Return to NIMH - Prologue

Tamera, a silvery-gray mouse, hurried home with the food she had gathered. It had been a good day; she carried home twice as much food as she normally could find. But since she had gathered so much food, she had stayed out longer than she normally would have. Already the sun was setting in the late-August sky and all of the other mice in her colony would already be home.

She rounded the corner along the alleyway that she, along with the rest of her colony, lived, in the foundation of an old library. She stopped short, however when she noticed a large truck in the alleyway, bearing on it four letters: "NIMH," and then beneath it, in smaller print, "National Institute of Mental Health."

Her eyes widened and the food she carried dropped from her nerveless paws as a sickening dread washed over her. Not again! No, not again! In her mind's eye, she could see the dark features of the face of her brother, Anthony, barely a year younger than herself. Several months ago, the men from NIMH had caught him while the rest of the colony escaped. The last that she had seen of him was a fleeting glance; he was caged, terrified, while rest of the mice ran to find another place to hide. Unable to help him without risking the safety of the colony, she and her parents grieved for days afterwards at their loss.

"Is that all of them?" someone asked.

Tamera's thoughts returned to the present at the interruption. Surveying the scene, she saw that there were a few people there, a man with thick glasses, and two others without distinguishing features. They all wore laboratory coats, and the other two were handling some equipment with hoses. At last her eyes were drawn to a cage on the ground. Most of the mice in her colony were there, but she did not see her mother and father. All of them were huddled together, terrified. She hoped beyond hope that her parents had managed to escape, but her hopes were dashed as she saw them inside a smaller cage, near the entrance to the nest, embracing each other tightly with tears streaking down their faces. She wanted to call out to them, but she didn't dare, in case even her small cry would lead to her capture as well.

"Here's the last two," one of the men said.

He carried the smaller cage over and put the two huddling mice inside the larger one.

"All right then," the man with the glasses said, "let's get them down to the lab."

The men placed the cage inside the back of the truck and, after loading the equipment, closed the door. They then climbed inside the cab, started the engine, and drove away. Tamera stood watching, unable to move, to think, to do anything but cry.

From the protective shadow of a garbage can on the other side of the alley, another pair of eyes watched as the scientists departed. Got away, the one to whom the eyes belonged thought, nervously. Must not let them catch me again. A sound caught his ears; the short sobs of someone crying. Slowly, haltingly, he moved around the edge of the can so that he could see around the edge, still keeping his small form within the shadows. Peering out into the alley, he couldn't immediately see the source of the sound. He looked all around, but... There! There it is.

The sound was coming from a small, gray mouse, a female, just visible around the corner of the alley's entrance from the side street. She had her face buried in her paws, which were sodden with tears. He watched for a few minutes, when she stopped crying, looked up, wiped away her tears and let out a long, broken sigh. He froze, riveted to the spot he was standing. I know her! She's...

He wracked his brain, trying to remember, but... nothing. It was like the static of a television with poor reception, he knew something should be there, but the picture was garbled beyond discernment. Though he had experienced the sensation before, it made it no less unsettling.

The mouse looked around as if she were seeing her surroundings for the first time. A thoughtful look replaced her stricken look of only a few moments before. She must have decided something, since after a few minutes, she turned around and dashed back up the side street. The small, shadowy form that hid behind the garbage can hesitated a few moments, then dashed after her, leaving the alleyway empty and unnaturally silent.

Table of Contents | Next Chapter