Specimen H4-09 woke up to his first day of life in a warm, sterile room, on a bed of woodchips alongside his many siblings, and exhausted mother. His nose prodded at a warm spot on his mother’s belly, and he promptly went to sleep. He awoke a few hours later to the feel of rubber. It was an unusual sensation, and stood in stark contrast to every sensation of warmth and softness to which H4-09 was accustomed, so he reacted in the only way his body could: he bit at the strange, foul-tasting tubes wrapped around him. He kicked as hard as he could, but the tubes had a firm grasp on him, so H4-09 was helpless to do anything as he moved into a new room. He was placed in a cage similar to the one containing his mother and siblings, alongside, on top of, and underneath dozens of similar cages. When his feet felt woodchips again, H9-04 scurried into the far back corner of the cage, and nestled himself as well as he could underneath the wooden camouflage. Still an infant, his scampering was entirely ineffective at keeping the rubber tubes away from him, but fortunately the giant creatures that manipulated the rubber tubes were already more interested in the inhabitants of the other cages. H9-04 fell asleep soon afterward.
The next time H9-04 awoke, the creatures were gone, and the room was different than he remembered it being. It was harder to see the surrounding cages, and the room felt slightly colder. H9-04 felt strangely at peace in this new environment, however, and began exploring the contents of his cage a bit. It was a simple layout, but H9-04 found everything in it rather useful. A big red bowl contained pellets that made something inside him rumble wantingly whenever he went near them, and a small plastic tube held a fluid that made H9-04 feel much better whenever he licked at it. There was nothing else in the cage to engage him, but H9-04 found the wall of mice across from him to be interesting enough to pass the time. Their squeaks were too distant to hold much of a conversation, but H9-04 felt some comfort in knowing that maybe his brothers and sisters were on that wall, stumbling idly around.
After a few weeks of isolation, H9-04 saw the creatures with the rubber tubes return. However, when the tubes grabbed him, H9-04 found them to be much smaller than he remembered, and he was able to struggle for a much longer amount of time before getting tired and giving up. His teeth left satisfying marks in the tubes, and they turned an interesting hue of red in the place where his teeth made contact. The creatures let out an unpleasant noise, but carried on with its mission and placed H9-04 in a new, larger cage with other mice. It was otherwise identical to the previous cage, and H9-04 began to wonder if it would ever be placed in a cage that didn’t looks, smell, and feel exactly the same.
H9-04 spent a great deal of time in the cage with the other mice, but since the first day, he noticed something peculiar about his housemates: while he always felt energetic and wanted to be active, none of his companions seemed to act the same way. Some were lethargic, others would shudder strangely for no reason, but none of them seemed interested in engaging with the environment, and with others. H9-04 quickly became tired with these other mice, and eventually grew frustrated with them. He began nudging them to see if they would respond to direct stimulation, but when he did that to one of the slowest moving mice, it simply fell over, and let out a weak cough. This frightened H9-04, so he began upping his efforts to draw some sort of positive reaction from his acquaintances. He began offering them food, bringing them to the water feeder, and eventually began carrying them around the perimeter of the cage for exercise. All of this only resulted in more pathetic, halfhearted responses, and eventually H9-04 gave up.
He woke up one day to find himself surrounded by an entirely new set of mice; his sick companions had vanished, and in their place was a group of much smaller, more energetic and vibrant mice. H9-04 was overjoyed at the change, and began interacting with them in every way he couldn’t with the others. However, as time went on, H9-04 found the others were becoming annoyingly enthusiastic. Their movements became more difficult to follow, and they seemed to zip along faster than his eyes could even focus. It was an unusual experience for H9-04, and he hoped it would disappear soon so the other rats could interact with him again. One especially dim day, H9-04 entertained the possibility that the other rats weren’t moving more quickly; he was moving more slowly. Images of his tired, sickly friends popped into his memory, and he wondered if the others saw him the same way.
When the rubber tubes returned, H9-04 was ready to welcome them. He felt that the cage he spent so much time in was the cause of his weariness, so he made no resistance to their strange texture. He was deposited onto a table that looked nothing like any of his cages, and as he lay on his side, H9-04 sniffed up at the bright light above him. A creature brought a glass tube down toward him that made a slight sting on his side, followed by a strange warmth that spread through him. The light got brighter, his nose felt heavier, and H9-04 went to sleep. And then nothing. And more nothing. And more nothing. And more nothing. And more nothing. And more nothing. And more nothing. And more nothing. And more nothing. And more nothing. And more nothing. And more nothing. And more nothing. And more nothing. And more nothing. And more nothing. And more nothing. And more nothing. And more nothing. And more nothing. And more nothing. And more nothing. And more nothing. And more nothing. 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At least it wasn’t a nothing surrounded by healthier, happier mice. Nothing would keep H9-04 from his permanent solitude.
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