There wasn't time to think things through to the nth degree. Sooner or later, if we failed to find a way out of the underground complex, we would come into contact with the Pied Piper officers.

They were killers.

Already the majority of us mice at the facility were dead.

The only difference was Reece and Christopher's failed revolution had forced the Pied Piper officers to execute the remainder of their plan, releasing the lethal gas, earlier than intended.

"Burgess?" said Walter, "Are you with me?"

I looked at Walter's gray face in the dark and saw his intent gaze fixed on me. He was afraid, but he knew at least that he was prepared to fight for his life.

Does he mean it? I wondered, Does he really think he can take a life?

He already has, I remembered, He put that stake through Holly's throat. He's not all talk.

My mind raced through everything that had happened since I was evacuated from my home.

I had been up late watching movies. Just me and the ever-inviting company of the television.

A part of me yearned to return to that safe isolation again.

"Burgess?"

I could hear Mum's frightened question from the night of the evacuation. The memory of her standing in her pink bathrobe silently fretting whilst the Pied Piper officer continued to slam their fist against the front door.

Despite squatting in the dark in the pindrop silence of the carpeted first floor room we were in, I could hear the pounding of the Pied Piper officer's fist on the front door of my home as loud as if I were hearing it for the first time.

Boom.

Boom.

Boom.

I had felt an indignant rage even then. After everything that had happened the rage I felt had intensified and had become layered as if it had been an ember that had become a blazing forest fire.

Boom.

Boom.

Boom.

Just let me watch my movies in peace. Just leave me alone.

"They're not going to stop," I whispered, speaking more to myself than to the others.

"That's right," Walter whispered, "Not unless we stop them."

I felt tears stab my eyes. My palms hurt from the tension of my fingernails squeezing into them.

Boom.

Boom.

"We have to fight back," I whispered, my eyes frantically searching the room but seeing only the maelstrom of possibilities unfurling before me.

In my mind's eye the memory of that night, of the evacuation, of the Pied Piper officer pounding on the front door of my home, was suddenly flooded in golden light as if the living room light had been turned on and my eyes were momentarily blinded.

The pounding at the door within my mind stopped. Clarity followed in its wake. And then all at once, as if my mind were flooded with several vivid images, a way forward seemed to come from the ether and into my mind as if delivered to me on a silver platter.

I began to grin with genuine mirth. My shoulders started to bob as I stifled to contain the light chuckle which escaped my lips.

"Wha' you laughin' fer?" whispered Walter.

I shielded my eyes with my hand and continued to silently laugh in the dark.

"Burgess?" whispered Sophie, "What is it?"

My stifled laughter must have been a little infectious because I could hear the slight mirth in Walter's next question.

"Why're you laughin?" he whispered.

"I've got an idea," I whispered, "A really stupid idea."

The Pied Piper officers made their way along the same path Walter, Sophie, and I had taken to get to the middle of town.

By some possible good fortune, though it would await to be seen whether it really was so, the Pied Piper officers did not come into contact with the Adam-George Amalgamation.

The Amalgamation was something I couldn't account for beyond knowing it was a constant lurking threat in the dark.

A big part of my plan hinged on the Amalgamation staying away.

The seven Pied Piper officer's flashlights filled the middle of town, announcing their arrival. At a distance I could see the light of their torches splashing stark white light against the end of an alleyway, and a little further into the middle of town.

One by one the Pied Piper officers emerged from the alleyway. My enhanced vision washed them in gray. Like how I had seen from the first floor window, all the officers had machine guns; much closer now I could also see they had handguns holstered at their hips too. They were, otherwise, as prepared for trouble as they would have been had they suddenly found themselves in a combat situation on the third floor against the revolutionary cats.

The brightness of their torches made them slightly harder to see with my enhanced vision but, surprisingly, my vision adjusted to accommodate the brightness of their flashlights far better than I anticipated. It was uncomfortable seeing the bright lights because of my heightened vision, but far from something I feared would be a major obstacle to my plan.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" said Sophie's voice from the darkness.

She spoke so quietly it was only through my enhanced hearing that I had any hope of hearing her, and even then she was almost too quiet to hear.

There was still time for me to call off my ridiculous plan of action. Maybe less than thirty seconds, but time nonetheless.

