• How could I describe our city? I could compare it to a pack of sardines. People packed in close together, writhing in their own stink. Or maybe I could compare it to salmon trying to swim upstream. The police and the military force are currents, keeping us in place while making our journey far more difficult than it has to be. But these two comparisons don’t come close to doing any justice. Then it came to me as my foot came down on a black bag that was filled with something mushy. My mind ran wild with what the bag could contain (I’m sure yours does as well but I move on without giving it a second thought and for your benefit I suggest you do the same.)

    Rats. Climbing over their own filth, pushing and climbing over each other selfishly, and diseased with their tedious infatuations. Disgusting. I can see their beady, red eyes and hear their squeaks and scuffles. They plow through the garbage as if it’s not there. I must digress from this subject for it is too perfect and too nasty a reality. The only thing I can provide further is that our surroundings are like a continuous wasteland. The sun is the only thing that marks the sky, infinitely. The earth is scorched and as we established before, blanketed with heaps of trash. My father once said, "Where there once was life now there’s concrete. Black and cold. Hot with death." I never understood what he meant but I believe as I grow older I understand a little more.

    "Keep it moving! Keep it moving! There’s nothing to see!" I heard a voice cry.
    I didn’t realize that I wasn’t moving until the voice broke my concentration. A crowd of rats - I have decided to refer to the masses as rats, it only seems natural - had congealed around what seemed to be a large tower crane. The voice had come from a police officer that was directing foot traffic. You could tell he took his job very seriously with how he waved his arms with such force and direction.

    "I said keep it moving! There’s nothing to see here!" he repeated with authority.
    The rat mob suddenly scurried forward. As we pushed by I could see what had caught their attention. On the top floor of an apartment building a huge hole had been broken in. A group of firefighters were riding up on a make shift piece of bedding made out of a thick sheet of metal. When they reached the top another group of firefighters were struggling with something. It was a huge lump, which looked to be covered in plastic garbage bags. The crane came to a steady stop and rested sturdily inside the apartment. I watched as the firemen jumped off the metal piece and ran to their comrades. I could tell that whatever they were moving required them to exert all of their man power. Slowly they worked it onto the plank and made sure it was secure as possible. One of them gave a signal and the crane roared to life again. Only this time the crane began to cry. Whatever was on the crane was too great for it to handle on its own. The firemen sprang to action and began to push the sheet of metal out of the window. Slowly the plastic lump was eased out of the apartment. When it reached its last inch it violently swung out of the apartment, making one of the firemen lose footing and slip out of the window. The mob squeaked and squirmed with excitement as they watched the firemen struggle to save their comrade, but I was focused on the crane. It had swung out wide over us from the force. I could hear the crane struggling as it fought to keep its ground. I got a good look at the plastic lump and I finally knew why the firemen struggled. The size of the thing was inhuman! It was larger than any of us! I couldn’t believe the crane could hold it up; it was twice its size! Suddenly there was an ear piercing moan from the crane. The rats grew quiet and shifted their attention to where I had been looking all along. The chains that were holding up the plank began to bend and break. The rats began to squeak in an unsettling way and pushed and climbed over each other violently.

    "Get out of the way! It’s coming down!" the police officer shrieked.
    This put me into motion. I began to push and climb and I too became a rat. I didn’t take my eyes off the plastic creature. I watched as its weight broke the crane’s neck and plummeted to the ground. It was coming right at me. It drew closer and closer and threatened to swallows me whole in its shadow. I pushed and clawed with all my might but I still couldn’t escape. It was like fighting to push through a brick wall. My body was shaking and I could feel my chest heave and my eyes burn as tears began to swell.

    "Move!" I heard myself suddenly shout. And as if my command was law the rats pushed forward as I dived with all my strength.
    Instantaneously, the plastic creature impacted with the ground. A few feet over the crane’s neck smashed into cars and sent out a shower of glass and smoke. I covered myself along with all the other rats and waited for the debris to settle. When I mustered up enough courage to move, my eyes looked to the crane’s neck. I heard screams and cries and saw that it came from victims the crane claimed. The police officer was nowhere to be found. I looked and looked and suddenly noticed an arm. It was the police officer’s. He had been plowed into the ditch the plastic creature made in the side walk. I backed away as I realized I was only a few inches away from sharing the same fate. The rats swarmed in again, making another crowd around the site. The creature was a giant to us all. Bigger than any house I’d seen. How could such a thing fit inside such a small apartment? But I had little time to think before something caught my eye. Out from the side of the plastic was another arm. I thought someone else had been claimed by the creature but I soon realized that it belonged to the creature himself. The creature was a man.