Jaci Dawn

The hole they had to climb in was smaller than the deer mouse hole. Kyle got stuck momentarily, and had to be pushed through from behind by Dylan and Aric, as Gran and Dish pulled from the front.
“OOPH!” Kyle grunted when he made it through. “Maybe I should stop eating pizza.”
“Whew,” Aric crawled in. “That was tough. There’s not much room in here, is there?”
Dylan was the last in. “Wish I could’ve…”
“Me, too, Dylan. But we have to stop the executions.”
“Lights on,” called Richard from somewhere up the line.
“Amazing. We could have used flashlights when we climbed to the attic.” Gran ran his beam along the floor and walls. “So this is what the state capitol building looks like.”
They crawled along under the sub-flooring, looking for an opening into the walls. Dish found the Ethernet cords first. “Computer wiring,” he called out. “I think we’re in.”
“How do we know if it goes to the governor’s office?”
“Probably goes to the server room, first. Then we read the connections, and follow the cables.”
“If they’re labeled.”
“They’re labeled in a building this old, with employees as old as some of these are.” Dish hooked a paw around a cable and pulled himself up, holding his flashlight in his mouth. “Eashy peashy.”
“What did he say?”
“Easy peasy.” Billie jumped up and followed him. She put her light into her pocket. “No need to light up his butt.”
The tension broke a little, and everyone giggled. Soon, they were all climbing up the hole where the Ethernet cord joined other Ethernet cords and heavy cables. Richard brought up the rear. They went up, then the cables leveled out, and they crawled on their paws, and turned left until they came to a mouse-sized hole.. The hole came out inside of an empty space that they identified as the inside of a cabinet. Dish turned off his flash light and pushed on the door of the cabinet. It opened easily.
Gran climbed up the cables and pushed his head through the top of the cabinet. Lights flickered on a tall server rack in the middle of the room. The cabinet Gran was atop of ran along one wall, and some papers were taped to the surface. Billie climbed up behind him.
“Brr! Tad chilly in here,” she whispered.
“Server rooms are kept cold,” he whispered back/ “We’re looking for a schematic showing which cables go to the governor’s office.”
The rest of the party had followed Dish out into the open, and now made their way to the rack of servers. Green and white lights blinked above them.
“How will we know?” Madison stared upward.
“Should be marked, somehow. You guys wait here.” Ells jumped up and grabbed hold of a cable, pulling herself up to the first blinking computer. Dish came up beside her.
“Okay, Brain. Do your thing,” he said, softly. “This is your forte, El.”
“It’s not this computer. The server is the next one up. This is just the back up.” She jumped up and peered around. Everything was functioning as it should. She counted the cords that were hooked up. “It shouldn’t be this easy,” she muttered.
GVOFC1 and GVOFC2 were plugged in, side by side. Two very yellow Ethernet cords that traveled back down the server rack where they were tied up with all the others with a zip tie.
Across the room, Billie found a list of telephone extensions. “Gran, check this out.”
“Shh. I just found a map of the building.” Gran ran over to Billie. “Can you memorize some of those?”
“Which ones?”
“Security, maybe. I don’t know.”
Billie rolled her eyes. Then she memorized two numbers: Security Entrance and Sheriff’s extension. She turned around and saw Gran and Richard poring over the map Gran had discovered. She knew Richard was likely implanting it into his brain, like a GPS.
Meanwhile, Ella and Dish had followed the two yellow cables down to the zip tie. Unfortunately, once the cables were tied together, it was impossible to tell which ones were which when they came out and disbursed. Dish set to work on the plastic zip tie, using his teeth.
Aric found some paper clips on the floor and pocketed them. Dylan and Madison located a plastic bag full of more zip ties. They were debating how best to carry the zip ties when Dish broke through the zip tie and the cables loosened enough for the mice to sort through them.
Richard, Billie, and Gran rejoined the team as Ella and Dish declared they knew which cables to follow and landed back on the floor.
“I have the floor plan to the building,” Richard said. I will send the coordinates of the governor’s office to each of you.” He held out his paws and closed his eyes in concentration.
“Good. Let’s hope that matches the direction these cables go,” Ella whispered.
“Hey, where’s Kyle?”
“I’m stuck.” There was a thumping noise and the mice followed it.
Kyle had both boots and his tail stuck on a glue trap hidden behind a chair. He looked miserable. “I’m afraid to move.”
Aric whipped out the paperclips. “I’m about to go MacGyver on you all.”
“How?” someone managed after they all groaned.
“We hold the other end of the trap down with the ends of the paperclips, so we don’t get stuck. Billie and Ella grab Kyle by the arms and pull him out of his boots. He keeps his feet in the air until they’re all clear of the trap, and then they pull his tail off. That part’s gonna hurt, Kyle.”
“There’s no stapler in this room?”
“Wouldn’t it get stuck on the sticky?”
They all stood, considering. Footsteps sounded outside the room, and the door handle rattled. Immediately, everyone went into position with Aric’s plan: Aric, Dylan, Richard, and Gran armed with paperclips ran to the opposite end of the trap and hammered one end into the sticky glue. Dylan untied his laces and then leaned back into the girl’s arms. The three girls pulled hard, with Madison coming up under his back and keeping him off the sticky mat. Once he was free, Madison and Billie yanked his tail loose.
“OUCH!” He cried out.
The sound of a key going into the lock caused them all to look toward the door.

