Mrs. Brisby looked around to see
if there was a way out of the birdcage. The birdcage she was captured in was
hanging on the ceiling which one day had belonged to a bird named Porky. Billy
wanted to keep Mrs. Brisby as a pet-mouse for nobody knows how long! Mrs.
Brisby hoped Justin had stayed long enough to hear that she was caught and that
he'd come back to get her out! The moving had probably already started. Her
children must be terrified! Mrs. Brisby started to panic. What if Justin didn't
know she was caught, what if the children needed her? She thought about the
conversation she had with Nicodemus and the amulet she was given. It was a red,
round stone. She received the amulet because of her courage, and now look at
her... she was terrified! She didn't deserve it! The amulet had a special powers.
Nicodemus didn't tell her what the amulet was capable of, but it had to be
something incredible. But the amulet was no use right now. It was hanging
somewhere under the kitchen floor, carefully put there by Justin. The
Fitzgibbon family was already sound asleep. So was Dragon, so it seemed that
the powder had done it's job.

Suddenly there was a sound. A ringing sound. Mrs.
Brisby never heard a thing like that before. The farmer came downstairs,
muttering some words Mrs. Brisby wasn't able to hear. He started talking into a
white thing he picked up from another white thing. Mrs. Brisby carefully
listened to what the farmer told the white thing. The words spoken by the
farmer were rather disturbing. She could clearly hear he was talking about the
rats and about the fact that he wanted the Rosebush to be exterminated. Did she
hear the word NIMH? Yes, she clearly heard the word NIMH! She had to get out
and warn the rats. She started running around in her cage hoping to find a weak
spot. Then she suddenly saw her way out! The drinking bowl! She jumped into the
drinking bowl and tried to squeeze herself through the small opening, but the
opening was even too small for her! She got out of the drinking bowl again and
took a run to jump against the bowl. It moved a bit, and she tried to get
through again. This time she was able to squeeze herself through the small
opening and she was outside. But she forgot a minor detail...The birdcage was
hanging more than three feet above the floor! Well, she concurred her fear of
heights before by flying on Jeremy's back. She had to concur her fear then and
she definitely had to concur it now! She owed it to Nicodemus, Justin and to
Wendy, who saved her life from the cat earlier. She spotted a woolen something
on the floor of the birdcage. There was a lose thread hanging just out of it.
Mrs. Brisby pulled the thread and decided that this was her way downstairs. She
closed her eyes and jumped with the thread tightly held in her hands. She hit
the floor hard in spite of the thread and made a sliding in Dragons direction.
She made a painful bump into Dragon's fat cheek, shook her head and ran off as
fast as she could, hoping Dragon wouldn't be fast enough to follow her. Right
before she wanted to jump into the hole under the kitchen's floor, she looked
over her shoulder to see where the cat was. Dragon was still sound asleep. She
just couldn't believe it! That stuff is really strong! But that was not
important right now, she had to inform the rats about NIMH.

 

In the meantime Justin made his
way through the chaos that was caused by the sudden material failure. Nicodemus
came out just fine, but he was very worried about Wendy,

who pushed Nicodemus away from the
scene. What the hell was she doing outside? His heart was beating like crazy,
his neck fur raised and he wasn't at all paying attention to fallen wood and
ropes, so sometimes he stumbled and got scratched a couple of times. Suddenly
he stopped. He was catching his breath and started shaking his head: he found
Wendy.

 

Mrs. Brisby ran across the
barnyard to where her house was. She didn't have to worry about the cat, so she
was able to run free. When she made it to her destination, she froze. She saw
her house and all the chaos around it. The construction had collapsed.

 

Justin looked at Wendy. She was
lying on her side, looking asleep. He started moving in her direction... slowly.
He was afraid of what he might see. He was relieved to see she was still
breathing. ‘Wendy! Come on... wake up!'

