When I went to college, I made a tactical decision and paid a ton of money to get an apartment 15 minutes from campus. My logic was if I was close, I could walk everywhere and pay nothing for gas. In the long term, I’d probably save money. This worked out quite well at first, then they started appearing, the beggars. At first, only one sitting behind a petrol station, then in my second year there were four. It’s my fourth year now and there are 9. Now don’t take me for some monster, but these people were a massive problem. At first, it was fine, just a simple “sorry I got nothing” when they ask for money. Then they started burrowing into the surroundings, a small shack in some bushes, another in a park, and the larger one built behind a transformer. This was worrying but not too big a deal right, it is cold outside. Then the piles started. They would gather up every scrap of trash around and even started scrounging through other people’s trash cans, grabbing anything they could and dragging their “prizes” back to their burrows. They would pile up this garbage and live in the filth. Soon my commute to campus started to stink, then the rats came. Massive furry forms clamoring across piles of filth skittering through the darkness. I was honestly starting to worry for my health, and wondering how they survive such unsanitary conditions.
What bothered me most though was the one right off the main road, the road I had to take to get to class. On that road, an old power transformer sat. It was quite an interesting thing, it sat right up against a dirt slope, on the 2 sides facing the slope it had a brick wall and the other two faces a wire fence. One partially inventive beggar found a way to tear a nice hole in the front fence and burrowed in. Now that small area is filled about 30% full of trash, with one corner blocked off with sheet metal, he made himself quite a nice if filthy shack. The rats are particularly bad there too, especially since he has taken to living with the vermin. Whenever I need to pass through the street, I make sure to stay on the other side of the road, as far away as possible, this doesn’t really help though since the rats are everywhere on that street. What has me really worried is that that machine distributes power to the area, and with the amount of trash and human waste in there, it’s 100% going to start a fire at some point.
Then one day my prediction came true. I stayed a little bit too late on campus. Using the library to study for the upcoming exams. The sun was just dipping underneath the horizon, although it could hardly be seen under the dark looming clouds. A frigid wind blew past, filling my nose with thick humid air. It would definitely be raining tonight. I hurried out the gate and started my trek back home, a backpack slung over my shoulder. As I turned down that dodgy road, I noticed a thick wisp of smoke raising upwards only to be blown away by the strong winds. Yet, I dismissed the smoke, he was probably cold and started a fire to keep himself warm. I hurried down the road, but as the transformer came into view I knew I was wrong. Sharp Buzzes and electrical arcs were coming from the transformers and the pungent smell of burnt plastic wafted out. I quickly dashed across the empty road, making my way toward the transformer. I wanted to get a closer look and call the emergency services if needed. When I got in front of the transformer I was greeted by a truly messed up scene. 7 flaming rat bodies greeted me. Their sharp teeth bit through key electrical wires of the machine, setting them, and the trash below them alight, casting a dazzling array of electrical arcs over the machine. I reached back to my backpack, searching for my phone, then it blared out. “AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH” a guttural scream of pain came from inside the small shack.
I can’t say why I did the next part, my brain kind of shut down and I just reacted. Because the next thing I knew I was crawling under the hole in the fence, pushing through rancid trash and God knows what else. I quickly made my way into the small metal shack; having taken a first aid course, I was hoping I could help the man. A smart person would just have called an ambulance, but me being an idiot thought to just rush in there. When I squeezed through the makeshift door which was just a hole between the metal sheets of the wall and the roof, I entered a small trash-filled room, but to my surprise the room was empty. I looked around searching for the injured man, but nothing was there just the buzz of electricity. I was confused I definitely hear a scream. After a few seconds of nothing, I turned around, maybe he was outside, and walked back then “CRASH”. My stomach jumped up into my lungs, as the ground gave way beneath me. I instantly closed my eyes, shielding my head as I was dragged down into the ground and tossed about by tons of sinking soil and concrete.
