Mutant Bunny Island #3, Page 2

  “What’s that?” she asked as I handed her the box.

  “Just something I found at my house,” I replied.

  Juliet opened the box and pulled out a gold necklace that used to belong to my mom. It had a thin gold chain with a small gold moon hanging from it. I had found it in a drawer at my house, and my dad had given me permission to give it to her.

  “It’s amazing,” Juliet whispered.

  She handed me the box and put the necklace on. I’m pretty sure she was going to hug me again or go on about what a great person I was, but we were interrupted by someone punching me on the right shoulder.

  “Oww.”

  I turned to see Rain. Punching me was something he did occasionally. He thought it was friendly; I thought it was a sign of mental instability.

  “Hi, Perry,” he said. He then made a gesture of kindness by extending his right hand so that we could execute our custom handshake.

  “Tentacles, tentacles, shark fin, shark fin, blowhole.” We both said the words while bumping our fists, slapping our hands, and then exploding our fingers.

  Rain was the kind of person who looked cool just standing there. He had brown skin and broad shoulders. His bangs were wavy and long and hung down over his right eye—leaving his left eye to look at the things he deemed worthy of looking at. He was wearing a white tank top that said Rain Train on it. Rain was also two years older than me and Juliet and ran a business transporting people around on his bike.

  “Did you bring me something?” Rain asked as he looked at Juliet wearing the necklace.

  I handed him the empty box. “Here.”

  “Is it some sort of invisible squid thing?” Rain asked as he looked at the small box.

  “Yes,” I replied. “And you’re welcome.”

  Rain and I had a complicated relationship. We were friends, but we were the kind of friends that no one would ever design. On paper it didn’t look like we would get along, but thanks to the things we had been through and me saving his butt a few times, we got along.

  “So, have either of you seen Zeke lately?”

  Both my friends suddenly looked guilty.

  “What?” I asked.

  “Nothing,” Juliet said. “Of course we’ve seen him.”

  “He’s still dating my mom,” Rain added. “But he’s really . . . busy.”

  The way Juliet and Rain were speaking made it sound like they wanted to say more than they were.

  I stared at them. “Is something wrong?”

  “No,” Juliet said unconvincingly. “Nothing’s wrong. I mean, it’s Bunny Break and you’re here. Things seem just like they should.”

  I looked at Juliet and then at Rain.

  “Okay then,” I said. “Well, Zeke doesn’t know we’re here. My dad wanted to surprise him.”

  “Oh, he’ll be surprised,” Rain insisted.

  “I’m going to his house to see if he’s there.”

  Rain and Juliet looked at each other again.

  “What?” I asked with frustration.

  “Nothing,” Juliet insisted while fiddling with the necklace around her neck.

  “Then you’ll come with me?” I asked.

  “Now?” Juliet said. “I wanted to meet your dad.”

  “You don’t want to see him yet. He’s washing up,” I told her. “We’ll go get Zeke and bring him back here. That way my dad can surprise him.”

  “I should get back to my business,” Rain said. “But since all my bikes are rented out at the moment, I guess I can break away.”

  “All your bikes?” I asked, confused.

  “Rain has six bikes now,” Juliet said. “He even has a little stand back behind the mall where he rents them out.”

  “Well, I wish we had some to ride to Zeke’s,” I complained.

  “You know, he might not be home,” Juliet said.

  “If he’s not, he probably left a note. Admiral Uli always leaves a note, and Zeke is one of the most squid-like people I know.”

  Rain smiled. “I’m glad you’re back, Perry.”

  “Save your praise for later,” I insisted.

  I ran up to my room to tell my dad where I was going. He was busy applying lotion to his elbows and nose. I was glad I had not brought my friends up with me.

  “Have fun out there,” he said. “Bring your uncle back and I’ll be ready to surprise him. Do you think I should jump out from behind something like a plant?”

  “Go with what your fish guts tell you,” I answered. “That’s what Uli always does.”

