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 Posted: Wed Apr 27, 2011 5:40 am
RatchetGroaning, the black and grey terrier mix rolled over in her sleep. Something- a bent cage wire, perhaps- had been poking her in the side. It had gotten to the point where she could no longer ignore it, so she opened her eyes and conceded to move. There really wasn’t much room to spread out with four other dogs in the same kennel. Typically, each of them took a corner at night, but perhaps the others wouldn’t mind if she moved to the middle of the floor… But as she moved, the lights in the lab flickered into their fluorescent glory, temporarily blinding everybody with the misfortune to have their eyes open. Morning had broken, like the first morning and every morning afterwards. There wasn’t any going back to sleep now. Sleepily, the other three opened their eyes. But before anybody could say good morning, footsteps approached the cage. The four little dogs immediately perked up, staring out in the direction of the noise. It was Girl Person, one of their caretakers. Normally, she just poured food into the hopper, but today she first unlocked the top of the cage. The top of the cage opened and Bolt was lifted out. She looked back down at the others with sad eyes as the human carried her away. Ratchet quivered. Today was a testing day. How could she have forgotten? Man Person with Black Hair came along and added food to the bin, but Ratchet was too worried to eat… Cali, Keep, and TimesTimes squeaked as the hand dropped him back in the tank. Stupid people, always putting him back in the wrong place! Now he’d have to fight his way back over to the corner… punching and scratching his way through the other testosterone-fueled meatheads, he returned to the Meeting Place. Keep had wanted to call it something stupid, like the Place Between or the Forum, but Times had vetoed this. Who needed something confusing? If you had to call the corners of their tanks anything, then it should be called something simple. Like the Meeting Place. Cali was already there, a worried expression on his face. Times grunted a hello, and the smaller mouse nodded at him. “Keep isn’t back yet.” “Duh.” “I’m worried.” Times stared, stupefied. “Seriously? You know they have to weigh and measure each of us, occasionally draw a little blood, and jab you and him with needles every single day. C’mon. There’s gotta be, what, fifty mice in that tank? With who knows how many more? It’s just takin’ a while, that’s all.” “I dunno. I mean… he’s been looking really tired. I know he tries to hide it, but the other day he told me that the jabs hurt worse every day.” Cali’s voice sounded far away, even farther than it usually sounded through the acrylic. “It’s not uncommon for our cagemates to die. It’s not like it is with your group.” Times shrugged, unsure of what to say. The three of them had been through a lot together, and they all knew how lucky they were to still be alive. But they hadn’t really talked about what would happen to the group if one of them died. And as much as the tough-guy in him wanted to pound him for admitting it, he’d be upset if he lost either Cali or Keep. They were his friends. Cali couldn’t believe how casual Times was being… but at the same time, he’d come to expect it. He knew that the friendly brute didn’t like to admit to having emotions other than manliness, although he’d seen him worry over Keep and himself before. However, all worrying, visible or not, was curtailed with the appearance of a rather battered-looking Keep. “Sorry, chaps,” he said, dabbing at his bleeding ear, “but they put tattoos in our ears today. Red dots or black dots. I don’t know why- I guess it’s to identify us, but I couldn’t quite get their criteria. I can’t really see mine; what’s it look like?” Cali was quite happy to see his friend again. So was Times, although he wasn’t showing it. “Black dot. So, anything interesting happening over there?” And as Keep began to tell the story of a fight that had broken out over some food and Times began to comment on how he could have taken them all, the friends separated by acrylic got to pass their time in the only enjoyable manner they knew.
