Nathan felt ravenous. The teenager had neglected to do any research into the biological workings of Mus musculus, or the ordinary house mouse, before using the Chronivac to effect his transformation. Now, he was discovering the greatly accelerated metabolism of his twitchy, nervous, almost constantly hungry tiny body, which needed to feed often to keep up with energy demands.
Speaking of which, Brandon grabbed a bottle of water from his fridge and removed a carton of leftovers. He unscrewed the bottle cap and popped the leftover chicken fried rice into the microwave to re-warm. As his food heated, he unpacked his bag, removing the cage and its tiny occupant.
He put the cage aside when the microwaved beeped. He removed the re-heated leftovers and walked them to the table. His tiny captive, forced to watched, squeaked from hunger as he felt his stomach almost physically contract as Nathan watched the man devour heaps or rice, chicken, and vegetables.
"I'd kill for some of that," thought the transformed youth. His favorite food was Chinese, especially from Colonel Tzu's Palace on Lexington. Not so much as a grain of rice appeared to come his way as the man finished off the contents of the food carton.
"Is he going to keep me prisoner and not even feed me?" Nathan worried.
Finished with his quick meal, Brandon carried the carton to the sink. He then turned and finally paid some attention to the wee white mouse in its cage. The mouse reared on its hind legs and pawed at the plastic wall with its front paws. "Let me out!" Nathan squeaked without effect.
Finally, the man reached and grabbed a small handle molded into the plastic lid of the enclosure. "Guess it's time to introduce you to Jimbo," Brandon said.
Nathan slid from one side to the other as the container swayed in Brandon's grip. If he had eaten anything, he was sure he would be quite sick from the way the big man carried the tiny cage. Nathan's curiosity about the identity of Jimbo had only started when Brandon opened the door to another room. Bright lights shone from tracks in the ceiling and a wall of fish tanks and cages were arranged along an entire wall. Nathan's pointy snout twitched as he noticed the room was notably warmer than the room they had just left.
"Is he putting me in an even bigger cage?" Nathan wondered.
Suddenly, something moved in the largest cage.
It actually didn't so much move as sort of slithered over a carpet of wood shavings, a long, sinuous body twisting and curving as it moved.
"Hey, Jimbo!" Brandon rapped on the front pane. "Look what daddy's brought you."
A torrent of squeaks escaped the box as Nathan pled for his life. "No! I'm not a real mouse!" The Chronivac-transformed teenager screamed. "Oh shit! You can't feed me to a snake!"
The python raised up the front segment of its massive six-foot-long body with mild interest.
Nathan's beady red eyes locked onto the serpent, which looked as big as some Amazonian anaconda. Squeak! Squeak! Squeak. "Somebody help me!"
Brandon popped the lid of the specimen enclosure and lifted the lid on the snake's domicile.
Nathan felt a sickening, lurching motion as the huge man turned the entire enclosure upside down over the cage. He shrieked as he tumbled the short distance.
A little stream of pee soaked the shavings scattered over the enclosure when the tiny mouse landed in the same cage with the monster. Nathan heard the rasping of dry scales on shavings as the snake slide closer. His tiny mouse brain grew ever more frantic until he swooned and collapsed in paralysis in the path of the oncoming serpent.