by Kate O'Hearn
On their second day, or what Jake thought was a second day, he and Nesso were witness to an experiment that shocked them so badly, Jake was sure he’d have nightmares about it for the rest of his life—however much time he had left.
Mimic doctors or scientists or whatever they were caught hold of a small snake in one of their gloved hands. Then another Mimic entered the room. The new Mimic didn’t react, didn’t fight. It was directed to lie down on the table. When it did, the doctor Mimic forced the snake to bite it.
Jake gasped as the Mimic melted. After that, the goo was collected and studied. Seeing the Mimic killed was bad. But when they killed and dissected the sweet, innocent snake, Jake started to scream and shout at the Mimics.
They didn’t react at all.
On the third day, the dissection table was cleaned until it sparkled in the horrible light. One of the Mimic doctors approached Jake’s cage and opened the lock.
“Get out,” it ordered.
“Oh, no, you’re not putting me on that table!” Jake shied back in the cage.
“Get out,” the Mimic ordered again. It didn’t raise its voice, and somehow, that was even worse.
“No,” Jake said. Was this it? Was it his turn on the terrible table of death in this house of horrors?
“I will tell you one more time,” the Mimic said. “Get out or we will drag you out.”
“You’re gonna have to drag me out, because you aren’t doing to me what you’ve done to the snakes!”
Without another word, more glove-wearing Mimics arrived and hauled Jake out of the cage. Despite their gelatinous bodies, the Mimics were surprisingly strong as they carried him over to the steel table.
Struggling all he could, Jake was strapped down. He looked at Nesso. “Whatever happens to us, whatever they do, you know I love you.”
“I love you too, my bessst Jake.…”
The Mimics examined Jake while speaking in their strange language. No matter how he shouted, screamed, or struggled, they didn’t react or speak to him. He was nothing to them, and they were letting him know it.
Samples were taken. Pieces of his hair, fingernails, skin, blood, and so much more. All without pain relief, all while he was conscious and terrified. No matter how painful it was, how loud he screamed, they didn’t stop. But after the physical examination, nothing they did hurt as much as when they dragged Nesso away from her place around his neck.
“Nesso, no!” Jake howled at the top of his lungs, straining against the restraints. “Bring her back! Don’t kill her! Please, please don’t kill her!”
“Jake…,” Nesso hissed. She squirmed in the gloved hand that held her and tried to bite the Mimic. “Jake…”
Nesso was taken away and put in a small jar. She was across the room, striking against the glass walls that imprisoned her, but at least Jake could still see her.
After that, another snake was brought in from somewhere behind him. It was a little bit bigger than Nesso and was hissing loudly.
“Where are you getting all these snakes?” Jake cried.
His question remained unanswered as the Mimics held the new snake up to Jake’s arm, but the snake refused to bite. Finally, they pried open the snake’s mouth and forced the two fangs to bite down on Jake.
Just like the first time Nesso had bitten him, pain coursed up Jake’s arm, and it felt like his whole body was on fire. Then the pain reached his head. After a single, sharp intake of breath, the world went black.
* * *
Jake awoke back in the cage. He hurt all over but was surprised to realize he was still alive. There were pains he’d never felt before coming from the back of his head. When he touched his hair, it was sticky and matted. Looking at his fingers, he saw drying blood. Jake wondered what else they had done to him while he was unconscious. For as much as he’d hated them before, there were no words to describe what he felt about the Mimics now.
The room was quiet and dimly lit, and it was what he now recognized as night on this terrible world. His head was pounding, and his arm stung from the snakebite.
Coming fully awake, Jake instantly knew that Nesso wasn’t at his neck. The pain of her absence was genuine and physical. He peered over to where the Mimics had placed her and saw that the jar was missing. “Nesso, Nesso,” he called. But he couldn’t see her. Panic set in at the fear of what they might be doing to her. Finally he remembered what he’d done on Zomos, the jungle world, to find her. Jake closed his eyes and reached out all his feelings for her. He cried aloud when he felt her life force. She was away from him and in pain, but at least she was alive.