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Posted: Wed Apr 27, 2011 5:44 pm
SparkySparky narrowed his eyes at the sound of food pellets rattling into the feeding trough. Gingerly, he crossed the floor, hoping and fearing that the familiar electric current would run through his feet. But, to his great consternation, nothing happened. He chewed the tasteless pellets, ruminating and pacing back and forth over the wire mesh floor of the cage. Where did the sparks go? Why did they stop? He of course knew nothing about the experiment he had been used in; he didn’t know that his time as an experimental animal in the active phase was over. All he knew is that life was so strange since the sparks stopped… he’d gotten so used to them… His frantic pacing soon brought him a reward- a wonderful, painful little thing. The laboratory’s air was particularly dry that day, and he was shuffling just right- just enough to build up a tiny spark, a little jolt of static electricity to savour. Soon, soon the sparks would come again, the delicious little zaps that brought with them reward. Soon everything would be as it should... Rosy Lee and The ThreeIt was always dark in Rosy's supply cabinet. That was probably the main downfall of living in it, though it did give her an excellent hiding spot from the terrible humans. But she really didn't have a good sense of what time it was. So this made every first meal, no matter what time it was, breakfast. And now was definitely the time for breakfast! Uncurling from her sleep, she stretched out and yawned. The spiders who lived with her were startled by the noise and skittered over to see what was happening. Rosy giggled and patted them on their heads. Even in the dark, she could see their eyes glittering. "Stay right there, fellas," she whispered. "I'm gonna go get something to eat!" She scampered to the front of the cabinet and pressed an ear up against the metal door. Squeaks, grunts, and other animal noises carried through the cool metal, but she heard no footsteps. Pushing the door open with all her might, she watched the place where the crack would appear carefully. Only a dim red light shone through- most excellent! It meant that the humans had gone home for the night. Carefully climbing over syringes in their boxes, she slipped 'round to the small hole that had formed when some sort of acid spilled in the cabinet and dropped down into the world at large. Time to go raid the food supply and bring hope to the huddled, caged masses!
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Posted: Sun May 29, 2011 9:02 am
Long Awaited Meta Posting.
5ive wiped his eyes as the air streamed through his fur and he plummeted towards the roof of the research lab. It wasn't that he was crying, but simply that the air was making his little pink eyes water. He found himself wishing for a moment that His Lordship had dropped him from a lower height, but it would only hurt for a second.... 5ive was small and he didn't carry enough weight to do any real damage on impact.
Three seconds later, his little body bounced off a rounded air vent sticking up off the top of the roof and slid to the tar. He picked himself up and dusted off his fur... no real damage, through that right back leg would be sore tomorrow.
He looked around him, trying to remember the plan exactly... there really hadn't been much more of a plan than 'get inside the building through the roof' .... As he looked around he saw that there was an airshaft on the corner sidewall, next to a door. He could probably get over to that...
Glancing up, he saw His Lordship circling in the air. 5ive considered giving the owl a thumbs up, but he knew that the great *stupid* bird wouldn't have had the reference needed in life and wouldn't understand the gesture... so he turned and slipped through the hole in the vent and dissapeared down into the building.
The shaft was cold and slightly damp against the bottoms of his feet and paws, for he ran on all fours for speed and to make sure that he didn't fall down any unexpected turns. He hadn't expected to feel at all anxious with being back in the lab, but he did... he felt anxious... The smells and the lights he could see at the end of the metal shaft... he didn't really want to go out into what he knew would be a room full of cages, but he also knew that he had to.
So five seconds later, he launched himself skydiver style out of the air shaft and landed on the top of a cage... It took some effort to look down into the cage, but he did manage it. There in the aspen bedding was a little white labmouse... sitting all alone, indeed all alone in the cage. He waved...
"Hi." Said 5ive.
"Hi." Said the little child labmouse.
"I'm going to open your cage, and we're all going to escape this place." 5ive couldn't ever remember being as young as this mouse looked, and being all alone, but there must have been some reason or experiment for the little guy's isolation... He sighed. "What's your name?"
"David..." The little mouse smiled up at 5ive. Maybe they weren't experimenting on him at all...
"Well David..." He opened the cage and held out a paw to the little mouse that looked so much like him. "Lets get out of here."
David took 5ive's paw without even a moment's hesitation, and let the older mouse lead him down a table leg and over to a door.
