18, A New Beginning
Tiny Way Of Life
chapter 9
by
copier
· original author:
fueler
The air around you is musty and it doesn’t seem like anyone has been down here in a long time. There haven’t been any spider webs like you imagined; in fact the only sign of life is some fungus dangling from the ceiling. The old-fashioned brickwork design makes you feel as if you’d be better equipped holding a torch and cross.
Walking along the barely visible brick ledge, you ponder the best direction to go. Logic tells you that all rivers tend to flow down in elevation and typically empty into larger bodies of water. This means that downstream will be the easiest way out of this mess.
You head down the ledge in the direction of the current until you hit a fork in the river. There really isn’t any way you can figure out which path will be the best choice, this time around. You give up thinking about it and just get in the river, letting it decide for you.
The river takes you to into the left archway. After drifting along for a few hours, you think to yourself that the current seems to be getting faster. The water around the ledge is splashing and that’s how you know that it is indeed increasing in speed. You swim towards the side, until you glance downriver and notice that the river disappears. ’Oh, shit!’{/i] you think to yourself as you realize that it’s a big hole, and start swimming frantically to the side. It’s no use, though, and you plummet into the hole.
As you fall, you see all the specks and ovoid globs of water floating around you. It’s almost unreal how alien it all looks. The moment doesn’t last as you splash down into water. You surface somewhere away from the waterfall and look around.
You are in a large room filled up halfway with water, with a hole in the ceiling spills more into the center. There are ledges all around the edge, and two tunnels at opposite sides of the room. The tunnels are raised up so that water can’t reach it.
Fatigue hits you hard, so you swim off to the side and climb up the closest ledge. You lay down, tired from the day’s events, hungry, and still a bit hung over. Before you know it you are fast asleep.
You wake up the next day and try to find a way out. The only thing you find is a sealed manhole cover in one corridor, and piles of garbage littered throughout the tunnels. Another day goes by, this time you come across a rats’ nest. You kill one using a needle, and cook its meat with an old lighter and some tinder (all items you found strewn about the tunnels).
Weeks go by, and then months. You start to gain a rhythm for surviving down in the sewer. Eventually you give up all hope of escape, and build a shelter some length down into the tunnel.
Your body stays the same during all this time. For whatever reason, you’ve never had facial hair and your nails and hair only grow to a certain length and then stop.
Months later…
You sit down, staring at the wall in front of you. Drawings and miscellaneous notes you’ve scribbled riddle the walls, but that’s not what you are focused on. You’ve tried to keep track of how many days you’d been down here by scratches and scores on the wall. If they are at all accurate, you’ve missed your eighteenth birthday by about four months. You are now a man, you realize. The idea is strange to you, since you don’t feel any different. You always imagined it would feel different.
A clanking sound sends you into alert, and as you peer down the tunnel you can see a light. You grab your needle and race down towards the source. As you arrive, you see a man dressed in yellow walking down the tunnel away from you. More importantly, the manhole cover you discovered early on is open. You take a moment to absorb the clean air blowing down onto you.
The moment passes. You look back at your shelter, saying goodbye to your life here, and start flying up the ladder. You scale the wall, jumping from rung to rung. You climb out and stand in the fresh air, freed of your prison and home.
Where are you?
Walking along the barely visible brick ledge, you ponder the best direction to go. Logic tells you that all rivers tend to flow down in elevation and typically empty into larger bodies of water. This means that downstream will be the easiest way out of this mess.
You head down the ledge in the direction of the current until you hit a fork in the river. There really isn’t any way you can figure out which path will be the best choice, this time around. You give up thinking about it and just get in the river, letting it decide for you.
The river takes you to into the left archway. After drifting along for a few hours, you think to yourself that the current seems to be getting faster. The water around the ledge is splashing and that’s how you know that it is indeed increasing in speed. You swim towards the side, until you glance downriver and notice that the river disappears. ’Oh, shit!’{/i] you think to yourself as you realize that it’s a big hole, and start swimming frantically to the side. It’s no use, though, and you plummet into the hole.
As you fall, you see all the specks and ovoid globs of water floating around you. It’s almost unreal how alien it all looks. The moment doesn’t last as you splash down into water. You surface somewhere away from the waterfall and look around.
You are in a large room filled up halfway with water, with a hole in the ceiling spills more into the center. There are ledges all around the edge, and two tunnels at opposite sides of the room. The tunnels are raised up so that water can’t reach it.
Fatigue hits you hard, so you swim off to the side and climb up the closest ledge. You lay down, tired from the day’s events, hungry, and still a bit hung over. Before you know it you are fast asleep.
You wake up the next day and try to find a way out. The only thing you find is a sealed manhole cover in one corridor, and piles of garbage littered throughout the tunnels. Another day goes by, this time you come across a rats’ nest. You kill one using a needle, and cook its meat with an old lighter and some tinder (all items you found strewn about the tunnels).
Weeks go by, and then months. You start to gain a rhythm for surviving down in the sewer. Eventually you give up all hope of escape, and build a shelter some length down into the tunnel.
Your body stays the same during all this time. For whatever reason, you’ve never had facial hair and your nails and hair only grow to a certain length and then stop.
Months later…
You sit down, staring at the wall in front of you. Drawings and miscellaneous notes you’ve scribbled riddle the walls, but that’s not what you are focused on. You’ve tried to keep track of how many days you’d been down here by scratches and scores on the wall. If they are at all accurate, you’ve missed your eighteenth birthday by about four months. You are now a man, you realize. The idea is strange to you, since you don’t feel any different. You always imagined it would feel different.
A clanking sound sends you into alert, and as you peer down the tunnel you can see a light. You grab your needle and race down towards the source. As you arrive, you see a man dressed in yellow walking down the tunnel away from you. More importantly, the manhole cover you discovered early on is open. You take a moment to absorb the clean air blowing down onto you.
The moment passes. You look back at your shelter, saying goodbye to your life here, and start flying up the ladder. You scale the wall, jumping from rung to rung. You climb out and stand in the fresh air, freed of your prison and home.
Where are you?
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June 2
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