The Bunnies decide to let a few carefully-selected Humans visit their home.

This is a segment that may or may not make it into the final version of “The Rabbit Trap”. It’s really part of the backstory, explaining how the conditions arose that let Red and his family live in Algonquin Main.

It was happening! Diane was excited. Caramel had bounced up to her during the weekly closed-doors Rabbit Meeting and announced the news. She, Diane, had been selected to visit the rabbit city of Algonquin Main!

It wasn’t going to be a long visit. Caramel had said that the warrens were thinking of expanding their contacts with human society — carefully-selected parts of human society, anyway — and this visit was a trial run.

Algonquin Main was apparently named after Algonquin Park, but the rabbits were being cagey about exactly where it was. That was understandable, Diane thought. You don’t open your home to just anyone. The rabbits were clear that it would involve a long car ride from their present location.

The day rolled around. Diane was informed that she need not bring anything more than ID; snacks and hospitality would be provided.

A white van pulled up outside. Two humans got out and opened the back doors of the van. One of them then came into the lobby of the residence. He was carrying a travel cage; he placed it on the low wall around the planter in the lobby. Caramel appeared from the greenery and entered the travel cage. She looked around, then winked at Diane. “Gotta keep up appearances!”

Diane looked around, but at the moment, there were no strangers—people who didn’t know about the Talking Rabbits—in the lobby.

The man picked up the travel cage and beckoned Diane to follow. He opened the residence door and they went outside.

Outside! It seemed a long time since Diane had gone anywhere, especially dressed as stylishly as she was. Diane was tall, slim, and brown, and she’d chosen a conservative purple dress complimented by a small black bag, as if she were visiting a corporate headquarters in Toronto for a job interview. It was a beautiful sunny day. The fresh wind blew the dress about and awakened the skin on her face.

The men driving the van seemed impressed, anyway.

The second man helped Diane into the back of the van and placed Caramel’s travel cage inside, then closed the doors.

The back of the van was outfitted with comfortable seats for humans and comfortable reclining nooks for rabbits. Caramel opened the door of the travel cage and lolloped up to the nook nearest the forward wall of the compartment. Diane noticed a grill on the wall; perhaps someone could talk to the driver? She also noticed that there were no windows.
A speaker on the ceiling crackled to life. “Hello, and welcome! I am David, and this is my counterpart Amir.”

A second cheerful voice said, “Hi!”

David continued, “We will be your crew for this trip. Welcome, Diane, and welcome back, Caramel! Diane, there are drinks and snacks in the cooler. Caramel, there are salads and drinks in the minibar next to your nook. But don’t drink too much; if you need to take a rest break, we will have to stop at the side of the road. We have a rest stop scheduled at a decent location.
“The trip should take less than two hours one way.

“Before we depart, a little safety information. Please buckle up, Diane, before we go on the public highways. Caramel, these nooks have the standard crash compartments.
“And there are books and light entertainment on the shelf above the cooler.

“We hope you have a pleasant trip!”

After a long time where both Diane and Caramel had been dozing, they were shaken to full awareness and the van began to bump along a rough road. At one point Diane heard the van splash through water.

Then the bumping stopped. There was an announcement from the driver: “We’re there!”
Diane heard the driver’s door open. Caramel perked up and hopped down to face the back doors of the van, ignoring the travel cage. The doors opened.

The van was in a small open area in a forest. Warm sunlight shone on pine trees. The air smelled amazing.

Amir helped Diane from the van; her muscles were a little stiff. She grabbed her purse and turned to face a large opening cut into a cliff face. A large door was mounted on pivots above, ready to close.

Caramel was perched on a rock at the side of the opening. She addressed Diane.

“Welcome Diane, to Algonquin Main warren, our home.”

She addressed other rabbits that were nearby, some on the ground, and some inside the opening. “Rabbits, this is Diane. She is the first visitor under Mentat Grizzlyfluff’s program. Please make her welcome.”

The rabbits all made greeting noises or gestures. Amir and Dave bowed. “Thank you for the welcome, Caramel! Diane, we have brought you this far, but now we must go. Good luck!”
“Please. Follow me.” Caramel beckoned Diane through the door, and the other rabbits followed.

The door closed.

Inside the door was a largish room—largish in rabbit terms, that is. It was taller than the van’s cargo compartment, and Diane could stand up. But it was not as long as the van, and she could see why the van hadn’t entered.

Diane looked around. There was something like a couch apparently built into one side of the room. A number of rabbit-sized passages opened onto the floor of the room; they seemed to have closed doors. There were several darkened windows further up in the walls of the room.
The lighting was strong, with a bluish tinge.

“Welcome to Algonquin Main warren,” said Diane.

“Thank you,” said Diane.

“This is merely a freight entrance,” continued Caramel, “far from the main parts of the warren. It was built this way to be defensible in case of attack. To go to the main visitors’ area, we must use our internal transportation system. I must apologize. This first part may be a little claustrophobic.”

“No worries.”

“Please lay down on the couch. It is the bed of our vehicle.”

Diane lay down on the apparent couch. Several rabbits checked to make sure that nothing protruded beyond the couch. Then Caramel said, “A roof will cover you. Do not be alarmed.”

