A Rolington Rats Tale

By Peter Miles

‘A Rolington Rats Tale’ is a children's adventure story with appeal for readers of all ages. It relates the struggle for survival of a group of escaped laboratory rats, the Whitecoats, living in the heart of the Rolington Municipal Dump. The plot details the rats’ endeavours to find food and fight off the unwanted attentions of rival animals in the dump, using courage, teamwork, and inventions built from recycled human rubbish. The story is thus full of action, peril and adventure, with themes centred on recycling, leadership, and the value of brain over brawn.

The story was written and used to engage reluctant young teenagers with reading in upper primary and lower secondary English classes.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Peter Miles
• Release date: Jun 1, 2019
• ISBN: 9780463004579

Peter Miles

Peter Miles lives in Rainbow Beach, Queensland, Australia. He is a father of 3, an English and Physical Education teacher, a Special Educator, a classroom Behaviour Management specialist, a surfer, a runner and a paraglider. His priorities in life are Family, Fitness and Career, in that order. After 32 years of teaching, he is also a RAT - Retirement Aspirant Teacher.Peter published the classroom behaviour management textbook "Don't Just Stand There, Yell Something?" in 2003 through McGraw-Hill Publishing and wrote a follow-up ebook "If You Can't Beat Them, Teach Them" in 2006. He also compiled the educational package "The Better Behaviour, Better Learning Professional Development Suite" for Education Queensland and a protective behaviours anti-bullying program called "Take Control" for his education district.

Book preview

Table of Contents

Title Page

Outline

Chapter 1 – The Whitecoat Gang

Chapter 2 – Showdown At Lawnmower Hill

Chapter 3 – Manny and the Greycoats

Chapter 4 – The Armoured Cars

Chapter 5 – Aerial Reconnaissance

Chapter 6 – The Rescue

Chapter 7 – The Race to Teesdale’s Island

Chapter 8 – The Great Sea Battle of Oildrum Pond

Chapter 9 – Keeping Under Trouble

Chapter 10 – A Gathering of the Clans

Chapter 11 – Decisions, Decisions

Chapter 12 – Moving On

About the Author

A ROLINGTON RATS TALE

By Peter Miles

Copyright 2019 Peter Miles

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

Thank you for downloading this ebook. This book remains the copyright property of the author, but may be reproduced, copied and distributed for non-commercial purposes, provided the book remains in its complete original form

OUTLINE

‘A Rolington Rats Tale’ is an adventure story written for readers primarily in the 9 -14 years age group. It relates the struggle for survival of a group of escaped laboratory rats living in the heart of the Rolington Municipal Dump. The plot details the rats’ endeavours to find food and fight off the unwanted attentions of rival gangs and animals in the dump, using courage, teamwork and ingenuity to do so. The story is thus full of action, peril and adventure, as well as a few lessons on life.

The story was written for the enjoyment of the young, or the young-at-heart, though it contains lessons on leadership, friendship, equality, pacifism and recycling. It is a short novel, with potential for illustration to enhance reader understanding, and even animation in a different form of media.

Chapter One – The Whitecoat Gang

The air over Rolington Municipal Dump was filled with silence. Night had fallen, and the swallows, sparrows and other feathered creatures had flown off to roost in their tree homes, rekindling their energy for another day of food gathering and play. Down below on the dump, however, another world was coming to life; the world of the night creatures. Food gatherers who were too small, or too scared, to come out in the daylight hours were now rousing from fitful sleep and preparing themselves to venture out into the night.

Deep in the heart of an old vinyl and foam sofa, once some human’s pride and joy but now torn and discarded on the junk pile, the Whitecoat Gang was stirring. The Whitecoats were rats, not your every day, common, garden variety rats, but escaped laboratory rats. One night, not too long ago, they had gnawed their way out of their cages and made a run for freedom, ending here in the sofa hideout in Rolington Municipal Dump. Now, safe from human experiments, they had joined the animal kingdom, and the constant struggle for food and life.

