Let's Be Rat-Tional

TW: Animal experimentation and a group of people being overthrown (literally and figuratively)

“There’s too much sand in here.”

Rosemary looked over at Eva, who was looking up at the people looking down. Eva had her hands on her hips and looked every bit as headstrong as she was. The people above her looked down, not a single one of them understanding a word she said.

Rosemary rolled her eyes, sitting where she was and digging through some of the sand. Why they had chosen sand, Rosemary didn’t know, but she did know that this had got to be one of the easiest experiments yet.

“Rose! Isn’t there too much sand?”

“There’s always too much of something, Eva. Too much food, too much water. Too much of other rats! They don’t care, and they don’t understand. Sometimes you forget what an experiment is,” Rosemary shot, resting her head on her chemically enhanced talons.

“Well, yes, but what do they expect us to do? Burrow in heated up sand like weasels?”

“Probably,” Rosemary replied as she closed her eyes and yawned.

Eva ran over to her, nudging Rosemary with her nose and sitting back on her haunches. “Come on, you can’t sleep at a time like this!”

Rosemary scoffed. “Oh, yes I can. I’m tired after the hours yesterday of being poked and prodded by scientists. I think I deserve a rest.” With that, Rosemary turned on her side and fully sunk into the sand.

Eva gasped as she watched Rosemary disappear underneath the grains, squeaking maniacally as she dug at the sand with her claws. She cursed the scientists for not giving her hands like Rosemary, and rather a comically large nose.

Above, a scientist scribbled something. “Very peculiar, Adolescence Rat 148 seems to care for Senior Rat 345. Why might that be?” The other scientists around him murmured and hummed in pondering, tapping their pens to their chins.

Meanwhile, Eva continued scratching at the sand. “Rosie! Come on, wake up Rosie! We have to get up!” No response came from the deeply-sunken Rosemary, who, unbeknownst to Eva, was sinking deeper and deeper each time she clawed at the surface.

Another scientist whispered something about “AR148 essentially digging SR345’s grave.” More harrumphs of approval resounded from the surrounding observers who also wrote their findings on their pristine clipboards. One even drew an anime-style drawing of a distraught rat crying at a pile of dirt that had velociraptor-looking rat fingers sticking out of. This paper was soon thrown out after a disapproving scoff from an associate.

At this point, Eva was crying little rat tears as she thought of all the times she and Rosemary had hung out. With a sigh, she slumped on the ground and looked at the place Rosemary had been lying.

“Rosie? I don’t know if you can hear me, but I wanted to-to talk to you for a little. Before you're completely gone.

“Do you remember last week? When I was first brought into the lab? I was only a baby, barely walking, but you taught me. My mom had recently been taken to a water experiment, one she didn’t come back from. But, to me, you were my mom.”

Above, one scientist looked below and listened to the sorrowful squeaking from AR148. He nudged the woman next to him, who nudged the person next to her, and soon the whole ring of scientists were nudging each other and looking at the strange display below them.

“I’ve known you my whole life. You were there when I came back from my first experiment, my nose insanely enlarged. You were there when I was forced to mate with Fisher. You were there when I had my first set of ten children, all of which have now been taken off into the experiment world. You’ve been around for so long, raising me, even when life passed by fast with our increased growth serum and the decreased life span due to these inhumane experiments. But, despite it all, I feel like we truly got each other, y’know?”

Tears fell from the observation point as scientists cried. They didn’t understand at all what Eva was saying, but they all knew it was important. They all knew it had meaning.

“I know you’re gone, and that you probably can’t hear me, but if you could, I bet you’d be socking me in the arm and telling me to stop crying. But I can’t. Not until I know that we’ll never have to lose another rat again.”

Suddenly, one of the scientists stopped. He looked scared shitless, and his breath came in deep shudders. One of the female scientists turned to him. “What is it, Dr. Windrow?” He pointed below, and every scientist simultaneously looked below. There, Eva was looking up, right at each and every one of them. With a flick over her wrist, she flipped them off and squeaked something that no great rat-mother would want to hear.

Little clicking sounds started appearing all around and slowly rats started showing up on counters, tables, and chairs. A couple even stood on the railing.

Below, Eva smiled as she watched her army assemble. “This is for you, Rosemary. All for you. For the lives you saved, the lives you changed. You deserved better.”

Squeaks of approval echoed through the lab, and the scientists looked around them with terror in their eyes. They watched as Eva bounded up the glass sides of the container with practiced precision, landing right on the clipboard of the head scientist.

She looked him in the eye. Quietly, she opened her tiny mouth and said:

“Vive les rats!”

Suddenly, all he had broken loose. Left and right, scientists were being hit down and dragged off by the genetically mutated rats. Screams echoed through the lab, and Eva squeaked mightily as her plan came to fruition. After a couple of minutes, the lab was empty, and the only sound was the soft pattering of rat feet.

In the silence, a shuffling came from the container filled with sand. A spot of the sand was wiggling and shaking, sand moving everywhere. Suddenly, a little nose popped up, and soon after, a quartet of oversized paws. Rosemary rose out of the sand and looked around, beady eyes searching the surrounding area.

“Hello?”