My First Day On The Job At A Substation In Texas Was Nothing Short Of Terrifying

I began my “Endless Walk” through the tunnel, checking the wires and connections along the way. Every so often there was a wattage meter that I would record on my clipboard. I passed one of the cameras as I strode along my way, waving at it with a stupid grin. Then I thought of how much of an ass I am, considering I was the only one who’d be around to look at the monitors. I laughed to myself and kept on down the tunnel.

After about 15 minutes of walking, I was beginning to understand why Walter had referred to this as the “Endless Walk”. I must’ve walked half-a-mile down the tunnel and nothing looked different. I wasn’t getting any closer to the end or even a bend. But, I was just about to the end of my so called “route” and down to the last meter. I was jotting down the numbers when a wind hit me like I was in front of an industrial sized fan that was blowing in the goddamn arctic. I shuddered and locked my arms. I looked down the “Endless Walk” for the source, but simply saw the same old tunnel of the infinite. I figured this was what Walter was referring to by “dangerous”. He didn’t mention any kind of cooling system and I sure didn’t see any specs or equipment around that would lead me to believe that there was one. But it felt like I was about to have my face and balls frozen off, and “industrial cooling system” and “run now” were the only two things that made sense.

I turned and sprinted to the elevator door. The cold winds began to bellow out a lazy, high-pitched howl somewhere far down the tunnel behind me. At least, I subconsciously prayed it was the wind causing the noise. It didn’t sound like any howling winds I’d ever heard, but I’d never been in a tunnel miles long with gusts of freezing wind up my backside. I made it to the door in about three minutes flat. I was starting to sweat, and the moisture felt like it was freezing right to my skin. I hastily button-mashed the call button, and I heard the old machinery lurch back to life. The door slowly slid open and I squeezed inside before it had a chance to fully open. I went to button mashing the close-door button this time, and the elevator just ignored me, opening the door all the way then closing it back slowly, the whole time squealing in a light metallic voice. Once the door was closed and I began the shaky ride up, the cold gradually began to fade away. When I reached the top, I had to piss like a racehorse. After a very relieving, but slightly paranoid urination session, I headed back for the security room.

My night began to dull again, and drag on and on. I listened to every SRV song I had on my Zune, then moved on to shuffle and just went with the luck of the draw. I stepped back outside at one point to walk the grounds and smoke a spliff that was stashed above my sun visor. Thankfully the cold had seemed to pass, and it was just regularly chilly outside. I patrolled the grounds as Jeff Buckley’s “Hallelujah” and the spliff sent me into a slight euphoria. The big shiny moon and the cloudless, dark sky was the perfect setting to hear the poor boy drone gracefully about love lost. Every cloud of dust my steps kicked up flowed away on the wind in slow motion and I felt like I was wading through time like it was an ocean. Aside from the snap freezing and weird atmosphere that seemed to willingly come and go, I decided this was a pretty decent job so far. Definitely not your normal 9-to-5, at the very least.

The night moved at a slow, but easy pace. I kept an eye on the cameras, even though the only movement I saw was the occasional tumbleweed passing by outside. I’d had my sandwich and Cheetos, along with a Big Red. Not exactly the most hearty meal, but between the roast beef, provolone, and dijon, it wasn’t too shabby. Hours passed and 2:45 AM rolled around. I moaned out of my seat like a weathered old man, both of my knees popping as I came to a stand. I made my way to the rickety elevator and rode it down the long and narrow elevator shaft. Same bumpy and long ride as earlier, but when I got about five minutes into the ride, things went a little different.

The elevator grumbled and shook a little more than usual and with one heavy jolt, the single dim light in the elevator flickered off. I was in the dark, in a metal box, heading lower and lower into the earth. If I had anxieties, you can bet they would’ve been firing me up. As it was, I shrugged and wondered how bullshit it would be to die in a tiny elevator in the middle of the desert. Just about then, the elevator thumped to a stop and the door creaked open.

