Species of Tube Traveller #7 - The Swarm

The Swarm is perhaps one of the more unique scourges of the London Underground because this collection of haphazard entities operate as a group to reach their mutual goal of being incredible annoying. These oddities usually travel together in groups, and of course, while this is perfectly acceptable, insist on moving through the narrow tunnels as a unit to block and slow down as many people as possible. Our studies are yet to determine whether or not they are some kind of collective hive-mind controlled by a queen of some sort, or if each one has limited intelligence backed up by a basic instinct to bunch up.

The Swarm

If there is some kind of central queenlike figure and the rest are drones, we have been unable to identify it, meaning that it most likely looks like the rest of them in a clever display of camouflage. They have also been known to bunch up at the bottom of stairs, in front of tube maps and everywhere else where they can cause the most frustration and delay as possible. As our studies continue, we will experiment by eliminating certain members of the unit in an effort to find the central controller, if there is one.

Habitat – Tunnels, carriages, anywhere they can cause a bottleneck

Special Skills – A hive-like unspoken bond, causing delay, descending onto platforms like locusts

Weaknesses – Destroy the Queen and the drones will die