Chapter Thirty- Six

Too Much, Too Often

The great torrent of water swept through the ditch, a deadly monster destroying everything in its path.

“Up the bankment!” Bigwig shouted to the group. “Now!”

The rabbits’ fears made them fast and nimble as they scurried up the muddy path to safety.

“What about the others?” Primrose panted, looking back as the horrendous wave passed where they had just been standing.

Bigwig turned and stared into the depths of the brown water. It had collected the mud from the embankment at the side in which Blackberry, Campion, Fiver and Ivy had been trapped.

“I don’t think there is anything we can do,” Bigwig said remorsefully.

Primrose turned round to meet Hawkbit, her eyes were a fierce fire. “Why did you do that? They warned you what could happen and in the end it was them that had to pay for your foolish mistake!”

Hawkbit was wracked with severe guilt, he knew what he had done was indeed idiotic and if he could, he would switch places with any of the four lost rabbits.

“I’m…… sorry,” he managed to say out of his chocked- up throat.

“Sorry isn’t going to get any of them back!” Bigwig snapped.

Blackberry couldn’t breathe, her chest was weighed down by tons of heavy soil, nor could she open her eyes in fear of the almost certain pain it would cause.

Her first instinct was to flee as she was pinned down at all sides, but she soon discovered that that made her more chest sting and scream more urgently for air.

Just after she accepted her fate, she felt her body thrown with great force sideways and an icy chill pierced her fur, tingling it.

As she felt the great weight on top of her chest lift she gasped for air and got a nasty surprise when she gulped down water instead.

Choking violently she felt reality slip out of reach and the darkness embraced her.

Campion resurfaced and coughed so hard that it hurt. He felt himself speeding along in the current, and try as he might he couldn’t gather the energy to make it over to the shore.

He felt a corner coming in the current and he braced himself for a waterfall or cascades, instead he felt a sharp pull around his neck and his body collide hard with soft earth.

He blinked the water out of his eyes and raised his head to the small chestnut brown rabbit.

“Thanks… thanks Fiver. I thought I was a goner that time for sure.”

“Did you see Ivy or Blackberry?” Fiver asked, with his forehead creased in concern.

“You mean they didn’t get out with you?” Campion sat up, instantly alert.

“No. I was lucky I ran into, or rather swam into a rock.” Fiver indicated to a large bruise on his neck.

“We have to search along the shore, they might have gotten out further ahead.”

“What exactly happened?” Fiver rubbed his head as they started to search the field bordering the river for prints.

“I’m guessing that the dam the men made overflowed. We should be thankful, we might have suffocated if the water hadn’t washed the soil away. Do you hear that?” Campion said, scanning the field extra carefully.

“It’s coming from over there!” Fiver shouted, pointing at the opposite end of the field.

“I can’t see anything,” Campion said desperately when they reached the river.

Fiver strained his eyes through the mizzle of rain and picked up a silver shape that stood out from the brown.

“They’re coming up the river now Campion!” Fiver warned, searching quickly for a place to try and reach them.

Campion ran over to the river’s edge and strained his front half over the water. He carefully implanted his forepaws in the mud. Gripping Blackberry’s scruff of the neck with his teeth, he gently withdrew her unconscious body from the speeding flurry of water.

He felt her heartbeat vibrate through his fur when he checked that she was still breathing and sighed with relief.

He turned to see how Fiver and Ivy were faring, Fiver had Ivy’s paw but the current was too fierce and he was forced to let go.

“Ivy! Keep your head up. We’ll get you!” Fiver shouted running after her.

He knew really that he couldn’t get her out when she was situated in opposite side of the river but he was prepared to die trying.

Campion ran after his brother, understanding his worry but not seeing how they could resolve it.

“Fiver!” Campion hissed and stopped in surprise.

Up ahead, as the river rounded another turn, there was a small group of men trying to stop the flow of water in vain.

Fiver skidded to a halt and looked on in horror as one of the men bent down and scoped Ivy out of the water.

“What have we here then?” he said with interest.

Ivy was too tired to move and lay limply as the man held her.

“Place her here, she’ll be fine later,” another insisted.

“Hey!” One of the men turned and saw Fiver and Campion.

“I recognise that brown buck! Place her over there beside those two,” a young man instructed. “Fancy seeing him again!”

Ivy was placed five or ten feet from Campion and Fiver.

Fiver immediately ran over to her despite the man, but Campion, having recognised him, stayed rigidly where he was.

“She’s alive!” Fiver said with relief.

“Okay, bring her back over,” Campion whispered over to him.

“What?” Fiver said, seeing the expression on Campion’s face.

Campion associated this man with his weeks in confinement and he was not willing to go through that again.

“I can’t lift her by myself,” Fiver replied urgently.

Campion reluctantly hurried over, within reach of man, and lay down so that Fiver could balance Ivy across both their backs. The ignored the awed sounds that were made by the men as they hobbled away under the weight.

“It’s definitely that brown rabbit I helped a couple of weeks ago. I’d recognise those scars anywhere,” the young man said confidently.

“So what if it is? We have to get this dam repaired. Come on, lads!”

Campion’s rapid heartbeat slowed as the men headed off in the opposite direction and he was grateful that Fiver spared him any questions for the moment.

The white doe was hardly recognisable; her coat was splattered with mud and mated with debris from the muddy banks along the water. Campion and Fiver supposed that they themselves couldn’t look much better.

 They reached to where Blackberry was. She was awake and rubbing her head with a look of pain.

“Is Ivy alright?” she asked as they lifted Ivy from their backs.

“She’ll live if that’s what you mean!” Fiver snapped.

Blackberry looked at him in an expression that consisted of hurt and confusion.

“Fiver, it wasn’t Blackberry’s fault,” Campion said in surprise.

“It’s never anyone’s fault though, is it?” Fiver looked at Campion in annoyance. “One of us is always injured or thought of as dead; I’ve lost count of how many times that has happened to you Campion!”

Campion was about to reply when he was interrupted again.

“Why should we have to deal with this? Shouldn’t we have the right to a normal, dare I say it, peaceful life?”

With that, Fiver stormed off into the swirl of wind and rain, leaving Campion and Blackberry severely puzzled.

“Did we just see innocent, harmless Fiver, who has never shouted at anyone before, break down?” Campion raised his eyebrows to Blackberry.

“Well, I wouldn’t exactly call our life easy so far. Someone had to be the second to crack, remember Hazel?”

Campion nodded and his eyes nearly dropped closed in tiredness. He hadn’t realised how much the struggle in the river had taken out of him.

“You know you look terrible?” Blackberry reminded him.

“Could say the same about you.” He smiled weakly.

Blackberry started shivering as the rain got heavier again. “Do you want to go home as soon as Ivy wakes up?”

“Yes. Fiver will come home when he is ready, no point getting sick over it.”

It was dawn and the start of a new day, and they had all survived it, together or not.