Mutant Rat

The Mutant Rats were creatures which appeared in James Herbert’s Rats trilogy of horror novels.

Description
Although all were descended from the same stock, there existed several sub-species of Mutant Rat. Whilst the numbers of Mutant Rats was relatively small (there were estimated to be only a few thousand), their heightened intelligence and aggressive behaviour encouraged regular rats to join them in their attacks, which increased the danger significantly. All of the mutant breeds carried a toxin in their saliva which would kill survivors of their bite within twenty-four hours.

Mutant Black Rat
Larger than a regular black rat, the mutant strain were powerfully built creatures measuring nearly three feet in length and with a pair of viciously sharp incisors. Bred with common rats, they were by far the most numerous type.

Guardian Rat
Slightly larger than the regular mutants, the Guardian Rats were small in number but even more fearsome than their smaller cousins. They acted as protectors for the Dominant White Rats which controlled the others, and would attack anything which got too close to their masters, even other mutants.

Dominant White Rat
The Dominant White Rats were enormous, disgusting albino rats which directed the actions of the others. With flesh the shade of death, and hairless bodies too obese for their stunted limbs to allow them much more than a belly-crawl, they only survived by forcing the other mutants to bring them sustenance. How they controlled their brethren is unknown, but it was heavily suggested that they communicated through complex ultrasonic commands which the others were able to understand due to their enhanced brainpower.

Dominant White Two-Head
Each of the broods contained a single Dominant Rat which was mutated almost beyond recognition, superficially resembling a pig-sized rodent, but possessed of two heads. These Dominant Two-Heads were the alphas of their extended families, exerting a powerful influence over all of the others, even the Dominant Whites.

The Rats
The existence of the Mutant Rats was unknown until a rash of deadly attacks throughout London brought them to the attention of the authorities. After several hundred deaths at the claws of these creatures who had now developed a taste for living human flesh, a teacher named Harris was able to track them to their source, a disused lockhouse on the banks of a canal. There, Harris discovered that the rats had been smuggled into Britain from an island in the South Pacific - which had been the subject of nuclear testing - by a scientist called Schiller. Whilst the mutants had killed Schiller upon their escape, they had set up their nest in the lockhouse, and Harris managed to kill the Dominant Rats, as the government simultaneously drew the remainder into killing grounds through the use of infrasonic devices, whereupon they disposed of them using a lethal gas.

Unfortunately, however, a pregnant female had been locked in a basement and unable to respond to the signal, and when the owners returned to their business, she and her new brood - including a single white rat - killed the pair and made their escape. ..

Lair
Five years after the Outbreak (as the events of the first novel came to be known), the authorities were doing everything in their power to ensure that the Mutant Rats had been exterminated, and seemed to have been successful.

However, the survivors from the first Outbreak had made their way to the nearby Epping Forest nature reserve in the heart of suburbia London, where they established a new colony, with the white rat mutating into a new Two-Head and siring other Dominant Rats. Knowing that to reveal themselves too soon would be to invite a lethal response from humans, they bided their time, slowly building their strength until eventually their numbers caused their naturally-aggressive instincts to take over and they began to act more openly.

Despite warnings from a government-sanctioned ratcatcher of the signs of Mutant Rat activity, the authorities were slow to take any action, and it took the slaughter of the entire population of a mobile home park, along with most of the trainees from a nearby police cadet training camp who were sent to their aid, to kick them into gear.

Calling in the armed forces, the exterminators sealed off all access to the sewage systems which ran beneath the forest before pumping in large quantities of cyanide gas to wipe out the vermin. Whilst this succeeded in killing most of the mutants, unbeknownst to all, a small group had made their lair in a nearby abandoned mansion. Luckily, the ratcatcher managed to locate the nest, and it was swiftly dealt with by the Army.

Once again, however, four rats managed to escape the carnage, and these survivors, now fearful of the forest, made their way back into the city of London. ..

Domain
An unspecified number of years after the Epping Forest incident, China launched a limited nuclear strike against London, and perhaps other strategic targets as well. The reasons behind this were not revealed, although it was hinted that turmoil over Middle Eastern oil may have been the catalyst.

Many of those who heard the sirens attempted to seek refuge in the London Underground, but the Mutant Rats had multiplied in the tunnels, and slaughtered many of those who spilled down. A small group remained safe for a while in a secret bunker, until the Rats broke in through an artesian well, forcing the few who survived this assault to make their way through the rubble of the ruined city.

Eventually finding their way to one of the major subterranean government control centres, the group found to their horror that the Rats had slaughtered the entire staff. However, it was also gleaned that a plague had subsequently broken out amongst the rodents, and their numbers were severely depleted, giving the battered remnants of the group a chance. Managing to escape the facility, the three were picked up by a search and rescue helicopter, and London was subsequently left to the Rats.