The Story of NIMH

You know the beginning of The Secrets of NIMH, but what about before the film? Follow Nicodemus, Justin, Jonathan Brisby, and other rats of NIMH from their humble beginnings.

Writers note: This is the first chapter to my story that I have been working on for some time. I tried to put it all on at once, but I did not know it would put the whole thing in one MASSIVE chapter. So with some tweeking, I think I've fixed it. So with that in mind, I was going to finish this then post it, but due to some waning interest in my story-and frankly I'm incredibly bored and want to move on to other projects-I've decided to post it about three-quarters finished, don't worry I will finish it. Anyway reviews are welcome, as is advice. I'm not a writer, and any advice on how to improve is welcomed.

Prologue:

I never really remembered much of my life before my transformation; it's nothing but a blur now. Every morning it's the same routine for me; wake up by the cold embrace of a gloved hand wrapping around me, carried to a germ- free room where I'm injected with a cocktail of chemicals and then dropped into a maze, some days there would be a box projecting images of objects onto a wall, but most of the time it was a maze that changed layouts with every passing day. I was tasked with finding my way from one end to the other without assistance, if I took a wrong path there would be a strong electrical shock to deter me further, if I stayed true to the path, I was rewarded with returning to my silver box for the rest of the day with a special treat. The same cold hand would gingerly pick me up, carry me through the germ- free room again, inject me once more, and then drop me in my little silver box, which has been my new home for over two weeks now. I don't know what the humans are looking for or what they're doing to me, but each time I make my way through the maze it gets a little easier, surprising given my age. It won't matter what the humans see in me, I won't be around for much longer. My name is Nicodemus, I am a rat, and today I turn 4 human years old.

Chapter 1: Nicodemus

Nicodemus woke with a start. What on earth? The old rat sat up gingerly from his bed, gray hairy ears twitching to the sound sounded like someone was trying to rip into his cardboard home; maybe a cat or some annoying pups were trying to test if he was still alive. Nicodemus slowly blinked away the sleep- state; he looked up through the slits in the top of the box, it was still night. He yawned and stretched his front paws out, flexing his toes. The muscles and bones moaned to protest the movement they weren't used to, but Nicodemus didn't mind as he moved the motion from his toes to his back in a smooth wave fashion, coming to an end at his tail. The bones in his spine popped. He felt better, now he could investigate what was disturbing this old rat. He sniffed the air with his nose, the gray whiskers on his equally gray nose flicked the air, looking for any signs of foul in the air, he couldn't smell a cat, but something odd was in the air for sure, that didn't mean anything, they were in the city after all, and cats were sneaky beings.

He barely got one paw off his mattress foam bed when his world was lifted, right out from under him into the air in an erratic jerk. Tossed from one corner of the box to the other, he tried to regain his footing as he was thrown to another side of the box, trying again and again to stand but would lose his balance on the earthquake that was shaking him to his core. Without warning the lid to his box flew open, and a brilliant yellow light blinded the old rat. He squinted; his eyes began to water at the intense light. He thought for a moment it was the sun, but it was still night out, what is that light? He shrank into the corner he was thrown into, not sure to fear this light, or make a dash for it. These old bones might not get me very far, he thought to himself. He hoped he wouldn't have to go very far to reach safety, but he had to decide quickly. Something was not right about this light. Suddenly deep growls, followed by what sounded like short barks and burps from a large creature echoed into the box from behind this unnatural light. The rat froze, backed into this corner; he prepared to be eaten by something big and hungry. At least I won't see it coming. He thought.

But it didn't seem to be aimed at Nicodemus, but something out of site. From what Nicodemus could figure out, it seemed to be something talking, but he couldn't understand it. The light stopped shining for a moment at his eyes, and he could see through the stars in his eyes an outline of a hairy pink skinned head, with round circles around what appeared to be the growling creature's eyes. The eyes weren't all black like a rats, instead the centers were black surrounded by a puddle of white, but the center of the eyes weren't looking at him, they were looking at something out of view, the creatures mouth was flexing and moving, showing its flat teeth every once in a while in its speech. A human, that's what it is, well that isn't much better than a cat, but at least I might have a chance. Nicodemus tried to listen to them talk, he heard the words faintly, but had no idea what they meant. He tilted his head towards his good ear to try and listen. The one holding the light at Nicodemus continued its speech.

