Rob burst out of the doorway and bolted down the hallway for a second time in an hour. "COME BACK HERE!" came a voice from behind him, and the wolf chanced a look over his shoulder: Dr. Vexon was stumbling out of the doorway, still wrestling with the rats, but nonetheless in hot pursuit of Rob.
Rob gulped and turn around, continuing to run. He passed shocked humans and knew it was only a matter of time before they gave chase again — hopefully he could find the antidote room before then —
A small furry gray mass collided with his shoulder and Rob looked back to see Katrina riding on him. "Hello there," she said conversationally, like this was an everyday occurrence.
"Hi," Rob said, looking back behind him. "Where's your sister?"
"Oh, she'll be along in a moment," Katrina said, waving a paw airily. Rob heard a wild howl from behind him. "She stopped to sink her teeth into the doctor's ear."
Rob grinned. "I'm glad that you guys decided to come with us."
Katrina shrugged. "What's one more escape attempt?"
The pair raced on, Rob examining the signs along the hallway as they passed by in a blur. "None of this looks familiar," he said out loud. "Which way is the antidote room?"
"Hang a right up here," Katrina instructed, and Rob saw, approaching quickly, the three-way intersection that he had been down before. "We've been there twelve times; we know the way."
"How many times have they tested on you guys?" Rob asked, amazed, as he skidded along the hallway before managing to change direction.
"We've lost count," came another voice, and looking back again Rob saw that Marissa had joined them. She waved. "Oh, by the way," she added, almost as an afterthought, "I took a count before I jumped off the doctor, and we've got five humans behind us. Probably more by now."
"Great," Rob said, feeling a strange sense of deja vu.
"D'you suppose they'll think to look in the antidote room?" Katrina wondered aloud.
"Not if we can get there in time," Rob muttered, running even faster. Familiar signs flashed by, and he knew the room to be just ahead. "If we can just —"
Suddenly he skidded to a halt. There it was! The unmarked door. Rob leaped for the doorknob and turned it, but —
The door didn't move. "It's locked. They've locked it!" Marissa shouted, starting to grow panicky. "They must have figured that you'd come back!"
"Well then," Rob grunted, turning around, "there's more than one way around that."
"You're not seriously —" Katrina started, then was forced to grab onto Rob's shoulders: The wolf had run backward and turned around again, and now was heading for the door at full speed. Rob jumped ... and crashed through the door's window, sending glass everywhere as he landed on the floor, stepping gingerly to avoid broken pieces.
"Start looking!" Rob shouted, ignoring the ever-present alarm, which was now at a shrieking pitch. Katrina and Marissa jumped off his shoulders immediately and scurried across the shelves, checking the labels of every bottle.
"Dicalcium phosphate ... no ... alternative nyquil solution ... no ... aluminum chlorohydrate? What is all of this?" Marissa shouted in frustration.
"Keep looking!" Katrina shouted as she scaled another shelf. "Sodium lauryl sulfate ... isobutane base..."
"Here!" Rob suddenly shouted, beckoning the rats over. "I think I've found it! Look!"
The three crowded around the bottle, which had an abbreviated label: "ANTI. EUTH."
"That's got to be it," Katrina said, and Rob grabbed the bottle gingerly in his teeth as the rats hopped back on his shoulders. "Let's go!"
Rob turned to jump back out the window — and found the door open and their way blocked by a large number of humans. Among them was Dr. Vexon, his face and head covered with an incredible number of scratches and bites. The scientist was seething, his teeth clenched, his hands curled into fists.
"Should've seen this coming too," Rob muttered.
"Ready..." Verne whispered, holding a hand up. "NOW!"
He lowered his hand, and John reared back and hurled Willow's water bottle right at the door. It crashed through the window and promptly slammed into the head of a passing human.
"What the hell?" shouted the scientist, looking at the door. He saw the hole in the window and grimaced. "Stupid animals..." The human headed toward the door, turned a key in the doorknob and opened it.
"GO!" Verne shouted as the door swung open. The crowd of animals surged forward toward the surprised human — and, more importantly, the doorway. Verne raced forward with the others and saw Jackson, Willow and Frank make it past the scientist — then suddenly the human shouted, "Enough!" and lunged for the rest of the animals.
"I don't think so..." George the hedgehog yelled, jumping forward. He turned around, held his nose and blew — and the scientist's hands made contact with the hedgehog's sharp quills. The human reared back, howling, clutching at his wrists, and John zipped to stand behind the scientist's legs. The human stumbled backward, tripped on the cat and fell to the floor with a crash.
"Get his hands!" shouted John, and the porcupine kids jumped for the scientist, landing on his arms. "This looks like a good place to take a nap," said Quillo conversationally.