Then he thought of the other snake that had been forced to bite him, and he felt no trace of it. He started to grieve. Somehow, he knew it was dead. Perhaps they’d killed it to try to understand his relationships with them, or maybe they just liked to kill things.
Whatever the reason, all he felt was Nesso.
Now more than ever, Jake was desperate to get out of the cage. There was a lock on the outside of the door that looked basic enough. The trouble was, he had nothing to pick it with. What he wouldn’t have given for Tryn’s lockpick set.
While he had been unconscious, the Mimics had changed his clothes. His jeans and T-shirt were gone. Instead he was wearing what looked like a kind of nightshirt made of a coarse woven fabric. There were no pockets, or anything to help him escape.
Across from him was the table of torture, and beside it, a fresh set of instruments. He shivered looking at them, realizing he now knew what half of them were for. But among them was a long, slim probe-like thing. Just perfect to fit in the lock. He just had to figure out how to get it.
Tearing up his nightshirt to make a lasso wouldn’t work—it was too light. He needed to reach the instruments. Finally he set on an idea that was simple enough but would be painful. But if it got him out of the cage and back to Nesso, he would do it. He would do anything to reach her.
The cage he was in was small. Maybe four feet by four feet. He couldn’t stretch out in it and certainly couldn’t stand. But as he inspected it in the dim light, he confirmed that it wasn’t attached to the table it was on.
Pausing to listen, Jake heard nothing but his own breathing. If there were Mimics around, they were being completely silent. Though something told him there weren’t any. They were too arrogant, believing they had him contained.
Convinced he was completely alone, Jake grabbed the front cage bars and started to rock. Back and forth, back and forth. When he put all his weight into the forward thrust, the cage started to slide.
As he moved faster, the cage slid steadily toward the edge until it flipped off the table and crashed noisily to the laboratory floor.
“Ouch,” Jake moaned as he hit the floor hard and landed on his knees, which slammed against the bars of the cage, hurting worse than he’d expected.
At least he was closer to the instrument table.
Taking a calming breath, Jake started to rock back and forth again, to move the cage closer to the tray. It was crude, and it was slow, but with each forward rock, he slid closer to the instruments.
When the cage was as close as he could get it, Jake pushed his arm up through the top and strained to reach the probe. “Please,” he begged aloud. “Just a bit farther…”
His fingers landed on the various instruments that had been used against him. Finally he grazed the probe. Snatching hold of it, he brought it down.
Jake needed to flip the cage over again to give him access to the lock. Just one flip. But when he did it, he somersaulted with the cage and landed painfully on his back and head. It hurt, but not nearly as much as coming off the table had.
With the lock now accessible, Jake’s hands were shaking as he inserted the probe into the keyhole. This was so important. Perhaps the most important thing he’d ever done in his life, and he had to get it right. After a few minutes of wiggling the probe, he heard a single click.
He nearly cried aloud when the lock opened.
Jake c
ould hardly believe what he’d just done. A moment later, he was out of the cage and standing up stiffly. His legs were throbbing from the crash down to the floor, and his back killed because of the somersault in the cage and because he hadn’t straightened up in what felt like forever. Pulling up the hem of his nightshirt, he saw the damage to his knees. Peeled skin and bruising that was starting to show.
But he was free.
Looking around the room, Jake searched for any snakes, but there were none. He did find his clothes and shoes and was grateful to change back into them.
Once he was dressed, Jake stood very still, and he reached out to Nesso again. He felt her. She was close, in a room adjoining this one. Listening for any sounds of movement, he crept up to the lab’s only door. It was larger than doors on Earth or even the ones he’d encountered on Titus. Meaning it was built for the bigger Mimics. Meaning they lived in buildings.
Pressing his ear to the door, Jake listened carefully. He heard nothing. There was no handle, but when he pressed against the door, it pushed open easily.
