Chapter Three

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The entire economy of Cheese World was based on one thing; the scarcity of “cheddar”. Although not all rats are particularly partial to it, it was the only thing that mattered if you wanted influence and wealth in the colony.

Want a special favor from the council? You could have it, provided you had enough cheddar. Need to stop a banishment? That could happen too, with enough cheddar. From top living quarters, to visits in the Council’s sky boxes, to watch Maze Day, nearly anything that could be had in Cheese World could be had for those with enough mellow gold cheese.

The special yellow stuff had taken on extreme value, sometime in the far distant past, and no one, not even Rasmus, was completely sure why. Many rats couldn’t even eat it, due to lactose intolerance, and truth be told, it wasn’t that commonly eaten, instead, it was used as a means of exchange.

In fact, it wasn’t even the cheese itself that was exchanged, but rather, yellow tokens, issued by The First Bank of Cheese World, owned and operated by none other than Rasmus, that were used to make purchases between citizens.

From extra fruit, or seeds at the commissary, depending on the citizen’s tastes, to additional clean bedding, and scavenged items for a variety of uses.

Each rat had an account, in a ledger, kept by Rasmus’ right hand rat, Rathbone. Whatever cheddar was not consumed on Maze day, was deposited into the bank, where it was kept, cool and dry, inside an insulated chest, discarded in the underworld, beneath Cheese World’s great wall and guarded by some of the most formidable rats in the whole colony.

In the beginning, the Cheese Gods had offered a wider variety of rewards, making cheddar too scarce to be a widely used means of exchange, but over time, the maze runners had begun to bypass other rewards, in favor of the cheese and the Cheese Gods had responded accordingly, increasing cheesy rewards.

Now, it could mean the difference between barely surviving, and having all of life’s creature comforts for citizens in Cheese World. In spite of the Council’s continued statements about equal treatment, it did not go unnoticed, even by someone as young as me, that some rats were more equal than others, and those with large cheddar balances enjoyed a better way of life.

So, it was with this in mind, that I put my plan into motion. “What could be better,” I reasoned, “than all rats having enough cheddar to have the things they want and need to live a comfortable life. ”

“After all,” I thought, “I have seen what happens to unclaimed Maze Day rewards, and there is more than enough to make every family in the colony rich beyond their wildest dreams.”

These are dangerous thoughts for a young rat, and I was about to find out just how dangerous they could be. I needed someone I could trust, a confidant and I thought I knew exactly who to ask.

I found Raven behind the nursery, where most of us hung out after school. She was talking with Radley, and crying.

“If I can’t become a red, I’ll end up a green, like my father,” she said. “Poked and prodded and modified. The poor rat has an extra arm growing out of the middle of his back, can you imagine? Well, had, at least. And you see where that got him! I know, I know, the council decides, but if I could just get my times down…”

Radley looked up as I approached, “Ralph, I was just helping Raven here with her running.”

“Oh, how’s that going?” I asked, playing dumb.
“Oh, great, yeah, just great, because my blind eye and twisted paw just lend themselves so well to developing athletic prowess, how do you think it’s going?”

“Well, I’m sorry to hear that, Raven,” I said, as kindly as I could.

“It is what it is, The Council Decides, right?” she said. “Look, I’m sure you weren’t here for me, so I’ll just…”
“Actually, yeah, I was. I needed to run something by you,” I said.

Now it was Radley’s turn to look uncomfortable. “Uh, well, I guess that’s my cue. I think I hear my mom calling me anyway,” he said as he backed up a step, then turned and left for home.

“I don’t know why you’d want to talk to me,” Raven said. “You’re a shoe-in for red, no matter what Razer thinks.”
“Well, Razer has some good points,” I said.

Raven laughed. “Razer, is an idiot. The only way he beat you was by cheating. So, what’s on your mind, Ralph?”
We found a quiet corner and sat down.

I told her everything I had seen earlier, the way the mazes were set up to give more than one reward, and what had happened to the left over cheddar, her eyes grew wide.
“Wow. But, why me? Why not take this to the Council?” She asked.

“I’m not sure, but something tells me the Council knows, plus, I heard what happened with your… you know, before he was banished,” I said.

Raven looked down, and a tear rolled from the corner of her eye.

Her father had been banished following the last Maze Day, for failure to pay his debt. He’d been a part of a successful gene study, but the Cheese Gods hadn’t used him for anything that paid in rewards since he’d grown a third arm.

“So, I thought if we could figure out how to get a message to the next Maze Runners, maybe there would be more cheddar to go around, and the next time, no one’s dad would have to be banished,” Ralph said.

“Wait, what’s the catch?” Raven asked.