The guard, whose name was “Brown” according to the name tag on his uniform, flipped on the light and looked around the room. It was empty. The servers hummed and blinked normally. Nothing seemed out of place, but then, this room never was the tidiest. He didn’t notice the chewed-through zip tie or the sticky rat trap with two miniature brown boots stuck to it, or the oddly placed paperclips at the other end.
He switched off the light and pulled the door closed behind himself.

The mice collapsed inside the cupboard, breathing heavily.
“I’m sorry, guys,” Kyle sniffed.
“You had no idea,” Richard soothed.
“That was good thinking, Derp. You’re almost my hero.”
“Thanks, Dork.”
“Let’s get going.” Billie stood up and dusted herself off. “I want this over.”
“Here, here.”
“Copy that.”
They pushed their way out of the cupboard and resumed their quest, this time by following the designated Ethernet cords to GVOFC1 and GVOFC2 to the hole in the wall they went into. It was too small.
“Now what?” Gran groaned and sat down.
“We get above the ceiling.” Richard had his flashlight out and was looking up at the false ceiling above.
“but, how?”
“Paperclips,” Aric answered. “We make a chain of paperclips. One of us still has to jump from the top of the server, but the rest of us can use the paperclip chain.”
“Who are you, and what did you do to my little brother?”
Soon, they had assembled a paperclip chain of varying sizes and colors. They scrambled up the server rack until they were as close to the ceiling as they could get, but it still seemed too high for any one of them to take a chancy jump at – and hope to budge the Styrofoam hanging panel while grasping the thin metal supports. Nine mice stared upward.
“Aric, this is where you levitate for real?” Ella asked.
“I thought you’d never ask.” He grinned.
Minutes later, Aric hooked the paperclips around the metal strut, and the other eight mice climbed the tenuous chain into the space between. Aric unhooked the paperclips and let them drop to the floor below. “Don’t worry,” he said, “I have more in my pockets.”
“Stay on the metal strips,” Gran whispered. “We’re going to find our way upstairs now.”
Gran led the way as they balanced their way across the little metal strips that held the Styrofoam ceiling panels in place. They found the edge of the room and began a systematic search of the perimeter for where the two yellow cords might come up. Ella suggested they break up: one group go left and the other right, but Richard felt that was dangerous. It was Kyle who decided the matter, by wandering off to the left, sniffling. He still felt terrible about his ordeal.
“Hey, guys. I found two yellow cords. Well, a lot of cords, but these two go off by themselves up a hole. And it’s big enough for me.” He stretched up, measuring the hole with his whiskers. “Did you guys know whiskers are really cool?”
The mice gathered at the base of the hole. “Can we be certain these are the right ones?”
Ella closed her eyes. “Yes. If the map is right, then these are right. We need to follow these and find our way into the governor’s office.”
“I concur,” Richard said, after examining the map in his head.
They all squeezed through and found themselves in a wider space that ran in both directions, and upward. Cables also ran upward and it was by hoisting themselves up the yellow Ethernet cords, that they began their ascent. The space was dusty, and there were the occasional cobwebs, but very little other life. A pale, long legged spider ran across the wall, once, and Madison almost lost her grip. They had to wait for her to calm down before they could resume climbing. The end of the line was a larger hole that opened into an area between a ceiling and a floor. It smelled rank.
The cords diverged at a ninety-degree angle from each other along the flat space.
“Now what?”
“We have to figure out which one goes to the governor’s office, and which one to his secretary’s.” Ella sat down. “I need to think.”
“Guys, I think someone is in here with us.” Dylan’s flashlight made a circuit of the narrow space, lighting the grey sides of some moving things in the distance. They switched on their flashlights and looked around.
“More mice! Maybe they’ll help like the wild ones did!” Gran exclaimed.
The nearest one came closer, sniffing at the strangers. It was larger, darker, and it had sharp, yellowed teeth.
“I believe we have stumbled into a rat’s nest,” Richard said, drily.

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