  “Good advice.”

  I left my dad and ran back to the lobby. My friends and I then exited the Bunny Hotel and headed out into the rabbit-infested world.

  CHAPTER THREE

  WRONG PEOPLE IN THE RIGHT PLACE

  We walked down Rabbit Road toward the ocean. Everywhere I looked there were Bunny Mooners and tourists milling about and walking in and out of shops and restaurants. The island seemed at least three times more populated than before. There were so many rabbits, we had to zigzag.

  “The island’s so crowded,” I complained.

  “It’s Bunny Break,” Juliet said happily.

  A couple of locals sitting on a bench by the mall saw me and my friends and waved.

  “Is the island in trouble again?” one of them yelled out to us.

  “No trouble,” Rain yelled back. “Perry’s just here for a visit.”

  The bunnies around our feet and on the road were getting thicker. I looked back over my shoulder and saw big patches of them hopping behind us.

  “What’s going on with the rabbits?” I complained. “There’re so many.”

  “You’ve just forgotten what it’s like,” Juliet said. “There’re always this many.”

  “That’s not true. We never had to work our way around like this. And look, I think some are following us.”

  “You’re being paranoid,” Rain insisted. “There’re no more purple carrots that turn people into mutant bunnies or giant bunnies that want to capture us. There’re just a lot of rabbits because it’s Bunny Island.”

  “Really? Because I think there’re a bunch following us.” I looked back at the large patch of rabbits behind us.

  “Paranoid,” Rain repeated.

  When we got to the beach at the end of Rabbit Road, I saw a large wooden bunny that they were preparing for the bun-fire. It was fifteen feet tall and shaped like a fat rabbit. There were people nailing on boards to make the ears on top.

  “It’s pretty good,” I said. “And they’re just going to burn it down?”

  “They do it every year at the end of the break,” Juliet informed me.

  We turned left and walked along the shore until we eventually passed the glass phone booth near the Gray Hare subdivision where my uncle lived. It was the same phone booth I had first met Juliet at.

  My uncle’s neighborhood looked just like it had always looked. There were a bunch of mismatched little homes dotting the landscape. Some looked new and modern, while others looked like they were old and had been built in a hurry and without much of a budget.

  Zeke’s home was small, square, and yellow, like a giant Lego brick. It had a multicolored roof that looked purple and orange under the clear sky. His mailbox was shaped like a fat pelican, and the front door of the house was a faded color of green. There was also a carving of a squid on the door.

  After knocking, we quickly discovered that Zeke was not there. To make things worse, somebody else was there—a young couple who both had yellow hair, and wore tight jeans, and baggy T-shirts. They answered the door like they owned the place and informed us that they were renting the house for the week.

  “It was listed on Carrot’s List,” the blond boy said.

  “Carrot’s List?” I said, disgusted.

  “That’s a website for people to rent out their homes or sell stuff on Bunny Island,” Juliet explained as the two blond renters stared at us. “Tons of people are renting out their homes to Bunny Mooners and touri
sts these days. The island’s so popular.”

  “So, this is your uncle’s house?” the blond girl asked me.

  I nodded.

  “Could you tell him that the bathroom’s really small?” she complained.

  “Yeah,” the man said. “And the towels could be fluffier. That’s why we’ll be giving the place only a two-carrot review online.”

  “Sorry about the towels,” I said insincerely. “I don’t suppose you know where my uncle is?”

  “I don’t even know who he is,” she said. “We rented this through the app, the same app we’ll leave the bad review on.”

  Not only was I bothered that my uncle wasn’t where he was supposed to be, but I was also bothered that I had to talk to these people. Juliet, Rain, and I left my uncle’s house and walked down the street back toward the entrance of the Gray Hare subdivision.

  “I don’t understand,” I said. “Zeke would never let people like that stay in his house.”

  “Maybe he wants to make some extra money,” Rain said. “Seriously, everyone’s doing it.”

