In the darkness, a green glow radiates in the concrete-lined spillway. Mostly shrouded by a blanket of sticky leaves, fallen from the trees planted nearby by order of the EPA, the glow is not noticeable to most passersby. Not that anyone passes by behind a smoke-belching factory in the middle of the night. Not unless ordered by their superiors, as is the case of the worker who rolls an unlabelled barrel down the embankment.
      It bounces off a tree-root, dislodges a clump of clay, and splatters into the river below. Suddenly the barrel reverses its course, tumbling up the slope and towards the startled worker. Emerging from the dark slime that coats the tributary: a scaly, blinking, unhappy beast. With slithery steps, its sinews propel the monster out of the riverbed and towards the factory...