"Agreed," said Spike, hopping onto the human's right hand, while Bucky took the left.
The porcupines laid down on their backs — and just as George had done, their quills sunk into the human's hands. He howled, trying to get back up, but moving only caused the scientist to feel more pain in his wrists. He stopped trying to throw the porcupines off and tried to get to his feet — only to find that Frank the frog had hopped back into the room and was now using his tongue as a rope, wrapping it firmly around the human's legs.
"Come on!" Verne shouted, as the animals surged through the doorway. The toad hopped through, then the hamster, then a groundhog, then the white rat — more and more animals fled out into the hallway, stepping over the still-struggling human on their way to freedom. At last Verne, John, Frank and the kids were the only ones left in the room. Frank made to unwrap his tongue, but John said, "Wait."
Frank stopped, and John walked forward and sat on the human's legs. "I have something to do before we go."
He looked at Verne, and the turtle shivered. John gazed at him wordlessly for a minute, then turned his attention back to the human, who had stopped struggling and was staring at John murderously. The cat glared back at him, raised a paw and said, "This is for Susie."
John bared his claws and brought his paw down, and Verne turned away, covering his eyes. There was a horrible scratching sound and the scientist howled, rattling Verne's eardrums. The turtle turned back to John, who had jumped off the human's now-bleeding legs and said calmly, "That ought to hold him for a few minutes." He jumped for the doorway and turned around. "Frank, kids, Verne — let's head out."
RJ jumped up and locked the door, to at least delay any humans that might think to come looking. Then he ran back to Hammy, trying not to look as panicked as he felt. The little squirrel was now laying on the floor, his body convulsing slightly, his breathing ragged and uneven.
"Hammy," RJ gasped again, "please don't do this. Stay with us. Come on — you can do it —"
"I'm ... try ... ing..." the squirrel muttered softly as RJ lifted him up gently, propping the squirrel's body so that he was sitting upright. To weak to hold it up, Hammy let his head lean slightly on RJ's shoulder. "RJ..."
"It'll be okay, Hammy," RJ choked, trying to ignore the prickly feeling building up behind his eyes. "Don't worry."
Hammy fell silent again — and suddenly the convulsions racking his body grew more violent. His breathing came in short gasps. RJ frantically felt for the squirrel's pulse and found it to be beating wildly, strangely, erratically — and then suddenly Hammy's body went still. A soft sigh escaped his lips, and his tail went limp.
"Hammy? Hammy?" RJ shouted. "HAMMY!"
"It's straight ahead!" Willow shouted, "Come on!"
The crowd of animals raced down the hallway, Verne just managing to keep up. The turtle wondered vaguely why they hadn't yet encountered any humans — and just as the thought entered his head, they rounded a corner and found another scientist standing right in front of them, seething. There was a large bandage on his neck and he was wincing every time his head moved. But that apparently didn't matter to him now — his attention was focused on the thirty-three animals in front of him.
A walkie-talkie clasped to his belt crackled to life, and Verne heard the words, "This is a call to the entire department ... please head to the antidote room ... this is a call to the entire department ... please head to the antidote room ..." repeated over and over again. The scientist paid the voice no mind, and lunged madly for the critters. "You left one of my lab partners on the floor with shredded legs," he screamed at them. "He's only just managed to call me!" He suddenly grabbed the walkie-talkie from his belt, pressed a button on its side and muttered, "Yes, Manson. I've got them." He shut it off, tossed it over his shoulder and turned to the animals again. "Since I'm apparently the only one around, I'll just have to take care of you myself!"
He stepped forward and bent down — and suddenly Verne heard a crash and turned to see a white blur hurling out of the window marked DERMAL TOXICITY TRIAL. The blur latched onto the scientist, squeaking madly, and whipped around his face and head. The scientist yelled and tried to shake the blur loose, but to no avail — the white critter only clung more firmly to the human, still squeaking with rage.
Heather and Ozzie darted forward, each heading for one of the human's legs. Heather immediately sunk her teeth into the right leg, but Ozzie took some time to lather up a huge glob of saliva round his mouth, working it into a foam. Soon he had a nice white cloud on his cheeks, muttered to Verne, "Rabies. Gives a better effect," and sunk his teeth into the human's leg too.
The human struggled harder, attempting to shake the animals loose, but the crowd had seen what Heather and Ozzie had done and surged forward to join the battle. Animal after animal climbed up the human's legs, reaching higher and higher — and soon the weight was too much for the human and he fell backward. With nothing to break his fall, the human landed on his back, knocking the wind out of himself. A guttural gasp escaped his lips and his head fell backward, his eyes the size of saucers as he tried to take in air.
