A Hamster’s Revenge (Fictional Friday Post)

When you travel to strange lands, expect strange things to happen. I was on a mountain expedition in the mountains of Peru, looking to add to my extensive collection of Aztec artifacts. It was only after the first few days of hiking I realized this was the land of the Incas and not the Aztecs. Why does history have to be so difficult?

Anyway, the mountains were beautiful with great views;

I was able to enjoy the beautiful walks through the altitudes with no interference by man. Does no one know of this place, I thought? I mean I can see the bustling streets of the cities below, but none come to the mountains for the enjoyment of the fresh air!

That seemed a bit peculiar to me, but I pressed on unencumbered by pesky people. I prefer to be alone on these trips anyways.

After awhile I encountered these furry little creatures on the path. What cute little animals! Maybe they're not ancient artifacts, but I still wanted to take one home.

My memory was cast back to an earlier time when my daughter owned a hamster. He had his own little hamster wheel which was his only activity. I always felt sorry for these small caged creatures in a child's room.

I would often joke with my daughter when she would return from school. I would ask her "Does your hamster like to play on his back with his feet sticking up in the air!" But she was never amused at my jokes.

Eventually, that is exactly what happened! I saw her hamster belly up! When I informed her of the unhappy occurrence, naturally she didn't believe me. But the realization soon set in.

I offered to bury her small pet in the garden area of our back yard and my daughter agreed. I placed the rodent in a shoe box and brought to his eternal resting place and began the dig. But, unfortunately my back gave out on the third or fourth shovel Implant. I fell to the ground writhing in pain!

My daughter saw this from the window at the back of the house and came to find out what happened. All she knew was her father was lying on the ground in pain beside her dead hamster. I think she silently took some gratification after all the hamster pranks. Yes, the hamster got the final revenge.

But alas, I divert. Back to the moment at hand, enough of the reveries for now. I continued to walk among the furry critters but I noticed something.

Their numbers were growing! Yes, the more I walked the more I saw. It's as if I walked into a giant hamster den!

And still they grew! The lazy critters were just basking in the sun. I didn't really know what to make of it at first,

But then things began to change....

At first they gave me no notice. They could care less, I thought, that I had invaded their habitat. But that turned in an instant.

One of my furry "friends" stood up and gave me an evil glare. It was really quite unsettling. You could see the meanness in his eyes as he stared me down. It was downright scary!

I remembered reading the book "Willard" as a child. How the lead rat had led the other rats on a revenge campaign against their master. It brought back all the chills of that book.

It seemed like a mix of Willard and the Alfred Hitchcock's episode of The Birds. They were gathering now in army force behind their leader. And they were all directing their attention on me!

"Willard" seemed to know something and he was communicating it to all his followers. What did he know? Could he possibly have learned about my former pranks with one of his long list cousins? Could he have known of my earlier disrespects so many years ago?

I didn't know, but I wasn't going to stick around and find out! They were gaining in numbers and now moving slowly towards me. So I did what any brave explorer would do. I ran as fast as I could down the mountain!

Well, fortunately for me these cute little creatures have short legs. But still they were surprisingly fast. It's a good thing I had a short lead because they were gaining on me slowly!

I managed to reach the town with 100's of them in pursuit now. I yelled for help but the villagers ignored my pleas. But then I noticed a strange building. The "Look In"? That sounded inviting so I made my was there "tout suite".

By now they were only about 6 feet behind me. I barely made it into the building before they converged on me. But I was unable to close the door behind me as they had already gathered up closely blocking my ability to close the door. This was it, I thought. Now I'm cornered with no place to hide or run. Now I must face them down.

I braced myself for 100's of little rodent bites. Death by a thousand slashes I thought. But I soon realized my worst fears had not come true. I was inside the door but the army of fur had stopped pursuit. In fact, they were just quietly sitting just outside the door!

I wondered what had happened. Why did they stop in their evil plot to kill or maim me? Had they suddenly felt remorse for their actions? Was it enough just to scare me?

Perhaps all they wanted to do was teach me a lesson for my previous malfeasance toward their long lost cousin. Content to see the look of terror on my face, now they could depart happy.

But then I noticed something. In my haste to enter the building to get away from them, I missed the sign outside the door. Now it all made sense.....

(Ok, not all of this post was fiction. Can you guess which part was true?).