunnie in his arms close enough to not drop him. He picked up his clothes and put them into his backpack, putting Bunnie into the bag and zipping it around him with room for his head to poke out. Toki held the bag in his arms, lifting off into the air about twelve to thirteen feet. Bunnie’s nose twitched and wiggled as he squeaked, shaking slightly due to how high they were going. 

Bunnie stopped moving around for a moment as he spotted his old group home, and began squeaking at Toki, turning his head and tapping his chin with his nose, and taking one front paw out of the backpack to point to the group home. Toki landed on the ground in front of the door of the home, making him fall onto the ground, spinning while holding Bunnie in his backpack. 

“I gotta work on that,” Toki said, letting out a chuckle. Toki put the bag onto the ground, letting Bunnie wiggle his way out, and then turned around, “I won’t look I promise”

Bunnie slowly stood up onto his back paws, then turned back into his human self. He quickly covered his body with one hand as he reached into his bag for his clothes, then got dressed quickly and tapped Toki’s shoulder.

Toki turned around and looked at the open front door. A small black kitten sat in the doorway, “Bun… look…” Toki froze in shock, they hadn’t seen a single animal since before they both got into the cave. 

The kitten ran over to Bunnie quickly, rubbing its neck onto his right leg, “Hehe, you must like me a lot, huh?” Bunnie leaned down to pat the kitten’s head, and it seemingly nodded in response to what he just said. “H-Huh? Did you just nod?”

The kitten backed away from Bunnie and quickly ran through the door. A few seconds later a familiar girl emerged from behind the door.

“Margo? Is that you?!” He ran over to her instantly and picked her up, spinning as her legs lifted off the ground. He sighed with relief, he had never been happier to see her in his entire life. 

As he put her back on the ground she looked over at Toki, “Who is he?” She whispered. 

“He’s a new friend of mine, Mango. You can trust him. I know he may look big and scary but he’s been helping me.” Bunnie ruffled her hair and motioned for Toki to come over. 

“I like your purple hair mister!” She said with a half-smile

Toki giggled, “Thank you! You don’t need to call me Mister. My name is Toki” He gave a friendly smile and waved to Margo. “Were you that kitty we just saw?” He asked.

“Mhm! Isn’t that so cool! I dunno how I did that but I’m a kitty now!!” She sounded so excited, completely unaware of the destruction and despair that surrounded them. “Oh, right, Mister bunny man, everyone in there is asleep. They wouldn't wake up when I checked on them. Do you know why?”

Bunnie looked over to Toki with a worried expression, “Margo, I don’t think they’re sleeping.” He didn’t know how to tell her. Had she been in there the entire time?? Oh god, how long have they been dead for? Poor Margo.

Toki ran into the small house to look. When he turned the corner he saw some of the people Margo had been talking about. Some lay on the couch, some on the kitchen floor, some still on their beds. The thing freaking him out the most was that they were all dead. The bodies in here looked the same as some of the bodies they had seen all over the streets. Children, all of them he assumed were under thirteen. Only one adult lay in the middle hallway leading to the door, she held a small child in her arms, her body covering the child almost like she was protecting it after she died.

Toki turned and walked out the door and looked at Bunnie with a horrified expression. He said nothing, he had no words, there seemed to be a lump in his throat. 

“How bad.?” Bunnie whispered to him.

Toki’s voice wavered and stuttered as he tried to speak, “S-so bad.” A tear fell down his cheek and hit the hot pavement they stood on. “Just, I-if this place means a lot to you for any reason, please. Please don’t go in there.”

Bunnie ignored his advice and ran into the doorway. Toki looked down at Margo, she had been sobbing this entire time. He got onto his knees and opened his arms to her. She looked at him and paused for a moment, but then hugged him and started crying even harder, which made Toki’s red sweater damp with tears. A few seconds later the sound of Bunnie’s broken screams reached their ears, and Toki held Margo’s head against his chest. Bunnie fell to his knees and slammed his fists into the hardwood floor. “NO!! NO!! WHY DID YOU HAVE TO TAKE THEM?!?! THEY WERE ALL SO YOUNG!!! N-no.” He got quieter, The silence dripped off his lips. He looked down at the floor and let a small puddle of his tears collect. 

Toki held Margo closely and began to fly, going over to Bunnie and picking him up. He began to fly away from the building to somewhere else, anywhere else. He didn’t know what else to do. He was shaking after Bunnie’s scream. Something like that haunts a person. It haunted all of them. Something like this, it isn’t fair. Toki continued to fly as the three of them cried. 

Toki sniffled, “S-so, Where to now?”