the Tunnel

The tunnel is a place not known for its neighborhood. The inhabitants have come to term with the conditions. Things are always in a flux around here. When Rumi came into existence he was lucky to have a wave of Nourishment pass just after. Many of his siblings survived, it is usually not the case otherwise. The Nourishment is the center of their existence, the thing they live for and sometimes, the thing they die for. If an individual is lucky he might have up-to five or six waves in its lifetime, but it is not rare to hear about poor souls who could not witness even one Nourishment wave pass by.

When the wave comes, it is a sight to behold. They go after it and look for what they can eat, out of respect or out of fear, many stay away from the best bits and get by on the lower strata, but there is less competition here. Some get so excited by the sight of the wave that they get right in the middle of it and before they realize get sucked in and out of the tunnel, so much for greed. That is why Rumi has learned to stick to the walls. Families usually stay around the base of huge pillars, Rumi’s family is one of them, they gave up the best of the nourishment for the safety. Now they have to get by the toughest bits from the wave, but Rumi does not complain, it is not the worst of lives.

He had met an outsider once, one who came from outside the tunnel, the stories he told him were not pretty. Life, as he told them, was even worse outside. Unlike the tunnel there was no guarantee of food, many a times individuals went into coma for lack of food only to be revived later. But according to Rumi, these outsiders were not to be trusted, they were a savage bunch. All they wanted was adventure and death, almost all of them lost their life to the Sentinels. Sentinels live inside the walls, or at-least that’s what Rumi’s grandfather told him, there was good reasons to believed him. He has not heard of a single outsider to have crossed the wall and make it back to tell the tale. Sometimes not having experienced this first hand and not heeding the advice of the elders a young fool would swagger inside the walls, setting an example for the others.

The outsiders are not a welcome lot inside the tunnel. The inhabitants of the tunnel have been forced into a docile bunch by the forceful hand of God, the same is not true for the outsiders. Folklore has it that there have been accounts of armies of these outsiders invading the tunnel. It is said that the Tunnel is intelligent, the Nourishment at these times comes in just the right form to starve out the population, God does not discriminate, when he punishes it is with an equal and heavy hand. If the invaders survive this famine, then start the truly dark times, the Plague. The Nourishment changes its form completely, it is now poison, it kills everyone, children and adults. Rumi, thankfully, has not seen this in its life. Still Rumi can’t rest his mind, whenever he does, its the visions that won’t let it rest.

The elders have prophecies of another kind of Plague, one which does not have to do with the wrong doings of the occupiers of the Tunnel, foreign or native. It speaks about the Ghosts behind the Wall. The prophecies say that there will come a time, when these ghosts will become active, that will be a sign of the oncoming of the Plague. Its these visions of ghosts behind the wall that won’t let Rumi rest. Its not just him, others are talking about these visions too, albeit in hushed voices lest the inhabitants might think they are mad. For now though Rumi has other preoccupations, there have been signs that the wave is about to come, he has to prepare, this will be the second wave of his life, but the first in which he takes part as an adult.

The Wave started almost according to the predictions by the elders, by the time Rumi joined in there were rumors of individuals falling sick already passing around but no one believed them. Once the wave passed, then the sickness came home, Rumi’s family saw its elders perish one by one, and then family on the opposite side of the pillar payed its debt to death. Rumi knew in its heart, the Plague has started.

the Tunnel — Gut

Rumi — Ruminococcus Albus

the Nourishment — Food we eat

outsider — outside bacteria

the wall — intestinal walls

the Sentinel — viral phages that live in the mucus covering the intestinal walls and kill the bacteria that tries to invade us

the Plague — a dose of anti-bacteria

the Ghost — immune cells

Again, the illustrations are by my friend and in-house artist Divyanshu Pundir.