The adjoining room was as dimly lit as the laboratory itself. But as his eyes adjusted to the light, he could see it was larger than the lab. Although there were no dissection tables, there were other tables and shelves. In the center of the room on a massive island counter were two containers that he recognized from the Mimic camp on Zomos. He and the others had used these containers to transport the snakes back to Earth.
Had the Mimics gathered more? Or were these the Earth snakes? Without Nesso, there was no way for him to find out.
Jake closed his eyes again and reached out for Nesso. She was close. Very close. Moving forward, he followed his feelings until he reached a counter against the wall. Jake had to put his hand to his mouth to keep from screaming.
Nesso was there. She had been pinned down to the surface of an examination board. The pins went right through her tiny body. Jake could feel her suffering coming at him in thick waves.
“Nesso,” he cried softly. “Nesso, it’s me.”
“Jake…,” Nesso hissed weakly.
Jake’s hands shook even more than before as he pulled the pins out. When Nesso was free, she coiled tightly around Jake’s hand. He lifted her up to his cheek, unaware that he was crying until his tears dripped onto the snake.
“I’m so sorry, Nesso.…” He wept softly.
“Thisss isss not your fault,” Nesso said weakly. “I am ssso glad you found me. Pleassse, take me out of here. Take all of usss out.…”
Cradling Nesso, Jake found other snakes pinned down to boards. Some had been dissected and were dead. Others, like Nesso, were still alive and suffering greatly.
“Please tell them I’m here to help. Don’t let them bite me.”
“They know you and won’t,” Nesso said weakly.
Jake gasped. “Are these the same snakes that we took to Earth?”
“Yesss,” Nesso said. “The Mimicsss brought them here from Xxxanadu.”
“Xanadu?” he repeated. “These snakes were on Xanadu?”
There were so many questions Jake wanted to ask, but no time. He freed the snakes pinned to the boards and then crossed over to the containers. The lids had been sealed down. Breaking the seals, he opened the containers and tipped them over for the snakes to climb out.
Jake felt great sadness when he saw that many snakes had died at the bottom of the containers, crushed by the weight of the others on top. Even so, there were a lot of snakes now slithering along the countertop.
“Can you all understand me?” Jake asked.
The snakes stopped and all peered up at him. Their tongues flicked in and out of their mouths.
“Yesss they can,” Nesso said softly.
Jake lifted Nesso. “Are you strong enough to go back around my neck?” he asked her.
“Pleassse,” Nesso said.
Jake helped settle Nesso around his neck. She then asked if he would allow the other wounded snakes to join her. Before long, Jake had four wounded snakes coiled lightly around his neck. Somehow, having Nesso back gave him the courage to go on.
“All right, everyone, we are going to get out of here together. I don’t know where we are or where we can go, but we can’t stay here. Will you follow me?”
Again the snakes all stopped and peered at him. Nesso didn’t have to translate for him to understand. “Great,” he said. “First, let’s see if we can get out of this room. Then, and this is very important, if they come after me, I want all of you to run. Get away. Find places to hide and stay there. Will you do that?”
The air filled with soft hissing.
Nesso said, “They are grateful to you. If the Mimicsss come, we will all protect you.”
Jake sighed. That was the last thing he wanted. He needed the snakes to escape. But he knew there would be no reasoning with them. Instead he moved forward through the room toward the exit. He motioned for the snakes to follow.
The survivors slid off the counter and gathered behind him, all looking up at him expectantly. Jake was stunned by just how many there were.
“Well, this is it,” he said as he reached for the door and pushed it open. “Let’s go.”
3
JAKE STEPPED THROUGH THE DOOR of the Mimic lab and found himself in a long corridor. Like in the other rooms, the lighting had been dimmed. And in the faint light, he saw many doors lining the wall. It looked like a hospital. But this was not a place of healing. It was a place of suffering and death.
