At the bottom of the wall opposite the ladder was a meter-square tunnel leading off in the general direction of the river. I shined the light into the black hole. It looked longer than a coffin but I couldn’t tell beyond that. I crawled inside with the dim light of the torch leading the way.

My body inched through the crevice as I examined the packed clay around me for signs of structural damage or total collapse. This wasn’t the time to get claustrophobic but now that I brought it up, I wondered how fast I could crawl backward in case of a cave-in since there wasn’t room to turn around. I tried to calm the panic sparking in my brain. I was almost there; wherever there was.

The tunnel grew increasingly smaller as I moved forward. After a hundred meters the crawlspace had dropped to half its original size. I held the flashlight out in front of me, straining to see what lay ahead or possibly to hear something besides the sound of my own thoughts.

From somewhere above, water bled into the tunnel soaking through the back of my shirt. Moisture climbed from my knees up shaky legs. My hands slipped on the damp ground. I hoped this crazy monk hadn’t missed the sewer system altogether and ended up digging under the river instead.

The foul stench of death suddenly oozed into the tunnel, overpowering the scent of mildew clinging to my clothes. The smell was sickening. Whatever it was I was moving closer to it. I stopped to calculate the odds of back up and taking my chances with the Russians.

A wave of hot air flowed over me when I heard the scratching. Something was in front of me. I swept the opening near me with the fading light. The creature froze in the flashlight beam. No more than two meters ahead a rat as large as a raccoon squared off to fight or die. There was no alternative for him.

He stood unfazed in the light, sizing up his opponent. I was nothing he hadn’t killed before and fed to his children. I could see it in his eyes. When future generations found my brown bones while razing the city, they might marvel at how cleanly they were picked during some demon’s thanksgiving meal.

I switched off the flashlight and held my breath. No sudden moves. If I can’t see you then you can’t see me. I was never here and you were never there. I shifted my body flat against a side wall. Just go on by, little creature of Satan. Don’t look back. Come on just go about your business.

The slow scraping of long nails resumed in the clay. He moved a paw at a time like the miniature bull he was. Scratch. Scratch. Scratch. I didn’t take another breath until the scratching turned to skittering and the rat was well on his way down the tunnel behind me. When I did inhale again, I instantly regretted it. The smell of the sewer was getting stronger and it was overwhelming.

I reached the main city sewage line and stood up. I would have given anything to trade the flashlight for a gas mask. There was no particular reason to see what I waded through and my lungs desperately needed a breath of fresh air.

I counted seventy-seven steps to the right, sloshing through shin-high sludge and piss. This wasn’t my finest hour. Someday this might make a very funny story but right now the last ninety minutes felt like someone’s sick dream.

I flashed the light across the vaulted ceiling then in an arc around me looking for whatever I was supposed to find at the end of my journey. Most of the mortar in the sewer had long since crumbled, allowing the stonework to fall in clumps. The city’s holy waste leached through its containment leaving a greenish-orange layer of slime in its wake.

This place was home to generations of rodents, reptiles, and a number of species presumed extinct since the fifteenth century. Their footprints in the hardened remains formed epitaphs of bygone eras. It was either join them, get the tattoo and swear loyalty or keep moving on down the line. I saw nothing here that would make my life better.

I was up crap creek without the proverbial paddle.

Surviving Prague Excerpt 5

The Hollow Man    |     The Hollow Man Series, International Espionage​

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