They say the tunnels beneath the city are to let all the rainwater drain out into the sea, they say that everything drains out into the sea eventually but we're landlocked to the point that most people have only seen the ocean in photos. That and the fact that we barely see rain most months just raised more questions than they were willing to settle.
My cousins and I camped out there once, when the council told us it was too dangerous to go anywhere near the tunnels - called it "flooding season" which we laughed at like the ignorant children we were. Now there's no us, just me and all the questions we never wanted answered like that.
When we got down there with our tents and a small fire kit we expected maybe a little damp from the rain that morning, maybe puddles enough that we'd need to pitch our tents on the walkways rather than the ground and it was just damp at first. I couldn't stand it so I camped at the top of a stairwell and they set up on the ground right below.
We must have spent hours just laughing and throwing bits of food at each other while a faint rumbling built all around us til we couldn't ignore it any more. As the rumbling build to a bone-rattling crescendo we started to hear rushing water amidst it all as the air grew too thick to breathe.
I was barely able to get to the top of the platform before I saw my cousins and their tent swept away into darkness by great swirls of water that left a salty tang in the air and all the things that swam within it snapped and snarled at them til they were too far out of sight.
And then I was left with raging waters filled with beasts the like of which I'd never seen before and prayed I'd never see again. I eventually found them in old textbooks about the Mesozoic era after years of desperately trying to find some kind of answer that didn't make me sound any crazier to the police.
Once upon a time our little landlocked city had been deep underwater and I think it still remembers that.
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