Eventually, when the impact stopped, I creaked my eyes open. I was in a dark tunnel, covered in layers of dirt and trash. My entire body ached, and my head was pounding. I looked around, but it was pitch black. Fortunately, my dumbass didn’t leave my backpack above, so after some fumbling in the dark, I extracted my phone. The screen had a nasty crack along its length but it luckily turned on, and with a button press my torch blared to life filling the dark tunnel with blinding white light. Motes of dust swirled around me, in thick air, illumined by the beam of the torch. It looked like I was in an old sewer tunnel, probably a decommissioned one judging by the lack of running water. Instead, I was surrounded by dull red bricks, around 4ft high. Behind me was a pile of dirt, above me, my expressway down, was completely blocked sealing me here underground. Turning to my phone, I quickly dialed 911, only to be greeted with a no-signal message. “Great, okay calm down”, I took a deep breath, trying to slow down the drumbeat of my heart. “This is probably a sewer pipe, which means go forwards until you find a hatch or something to get out”.
I took a few moments to examine myself, looking for major injuries or broken bones. All in all, I seemed mostly fine, just some minor lacerations. However, what had me really worried was the lump on the back of my head, the dizziness, and the fact that I couldn’t smell anything. I rationalized that it was hopefully just a concussion, so I needed to get out and get some medical attention. So, I got up, hunched over, and slowly made my way down the dark tunnel. As I walked the air remained thick with dust, causing me to cough every few minutes, and leaving me lightheaded. I slowly stumbled down the pipe with every step fighting the intense feeling of claustrophobia, the walls seem so close together, every part of me wanted to stand up and stretch out, but the tons of dirt above me pressed down, keeping me hunched over, filling me with dread. I could swear the tunnel was getting narrower, slowly I made my way, minutes passed, then suddenly I was in pitch darkness. I panicked and slammed my head into the roof hard, knocking me to my knees and dropping the phone.
I fumbled around on the floor looking for my phone when my hand contacted something warm and fuzzy. With a squeak, pain shot down my hand and I scurried back, screaming. It took me a few seconds to get a hold of myself, until I could get back to my senses and realizes it was probably just a rat, its fine. My ragged breathing echoed around me but did not mask the dim squeaks. “Okay that’s good right, if there is life then there must be a way out”. In my panic I had scooted back the tunnel, so now I had no idea where the phone might have landed. I spent several minutes there trying to find my phone, but I simply couldn’t, and I couldn’t find any more rats either. So, I did the only thing I could scramble forwards in total darkness.
I was down in the darkness for a long time, as I stumbled forward my coughing got worse and more frequent, it was so difficult to breathe I was practically panting, while my thoughts only severed to make things worse. What if I passed an exit only to miss it in the dark? what if I’ll never get out? would anyone even look for me down here? But eventually, a small dim light filled my vision, I scrambled forwards, rushing towards the light. Leading me to the end of the tunnel, it ended with a shear drop, around 2 meters down into a larger chamber. The chamber was around 20m long and 5m wide, lined with several similar tunnels, which fed into a channel and ran down the length of the room further down into a larger opening. Along the side of the room across from my pipe sat a rusted metal door, above the door sat a dimly glowing bulb barely illuminating the chamber. Relief flooded me as I scrambled out the pipe down, and fell into the chamber, slamming hard into the cold stone, I rolled onto my back staring up at the ceiling for a few moments, letting the now clearer air fill my oxygen-deprived lungs. Then I noticed it, billowing from the pipe was that now much thicker dusty air and something clicked in me, its smoke, not dust. Somewhere in the darkness of the tunnel smoke from the transformer fire must have been filling the pipe. I slowly sat up, realizing now just how much danger I was in, and clamored to my feet.
Then my heart nearly stopped as a loud “AAAAHHHH” filled the chamber, it came from slightly ahead, near the larger channel at the end of the room. Started I examined my surroundings closer, and there he was the small beggar living above the tunnel. He lay on his side clutching his stomach, covered in filthy rags. I hobbled closer to him examining him more carefully and asking “S.. S.. Sir, a.. are you o.. okay?”, He looked terrible, filth him completely, he looked malnourished with sunken eyes. Looking closer at his face thin rivers of blood ran from his mouth and I could swear his irises were blood red and dimly glowing, but they seemed unfocused, almost like he was asleep. Then he screamed again, clutching his stomach tighter. I rushed over to him, pressing two fingers to his neck trying to get a reading of his vitals. But as I touched him, he started to spasm, scream, and slam his fists into his stomach. I grabbed his wrists and pinned him down until he stopped trying to hurt himself. Then I heard something horrifying, chittering, tearing, and liquid slashing behind me. I turned around to examine the source of the sound, his stomach. A now gapping hole, spilling out a torrent of 15cm long rats. However, these weren’t normal rats, they looked like babies, largely pink with thin patches of fur. I screamed jumping back.
