Rex wasn’t a normal mouse, and not because he had a name more suitable for a dog. No, Rex was a visionary.
He had grown up hearing the stories of his cousin in third degree, the one who got famous for his cooking and now had a restaurant in Paris. For Rex, that proved there was nothing mice couldn’t do. So when Rex’s grandfather passed away after eating a dubious raisin, young Rex started his studies.
At first, it was hard. After all, mice aren’t normally academic creatures. But Rex was determined to uncover the truths behind the increasing rat mortality rate. The town’s library was his first resource, and quickly Rex had read all the books there were to know about his own species.
After getting over the shock of learning those raisins were not dried grapes and that the reason his head hurt when he sometimes entered some places was due to an equipment on the plug, Rex was ready to take action.
His rage propelled him into his quest, more than the desire to save future rodents. He wanted to hurt the vicious creatures that had made such maleficent traps and weapons. Evidently, his parents had warned him about humans, about how dangerous it was to enter one of their residences. But to find out that so-called evolved species was responsible for the murder of millions of rats and mice infuriated Rex.
What had he and his large family ever done to people? Aside from an occasional scare in the kitchen in the middle of the night – which frightened the poor mice as well – there was nothing Rex’s species could do against humans. It wasn’t like they purposefully spread contagious and lethal diseases…
For the next part of his plan, Rex had to learn as much as he could about explosives. After all, only something big could destroy such tall and spacious creatures.
His mother was concerned for him, she didn’t like to see her 19th son so taken by dark emotions. Rex’s father, on the other hand, thought it was a waste of time and wits – both that could be better spent searching for food and shelter.
Rex didn’t mind, he was used to being the odd one. He even considered asking for his third cousin’s help, but there wasn’t time. He needed to avenge his dead grandfather, who had been found with his intestines coming out of his mouth, as one of Rex’s older brothers told Rex.
Turned out it wasn’t that hard to get his paws on some dynamite. His uncle lived in a construction company and they had just received a new batch of the deadly sticks. It took several rats to move the dynamite from its save storage to the main office of the construction company.
Now, all Rex had to do was wait for the humans to come in the morning to work.
When the first rays of sunshine spotted in the horizon, Rex wasn’t alone. Word had spread that this young and audacious mouse was trying to get back at mankind, and all the mice that had lost a relative to bad raisins or treacherous traps came to watch the show.
Rex was thrilled. He felt validated; he could now finally prove that his hours at the library weren’t in vain.
They were hidden in a cleaning closet, far from where the employees worked in the office. There were hundreds of Rex’s friends, cousins and strangers who cheered for the imminent act of revenge – or rather, justice. Rex had the string ready to be lit.
In the middle of all that excitement, however, the mice didn’t hear when the janitor unlocked the door and came in, whistling a country song with a cigarette between his lips.
When the door of the cleaning closet swung open, the mice panicked. They forgot all the bravery from moments ago and raced as far as the predator as possible.
The janitor, shocked by the pests before him, screamed like a little girl, dropping the lit cigarette in the process. He ran away in the opposite direction of where the mice were going.
The cigarette butt hit the floor, right next to the dynamite string. A small flame sparkled and the fire traveled through the long string, quickly reaching its end.
The explosion was much grander than Rex had imagined – and not only because he was standing near it. Unfortunately, Rex didn’t get to admire his work for much longer, since the blow rapidly caught up the radius where Rex and all the other mice had escaped to.
And that was the result of the rodents’ first attack against humans, though it was not the last.
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