I didn't respond. Or rather, I couldn't. But I had told both Sophie and Walter before that, if I did intend on calling off the plan, I would tap my fist against the ground twice, then scrape the ground twice too.

I had no intention of calling off the plan.

The Pied Piper officers neared the middle of town.

A rhythmic beeping filled the air, which to my heightened hearing sounded extra shrill.

The source of the beeping came from a Pied Piper officer's tablet, identical to the one I had seen an officer use in the exercise area to listen in on Sophie and I's conversation back when we were running laps.

"Anything?" said one of the officers to the officer holding the tablet.

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

"Right ahead," said the officer holding the tablet.

All seven Pied Piper officers took wary steps through the middle of town, nearing the giant guillotine.

From where I was squatting low to the ground in the dark I could see the officers aim their guns at the guillotine.

"We know you're there," said the officer beside the one holding the tablet, "Show yourself."

No answer came.

"Come out now or we will take lethal action. Your choice."

Again no answer came in response to the officer's warning. Just the same rhythmic beeping in the dark.

A beam of light from one of the officer's flashlights attached to their machine gun splashed in my direction. I was hidden, squatting low behind an artificial bush.

Are they going to see me? I wondered.

The light lingered on the spot where I was.

I could no longer see what they were doing with my own eyes. I had slunk behind the concrete structure, in which the artificial bush greenery resided, making ideal cover for me. I could however hear everything the officer's were doing and they were close enough, less than ten paces away from me, that my heightened hearing more than made up for what I couldn't see.

One of the officers moved ahead of the others and aimed their gun over the guillotine. After a tense moment the officer reached down and retrieved what had been placed there by me.

"It's just the device," said the officer.

I could hear him squeezing the Meter device, Walter's Meter device, in his gloved hand.

"Do you think this means-" said one of the officers.

But the others weren't going to find out what the officer intended to say.

Now they were right where I needed them to be, the next stage of my plan had begun.

I had tapped the ground several times, creating a playful rhythm.

It had been quiet enough not to draw the attention of the Pied Piper officers, but just loud enough for Sophie and Walter to hear.

All at once the light of two suns burst into existence in the middle of town.

And I mean suns.

I knew the brightness was coming so I had closed my eyes, even covered my eyes with my hands in preparation, and still the intensity of the light was something even I wasn't prepared for.

The Pied Piper officers screamed and yelled and one of the officers even started firing his gun in his panic.

The sudden intensity of the light which assailed their eyes was like being in a pitch black room and suddenly turning a ceiling filled with florescent lights on all at once. Like that, but one hundred times more intense.

I could feel the heat from Sophie and Walter's entire bodies bursting with the abundance of all the bulbed light they could muster.

Every inch of their bodies were bulbed; they had ripped off the sleeves to their overalls and had rolled up the trouser legs to be above their knees.

Their entire bodies were lit much in the same way Daniel's body had lit up when he had lost control of himself and burned all over like a man on fire.

But what Sophie and Walter were doing was controlled. What heat they did give off was a side effect of their sole intent to create the most intense light they could manage with their bulbed bodies.

The effect was what I would imagine looking out a window and seeing an atomic bomb going off would be like.

Blinding light followed by a warm tingle against your skin.

Then sweet oblivion.

The Pied Piper officer's screams continued.

I had hoped for them to be momentarily blinded by Sophie and Walter's bulbed bodies at the very least. But the best outcome had occurred. I was confident that, at the very least, any officer that had been looking directly at Sophie and Walter at the moment they burst brilliantly into two beings of light were effectively blind. And may be for the rest of their lives.

"They've brought the fight to us," I had whispered to Sophie and Walter when I had started to explain to them my plan whilst the three of us were still squatting by the window on the first floor of the building.

"I don't want to kill them," I had said, "But I am going to make them regret ever messing with us."

"Aye," Walter had whispered, getting excited.

"Okay," Sophie had said, less excited but also understanding of my intent.

But there was still too much risk at play with these Pied Piper officers.

What if one of them could still see? All it would take from an officer was one bullet to kill me, or Sophie, or Walter.

Enough was enough.

No more deaths. No more dead teenagers.

