The Grid Runner

Prologue

Ghostly howls echoed through the dark tunnel. Wavering light highlighted through the steam clouds ahead reinforced the otherworldly comparisons, giving Reshern Easki an uncomfortable feeling.

He hobbled down an old track, wooden floorboards creaking under his heavy boots. The torch on his helmet showed the way, although he knew these tunnels like the back of his wrinkled hand. After seventeen years as an engineer in the Mayor's office, and the nine years of his retirement spent in the Pipelands, no one knew these tunnels as well as Reshern.

A strange glitch. That's what a few of his neighbours called the problem. Reshern suspected it was just kids messing around, but still, if there really were decompression problems up here...

Shafts of yellow light cut across him as he walked, wide gaps in the tunnel revealing the open air beyond. Parts of the city far below could be seen; a collection of intricate towers and connecting pathways. It had been decades since he'd seen the stunning, gleaming buildings of the main City even further below, on the ground floor, but he knew they were down there, somewhere. Grinding gears and whirring generators thrummed all around. The lifeblood of the city, the sounds of the machines were ever-present, a source of comfort for Reshern.

He paused, a low knocking sound echoing through the tunnel. Standing in silence – as quiet as the tunnels got, if you zoned out the constant machinery – he realised it was just his mind playing tricks on him. Nothing way out here, Resh, except your old restless mind.

Farther down, he climbed onto a raised platform on the side and reached the control box on the wall. Huffing and wheezing, he paused a moment, the helmet light bobbing with his heavy breaths. Despite the cold air, sweat beaded on his brow.

The control box opened with a loud creak. He scanned the data streaming down the screen – a flowing mess of digits and symbols that few people could read. All looked good. Kids, as he suspected.

A light caught his eye in the lower corner of the panel. A red light. Reshern had never seen a red light here before; didn't even know that bulb existed. He flicked a switch and jabbed a few buttons. Frowning, he reset the control panel, and then waited a minute for it to reboot.

That couldn't have been right, he thought while he waited, the ghostly howls his only companions. He thought he'd read a critical percentage of mass shut down potential. Mass shut down... a shiver ran through him that had nothing to do with the cold.

The control panel came back to life, and this time the readings were clear. Reshern gasped, his heart pounding immediately. In that moment he became aware of something beside him. He looked sideways at the darkness, seeing a pair of glowing red orbs watching over him. He turned in horror, the torch light revealing a towering dark figure that came down on him, ending Reshern's services to the city.

(504 words)