These days when the older ones would come back from their food expeditions, they would bring strange stories with them as well as food.
There were huge creatures called ‘human-folk’ which the rats were extremely careful to stay away from. Usually the stories were about how the human-folk would catch the rats and other creatures and do terrible, unspeakable things to them. But now, everyone told the same story. The human-folk had vanished… There were much less leftovers to pick from and the rats had taken to collecting the berries which fell from the trees instead.
The rat tunnels were full of gossip of the changes happening outside. It didn’t mean much to Ronnie until night after night he began to hear a strange sound. It was like nothing he had ever heard before – a low, droning, humming noise which would get louder and quieter as the night went on. He was unable to sleep, and to his surprise he began to hear tiny, rain-like voices in the humming; “We will get etched into folklore over our death”.