What Lies Beneath

It started a couple of Fridays ago.  A fire started beneath a stretch of elevated interstate which ran through the heart of the city, causing the highway to collapse.  A person was arrested and charged for the incident quickly.  Too quickly if you ask me.  Just blame it on the closest, homeless crackhead.  Blame the black guy.  It’s as if the city were trying to cover something up.

The city’s been good at covering things up, especially when it comes to roadways.  Any time there has been some “construction” or “sewer work” done, the city has been quick to slam large, heavy metal plates over the hole.  Back in college, twenty-five years ago, friends and I used to joke that the plates were put down to keep out the C.H.U.D.s.

We may have been right about something living beneath the city, but I think we vastly underestimated its size.

This past Monday we had two new incidents.  Early in the morning, on the downtown connector, roughly five miles south-southwest of the original incident, there was a toxic chemical spill which closed down all lanes in both directions.   Subsequently, only ten hours later and seven miles east-southeast, there was another incident.  This time, the pavement of another interstate had buckled and been thrust upward.  This incident, according to the city, was caused by a gas leak.  It was attributed to work done by some contractor.

Convenient.

The story of what happened on the downtown connector is even more bizarre.  In video footage released to the media, you can see a driver pull over on the shoulder of the highway, wait a moment, and then try to make a U-turn; heading southbound on the northbound side.  This is when the “accident” occurred.

Why would anyone even try that?  Was this the action of someone who had seen something horrifying and was fleeing for his life?  Maybe this was a deliberate action by someone who worked for the city: spill Benzoyl chloride on the highway in order to clear the area so no one will see.  Perhaps this was even an attempt to repel the creature.

That’s right.   I wrote creature.

It makes too much sense: decades of the city quickly slamming down metal slabs over every open hole in the area.  Not one, but three attempts within a few weeks of a creature trying to force its way to the surface.  There were two incidents this last time.  The attacks are getting more frequent.

I wonder what kind of burrowing creature has been lurking beneath the city.  Could it be something like the Shai Hulud of dune?  Possibly Toho’s Baragon?  Maybe it is a Bulette of Dungeons and Dragons fame.

Imagine that, being harassed by a Gygaxian horror and me without access to fireball.

I know what you’re thinking.  Greg, this is some grade-A conspiracy bullshit.  This isn’t me being crazy.  You may believe the mundane explanations given to you by the media; information fed to them by the city government.  You may not accept that this is something that the city has known about, and hidden, for decades.  You may not buy that the public are being kept ignorant of the truth.  But, I can assure you, this is no knee-jerk reaction.  My reasoning is measured.

There is something large that has been lying beneath the city of Atlanta.  It has been here for a long time.  Now, it has awakened.