"You wait here... I'm going to let out as many of the others as I can." As 5ive ran off towards a cage with a large cat in it, he glanced back to see a very young and very complacent David sitting calmly by the door... he didn't even look worried at all.
((Your next post is all your own, I most likely won't respond with 5ive, but what's going to happen is that 5ive came to your cage, opened the door, and let you out. He tells you to go wait by the door, or to help let out the other prisoners if you feel like you have the energy and wits. That's all up to you. heart Make your posts in the lab thread. ))
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Posted: Mon May 30, 2011 11:35 am
Bitey's ears flicked forward, whiskers twitching as she caught the presence of another mouse in her midst. Another mouse....outside of a cage.
"Hey!" She yelled, throwing herself against the wall of the cage, scrabbling at the corners of the glass, squeaking furiously. "Hey! How are you doing that?"
Her leg still hurt, and now this little white mouse was running around, and it infuriated her.
Except...he was coming her way! He had heard her! For once, someone in this hell-hole actually listened to her!
She stared at him, blankly, confused by his appearance. Was he wearing clothes? But then that thought faded, because he was letting her out of her cage.
Her heart thudded in her chest and she jumped, throwing herself out of the cage as soon as the flip-top door opened. There was no holding her back, she was out on the table, then on the floor in the blink of an eye. No time for introductions or small-talk.
"I'll help get the others!" She said. She didn't know why she was even bothering trying to rescue the others...what had they ever done for her?...but it seemed like the right thing to do.
----
Deepy snorted in his sleep, his paws trembling with the effort to swim in his dreams. His ears flicked. He was having the strangest dream. In it, he was swimming in a huge tank of water, bigger than any he had ever been in, and it was full of odd, dark shapes that cut through the water. Occasionally he caught a glimpse of a dark wet eye, but then it was gone.
He snorted.
----
Bitey scrabbled at the top of the cage, trying to figure out how to open it. The white mouse had done this in two seconds! Why wasn't it that easy for her?
Probably because she grew frustrated very quickly. Bitey was not the paragon of patience.
"I'm getting you out!" She said. "Just...hang on...a moment...and then we can all escape."
"Escape?" One of Deepy's companions -- fatter even than Deepy, if possible, because he didn't get any exercise at all -- looked up at her with sad, rheumy eyes. "Escape how? Where?"
She managed to tug the latch open, at length, and the flip-top came open finally. She nearly tumbled down inside. "Does it matter? We're getting out of here."
The fat brown rat shuffled toward his brother, the one who exercised on the wheel. They leaned together, a fused ball of fur and flub. One panted, slightly.
She sighed. "You. Hey! Do YOU want to come?"
Deepy snorted, and thrashed his paws.
"Last chance!" She said, annoyed at the indifference of these fat, miserable mice.
Deepy snorted again, then shook himself awake, a confused look on his face. "Whaaaa?"
"...We're escaping, fat-tail," she snapped, "With or without you. COME ON if you're coming." And she dropped down from the top of the cage and scampered off to the next cage.
Deepy stared up at the open top, confusedly. He looked back at his brothers. They looked at him. No one said anything.
Then he rose laboriously to his paws and jumped, with effort, for the open roof. He caught it, nearly fell over, and struggled to get himself up and out. He fell hard on his side on the outside and lay dazed and exhausted for some time. Could he do this? Maybe he should cut his losses....
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Posted: Fri Jun 03, 2011 4:16 pm
Thirteen:
His sister had gotten bored, and now Thirteen was just staring out of the cage. He didn't expect to see anything, and when he caught a glimpse of a strange mouse, he blinked. "Sis, sis, there's a mouse out there."
"You're just imaging it."
"No I'm not." He continued to watch the mouse, and when it opened the cage, motioning for Thirteen and the others to follow him out, he did. "Are you going to come?" Thirteen asked, looking back at the sleeping kittens.
"'M sleeping, go away." his sister said, quickly echoed by the rest of them.
