‘Friends, thank you all for coming
on such a short notice.' Justin said while he gazed around in the practicing
area. That area was especially build for Justin's army. The soldiers would be
training here most of the day, keeping in shape for you never know what. It was
a large, brightly lit room, which looked like a school's gym.

‘I have a plan that will help us
to get rid of the barn-rats.' He said. He paused to give the rats some time to
interrupt. Justin always gave his rats some time to interrupt. But they didn't.
They all looked at him with great concentration. He didn't have to prove
anything to these guys. He had been working with them before Nicodemus turned
him into the leader.

‘I want to strike tonight. The
sooner this problem is over, the better. My plan is to burn the old tree down.
Many rats will die inside the tree, but many will also survive. They are most
likely to run out in pure panic. This is the time we can strike. We'll kill
them. According to Jenner, there still some twenty-eight rats present in the
old tree. I want them all exterminated. Don't let anyone escape. Not even
women. According to Jenner, there are no small children present, thank
goodness. I know this is going to be tough, but this is the only solution.
There are two main exits. The one at the front, which we will call A. And the
one at the other end of the hollow tree, exit B. There are a few small windows
where some rats might fit through. We have to guard those, too. Though I
suspect the two exits A and B will be used sooner because of the panic. I need
twenty-five guards at exit A and twenty-five guards at exit B. I need five
guards on each side of the tree as well. Which means that we'll be using the
entire team. No mercy, no escapers. We won't stop until the job is done.

We need to take extra safety
measurements for our own Castle as well. That's where the crows come in. I've
already contacted Jeremy if he can call more crows together. They can
extinguish the fire by flying to the waterfall with large blankets and soak these
in water. The old tree is situated on a safe distance from the Castle, but we
cannot take the risk. We don't want to lose everything we've build, now do we?'
Justin paused and cleared his voice.

‘Can I count on you?' He asked.

The crowd simultaneously said
‘Yessir'.

‘I can't hear you. Can I count on
you? All of you?' He yelled a bit louder.

The crowd got up and stared
yelling, clapping and nodding.

A smile appeared on Justin's face.
No way this plan is going to fail, unless Jenner had not spoken the truth.
Justin's mind drifted off. ‘What if Jenner hasn't spoken the truth?' Justin
narrowed his eyes. ‘If he hasn't spoken the truth, I'll kill him with my bare
hands.'

 

‘Dad?' Wendy's soft voice woke
Jenner up. He had been dreaming a pleasant dream for once. He was at the Market
Place, hanging out with Nicodemus and Gerald, Nicodemus' older brother.

‘Wendy?' He moaned.

‘I'm right here dad.' Wendy said
and she took Jenner's hand.

‘Wendy, dear. You're up already.
I've been told that you have a son.'

‘That's right dad. His name is
Joshua. He's your grandson.' Wendy said as tears filled her eyes. She had never
seen anyone injured like that before in her entire life. He was almost
completely covered in bandages! Perhaps he was never able to see her son....

Jenner smiled. ‘Joshua is a nice
name.'

‘He's named after....'

‘Justin's father, I know.' Jenner
said.' Justin and I used to be pretty close in the early days, you know. He's
told me a lot about his family.'

‘Oh dad, I wish everything could
turn back to where it was. Before we went to the Rosebush.'

‘Could I make you happy with
that?' Jenner asked.

‘Yes, dad. You'd make me the
happiest rat on the face of the earth.' Wendy said. She kissed Jenner on his
forehead. ‘Promise me you'll get better?'

‘I promise.' Jenner said.

Gabriel cleared his voice. ‘Sorry
to interrupt, but Jenner, we have decided to take the bandage off of you eyes
tomorrow morning. Then we know if we were able to safe your left eye.'

‘Thanks Gabriel.' Jenner said.

‘I'd better check on Joshua, dad.
Do you want me to be there tomorrow?'

‘I would like that, love.' Jenner
said and Wendy left the Intensive Care Unit.

 

Justin was already waiting in the
infirmary when Wendy came back. ‘Justin! They said you were in a meeting!'

‘I was, but it wasn't a long one.
Are you ready to go home?'

‘I'm more than ready to go home.
And so is Joshua, aren't you?' Wendy said, as she caressed her baby-boy's
cheek.

