Day 758

The recent downpour (a month's worth of rain in the space of a morning commute) had blocked most of the drains and flooded the roads down by the river. The fire department were called out to try and pump as much of it back into the river as possible but with the seemingly ceaseless rainfall it was the very definition of pointless. Still, they insisted it was helping but they never specified who it helped.

It was certainly no good the the people living on that road, what with those bright red engines blocking it off at both ends and the smaller side roads it linked to. They stranded the people more than the flooding had and called it progress. They almost flooded a local houseboat with their carelessness and blamed it on the boatman trying to sabotage their alleged kindness.

Almost three days later and countless late mornings, delayed buses and general chaos all around, they reopened the road. The first thing anyone noticed was that it was bone dry, unlike the surroundings roads, still damp from the storm that had just barely passed. The second thing noticed, and reported over to whatever radio station would listen, was the amount of black weeds clustered around every drain.

According to those who'd been caught in traffic along that road, they didn't smell at all but they did seem to move on their own. Most rationalised it as being the movements of the drain water underneath as it slowly sank down but others squinted past the primary layer to see tiny hands brushing the slimy leaves aside to get a glimpse at their new surroundings.

Over the next few days reports of tiny black footprints leading all over the street, up to people's front doors, copious amounts of mud that looked more like tar jammed into their letterboxes as the footprints continued all over their homes. It would have been easy co call it an invasion of rats but the foot prints were too human looking and about six inches long from heel to toe. When compared to the half an inch long average rat's foot there was no way they could be mistaken for anything less than, well, human.

Rather than consider the possibilities of what the flood waters had brought in and why it took the fire brigade three days to drain one short road, it was put down to a prank. A group of people even came forward to claim that it was their way of bringing environmental issues to their local community by getting the public involved in a "carbon foot print challenge" and they were sorry it had been taken so far.

Most of the residents went along with it, said they knew about it the whole time and it was an act while their eyes darted about to the still weed-smothered drains that seemed to move to a wind that wasn't strong enough to cause that amount of movement.