The leader of the Whitecoats was Boony, a handsome white rat with a long pink tail and pink ears. Actually, most laboratory rats looked exactly like Boony, but somehow he managed to stand out from the rest. He was the fastest of the rats and, back in the laboratory, had broken all records for finding his way through mazes, and also set the top speed on the running wheel. Boony was also a good leader, and it was he who had masterminded the escape from the lab. Now, in the dump, it was natural that he took charge.

Boony’s gang of runaway rats was made up of a strange mixture of characters. Second in command was Manny, a big, tough rat who had shared a cage with Boony back at the laboratory. Manny loved to fight, and had very little patience. In the laboratory, he couldn’t be bothered finding his way through the mazes to seek the hidden cheese, but chose instead to gnaw his way through the walls in order to take a shortcut. This made the humans very angry, which made Manny very happy. When creatures were angry, they liked to fight, and as I said before, Manny loved to fight. Luckily for Boony, Manny respected him as a leader, so the two never came to blows. Boony liked Manny’s courage, and for this reason he had chosen Manny as his deputy.

Teesdale was a runty little rat, much smaller than others in the gang and possessing very little strength or speed. At the time of the escape, Manny and some of the other rats hadn’t wanted to bring Teesdale with them, but Boony insisted he come. Boony was a kind rat, but this wasn’t the only reason he let Teesdale join the gang. Teesdale was a brain. He was good at maths and science, and he was especially good at inventing things. When Boony was first planning the laboratory escape, Teesdale had told him that water spilt on the wooden cage floor would soften it, and allow it to be eaten away. Boony had followed the advice, which was why the rats were now in the sofa and not in a cage. He felt that Teesdale had rightfully earned a place in the gang and would prove useful in the future even if he was a weakling physically.

Wanda was the only female rat in the gang. At the time of the escape, when Boony opened the cage with the female rats in it, she was the only one with the courage to leave. The other females, along with several of the male rats, had chosen to remain in the laboratory, preferring the promise of a nice warm cage and regular meals to the insecurity of the outside world. Even Boony’s insistence that they would probably die in human experiments hadn’t been enough to bring them out of their cages. Wanda was as strong, and braver, than most of the male rats and if Manny hadn’t been such a good fighter, Boony would have chosen her as his deputy.

The last three rats in the gang were very similar in nature and looks, mainly because they were triplets. Dugan, Duncan and Dalton were your average laboratory rats, not too big but not too small, not too handsome but not too ugly. Their main concern in life was that their stomachs were kept full, and they went along with whatever Boony said, provided there was a promise of a substantial meal at the end of it. Whereas Boony was a born leader, they were simply followers. This doesn’t mean they weren’t important, for what good is a Chief without Indians? Without their support, Boony could never have put his survival plans into action, and the Whitecoat Gang would never have survived on the dump.

Tonight, as the rest of his gang stirred deep below him in the foam, it was Boony alone who emerged into the night air and climbed on to the damp vinyl surface of the sofa, stretching his long pink tail. He stood up on his hind legs and lifted his nose high into the air, wiggling his nostrils and taking a good sniff of the dump. He could smell rotting vegetation, decaying meat scraps, and stagnant polluted water. He looked around him at the mounds of rusting cans, plastic bags, broken toys, rotting paper and other human household waste.

Oh, it’s wonderful to be alive, he thought. So much beauty, so much wealth.

He headed back down the hole into the depths of the sofa, anxious to get the rest of his gang out of their beds and up to the surface, where they too could appreciate the fruits of their freedom. There were treasures out there to be found, and the gang had to move into action quickly if other greedy hands were not going to get them first. For the Whitecoat rats were not the only residents of the Rolington Municipal Dump.

Chapter Two – Showdown at Lawnmower Hill

Okay guys, said Boony, the plan is this. A new load of rubbish has been dumped just over the other side of Lawnmower Hill, down in Tyre Valley. The landmarks of the dump had been named by the gang after the pieces of notable rubbish that littered them. Lawnmower Hill was a pile of dirt and rubbish with a rusty lawnmower on the top, and Tyre Valley was a ditch with a few old