‘Then what are we waiting for?'
Justin said and he picked up Wendy's belongings. Wendy picked up Joshua and
they carefully started walking back to the room they called ‘home'.

As they entered the room, Wendy
gasped. ‘Wow, you've been working hard, haven't you?'

‘Well, Arthur and Nanny have been
really helpful.' Justin said.

The room was now divided in two
spaces. The room at Wendy's left hand was still the same. There she found the
desk (what had happened to it anyway?), the chair and their double bed.

The room on Wendy's right side was
nicely decorated as baby-room. There was a cradle in it and a sideboard, where
Wendy could change Joshua's diapers. There was also a rocking chair in the room
where Wendy was able to softly rock the little boy to sleep.

‘Oh Justin! It's wonderful!' Wendy
whispered and she kissed her husband long and passionate.

‘I knew you'd like it. We'll put
the cradle next to our bed, though. I don't want him to be so far away.'

Wendy looked at him with a smile.
‘I don't want that either, not yet.'

‘We'll take him out of there by
the time he gets eighteen, okay?'

‘Oh Justin. You're terrible
sometimes, you know that?'

‘I guess so, but you still love
me, don't you?

‘Yes, I do. With my entire heart
and soul.' Wendy said.

Justin knew he had to inform his
wife about tonight.

‘I don't want to spoil the moment,
but I have to tell you something. We are planning to attack the old tree
tonight.

‘Does my father know?'

‘No, and I'd rather keep it that
way, just in case.'

‘In case of what?' Wendy asked,
but she already knew the answer.

‘Let's not have a discussion about
him, now... okay? I just want to make sure that my plan won't fail. I'll need all
the guards, the entire army. We are going to burn the place down.'

Wendy nodded her head. ‘Good idea,
how did you come up with that?'

‘By accident.' Justin said and he
nodded in the direction of the desk.

‘Oh, now I see what happened to
it.' Wendy said but she was smiling.

 

‘Okay, men. Does everybody know
what their position is.' Justin said. He walked back and forth, facing his
entire army. The men nodded. They were armed to the teeth and all in the same
uniform so that no-one could confuse a team member for an enemy. Justin was
wearing the same uniform. ‘The two larger groups take their position at the two
main exits. Brutus will be head of the group at exit A and I, myself, will be
leading the group at exit B. The rest

will light the torches and set the
gasoline on fire. Great job by the way, Gunner.' The rat named Gunner briefly
nodded. He already poured the gasoline over the old tree five minutes earlier.
The wind had been beneficial; the barn-rats couldn't have smelled it.

‘All clear? Let's go. Prepare for
battle.' Justin said and the rats carefully moved towards the old tree.

 

Brutus took his place on exit A
and grouped his team. Justin took his place at exit B and did the same. He gave
the signal to the other ten rats who placed the torches against the old tree.
The tree set fire immediately, flames bigger than the rats appeared and the
heat was nearly unbearable. Justin's heart pounded loud in his chest. Still
nothing. He balanced his sword in his hand. Five minutes later. Still nothing.

‘Gunner. Go check on the other
side.' Justin ordered.

‘Yessir!' Gunner said and he
rushed over to the other exit.

He came back running like a
madman. ‘Sir! They're all there! They took exit A!'

‘Thanks. Okay, Gunner, Jasper,
Thomas, Stephen and Jack stay here, we'll help the others.'

‘Yessir!' The five rats said and
Justin's group started rushing towards the other exit where the fighting had
already broken loose. Some barn-rats stood on fire and were running around like
living fireballs. Despite the fact that it was a horrible sight, it was
dangerous, too. These living fireballs were actually after Justin's men.

‘Keep avoiding those fireballs!
Brutus watch out!' Justin started running and pushed his blade deeply into one
of the burning rats.

‘Thanks Justin.' Brutus said.

‘Just keep concentrated!' Justin
said and mixed himself between his own man and the enemy.

 

Wendy was looking out of the
window. She couldn't see much because of the smoke. She was worried for Justin.
It had been a while since he had been in a fight.

 

‘Keep away from the flames! Try to
breath as little as possible!' Justin yelled.

