Underground

It’s so warm down here.

The closer you get to the centre of the Earth, the warmer, right?

 

Old mine workings.

A lot more than that. Tunnels for getting coal to the quayside. Culverts for rivers and canals. Utility tunnels. Smuggling tunnels. Sewage pipes. Dewatering pipes. Access shafts. Ventilation shafts. Old emergency exits. Underground bunkers. Subterranean wagonways.

 

They live off the city.  Scavenge in the city. Survive on the city’s scraps. They’re gleaners. They don’t need much.

 

It’s a whole ethos. It’s a way of life.

 

They want to be self-sufficient. They don’t want to rely on anyone. They believe it’ll all go to shit. They know what’s happening. The war on the food supply. Sterilisation, all that sort of thing.

And do they raise children?

I think they do. Home schooled. Schooled underground. Trained in the arts of survival.

 

They know they’ll have to fend for themselves for years, even. They know what the nutters are up to.

 

They’re, like, a doomsday cult.

 

They also grow food.

Down here?

They have halogen lights. All sorts.

 

It’s the anti-OM campus.

It is.

 

They sense the disaster. They know it’s coming.

 

Wow. Like mole people.  

 

They’re an underground version of the Tarnac 5. Those Invisible Committee guys.

 

Like, the last form of life. For the endless end times.

 

They’re working out how to live as scavengers. On scraps and leftovers. In the ruins loving the ruins.

 

They speak a kind of post-postgraduate cant. They have a complex system of hand signals. They can speak using their fingers.

What are they say?

Bunch … of … fucking … tossers, from what I can make out.

 

I think they have their own religion. They have rituals … ceremonies.

 

They’re awaiting the Abomination. That’s their liberator.

 

We have to win their trust.

 

This is where we could hide out when it all goes world war. When the shit goes down. Or hits the fan. Or whatever.

 

Secret Newcastle. DUMBS Newcastle, maybe.

 

It’s part of the mines, do you think? Tunnels, culverts, all that stuff.

 

Reverberating. With what? Pulsing. Throbbing.

 

I can hear a rumbling. I can hear a droning. So deep. Like ultra deep whalesong. tectonic planes sliding over each other or something. Lower than fucking low. What makes a sound that deep?

It’s making me wanna shit. It’s working on my bowels. I’m going to poop.

What do they do for toilets down here?

They recycle it. Humanure, and all that.

Is that right?

I think it powers their lights.

Wow – poop powered lights.

 

Is that cave art? I think it’s just graffiti. Hi end graffiti. Quotes from Hegel. In German.