Free Lab Rats in Space by Bruno Bouchet Page A

face and spoke in a growl.
    One morning they were all just waking up. KT lay in bed yawning trying to open his eyes. He stretched, moved around and then sat bolt upright. He realised something was missing. Something wasn’t there.
    â€˜What’s the matter?’ asked Zed.
    â€˜Err, nothing,’ KT replied, ‘…must have been a dream.’
    â€˜Let’s all head to the gym,’ Zed announced jumping out of bed wide awake.
    â€˜Oh no!’ Jay really didn’t like the training.
    â€˜There’s bound to be some advantage to having a humungous nose. Look at my arm,’ Zed waved his third arm around, ‘it’s quite useful really… Xanax did me a favour.’
    â€˜You try getting Dee’s hammer shoved up your nose and see if you think it’s still a favour!’ said Jay.
    â€˜We have to be able to defend ourselves. Come on, Jay, you’re getting better and we can think of ways to stop you falling on your nose.’
    â€˜OK,’ Jay agreed. Zed did have a way of making him feel better about himself. Perhaps he was right.
    â€˜C’mon, KT,’ Zed was doing a one-arm push-up with his rear hand and clapping with his two front hands to get them all going.
    â€˜Err… you two have some one-on-one practice and I’ll come down later.’
    â€˜Cool.’ Zed pushed Jay out of the room and down to the gym.
    Once he was sure they were gone, KT got out of bed and went to their bathroom to look at himself in the mirror.
    â€˜Oh no,’ he said when he saw his reflection. ‘So that was Xanax’s experiment.’
    Tears welled up in his eyes. His was the worst experiment of all he thought. The others must never find out.
    When he arrived at the gym, KT found everyone there. Dee and Emm had decided they needed some exercisetoo. They had hoped to turn on the hunky aerobics instructor, but Zed had got there first. He suggested they join in the combat training.
    â€˜What else is there to do?’ asked Dee. ‘We’re just floating around in space going nowhere, may as well take it out on each other.’
    â€˜Don’t start that again,’ Zed said. ‘We made a decision, let’s stick to it.’
    Dee and Emm rolled their eyes at each other.
    â€˜OK Zed,’ Emm asked. ‘What do we do then?’
    They turned on the program. The trainer soon had them standing in a row, pushing one fist out and shouting ‘heeya!’ as loud as they could.
    â€˜This is pretty stupid,’ muttered Emm.
    â€˜The exercise focuses your mind on the power of your fist,’ the virtual combat trainer answered her comment.
    He made them pair up. Zed worked with KT, Jay and Emm worked together. Dee sat it out because it involved locking hands, which was hard with her hammer. She looked at her hammer, trying to wiggle fingers she didn’t have.
    â€˜I’m so clumsy with this thing,’ she thought and wondered if she’d be better with it chopped off. She couldn’t even feed herself properly. If any food needed cutting up, one of the others had to do it for her.
    â€˜Stupid arm.’
    She hit the hammer with her screwdriver fingernails. A spark flew up.
    â€˜Well,’ she thought with a little smile. ‘At least I could make us fire if we get lost in a forest somewhere.’
    Zed and KT wrestled as instructed. Zed, being the strongest, managed to flip KT onto his back, then jumped on him.
    â€˜Ow!’ said KT. ‘That really hurt. Do you have to jump so hard?’
    â€˜Please, that wasn’t hard… this is hard.’
    Zed jumped again.
    â€˜Get off! Why are you being such a bully?’
    Zed was amazed. They always fought and mucked around. It was fun. It was why they were friends.
    â€˜Why are you being such a girl?’ Zed asked.
    â€˜Nice one Zed, great insult. What could be worse!’ Dee was annoyed with Zed now.
    Before she could continue, KT had charged at Zed