He gently pulled Wendy onto her
back. He saw a huge head injury, right on the spot where her head hit a rock.
As he wanted to touch her head he softly pulled his right hand away from her
neck, where he had hold her. To his astonishment he saw his hand was covered in
blood. He started to panic as he saw this huge amount warm, dark-red fluid.
‘Justin, where are you?'

Mr. Ages' voice sounded near, but
Justin was numb. ‘She... she's bleeding badly.' He stumbled. Mr. Ages immediately
started to examine the injury in Wendy's neck. ‘Justin, I need more light hear.
I'm not able to see where it is exactly coming from, there's too much blood!'

 

Suddenly Wendy started to moan
softly. She was waking up. ‘Wendy! Oh, thank goodness! Can you hear me?
Everything will be just fine... I promise.' Justin said.

‘Jus... Justin... Jenner... he wanted
to...'

‘Hush, Wendy, you should spare
your energy.' Justin interrupted.

‘Jenner... he wanted to kill...
Nicodemus. He... and Sullivan.' She whispered and those were the last words she
spoke. She died in Justin's arms.

 

Outside, Mrs. Brisby was trying to
convince Jenner that NIMH was coming to destroy the Rosebush. ‘You must believe
me!' She shouted, but it only aroused Jenner's anger. ‘She's a liar! Get out of
my way! You will not interfere with my plan!'

 

Justin stepped out of the chaos,
all covered in blood. Wendy's blood. He wanted to stay longer with Wendy, God
he wanted to stay with her all his life! He was so stupid! He didn't even tell
her how much he loved her and that he wanted her, and only her, to become his
wife... and now she was dead. But he wasn't able to cry... not yet. He was far too
furious. Jenner was the one who killed Wendy, and he had to pay for it. As he
walked along the ruined construction he saw Mrs. Brisby. For a moment he was
glad to see her free again but his happiness disappeared as soon as he saw
Jenner. Something was going on. Mrs. Brisby was running for Jenner. And what
was that shining thing he's holding. Justin gasped: it was a sword!

He looked around him to find some
sort of weapon, but the only thing he could find was a wooden stick. He took
the stick and ran in Jenner's direction. ‘Jenner stop this!' He shouted, but
Jenner had already seen the shining amulet. Jenner raised his sword and injured
Justin's left arm. Then he jumped on top of Mrs. Brisby to get the amulet he
wanted to have ever since he laid his eyes on it. He always knew Nicodemus kept
it somewhere, but he never knew where. He got furious when he saw the mouse
wearing it, she didn't deserve it. She wasn't even one of them!

Suddenly Jenner was caught by a
surprise. He felt a painful punch in his right side which pulled him off of the
mouse. It made him disorientated for a moment, but he quickly found out that
Justin kicked him. To his anger he saw that Sullivan threw his sword to Justin.
Jenner got up and made a dash towards Sullivan. He lunged his sword into
Sullivan's body and injured him badly. Sullivan fell on the ground, his face in
a grimace of pain.

Justin had a sword now, and was
determined to revenge Wendy's death.

Jenner made a dash towards Justin
and the duel began. The fight was intense and merciless.  The sound of clinging swords echoed through
the night. Suddenly there was a pause. ‘You did it. You destroyed the
construction, admit it!' Justin asked, still catching his breath.

‘Yes, I did it, but without the
result I wanted to have. Nicodemus had to die.' Jenner replied casually.

‘Instead you killed Wendy, and
that was quite convenient, too, wasn't it!'

‘Wendy's... dead?' Jenner stumbled
and he lowered his sword. ‘Yes, you killed her.' Justin said and he lowered his
sword as well. ‘No, no... she can't be! She can't be dead! Not again, not now!'
Jenner shouted. ‘Jenner! What the hell is wrong with you? You never cared about
her! So why are you....'

‘I'm her father! I am her father!'
Jenner shouted. ‘I want to see her! I want to hold her!'

