Ever had a nightmare where you're trying to run but you're rooted to the spot?
Yes, it was like that for the terrified teenager who had recklessly transformed himself into a mouse with the use of a Chronivac. In his nightmare, however, he had been taken from his own home and placed into a cage holding his captor's pet snake.
And it wasn't a nightmare. Everything happening to poor Nathan was real.
The snake's forked tongue flickered from its jaws and tasted the air.
Then the snake turned away and slithered to the other side of the container, coiling itself atop some rocks beneath a basking lamp.
"Get up!" Brandon snapped. He grabbed a pencil and prodded the tiny rodent. "Move, damn you."
Even if he had wanted to move, and he didn't, Nathan's limbs were not working.
Finally, in disgust, the snake's owner reached into the cage and scooped the petrified mouse into his hand. A moment later, he dropped the mouse into a bare, empty cage. "We'll try again later when Jimbo's hungrier."
Nathan finally regained mobility and raced to the front glass pane. "Come back! Don't leave me here!"
Brandon ignored the torrent of shrill squeaks. He knew his pet, and figured Jimbo was being finicky. "That's the only reason I brought him a damn live mouse in the first place," he grumbled.
Poor Nathan could see the enormous snake, only a few feet away in its own enclosure. He stared toward his own doom.
"I've got to escape!"
Looking around the cage, he saw very few options.