It was still early when Wendy
Elisabeth woke up. It was still dark in the room. She laid safely in Justin's
warm arms. His breathing was slow and regularly. Nicodemus was sleeping a few
meters away from the two newly weds. Wendy carefully raised her head to see if
he was still there. He was, so she put her head on Justin's chest again.

But she didn't feel comfortable at
all. Something was wrong. Her hand instinctively reached out to her stomach.
She smiled when she felt the baby moving. But for some reason she still wasn't
assured enough. She slowly moved Justin's arms away from her body. She paused
to make sure he wasn't awakened by her movement. As she saw that he slept on
peacefully, she crawled out of bed. She took a small torch and lit it. She
quickly took the torch outside for she didn't want to wake her two men. She
checked the hallway. It was completely deserted. Wendy had to get used to that
sight. The hallways were never completely abandoned. There were always guards
in it. But Justin and Arthur called a meeting yesterday late afternoon to
inform the rats about their plans. It was a creepy sight. Wendy was just about
to enter the bathroom when her eye caught a rather unusual thing; The door to
Nanny and Arthur's room was slightly opened. It was never open at night. She
started breathing faster as she didn't trust the situation. Should she warn
Justin? She shook her head and softly whispered to herself: ‘No way, I won't
wake him for nothing. This is actually the first night he's finally sleeping
calmly. He needs his rest and I need to relax.' Wendy passed the open door and
entered the bathroom. She checked her face in the mirror. She shook her head
and splashed cold water onto her face.

After her visit to the bathroom,
she decided to sneak back into her room again. She passed the open door again
and was suddenly overwhelmed by the power to take a look in her neighbor's
room. They had probably just opened the room to get some fresh air in it, now
the small room was packed with rats and mice.

She placed her hand on the door
and softly pushed. ‘That's odd, something is blocking the door.' She pushed a
bit harder and started to scream as she saw what had happened in there.

 

‘Arthur... Can you open your eyes?'
Justin's voice sounded far away, but Arthur was able to slightly open his eyes.

‘Great! You're back!' Justin said,
partly to Arthur and partly to Gabriel, who was working on poor Nanny. Arthur
had been hit over the head. He was actually the one who was blocking the door.
Nanny had been tied onto a chair. She had been drugged and was now suffering
from a severe headache.

‘Good, then they are both okay.'
Gabriel said while he brushed the sweat off his forehead.

‘I don't know how they did this.
We didn't hear a thing.' Wendy whispered.

‘There must have been more than
one. They were surprised in their sleep.' Justin said as he kneeled in front of
his wife who was sitting on a chair.

‘The Brisby's... he's taken the
Brisby's.' Wendy whispered hoarsely.

‘We'll get them back in one piece,
I promise you.' Justin reassured her, although he had no idea how.

 

‘Arthur? Do you remember
anything?' Gabriel asked. He was wearing his white doctor's coat on top of his
pajama suit.

Arthur slowly moved his head so he
could see the person who was asking the question.

‘I saw... feet... a lot of... feet.'
Arthur moaned.

‘Feet? How many?' Gabriel asked.

‘Many... and blindfolds, tape?'
Arthur continued.

‘Tape... hmmm...' Gabriel thought out
loud.

‘Nanny...' He moaned.

‘She's fine, Arthur. They weren't
after you two.' Gabriel answered.

‘The... the Brisby Family! Where are
they?' Arthur shouted.

‘They're gone, Arthur... He's taken
them.' Gabriel said, holding Arthur down tightly.

 

Martin Brisby was the first to
wake up. His head was painfully stinging and he had a dirty taste in his mouth.
He tried to look around but it was so pitch-black that he couldn't see a thing.

He reached out to find his mother
and siblings. He started to shake the first person he felt.

He had found his mother.

‘Mom! Mom, wake up!' Martin yelled
as loud as he could.

‘Martin? Martin, where are you?'
Mrs. Brisby panicked. She couldn't see a thing and her head felt like it was on
the edge of exploding.

‘I'm right here Mom, don't worry.
It's just very dark in here.' Martin reassured her.