"Bye then." He didn't want to leave them, but the chance to get out was a lot stronger of an influence. "I love you." He bounded over to the door, pausing as he passed some cages. It would go faster if he helped out, and the sooner all the cages were open, the sooner they could leave. The humans would be back soon, he was sure.
Unit:
The sleeping mouse didn't even notice when 5ive opened his cage, and it wasn't until a kitten banged on his cage accidentally that he even woke up. "Sorry," Thirteen said.
Unit wasn't stupid, just mellow, and now that he was awake, he could see that something was happening. "What's going on?"
"A strange mouse came and is opening up all the cages. He's going to take us away from here!"
"Alright then." He yawned and then looked at the kitten. "Are we meeting someplace?"
"Yep. Come on, I'll show you."
They made their way to the door, and Unit yawned, leaning against the kitten. "Let me know when we leave."
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Posted: Wed Jun 29, 2011 10:12 pm
Phee
She was beautiful and she'd gotten treats. What could make this day any better? Absolutely noth- was that a mouse that just ran by? The hairless feline blinked. It was. And... it was coming her way. She yawned and stretched and though the motions seemed to have caused a slight hesitation, the mouse continued towards her cage. And then opened it!
Startled, Phee didn't know what to think. A bit dazed, she followed the ever-growing group of freebeasts.
Dumb trio Coo, Mim, and Pip
Coo and Pip were licking wounds that had been gathered in the course of gaining food from their cagemates. Mim had eaten at least half of it during the fight and then demanded a third of what was left. The two males didn't even argue, happy to have some food to chow down.
Mim shook her head at the two males and... then... her hero came and saved the day. There, opening their cage, was the most wonderful, perfect, handsome male mouse in the entire- hey! He was leaving already! "C'mon you two. Move it. We gotta hurry."
Pip and Coo blinked, startled by Mim's sudden demands. "Wha's going on?" Coo asked as Mim started shoving them towards the other end of the cage.
"We're free, numbnuts. C'mon, we hafta catch up to him!"
"Who?"
"The one who freed us! He's here to help us and so smart and handsome and..."
Coo glanced over at Pip, who shrugged. How was he to know how Mim knew all that about the mouse who opened their cage. But their cage WAS open.
Coo turned around as they left the cage, suddenly startled. He started to walk back into the cage, smacking his nose into the wall as he missed (by a good distance) the opening they'd just come through.
Mim stalked over and bopped the brown spotted mouse over the back of the head. "Come on, I said!" And she led Dumb and Dumber in the direction the savior mouse in the red garb had headed.
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Posted: Thu Jun 30, 2011 5:16 pm
Rearra blinked repeatedly, staring at something outside the cage. "There's...someone out there. Leanna, you see him? What's he doing?" When her friend only looked as well, and offered no answers, she raised her voice to the others in the cage. "Hey! Someone's outside!" "Oh great, now she's seeing more of them," someone muttered from amidst the crowd on the other side of the cage. Rearra hadn't heard him, or showed no sign of it at least, but someone else looked up and answered, "Err...unless it's contagious, I don't think she's making this one up, buddy." Meanwhile, Rearra had leapt up to meet the strange white mouse at the door of the cage, grinning widely at what was sure to be a new friend. Not to mention, a friend outside of the cage...what better help for her grand plan to help her friend escape and keep her promise? "Hello!" she greeted enthusiastically, her heart leaping as the stranger started work on the door. Excitedly, she turned to Leanna who had followed her at a more leisurely pace. "We're getting out of here, Leanna! I told you! I promised, didn't I?" "Yes, dear, you certainly did," her friend answered with a soft laugh. The sight of the smile on her friend's face did more to send Rearra's heart soaring. She didn't even notice the puzzled look on their rescuer's face as she continued talking to the air. Then she turned back and nodded. "Don't worry, as soon as I help my friend out, we'll give you a hand in freeing the others!" She scrambled out of the cage, offering her friend a helping paw. "I'll go this way, you go that wa--...err...maybe not. Let's stick together, okay?" She could see the relief on Leanna's face and offered a smile in return, taking her paw before dashing off for the nearest cage to help the