Mice Movie Page 2
Squeak said, ‘We need to get the usher’s torch.’
The three mice made their way down to the usher’s room and quickly found the torch. They tried to pick it up, but it was too heavy. Squeak puzzled for a few moments. ‘Remember the film where a house was carried by balloons? There’s a display for it in the foyer, surrounded by balloons. If we tie six or seven to the torch, then it will float and we can move it as we want. If we get one balloon at a time it shouldn’t be too difficult to drag them in here.’
Rolo and Louise nodded.
Thirty minutes later, after Rolo had almost floated away when trying to grab a couple of balloons at once, seven balloons had been tied to the torch. The mice found it floated just off the floor and they could easily push it around.
An hour later they had moved it into the loft and onto the top of the water tank. Squeak positioned it over the inlet pipe and untied the balloons. The torch clattered down into the water tank. Squeak slid down the string, found the torch and pushed the switch forward. The inside of the water tank was bathed in light. The other two mice peered into the tank.
Squeak climbed up the string. ‘Drop the cheese into the tank and help me get the other cup up here. Then we’d better go and have a look around and wait for the gas to come. We don’t want to use up the limited air supply by sealing ourselves in to soon.’
The morning light came up. The mice had made all their arrangements and waited for the attack to start. Squeak sat on the rail and then saw an ominous mist spread across the floor. ‘Gas! Gas! Gas!’
There was the desperate sound of scampering feet. The three mice rushed up into the loft, Louise climbed down the string, quickly followed by Squeak.
Next Rolo tried to climb in head first and stopped. He huffed and puffed then sheepishly said, ‘I’m stuck.’
Squeak climbed up the string and tugged on Rolo, but he wouldn’t shift. Squeak looked all around Rolo and shouted out, ‘He’s stuck, but his body is filling up all the gaps. He’s acting like a perfect seal. We’ll have to leave him there.’
Rolo looked bemused. ‘So I have to hang here for a day?’
Squeak shrugged. ‘That’s right.’ He thought for a moment and then added, ‘We’ll have to feed him up to make sure he expands and maintains the seal.’
Rolo’s eyes lit up. Squeak climbed down the string, grabbed a chunk of cheese and then returned to Rolo, who needed no encouragement and wolfed it down. The exercise was repeated numerous times throughout the day.
Eventually the supply of cheese was exhausted; as were the mice. Squeak turned off the torch and the three mice slept, with Rolo still stuck in the pipe.
Squeak was woken by loud clanging noises and voices. Squeak nudged Louise. ‘Sounds like they’re dismantling the canopy. The gas should be gone.’
‘What do we do now?’
‘I’ll go and check.’
‘What about Rolo?’ She pointed upwards at a fast asleep Rolo.
‘We’ll leave him.’
Squeak and Louise chewed through the cardboard cup. Then they made their way, through an eerily silent landscape filled with the bodies of numerous insects, to the rail. They saw Mr Rae busy checking his traps, scratching his head and holding a drinking straw. ‘It’s happened again!’
The manager marched in. ‘Have you found their bodies?’
Mr Rae dropped the trap. ‘There is no way they could have escaped from the gas. They will have simply crawled away and died somewhere. I’ll check around and see if the bodies are anywhere obvious. Otherwise they will simply decay away in a week or so.’
‘Good. Good. Now we can get the inspectors in and get the theatre open again.’
Squeak and Louise smiled to each other. They were going to get their former life back. Then they heard a scratching noise. Squeak and Louise looked at each other and mouthed, ‘Rolo.’
The manager looked at Mr Rae. ‘What’s that noise? Sounds like a mouse!’
Mr Rae’s face went red and shook his fist in the air. ‘You damn mice. I’ll get you!’
‘What are you going to try now?’
‘It will have to be the ultimate weapon.’ Mr Rae stormed out of the theatre, followed by a very irate looking manager.
Squeak and Louise make their way back to the loft to find Rolo running around grinning. ‘I managed to get free.’
Squeak shook his head.
The next morning the three mice were woken by noise in the theatre. Squeak crawled along the rail, followed by Louise and Rolo. They looked down.
Mr Rae had a big, wire cage. He placed it on the floor, leant down and looked inside. ‘Well Froggy my feline friend, it’s up to you to protect the honour of the firm. You need to get those pesky mice!’
