Multigenremashup round 3.1 Challenge is to write a short story of 2000 words maximum that includes the following three elements. The story must qualify as dystopian and as horror.

Rubber duck/Song In the Year 2525/Baby rabbit

A Hare of the Duck

"Freddie! Freddie, wake up. You fell asleep at your bench again. You have to get proper rest, the monitor drones are going to catch you one of these times and that will be it for you, and the research."

"Beth . . . oh, I almost had it . . ." He started to slip of his stool and she caught him, struggling to hold him upright.

"That's it, go and lie down. I'll go over your recordings and see where you left off. Didn't Rod help you last night?"

"He worked for a bit after I dozed, then he said he had to leave."

She sat at the bench, scanning some hand scribbled notes, and switched on the recorder.

Research facility: Bunker Lab

Date: May 17, 2522

Time: 23:18

Case 716: Control and reduction of the species Laporidae of the order Lagomorpha.

Goal Determination: Reduce or eliminate explosive species population to preserve environment.

It was almost 13 years since the first indication of a rabbit infestation in Medbourne City. Since that time, Frederick Fowler had been tasked to find a solution to their explosive multiplication, which had become a serious threat to the environment and even public safety.

The Liberty Collective, a cabal of the city's corporate elite who controlled all aspects of life in Medbourne, had initiated the problem by introducing rabbits as game for their sports hunting cronies. In a short time the error of that decision appeared, when warrens began ruining the local farms, and any grass that was suitable for grazing began to disappear.

With the lack of food, the rabbits grew more feral, attacking other wildlife, and family pets, until one day the first human was attacked and devoured in a feeding frenzy. Alerts went out to the city by speaker drones, and door and windows were hastily locked. Families cowered in their homes, afraid to leave. Rationing whatever they had at hand.

Beth skipped through the hours of reports to the previous night's work, and listened carefully to Frederick's observations and the results. Over the past months a number of different viruses had been developed and introduced into the rabbit population with only moderate success. Immunity developed in surprisingly short time.

Last night he had developed another strain he was certain would be the answer, and had infected several bucks and does in the lab facility. Beth read through the procedure, the steps he had taken, and the biology of the virus he had created.

As she read, she heard a sound, and turning from the bench, she saw the experimental rabbits acting very disturbed in their glass cage. She stood and went over to them, her mouth opening in silent confusion, as she watched them begin to leap about, making screeching noises. She stepped closer, then jerked back as one flung itself at the wall in front of her, teeth bared and wild-eyed.

"Freddie! Get up! Get up! Something is very wrong!"

Behind her, several rabbits began throwing themselves at the walls, screeching noises could be heard and there was blood on the glass. She pulled at him to get up, then place her hand on his mouth, signalling him to listen.

"Is that music?" She, looked around the lab.

He rubbed his eyes, waking up and listening hard. "It is. Where the hell is it coming from?" He jerked as the crash of another rabbit hit the glass wall.

Beth went to the lab door an opened it, freezing in shock. In the street, hundreds of rabbits were shrieking and charging about wildly. Over the noise she heard the sound of the music . . .

In the year 2525

If man is still alive

If woman can survive

They may find-

She slammed the door and ran back to the panel of controls on the bench, frantically looking for the protocol guide.

"Beth, what are you doing?" Freddie stumbled over beside her.

"We have to euthanize them. Now!"

"What? No! What- stop, Beth!" He reached for her hand but she shoved him away.

"It's bedlam outside! It's the music, Freddie. The music is triggering their behaviour!" She glanced at the controls and pressed the valve button that would release the deadly gas into the rabbit pen. "Something in that virus must have altered their brain architecture. Something triggered by that music."

You can shut of that valve now," he said, looking at the bodies of the rabbits, and at the cabinet above the console.

"What are you looking at?"

He opened the cabinet door. "Some samples are missing."

"Of the virus?"

He nodded. "And look at this, a mini speaker." They stared at one another. "Where is it? It's stopped."

Beth went back to the door and opened it enough to peer outside. Dozens of rabbits were hopping about on the street behaving perfectly normal, but on the doorstep lay the bloodied bodies of another dozen or so. She closed and locked the door.

Freddie was staring at a message on the computer, his face pale and a tremor in his arm drew Beth's attention.

"What's wrong?"

"Rod left a message." He stood back so she could read. "All this time I've spent trying to eradicate the rabbits, he was finding a way to control them."

"Wouldn't that work too?"

"Control them to achieve his own goal, Beth. He wants to rule what's left of our world. He left that little speaker so we would pay attention. Look at the next screen - he's created a mutation . . . and it is somewhere in this facility."

