#24 Trickle Down

by Charles M. Long

“What’s wrong with them?” Cheryl gasped at the shuffling Wall Street crowds.

“They’re like zombies,” Adam said.

“Downward! To the bowels of the city! Set him free!” Adam and Cheryl whirled toward the voice. An ancient man, driving a garbage truck, threw three things at them. Adam caught a flashlight; Cheryl, a bag of food. The third thing fell through a grate into the sewers. The Garbageman vanished.

“Downward?”

“Downward.”

They shimmied down into the sewers. Beside a stream of polluted water, Adam’s flashlight revealed what the Garbageman had thrown: a subway token. After some food, they followed the flow of sewage for hours—rats, roaches, rubbish, all floating downward. Suddenly, the foul water spilled into blackness.

The thin arc of light illuminated a chamber pierced by innumerable pipes dribbling filth. At bottom, a giant sat blocking the drain. The chamber was slowly filling with sewage.

“All mine!” He bellowed. “All. Trickles. Down!”

“No!” Cheryl said, holding up her food bag. “Mine!”

“Mine!” The giant rumbled, but unwilling to stand, Cheryl was beyond his reach.

Adam shined his flashlight into the giant’s eyes, shouting, “Mine!”

The giant roared, “Mine!” but sitting, he could not reach Adam.

Lifting the subway token, they screamed, “Ours!”

The giant stood. The drain unblocked. Sewage rushed downward. He took one step forward, then was overwhelmed. The flood sucked him down the drain, screaming, “Minnnnneee!”

Silence. Then the Garbageman’s voice resonated through every pipe, “He is free. They are free.”