Mr Rae opened the cage door and the biggest, most menacing, black and white cat Squeak had ever seen slinked out, sniffed the air and then looked directly at Squeak and let out an eerie screech.
The three mice looked at each other. Squeak whispered, ‘We’d better go back to our den.’
Back in their den, they huddled together not quite sure what to do. Finally, Squeak spoke, ‘We’re going to have to keep trips outside of the den to a minimum.’
Rolo piped up, ‘What are we going to eat?’
Louise prodded Rolo’s tummy. ‘The only food we had was the cheese and you ate it all.’
Rolo looked sheepish.
Squeak thought for a few moments. ‘We’re going to have to venture out to get food. We’ll work as a team, two of us as lookouts and one scavenging for food.’
The other two mice nodded.
As the three mice sneaked out of their den they heard a horrible hissing noise and saw Froggy looking directly at them. ‘Why don’t you make it easy for yourselves? Come down now and I’ll make your deaths as painless as possible.’ He brandished his razor sharp claws.
The three mice backed into their den. Squeak stroked his chin. ‘We’ll need to cause a distraction, so one of us can go and get some food.’
Louise said, ‘I’ll go and get the food.’
Squeak thought about arguing, but Louise stared at him, so he nodded.
Squeak and Rolo went to the very far end of the rail. As they walked along Froggy glared at them. The two mice started to pull funny faces at Froggy and sing, ‘Froggy’s ugly. He’s fat. He’s big. He’s a big fat ugly cat who’ll never catch us!’ At the end of each repetition of the one line song, Squeak poked his tongue out and Rolo waved his bottom at the cat.
As Froggy hissed at the two mice, Louise very quietly crawled along the rail and down the electrical cable. In a few moments she was on the floor and began to search for food.
Froggy looked at the two mice. ‘You must think I was born yesterday, I saw your little friend come down the cable. I wondered how they’ll taste.’
Squeak and Rolo stopped taunting the cat and shouted in unison, ‘Run Louise! Run!’
Froggy turned and ran towards Louise. ‘Louise! Louise! Come to Froggy!’
Louise started to run as fast as she could, darting between chairs, trying to find a safe hiding place, but Froggy was too fast for her. At every turn he got closer and closer. Louise ran to the cable going back up to the rail.
Squeak and Rolo were shouting, ‘Run. Run. You can make it!'
Louise started to frantically climb then she suddenly stopped moving, her little paws losing all grip on the cable. A large paw had landed with a thud on her tail.
‘Now is the time to die!’
Rolo and Squeak were at the top of the cable, Rolo turned away and then tried to look over his shoulder, but lost his balance, Squeak tried to grab him, but Rolo toppled over. For a moment Rolo desperately tried to snatch at the air then he fell off the rail.
Rolo hurtled towards the ground. Froggy looked up and tried
to get out of the way, but he wasn’t quick enough and Rolo landed with a heavy thump on his head. Froggy tottered around and then collapsed in an unconscious heap. Rolo landed on the floor, got up and felt his back. Then he and Louise stared at Froggy.
Squeak quickly ran down the electrical cable. ‘We need to tie him up. Get some string.’
Within twenty minutes Froggy was firmly bound. Squeak poked Froggy with a drinking straw. Froggy shook his head and snarled, ‘I’ll rip you to pieces!’ He struggled against his bonds, but couldn’t move. After thirty seconds he stopped trying to break free.
‘Well mice, you have won this battle, but when I get free I’ll get you. See the large chunk missing out of my ear?’ The mice looked at the torn ear. ‘That was from a tussle with an Alsatian,’ he paused for dramatic effect, ‘He thought he’d won, but I sent him to doggy heaven.’ The mice gasped. Froggy hissed, ‘You’ve only won our first encounter.’
Squeak thought for a few moments. ‘You have two choices. We can leave you tied up and Mr Rae will find you and your mousing days will be over.’
Froggy snarled, ‘What’s the alternative?’
Squeak stood up on his hind legs. ‘We work together. We all need to convince the people that the three of us are dead. That way Mr Rae will reward you and we can carry on as we have always done.’
Froggy looked at his bonds. ‘How can we do that?’
Squeak thought back through the movies he’d seen. ‘Remember the submarine film, where the crew had faked their deaths?’ Squeak looked a little squeamish. ‘How much of a mouse is usually left when you had