"Look at this one Pete…older than the rest… might not survive the trips back…"

The one out of view replied. "Shame if he doesn't make it…B-204... more mature ones…see if it works… process…"

Nicodemus had no idea what any of it meant, but something in his gut said it wasn't good. I'm going to try and make a jump for it. But just as he thought that, the human holding his home finished the conversation with the other human, and promptly shut the lid. Nicodemus was all of a sudden surrounded in darkness, his eyes adjusted to the light now had to readjust to the dark. The box continued its shaking, and so did Nicodemus. He was starting to get motion sickness when the box came to a sudden and crashing stop. Whoever was holding the box had dropped it. Then there were two loud Thumps, Followed by silence. Nicodemus only heard his heart pounding in his ears and his breathing, quick and terrified. He tried to calm himself and listen. He heard a noise, a squeak. Then there were several squeaks, followed by the rustling of a cloth bag. The humans must have captured more of us! Nicodemus thought. They must be in a bag next to my box, maybe I should…

"Hello?" Nicodemus asked in a shaky tone, running over to a wall. Standing on his hind legs and placing his good ear against the wall of the box to hear a reply.

Silence, then.

"Hello? Who's there?" replied several voices, all with varying degrees of terror in their tones.

"My name is Nicodemus, who are you?" He said warily.

"My name is Justin." Said one of the creatures in the bag, then the rest of the bag began to rattle off names; Duncan, Jonathan, Deborah, Hal, Joshua, Harriet, Nickolas…

Everyone in the sack eventually replied with varying degrees of fear in their voices, Nicodemus was surprised by how many creatures were stuffed into the sack, so he tried to think if something to calm them down, so he continued with small talk.

"How many of you are in the bag?"

Justin, who was the first to speak, had a shaky but smooth reassuring voice, spoke for the bag. "Um, there are a lot of rats in here, and some mice too. How about you, how many are in there with you?"

"Me."Nicodemus replied, taking his ear away from the wall. A long silenced followed, neither package knowing what to say or do now. Nicodemus slid down onto the cold floor in his box.

Suddenly the ground beneath their feet hiccupped, then roared to life and began to growl loudly. Nicodemus jumped, and the bag next to him was full of screams of terror from the occupants.

"What is that?" cried a high pitched voice.

"It's what the humans use to get around with, a vehicle." said another voice in the bag.

Nicodemus knew of vehicles, they reminded him of giant creatures that humans had tamed into transporting them around without humans exerting too much energy. And they never sounded happy about the job they were forced into, grumbling everywhere they went.

"Are we in one?" Asked another worried voice.

"Most definitely!" replied another.

"Dear God, we've been devoured by one of those horrid things!" the bag was in full screams, Nicodemus just sighed.

I'm a little happy if I've been devoured. I've lived my full life. Nicodemus accepted what has happened to him, and decided it was time to fall asleep. Forever in eternal slumber.

…Suddenly he was awake.

The doors swung open on the vehicle, he could hear that, then the familiar return of human speech. Nicodemus didn't care, if it was his time, he was going to go quietly, he closed his eyes again. The lid of his box was opened, along with the return of the fake sun. "Aw jeez, this one might kick the bucket before we even get him in the building."

"Then don't sit there! Grab the box with the old rat; I'll get the bag with the others."

Nicodemus was lost to the outside world, his box was picked up again and being shaken from side to side, but not as violently. The human was trying to be gentle. For the first time in his life, he felt at ease; he didn't care where he was going to steal his next meal or worry what was going to happen to him, for once in his life he was content. The world around him began to dim, the rustling of the box against the humans' jacket got more and more quiet, and warmth blanketed him. It's ok to let go. Something told him, no more fighting for scraps, no more smell of death, no more pain. He felt weightless, like something picked him up, maybe he was being carried to the other side, I would have preferred to walk joked Nicodemus.

"We're losing him." The voice sounded far away, and like it was in a tin can.

"Should we inject him with the B-204?" Said another voice, this bothered the first one.

"Too risky, we haven't tested it enough, the proteins still need to stabilize after-"

"No we need to perform a field test now! We don't have enough mature test subjects to get a conclusive hypothesis on what it does to the cell structure and DNA strands! I'm not going to lose this chance to an old rat keeling over on me. Get it, now."

There was a sound of movement, heavy boot steps traveling away, the clanging of metal, and then the boot steps coming back.

"Here you are sir, strand B-204."

