Rat

Tunnel

How wonderful it is to be park of a pack--part of a tribe. I have been so alone for so long, but no more.

There must be a hundred of us. No, two hundred. We are like a living field of black and grey fur, like a forest of pink tails. I can smell all of us; I can smell none of us. The scents alone are dizzyingly intense.

I have only been with this for a few days, but already I am one of them. At first, it was daunting. I was challenged. These creatures do not like outsiders, and I was an outsider.

A few of them came up to me and I sensed trouble. I knew they were going to fight. They wanted to kill me. I had to fight back if I was to be accepted--worse, I had to fight back if I was going to survive.

And so I fought. I fought viciously. It was brutal. I do not want to go into the details, because I find them distressing. Even writing these words makes my paws shake, because I am not a violent creature and to do violence on creatures that are like me is repulsive. I feel sick in the stomach; I have not eaten since this fateful day even though I am starving.

But it was the only choice. It really was. Let's say nothing more about it other than I was accepted into this tribe, and nobody would dare challenge me again.

I was one of them.

Being one with the pack has its disadvantages: for instance, there is not enough food to go around. I was used to a bountiful crop right outside my burrow, but here there are so many mouths requiring a feed that I am lucky to get scraps. The choice of food is less than desirable, as well. As a tribe, they seem to have forgotten what real food is. They eat whatever the beasts throw away and nothing more. They don't care if it is covered in mold or so rotten that it is closer to dirt than food--they eat it all.

They choose to live in this concrete hell-scape that the beasts have fashioned for themselves. I do not understand it, when I know they have visited the rolling plains where I am from. How can they choose this place? What benefits are there?

Oh, the benefits... There are some benefits. It truly is a strange world, and I do not understand the rules.

Normally, I would flee at the first sign of one of the towering, bipedal beasts. Not this pack. They don't seem to care. I do not know if they even notice them. It is such an odd sensation. I am so used to running and hiding, and this tribe just goes on about its business.

The beasts, however, notice us. I have been noticed by beasts before, of course, and previously they have always hunted me. I have been caught and attacked and a whole host of other assaults thrown my way.

But now? Now they run.

I would never have believed you if you had told me this. I would never have believed that my fellow creatures could form such large packs, like a living carpet. I would never have believed that we could be so fearsome that creatures that tower over us would run away in fear, and yet all of this is true.

Let me tell you one story. It is fresh in my mind, and I am awash with excitement from it. It was so brazen. It was reckless.

The whole pack wanted to move, and so we headed out along the concrete trail. There was a hill, and I instinctively wanted to crest the hill and go over to the other side, but I was stopped: there was another way.

We could go through the hill.

I did not understand at first. Did they want to dig a hole? No, the hole had already been dug. It was a huge hole, big enough for the beasts to travel down. I was frightened--of course I was frightened: this was their territory, not ours. I knew what beasts did to a lowly creature like me. They squashed us--quite literally, with vicious devices that would snap a back in half.

But the pack went and I went with them. There was the tunnel, and even though it was dark around us, the tunnel itself was well lit. The light was not natural, but I was used to being around the beasts' illumination sources, and this was no different.

We headed in.

There were three beasts walking towards us from the other direction. They were joined by their limbs, the way we would join our tails. They did not see us at first.

Then they saw us, and the sound they made was deafening. It was so high-pitched that it hurt my ears. I froze, because surely this was the end. These creatures would kill us all.

But they didn't kill us. Quite the opposite--they ran. They ran!

And we gave chase.

The sense of freedom was absolute. It was everything. We chased after the beasts like they were food. The beasts were screaming still, and their voices echoed down the tunnel until they were outside, back in the open air.

And still we kept chasing. One of our pack even managed to bite an ankle. I was amazed at our courage. The beast really roared then, and they scrambled up the hill on all fours just like any other creature on this planet.

And what did we do? We just went on our way, as though this fantastic rocky structure they had built was ours, and ours alone.

And nobody challenged us. We were kings. The pack is king.

I am a king.