A young drifter named Hall has been working at a decrepit
textile mill in a small town in
Maine when the cruel
foreman, Warwick, recruits him and others to assist with a massive cleaning effort. The basement of the old mill has been abandoned for twelve years, and over the years, a monumental infestation of
rats has taken hold. This rat empire, cut off from the rest of nature, has allowed the animals to evolve into a strange and varied combination of creatures, complete with its own bizarre, self-sustaining
ecosystem. There are
cat-sized rats; three foot tall rats without eyes and hind legs; and
bat-like rats. The men eventually come across a sub-basement, locked from the inside. Warwick then enlists Hall to go down and investigate the sub-basement and that he may take whomever he likes. Hall chooses Warwick who, despite trying to prevent them from entering, is forced to press on. As they make their way through the sub-basement, Hall and Warwick discover that it harbors something more terrifying and hideous than any of them could have dreamed—a
cow-sized
queen rat with no eyes or legs, whose only purpose is to endlessly breed more rats. Hall sprays Warwick towards the queen with a hose they were using to attack the rats. As the queen devours Warwick, Hall makes his way towards the exit while spraying the rats. However, he is overwhelmed and eaten alive by the hordes of mutated rats. Meanwhile, the other team of workers on the surface wonders what has happened to them and, with no idea what kind of horror awaits them, prepares to descend into the basement. ==See also==