“Catch?”

“Sure, what’s in it for you? What do you want?”

“Nothing,” Ralph stammered. “I don’t want anything except to help, and this is one way we can do it.”

“Well, I wrote it all down, my notes on the maze, the cheddar destruction, all of it, and I was hoping you would help me make copies to give to the runners,” I said.

“Sure, yeah, let me get home for dinner so my mom won’t be worried and I’ll meet you back here,” Raven said. “And Ralph? Thanks for thinking about my dad, he was a good rat.”

“Your dad, was a great rat,” I said, and I meant it.
There were always twelve runners, a different group each time, so that no one rat ran more than once in every three Maze Days. A few days before Maze Day, the list was always posted, so Raven and I got busy copying the message, so that we’d be ready to deliver them as soon as the post went up.

“Why wait?” Raven asked as she blew eraser dust from the last of the twelve copies. “You can get the list yourself, from the Cheese God’s Trial Record, over the desk, on the other side of the maze.”

“Right,” I laughed. “We could just walk out there and take those numbers!”

“We could, my dad used to. It was part of his job, every Maze Day to set up the runner list in advance. He took me with him a few times, I could show you,” Raven said.

For a girl with a twisted paw, and only one good eye, Raven did not let it slow her down. Using a short cut, up an angled beam, that Raven knew about, we reached the ceiling beam over the Maze table in no time.

The plan was for her to go down, read off the list to me, while I scribbled it down on the inside of a matchbook cover.

She ran out onto the light beam and was halfway to the desk, before I’d even started across, it didn’t see so high up when the world below was filled with activity. I made my way cautiously along the beam until I joined her, directly over the desk.

“So, now what? How are you planning to get down there?” I asked.

Raven held up a large round magnet, and a roll of braider thread rope that had been laying against the angle of the beam, where I guessed she and her father had left it.

Before I could ask anything else, Raven had tied the rope around her waist and was twisting around in a circle, wrapping it around her middle, loop after loop, until the entire rope lay neatly around her. She expertly tossed the magnet up, where it clanged into place against the face of the beam. Raven a good, strong tug to test it. It seemed firm.

Then, before I realized what had happened, she dropped from view over the edge of the beam, leaping out into space! I rushed over and looked down, as she rolled, further and further down, the rope around her waist slowly playing out as she dropped, spinning over and over.

As Raven fell, something else caught my eye, the disheveled, coatless Cheese God was back! He seemed engrossed in something, pumping into his ears through a set of plugs. I was relatively certain he couldn’t hear me.

“Raven!” I screamed, as loud as my voice would carry.
Raven gripped the rope, bouncing, as it stopped paying out. I pointed, and she looked down. There, barely a foot below her dangling body, was the head of the Cheese God! He leaned over the desk, running his finger along a line on the Cheese God register. He marked something on the chart, then turned to leave.

Raven breathed a sigh of relief, then continued her drop, spinning, down, down, until she stopped, hanging inches from the list we needed, and that would have been it, had the creature not turned back to check something, and seen her.

The Cheese God screamed! He stepped back, and turned, running toward the door where he pulled an alarm. As the lights blinked on and off in our world, a loud siren screamed. The creature reached for a broom, raised it over his head and advanced on Raven, quickly.

I tugged on the rope, hoping to bring her up quickly enough to avoid the broom, but it didn’t matter. The creature slipped, halfway to his goal, feet flying up, as his head hit the floor of the world and his eyes closed. He lay still, too still.

Raven began to reverse her fall, wrapping the rope around her waist as she twisted up and into it, rolling upward. She reached the beam just before the world flooded with Cheese Gods.

Several of them knelt near the disheveled one, trying to revive him. One went to the wall and silenced the alarm, which turned off the lights. There were six of them in our world now, and I had a sinking sensation that this was how the Reaping began the last time.

Raven and I scurried along the beam and slid down the angle. She slipped out of the rope at the bottom, and pegged it, with the magnet to the beam. There were rats running for home from every corner.

“Not a word of this to anyone,” I whispered.
“I think we just killed a Cheese God,” she said, a terrified expression on her face.

“They can’t possibly blame you, it slipped,” I said.
“My father was banished for much less,” she replied quietly.

I had no reply for that. We had failed at our mission, and now a Cheese God may have died due to our carelessness. I had to agree, it didn’t look good for either of us, if anyone found out.

We joined the rush back to our separate homes and didn’t come back out until after curfew the next night. I sat all day, saying nothing, for fear the secret, that I had something to do with the extra attention in Cheese World today. The creature had doubtless awakened and reported his experience by now and the Reapers would be here soon.