Icey was a chirpy fellow, but one thing that Rho Dent noticed was his inability to stop talking, the rest of the expedition in comparison were rats of few words. It also wasn’t helped that the ferret knew a lot about random human things that they had never even heard of, which didn’t really get the conversation flowing as even if anyone else wanted to participate, they didn’t know what to say.
They could all non verbally agree though that it was worth putting up with the noise for the importance of their expedition, so most of the group just tuned him out and responded simply and politely whenever he asked them something.
For his flaws Icey was a good guide, he took them round behind houses, and through small wiggly routes between collapsed walls and rubble, making their route far more direct than it might have been. It took them about a day to reach the bastions from the CRUMB HQ and the tired group decided to push on to the destination rather than sleep. There were three bastions in the vicinity according to Icey and it would take them a day to search them all.
To their luck though, the white van was parked outside of the first one they got to, a kind of fortress structure surrounded by high walls. The rats stopped at the edge of the clearing the building occupied and decided to all take a quick nap, Icey would remain awake and notify them if anything happened.
Rho Dent ate the small lumps of assorted human foods she was carrying and used the little handkerchief she had been carrying them in to roll herself up while she slept. In her dreams the mystical saviour whispered truths about the universe and cast great spells of unimaginable power. It was such a good dream that she was slightly disappointed when she awoke, although that rectified itself when she realised they were almost at their destination.
Sunder awoke soon after her, and used his long crooked nose from some past accident to wake all the others by sticking it right beside their ears and grinding his teeth gently. Rho Dent shivered slightly at the noise and was glad she had awoken first.
Icey was the last to wake up, and he wasn’t meant to be sleeping at all considering his duty had been the night watch, but no one complained as the van was still here, and it wasn’t like he could undo the errors of the past. Only be embarrassed and not repeat them.
The Rats carefully planned their crossing, identifying obstacles in the cleared out area that they could use as cover, this was important as the place was open ground, and therefore if anything big came along they might be in danger, it was a well known fact that some humans treated rats very cruelly if they caught them. Rho Dent had another idea and got all the rats to roll in some of the sandy dust created by the demolition of buildings, this was to camouflage them.
Then they set off to the bastion, one long line of creatures. Rho Dent found herself terrified at the experience, although she hid it unlike her brothers who were physically trembling. There was something wrong feeling about being on open ground with nowhere to hide or escape should something dangerous appear.
The little procession luckily made it across safely, and they were all sighing in relief until Icey helpfully reminded them that they would eventually have to come back the way they came. That thought sobered them up a bit and they began considering their next steps.
They were hidden under the great heft of the van, safely in the middle where they wouldn’t be run over in case it started moving, the wall was quite close to them, but from their viewpoint there didn’t seem to be an obvious way into the structure, and no one was willing to climb the wall, so Icey offered to do some scouting and scampered off to run round the perimeter.
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Rho Dent and the others all sat down in a circle patiently and quietly. It was Sunder who broke the silence, “This journey has been fast and gone very smoothly. Too smoothly. I have a hunch we may be facing trouble soon.”
Thecheez, her father, spoke up “You’re always so pessimistic, why can’t you believe this is just miraculous luck caused by us being on the right path?”
“I mean it is the Saviour, his powers may have been influencing our journey” Itsbuffa said, idly examining the corpse in the jar she held.
“Is the Saviour that powerful?” Sqap asked.
“Yes”
“No”
“I don’t know”
“Maybe”
He got back in response.
Sqeep asked the next question “Could the saviour make a rock that he couldn’t lift?”
Rho Dent scratched her head and chose not to answer. Soon Icey returned to the circle of rats intensely pondering. “It’s all sealed up, not even an air vent or waste chute, we might have to wait here for a prolonged period of time.”
Then Ucol spoke for the first time in a while, “If we can’t get in, but we know that the saviour uses this vehicle to get around, couldn’t we hide in it? Then when he moves we will be taken with him.”
The circle of rats considered the proposal, it was a good idea, the kind of idea that just might end up working. Carefully they scoured the van, eventually finding one of the windows had been left open. It was a narrow passage, but it seemed to be the only way in.
After some careful consideration, they finished the food they had brought along, and then tied all of the scraps of cloth together into a crude rope, with a pebble being stuck on the end to weigh it down. Then it was given to Itsbuffa and Ucol who after about five attempts finally managed to throw the pebble through the window.
The window opening narrowed as it got lower, so after going through, it fell down and caught in place, securing the rope for climbing. Then Sqeep and Sqap went up first to see how big the opening was. Rho Dents brothers managed to get through the window just about, then found the button inside the car that opened the window enough for the larger rats to get through.
Rho Dent carefully crawled across the dashboard of the vehicle. She was just about to call across to the other rats that the vehicle looked empty when suddenly a flatish disk to her side powered on with a fizzle.
“TODD on, where would you like to go.” The device said loudly.
Rho Dent almost jumped out of her skin until she realised it was just a human device. Carefully she poked it, trying to figure out where the button that deactivated most human devices was.
“You have entered the settings menu.”
Rho Dent messed more with the floating apparition that seemed to respond to her touch.
“The talkability level has been set to: Chatterbox mode.”
She finally figured out that she was only making it worse, so she jumped off the dashboard to investigate hiding places. The other rats joined in, and after realising there was a big creature lying in a box in the back of the van, guarding the great sack of brown tasty pellets, they decided to hide under the passengers seat in a large space that had once held a first aid kit.
With nothing to do, the rats napped until some humans got into the van and started speaking, Rho Dent realised that the saviour was somehow speaking rat, although she didn’t understand some of the words he was speaking, it was a clear sign that they had truly found the right person. Then the Van sped off with seven extra passengers.
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