others gain sweet freedom. ===== Korene's eyes tracked the strange going's-on in the lab, a nervous twitch taking up residence in her left leg. Balanced on her right, she ignored the way her foot insisted on bouncing, accepting it as an outlet for the building anxious energy and waited to see just what was going to happen next. Maybe, just maybe...she'd get out of here... "Hey! Hey, mouse!" she called, waving her arm through the bars of the cage. "Could ya' give a lady a hand?" She offered the white mouse a fangy grin and was rewarded when he swerved towards her cage next. She could barely control her eagerness to get out, her mind swimming with the possibilities of all the things she'd like to do when she got out. If she ever got one of those accursed two-leggers alone... She shook her head, practically leaping out of the cage door as soon as it began to open. She likely gave the poor mouse a fright, but she knelt and took his hand in a sweeping gesture, shaking it enthusiastically. "Thank you, kind sir," she grinned, her ruby eyes locked on his. "I owe you my life, or at the very least, my freedom. I don't like owing debts, so anything I can do to pay it off, just let me know." She broke away, angry energy growing again as she looked around the lab. She had to find something useful to do, some outlet before her mind was blinded with rage once more, rage towards the lab, towards the humans, towards... "I'll get to work on some more of these cages," she quipped sharply, heading off already. "Might as well make myself useful, eh?"
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Posted: Thu Jun 30, 2011 6:21 pm
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Posted: Sat Aug 13, 2011 5:42 am
SchrödingerVoices and whisperings disturbed the woeful cat in his cage on the lowest tracking of boxes in his section of the lab. He peered out, his large, sunglow eyes blinking owlishly as a small figure wrapped in red approached his cage. Schrödinger smiled at this little spark of brightness within his usually dark and dismal world, and tilted his head as the little fellow clambered up the bars and lifted the latch, the door slowly swinging open. Schrödinger watched with mild fascination to the events around the lab, his would he had only seen through bars before that, now unobstructed and imposing. His ears lowered, and his tail lashed once or twice. The little mouse shrouded in red had fled from the large cat, and was freeing more and more of the animals along his line.
"Great angels in a sky so foreign to me! My saviour hath arrived to free me from purgatory. Brother?" The Maine Coon turned to look at the slumped figure sharing his cage, but there was no response from the form. Schrödinger frowned at his brother, having believed the pair to be sharing a similar hell, for they were able to converse freely. The cat scratched at his leg, and in his minds eye saw fur fall from his form to reveal bone. What a strange place purgatory was to make his mind see such things of his own body! The cat, actually whole and reasonably well, stepped down from warm fleece blanket to cold lino flooring. He frowned at it and stood as tall as his curved spine would allow, his humped form twisting to look around itself, and decide the next port of action.
Others around him were freeing other trapped slaves to man's whims, and many more were headed to the door, sitting in a large group. Schrödinger made his way there, opening any cages he could find the little mouse had missed. The one in red was his angel, and Schrödinger was going to do as he bid him! None would come to hard the little mouse in red whilst Schrödinger had any say in it!
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Posted: Sat Aug 13, 2011 5:58 am
Jack DWhat gentle, boozy sleep had taken ahold of Jack D was rudely disturbed when his free-sitting cage was knocked violently, crashing the slumbering rat's head against the metal spout of the alcohol bottle, and making him land on his face in the soft apsen bedding. His voice rose in a slurred, bumbled cursing, and he flung the bedding about as he came to stand against the glass door of his cage.
It was no longer there, however.
Pressing paws against thin air, Jack D tumbled head first over the lip of the cage and landed with a thud on the floor a table's height away. He cursed some more and lashed out with head butts and flailing balled up fists, only to sit himself down again as the alcohol he had consumed made his world spin dizzily, and he came to a stop. Jack D rubbed his eyes and peered about him, his focus no better for the fall and the rub. He staggered back to his feet, and started calling to those that crossed his path.
