1931 Winter: The Time of the Oasis/Chapter 5: Run like a Bunny

Synopsis
In bungalow 1, Jacuzzi's Gang briefly discusses having heard a scream from nearby, but quickly switches to talking about the plans for the following morning. The delinquents are joined by several people who aren't part of the gang--Pamela and Lana stick to themselves away from the group, Sonia Bake has fallen asleep again next to them, and Carzelio Runorata has been whisked away by some of the girls in the gang, who are fawning over him, much to his dismay. As chaos continues to unfold inside the bungalow, Pamela and Lana discuss the bizarre coincidence of having run into this group of people.

A few hours earlier, Melody continues to press Pamela and Lana for information regarding the kidnapping they'd been caught discussing. When Melody quotes her, Lana tries to call her bluff by saying she has no proof, only for the rest of the delinquents to interject, one by one, that they'd all heard the discussion about the kidnapping. After some bickering, Pamela counters the delinquents' attitude by hounding them about what exactly they plan to do about having overheard the plan. Melody replies that she doesn't mind going along with their plan as long as it kills time, and reveals that the group with her happens to be here to help carry out a train robbery on The Flying Pussyfoot.

In the present, Lana and Pamela continue to discuss their circumstances, and the two of them are both appalled when the delinquents continue to talk about the thoroughness of their plan; Lana because she's upset about having been one-upped, and Pamela because she believes they shouldn't give out information so freely to people who could squeal on them if they were caught by the cops. When she tries to point this out, Pamela is only told to not get caught, which sparks an argument among the delinquents. Even so, Pamela begins to feel a little more at ease among them, musing to herself that Cazze is the only person here who's likely to have a stable future.

Deeper in the forest, the Lemures have spent time awaiting the return of both the negotiator in the truck and the two scouts that were sent to the bungalows, but to no avail. Deciding to take matters into his own hands, Sarges orders two of his men to remain at the campside they've set up closer to the bridge, then brings the rest of the Lemures with him in the direction of the bungalows.

Near the entrance to the forest, Gabriel and Juliano stand over the wreckage of the car they'd caused to crash into the trees. Unaware that the person driving it hadn't been the person who kidnapped Cazze, they deliberate over why he had called them 'Government dogs' before deciding to head towards the place the man admitted he had been heading: through the bungalows, towards the iron bridge.

Back in bungalow 1, Sonia wakes up after her nap in the bungalow. Still unaware about the plan to kidnap Cazze and hold him for ransom, she cheerfully asks about where Cazze's parents could be, and Lana thoughtlessly distracts her by asking if she plans to "maintain and test-fire" her guns. This leads to the Vanishing Bunny taking the delinquents around to the back of their truck to show off Sonia's collection of guns. While this is happening, Pamela quietly worries about whether or not Cazze will be okay seeing all of these guns, but he doesn't seem to be reacting to them at all.

Pamela asks Cazze if he's surprised, to which Cazze replies, "About what?" Pamela prods further, asking if he's not frightened with so many guns around, but Cazze only thinks for a moment before replying that he knows guns are dangerous, because he's not supposed to touch them until he's thirteen. Upon hearing this, Pamela's instincts tell her she's dived into territory she shouldn't have, and Cazze continues that everyone who works for his family has a gun.

Near the entrance of the forest, Gabriel and Juliano deliberate over what they should do. Mistakenly believing the kidnappers' headquarters to be further towards the bridge, they consider targetting that place, but the location of the handoff for the ransom was said to be the bungalows. The "politer of the twins", Gabriel, speaks up and says he'll give Juliano the money, meaning that Juliano should head to the bungalows while Gabriel goes further to attack the kidnappers' headquarters.

Back at the bungalows, Lana resolves to return to the Vanishing Bunny's original plan of attacking the train and considers the merits of leaving Cazze in a bungalow, but worries about the footprints and fingerprints they've left behind in bungalows 1 and 3. Just then, she notices two figures on the ground in military uniforms between the last bungalow and the woods. As she approaches the figures, unable to discern whether they're alive or dead, she picks up a foul smell. Preoccupied with the bodies, Lana doesn't notice the enormous shadow approaching her until it's gotten three feet away from her. Just as she turns to look, a gunshot rings out.

