Escaping the rats....

[KingPops]

If you are having trouble and you look down and people are saying that this IS the only way to escape the rats, you might want to uncover the spoiler text as the way I found to escape is really cheaply done and most wouldn't think of it.

Anyway, is the only way to escape the rats by.

Glitching through the shelves ((as they can't block you)) and going up the stairs. You don't have time or the stamina to go all the way around and it's super cheap if you use something like that to escape...

[Cardsharp]

I haven't tried but I was able to run around the shelves to the stairs with just enough health. Clearly, this is possible since the devs didn't intend on a glitch to escape.

[slimsacct]

I am assuming that using the pathway that is created by the paintings gets you high enough to not take any damage is the intended way. Once your health regens you can then just exit.