"'Ere? 'ERE! You's! Wha's 'app'nen then, eh? Why'm I ou' o' my cage, away from m'booze? Eh? EH?!" He brandished a fist at the young puppy that was struggling to walk past the irate rat. The pup yelped and dashed past, his unsteady legs making him trip and stumble, but Jack was too wasted to give much of a chase. He bumbled about until he was leaning against the leg of the table his cage had been on, and he sniffed at himself. He was a mess, completely filthy, but he didn't care. He needed a drink to steady his mind and allow him time to process what was going on! But it was all the way up this table leg! He cursed the thing and kicked it, until a little mouse wandered up to him, her eyes bright as she smiled at him.
"Come with me, mista Rat! 5ive says there is plenty of home-brew for big strong rats like yourself to drink on the outside. He told me to come get you. Come with me, mista Rat!" Placated by the promise of more alcohol once he escaped, Jack nodded dumbly, and allowed the mouse to take his scarred paw and lead him to the gathering members of the lab.
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Posted: Mon Aug 29, 2011 5:25 am
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Posted: Wed Nov 16, 2011 2:56 pm
Meta
It took 5ive and the others who helped him the better part of an hour to get everyone who was coming out of the cages, and ready to go by the doorway. He knew that the trip back up to the roof was impossible, no matter who they were, and as he remembered, there was still a vent on the bottom of the door where the creatures would be able to crawl through.
He turned to the group at large. They weren't the best army in the world, but they would do. And they would be willing to follow His Lordship Rathlin because THIS was the alternative. A long haired cat held out a screwdriver in his paw, one that 5ive had asked him to pickup on his way to the doorway, and 5ive shook his head. "You have to do it, I can't lift a screwdriver that large.
He waited patiently for the cat to finish unscrewing the vent, and then even more patiently as two other animals helped the cat drop the vent onto the floor like a small ramp. He sighed. This was going to be a rough adventure.
"Alright everyone!" 5ive yelled at the top of his little lungs. He imagined that he looked like quite the figure, with his fresh new eye socket scar and his torn up, dirty red tunic. "We have to stay together. We have to cross the road to get where we're going, and we may have to fight to stay once we get there, so life is going to be a little rough...." He took a deep breath... this was the selling point... it was now or never. "But His Lordship, Rathlin the Great Owl, wants you all to get there safe so he can look after you and make sure you all get the paradise that you deserve." he heaved a little heartfelt sigh. These poor creatures. Even though where he was taking them was a hundred times better than where they were now, he couldn't help but feel a little sorry for them. "All you have to do is follow me!"
He turned dramatically, to climb out through the vent, but found himself stopped by someone who was holding his left forepaw in theirs. He turned back slowly to see the little mouse, David, starting up at him with a slight smile, not saying anything... just waiting complacently.
He sighed again... this poor little mouse child.
"Now or never, David... now or never." And they started out through the vent.
~~~
The other side of the vent was a long hallway with a linoleum floor, and there wasn't much hardship in between the first door and the second that they came to. This door also had a vent like the first, and at this point the screwdriver had been handed off to three mice working in unison. It was as if the situation was inspiring focus and obedience in the creatures, and it occurred to 5ive that 98 percent of them had never been outside, and most of them wouldn't have even seen it if their cage wasn't near the one window, having been bred here. They were in for a surprise. For some it would be pleasant, and for others it would be terrifying.
With the vent off and set up much like the other had been, it was just a brief climb up a radiator and out of the receptionist's window... down a small bush and into the well manicured front yard of the Lab. 5ive had hoped that it would be still bright and airy outside when he first brought his rescuees out into the world, but fate was not smiling on him. The air was chill... it was twilight, almost dark, and the rain was just starting to spit down.
