by CEX
Along the far wall of the lab, there were forty cages with names and dates on the front of them. There were thirty-eight rats within those cages. Mallory found a bunch of scalpels and made quick work, sacrificing all of Harold’s rats by slicing their heads off.
A few rats managed to bite her quite deeply, drawing blood. She assumed they were the ‘changed’ rats as they all leaped for her neck the way Prometheus had. She guessed they knew what was going on, that they had been watching. She wondered if she would get smarter now, too, with all that rat saliva and blood getting into her bites.
Mallory had always had problems with drugs, all her life. If the drug was supposed to make her drowsy, she’d gotten wired instead. If the drug was supposed to wake her up, she’d fallen asleep instead. Whatever she was given had always seemed to have the opposite effect on her. Whatever Harold had injected her with, it certainly didn’t produce the effect in her Harold had predicted . . . quite the opposite, in fact. But at least Harold had been right about one thing. She sure felt so much happier.
“Oh well,” hummed Mallory, as she washed all the rat blood off her hands and considered how to get Harold’s body and all of his rats to the incinerator. After she turned
Harold and all the rats into ash, she guessed she had her work cut out for her. But that was no problem because she had always loved her work. She went on humming happily.
While executing all the rats, Mallory had noticed the names on the two empty cages. On the front of one cage was written the name ‘Prometheus,’ who she had killed first. On the front of the other empty cage, was written the name: ‘Houdini’.
Mallory rolled her head around, cracking all the vertebrae in her neck. Then she cracked her knuckles, something she had never done before in her life, and smiled.
It looked like finding that missing rat was going to be a challenge. It was good that she loved challenges!
“It’s slaughtering time,” she whispered.
The End