Quick

The rat sat by himself, trying to admit defeat and not give up hope at the same time.

It was very difficult. He kept bouncing back and forth between the two.

He got up and examined his cage again, looking for some sort of weakness that would allow him to break free. He went over every inch of it, again.

Nothing.

He let out a small sigh and sat down again.

This particular rat's name was Quick. Rats, unlike humans, do not spend a long time picking names. They usually pick simple ones to give their children, and later, the rat can pick their own name. Quick had had his name since birth, and he'd never felt compelled to change it. It fit him. He was quick to move, quick to think, quick to understand, quick to do...most things.

But this time he hadn't been quick enough. This time, he'd been too slow.

He didn't understand his fate, but he understood that he was captured. And apparently, there was no way for him to break out.

He heard the sounds of the furless. He could hear the syllables of their words, but he didn't understand what they were saying. He could also hear them coming closer.

"Oh yeah, I caught him myself. Brown rat. Should do nicely. He's pretty young, but healthy-six months old, maybe. He doesn't look like much, does he?"

The light switch flicked on. Quick blinked and waited for his eyes to adjust. He hated this particular furless. This was the one that caught him. He had been living in the furless's home. The furless had never bothered him until now. Quick didn't recognize the other furless, though. Female. She smelled different.

"He's small, but he seems pretty smart, and definitely fast," the first furless, the male said.

The female studied him and pushed up a strange thing on her face. There were two shiny parts of it. Clear, but shiny. Some furless had those, and some didn't. Quick didn't know why, and he didn't care to find out. Mostly he just ate the furless's food and tried to leave them alone.

"Yes, he'll do," she said.

Quick blinked again. What were they saying?

"I don't see why you couldn't have just used a lab rat, they're pretty much the same thing and a lot easier to catch," the male said.

The female made an odd motion with her shoulders, moving them up and then down. "Yes, but lab rats are, essentially, domesticated. We wanted to...preserve the wildness and natural instincts of a wild brown rat."

The female furless approached, saying, "I think it's about time we started the procedure, don't you?"

Quick immediately noted a sort of tool in the female's hand. It had a long, silver point. He panicked, scratching at the cage frantically. It looked as though he was about to die-she would pierce him with that silver point!

"He's jumpy. Hold him down, will you?" the female said calmly.

The cage opened for a moment from up above, startling him for a moment. But again, he was too slow, and enormous hands reached in and grabbed him. He squeaked, biting and clawing furiously at those hands, but they were covered by some thick, tough, material and the hands did not let go.

He was utterly helpless.

Quick closed his eyes, sighing. Sad that he couldn't survive. Sad that he would never see his mate or yet-to-be-born children. Sad that he had not been fast enough, and that this was the end.

Quick snapped open his eyes, only to feel the silver point pierce him. And that was all before the world went black.

Forever.

THE END!

So, basically, Quick was the rat whose DNA they mixed with Vesper's. They put him to sleep before they took out his DNA.

I don't know why I wrote this either.