It was an almost miserable night. "Welcome to the outside." 5ive was surprised to learn that his voice relayed more optimism than he felt. He really did enjoy the great outdoors SO much more than the lab. Serving His Lordship was an acceptable price to pay to be away from the lab.
"Catch your breath and get some water from the drainspout there if you need it and then we'll head on out to the road."
(( OOC = you have plenty to play with here for character development, the gather at the door, the getting through the door. If you have a cat, feel free to take that screwdriver action if you want it. If you have a mouse /three mice you guys can work out who got the screwdriver for the second door. Up a radiator, out a window into a bush, and then into a cold rainy evening. Feel free to reflect, rp, talk to each other... 5ive is still holding David's paw, and so he's pretty much occupied for now, but I will open up the rp with him in a meta post or so. There won't be as much time in between this post and the next as there has been between this and the last.... my apologies, and your fair warning. ))
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Posted: Tue Dec 13, 2011 7:51 pm
Meta
It took a day for the pathetic group of creatures to get into the forest.
First there was the sprinkler system in the yard, which just happened to turn on at the exact moment that the creatures set foot on the grass under the laboratory signboard. There was a brief panic on the parts of some of the creatures, but with a little hard work and the help of some of the larger lab creatures, 5ive managed to get everyone calm again and moving towards the parking lot.
It was pitch black outside but this point and the only light was the cold yellow spill from the streetlights above the one car still parked there. Other than the 'creepy' factor, nothing went wrong in the parking lot.
Luckily for the lab creatures, the lab itself was located not more than a football field's length away from the edge of StoneCrest Forest. With so many limping and mentally unsteady creatures under his command, 5ive found that traveling was taking much longer than he had originally anticipated, but he couldn't have left them there. This was their freedom... their salvation. They deserved better, but this was all he could provide.
Right before the edge of the forest... was the interstate. It was still radiating warmth from the day that was long since passed, and there was a hawk above them riding the rising heat. 5ive knew about the road... he'd seen the tragic remains of a large squirrel on his first trip across. Barely had he thought to inspect the body when a car came screaming by him, making the cause of death very very suddenly apparent.
It took him only 30 seconds to describe the dangers of the road, and to warn the creatures in his care about how and when to cross the road... and it took less than 5 seconds for a particularly excited mouse (too alike to all the other mice for 5ive to be able to tell him apart as an individual) to rush out into the road just in time to catch the front tire of a truck.
5ive stared at the completely desecrated form of the brown lab mouse, flattened to the road so completely it was almost as if he had been drawn there. The white labmouse shuddered involuntarily and jerked when David placed his little paw in 5ive's. "That's what I was saying." He turned and looked down the road both ways, then he leaned down and placed a large pink ear to the asphalt. He didn't hear anything at the moment and so he turned back to the group at large. "Lets go... quickly. And for future informations, don't run out onto roads. They have no mercy." Or maybe they did. He couldn't help but think about that squashed brown mouse... his problems were all over. He had nothing to worry about anymore.
~~~~~
Almost 18 hours later, after having rested many times, 5ive and his lab vagabonds were finally at the outer river where he knew that His Lordship would be waiting.... however the great owl was nowhere to be seen. 5ive had the group set up camp to wait and rest, sleep, drink, and bathe. They were a timid, rowdy bunch, but they would soon grow accustomed to the fresh air, clean water that didn't taste of metal, and the feel of freedom. The ability to do as you pleased within reason... the hard burden of responsibility. He sighed.
He watched as David the little mouse struggled to prop some moss up into a small pillow so he could lay down. Then he turned and watched three lab mice fighting over a stick. He didn't know what they would want the stick for, but he wasn't going to deny them the freedom to fight over it... Rathlin would do that soon enough.
(( interactions as you please. I will actually reply with 5ive if you talk to him and then tell me in the thread that I need to reply. ^_^ ))
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Posted: Wed Dec 14, 2011 1:07 am
It was as though everything were happening in a dream.
Not a good dream, either. Good dreams had food in them. And swimming. Oh, how Deepy wished he could be swimming. That was so much easier on his poor, tired joints!
