Olivia goes West

Chapter 22

The weeks felt like an eternity to Olivia. She sat looking over the edge of the cage, with Fievel by her side, as two of the orphan mice, Chula and One-Eye watched over everyone imprisoned at the mine. It was late at night now, One-Eye had dozed off but the others were playing cards near Hiram's workbench. Fievel and Olivia exchanged glances.

"A-are you sure this is gonna be a good idea?" Fievel whispered worriedly.

"Yer sick o' bein' in this cage aren't ye?" she whispered back, "We got to at least try something."

The two of them had a lot of time to plan this scenario out, with input from Hiram and Wylie. In the last two weeks the tunnel had grown deeper, and more gold was being extracted. The area they were in was now lined with barrels of gun powder and sticks of dynamite. Waul and Ratigan were going to blast through the rest of the way just before Ratigan's election, so the sudden abundance of gold would guarantee his victory. But Olivia was determined not to let Ratigan ever get elected mayor.

Hiram looked over his shoulder, at Chula and the mice playing poker, and then up at Olivia. She gave him a nod, and he nodded back.

"Okay Olivia, but...please be safe..." Fievel said, holding her hand.

"Don't worry Fievel," she said, giving him a peck on the lips and patting his cheek, "We can do this. We been through worse."

Olivia then turned, and called down from the cage, "Um, 'scuse me but I hafta go outside...it's an emergency..."

Chula looked up and frowned, "We've gotta quit giving these damn kids stuff to drink."

"Eh ignore her," said Noodles, "She can just go in the cage."

Pee-Wee chuckled, "Yeah, deal another hand will ya?"

"But it'll start stinkin' up the place if we don't," Chula groaned, "Man I can't wait to have that steaming hot mouse haggis. Just got to put up with that stupid brat long enough."

Chula left the table irritably and used his spider web like a lasso onto the cage door, pulling himself up.

"Chula do this, Chula do that..." he muttered.

"Right then..." Olivia whispered, as she discreetly dislodged one of the bars from the cage while Chula climbed. On the ground was a small steel saw, one of her father's tools. He'd tossed it up to the cage several days ago, using a bit of leftover spider web to make it stick.

"Alright you little menace, I'll take you outside for two minutes, and if you ain't done by th-"

Olivia whacked Chula over the head with the bar from the cage, and he fell to the ground unconscious. Before anyone else even knew what had happened, Fievel and Olivia were climbing down the strand of spider web themselves. Pee-Wee turned, and noticed them escaping.

"Hey! Whaddya think you're doin?"

"Run fer it laddies!" Hiram called out.

The two of them slid down, landing hard on Chula's body. Fievel grinned at that. He and Olivia then darted for the cave that was filled with rubble, climbing up the rocks so that they could sneak in between them. This way they couldn't be followed or cut off.

"Hey One-Eye!" Noodles called out, "Get yer furry ass up and catch those kids!"

One-Eye snorted and awoke with a startle. He looked around, seeing the open cage and Chula on the ground.

"Not this again," he groaned, getting to his feet and starting to run.

As he did, Wylie, pretending to be asleep, stuck his foot out, causing One-Eye to crash to the ground.