Snap walked back across the store on his hind feet. On the floor, blackened and broken, was Alpha's fishbowl. whatever it was that had destroyed the shop, it had incinerated the fish.
Snap's mind turned to Xaniqua. Where was she? She had been closest to Alpha when the store was hit. Had she survived? snap began searching desperately. "XANIQUA!" he called.
"I'm right here, hair-boy." said the mouse. "Down by your feet. Get this cage off of me, please."
Snap lifted the cage that had fallen on Xaniqua and helped her to her feet. she, too, looked very different. She was larger, and standing upright, like he was. Her arms and legs were longer and straighter. And the hair of her head hung in long, thick, grey braids.
"Are you all right?" asked Snap.
"Other than being hideously disfigured and talking like a human?" squeaked the mouse. "I'm fine."
"Where are the others?" asked Snap. "Did anyone else survive?"
"I don't know. You check the big cages. I'll look for Sunrise."
When xaniqua found Sunrise, the bird was tucked up into what had been a corner of the ceiling. Both wings were wrapped around her knees, and she was muttering to herself in a shrill voice. "I'm not crazy. No, I'm not. This is all a dream. Just a bad dream. I'm going to wake up and it'll all go away. It'll go away. I'm not crazy."
"You're not crazy." squeaked the mouse. "And you're not dreaming, either. This is actually happening."
"I don't want it to be happening! It can't be real!"
Xaniqua slapped the canary. "Get a hold of yourself, bird!"
Sunrise only squawked. She'd have to try a different tack. "Sunrise!" she shouted. "Your feathers have grown back!"
Sunrise quit rocking, released her knees and looked down. It was true. where her molting had left bare bands around her stomach and shoulders, there was now a full coat of feathers. "Do I look good?" she asked.
Xaniqua grabbed a mirror from the wreckage of Sunrise's cage. sunrise gazed at her reflection and declared "I look absolutely gorgeous!"
While Xaniqua handled Sunrise, Snap helped UPC out from under a mountain of spilled dog food. "Crikey, mon!" said the skunk in a booming high tenor voice. I was thinkin' I was goin' to the gates of Heaven, dar. Hey... wait... I'm speaking human, mon. I'm speakin' human, an' I understand meself!"
"It's the same with me and Xaniqua" Snap reported. "You've changed physically, too."
UPC held up a paw. It felt different, but he had to lift up a huge wad of hair to see that it was indeed shaped like a hand. "Ya'd hope whatever it was would have done somethin' for me hair." he mumbled. Speakin' o' hare, where be George?"
"I'm over here!" came an echoing contralto. "I'm under the washtub. I can't lift it off of me."
Snap and UPC could see why. The washtub which had been blown over George had saved him from being crushed by a falling rafter. But now that rafter had pinned down the washtub, trapping George.
The rat and the skunk pulled and pushed, but could not move the rafter from atop the tub. "Hang on." said snap. "I'm going to find something we can use as a lever."
Lever? Did he just say "lever"? Rats didn't know a thing about mechanical advantage, and yet here he was, looking for a lever. What had happened to him? Snap found a stick protruding from beneath a fallen counter. He went to pull it, but it stuck fast and groaned.
Wait a minute... groaned? Snap tugged again. It groaned louder, in a sopralto voice only a little deeper than his own. He examined the stick only to find that it wasn't a stick at all, but the foot of a squirrel. "Half-Twist!" he called. "Is that you?"
"Yes, it's me, but please don't shout. I've got a whopper of a headache."
"Can you get out of there?"
"I think so." The squirrel wriggled and squirmed and soon emerged from beneath the counter. aside from his size, Half-Twist didn't look a great deal different, except for his head. The fur on top of his head was standing straight up and looked like it had been leveled with a lawnmower. "I can't see very clearly." said the squirrel. "Is everyone all right?"
"Alpha is dead." reported the rat. "George is trapped and spaznar is missing."
Just then, Sunrise and Xaniqua appeared at Snap's side. "We'll help." said the mouse. "Maybe the five of us can free George by pushing together."
Half-Twist shook his head, then immediately regretted it. "You two are still very small." he said. "You might injure yourselves. But your size is perfect for a search team. See if you can locate Spaznar."
"Aye, aye!" said the canary, throwing off a salute. She then began flying around the room.
"George?" called Half-Twist. "Can you breathe all right under there?"
"No problem." answered the rabbit. "There's a hole in the floor. Air is coming up through that."
"I found him!" declared Sunrise.
"Where?"
Spaznar came ambling around the end of the sales counter. "I had just gotten out of my cage and had gone to take a nap under the display case. Woah. What happened to this place? What happened to me?" he looked into the cracked glass of the case. "I'm huge. And my hair is like... all explody and stuff. And I'm talking all weird. MI MI MI! Dude, I'm like an alto, I think. This is way cool! hey, whatcha doing?"
"We're trying to get George out from under this tub."
"Awesome, Dude! let me help." Spaznar set his back against the tub and pushed with his feet, but though he pushed with all his might, the tub would not budge. Still, there was no stopping him. The ferret was all the way in hyper mode now, and would not stop until the task was accomplished or his energy was expended.
"Wait, stop pushing!" said Half-Twist. "Everybody, down in the basement!"
The basement, though still intact, was a royal mess. The landlord used this level to store all the junk from his own store. It had already been full of broken fixtures and trashed merchandise.
"There!" called Halt-Twist. "UPC, grab that metal pole and help me get it up to the hole in the ceiling. That'll be where George is. Sunrise, you fly up there and tell George to try to grab the upper end."
The animals did as the squirrel instructed. "Now Snap, Xaniqua, climb up the pole and tear at the edges of the hole. See if you can make it big enough for George to fit through."
The two rodents did as they were bidden. Using their teeth and hands, they were able to open the hole enough for George to squeeze through and slide down. Safely on the basement floor, George brushed off his fur and profusely thanked everyone.
George, it seemed, had not changed as much as everyone else. His arms and legs were still rather rabbity, and his paws were still pretty much just paws. His hair was little more than long fur which hung out over his face, kept out of his eyes by his eyebrow whiskers.
When the animals reached the top of the stairs again, Spaznar was actually making progress. "I almost got it! Oh, hey George!"
"Spaznar, you can stop." said George. "I'm out."
"Yeah, but I almost got it. Just a little more...." The ferret gave one last, mighty push. The tub slid away and the rafter came crashing down. xaniqua ran up to the ferret and was about to bite him for being so stupid, but her attention was imediately drawn away by something else. The rafter, as it fell, had flipped up an overturned counter. where the counter had been were now several objects which glowed bright, bright, red, filling the entire room with their light.
"Oh, no!" cried Spaznar as he collapsed. "We're all going to die of radiation poisoning!"