Deep underground I pose for a self portrait. My camera sits on its tripod some feet away and my lights are carefully arranged to cast the right shadows to capture the ambience of the underworld. The camera clicks and the four second exposure begins. Without warning there is a flurry of movement from farther up the tunnel. I try not to look to avoid blurring the picture.

Then come the steady beating of footsteps on wet cement. The photo now forgotten I dash first for my lights and then the camera throwing everything haphazardly into my bag. Dashing off down the tunnel I too have given away my presence and the chase now echoes far into the darkness.

Too far from any outflows to escape the underground completely I am determined to hide from my pursuer. Sprinting down a side tunnel I have not explored before, my skull cracks against the ceiling. Bright lights explode in my eyes and I feel myself falling backwards my grip loosened on the heavy maglight.

Slowly I wake up. The darkness is complete. Lost and confused, I try to remember where I am. My thoughts feel thick and muddy like the foul water creeping around me. Reaching out with heavy arms I feel slick concrete under numbed fingers. As my senses return the effluvium seeps, sweet at first, into my brain, as claustrophobic as the walls, forcing themselves on me.

Carefully I shift into a crouch and begin to crawl down the tunnel that stretches how far I cannot tell. Struggling against the thick flow my knees sink into the soft substrate, tightly curled fingers sift through chunks of the clammy gelatin.

In another life I was so confident, so self-assured. Others questioned my uncompromising attitude and determinations. Fleeting memories of those days pass before me like ghosts. I press on through this hell; perhaps here lies the path to salvation…