SHORT STORY: Track 9 – Caged Rat

Track 9 – Caged Rat

Rupert looked across his confined cage in disgust. Is this all there is to life, he pondered as he normally did. Can’t be. Alone with the only entertainment being walking to the other wall repeatedly and then once or twice a day getting injected with God knows what by a researcher; Rupert had deep thoughts for a rat.

The wide eyed rat stood up on his hind legs, litter clinging to his underbelly as he glanced over to an adjoining cage. Look at him, so disinterested in everything, and modesty aside, why am I so much more intelligent, Rupert asked himself. Is he even planning his escape? Wouldn’t he want to crawl back into the hole he once called home? How can he be so content?

No, Rupert decided, that rat had no hopes of escape even if he tried. Rupert’s thoughts then became interrupted as the fluorescent lights flooded the room when one of the researchers entered.

“Munson test trial thirty-six,” the man spoke into his small metallic recording device. The man then produced two syringes and went on to inject both Rupert and his neighbor. “Rupert and Davey both received the serum at twenty-one hundred hours.”

The man then looked over Rupert, frowned, sighed, turned, and then left the laboratory. Rupert snickered at the thought and could not help but feel that the scientist was blaming him for the failure; ridiculous. It wasn’t me who ruined the experiment, Rupert shook his head disapprovingly. I was only the lab rat in the whole thing, and besides I could not even begin to comprehend the sadistic motivations of those scientists. Rupert placed his front paws on one of the bars of his cage facing the door and let one final thought warm him, that is why tonight I will set myself free at any cost.

Rupert had spent as long as he could remember of his life in the cage planning his freedom day and this was the day. As he had already decided, he was far more intelligent than his fellow rat, and as such the humans did not suspect that he could think of the unthinkable by rat standards. How were the humans to ever consider that a mere lab rat would be able to cling to the top of the cage and push the latch that locked the hatch so that the door could freely swing open? Also, once the rat was standing on top of the opened cage how were the humans to ever suspect that the rat had already devised a way to trigger the automatic pressure sensor doors of the lab? The only inhabitants of the room were rats, the humans must have told themselves time and time again; why would they need locks? The rats were too light to open the doors, and while this was indeed the case, the superior rodent intellect known as Rupert’s mind was already one step ahead.

Already following through with the first step of his plan, Rupert crouched on the edge of the cage he sat in just moments before and he jumped to the ground. It was a five foot or so drop and the impact on his legs was stronger than he intended, but that seemed like a small price to pay to live the life of the liberated. Rupert limped across the linoleum and started to climb up the six foot tall storage shelf that held beakers and other lab equipment. Using the notches in the metal frame as great leverage to grip his claws into and shimmy his way to the top, he found himself from a whole new vantage point; he was on top of the world.

This was it, Rupert took in a deep breath; the time of the great uncertainty begins. Would he be able to squeeze behind to top of the shelf and push off against the wall with enough force to cause the shelf to topple? Rupert knew that there was only one way to find out, and that is what truly separated him from the others, his ability to want to try things out, and be inquisitive, and quest for knowledge. Rupert crammed his head between the wall and the cold metal and in a second’s time sat in an awkward position with his neck resting on the shelf with his hind legs propped up against the wall.

Rupert pushed and he could feel all the weight in the world upon his neck. Nothing moved besides maybe some vertebrae. He pushed again, even harder this time, but still nothing intended moved. He was not strong enough, but also unlike the others of his kind, he did not give in so easily. Rupert jumped down to a lower shelf and in his teeth he picked up a metal shaft that he noticed on his ascend earlier. Although he did not know what the metal rod was used for, he guessed some sort of prodding, poking, or other implementations of irritation, but the proper use was inconsequential as it would provide him the torque he needed.

Rupert wedged one end of the rod between the wall and the shelf and left the other end jutting out into the open free air. Rupert reached up and pulled down on the makeshift fulcrum, but he could still not provide the force he needed. Glancing around at what was available and at his disposal, Rupert ran over and picked up some straps that were used in transporting crates and looped one end around the rod and held the other end in his teeth. Weight, he thought, something with weight. The only thing left on top of the shelf other than a rat, a rod, and a strap was a cardboard box, so Rupert thought that would be the best place to start his investigation.

