Fresh Meat
Fresh Meat
Part One
(C) Strid 2010
"New runner eh?" The receptionist asked the lanky, lop eared rabbit who handed over a thin application packet. The rabbit nodded his head and smiled. "Hopefully." He replied.
The receptionist grinned a wolfish grin, which was appropriate since she was a wolf. "Nah, you'll start today, we always need fresh meat."
She pressed a button on her phone and muttered into it. The rabbit tilted his head, but couldn't make out the words. He spoke the common "gutter-speak," along with Lapine, a little Feline and not much else. He was starting to grow nervous, fresh meat? He thought, but the receptionist waved him through the door behind her and said his new boss would be there in a moment.
He had not sat down for a moment in the little room before the door opened and a rabbit walked in. "Chase?" He asked by way of introduction.
"Y-yes sir, I'm Chase." The other rabbit moved close, Chase caught an off-odor behind the smell of rabbit, but before he could wonder more, his boss spoke.
"So. What. You work today yah? You do Hop?" The rabbit peered into Chase's eyes, examining them. He grabbed Chase's chin and turned his head this way and that.
"No sir. No Hop, no Skip. I'm clean." Chase replied, while having his ears prodded next.
"Fleas?" Chase huffed. "No sir." A laugh at that.
"Good, good," The rabbit looked into Chase's eyes for another moment, then nodded to himself. "I'll take you to Raul, yeah? He'll show you around. Follow him today, tomorrow you hop along yourself. New guys don't get paid so good yeh, always messing things up. Got good and you be taken care of, c'mon." The rabbit turned abruptly and walked out of the room, leaving Chase to half run, half hop after.
Raul turned out to be another rabbit. He looked well-fed, was taller and less lanky than Chase. Tan fur, with blotches of warm brown, and legs that made Chase more than a little jealous. Raul and the other rabbit exchanged a few words in Lapine and Chase learned the other rabbit's name: Cypher. Chase noted that Raul didn't use the Lapine honorific -rah and wondered at that, since he was the boss of the courier service. Raul cocked a black-tipped ear in Chase's direction and suddenly switched to another language: English. Chase's lip curled, he choked down a growl and suddenly pretended to be really interested in the dirt packed ground and the holes in the drywall nearby. He also spotted a door to his right with a window, which he peered into.
Tile floor, lockers and a row of water nozzles lining the far wall. Chase ran a hand over his head, brushing his ears back along the way. He wasn't covered in dirt, but he figured he smelled rather rabbity after -how long?- without a shower.
"Hey, shower later. Runs now." Raul voice called over his shoulder. Chase turned, blushing as he realized he had been staring through the window for a while. Raul had already turned away and was heading towards a different door. Through this was a ready room of sorts. Chase saw a great map of town. Outlines of the different neighborhoods, icons for what Chase guessed were common destinations. Icons with X's on them, Chase remembered he had seen these before, were for security checkpoints. He scratched his right elbow out of reflex, where his ID chip was embedded into the bone shortly after he was born. He looked at a few dozen other icons and outlines which made no obvious sense to the rabbit, then he was pulled away by Raul with another "Hey!"
He headed to the far side of the room, where Raul waited with a bag bristling with papers, a few packages, and a hand pad.
"You'll follow me today. Pay attention. Tomorrow you'll do this by yourself. Don't lose your pad." He warned, the was off, leaving Chase scrabbling after him through a locked door leading into the cold winter afternoon.
However many hours later, Raul led an exhausted Chase back to the 'warren,' as Raul called it. It was well into evening and the lights were mostly off. Chase found himself led into the shower and through drowsy eyes saw he was under the row of shower nozzles. Raul had hardly spoken during the afternoon, occasionally saying "don't go there," or "pay attention now." It left Chase confused and on edge, sapping his energy to the point of wanting to curl up on the floor and sleep. Raul saw this, and frowned to himself before shrugging. "Here..." Chase felt the other rabbit come closer and tug at his shirt, peeling it off after a moment of confusion on Chase's part.
Raul quickly undressed the smaller rabbit, turned on the water and left Chase to soak for a moment alone before returning with soap and towels. Raul was gentle as he washed the exhausted Chase, careful to unsnarl his fur, paying close attention to the ears. Chase hardly noticed in his state that Raul had stripped too until he opened his eyes after a moment of not being scrubbed to see Raul scrub himself quickly and rinse. The warm water and Raul's washing revived Chase a bit, he was able to dry himself off when tossed a towel, then Raul gave Chase new clothing, and put his old stuff into the trash.
Chase felt himself being led down a new hallway, into a room filled with bunks, nudged into one and had a scratchy old blanked smelling of a hundred rabbits pulled over him.
He was asleep before Raul pulled the door shut.