The fight was a lot tougher than
he expected. Those barn-rats weren't thinking about giving up easily. Justin
pushed his blade into escaping barn-rats. As he saw that his path was cleared,
he paused and looked around. Suddenly he saw something which made him feel
sick. One of his men, Ashton, was jumped from behind by a rat who was on fire.
Ashton fell forward, trying to get rid of the rat on his back. He tried to get
up again, but the burning rat kept him on the ground. Ashton was screaming
because of the pain. Justin couldn't bare it anymore and started blowing the
whistle. Somewhere, deep in his heart, he knew it was too late for Ashton. The
burning rat pulled a small knife and stung Ashton three times. Then he himself
literally lost his head by Brutus' blade. Blood flew everywhere.

Justin took a deep breath and
forced himself back on the field again. Suddenly he heard a noise from above.
The crows had arrived. His heart jumped. No more fireballs. The birds drops the
watery blankets down and shortly after that the fire was extinguished.

There was still a lot of smoke,
though. It filled Justin's lungs with every breath he took. He started
coughing. He felt a stinging pain in his sight and realized that he was
attacked by a barn rat. He swung his sword at it, but missed. The barn rat
attacked again and cut Justin's cheek. Justin swung at the barn rat again and
hit his shoulder this time.

The barn rat screamed a terrible
scream and jumped at Justin's throat. Justin was smacked to the ground and lost
his sword during this attack. He tried to push the barn rat off of him, but
didn't succeed. ‘And they say we are mutants.' Justin managed to think
by himself.

Justin was having a hard time
breathing, but he managed to flip his assaulter onto his back. This time he
grabbed his throat as well, pushing it like his life depended on it (which it
did, of course). He threw his entire weight against the much smaller barn rat
and noticed that the grip around his throat loosened. His assaulter was dying.
That didn't stop Justin from chocking the barn rat. The grip around his throat
loosened and loosened and the barn rat had died, staring at Justin with his two
frightening, expressionless eyes.

‘Justin, you can let go now.'
Brutus said, although he sounded from afar.

‘Justin! Let go!' Brutus said
again, this time pulling the young male off of the dead body.

‘They are dead. I've counted
twenty-eight. Twelve men are searching the tree and five men are searching the
area. Four of us have died.'

Justin looked up at Brutus. His
face was all covered in black soot, making him look even scarier than he always
did.

‘Four dead? Who? Ashton, Mike,
Lewis and Gunner.'

‘Gunner? That's impossible. I left
him at exit B. There was no-one there!' Justin said with his eyes wide open.

‘Apparently there's been a
struggle there, too. Not as big as here, but still.'

Justin gazed in front of him without
seeing anything. ‘He was still so young.' He whispered.

‘They all were. But they are
heroes.' Brutus said, and he placed his arm around his dear friend.

 

Jenner had been right. There were
only twenty-eight rats left in the old tree. They were all killed that night.
The scout-groups didn't find anyone, both inside and out. They were saved.

 

Justin came home late that
evening. Wendy had been still awake, of course.

‘Oh you're back! Thank goodness
you're okay.' She kissed and hugged him.

‘I'm fine, but we've lost four.'
Justin said with a sad tone.

‘Oh, no... I'm so sorry. Who?'

‘Gunner, Mike, Lewis and Ashton.
Ashton actually died in front of my eyes. I'll never forget that.' Justin said
while he kept on staring in front of him.

‘Oh Justin. I wish I could help.
Shall I make a warm bath? The sun has been heating the water reservoir up all
day, I suppose it's still warm.'

Justin smiled. ‘You're great, you
know that?'

Wendy smiled back at him and got
up to fill the bathtub.

Justin moved over to his son who
was peacefully asleep. His tiny hands resting besides his head. He was lying on
his back. Justin gently touched the baby's cheek. The baby made a little sound
but continued sleeping. ‘You're safe now. Nobody will ever hurt you or your
mother ever again, nobody.' Justin softly whispered.

‘Your bath is ready for you, dear.
Is he still asleep?'

‘Yes, he is. He's so beautiful.
I'm so lucky to have you two.'

‘No, we are lucky to have
you.' Wendy said and she stretched her hand.

Justin moved over and took her
hand. She accompanied him towards the warm bath.

‘You're right. It still is warm.'
Justin said as he ran his finger through the water.

He stepped inside the tub and
enjoyed the warmth on his fur. Wendy stayed with him to help wash his injuries;
some minor cuts, and peeked around the corner every two minutes. Justin enjoyed
seeing her so concerned this way. After the warm bath they snuggled a bit and
fell asleep until the sun came through the window.