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warily, brandishing their butter
knives. The leader said, “Hand it over kid and no one gets
hurt.”
    “Okay,” said Andrew, chucking the cell phone
forward. “It’s all yours.”
    “A phone?” The guard eyed Andrew. “Who did
you just call? Speak!” He jabbed Andrew in the leg with the knife.
Andrew yelped.
    The guard continued by presenting the tip of
his knife. “If you don’t tell me, I’ll prod you even harder! You
don’t want that, do you? These knives have been cultured with
various strains of deadly bacteria. If it punctures your skin, who
knows what you’ll end up with.”
    Whoosh . The sound of wind swept
across the pipe. The guard shrieked and keeled over.
    The guard rats watched as their leader fainted.
While most of the rats kept watch, one went to inspect the leader’s
body.
    “He’s paralyzed. Been shot in the back with a blow
dart!”
    The rats whirled around, their eyes scanning
the area. Then a few rats squeaked in shock and collapsed.
    “Over there!” A guard pointed up. “Someone’s
up there!”
    A long piece of string touched down to the
ground, and a black rat came sliding down it. All the brown rats
charged at the black rat, wielding their butter knives like lances.
The black rat skillfully dodged their attempts to pierce him,
jumping over them with incredible nimbleness. As the black rat
emerged behind two of the brown rats, it karate-chopped them,
knocking out both guards immediately. Another guard attempted to
stab the outsider. The black rat easily knocked the head of the
knife to the ground, ran up the blunt of the knife, and kicked the
guard across the jaw, causing him to reel backwards. The remaining
guards turned ghostly white at the sight of this amazingly
dangerous black rat.
    Motioning, a guard shouted, “Retreat! We
need reinforcements! We can’t defeat him alone!” The brown rats all
agreed and ran for their lives.
    “You’re not getting away that easily,” said
the black rat. It pulled out a blowpipe. Aiming for their backs, he
shot down all the guard rats with tiny blow darts. Their bodies
falling to the ground, the brown rats squeaked and fainted one
after the other.
    The black rat walked up to the grate and
took off the bolts. The metal grate fell with a clang. The rat then
bowed toward the boys and said, “Don’t worry. I’m on your
side.”
    Kevin crawled out of the pipe and dusted
himself off. “Thanks.”
    Andrew followed him out, but looked
skeptically at the black rat. “Why are you helping us?” Andrew
wondered. “I thought rats hated humans.”
    “I guess you could call me special,” said
the black rat.
    The rat brought a paw to its head and took
off what looked like a black cloth from its face, revealing a white
face underneath. It was then that Kevin realized it wasn’t a black
rat. It was a white rat wearing small black clothes. Finding it
humorous, Kevin chuckled. It was like a cute little ninja rat.
    The white rat said, “My name is Helios. The
sewers will be hard to navigate from here on out, but I can show
you the way to the surface. All I ask is that you allow me to join
you on your quest.” He bowed before them.
    “We’ll take you up on that offer,” said
Kevin, beaming. “Glad to have you, Helios.”
     
     
    - Hunger -
     
     
    Helios showed them the escape route as he
had promised. He knew where the rats would be patrolling, and with
this knowledge, they were able to make it out discreetly.
    Kevin climbed up the ladder and pushed aside
the manhole cover. Once he was finally out, he drew a deep breath.
Fresh air. It was invigorating. Standing under the sunlight, he
raised his hands and enjoyed its gentle warmth. It felt great to be
on the surface.
    Andrew climbed up after him and closed the
cover after Helios was on the street.
    Kevin looked left and right. There was no
sign of Genesis or Luna. “We must have ended up somewhere else.”
While turning his head, he noticed someone slouched against the
side of a car. It was a