Mutant

• Shanley Butcher
• Short Story
• 2020

“Ouch!” Brodie yelled as he launched backward off his seat. Maisy, the rat he was working had bitten him. Out of the cage, Maisy ran down the back of the bookshelf. ‘CRASH!!!’ Brodie leapt at the shelf but instead of catching Maisy he knocked over the bookshelf. ‘CLINK!!!’ the test tube fell over. The rat squeaked in pain. The hiss of the rat’s burning flesh could be heard from miles away. Away ran Maisy, out the door and up the street dodging around the impurities of the surface beneath her. Down in the sewers Maisy howled in pain. The metamorphizing pain was unbearable. She was growing, growing upwards and outwards. By this stage Maisy was humungous, she broke the sewerage system. She was not a very aggressive rat, but the mutation changed her completely. The once little, fragile rat was now an enormous, indestructible rat. As she walked upright from the sewers, dragging her knuckles along the ground, she destroyed not one, not two or three but five mega-apartments by whipping her large tail. “Oh, my goodness, Maisy!” Brodie exclaimed, louder then he thought. Unbeknown he saw twenty odd lab assistants looking at him. “You,” he started pointing at the most vulnerable assistant, “go and inform someone who is important about this situation,” he finished emphasizing the key point important. As he watched the lab assistant leave, he turned to Maisy. ‘Maisy, you are so big now,’ was what he wanted to say but what came out was, “Maisy, back to the lab NOW! You are not in a very good state, come on LET’S GO!!” This made Maisy mad. She took a massive stomp toward him, Brodie stepped back. Before the crowd knew it, a rope came swinging over Maisy’s neck and was soon joined by four or five others. The ropes went over her shoulders, arms, waist and feet. Maisy stumbled a few times before crashing down to the ground and breaking the road beneath them. This made Brodie’s stance break and he stumbled over. Brodie looked up and saw a woman in her mid to late twenties, she was beautiful. “Who are you?” Brodie asked in shock, “I’ve never seen anything like what you have just done,” he finished in amazement. “Luciana, I thought you could use a hand,” Luciana replied. Brodie just stared in disbelief. “Come with me,” Brodie beckoned, “I have a cure in my lab,” he finished still staring at her with shock. “I’ll stay with the beast,” Luciana replied. Brodie turned and shook his head. “You know she’s not bad, she is actually really well behaved,” Brodie stated before he turned and regretfully walked off. Brodie spun and looked at Maisy before heading to get the cure from his lab. “Maisy is such a good girl, she never deserved this,” Brodie told himself. He reached where Maisy and Luciana had waited, he put the sharp needle into Maisy’s neck. Maisy screamed in pain. “It’s okay girl, shhh,” Brodie tried to calm her. “It’ll take about three hours to work so if we start helping in the cleanup in about three hours, she’ll be okay,” Brodie told Luciana. They walked off together to help with the cleanup. Brodie threw the last bit of gravel in the road. “Let’s go, it’s been three hours,” Luciana nagged running over to Brodie. “Okay I guess so,” Brodie answered. They walked over hand in hand, sweat dripping down their arms and faces. Maisy was back to normal and curled up to Brodie. “Let’s go home Maisy, sweetheart,” was all Brodie could say as a tear rolled down his cheek, “Thank you, Luci,” Brodie said to Luciana as they left Maisy in the cage to sleep after a long silent walk. “It’s fine,” Luciana replied. Brodie and Luciana moved closer together and shared their first kiss. “I owe you one,” Brodie laughed Luciana joined in. After this they went inside hand in hand laughing. The door slammed behind them followed by more laughing.