Dropping the strap he bounded over to the box and peered in. To his delight Rupert spied some dusty and decrepit, yet burly and thick textbooks. At least five books that he could see; that should do the trick he thought as he wrapped the strap around the box and fastened it with the clasp. All he needed to do now was push the box off of the shelf and hope that the force brought on by the mass of the books and the gravitational acceleration would be enough to act on the rod through the strap to create enough of a moment to bring the shelf down. Simple physics, Rupert grinned wide enough to show his incisors, which gleamed in the dim glow of the safety lights; a typical rat would never use physics.

All was going according to plan as Rupert snuggly placed his shoulder against the cardboard for one great push. Readying himself and thrusting with all his might, the box did not budge. No, he screamed internally, can’t let myself give up now. He gave it another try and gained some ground in the form of a centimeter slide. This meant that he could do it. He let his mind free and he repeated a motivational mantra and with one final grand gesture, he took a few steps with the box in front of him and the load came crashing down. Somewhat unanticipated to Rupert, which as an afterthought he should have seen coming, as the shelf tipped over with such force and started its descent, so did everything that was on the shelf, including the rat. Gliding across the room like a flying squirrel, Rupert landed with a thud that was silenced by the racket of shattering glass, and all of the breaths he had been saving escaping him at once.

Standing up with eyes shut tightly to help moderate the pain, Rupert cringed in agony. It’s all worth it, Rupert told himself, and then once he opened his eyes, he actually believed it. The door was open, his plan had worked. Running over to the opening, not knowing how much time he had before it closed again, he was not going to waste any time.

Into the hallway, the great unknown of his escape, Rupert now saw a massive corridor filled with nothing more than doorway after doorway. One of these has to be the exit; Rupert reasoned and started his exploratory trek. At the first door he came to Rupert was able to scale the wall up to the thick pane of glass imbedded in the door so that he could peer in. Cages upon cages of more rats. What where they up to with all these rats? Rupert jumped down after quickly deeming that the rat room was not an exit, and he moved on only to discover that the next six rooms were almost identical. Why all the rats, Rupert asked himself. This is sick, he winced at the thought; it is unjust and cruel.

Moving on towards a metallic door that stood out from the others, Rupert considered whether or not he should simply escape or try to stop the mad men once and for all. Can a rat take on humans, he questioned. Am I capable of killing them, physically and morally, he questioned further. If the opportunity arises I will see what I can do, Rupert shook off the thoughts and decided to focus on his own hide.

The shiny metal door before him gleamed like a beacon of hope as he neared, and he dreaded that this to would be a pressure or motion sensor like the others. He took one careful step in front of it and to his surprise it slid open with a hiss. Uneasily Rupert stepped into the dark room and the lights sprung into action.

“I was watching you on the monitor,” the researcher from earlier chuckled heartily at Rupert’s expense.

“Bastard,” Rupert called out in a squeak.

“I assure you that I am not a bastard,” the researcher said as he took a step closer and knelt down in front of the rat.

“You can understand me?” Rupert dropped his jaw in awe as he was taken aback all at once.

“You and I are not all that different,” the human took off his glasses in what Rupert deemed as a gesture to seem sincere.

“You and I are nothing alike,” Rupert shrieked at the thought, not fully understanding how he was able to communicate. “You are torturing the innocent, and for what?”

“For you,” he said. “Rupert this is all for you.”

“I saw all of the rooms,” Rupert gritted his teeth. “There must be hundreds of rats. You are killing them all slowly and stripping them of a livable life.”

“It is remarkable how you retain so much and yet lost your sense of identity,” the scientist scratched his head, looking as if he wanted to jot down some notes.

“I ought to strike you down where to kneel,” Rupert filled with rage at the audacity of the man to still look at him as an experiment. “If that Dr. Munson was in the room, the one who presumably started this all, I would kill him as well.”

“Oh he did indeed start it all,” the man nodded. “And he is also in this room as well.”

“Munson,” Rupert cried out in anger. “You are Dr. Munson, I will destroy…”

“No, no, no,” the man’s eyes revealed that he was about to tell a great truth as he leaned in. “Dr. Munson is my mentor, my teacher, and my friend. He dreamed outside of the bounds of the possible and he saw those dreams into fruition. He is a genius and fell victim to his own hubris. He became part of his work in this lab studying trans-species metamorphosis. My dear friend, you are Dr. Munson, and we are trying to turn you back.”