The man contained an unbelive number of rats at least 50 poured out of him. These baby rats started to continue past me heading towards the pipe leading down into the channel. I looked at their destination, and my blood ran cold. Thousands of glowing red eyes stared up at me. But most of these sat at least 2ft above the ground. Then a loud scurrying echoed out behind me, I tore my eyes away from the sea of eyes, peering behind me to see more of these giant rats, cloaked in shadows, quickly surrounding me, pouring out from the pipe. I screamed “STAY BACK”, swinging my backpack towards the swam trying to scare them off. But they didn’t move only keep filling into the mass surrounding me. They were barely visual except for their blood-red eyes staring at me. Those eerie eyes followed my every move but not reacting. Then when the last baby rats entered the swarm they shifted making a path leading from the depth of the channel. Then it came walking down the path, standing on two legs, hunched over around 4ft tall, a grey-haired rat thing. It was hunched over supporting its weight on an ancient stone staff, he slowly hobbled down this path, and moved to the front of the swam, keeping watch off me with its hideous eyes.
Then to my shock, the rat began to slowly sway from side to side and began to sing in a soft but high-pitched voice. “O magna, Ninkilim. Dilecto Creatori nostro. da nobis potentiam tuam. Punite illos qui illuc aversae sunt gratiae tuae. Agros venenis inquinant. Carnem suam dona nobis. Vitam novam dona nobis”. After it finished the last verse It started from the beginning again, but more voices filled in, more and more with each repeat, and soon a chorus of rat voices filled the chambers. Over and over they sang their song, and I found my eyes slowly drifting closed, I couldn’t fight it. Then out of nowhere “BANG”, the chamber began to rumble, small rocks and dirt cascaded from the ceiling, as a 7ft gout of flames burst out of the pipe, from which I entered the chamber, filling the room with blidning light and pouring thick black smoke in. The explosion must have scared the rats because they started to flee running towards me down the channel. Seeing the wall of giant rats charging at me, I also bolted, heading towards the door, feeling sharp claws tearing at my legs as I ran through the fleeing swarm. Finally grabbed the handle of the rusted door and yanked it open, busting into a corridor. Seeing a ladder on the wall before me, leading upwards. I grabbed the rusted rungs and yanked myself upwards, as dark smoke poured in after me. I could barely breathe, but I forced myself up. Eventually coming to a manhole cover above me. I slammed into it, knocking it open and throwing myself onto the cold tar of a street only 5 blocks from my home.
I ran home as fast as I could, breathing hard, bleeding from multiple wounds, coughing all the way, and barely staying conscious. I finally got home and started banging on my neighbor’s door, he opened it with an annoyed expression until he saw what state I was in. I asked him “SAM, please I need an ambulance, I lost my phone”. The next few days I barely remembered. Sam got me to the hospital, and I wound up in the ER, got rabies shots, tetanus shots, half a dozen other shots, x-rays, MRI the whole work up, thankful my insurance covered everything. I told the doctors of the events and told them they need to call the police and investigate the chamber. The police did show up, had a long chat with me and the doctors, then came to the conclusion that what I saw was PTSD coupled with oxygen deprivation and recommended a good shrink. Then I was discharged and made my way back home. A month has now passed. At first, I tried to trust the doctors, believing it was all my imagination, I tried but I’m not so sure anymore. You see I found myself collecting trash, I didn’t realize it at first, until trash day I couldn’t throw it away. Now there’s a small pile in my room, I just can’t bring myself to get rid of it. I also found myself humming the rat’s tune, I didn’t even notice it at first until someone pointed it out to me. Then last night as I was drifting off to sleep, I swear I could hear them, scurrying deep below me, singing that damned song. I don’t know what to do?