‘No way you freak! You won't get
anywhere near her! You are the one who killed her! YOU ARE HER MURDERER! I will
do anything in my power to stop you from seeing her!' Justin yelled back but
then he froze; like Jenner's words finally sank in.

‘You... are you her father?'

‘Yes, I am her father. Her mother
and I were in love with each other ever since I set foot in their palace. But
she was already engaged to the much older William. We met secretly outside the
palace and one day Victoria told me that she was expecting a baby. I was so
happy when I found out. I knew that Victoria finally had a reason to leave
William to have a life with me! Instead she told me to stay away from her and
the baby and that she choose William. They married and I was fired. I did
receive a picture with the entire happy family Kenmare when my little girl was
born. I was so angry and heartbroken that I decided to burn the palace down.
When I reached my daughters' room I found out that she wasn't there. I thought
I burned her along with the rest. I thought I lost her forever. When I saw
Wendy's necklace and heard the name ‘Antoinette Jones' I knew enough; Wendy is
my daughter. Antoinette must have reached her room sooner than I did.'

‘And now you killed her ‘again',
this time for real.' Justin said.

‘But I never meant for this to
happen!'

‘You didn't mean for what to
happen? For the block to fall down after you got the ropes or that Wendy died?
Even if she didn't die, you would have killed Nicodemus!'

‘I wanted to kill Nicodemus, to
destroy him! It should have been him!'

‘Well, your daughter didn't share
that opinion, now did she?' Justin replied and he took his chance by pushing
his sword deeply into Jenner's stomach. First he screamed of anger and pain,
then he started to laugh. ‘It's a beautiful day to die, isn't it? It doesn't
matter to me anymore, so finish it, coward!'

Then Justin pulled his sword out
of Jenner's stomach, and threw it away. ‘No, I want you to suffer.' He said,
and he left Jenner, Wendy's father, to die alone.

 

He walked back to where Nicodemus
and Mrs. Brisby were standing. Mrs. Brisby had already told Nicodemus about
NIMH. He looked sad, very sad and he looked much more older than he normally
did. Mrs. Brisby had been crying when she learned about the fact that Wendy had
been killed.

‘Justin, I'm so sorry about
Wendy.' Nicodemus said, and he placed his hand on Justin's shoulder. ‘I am
too.' Justin said, and he suddenly felt defeated, sad and empty. He felt tears
rolling over his cheeks; he was finally able to cry. When he stopped crying,
because there were no more tears left to cry, Nicodemus took him for a small
walk. ‘Justin, the time has come. I know this going to be hard, but I've
decided to retire. I want you to be the Leader of the Rats of NIMH.'

‘No, Nicodemus, I can't do that!
Not now, not without...'

‘Yes, you can. You have shown
great courage today. The rats need a leader who is young and strong. And that
is you, my son.'

He looked up to the sky and said:
‘It's time to inform the rats about the moving. We'll be moving tonight. We'll
take Wendy with us, to bury her.' Justin took a deep breath and said:

‘You can count on me, Sir... I'll
lead the Rats of NIMH to safety.'

Then Justin walked up to the place
where the rats gathered to say their farewells to their new heroine, Wendy Elisabeth.

‘Friends, we are leaving tonight.
We'll take Wendy with us to Thorn Valley. The others will stay here. We'll take
their clothes with us, so no tracks will be left...come...'

‘Justin! Behind you!' Mrs. Brisby
shouted.

Justin turned around as quickly as
he could and looked right into Jenner's evil face. He raised his sword as high
as he could and the enormous amount of hate in his eyes made Justin freeze at
the spot where he was standing. Suddenly Jenner screamed a horrifying  scream and fell to the ground below, right
before Justin's feet. There was a small knife sticking out of his back.
‘Sullivan.' Justin whispered, and he started running to the place where he last
saw Sullivan. He found Sullivan. He was bleeding heavily and whispered: ‘I'm
sorry, Justin.' Then he died.

