CHAPTER EIGHTEEN: AN OLD FRIEND

Ian and Justin were able to jump out of the car with their belongings and make it to the cover of a line of hedges by the side of the house without being seen. There they rested for several more hours until it was dark enough for them to travel without the risk of being detected by human eyes.

They moved from one backyard to the next, from shrub to shrub, never staying in the open for more than a minute at a time. Justin walked with his sword drawn and Ian with his crossbow set and at the ready. Cats were likely to be plentiful in such a residential area, and the two rats didn't want to be taken by surprise by one.

The blocks of family houses gave way to a more developed expanse of commercial and government buildings. There were fewer people about there, but there were also not as many bushes to take cover in, and soon Ian and Justin decided to keep going without stopping occasionally to rest at all. They had a couple of close calls trying to get across busy roads, but none of the motorists even seemed to notice the rats.

Ian came to a halt on a grassy patch by a curb. In front of them was a parking lot, and beyond it a very large building. "Where to now?" asked Justin.

Ian pointed to the building. "We're here. That's NIMH."

"Are you sure? It doesn't look the way I remember it looking."

"I should know - I worked here for about seven years. It's NIMH all right." Ian hopped into the paved lot and started toward the structure, but Justin held back. "Well, what are you waiting for?"

Justin set down his sacks and gazed at the building. "I can't do it, Ian. The memories of what we rats were put through in there are so horrendous … confined in metal cages … given agonizing injections … I can't go back. I never should have come."

"Now's a fine time to be telling me this." Ian sighed and quickly took in the immediate surroundings. "Well, you can't just stay here. You'll be seen sooner or later. Go sit beneath that blue car and wait for me there. And watch out that its owners don't start it up and run over you." Ian took the sack that held the clothes and other supplies from Justin. "I'll be back as soon as I can."

"Where are you going?"

"To try and find an old friend." Ian set out across the parking lot with the sack slung over his shoulder. Justin went with the rest of their things to a spot in the shadows of the blue car that Ian had told him to hide under. The sight of the place where he and his people had been created had a disturbing effect on him, and before long Justin was shaking with nervousness. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath to try and calm himself.

It didn't work. Where was Ian? Anxiously, Justin scanned the lot for any sign of an approaching tiny figure. Seeing none, he lay down along the inner side of one of the tires and huddled against it, shivering, trying to drive from his mind the horrible memories of the things that had been done to him within the sterile laboratories of NIMH.

"Justin? Are you all right?"

Justin turned his sick eyes up to Ian. "No, I'm not. Where were you for so long?"

"I wasn't gone long." Ian put his sack down. "I was able to find Harry's car. I left a note for him under his windshield wiper, saying to meet us tomorrow morning at the east service entrance. It's a good thing I brought that paper and ink from the colony."

"Who's Harry?"

"A scientist. We used to work together. Justin, what's wrong?"

"It's this place." Justin struggled to sit up. "Just being around it is making me a nervous wreck."

"There's nothing to worry about. Harry's harmless. He's going to help us."

"How do you know that?" Justin demanded. "How do you know he won't put us in cages and cut us open and perform all kinds of experiments on us?"

"You're being irrational, Justin. Harry wouldn't do that. He's an animal lover. We've completed a very long and very dangerous journey to get here, and I never would have undertaken it if I thought for one moment that it would end with either of us under a dissecting scope. Now let's get to the east entrance. There are some shrubs near there where we can spend the night."

Justin shook his head. "I really don't think I can go any closer."

"I think you can." Ian helped Justin to his feet and thrust his sword into his forepaws, then picked up his clothes bag again. "There's always a chance Harry might show up at the east entrance tonight, and if he does, I want to be there."

"You go, Ian. I'll stay here."

"The hell you will!" Ian grabbed Justin by the arm and began dragging him across the parking lot. Justin pulled away.

"I can't, Ian!" Justin gazed fearfully up at the NIMH building. "There's no way you can possibly understand what I'm feeling now. You can't know what this place means to me."

