“I hate doing this kinda work,” John grumbled as he and his coworker headed towards their designed job in the sewers. It was the worst part of their day. They had to clean up all the sewage waste in the east tunnel, an unpleasant but necessary job.
“I do too,” Paul retorted. “But it pays good so I ain’t going to complain too much.”
John had to agree with that.
“I hope we can get outta here soon. I hate this place,” Paul said. John cocked his head in curiosity.
“Why?” Paul stopped walking and motioned for his coworker to step closer.
“Come closer,” he said. John did so. Paul cupped his hand over his mouth before whispering into his coworker’s ear. John’s eyes widened for a moment before he laughed.
“Come on Paul, you know that shit isn’t actually real, right?”
Paul just shook his head.
“Don’t matter if you believe it, I ain’t staying here for long, and I’m the one with the extra battery for the headlamp. So hurry up so we can do the job.”
John nodded, and they continued their pace through the thigh-deep water.
As they walked into the tunnel, a distinct smell of human feces and urine was present. Both men quickly popped on their safety gear before setting to work with their pumps to clear the mess. As everything was set up, John looked up, swearing he heard something moving around. After a few seconds, he shrugged and continued with the work. The pump emptied the tunnel rather quickly. John wiped his hands on his hazmat suit, relieved that his shift was almost over. I’m going to get a nice hot cup of coffee after this. Can’t wait for it. The pump finished promptly, with a few gurgling spits before it ceased. Paul grabbed the cleaning supplies to clean the pipe, and John stood, holding the overhead light. He turned towards the exit, thinking he’d heard something again. Probably a mouse or something. They are usually down here. But he didn’t hear any squeaks. Hell, he didn’t hear any large noises. He slowly backed up, feeling like something was wrong. The hairs on the back of his neck stood up. John tapped his coworker, who was putting away his cleaning supplies.
“Paul, we need to get onto the ledge.” Paul stared at him with a puzzled glance.
“John, there’s nothing here. We should start heading back..” John almost believed him, thinking that maybe what he heard was just his imagination. But as he looked to his left, he saw something.
“Paul,” he hissed. “Paul we need to slowly back up right now and get onto that ledge.”
But his coworker carried on, not listening.
“I don’t know about you, but I’m starving and want to leave. You can stay here if you want to,” Paul said, walking.
John stepped backward carefully onto the ledge. It was a small crop of concrete, but he felt safer there. He wanted to call out to his coworker but was worried about alerting the thing in the water. As Paul was halfway towards the exit, John watched as the thing made its way towards Paul.
It slowly lifted its head out of the water. Then John could see. It had large eyes, shaded deep green. Scaly skin with a set of white jagged teeth. He remembered what Paul said, and it registered as drew closer and closer to Paul.
They say gators live in the sewers.
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