  As usual, Rain seemed to be living in a fantasy world that didn’t include things like evil newts that infiltrated people’s homes using annoying blond-haired people.

  “If Zeke’s renting his house, then where’s he living?”

  Out of the corner of my eye I could see Rain and Juliet look at each other and shake their heads.

  “I saw that.” I stopped walking to glare at them. “You two know something. You . . . Wait a second,” I said, slapping my forehead. “Are your tentacles tingling?”

  “No,” my friends said.

  “Well, mine are, and I think Zeke’s probably with your mom, Flower. We should go to the Liquid Love Shack.”

  I started walking down the shore again, but this time my steps were bigger, and I was moving with purpose. Juliet and Rain followed closely behind.

  “I don’t think he’s with my mom,” Rain tried.

  “Really?” I said. “Why wouldn’t . . .”

  As I looked back to talk to Rain, I noticed that once again there was a large herd of bunnies hopping behind us.

  I stopped walking and the rabbits stopped too.

  “Look at that,” I said as I pointed. “That’s not normal.”

  We started to walk again, and the bunnies slowly hopped in sync behind us like a mobile mound of fuzz.

  “Okay,” Juliet admitted. “That’s a lot of rabbits.”

  The three of us began to walk faster and the bunnies increased their speed.

  We exited the Gray Hare subdivision and passed the phone booth. I thought about climbing on top of it, but I didn’t know if I had the skills to do that. To the left of us was open beach. It was empty and there were no other humans in the area.

  The bunny mound behind us began to make a clicking noise.

  We stepped up over a small rock curb and onto the sandy beach. I was hoping that the bunnies would just give up and go their own way, but they continued to follow us. All their whiskers were twitching, and their tails shook as they hopped.

  “I wish there was someone around we could scream to,” I said.

  “Up there!” Rain yelled.

  Rain pointed toward an empty lifeguard tower near the edge of the water. It was a small raised platform made of wood and covered in faded blue paint. There was no lifeguard on duty and it had a sign that said Stay Off.

  All three of us ignored the sign and climbed up the wooden steps and onto the platform. Looking down, we saw hundreds of bunnies closing in around the base of the lifeguard station. Some began to hop up the stairs, so Rain started to kick and swat at them with his feet.

  “What is happening?” Juliet yelled. “They seem possessed.”

  Bunnies began to claw at the sand around the station.

  “I can’t stop them forever!” Rain hollered as he kicked.

  “They’re tearing the ground up,” I hollered back.

  “Look!” Juliet said loudly. “They’re chewing at the base of the wood.”

  She was right: the rabbits were clawing and biting the wooden beams that were holding the raised platform up. Sand and splinters were flying everywhere. I looked down and could see that the waves were only a few feet away from where we were. If we jumped over the ring of rabbits, we might be able to escape into the water.

  I screamed my idea to my friends.

  “What other option do we have?” Juliet screamed back. “This thing won’t stay up much longer.”

  Whump!

  There was the sound of something collapsing, followed by the chatter and clicking of a thousand bunnies. We thought the platform would soon fall over, but then the waves flooded in and the ground became soft and just gave way. With one giant swoosh, all the attack bunnies were sucked down into the beach right in front of us.

  “Now!” Rain ordered.

  We jumped down off the back of the lifeguard chair, over the few bunnies still left, and then leaped over the edge of the hole that had already started to fill with muddy water.

  “Run!”

  Rain’s suggestion was good but unnecessary. Juliet and I were already tearing down the beach, racing toward where the bun-fire was being set up.

  “Maybe I shouldn’t have come back to the island,” I yelled.

  “That’s what I was thinking!” Rain yelled back.

  I saw a short man and a wide woman coming down the stone path near Rabbit Road. They had on their swimsuits and were heading toward the ocean.

  “Stay back!” I warned them. “Bunnies!”

  I looked around and realized that there were no rabbits chasing us and the ones nearby were acting like they should.

  “Bunnies?” the short man said as if I were joking. “There’re bunnies everywhere.”

