The rats

Doctor Charles Howard peered through his microscope at his latest specimen. He hoped with every fiber of his being that he had injected his specimens correctly. If he had made a fatal error like last time it would put back his process another 2 weeks. He was already behind his personal deadline. The lab was quiet, he liked the chatter of his colleagues, but today was a Sunday. He wanted the lab just to himself, peaceful and quiet to focus on his studies. He looked down the lens and smiled for no one but himself. His hypothesis had been correct.

His current area of study was spinal cord injuries. He and his colleagues were leading the world in findings and solutions for people with injuries. He was the youngest in the lab, often the one trying the hardest. He didn’t think he had time for anything but work, although he kept himself in peak physical condition. He had a strict exercise routine and ate as healthy as possible. He saw other guys at the gym posing or sending pictures to their Tinder dates, but this was only for himself. A girlfriend would only be a distraction. He had moments or lulls at night of being lonely, but that was brief.

The rat’s spine that had been broken had begun to grow new cells to repair itself. This was a breakthrough. He couldn’t wait to tell the rest of his colleagues. It was then he heard a very faint chatter, almost like children down the hall. There was occasionally a school tour, but there shouldn’t be any today.

“It's a Sunday,” he thought to himself.

He walked down the hall and through the offices. No one was to be found, but he could still hear the chatter. A little louder now. He walked into the “Mouse House”. This was the unofficial name for the room all the lab rats were kept in. The chatter had grown slightly louder, but he still couldn’t make out the words. He left the lab excited for the following day and chalked up the chatter to someone leaving a radio or television on in the floor below them.

Charles got a good night's rest and came into the lab excited to show his colleagues. They all lined up before the microscope to take a look at the findings. They were very impressed, but unfortunately, this experiment had to be repeated 5 more times before any medical companies would even take him seriously, so with the blessing of his boss he began the 2nd and 3rd rounds of experiments. These unfortunately took lots of time. He needed healthy rats' backs to be broken at the 3rd vertebrate for at least a week before he could inject them with the self-healing mix. He walked down to the mouse house and grabbed two cages and took them to the lab. He started hearing the chatter again, but today was different. He wasn’t feeling like himself. He peaked in the breakroom.

“You guys hear that?” He asked

Everyone looked around like he was crazy.

“Steve has got the microwave on,” Someone said.

“No, No not like that. Do you hear that chatter? I can hear people talking like a crowd, but it’s quite like it’s far away.” He said trying to convince them to listen.

They all got silent and did just that… Listened.

As they did Charles started to make out a few words. “Here” “Hi” “Where do you think we are going?”

“Sorry, I don’t hear anything,” Steve said. Everyone else nodded in agreement with Steve.

Charles went back to the rats to begin the procedure. He put on his lab coat, goggles, and gloves and took one last look over his equipment.

“Ready to go,” He says out loud to himself.

He pulls the squirming rat from the cage and first injects it with painkillers. He puts it back in the cage and sets a timer for 15 minutes. The little dude will be nice and drugged up. He won’t feel a thing he thinks to himself. Then repeats with the 2nd.

“That wasn’t bad” He hears so ever softly.

Charles jumps up from his chair and looks around the room. He was alone in the small room. He knew he had heard that plainly as is someone had been in there. He then hears another distinct voice.

“Do you think the rest are here?” A voice gently asks.

He looks at the rats. They looked like normal rats. Doing whatever rats do. He looks in their cages looking for a microphone seeing if someone was pranking him, but there was nothing.

He takes a deep breath and tries to relax. The first timer goes off. He grabs the rat from its cage. It’s extremely lethargic. Which is good he doesn’t want it to suffer more than it has to. He carefully makes a small incision in the back of the rat with a scalpel and then cuts the spinal cord with a simple pair of scissors. He quickly stitched the small hole and placed the rat back. He repeats this a 2nd time. He looks down at the rats, their legs behind them now.

“Can you walk?” One asks

Charles screams. He looks around hoping no one heard. He gave them enough painkillers till last till tomorrow so the only step left is to wait until tomorrow. He tells his coworkers he isn’t feeling well and starts to go to the gym. He decides he needs to clear his head so he takes a swim. He feels normal. The water makes his skin feel alive and refreshed. He stops for a moment at the end of the swim lane and watches the lifeguard flirting with some teenage girl swimming laps. He had been watching her for 30 minutes. Thank the heavens he knew how to swim because he could have died and the lifeguard wouldn’t have noticed. Charles goes home and warms up his chicken and brown rice he had made the night before. He eats watches TV and goes to bed.

He wakes up the next day ready to take on the world. He walks into the lab with his coffee puts on his lab coat walks down the hall and he hears it. The voices except they are louder. Like a crowded party. He walks into the room with the 2 rats from yesterday. They are talking to each other.

“I think we are going to die.” He hears one of them say.

He bends down. His knees are shaking and asks. “Can you hear me?”

Both rats look at him for a moment. “What do you think he’s doing?” One asks.

They couldn’t understand him. He ran to the mouse house and flung open the door. The voices were so loud he had to cover his ears. “HEY! CAN ANY OF YOU UNDERSTAND ME?” He asks.

They all go quite and then start talking about why the scientist was screaming. They couldn’t understand him.

His boss walks in. Charles, I think you need to go home.

Charles without speaking to his boss runs out of lab and rushs home and grabs his bourbon bottle. He lays down on his bed and trys to take a nap. He feels something run across his feet. He shakes and looks like at the covers… Nothing was there. This happenes again on his arms and then finally a rat comes up on his chest. Not just any rat, but the first rat he killed. He had a white spot on it’s tail. It was very distinct. Charles held his breath scared to move.

The Rat looked at his eyes.

The rat spoke in a quiet monotone almost like a child. “Don’t worry Charles, I’m still here. I’ll always be here.”

“You’re not real!” Charles screams out in terror.

It was then he felt a weight pushing him down in bed. Hundreds of rats started covering him and he recognized them all. He had killed them all for science all for his degrees.

“I did what I had to do!” He says sobbing.

The rats begin to chant. “Don’t worry Charles we are all here. We will always be here”.