Back at the lab that night, Dr. Penny Stacy was seated at a boxy black-screen computer monitor, clacking away at a keyboard and browsing NIMH's database. She was working overtime again when she'd have rather been home. Her boss, Dr. Strauss, loomed over her shoulder. He'd been pressing for results ever since they arrived back at the institute.
"Did you find anything on badgers yet?" he asked.
"No, not a thing," she answered, scrolling down the screen, "Mice, rats, squirrels, dogs, cats, monkeys…but never badgers. Not in this facility. Nor have there been any hedgehogs or moles for that matter."
"Hmm…" he stood up straight, "The government is going to want some answers regarding this, Dr. Stacy. And I want it verified that this anomaly had nothing to do with that rat incident. Then, I want to know exactly why we have sapient rodents living out in the middle of the woods."
"Think it could be the work of someone outside of NIMH?" Dr. Stacy asked, "Some disgruntled former employee?"
"I have contacted everyone formerly involved with the project," he answered, "We'll be questioning them over the next few days, seeing if perhaps they shared the formula to those injections with any other organization that engages in animal testing. In the meantime I want you to do a little research. Look into everyone, down to the most crackpot mad scientist, who could have been responsible for this."
"Yes sir," she said, "I'll keep researching."
Honestly, she felt like she was becoming a crackpot mad scientist sometimes, she thought with a sigh, trying to block out the sounds the animals were making in the lab as they were examined, probed, prodded. Dr. Clark was at the next table, reading one of the books they'd recovered under a microscope, turning the pages with tweezers.
"I still can't get over this," he said, "The terminology in this is a bit unscientific and literal, but this is functionally a textbook on how gravity works. In English!"
Penny looked over at the microscope. How could any of this be real? She had to know. Not just because Dr. Strauss was pressuring her. The drive was something more than that.
Abigail awoke that morning to the sound of Michelle coughing and gasping for breath. The rest of the furlings were stirred awake too.
"She's having an asthma attack!" Abigail explained, "Quick, someone get the herbs!"
Russell reached for the supply bag and rummaged through the scrolls, finding the herbs wrapped up at the bottom, "Which one does she need?"
"I think they both work," said Edgar, taking some yerba santa leaves from Russell and bringing them to Abigail as poor Michelle continued to have an uncontrollable coughing fit.
"What do we do with them?" Russell asked.
Abigail folded one of the leaves and put it into Michelle's mouth. Normally Cornelius would grind them up in a bowl but they didn't have that now. Michelle chewed, shakily breathing and letting the fumes from the leaves open her air passages again.
"What's happening to her?" Willy asked.
"Ever since the gas leak she's had breathing problems," Abigail said sadly, stroking Michelle's head as she panted and caught her breath, "Cornelius calls it asthma."
"Th-thank you Abby…" Michelle said weakly, coughing again, but only once.
"Shhh," Abigail hushed her, picking up Michelle's glasses from the ground and putting them over her eyes for her, "You're welcome, but wait until you feel better before you talk."
"That gas leak must have been terrible." Willy said, sitting up in his bed.
Abigail looked to him and nodded sadly.
Edgar walked out to the entrance of Willy's burrow, "The sun's starting to come up anyway. You guys wanna get going again?"
"I guess we'd better, so we can cover enough ground until dark," Russell said.
Willy seemed contemplative, "Say uh, I was thinking…you guys want an extra passenger to um, help take care of things?"
"Huh? Like you?" Edgar asked.
"Well yeah," Willy said, looking to Abigail.
"This isn't a sight-seeing tour," said Russell, "We aren't sure where we're going, we're just gonna follow that trail until it takes us to the humans."
"I know it's gonna be dangerous," Willy said, "I just, well…I wanna do something besides steal acorns all day. I want to help you guys."
"I think he should come," said Abigail, "I mean who knows when we might need an extra hand?"
"Cranking the winder-uppers does get tiring after a while," said Edgar, "If you come you can help with that while one of us rests."
"We can take shifts," Abigail suggested.
"Thanks you guys," Willy smiled, "We can bring what food I have left too. And I'll stand by you until you find your families."
"See guys, I told you he'd help us," Abigail said with a smug grin.
"Yeah yeah," said Russell.
"Let's get everything gathered up," said Edgar.
Abigail helped Michelle to her feet and grabbed the supply bag, filling it with as many seeds as it could carry.
"We'll have to make this last," she said, eyeing Russell.
"I'll do my best," Russell said sheepishly.
"Okay, let's go track those humans down," Abigail said.
They exited the burrow into the early morning light, Willy stopping to look back at it for a moment before turning around, hurrying to catch up with the others. They found the flapper wingamathing right where they left it.
"I've always wanted to know what it was like to fly," said Willy as he climbed in.
"Now you will," Abigail said with a smile, picking Michelle up and helping her inside.
