"Jonathan are you there?" asked Jasper.

"Yeh am still here.

"OK"

Justin had told them that machine that pulled air through the shaft had switched from low speed to high when he had explored through this area, and that mice would not be able to go against the flow of the wind in the shaft.

About sixteen minutes they had reached the end of the thread, then the shaft widened. They could hear whir of the machine ahead. They soon saw a square of light. They had reached the end of the shaft.

"Great, said Justin "We made it to the light."

"Yes, said Jonathan. "Now we can finally get out of here."

"We're not out yet," said Justin. "Now we have to get this screen door open."

As Justin went up to the screen he could see the stars in the dark sky. Justin looked down at the crowd (that he is able to see now.)

"It is night outside," said Justin.

"Well that is something," said Jasper. "I is so dark in here that even the darkness of the night sky brings in light."

Just as they are all approaching the screen door, a gust of air came all of sudden. The mice began to slid back, and the rats are able to stand and fight the wind gust. Jasper is holding on to a lose screw on the iron floor once the wind had made him fall. The mice continued to slide back into the darkness. Jonathan had grabbed on to a nearby rat, and another mouse in the back had grabbed on to a nearby rat. The rest of the mice had fell back into the dark maze they just left. Jasper saw a mouse sliding past him and reached out to hold the mouse's hand, he caught the mouse's hand and tried to keep the mouse from sliding back. The wind got so strong that Jasper and the mouse could no longer hold on to each others hand. There fingers slipped through each others hand, and the mouse was blown into the darkness with the rest.

"Oh my goodness," said Jasper. "That did not just happen."

The only two mice that made it so far are the ones holding on to the two rats.

Soon the roar stopped, and so did the gust of air. It was back to just a breeze. They then moved quickly to the screen door.

"What about the others?," said the white mouse that was holding on to Nicodemus. "I've got to go back and look for them."

"I'll go with you," said Jonathan.

"No," said Nicodemus. "That would be useless and foolish. You have no idea which shaft they were blown into, nor even if they all went the same way. And if you should find them-how would you find your way out again? And suppose the wind comes again? Then there would be eight lost instead of six."

The wind did come again twelve times and more, while they worked with the screwdriver that Justin brought to open the screen. They had to stop working on opening the screen to hold on to Jonathan and the white mouse when the wind came back again and again. Jasper is able to stand against the wind, Jasper still could not believe that that mouse that he caught with his hand is gone. Justin went back in to search for the lost mice taking the thread with him. He explored the safts to the end of the spool, calling softly as he went, but there was no answer. Justin could only hope that they would find there way out someday.

Once Justin came back with no such luck he picked up the screwdriver and tried to find a screw to unscrew, but there are no screws on the inside, they are on the outside. Then Jonathan had an idea.

"I think that I can fit through the bars on the screen," said Jonathan. "Let me see if I can fit."

Jonathan went over to the screen, climbed up to the small opening, and by squirming and twisting, he got through.

"Good going," said Jasper.

"Thanks," said Jonathan.

Jonathan then climbs up to the top of the screen and pulls out a pin that was put into a clip to that keeps the screen locked. The screen door soon fell opened.

"Nice job Jonathan," said Jenner.

"Yeh I thought that we would never get out of there," said Jasper. "I just wish we could have save the others."

"We will leave the screen door open just in case the lost six find there way out," said Nicodemus.

"SIX, that's how many fell back into the air duct?" asked Jasper.

"Yes, there was in all 34 of us, and now there is only 28 of us," said Nicodemus.

"We're free we're free," said Sulivan in excitement.

"Couldn't have done it without you Jonathan," said Nicodemus.

"Thanks," said Jonathan.

"Free to what?" asked Jasper. "Were in this city can we go? I can't believe that I have to stay like this. What am I going to do?"

"You can stay with us," said Nicodemus.

"Stay with you where?"

They all looked at the city of Wichita. It is a big city for there size, and who knows what type of dangers they could get into down there.

"We must not worry," said Nicodemus. "We must try to live in this place without fear. We're going to make it."

"Well I guess that I am going to have to live with being this small," said Jasper. "I may like being this small someday."

"But you will never be able to find a human female if you stay with us," said Nicodemus knowing very well that there is no human as small as he is.

"And who is going to be as small as me? asked Jasper. I'm with you all now. Just call me Uncle Jasper, or just Jasper would be ok."

"Glad to hear it!" said Jonathan.

"Oh yeh, and I have my 1st real friend here Jonathan Brisby. So I can't leave, and plus I don't know how to survive being this small."

"We will teach you," said Jenner.

"Thanks," said Jasper.

"We will find female for you someday," said Jonathan.

"I don't care that much about being in love with anyone, and I don't think that I could be in love with a mouse or rat. She would have to be some pretty and nice mouse or rat for me to do that. You all look so different from other mice and rats. You all have human like features, the males can actually look handsome and females can actually look pretty.

"Yes, we do seem to look a lot different since we got those injections," said Jenner.

"And bigger," said Justin.