‘Mom?' It was Theresa's soft
voice. The voice sounded close by.

Shortly after that Timothy and
Cynthia woke up as well, all complaining about headaches.

The Brisby Family could do
nothing, except to wait until some living soul appeared.

 

Wendy Elisabeth was trying to
figure out what just had happened here. She stood in front of her old bedroom
window. Justin was downstairs at yet another extra meeting. Sullivan was gazing
at Wendy from the bedside.

‘What are you doing?' He asked.

‘I'm thinking.' She answered
briefly.

‘What are you thinking about?'
Sullivan asked again.

‘Nothing... everything, I don't
know.' Wendy answered back.

‘Well, perhaps you shouldn't be
thinking so much. You'd better leave that up to....'

‘Shhhh! Come check this out!'
Wendy interrupted.

‘What? What is it?' Sullivan asked
and he got up.

‘Is it just me, or is there some
activity going on there?' Wendy asked, mainly to herself.

‘Where? In that dead old tree?'
Sullivan ask as he followed Wendy's eyes.

‘Yeah, look! Did you see that?'

‘That's a... that's a rat!' Sullivan
shouted.

‘I'm going to find out what that
is.' Wendy said and she turned around.

‘No way, you are not going there
by yourself! I'm coming with you.' Sullivan said.

Wendy hesitated for a moment.
Sullivan had been one of Jenner's closest friends. Could she trust him or
couldn't she? She looked at Sullivan over her shoulder. He looked harmless with
that huge belly. She decided that it would be safe.

‘Okay, let's go. I want to be back
before Justin gets in. He'll go crazy if he notices that I'm gone.'

 

‘You saw that rat, too, didn't
you?' Wendy asked when they arrived near the old tree. They approached the tree
carefully and hid behind a thick bush.

‘I told you that I did, Wendy.'

‘Shhhh, I hear someone coming.'

‘I don't hear a thing.' Sullivan
whispered.

‘Would you shut up?' Wendy angrily
replied. ‘There, did you see that?'

‘There are more rats there, lots
more.' Sullivan whispered. ‘Let's go tell Justin.'

 

‘Hey, where have you two been?'
Justin asked, when the two rats entered the room. They were both covered in
small branches and leafs.

‘Justin, we've seen something you
ought to know.' Sullivan said, pulling some branches out of his fur.

‘Wendy? What's going on here?'
Justin asked, his voice sounded concerned.

‘Here, come.' Wendy said while she
pulled Justin's arm. ‘You see that tree?'

‘That dead tree?' Justin asked.

‘Yeah, that one. We saw rats there.'
Wendy answered.

‘Rats? What rats?'

‘Well, we didn't ask them.'
Sullivan replied casually.

Justin took a deep breath and
rolled his eyes. ‘I didn't expect you to.'

‘What is it with the two of you?'
Wendy asked while she gazed at the two men.

‘I guess you are the last person
who I have to explain that to.' Justin said, without taking his eyes off of
Sullivan.

‘Well, I've seen the rats, too.
They are far smaller than we are and they were acting like they didn't want to
be found. My guess is that that's Jenner's new hideout.

‘You might be right.' Justin said,
still focused on Sullivan, who was now staring to his tail.

‘Well it makes sense, doesn't it?
It's close enough to follow our every move and it's a great hiding place!'
Wendy continued.

‘Did you recognize any of the
rats, Sullivan?' Justin asked.

‘No, I mean... not really. I haven't
stayed at the barn so long. There were only two barn-rats who I actually saw
all the time. I would recognize them immediately. Jenner knows many more
barn-rats. He was even elected as their Leader! If I'm not mistaken, he even
got married while we stayed there. As you can imagine, I left as soon as I
could; Jenner would have killed me if he had the chance. So would have the rest
of the barn-rat colony. Those rats are mad! I mean, really crazy!'

‘Then I guess they've found
themselves the perfect Leader.' Justin softly said, deliberately ignoring
Wendy's gaze.

‘What are we going to do next?'
Sullivan asked.

‘I'll have to think about that.
But if these rats really are the barn-rats, then Mrs. Brisby and her family are
nearer than we could ever imagine.