Edgar and Russell climbed in as well, Russell taking the steering wheel as usual.
"So uh, Willy, you wanna get us into the air with the winder-uppers?" Edgar asked with a grin.
"Aw, can't I look over the side while we're going up?"
Abigail giggled a bit, "Just let him, he can take over once we're up in the air."
"I can see Abigail's gonna let you do whatever you want," Edgar griped, taking one of the winders.
"I promise I'll help when we get in the air, like Abby said," Willy assured him as he excitedly joined Michelle in gazing over the edge.
"Alright, crank the winder-uppers," said Russell.
Abigail and Edgar put their muscle into it as the wings began to flap, and a steady breeze helped them go airborne. Willy giggled excitedly as they lifted off the ground, the meadow that had been his whole world since he was born falling further beneath him as they ascended.
"Woo! See ya suckers!" Willy called out as they passed the oak tree, causing a few squirrels to turn their heads.
The makeshift aircraft turned East again when it gained enough altitude.
"Alright, I'm locking the wings," said Russell, pulling a wooden lever to lock the wings in place as the aircraft glided through the air.
"Amazing up here, isn't it?" Abigail said, coming to stand beside Willy.
"I've never experienced anything like this," he said, "So this is what it's like to be a bird."
"Okay, we're looking for a black trail," Edgar said on the other side of the flapper wingamathing.
Michelle stood on her tip toes to see over the side, "It was a little further up…ah, there's the trail."
"Okay Russell, we're following it north," said Edgar.
"Got it," Russell said, turning the aircraft right and steering over the black trail once again.
The trail was winding below them, and steering to follow it was a tough job. Every now and then they'd see a monster-on-wheels speeding along. But none of them looked like the ones that had taken their families away.
"They look like little beetles from up here," Michelle remarked.
"Just be glad you're not on the trail itself," said Russell.
"What are those things?" Willy wondered.
"Cornelius thought they were some kind of machine," said Abigail.
"And um, we're looking for a couple in particular?"
"Yeah, big white ones," said Edgar, "Kinda square-shaped."
"Except at this point who knows where they might be," Russell sighed, "They've had all night to speed off to who knows where."
There was a silence for a few moments. Was this whole mission hopeless?
"We're not going to get anywhere thinking like that," said Abigail, "We need to just find out where the humans live and start looking for clues. Maybe someone will help us."
"You think any animals live among the humans?" Edgar asked.
"I guess we don't know that," Abigail answered.
"They'd probably all have died by now," said Michelle grimly.
"Don't say things like that Michelle," Abigail scolded.
"Well she has a point," Russell argued, "We live way far away from any humans and look what's happened to us."
"She doesn't need to be encouraged to think such depressing thoughts," Abigail retorted, "And it's not good for us either. I know my daddy's out there, and we're gonna find him, and all of your families too, and Cornelius. You haven't given up hope, have you?"
Edgar looked down. Russell was silent, steering the plane. Michelle sat down and hugged her knees. Willy fidgeted with the hem of his shirt and looked over at Abigail, not sure what to say in the awkward silence. Abigail was facing a losing battle, trying to lift her friend's spirits. She sighed, and turned around to gaze at the forest beneath them.
"It may seem hopeless, and maybe it is, but that doesn't mean I'm not gonna try," Edgar said finally.
"Yeah, kinda what I'm feeling too," said Russell, "It's not like we can really do anything else. We can't go back to Dapplewood because humans might get us, we can't stay in the meadow because everyone hates us there. We've just got to go search for a needle in a haystack and hope that we somehow get lucky and find it."
Michelle sniffled and buried her face in her arms, beginning to cry.
"Well, I guess at least that's better than giving up," Abigail said softly, her ears down as she stared at the ground far below them.
Willy lightly put a hand on her shoulder, "We'll find your dad. If you guys can team up and build a real flying machine, you can do anything."
Abigail looked away and scoffed. Russell was absolutely right. This mission only had about a one in a million chance of succeeding. Abigail blinked back some tears. Then, through her teary eyes, she noticed the black trail splitting off into two below.
"Uh, guys? Which way do we go?" she asked.
Russell turned the Flapper Wingamathing around and flew in a wide circle around the fork in the road The rest of the furlings looked over the edge.
"Great, just great," said Edgar, "As if this whole thing wasn't impossible enough, now we've got a fifty percent chance of going the wrong way too!"
"Maybe we really should just give up," Russell groaned.
Michelle was beginning to sob. But no one had the words to comfort her now.
"No, we have to keep going," said Abigail, "Just…just pick one. We might be wrong but…you've got to just pick one."
"Um, alright," Russell said, "I'm gonna guess…right."
"It's as good a guess as any," said Edgar miserably.
Russell nodded and steered the aircraft right, following the black trail, hoping in their hearts that this was the same way the vans from NIMH had gone. And tragically, this would be the first of countless forks in the black trail.