They soon decided to go into the city. They took the stirs to get to the city floor. They had take a one foot fall each time they went to the next step. They had to go down about 37 steps to get to the bottom.

"Where do we go now?" asked the white mouse.

"I don't know Ages," said Nicodemus.

So the white mouse is named Ages.(Mr. Ages)

"I think we should go this way," said Jonathan pointing to the darkest part of the city.

"Why that way?" asked Jasper.

"Because there seems to be less light over there."

"Hu... Jonathan, I think we need all the light we can get," said Jasper.

"No, I meen that there will be less humans over there."

"That's right," said Jenner.

"OK, than that is were we will go," said Nicodemus.

They all walked slowy but fast on the sides of buildings.

"I'm hungry," said Suilvan.

"Me too," said Jasper.

"Let's see if there is something to eat in there," said Nicodemus.

Nicodemus walked over to a trash can and looked inside.

"What are you doing?" asked Jasper.

"Looking for food."

"Nicodemus that's a trash can!" said Jasper.

"I know."

Jasper starts to walk up to the trash can to talk to Nicodemus.

"I'm not going to eat whatever is in that can," said Jasper. "I can nottt.... Hey a donut!"

Jasper reaches and pulls out a fresh donut half eaten.

"Now who would throw away a good donut like this?" asked Jasper.

"Let me see," said Necodemus.

"No, it's mine!"

"I just want to see it."

"No!"

"Let me have it, I am hungry too," said Justin.

"I'm the hungriest!" said Suilvan.

"No!"

"I am hungry," said Justin.

"I was just kiting," said Jasper. "Here you all can have it, but not all of it. Leave some for me."

"Don't worry," said Justin. "We will not eat all of it."

Jonathan and all the rats that are hungry went up to the trash can to get a taste. Jasper only got to eat a little of the donut, because there was just not enough to go around, and none of the them were really able to get full. Once the donut was gone, they continued on towards the dark part of the city.

"Why are we in this area?" asked Jasper. "It is too dark to see cats or anything."

"Don't worry," said Justin. "We will be ok."

Jonathan is leading the way, and looking for a place to sleep and for a place to eat. They only walked about one mile until they got to a food store called JR's Baked Goods. It is a large store with six large windows in the front. Evreyone is able to smell the smell of baked goods on the street.

"Hm,Hmm," said Jonathan. "Smell that good food."

"It does smell like the good tasting kind." said Jenner.

"Now we do not need to be getting picky about the food we eat." said Nicodemus.

"You are right," said Justin.

"Let's see what we can find in there to eat," said Suilvan.

"I think that we need to see if we can get in without being seen first," said Jasper.

"He's right," said Jenner. "We need to go in slowly."

"Well before we go in," said Jasper. "You all can read so you should know were to go."

"Most of you need to stay here," said Nicodemus. "There are too many of us, we will bring something back for all of you."

Then Nicodemus, Justin, Jonathan, Jasper, Suilvan and Jenner went in through a crack in the left side corner of the store. Once they are inside they all look to see if there are any humans around.

"I don't see anyone yet," said Justin.

"I don't think this is such a good idea," said Jasper.

"I agree," said Suilvan. "This may lead to trouble."

"We will be ok," said Jonathan.

"If you say so," said Suilvan.

After they thought that no one was coming, they all ran in different directions. Nicodemus ran to the meat section, Justin ran over to the grain section, Jonathan ran over to the dairy section, Jasperran over to the fruit section, Suilvan ran over to where the eggs are kept and Jenner ran over to where the seeds of kept.

Everyone is looking on the floor of food that may have fallen from the shelf above them. Justin finds some small bread crams on the floor, he runs after the crams, picks up as much a he can and runs bcak out the way he came in.

"I've got some bread that I found over there," said Justin pointing over to where he had fonud the samll cram of bread.

"Great," said one of the rats, "But what about the rest, did they find anything?"

"I don't know, I have not seen them since we first went in the store."

"I hope they are ok," said Jenner.

"Me too," said Justin.

Meanwhile Jonathan is looking for dairy products that may have fallen. He could not seem to find any food at all. He looked under the shelf, nothing, looked under the table that has yogurt on it, still nothing. Jonathan was about to give up, but when he thought about all the hungry rats that where outside, he kept on looking.

Jenner is looking for seeds that may have fallen by the floor near him. He found a lot of sunflower seeds near the first of the five tables containing seeds. Jenner walked slowly over to the second table, stopped, and waited to see if anyone was coming. Once Jenner decided that no one was in site, he raced over to the second table, picked up as many sunflower seeds as he could, and raced back to the entrance as which he can as fast he could. Jenner had not been see by anyone though out the entire process. Once Jenner had made it back to the entrance, Justin helped him lift up some of the sunflower seeds into the hole. "You have a load here," said Justin in joy. "Yeh, I can't seem to find anything else but this. Where is Jonathan, Jasper, Sullivan and Nicodemus?" asked Jenner. "They have not came back yet," said Justin. "But as long as we do not hear a someone shouting about seeing one of them, than I think there ok."

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