Nicodemus felt a slight pinch on his stomach. Then a wave of prickles spread from the pinch on his stomach to his extremities. An invisible hand pulled Nicodemus back from the brink of death with a sudden jerk, his eyes spread wide open and he gasped. His heart beat strong, his breath even, he was alive more than he had been for a long time. He realized he was being held by a gloved hand and flailed his limbs, but couldn't be shaken free from it holding him. The humans that seemed so far away were now staring down on top of him, their faces blacked out by the harsh shadows caused by the artificial suns that shown above the group.

"Seems stable, no signs of distress…" Said one of the humans, Nicodemus thrashed again, but the hand squeezed tighter.

"It seems to have given him a second wind, good, keep monitoring his condition, and place him in a cage. We'll check on him in the morning."

And just like that the excitement was over, the humans dissipated like morning fog, Nicodemus didn't stop thrashing long enough to glance around before the iron gripped human placed him in a small dark box, near the top row of other similar boxes, all closed. The hand released Nicodemus near the back wall of the box and withdrew quickly, slamming the large door before Nicodemus could get out. He wasn't about to rush the door, he wasn't sure why the human was in such a hurry. Nicodemus looked around this new and strange place he was in; all sides were a shiny silver, almost reflective, one corner had a small plastic dish full of small brown pellets, and what looked like an upside down baby bottle hanging near the door. The floor was cold to the touch, there was no light coming from above, like his old warm box. The only light shining in was through the wall the human closed; a long narrow window about head level, barred off in small gaps too small for Nicodemus could squeeze between them. But that wasn't on his mind at the moment, he was thinking about himself. What did they do to me? I was on Death's door, and then all of a sudden I couldn't be any more alive. He glanced down, wondering if that pinch he felt earlier had anything to do with it; in the middle of his aged light gray stomach there was a near perfect small circle of dried blood on his fur. How did that happen? Was that the pinch? Whatever that was, I still don't feel right. It was true, the feeling of pins-and-needles never subsided, but more importantly he knew he should be dead, he lasted a full rat life and a little more before all of this, he was about to die peacefully of old age, but something stopped nature's plans; and now he got the feeling his existence was fake, only being kept going by whatever those humans did to him, he didn't like it one bit.

He marched toward the windowed wall and shoved it with his shoulder, it moved slightly, but didn't budge. He tried it with what little more strength he could muster; but it still didn't give. What do I do now? His stomach growled, dictating what needed to be done next. Nicodemus didn't remember the last time he ate, and was surprised at how hungry he was, he looked in the shadows of his silver box, and saw the plastic dish full of small brown pellets, he reached in and grabbed one. He carefully brought one of the pellets to his nose and sniffed it; doesn't have a smell, how odd. He bit a small chunk of it off, and instantly spat it back out, ugh! That is foul! A rat isn't a picky eater by any means, they ate the waste humans left behind; but that didn't mean they enjoyed eating everything. The small, odorless, little pellet had the bitterest taste, like drinking foul milk. Nicodemus didn't have much of a choice; he needed nutrition to survive if he was planning on escaping. His face grimaced at the thought of eating these things for an extended period; he bit off another small chunk and quickly swallowed it before the flavor was unbearable. His face scrunched up, he fought back the feeling to vomit. It subsided and he smacked his lips. There have been worse things I've eaten. Another thought crossed his mind; what about everyone else? I can't escape alone, I'm not strong enough anymore, and if I'm not the only one in this place. They needed to escape too.

But it can't be done tonight. The humans just captured us and are on watch, the right time will present itself; we just need to hold out until then. Nicodemus shivered, his new box was cold without any insulation or foam. It was just like this when he was a small pup; his brothers and sisters moving constantly, their mother saw no respite as they ran from the humans that began gassing the alleyways and sewers "To stop us from rising up and taking over" their mother assured them. They never lived in a place more than a week, and they never carried personal belongings. They were just too heavy to carry. There wasn't much warmth then, and that was so long ago. Could I do it again? He sighed, and curled into a ball near the back wall of his new home. Not much of a choice now. Nicodemus fell into a fitful night sleep.

Writer's note: That's the first chapter, released out into the world. I'm betting no one is going to read this, but thats fine, I'm still posting this story. Readers and reviews won't dictate when I release chapters, this story is going to come out in one big chunk, so get ready, because chapter 2 is following shortly behind.

The Guest Calypso