A few seconds earlier, Sonia had found a broken branch to use as a demonstration for her gun and fired without much thought. After firing, Jacuzzi's Gang collectively cheers her on, begging her to shoot at something else, but their cheers are interrupted by a woman's scream. Pamela is the first to recognize that the voice belongs to Lana, and she takes off into a run in the direction of the noise. Upon arrival, Lana has already collapsed, foaming at the mouth, and though the ground is oddly depressed as though something heavy had been standing there, nothing else is out of the ordinary.

Deeper in the woods, Sarges and the team with him hear a gunshot from the direction of the bungalows. Sarges deduces from the sound that it wasn’t the model the Lemures use, leading him to believe the scouts who had been sent to the bungalows had potentially been caught.

In the forest, Juliano hears a gunshot. Pushing the motorcycle he’d been riding alongside him, he breaks into a run in case that gunshot had been someone shooting Cazze.

Near the bungalows, Cookie reflects on the past several hours. He hadn’t meant to hurt the two Lemures he’d trampled before; he’d just been used to humans being able to take it when he barreled into them trying to play. Feeling ashamed after remembering a similar incident with a younger member of the circus troupe, Cookie had gone deeper into the woods. After remembering nobody was there to scold him, however, he began to make his way back towards the bungalows, running into Lana on the way.

Then, a gunshot had rang out, and Cookie had cowered due to his previous experiences both in the wild and with the circus regarding gunshots. He’d run away, terrified, and only after he had gone did Lana manage to scream, then faint.

While everyone else at the bungalows had been running around the back of the last bungalow to reach Lana after having heard her scream, Cookie was running around its front, searching for the cheering he’d heard after the gunshot. He’d been unable to find it, however, and instead set his eyes on one of the delinquents’ trucks, which reminds him of the truck he used to travel in with the circus. Climbing up into the canvas back, he settled down to go back to sleep in the eerie silence.

A few minutes later, Lana wakes up and frantically tells Pamela about what she saw, although she had failed to identify that ‘enormous shadow’ as a bear, so nobody really believes her story as she doesn’t appear to be hurt. The two men on the ground that the pair assume to be hunters quickly become the more pressing issue, anyway, and Pamela and Lana decide to bring them to the truck bed.

Meanwhile, Jacuzzi’s Gang is preparing to leave as Melody calculates The Flying Pussyfoot will be arriving in thirty-three minutes and thirty-two seconds, at the earliest. The sudden hurry causes the delinquents to argue again and, complaining about the cold, they decide to borrow some blankets from the other bungalows. Upon bringing the blankets back to the truck, the first delinquent to arrive mistakes Cookie for a pile of blankets and throws his share of blankets on top of the bear, obscuring him even further.

In front of bungalow 3, Pamela writes a false note for the collection of the ransom money, telling the collector to float it down the river and that they've left Cazze with some boys by the bridge. When Lana asks why, Pamela says she’s remembered something about the name ‘Runorata’. Namely, she’s remembered the existence of the Runorata Family, and she’s realized that by telling them not to get the cops involved, she’s essentially sentenced the three of them to death.

Now more frightened than ever, Pamela and Lana hurry into the truck with the far more relaxed Sonia and Cazze, having gotten the two Lemures settled in the back. Pamela has Sonia look over their guns, which don’t look particularly like any sort of guns used by hunters, and personally ties the unconscious men’s limbs up in case they turn out to be either real soldiers or members of the mafia who had come to collect Cazze for the ransom money.

Deciding that there would be safety in numbers, the Vanishing Bunny had made the choice to go with the delinquents to the river, and so the two groups headed in that direction together, with Cazze and Cookie as unwitting third parties.

In the woods, the three trucks pass by Sarges’ group of Lemures, but although the Lemures take notice of them, thanks to the Lemures quickly moving away from the path and hiding in the forest, they don’t see the Lemures. As the trucks pass, Sarges notices the unconscious form of one of the Lemures who’d been sent to scout out the bungalows propped up in the bed of the truck. Seeing this, he decides the people in the trucks are most likely enemies.

By the bridge, the Lemures ordered to stay at the camp by Sarges are discussing the plan to free Huey Laforet. They remark that Mary Beriam is in an unfortunate position, considering she will probably end up dead no matter how things go. Unfortunately, since they’ve been using very non-specific terms, they cause Gabriel, who’d been listening, to assume they must be talking about Cazze, and he knocks both of them out, declaring that he and Juliano will take a hundred days each to kill them for their plans towards Cazze.

Characters in Order of Appearance

 * Pamela
 * Lana
 * Sonia Bake
 * Carzelio Runorata
 * Melody
 * Sarges
 * Gabriel and Juliano
 * Charkie