I'll never be safe around humans, Rulo thought. He climbed to the angle of the cage that he had skilfully filed down over the days and jumped out. The ground was cold and smelled of those products that humans were always using. On a rack there was a long line of white aprons with labels, and on a shelf, a small window invited him to vanish from this horrible nightmare; Giving small jumps, Rulo managed to get up there and go out into the street.

Everything was dark, he almost regretted leaving the cell where he didn't have to make decisions. He began walking slowly, as if each step weighed a ton; after an hour his walk had become confident and secure and Rulo wondered how he hadn't met other rats eager to get out of that den.

There were holes everywhere, he could spend the night in any of them; however, it seemed stupid to him to go to sleep while he could fully understand what a city was. The new day found him lying on a mound of leaves in a square. He could hear everything that was happening around him.