The lights in the tunnel seemed to be acting up too. The light right above the elevator door was flickering a little. I looked down the Walk, and in both directions a few of the lights along the tunnel were doing the same. It seemed like there may have been a fluctuation in the levels of electrical current running through the place. Or at least, that’s what my two years of electrical engineering apprenticeship knowledge seemed to suggest.

I went quickly to the first meter along the tunnel. My flashlight glared off the glass and into my eyes. I squinted for a moment, then saw that the levels were a little high, but otherwise fine. I didn’t understand what was causing the weird behavior with the lights, but it did not make the walk any easier.

I went from meter to meter, each one a hundred feet apart. In between each light that hung by a single wire was 15 feet of darkness. When they would flicker off, it was 40 feet of darkness to walk through. I’m not superstitious, and definitely not afraid of the dark, but having the power act up hundreds of feet below the earth isn’t appealing. I was already starting to feel ill at ease. I kept a brisk pace as I marched from one meter to the next, trying to ignore the longer and longer stretches of darkness as I made the walk. It seemed that in the dark stretches, the cold would escalate and seep quickly to the bone. I rushed my duties and began to estimate a few numbers instead of calculate them.

I was nearing the last meter on my route when I found myself staring right down the middle of the tunnel while I trekked. I didn’t realize why the tunnel looked peculiar at first. Then it dawned on me with an odd terror. I could see complete darkness far down the tunnel. Earlier, never once could I see an end to the tunnel. Now, it was pretty far, and I could see the lights were completely off after a certain point.

I stopped in my tracks and just kept staring. I was marginally curious as to what was causing this, but much more concerned with the feeling of impending dread the sight gave me. It was an illogical dread. Again, I’m not afraid of the dark, but this darkness felt like it wasn’t just a lack of light, but a conscious thing that was staring at me. Staring past me. And then, it was no longer content with just sizing me up. It began to move on me.

The next light popped hundreds of feet down the tunnel, and the darkness lurched towards me. I shivered, but didn’t move. The cold began to blow past my ankles and start to flow up to my waist as the howling returned. It was low at first, but started to rise slowly. It was sickly and unlike any wind, or animal, or human that I could imagine. The next light along the Walk popped and another 20 feet of darkness consumed the tunnel, heading my way. I moved this time, spinning around and running back towards the elevator. I booked it, hauling ass as fast as I possibly could without looking back. I could hear light after light pop and fizzle out in a pace that seemed to be getting faster and closer by the second. I half-registered how impressed with myself I was when after just over a minute of running, I was already back at the elevator. Then again, my adrenaline was pumping like the injector on a V8, so it may have been five minutes for all I know.

I clicked that button hard and fast enough to crack it in half. The old metal box groaned awake while I dared to look down the Endless Walk. The darkness was getting closer and closer, not a single light remaining on in its wake. Finally, the door opened up and I rushed inside. I knew it wouldn’t matter, but I still mashed the button to close the door. As it ultimately began to make it’s motion to close, I could see the darkness catching up to that part of the Walk. The bulb above the elevator door popped off just as the door closed. Before it shut, a harsh sliver of freezing wind sliced into me and immediately chilled me to the core. The howling was close, but not quite there. And it was accompanied by something else. Something harder to hear, but there. A sort of scraping sound.

The elevator ride up remained lights-on the whole time, and I was never more grateful for electricity. I got to the top and nearly collapsed in the chair in the security room. I rubbed my throbbing head, then snapped out of my migraine. I rushed to lean forward in my seat and scan the monitors down in the Walk. I was expecting at the very best, pitch black on all four monitors. And at the very worst, some horrible atrocity slithering down the dark, infinite tunnel. But it was neither. All four cameras showed a well enough lit Endless Walk with no damage. No giant earthworms or underground trolls scurrying back into the soil. I rubbed my eyes to make sure there was nothing and that I was awake. I sat back in confusion and pretty much stayed that way the rest of my shift.

Once the sun began to peak over the horizon, it was my time to clock out. I was more than eager to punch the clock and get home. I called Walter before I left, but he didn’t answer. I left a message, filling him in on the weird power fluctuations. I left out the part where I ran like a god damn sissy out of there. I’m not exactly looking forward to my next shift, but a job’s a job, right?