Still, he followed the others without complaint. It took him twice as long to do anything as it should have, but he managed. He crawled over the lip of his cage and lay, panting, on the table before he collected himself and regained his paws. He waddled along behind the others -- behind the strange little white mouse who seemed to be their savior -- and he even managed to make his way up the radiator, although by the time he made it to the top nearly everyone else had gone already.
He stopped, for a time, in the grass. He had never seen grass before, and he lay on his belly in it and nearly fell asleep with exhaustion. Then the sprinkler came on and forced him to his paws. He ran -- as well as Deepy could run, more like a shuffling waddle -- and tried to catch up with the others...it was so hard....but he knew a good thing when he saw it, and this was a good thing. He hoped.
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Bitey's energy level actually seemed to raise with every obstacle they faced. She didn't just run for freedom; she circled back, from time to time, to check on those who brought up the rear of the group. Even the fat one who always seemed to trail behind.
She didn't know why she cared so much that no one be left behind, but she did. She didn't realize it, at the time. She certainly wasn't acting out of any sense of fairness or equality or good-will towards others. Bitey didn't give a damn about anybody.
Which is, of course, why she screeched a warning to the mouse who ran into the road, her body jolting with the desire to run out and save him. Because she didn't care.
"Moron," she muttered, under her breath, but she reflexively held out a paw to grasp the creature next to her, as though assuring that it would not have the same fate.
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Deepy wheezed and puffed as he held himself steady against a large rock. He was barely aware of the road, or the mouse, or the hawk overhead. His vision was spattered with stars, and each rasping breath felt like it was shredding his poor over-worked lungs. His belly hurt from being drug over the rough terrain, and his joints ached from heaving his weight around.
It was probably a good thing he didn't see the mouse get killed by the truck, actually. Death by vehicle might have started to look pretty attractive.
He looked up, realizing that the others were crossing, and let out a despairing cry. There was no rest for the weary...and while it was so very, very tempting to curl up in the shade and snooze, he was terrified to face the possibility of waking up to realize that everyone had gone.
Aching and miserable, he drug himself forward, stumbling along in a haze.
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Bitey waited at the roadside, watching the others cross. Not because she cared what they were doing. She didn't care if anyone got flattened in the road, not one bit. Which was, of course, why she kept her ears and whiskers trained on the sound of traffic...why she reached out a paw to snatch at beasts who tried to cross at the wrong time.
She was hardly conscious of it, really. She acted from some base instinct, some deep-rooted part of her that was, in her very soul, a leader. Sort of.
"Watch where you're going, you snot-nosed brat!" She hissed as one little mouse bumped into her in its terror to scamper from the road way.
She sighed when she realized the fat brown mouse was the last one to cross. What a surprise.
"Are you coming, fatty?" She growled -- if mice could growl -- and stalked toward him stiff-legged.
Deepy nodded, mutely. He had a distant, far-away look in his eyes that she didn't quite like.
He stumbled out into the road way, moving forward at an impossibly slow speed. Bitey kept pace with him, prancing on all four paws as she tried to convince him to hurry. She could feel the rumble on the hot concrete that told her someone was coming...approaching...coming too fast...."HURRY THE HELL UP!" She yelled, hearing the engine. They were in the middle of the road and she was certain they wouldn't make it....
In desperation, she lashed out, delivering a hard n** to the brown mouse's fatty haunch. He squealed in pain and jumped forward.
She did it again, and again. He probably didn't know what was going on, but she didn't care. She was saving his stupid, fat life.
They made it to the other side just in time for the car to roll past, a safe distance from where they had been. Bitey hadn't thought to account for lanes. Ah well. Better safe than sorry.
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Deepy collapsed against the ground on the opposite side. Now he was out of breath, wheezing, with aching joints and searing pain from half-a-dozen bite wounds on his flanks. Great. This was going superbly. Absolutely wonderfully.
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