Pale Render

In the sewers of Oakhaven, the blockage isn't grease. It's people. Caleb Rudge is a "flusher," a man who makes his living clearing the veins of the city. He knows the labyrinthine Victorian sewer system of Oakhaven better than the streets above, a world of slow drains, stagnant air, and the sickly sweet smell of decay. When his team is dispatched to Sector 4 to clear a massive obstruction reported as a "Fatberg," they expect the usual: congealed grease, wet wipes, and urban refuse. But the blockage is pure white. It is hard as stone, smells of lavender and rot, and radiates a chemical heat. As Caleb chips away at the mass, he discovers it isn't waste. It is Adipocere—tons of saponified human corpse wax, fused together in a geological nightmare. The wall bleeds when struck. The faces trapped in the wax are perfectly preserved, their eyes open and staring. And they are not dead. Caleb realizes too late that the city isn't just flushing its trash; it is feeding a massive, subterranean entity that turns flesh into soap. Trapped in a collapsing tunnel with a hunger that defies biology, Caleb must escape before the heat of his own body betrays him, turning him into just another layer in the Pale Render.