A soft chime sounded, then a transparent roof covered the “couch” as it seemed to sink down a little. Once it was closed, a light came on and Diane heard an announcement in an unknown language. It was followed by Caramel’s voice. “Welcome to the BunnyMover, Algonquin Main’s internal transportation system. This journey won’t take long.”

Outside in the room, most of the other rabbits got into a smaller compartment at the front of the BunnyMover car. With a hum, it departed into a tunnel. Diane saw the light of the freight entrance vanish, then the darkness of the roof of the tunnel, with the occasional passing light.

A short time later, light appeared and the BunnyMover car stopped in a station. The roof opened. Diane looked around, unsure whether she should sit up.

Caramel spoke over the car’s intercom. “Welcome to Otter Creek Station, Diane. You may stand up.”

Diane awkwardly levered herself up out of the BunnyMover car, bracing herself on the edge of its roof opening. She stood up and looked around, brushing off her dress, which had stuck to her legs when she lay in the Mover car.

She was in a room, tunnelled apparently through rock. The BunnyMover car rested at a narrow platform. There was enough headroom on the platform for her to stand, but not much more. The lighting had the same bluish tint. A low door, barely tall enough for her, opened onto a larger concourse where she could see another larger BunnyMover car.

Caramel and an escort of rabbits gathered about her. “Please come this way, Diane. We have refreshments and human-sized accommodation.”

They moved towards the door. As she approached it, Diane glimpsed more rabbits in the next room. They passed through the door.

They entered a much larger concourse with a higher ceiling. Diane stood up straighter. To one side, she saw a mass of rabbits being held back by large, burly rabbits that had the air of police. Directly ahead was a BunnyMover, not a single car, but a train with multiple cars and doors. They were on another platform.

Suddenly something clicked in Diane’s perception. She was in a subway station. And she was enormous.

The doors and concourses were huge compared to the rabbits that normally used them. It was good luck that they were tall enough that she could walk comfortably through them.
“Please, come this way.”

Her rabbit escorts directed Diane away from the rabbit crowd, through another doorway into a tunnel tall enough for her to walk without brushing the top of her head against anything. Shuttered rabbit-size windows and doors on several levels lined part of it.

They turned left toward a brighter part of the tunnel. As she approached, the light seemed much less blue as well. Diane realized that her eyes had been straining and getting tired.
Suddenly they entered a huge chamber, large even on Diane’s scale. “Welcome to the central park of our city.”

Diane looked around. Shops and windowed levels lined the side they’d entered from. Green grass sloped upwards from a small river in front of her. Above, windows let in sunlight.
Sunlight! It seemed as though Diane’s eyes were drinking it in.

“This way, please.” Caramel interrupted Diane’s reverie.

“Oh yes.” Diane focused and remembered who and where she was. She was one of the first humans, as far as she knew, to visit an underground city inhabited by intelligent rabbits.
Caramel was partway up a ramp. She beckoned Diane to follow, and turned to lollop up the ramp.

At the top, there was a short corridor. One side looked out over the Atrium in the manner of a balcony. Several doors interrupted the other side. Caramel pulled out something like a television remote and pushed a button. One of the doors clicked and swung open.

Diane unexpectedly encountered the top of the ramp and stepped into midair. Her foot landed hard and she swayed, reaching for some handhold. She was able to grab the top of the balcony railing.

“Sorry! Need handrails here!”

“Handrails?”

“Yes, we use them for supporting ourselves, especially on stairs or ramps.”

“We’ll look into it.” Caramel seemed to frown for a moment, then brightened.

“Here is the guest room we have set up for human visitors. Just down the hall is a washroom, and beyond that is a meeting room. We’ll await you there.”

“Thank you.”

Diane opened the guest-room door and looked inside, to see a hotel room that could have been ordered from a catalogue.

Diane looked in the washroom. It seemed equally generic. She flicked on the light. A ceiling fixture lit up. The lighting did not have the bluish tinge that the rabbits seemed to like, which was kind of a relief. She could see a sink and mirror. Towels hung from a towel rack.
She entered and went to the sink to wash up. Cool water flowed from the taps, and she splashed water on her face and dried herself off. A quick look and adjustment in the mirror, and then it was time to go to the meeting.

She walked down the hall to the meeting room.

Upon entering, she saw an arrangement almost identical to the meeting room at the Place: a smallish boardroom table bearing nooks in which rabbits were reclining. A chair faced an open place at the table.

Caramel was at the head of the table. “Thank you for attending our little meeting, Diane.”

Diane sat down. “Thank you! This is far beyond anything I had imagined. An entire city…?”

“Yes. It is one of our largest, to be true. But you are probably wondering why you are here.”

“Yes…”

“It’s very simple. We are trying to increase contact between ourselves and sympathetic humans. For too long we have been in danger from human society. Most of that is inadvertent danger: we and our homes are sometimes damaged without the humans even being aware of us. Construction projects, for example. Large cities like this one are carefully hidden, usually in remote and protected areas like national parks.

“But we need help. We need people on the inside of human society, people who can let us know what’s going on, maybe even influence things in our favour.”

Diane contemplated Caramel’s words. It sounded good, but there were so many unexplained questions.

“Why not go public, Caramel?”

“Have you seen what humans can do when they’re afraid? There are leaders who have no hesitation about throwing out some group as a useful target. We would be the ultimate target.”