"That should do it," came the voice from the white blur, and the crowd of critters gradually stepped off and around the human. Ozzie and Heather were last to do so, removing their teeth from the human's legs. Ozzie wiped his mouth delicately, but Heather had remained where she was, a look of confusion on her face as she looked up at the white animal.
The critter turned around, and Ozzie's eyes widened. She was a possum, like him. Her eyes bored deep into his, her gaze unwavering.
"Mom?" Heather gasped.
"There's nothing for it," Rob whispered to the rats through the bottle in his teeth. The wolf began backing away slowly, moving back toward the shelves. The humans stepped into the room after him, and Dr. Vexon reached out wordlessly, aiming to grab the trio of animals.
Rob finished backing up — and kicked the shelf behind him, hard. One of the sidebeams began to fall out from the force and the shelf lunged forward, the bottles and vials trembling precariously. Dr. Vexon just had time to look up in horror (as Rob slipped out from under him) before the bottles fell, landing on the humans' heads and bursting, covering them with toxic chemicals and mixtures. The falling shelves knocked into another set, setting off a chain reaction: more bottles tilted and fell, landing on the panicked humans as they bumped into each other, trying to evade the falling chemicals. Glasses burst, vials shattered and toxins overflowed, creating an incredible fireworks display in the now-destroyed antidote room.
And it wasn't over yet: As the humans stumbled out, half-blinded, covered with liquids of every color and texture, they found Rob waiting for them, the "ANTI-EUTH" bottle clutched firmly in his jaws. Sitting on the wolf's shoulders were the rats: Marissa was clutching a huge blue box of matches, and Katrina was holding a single match. A single, lit match.
With a smirk, she tossed it into the antidote room, and the trio bolted.
KA-BOOM!
A huge explosion filled the lab, shaking the building as Rob and the rats ran to evade the billowing cloud of fire now chasing them. The windows of various doors lining the hall shattered, tables and the equipment stacked on them tilted and fell, and the floor beneath them rumbled with the force of the destruction, Rob just managing to stay balanced as he ran back down the way he had come. Katrina reached out among the equipment flying all around them and grabbed a single, empty needle, still in its packaging.
"What's that for?" Marissa yelled over the incredible noise filling the lab as Rob rounded the corner, skittering on the floor again in the process.
"Hammy!" Katrina shouted back as she tore the plastic wrap off of the little needle. She tested it quickly, just as Vexon had done, and found it to be working.
"Here we are!" said Rob in a muffled voice, as he reached the door marked VIOLENT ANIMALS: HOLDING PEN. He went for the doorknob, but it too didn't move. "RJ probably locked it to keep the humans out!" Marissa cried.
"Oh, no, not again —" Katrina yelled as Rob backed up, turned around and jumped, crashing through the door's glass once more. Carefully landing to avoid the still-unconscious Dr. Parker, Rob ran to where RJ and Hammy were sitting.
RJ was holding the limp squirrel by his shoulders. "Please, Hammy," he gasped, "no —"
"We've got the antidote!" Marissa shouted, as she and Katrina jumped off of Rob's shoulders. Carefully the wolf set the beaker down, and Katrina popped the lid and stuck the needle in, drawing the handle out to fill it. The liquid rushed inside and soon filled up the needle. Katrina handed it to RJ. "Here —"
Frantically, RJ grabbed the needle. "I can't believe I'm about to do this ..." RJ positioned the needle gingerly near Hammy's shoulder, turned away and shut his eyes, and pressed the handle down. RJ felt the liquid flow out into Hammy's bloodstream, and the raccoon exhaled sharply, not realizing he'd been holding his breath.
At last the needle was empty. Carefully RJ removed it from Hammy's shoulder, and tossed it aside. He, Rob, Katrina and Marissa looked down at the squirrel with hope.
Hammy still didn't move.
Didn't breathe.
RJ felt Hammy's wrist desperately for a pulse — and couldn't find one.
Marissa rubbed her paws together anxiously. "Is he —"
"No," RJ said desperately. "He can't be. Hammy. Hammy, wake up! You've got the antidote — you'll be all right — please —"
He gently shook the limp squirrel. It was getting harder and harder for RJ to ignore the prickly feeling building up in his eyes. Hammy wouldn't die. He couldn't. He was RJ's best friend! He had been the first to accept RJ into the family — the first to call him his buddy — he couldn't die —
"Hammy," RJ sobbed, as he at last gave in to the tears, "please wake up."
"Maybe," came a soft but familiar voice, "this will help."
RJ turned his head toward the voice — and saw that the door had been swung open again. And standing in front of it was —
Was —