I had to avoid Lisa.
As much as I liked talking with her, she couldn't grow suspicious that my group had turned against me. And if she found out that they were attacking me, I was sure that she would forcibly separate me from the group. Which would be bad. I had to be present, had to get through to the others if I were to convince them that John wasn't totally right about our predicament.
I could sense Lisa's disappointment whenever I caught sight of her below, looking about, for me, but there wasn't much I could do. One look, one hint, that I wasn't alright, and my chance at fixing this rift would be over.

John kept his word, which meant the others kept his word as well. If I did by chance encounter any of them during the day, they didn't attack, though by the way everyone's ears besides Billy's twitched, they sorely wanted to. I tried to take those opportunities when John wasn't around to get through to Sue, Larry, and Jess. But they refused to listen, squeaking at me that I was a "Bad Alpha." And all to soon, those encounters became rarer than rare. The group spent more and more time together, probably due to John's efforts to keep them on his side. Venturing into the communal grounds, where they were, was basically suicide. John had managed to not only become the Alpha of my group, but of all the hamsters. While they wouldn't hurt me, they would hinder me. Blocking me from any chance of getting to the others.

Which meant that I only saw them at night, when they attacked. And that made it very difficult to talk coherently to them when they were bent on tearing me to pieces.

I very quickly figured out the complex miles of tunnels running throughout the store, learning every single route like it was the back of my hand, well paw. It was only through this knowledge that allowed me to escape getting more injuries.
That didn't mean I was always successful in avoiding them throughout the night. At first it was easier, but as I got more difficult to catch, John became more bent on attacking me. The nights after the ones where I managed to stay hidden were always worse.
Billy did what he could to help me at first, leaving cheerios for me to eat when going to the communal grounds for food became more dangerous. But as John's hold tightened on my friends, he found it more difficult to get away. I ended up having to tell him to not take any risks and to stop helping me the one time we were almost caught together. Even with him gripping onto my crew like the power hungry tyrant he was, as time passed John loosened his restrictions on the other hamsters hurting me. They didn't participate in the actual fights, but that didn't stop them from destroying what little food I tried to hoard. That didn't stop them from guarding the various water towers, and making it a tunnel of pain to try and get a drink. That didn't stop them from preventing me from getting any real sleep during the day. That didn't stop them from blocking off my various routes, effectively pushing me into the path of my crew. They even helped to hide all evidence of my battle for survival by carrying water in their cheeks to wash away the blood that would inevitably cover the tunnels before the workers came in the morning.

My life had effectively become a nightmare. One where...as time went on with it only getting worse...I wasn't actually sure I would survive.

#Henry