Dirt was ubiquitous. These bloated, creased subhumans

shambled about in a constant state of filth and

degradation. Ultimately, I realized they didn’t

care. A strange amount of dark slime and dust was scattered

on everything, every surface, and everyone. There were

bathrooms, but these beasts didn’t clean themselves often. My

banishment began to wear on me after several days of existing

within their discarded part of the city.

        None of them were interested in me. I appeared to be

just another of them, despite being built differently, younger,

and dressed far better. That was a small blessing; I would have

been dead if they were concerned with me as a stranger.

       Talking to them was impossible. All they could do was

form simple words, usually concerning the most basic needs:

food, sex, purging, etc. Most of their communication was

through the simplistic tone of their grunts, and the motions and

touching of their bloated, grubby hands to others’ flesh. It was

disgusting to watch them.

        After a couple days, discovering some food dispensers

and various living chambers I could use, I found a supply area

and decided to repair lights down here. Maybe lights were out.

As would be expected, these people weren’t very efficient. A

few days later had all their various areas well-lit again.

        Within a week I had navigated and mentally plotted

a map of the entire realm beneath the city. This area existed

under the perimeter of the structure above: it was a circle with

only some crossways going through the center. It was divided

into a dozen different portions with symbols segregating

completely identical spaces repeated around the circle. Each

of the twelve had living areas, supply areas, bathing areas, and

open spaces for communal living where most spent their time

huddled together having sex.

          Sex, aside from dirt, was a constant down here. I

witnessed all foul manner of intercourse. Nothing had limits.

No fidelity existed. Nothing was polite or sacred or restrained.

Men and men, women and men, women and women, groups;

there were no boundaries, as if these people were brainlessly

activated to do anything possible to enjoy themselves.

They all overate. They were all saggy and flabby, flesh

hanging heavy from sturdy bones. Feet wide and flat smacked

bare against the solid ground making the air incessantly

reverberate with a pseudo-spanking type sound. Worn, dirty

boots sat in piles higgledy-piggledy.

        Laughter burst out at all the most inappropriate

moments. They all seemed to laugh at the worst things. A

woman, if you can call her such, was raped by a few males

nearby me as I slept one night in a common area. Everyone

enjoyed that and gifted the event with hearty laughter, aside

from the woman. She seemed to enjoy it somewhat, regardless.

Fights would break out for no reason. Fist fights

ending with injuries were also frequent. Those created laughter

too, from the observing sacks of flesh.

         They would hum and mumble and make strange music

with their voices. Such cacophony was similar to wailing

of the wounded, but organized to have some basic structure

repeating for dozens of minutes. Others would join in. When

enough were screeching, they would peak and halt.

       When something tragic and disturbing wasn’t

happening, smiling faces would droop and folds of skins would

lose all joy. Common expression was a dour and depressing

frown. I followed suit, to blend in.

        “Peace! Peace!” one old man kept saying to me as he

followed me around.

         The words “Peace-peace!” seemed to be a common

cultural greeting or announcement down here. Whenever eyes

met, the two would hold up one hand each, two fingers raised

and spread, and those words would blurt from their fleshy

faces.

         That old man wouldn’t leave me alone. I avoided his

gaze, but he was always behind me with a hand extended as

he repeated “Peace-peace” every so often. It was annoying.

What he wanted was unclear, and not wanting to become a

greater curiosity, I avoided doing anything that would make the

situation sour.

          It didn’t take more than a couple hours before I figured

out what he wanted. He desired sex. Pants down and member

out, he would massage himself in front of me to show me he

was ready. Perhaps he was, but I wasn’t. I ignored him.

        “Peace! Peace!!” the ancient, hunched figure

thundered louder and louder.

         Inevitably, it did become a scene. Groups of those

shuffling, old fools followed us as I paid no attention to my

wooing paramour. He was getting angrier by the minute.

         A peal of gentle giggles began to emerge from the

crowds. It set coldness within my veins, my bones bristling

with frost under layers of muscle and flesh. That mirth was

a sure sign of rising evil: something very bad was going to

happen.

        I waited for someone to make the first move.

It came when the horny, old man grabbed me and

screeched “Peace-Peace!!” as loud as possible. He threw me

forward as I walked away from him, my head slamming into

a wall. The knock was hard. My conscience began lazy and

detached, as if I was going to sleep.

         My mind returned when adrenaline surged as the

intrusive predator pulled off my pants and began attempting

rear entry. I snapped.

         Moves so rapid from me startled the cackling blobs

around us. My youth and health must have been unexpected

and for a long time unseen down here. A shoed foot smashed

the old man’s reproductive organs. As he began reacting, I

rolled over, momentum bringing me up toward him, and I

wrapped my arms around his neck and head.

         A second later his neck was snapped and his corpse

collapsed in front of me.

         Those depraved creeps witnessing the murder laughed

louder and louder, clapping in delight.

          I was sickened.

          After pulling up my pants, I left to stand far away in a

corner of the wide corridor.

          Over a couple hours, everyone except a couple slowly

drifted away. The remaining two just watched the lifeless body

haphazardly piled at the edge of the hallway. I wondered if

they were related, or if there was some greater reason for their

solemn recognition of the departed man.

          Then I saw what they wanted. Both of the fellows

lingering began to rape the corpse over several minutes. When

the job was completed, they dragged off the body by its legs.

I followed from afar.

         Their path went outward from city center to the edge of

the world. It took some time. Our destination was a garishly

grey-green room with yellowish lighting. Nobody was inside.

