074 - wire

"I need someone to help my pet rat!" echoed out through the bus. It was a small boy toward the back, and a few people on the bus gave him a concerned looked. He held in his lap a large cardboard box. One of the other passengers, a teenage boy, responded. "Well, what's wrong with your rat?"

"Look at it!" the little boy yelled out. The teenager peered into the box as the boy pulled the top of the box open. Immediately, a huge rat jumped out of the box and began screeching and biting the teenager's face. The teen's screams now had gotten the attention of everyone on the bus.

"Ah! Get it off!" he yelled. The little boy seemed calmer now. "Yeah, he's been doing that, that's why I don't know what's wrong with him. Ever since I found him on the street, he just seems to want to bite everyone's face off."

"What the fuck!" the teenager yelled as his blood began to fly all over the bus. The bus driver quickly pulled over, and as the doors swung open, everyone immediately vacated the bus. Everyone, that is, except for the little boy, and the older boy who had a rat gnawing madly on his face. The teenager likely would have liked to escape the bus, too, but by now the rat had completely torn his eyes from their sockets.

"Somebody help me! Oh god!" The boy kept yelling. Meanwhile, the rat's owner just sat there and watched. People on the street, some of them who had formerly been passengers on the bus, were calling out for someone who could help the poor boy.

A police officer out on his beat eventually passed by. A woman was able to convince him to help the teen. "Some psychotic boy on the bus let a rabid rat out of a box and it attacked some other kid," she was screaming at the cop. "Okay, okay, I'll see what I can do, ma'am," the officer said, knowing quite well that he didn't really want to deal with a rabid rat.

The police officer hopped on the bus and saw how grim the scene was. The teenager laid on the ground, not moving now. The officer did not know if he was merely unconscious or actually dead. But one thing was certain: the rat was happily still devouring the teen's face, and all that was left of it was a giant red mess of a wound.

The young boy still sat there, apparently unconcerned that his rat had caused all of this havoc. "Hey!" the officer yelled as he approached the rat and the wounded boy. "Are you alright, kid?!" His shouting got the rat's attention, and it slowly turned and snarled at the officer.

"What's he doing?" the officer asked the little boy. The boy did not respond. "Is he going to attack me, too?" the officer asked again, backing away slightly. The rat did not move any closer but kept his eyes locked on the officer.

No response from the boy made the officer feel even more nervous. He drew his weapon. "I'll shoot it, I'll shoot it if it comes at me I swear to god." The little boy finally spoke up. "Shooting at it will only make it stronger and angrier."

"How the hell is that possible?!" the police officer asked. The rat seemed to know it was being threatened, and began to approach the officer. "Stop, I'm telling you, you better stop!" The rat did not stop.

The sound of gunfire erupted moments later in the bus, as the windows were sprayed with a fresh coat of red blood.