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...