Justin didn't know what to feel
right now. Was he sad about Sullivan's death, or was he relieved. He didn't
know. The only thing he knew was that he missed Wendy and couldn't believe he
lost her. Losing Wendy kind of felt like an amputation. A part of him was...gone.
Suddenly he saw Nanny sitting on a rock. Her head was buried in her skirt.
Justin was glad to see her. For some reason he always felt good to see Nanny.
He kind of saw her as his second mother. It comforted him. ‘Nanny... I'm so sorry.'
He softly said. Nanny raised her head and got up to give Justin a long, warm
hug. ‘Oh Justin! I miss her so much!'

‘I miss her, too. Oh, Nanny... I
don't think I can live without her!' Justin said and he started to cry again.
‘Yes, you can... look at me! You'll do fine, you're not on your own. It will take
a long time before we can accept the fact that she's... no longer here, but we'll
be fine.'

 

In the meantime, Mrs. Brisby
walked up to the block. She just couldn't believe all the things that happened that
night. The capture, Wendy's death, the fight, the block... ‘Hello, is anybody out
there?' The voice came from within the block. It was the voice of Martin! Her
children were alright! But what was that noise? The block... it moved... it started
sinking!

‘Justin... JUSTIN! The block, it's
sinking!' Justin didn't hesitate and jumped off of the rock. He ran towards the
place where the block stranded. The block was indeed sinking into the mud.
Justin grabbed a couple of ropes and jumped on top of the block where Mrs.
Brisby was already standing. He tightened one of the ropes onto an iron ring
which was attached to the roof and threw the other end of the rope to Brutus,
who attached the rope around a solid rock. Then Justin jumped off the block and
started helping the other rats. Mrs. Brisby was still on top of the block and
she tried helping the rats as good as possible. Suddenly the rope that Justin
attached snapped and Mrs. Brisby fell back on the roof. Then the block started
sinking very quickly and she sank with it. Justin was desperate and tried to
look for her in the dark mud. All of a sudden there was a noise and Mrs. Brisby
flew out of the mud. It was the amulet that pulled her out. Justin grabbed her
and pulled her towards the safe side. Mrs. Brisby wanted to go back. Life
without her children was not worth living. Suddenly the amulet came out of the
mud and flew in Mrs. Brisby's direction. She touched the amulet which burned
her hands but she held on to it. Then she touched the snapped rope and it
started to turn red. But that was not all that turned red, the place where the
block sunk turned red as well. A few explosions followed and the block came
back up! The power of the amulet brought the block to the place where it
originally should have been brought and placed it there safely. The amulet
started glowing again and flew away to the place where Wendy died. Justin
immediately followed the amulet. Mrs. Brisby, Mr. Ages and all other rats
followed Justin to the place where the red glow came from. The amulet was
resting on Wendy's chest. It was still glowing but now it was changing all the
time. Sometimes it was glowing intensely, sometimes it looked like it wasn't
glowing at all. The on and off glowing occurred as a beating heart. Suddenly
the glowing stopped and the amulet flew back to Mrs. Brisby. Justin walked
towards Wendy. Was he dreaming or did he really see her chest moving? She was
breathing! He immediately fell on his knees next to her. ‘Wendy, can you hear
me?' Justin whispered closely to her ear. She moaned a bit and opened her eyes.
‘Justin... you look... awful.' She softly said and closed her eyes again. ‘Oh my
head.' She complained.

‘Oh Wendy! I cannot believe it!
You're okay!' Justin said and he kissed her forehead.

‘Ouch! Well, okay is a big word.'
Wendy said while she touched her head. She opened her eyes again. ‘Why are all
those rats here? Then she tried to get up but Justin stopped her. ‘Hey, what do
you think you're doing! You were dea... death seriously injured! You should
rest.'

Mr. Ages came to see Wendy. ‘This
is a medical mystery!' He said.

‘Is he talking about me?' Wendy
asked.

