TUNNEL RAT © Mike Lee I’m on the payroll of this city, working maintenance and mostly underground – the pipes and cables for both water and electrical – which usually is a decent job; let’s say I’m used to it. At least I was until that night when I was called to join a line-crew, as we’re called, to find and fix a pipe break down beneath 10th Street on level two. I never have liked working that far down because the vermin can be problematic. By that, I mean they can be larger than those seen up top; rats for instance big as dogs can be a threat to life and limb. So that night, four of us answered call and met at 10th and Pearson Street, right in the heart of town. We set out cones and turned-on flashers and we opened up the manhole cover. We called-in time and our location and turned-on our locators to track our movements. Wally Porter was lead man followed by Hoskins, me, then Tarris Shamir. We’d climbed down and passed the first floor when something below us – in the dark – ran quickly followed by another. “What was that?” asked Wally. “I just caught a glimpse” said Tarris and then Wally added, “Damn, it sure looked big!” “You got your gun?” I asked and both Hoskins, Tarris, also Wally, all said “Yes” in unison. “Keep ‘em ready” broke-in Wally, “’cause that thing looked too damn big to me!” We reached the bottom and we looked around, but saw nothing. From that point, where four tunnels intersected, we could see down all four, but there was no sign of what had passed us. Wally said “Okay men, each one take a tunnel and trace down and see if you can find the break. But first, give me a check to make sure all our radios are working” and they were. I walked maybe fifteen meters when my radio clicked on “Hey men, I found it” called out Hoskins, “it’s not bad, but it will take work. We’ll have to replace pipe” which meant we’d be there most the night. I turned to walk back to our starting point and opened mic “Hey man, where are you? What’d you need that I can bring?” Then Hoskins said “I’m in H-4; you’d better bring the grips and paste and cutters first. We’ve got to get to central to turn-off the pumps along this line.” Wally broke-in “I’ll call it in and get it shut. You guys get all the tools.” We started gathering equipment when the radio squawked open “Oh shit guys, get here quick! I just saw something weird; I mean it ain’t no rat but sorta’ looks like one…but also human!” “A what?” asked Wally, “Did you say it was a rat?” “Well kinda’” he replied, “but also it looked like a man.” “What looked like a man?” asked Wally. “I’m not sure” said Hoskins. Then we heard him scream and everyone ran down the tunnel just in time to see his legs dragged ‘round a corner down a cross-tunnel. “Oh shit!” said Wally, “Get guns ready” and we slowly walked along the tunnel. When we reached the cross line – tunnel B-11 – at the end, our flashlights fell upon a sight that scared us all. “What the hell is that?” asked Wally and there stood a creature with the body of a man covered in hair, but with a head and face that looked just like a rat and in its paws, the body of our fellow worker who – to us – looked dead. I asked “You ever seen a creature like that Wally? You’ve been down here half your life.” “No, never” he replied, “I ain’t seen nothing like that ever!” It looked up at us and snarled and then it pulled Tad Hoskins body through an air shaft vent and disappeared. “What do we do?” asked Shamir, “I ain’t going after that!” “Me neither” I chimed-in, and Wally said “Me too men. Let’s just keep this thing between us. We’ll just say we separated from him and somehow, he just got lost and that we never saw him after that. Agreed?” We nodded. We set lanterns all around the line break and spent all night long repairing, while we kept a watch in case that thing came back and it attacked us. It never did; we never saw it or one like it and I’ve been on payroll now for thirty years and will retire this year. I’ll take with me what we all saw that night, that’s never been seen since and to this day no one knows what it was or where it went; if it’s alive or dead. I only know we lost one man to something from a horror film!
Posted on: Fri, 17 Jan 2014 13:34:43 +0000
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