Dirty foot prints were layered in thousands across the ground

emerging from the outside wall.

         They leaned the body against the outer wall which

would have been sky above. Before departing, the living pair

had one, last round of sex with their dead man.

         “Peace-peace,” each sadly said to the empty husk.

         They left.

         When alone, I spent time examining the room. It was

absolutely bare, aside from some warning lights high on the

walls. The chamber was about six-times the length of a fullgrown

man. It was only a little higher than I. Markings on

the walls gave recognition of danger. At this time there was

nothing to fear.

          Before I went, I took the jacket and shirt of the

deceased. There was no uniform here, like above where

everyone wore white and minimalist suits with well-fastened

jackets precisely cut to form. This lot in the bowels of creation

wore similar items, but everyone had some difference in how

they wore their baggy, rough, splotch-colored, drab, dirty attire.

Some had sewn symbols in various places on arms and chest or

buttocks. Rips were random and seemed a matter of pride. I

would wear the rapist’s upper garb from here onward.

          Outside the room, I dug out pants from a pile of filthy

items and wore them. My flesh and hair didn’t match these

people, but now I had the general appearance. These efforts

were a futile attempt to blend in.

          The next few days were uneventful for me. I merely

began to dig through the smelly piles of detritus and discarded,

perhaps stored or displayed, items littering edges of rooms.

         People down here had a lot of strange implements.

None of them were electronic, function of these bits and

pieces unknown to me. Bent pipes and odd combinations of

shapes. Cloth and survival items. Gruesome knives. Dirt on

everything carelessly tossed about.

         And the stink. That stench was immediately obnoxious

when I arrived. Air down here smelled like unbathed people

and rotting flesh. As time went on it was drilling into my nose

and making me lose my senses. Others didn’t seem to care or

notice. Typical.

         Pulling out objects from piles, I collected my own little

accumulation of things to puzzle over. I spent the remainder

of my time there looking at those mechanical things and

attempting to fathom their intended use.

         Suddenly, for no apparent reason, loud sirens went

off through the entire structure. No room seemed free from

the awful, pulsating noise. Main lights dimmed, a secondary

lighting source provided alternate illumination in red and

yellow. The colors gently strobed as the unbearable sound

continued.

        Everyone was rushing around, getting dressed,

collecting pieces of garbage out of those haphazard piles. I

saw many putting on old boots, so I did the same. Whatever

they did, I did. My only hope was that this wasn’t something

terminal, deadly, or dangerous.

        After dressing, the people of this section all moved

swiftly into the grey-green room where my rapist’s body

continued to slouch against the outer wall. The body was

decaying, stinking, bloating and bursting. I felt sick.

         We waited, standing away from the corpse.

         Loud, mechanical clunks came from the far wall

where that body rested. After those terrifying noises, air was

whooshing through the room unlike any I ever felt before.

         Temperatures dropped. I was becoming cold. My mind

believed we were going to be exterminated: this room a place

to dispose of useless humans so ugly and unwanted. Fear

covered my mind.

         No one else seemed worried. They seemed calmly

expectant as they held onto all their clutter.

        The outer wall buckled and shook with inhuman force.

It slid quickly away. The body fell down and away, somewhere

out of sight, tumbling and dripping into the unknown below

this place. Through the open wall was another room made of

metal.

         Wind and mechanical noises filled my head. The

sensations were so intense that I was shaking violently within

my baggy rags. Tears came from my eyes as I squinted in the

rushing air.

         Everyone surged forward, grim faces portraying

purpose. I was swept into their bulky ranks and pushed into the

other room.

         As I crossed from room to room with a small hop, I

saw a bright sliver a foot wide. In that sliver between rooms

was a drop hundreds of feet down into some unusual green

garbage. That was where the body went. We were below

ground, but above... above ground. Nothing made sense. I put

the unbearable feeling of insecurity from my mind and did as

they all did.

        We sat down within that adjacent room. I sat near the

doorway. Everyone strapped into the sides, sitting on crude

seating. I followed their lead and secured myself to the walls.

         Then we waited while all chaos continued around us. My

hands were sweating despite the ice-cold air flowing over us.

         After a few minutes, I wondered why there was such

unusually strong lighting panels along the outside wall. Those

tablet-sized lamps were blinding me. Squinting, I could

comprehend that they were windows. Something beyond them

was so strongly bright that I couldn’t see what was outside.

My logic told me we were in a room inside an overly lit bigger

room. The reason was still beyond me.

        That dividing wall which had previously opened

quickly slammed down and shut again. Air hissed from the

joins. My legs were shaking and bouncing from anxiety. We

were outside of our habitat. No one seemed concerned.

        I waited. I believed we were going to die in a kind of

human trash can.

        Another huge clunk shook us as another mechanical

device began hammering about on the outside of this metal

chamber. Other odd clicks and clunks multiplied. Terror

gripped me, and I wanted to scream for help, but I couldn’t do

it; the others were all so stoically reserved with beady, dark

eyes forward and frowns locked into their countenances.

A final shuddering clunk.

        The room fell away from the outside wall. We

were falling! No, spinning. The open wall remained open.

Everything outside diminished and twisted about. Light

and colors flashed by as a sickening rotation of everything

worsened and sped up.

        I vomited onto the floor and my lap.

        Others laughed.

        I believed it meant I would die. I didn’t die.

To still my curiosity, I looked outside and saw other

rooms spinning around, suspended by chains going upward into

nowhere. Faces and bodies in other open doorways went by

every so often.