‘Can we move her?' Justin asked.
But Mr. Ages shook his head. ‘I'm afraid we can't move her.' He looked at
Wendy's eyes. ‘She has a heavy concussion, so she'll need to rest for three
weeks.'

‘Three weeks! May I have a word
with you Mr. Ages.' Justin said, and he took the old medicine mouse to a place
where Wendy couldn't hear them. ‘We HAVE to move tonight! You heard Mrs.
Brisby! We can move her in a stable...'

‘No way, Justin. We need to come
up with another plan. She's not able to travel in any kind of way! She died
just a few hours ago, remember?'

‘Excuse me, may I interrupt?' Mrs
Brisby asked and she came closer.

‘Wendy saved my life this morning
and I didn't do anything in return, yet. She's more than welcome in my home.'

‘Do you mean that?' Justin asked
and he smiled at Mrs. Brisby. ‘That's great! I'll personally pick her up in
about two weeks!' Justin said.

‘Three weeks.' Mr. Ages corrected.

‘Okay, okay... three weeks.' Justin
said, and he ran towards the place where Wendy was.

All the rats were happy and wanted
to celebrate the fact that their new heroine was alive again, although nobody
understood HOW that miracle could have happened. Justin ordered everybody to get
packed and celebrate later, so all the rats ran into the Rosebush again to get
their things.

‘Wendy, you're going to stay at
Mrs. Brisby's home for a couple of weeks and then I'll pick you up myself.'

‘Why? I'm fine... why is everybody
so happy to see me? I really don't get it.'

‘It's... a long story, Wendy. I
won't bother you with that just now. Mrs. Brisby will tell you all about it
when you're... better.'

‘Okay...I guess. Well, don't forget
to take my things to Thorn Valley.'

Justin started to laugh. ‘I guess
Nanny knows exactly what to take along.'

 

Brutus volunteered on carrying
Wendy to the Brisby home, but soon came to the conclusion that he was never
going to fit into the house. Instead, Philip and Justin carried Wendy, as
stable as they could, further into the house She was brought to the same room
where Timothy was. Timmy was up and very curious about the lady-rat who was
brought into his room. The other children were, too, although they were still
in shock of what all had happened that evening. Mrs. Brisby ordered them to get
out of the room. Philip also left the room but Justin decided to stay a little
longer. Mr. Ages came into the room with some clean bandages. ‘Shall I put a
bandage around your arm, Justin?' Mr. Ages asked.

Justin shook his head. ‘No, I'm
fine, I never felt better in my entire life.'

‘Your arm? What's wrong with your
arm?' Wendy asked.

‘Nothing is wrong with my arm.
It's a laugh compared to your injuries.'

‘Promise me you'll fill me in
about Thorn Valley when you come to get me. Don't tease me with tickling
creatures.' She started to laugh a bit, but immediately grabbed her head again.

‘Take it easy! Yes, I will, I
promise.'

‘I bet Jenner isn't happy about
moving...speaking of moving! Where's Nicodemus! Is he okay?'

‘Nicodemus is fine thanks to you!
You saved his life! And don't worry about Jenner anymore. He's
gone, he won‘t cause any more troubles.' Justin said, and he thought about his
conversation with Jenner. He was her father! She lived with her father for over
ten years without even knowing it! She hated Jenner, oh God, how would she
react if she found out that that monster was her father? She is never to find
out, never!

‘Justin! We
have to leave now! I can see the sun coming up!' Somebody shouted from outside.
‘I must go... you take care of yourself, Wendy... I'll come to pick you up in three
weeks, okay?' Justin said and he gave her a small kiss on her lips.

‘I'll be
looking forward to it... be careful, Justin.' Wendy softly whispered and Justin
smiled. He bended over to give her a final, more intense kiss.

Then he got
up, bumped his head and went outside. He thanked Mrs. Brisby at least one
hundred times. Mrs. Brisby thanked him by giving the amulet. Then the rats left
the Fitzgibbon farm, and the long journey to Thorn Valley began.