{Chapter I}
The realms of Science and Science Fiction are often blurred. Day in and day out, they are. With each new advancement in science, there is always one or two drawbacks. With each new breakthrough, hundreds of others have already suffered, and some suffrages can never be forgiven. It is for this reason, I since started this project. It bends the very realms of cloning and stem cells. In fact, one could say it was practically insane. I wondered why, when cells were altered to created clones, etc, that they always had to start with a new being. They had to push the 'reset' button on life, and have the creature be born, to see results. I simply wanted to perfect this, wanted to try and combine two living organisms in the middle of their lives, instead at the beginning. Of course, I needed a purpose for this. Some creatures, I realized would give me more then enough reason to start the experiment. What if a human had wings of an eagle? The hearing of a dog? The speed of a cheetah? What if we had such supernatural powers? Why-it would be brilliant. Of course, I had no idea of the side effects, and I did not want to test this on simply animals. Why, that broke the reason for the experiment. Since many animals carried the same qualities as others, it made no point to try to combine them. So, I had to turn to the animal which I wished to make better.
Us.
The only problem was, I dare not put another's life on the line for this. At least-not until I knew the side effects, and whether or not it worked. I decided then to be my own guinea pig. As for which animal I was to fuse myself with, I chose the rat. An albino, aka, 'lab rat'. The rat is a flexible, almost indestructible creature. Why, it can survive being in a freezer, contort its spine to go through quarter-sized holes, and even survive in cold water for a few days. Not to mention its tail-which would give me extra balance, and an extra hand, along with another way to keep cool-as rats sweat with their tails. So, there was my project. The chose a normal rat, and slowly but surely transferred certain cells from it, into certain cells of mine. Of course, I did not do this with the cell on me. Working under a medical microscope, I was able to have at least 6 million cells, each in its own group, with its own directions and orders on what it was to do. Cells for pigment, skeleton, looks, and other such things were put into place, combining them with certain cells of mine. So, they would mutate. Maybe the hair cell from me, would combine with the fur cell of the rat. And the pigments would fuse, and change feel and look and shape. It was not hair-but was not fur. I couldn't think of what to call it, I was only overjoyed that such mutations worked. Of course, all vital cells I had, such as for my organs and brain, I did not extract or alter. They remained human. Now, as for the cells I now had-after 30 days of incubating in a fridge-I had to think of a way to transfer them. I decided, to put the cells into a syringe, and with preserving chemicals, shot them into my arm. They did not have an immediate effect but slowly, day after day, I cam closer to the answer, and the break through was at my heels.
60 days after the cells were first injected, I had completed the stage. However, my project was a success-but alas also a horror-some failure. My head was that of an albino rats, and so was my neck. My back was covered in fur like the rat's-no, hair like fur-and this covered the back of my arms, were the natural hair was. This also curved around to the front of my legs, they too, were covered in the fur-hair substance of a bright white. I had a tail, a great long, and large tail-but a rat's tail. My hands were constructed like a humans, but look like a rats. So were my feet. My teeth remained the same, as did the front of me-as did my brain, and my eyes, and my organs. My skeleton was much more flexible, I could fit through many things that should have crushed me. However, it was not long before I was found out. I was, indeed, a Rat-Person. A living, Rodent-Sapient. I was discovered simply because some wondered why I never stepped out of the house, and, soon, I was sent away in the darkest of steel trucks, away to some unknown area. Now, I cannot tell you all of my trip, as I remember waking up halfway through. Yet I detected a climate change, and I swear at one point we had gone on a plane-for what reason, I do not know. They did not want me to wake up, and for most of the trip I had to trick them into thinking whatever drug they gave me had its full effect-yet it was not none yet, that rats had a great immune system, and all drugs they had tried to use on me, had less then half their full effect. Maybe being a half..rodent..person wouldn't be so bad. At least it wasn't to bad until I opened my eyes to suddenly find myself in a dark box. My eye sight was not good in the dark, and a rat's vision is not all that good-I am grateful I did not add that onto the experiment. However, I remember hearing the squeaking of a wheel-dare I say-it was a hamster wheel, and I cringed as I walked over to it, and touched it. I was clearly a rat, not a hamster, and I am clearly a human. I still wondered what else I had yet to find in my 'cell' or I guess, 'cage'. I continued to feel and smell my way about, when I found a giant water bottle-like those you'd fit into the bars of a rat cage for water, and by touching the end it would drip out. My lip-not so much my lip-but my jaw twitched in anger. I was not a rat, nor a pet. I was still human, in an anthropomorphic way, and I still the mind I had before the experiment. I was at least happy to discover a bed, and what seemed to be a box some some junk. I thought at first this was for me to 'gnaw' on, to keep from my teeth (fangs?) from overgrowing. Yet, I realized they were not odd at all-well yes, they were-but instead where to be used to aide my brain in whatever I was doing. It would have been helpful if I at least had my old logs, and I soon discovered those on top of the bed. I didn't quite understand why I was here. I mean-I was in a dark little box, with no light. Yes, I could make a flashlight, but I'd rather know where I was, and even better why. So, I decided, I'd try to brake through the walls. My tail flicked happily at the idea-but then again it was rather odd having an extra appendage so maybe it had been an accident. I fit together a worn out fire-extinguisher, with a burnt out lighter, tape, glue, copper wires, a battery-almost out of its use-and really just a match and a rock. And in a moment I had a makeshift flamethrower, that would only work about two minutes. So I felt my way over to the wall at the front, and struck the match a few times against the rock-the match lit I set it to the flamethrower, and after it blazed aflame (at which point I almost dropped it, as it nearly blinded me) I set it up to the metal wall, and was able to burn through a hole about the size of a doggy-door. The flamethrower no longer useful, I tossed it aside, and almost gave up there. I had forgotten I could squeeze through that-and I easily did. And, well, I found myself in a giant white room, with a table and chairs-and it was lighter then before, but still dark.
It dawned on me then that it must have been night, but I decided I could wait that long, and took a seat at the table and waited-for about two hours. I couldn't even guess how much I'd change that day, and yet I was changed enough. I guessed there were other living things here-or why would their be chairs? And I only hoped they knew something more then I did about this place.