Chapter 9: Friends Rescued and A Call From NIMH

For a couple hours Dexter stayed in his place until the family went upstairs and left the kitchen. Dexter nearly fell asleep from the boredom of waiting but kept alert until he was ready to go save his friends. As soon as the family went upstairs Dexter came out from under the table and looked around.

Dragon the cat was asleep and couldn't hear him. "Thanks guys, drugging the cat was a big help."

He looked up and saw a birdcage on the top of a table.

"There's no doubt Elizabeth is there" Dexter said as he began to make his way to the top of the table to get to the cage.

But then all of a sudden there was a creaking noise coming from beneath the floor. Along with that there was a muffled voice crying out.

"Help, somebody help me!"

The voice went on saying that and Dexter turned his head to where it was coming from and sprinted over to it. He looked down and saw a crevasse beneath the floor.

"Hogarth is that you are you in there?"

"Dexter I need your help I can't breathe down here."

"Alright just climb up and I'll grab your hand." Hogarth climbed up closer to the entrance and Dexter helped to pull Hogarth out of the crevasse.

Hogarth was free from the crevasse and was gasping for air.

"Hogarth, are you alright?" Hogarth spoke while panting for air. "Yeah…I'm fine."

"What happened, how did you fall down there" Dexter asked him. "When we were running back I tripped on something and fell into that crevasse right there, I got knocked out and when I woke up I was running out of air and was yelling for help."

Hogarth looked around and became worried.

"Hey dude, where's Elizabeth, Tut, and Justin?" Tut and Justin went back to make sure the move went as planned" Dexter explained.

"What happened to Elizabeth, is she alright" Hogarth asked again.

"When you guys were running back from the cat's bowl the farmer's son captured her and put her in a cage, he wants to keep her as a pet."

Hogarth's face went beet red in anger. "That kid why I oughta punch him in the face if I was a big as he was."

"Dude, Elizabeth is fine; I think she's in that cage on the table right there." "Well what are waiting for let's go we gotta help her."

They went over to the table and climbed up to the top. As soon as they reached the top they looked into the cage and found Elizabeth turned over on her side lying down. They banged on the cage thinking she was asleep and tried to wake her up.

"Hey Elizabeth wake up it's us."

"Come on, rise and shine sleeping beauty."

Elizabeth stood up, and looked seeing her friends banging on the cage. "Hogarth, Dexter, you came back."

"Yeah of course we're here to get you out of here" Dexter said to her.

"Elizabeth you see that wire on the cage door right there Hogarth said." Elizabeth looked up, saw the wire, and nodded. You and I are gonna climb up there and try to pull it open okay." " Okay."

They climbed up to where the wire holding the door was and pulled on it trying to open it up. As they were about to get it open, it swung back and knocked Hogarth and Elizabeth back. "Hogarth, Elizabeth are you guys alright.

" "Yeah I'm fine." "What about you Elizabeth?"

Elizabeth however had a cut on her arm which hurt her really bad. The boys saw it and cringed at the sight of it.

"That looks painful" Dexter said. "Ya think" Hogarth yelled at him.

"I'm fine" Elizabeth said "I just need some water to wet it." "There's a water holder right there Hogarth said."

Elizabeth stepped up to it and put her cut arm into it. She winced in pain at first but the pain evaporated very quickly. She then slipped and fell into the water holder. At this Elizabeth then got an idea on how to escape.

"I've got it we can push the water holder out and we can escape from there." "Great idea Elizabeth" Dexter said. "Alright you two get on the end and pull I'll stay on the other side and push it."

They did as she said and got ready to pull it. "Ready on the count of three we'll pull and you push" Hogarth said. Elizabeth nodded. "Alright, one, two, three" Dexter said. Their plan had worked and the water holder was pulled out. However, Hogarth and Dexter got splashed by it and were soaking wet.

Elizabeth felt embarrassed for soaking them. "Oh my, I'm sorry; I didn't mean to do that." Hogarth smiled at her. "It's fine we have been through much worse than this." Hogarth and Dexter shook themselves off getting Elizabeth wet in the process.

"Hey that was very rude of you two." "Hey calm down we're just having fun" Dexter said. Elizabeth giggled, and they decided to head back out.

As they made their way to the table to get their stuff and leave the phone started ringing. They jumped at the sound and hid behind the table.

The farmer came down from his bedroom and answered the call. The man calling was actually a man from NIMH. Ever since the rats have escaped from their labs, the scientists at NIMH became afraid of their creations. They were afraid that these rats would try to overthrow them and the government. As a result the scientists at NIMH have been trying to find the rats for a long time now and exterminate them. The man on the phone told the farmer that they were going to come to the farm and destroy the Rosebush to exterminate the rats. The farmer sounded pleased and hung up the phone heading back upstairs to sleep.

"NIMH they're coming here" Elizabeth said but then gasped.

"If they come here Nicodemus, Justin and all the rats will be killed" Dexter said worriedly.

"We should go back warn Justin and Nicodemus and they'll get all the rats out of there before NIMH gets here" Hogarth said.

They went back into the hole and gathered all their gear. Hogarth got his jacket, backpack, and weaponry while Elizabeth got her cloak and the Stone. As they were heading out Dexter asked them something.

"Can you guys promise me one thing?" "Sure what is it" Elizabeth asked.

"Don't ever make us drug a cat or anything like that again." "Don't worry dude you'll never have to do that again hopefully" Hogarth told him.

However something tragic had just happened back at the Brisby home.

While they were in the farmhouse, during the move of the cinderblock house, Jenner and his accomplices Cassin, Nicolas, and Sullivan went through with their plan. Sullivan however didn't go through with it as he didn't want to take an innocent life. Still Jenner, Cassin, and Nicolas cut the ropes on the apparatus that was moving the Brisby cinderblock house.

The house crashed down on Nicodemus who was directing the workers. Nicodemus was now deceased and Jenner was about to take over the colony as their leader. However, five friends would come together and be able to stop this ruthless tyrant from taking over the colony and save countless lives.