Ian placed his forepaws on Justin's shoulders. "We've come this far together," he said soothingly, "and we can't split up now. I know that terrible things were done to you here, but for my sake and for the sake of the entire colony, you must put aside your fears and do what you know you must do. You have my word of honor that nothing will happen to you if you go inside that building. I swear it."

Justin swallowed the lump in his throat. "Okay, I'll come. But this won't be easy for me."

In two minutes they were at the east entrance. Justin put down his load and settled back on his haunches beneath a protective clump of bushes near the door. The building's concrete wall was so close he could have reached out and touched it. "Ian, I don't feel very well."

"It's probably all that chocolate you ate last night. I warned you, but you wouldn't listen."

Justin put his forepaws on his stomach. "I think I'm going to be sick."

"Not around me, please." Ian lifted a branch and peered out of their green fortress. "Well, I'll be … Here comes Harry! I told you he might stop by tonight. Like I said, I know how he thinks."

Justin wordlessly stumbled deeper into the bush, holding a forepaw over his mouth. Ian shrugged and stepped out to greet his human friend.

Harry was made speechless by the sight of a rat wearing clothes and armed with a crossbow. The portly scientist took off his glasses, wiped them with a handkerchief, and put them back on. This didn't change what he saw. He leaned down closer to the rodent and whispered, "Dr. Hargraves, is that … is it you?"

Ian nodded. "Hi, Harry. Long time no see. Can you understand what I'm saying?"

"I don't believe it," Harry murmured, and reached down to pick Ian up. "I'll take you to my house. You'll be comfortable there."

Ian dodged the giant hands. "I don't want to go to your house, Harry. I want inside the NIMH building."

The scientist scratched his head. "I don't understand. What are you trying to tell me?" Ian pointed emphatically at the building. "You want me to take you in there?" Harry asked. Ian nodded, then held up a forepaw for Harry to wait a moment and rushed back into the bush.

"Justin! Where are you?"

"Right here." Justin meekly emerged from the shadows. "I feel miserable. What's going on?"

"I made Harry understand that I want to go inside. He'll take us in. Come on."

"Inside?" Justin clutched at his stomach. "I think I'm going to be sick again."

"No, you're not. Once is enough." Ian took Justin by the shoulders and marched him out into view of Harry. Justin looked up at the human towering over him and turned white underneath his fur.

"Who is this?" Harry indicated Justin.

"It's a long story that I could never tell you in sign language," Ian said, and again pointed at the NIMH building.

"You both want to go in there?"

"You got it," Ian nodded.

The next thing Justin knew, he and Ian were crammed together in Harry's coat pocket. He squirmed to put himself more at ease, much to Ian's displeasure, and finally settled for closing his eyes and holding on tight.

Harry went straight for the laboratory where, a few months earlier, Dr. Hargraves had made the switch from human to rodent. He set Ian down on the counter, then took Justin out of his pocket and held the rat up to his face. "I'm very curious to hear about you."

Justin was not at all happy about being held by a human. "Please hurry and put me down," he said.

Harry let go of him, and Justin fell onto the countertop below. "My god," Harry muttered.

The two-foot fall onto the hard surface was about the last thing Justin, in his nervous condition, needed. Thinking the human meant him harm, he slunk away toward Ian. "Why did he just do that?"

Ian saw that Harry looked shocked, his eyes fixed on Justin. "Good lord, Justin, I think Harry understood you. Say something else."

"You just spoke," said Harry, staring at Justin as if he were in a trance. "You just spoke in English!"

"You … you understand me?" Justin asked the scientist.

"Yes, perfectly," Harry stammered.

Ian walked over to Justin and put an arm around his shoulder. "My friend, it was very lucky for me that you came along. It looks like you'll be doing a lot of translating for me."

"Oh." Justin looked up at Harry. "Pardon me, sir, but do you have anything for an upset stomach?"