More bites quickly followed, harder and harder. I struggled, but Jessa and Billy held me down in place.
What was this!? "Stop? What? Wait! Pain!" I squeaked, struggling to get away. They were attacking me? Even Billy?
If anything my squeaks seemed to encourage them. Billy went for my tail, nipping at the stubby point, Jessa my ears and my head. The others took everywhere in between.
A torrent of words, full of anger assaulted me. "Long time!" "Where you?"  "Slowslowslowslowslow" "Die! Die!, We all die!" "Noises all the time." "Barkbark!" "Alpha bad!" "No good alpha" "Bad risk." "Badbadbad"
In many ways their words hurt worse then the bites, but in reality, the bites were on fire, and my increasingly louder shrieks only encouraged them to bite harder. I twisted, finally nipping back at them, managing to get enough wiggle room from my feeble counter attack, using my teeth wherever I could to get free. I broke into a dead run, feeling the blood all along my body. I could hear the others giving chase behind me. John tackled me before I made it more then a foot down one of the tunnels. I rolled with him, biting as hard as I could and rolled free as he released me, only to encounter the others.
Their squeaks had no words now. Anger and Fear drove them to attack me. I couldn't reason with them, not with them this riled up.
We raced through the various tunnels, me taking whatever turns I could when they presented themselves to me, but whatever I tried, I couldn't shake them. They came like an avalanche. Larry and Sue managed to squeeze around me while I was fighting Billy, managing to block me in the narrow corridor. Billy got me onto my back, and John went for my throat.
He froze as the bell above the door dinged, announcing the first of the employees arriving to work. John chirped an order and the others fell back. He glared at me with his eyes a crazed mixture of red and black. "No attack daytime," he said, stiffly, "No notice with hairless. None. Night come. You runRunRUN! Continue. No die, but Run you fight."
The others had already disappeared, but I nodded, rolling cautiously to my feet. "No notice. None." I repeated softly, feeling like my mind's voice should be as parched as my throat felt.
"Hairless no notice." he warned me again, backing away. "Hairless notice, you dead."
I closed my eyes, listening to him make his way back down one of the tunnels. I could hear myself softly squeaking, from the multiple wounds running like fire all over my body.

#Henry