Beth looked around. "Why would he do that? How could he do that with you right here?"

"For a long time now I've listened to him rant about The Collective, their apathy toward the population while ensuring their own comfort, and the music he listened to on his head set - it all fits. He figured out how to trigger the virus with specific sounds."

"And this is how he chose to use it?"

"Our concern now, is stopping him and finding out where this mutation is."

"Where would we begin? The place is huge."

"And mostly abandoned. I doubt there's anyone else here outside of a few squatters." He went to another cupboard and took out a pair of LED lights, and a package of syringes. "Underneath the console at the back, grab that small box."

"Hey, what the heck is this?" She pulled out the box and lifted the lid, taking out a worn looking rubber duck the size of a loaf of bread and holding it up.

"Careful with that. That's Barry, he's my security duck. He's filled with a large sample of the virus I last created. Great hiding place, isn't it?" He grinned.

Beth froze, lowering the duck carefully to the table. "This thing contains that virus?"

"Yep, and this drive contains all the formula data." He showed her a flash drive, then shoved it in his pocket.

******

Beth leaned dejectedly on the window sill, looking down at the street.

"We've looked everywhere, he isn't here, Freddie."

"There's still one more floor, where the exercise room and the party room used to be."

"Okay. Then I need to rest and get something to eat."

"Chew on this. It's synthetic protein - chicken flavoured."

She made a face and followed him up the stairs Reaching the next floor they both halted abruptly, and Beth gave a brief scream.

A door opened across the party room floor and Rod appeared. His face red and his eyes wild.

"Rod, what the hell have you done? C'mon, man, we need to talk this over."

"I know you're thinking of how you can overpower me, Fred. Forget it. One flick of this switch and that music will trigger an even bigger surprise."

"Rod, this is insanity. This is no way to beat The Collective."

"Bzzzzzt, wrong!" He laughed crazily. "I've already beaten them." he crossed to a window on the interior wall and pulled up the blind. In the room beyond, three men and one woman were locked, nude in cage while on a blood covered gym mat, and a third was being consumed by a rabbit as large as a Wolfhound."

"Good God! What have you done, Rod?"

"Eliminating The Collective. While you worked on how to kill rabbits, I was working on how to control them - and I can - completely." His laugh became shrill. Beth was leaning against the wall, her face pale, her breath coming in short gasps. "And now I can take care of my last opponents."

Freddie spun around and grabbed Beth's arm, dragging her out of the room. Part way down the hall was a maintenance closet, and he shoved her inside. Getting out an LED light, he had her hold it while he opened the syringe pack.

"Give me Barry."

"What?"

"Barry, in your bag."

She passed her bag over and he opened it, taking the rubber duck out and pushing the syringe through a port in its back, and filling it. Then he repeated it with a second, capped the needles, and gave her one.

"First chance either of us get, straight into Rod's neck." Next he pushed a button on his wrist monitor, then took her arm again and, leaving their stuff behind, stepped into the hall.

"I knew you'd realize you couldn't get away. But somethin you didn't know. I found your rubber ducky and switched the contents with mine. Your virus will never work, Fred."

"Remains to be seen."

"Well not by eiher of you. Let's go. I want you to meet Roger." Rod held the small box with the switch in front of him.

"You named that thing?"

"Sure, why not--"

Freddie leaped forward, jamming Rod's arms up against his chest, and banging his head on the wall. In an instant he plunged the syringe onto Rod's neck then grabbed the switch box.

"What did you do! No! No-o-o-!"

In the year 2525

If man is still alive

If woman can survive

They may find-

The music came on loud, and Rod ran screaming into the party room, flinging himself against the gym door as Roger emerged. They crashed together, screeching and tearing at one another. The engagement was mercifully brief for Rod, as Roger began savaging another fresh body.

The sound of footsteps thundered up the stairs and a group of armoured enforcement rushed into the room. Two containing Freddie and Beth, while the others fired their weapons, full power, at Roger, leaving it a singed smouldering pile on the party room floor, the once white fur, black and bloody.

Freddie and Beth were released after explaining, and seeing The Collective survivors had been rescued.

"How did they know to come." She asked, as they descended the stairs.

He showed her his wrist monitor. It's a safety alert in case of an accident in the lab. Sends a signal to a drone."

"Thank goodness for that."

He stopped suddenly. "Hell, I forgot Barry." A few minutes later he was back with their things, holding Barry up and grinning. "Can't leave home without him.

"Well, I hope never to see or hear another rabbit as long as I live."

They stepped out of the building and stopped as a Medbourne media officer came up and shoved a recorder at them. The man looked at Barry, and then at the two of them.

"Eeeh, what's up duck?"

End