  “I think you’ve gotten too much sun,” a woman wearing bunny ears and a bunny-print summer dress added. “Bunnies are nothing to scream about.”

  “Eeeeeek!” another woman screeched as she bent down to pick up a small orange bunny that was sitting on the ground near her. “Such a wuvy, wuvy, wuv,” she cooed into the poor bunny’s face.

  “Come on!” Juliet said, taking my hand. “We need to find Zeke.”

  “That’s what I’ve been saying.”

  The three of us ran up the stone path until we found a private spot beneath a tall palm tree.

  “What was that?” I asked while trying to catch my breath.

  “Frightening,” Juliet answered.

  “See, this is why we need Zeke,” I argued.

  “Okay,” Juliet gave in. “We know where your uncle is.”

  “You do?”

  “It’s not good,” Juliet said.

  “Is he okay?” I panicked.

  “Sort of,” Juliet assured me. “But he made us promise we wouldn’t tell you.”

  “Tell him I gave you a squid pinch and forced you to tell me the truth.”

  “Squid pinch?” Rain said.

  “It’s where you take your tentacles and apply pressure to the right side of the neck or gills to make your enemies tell you the truth. It was first used in Issue . . .” I stopped talking because both my friends were looking at me like I had newties.

  “Fine,” I complained. “Just take me to Zeke?”

  I followed my friends farther into the palm trees.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  FIRST-MATE DISAPPOINTMENT

  “I don’t understand,” I said loudly. “You two know where Zeke is—why didn’t you just tell me?”

  My friends and I were running on a sandy path that wound through palm trees, past the police station, and near the library.

  “We were sworn to secrecy,” Rain explained.

  “Like Uli?” I said with excitement. “Like when he found out the cod code to the trout treasure?”

  “Yes,” Juliet added. “Exactly like that.”

  “Stop talking about trout treasure,” Rain said. “What was up with those bunnies? Why were they attacking us?”

  “W
e’re lucky the tide came in when it did,” Juliet said, still fiddling with her necklace. “And that huge sinkhole formed out of nowhere.”

  “It’s because of all the burrows,” Rain said. “The rabbits have been digging up everything under the island, making the ground unstable.”

  “It seems like the whole island is a little whack,” I added. “The sky’s the wrong color, my dad was flirting with the hotel woman, and now the bunnies have gone mad.”

  Juliet turned onto a new path that was practically blocked with bunnies. There were also Bunny Mooners driving golf carts carefully down it. We ran between two carts and up to a large black building. I recognized the building, but I had never been in it. It was easy to remember because it was the tallest building on the whole island. It was seven stories tall and belonged to the Crosshair Corporation. I knew that part only because of the big silver letters on the outside.

  “Why are we going here?”

  “You’ll see.”

  We shooed bunnies away from the front door and entered the building. Inside there was a large open space with big green plants and a koi pond filled with orange-and-white fish. A small rock waterfall flowed into the pond and filled the area with the sound of falling water. I could also hear some soft flute music playing from speakers in the ceiling.

  “Whoa,” I whispered. “I didn’t know there was a building this nice on the island.”

  “Crosshair is the biggest company here,” Rain said. “They sell security systems all over the world. The owner is a crazy rich guy.”

  “Really? So why are we here? To ask for money?”

  “No. You’ll see,” Juliet said sadly.

  I followed my friends to an elevator and we all got on.

  I don’t like elevators—a heavy metal box dangling by a wire seems like a bad idea. It took everything I had to not complain. But I closed my eyes and pretended I was back in my bed in Ohio eating candy.

  Juliet pressed the button for the fifth floor and we all rode up. When the elevator door opened, I got off as quickly as I could. In front of us there were two large potted plants and a big front desk. Behind the desk was a mean-looking woman. She had square glasses and an oval mouth that was taller than it was wide. Her shirt was buttoned up to the top button, and she had gray hair that swooped out on both sides.