As Jake held the door open, the snakes silently slid forward until they were all in the corridor. Jake looked around, not knowing where to go next. There was no writing on the doors and nothing to indicate an exit.
Jake turned back to all the snakes and held up his hand. “Stay here,” he said softly. “I’m just going down to the end to see if there’s a way out.”
Hundreds of tiny tongues flicked out of small mouths.
“They will ssstay,” Nesso said softly.
Jake nodded and started to run. When he reached the end of the corridor, there was no exit that he could see. He ran back toward the snakes and then to the opposite end. He was grateful to see a large set of stairs. By the time he ran back to the snakes, he found them all gathered outside one of the doors.
“There’s a way out. All of you, follow me.”
The snakes refused to move.
“Please, we have to hurry. It’s this way.”
Once again, the snakes refused to move. They looked up at Jake, and then back to the door.
“What’s wrong with them?” Jake asked Nesso.
“They want you to open the door. They need to get in there. Sssomeone ssspecial isss inssside. We mussst help her.”
“Who?” Jake asked.
“The one inssside is frightened. We mussst help her. Pleassse open the door.”
Jake instinctively reached up to his neck and stroked Nesso and all the wounded snakes coiled there. Nesso was still suffering, but she was worried about others. He looked down the corridor toward what could be freedom, and back at the door.
“All right, but if we get into trouble, it’s you guys’ fault.”
The snakes parted to allow Jake through. He pushed the door, and it opened easily.
The room was another laboratory. In the center was a dissection table just like the one he’d been on. Beside it was a cage. A young girl, perhaps his sister’s age or a bit younger, was curled up in the corner of the cage and crying. When she saw Jake, she crawled up to the bars and pointed to a counter against the wall. “Help them, please. The Mimics are killing them to punish me.”
Jake followed the girl’s finger to the counter. Several snakes were pinned down, just as Nesso and the others had been. Others were in jars with the lids sealed tightly shut. They were losing their color as they slowly suffocated. Other jars were filled with water that was deeper than the small snakes. Two were already drowned, lying pale and dead at the bottom.
Jake reacted instantly and ran over to the counte
r. He unscrewed all the lids on the jars to allow air in. Then he reached into the bottles of water to free the snakes. Finally he freed the pinned snakes. Like Nesso, they coiled themselves up when the pins were removed.
“Those monsters,” Jake muttered. “Why are they doing this to you?”
“It’s my fault,” the girl wept. “I am a snake charmer, but when I couldn’t explain how it worked, they punished me by hurting the snakes.”
Jake looked back at her and saw that all the snakes from the corridor were in the cage with her.
“Who are you?” Jake asked, walking closer.
“Angitia,” the girl said softly. “I come from Titus. Who are you?”
“I’m Jake.” He approached her cage and looked at the lock. It was the same as his. “I’m from Earth. I’m friends with Astraea and Zephyr. They’re from Titus too.”
“I know Astraea and Zephyr,” Angitia said. “Will you please let me out of here?”
Jake looked around the room. “Do you know where they keep the key to the lock?”
Angitia nodded. “Over there, beside the door.”
Jake found a strange-looking key hanging on a hook beside the door. It took a bit of fiddling, but soon the lock was opened and Angitia was free.
The first thing she did was throw her arms around him and weep into his chest. “Thank you, thank you. Will you take me home?”
Jake embraced the young girl and could feel her trembling. “I really wish I could, but the Mimics took my Solar Stream ring. What I can do is get you and all the snakes out of here. Then maybe we can find somewhere safe to hide until we figure this out.”
Angitia nodded and waited for Jake to move.
Looking into her pale, young eyes, in that one instant, Jake felt the last of his childhood end.
Everything about him had changed. It wasn’t so long ago that he’d been in California and the most difficult thing he’d had to worry about was learning a new skateboarding trick. His whole life had been only about himself. What he’d wanted or thought he needed. He hadn’t really thought about his sister or mother that much. It had been all just Jake.