I twisted away from my hiding spot, spinning on the spot.

The burning bright light from Sophie and Walter, as intended, came to a stop and all at once the underground complex was flooded with darkness.

Even my eyes smarted against the dying of the light.

Sophie and Walter's footsteps filled the air as they ran off, each into the building nearest them.

Sophie had been on the left side of the middle of town, Walter had been on the right. This way there was little chance of even one of the Pied Piper officers not glancing at least at one of them at the time of the surprise attack.

Like I feared there was one officer who must have been able to at least hear their movement.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Amid the agonised groans, and yells, and screams of the Pied Piper officers writhing on the ground the machine gun fire blasted out.

Please don't hit them, I silently hoped, imagining even one stray bullet sailing into the backs of either Sophie or Walter.

My part to play was up.

I opened my eyes, seeing half the officers on the ground holding their eyes. Another half were still standing. They were dazed.

"They don't have protective eye-wear or helmets or anything like that," I had said to Sophie and Walter when explaining my plan.

But this wasn't going to be enough. They were still dangerous.

And, maybe, I was feeling a little sadistic and vengeful for all the evil they had wrought.

I was also a hypocrite.

I had to be for the next part of my plan to take effect.

I never agreed with Holly, or Reece, Christopher, or Adam when it came to their using the power we all had to transform ourselves. To take on shadow-selves.

The whole idea seemed wrong to me.

But this was life or death.

I wasn't going to go were-cat on the Pied Piper officers, but I did need to transform to make the next part of my plan work.

The whole time on their approach I had been in a transformed state.

The officers, though blinded by Sophie and Walter's light, had heard me twisting away from my hiding spot.

Some even started to aim their guns towards me.

But I was ready.

I had transformed myself in preparation for what I was about to do well before their arrival.

I shoved my fingers into my ears (having also removed all of my enhanced hearing) and let out the mother of all shrieks.

Back when Holly, in her were-cougar form, had been about to lay the finishing blow on me, I had let out a sudden shriek to buy myself precious more time.

Holly, because of her heightened hearing, had taken the brunt of that sudden shriek of mine. It had been the ample distraction needed for Walter to land his own finishing blow, driving his wooden stake (made by prying a section of wooden framing from the bottom of the wall near the exercise area entrance) through Holly's throat.

It was the memory of that shriek that played into the second half of my plan.

I had taken on a peculiar transformation.

I had taken on slightly fox-like features.

During my childhood one thing that would keep me up at night was screaming foxes. In the night, with my imagination going wild, the shriek of the foxes in the back garden of my childhood home sounded to me like a coven of witches screaming.

I focused on that memory, that horrifyingly pitched screaming, when I transformed myself.

Although inconsequential side effects, my hands and feet had become clawed, my ears pointed, and an overall fox-ish appearance had taken hold of my features. I could feel the pointed teeth inside my mouth, and the new length to my slightly furred ears. I was in the halfway transformed state I had seen Adam, and Reece, and Christopher in.

I let out a series of ear-piercing screams with as much force as my transformed throat could muster.

Even as I let out the scream I had pity for the Pied Piper officers.

Not only were they suddenly blind, their eyes in intense pain, perhaps beginning the onset of being blind for the remainder of their lives, but the next thing they all became aware of was the worst, most bloodcurdling scream one can imagine.

Despite having my fingers wedged into my ears it felt like several hot needles were being stabbed into my eardrums. I almost stopped screaming because it hurt me too much to continue doing it.

But I was in the midst of being a sadistic hypocrite and I was going to make the most of it.

When my lungs were spent and I had no more air to give to the scream I began to move back to my hiding spot before any bullets came sailing my way.

But I stopped moving for the hiding spot because there was no longer any need.

All seven officers were rendered completely helpless. Blind. Deaf. Writhing.

But not dead.

I relented by transformed state, relishing relinquishing it from me like a bad smell. How Holly and her revolutionaries could have stood being in their animalistic states for more than a few minutes I had no idea. It made me feel gross and simply wrong all over.

Returned to normal, I looked over the officers in their prone, pathetic states.

There was no use telling them what had happened because none of them would be able to hear a word I had to say anymore.

Even so, I said, "Serves you right."