Mythlands: THE HEIST

Part Two: The Rise of Evil: a Hare Raising Tale

Jessica watched as the winged man swooped away, dodging the cascade of bullets fired by the Hellz Rabbitz.

Future Hare pulled his younger self aside. 'Lissen up kid, get your crew together. We need to strike out for base camp before this place is over-run with mythicals.'

'Mythicals?'

'That was Icarus. A damn dirty collaborator from the Godlands. A lot of them threw in with the armies of darkness, for an easier life, but I'll tell you more back at the Pyramid.'

'The Pyramid?'

'Damn, was I ever so dumb looking. Stop repeating everything I say and get moving Junior. You and Jess with me in the lead truck. The rest of you go with Cottontail in the Fierce Bad Rabbit's truck. Follow his lead. Peter, get the other vehicles going - we split into three pairs and break out the dust rakes to obscure the trail in case Icarus is still up there. Go!'

***

An hour later the first two vehicles had arrived at what had first appeared to be a bunch of tall sand dunes; weaving between those under cover of an artificial sirocco created by implements attached to the back of the truck, which had churned up the sand and dust behind them, Hare had soon realised - after Goldie had pointed it out to him - that the dunes concealed the entrance to a hidden valley. Beyond that lay ... the Pyramid.

Future Hare had jumped off the truck near a check point manned by the Flopsy Bunnies, all armed with automatic weapons. He had ridden the rest of the way on a Harley Davidson that had been parked nearby.

The Hare was fast changing his mind about his older self. 'Damn, I'm cool,' he muttered and began to think that maybe he should grow his hair again.

There were some thirty others at the camp, mostly rabbits but a few humans and other creatures, such as a wretched looking coyote who was howling until a rabbit asked him to be quiet. Cottontail told an inquisitive Jessica that he was one of the few Loonies not to go mad, so they had taken him in.

'The Pyramid of Tutankhamun, our home.' Future Hare announced as he led them inside. 'Ran across Tut himself about two years back. He'd teleported the whole shebang here from Heliopolis, when the Egyptian Sphere was over-run. We found him and his only companion, the goddess Shu when they made a provisions run on one of the settlements. Shu is the goddess of the air by the way; she's the one that set up the permanent sandstorm around our hidden valley and magically tricked out those devices on our vehicles.'

'There's gods here?' asked George. 'How astonishing.'

'When Loki and his alliance of evil unleashed the forces of darkness from the vaults of myth, their first targets were the Godlands. The rest were hit bad too, but not as much as the celestial beings. The desert is relatively off course so a lot of refugees ended up in these parts and of course Vegas shut itself off.'

Jessica held up a hand. 'Wait Hare, we don't know half of what you're talking about. Maybe you should start at the beginning.'

They had arrived in an inner chamber made out like a biker clubhouse combined with an 80's bar. Hare approved while Jessica definitely saw her boyfri ... ex boyfriend's touch, she corrected herself.

Future Hare ushered them to some tables surrounded by leather sofas and chairs and bade them sit down while Cottontail went to a cooler for beers. Goldie saw this and frowned - typical Hare, sending the girl to get them drinks. In fact all the rabbits had melted away except for the two ordinary size bunnies, Bigwig and Thumper and the tough looking rabbit who had been in charge of the second vehicle.

Their boss turned to him now. 'Fierce, go to the checkpoint and wait for Peter. I want to know the moment he and the others get back.'

Fierce nodded. 'Sure boss.' His walkie talkie crackled and he held it to his whiskerless head. 'Uh huh ... good news boss. Velveteen Rabbit just called in, to say his two vehicles are close.'