Atomic CritterS
Volume I | Part I
Chapter 7: “The Tremor”
Then one night, the ground trembled.
It was subtle—just a nudge, the earth clearing its throat—but enough to send the koi rippling and Slug Cat blinking awake for the first time in eight hours.
Renji felt it while crossing the bridge.
He stopped mid-step, one hand resting on the railing, listening—not with his ears, but with that instinct of his that always seemed to tug him toward places he shouldn’t be.
The koi pond had gone eerily calm.. The water pulled back into a perfect circle, like an invisible wall was there. The koi swam around the edge, acting scared and refusing to swim inside, as if they knew something was wrong.
At the edge of the wooden platform near the exposed ring lay Slug Cat.
Exactly where she had been earlier.
Chin on the wood. Eyes half-open.
Unmoved.
“Well,” Renji murmured. “That’s new.”
He crouched, leaning closer. The mud at the center hadn’t collapsed the way it should have. Instead, it held firm around a rusted metal shape—a circular hatch, half-buried, older than the bridge, older than the sanctuary.
Renji frowned. “How long have you been there?” He asked of the relic.
Slug Cat did not answer.
Renji jogged back toward the shed and returned moments later with a crowbar slung over his shoulder, curiosity pulling him faster than caution.
He wedged the crowbar into the seam of the hatch and pulled.
Nothing.
He adjusted his footing, and pulled again.
The metal groaned faintly.
Slug Cat watched.
Renji leaned harder, boots scraping against the wet stone. The crowbar slipped with a sharp clang that echoed across the pond, sending the koi scattering—yet the water ring held, smooth and perfect, refusing to collapse.
“That’s not right,” Renji muttered.
He braced himself for one more pull—
—and the hatch shifted.
Not because of him.
The metal lifted an inch on its own, slow and deliberate, as if something beneath it had decided to help.
Renji stumbled back. “Okay. I did not do that.”
Slug Cat blinked once.
The hatch creaked open the rest of the way with a sound like a breath finally released.
Violet light spilled upward, washing the underside of the bridge in color and exposing an entrance leading down into a cavern.
The koi fled.
Renji stood at the edge, staring down into the glow, crowbar hanging loosely from his hand.
“…That’s going to be a problem,” he said quietly.
“Kagen!”
Kagan’s cabin was an ear shot from the koi pond. After a moment, Kagan arrived at a run, boots skidding to a stop beside him. He took in the open hatch, the strange light, the water still held back in a circle surrounding the hatch.
“What did you do?” Kagen asked.
Renji didn’t look away. “I found something.”
“You opened that?” Kagen said. “Did you know this was here?”
“No,” Renji said. “Did you?”
“No.”
They stared down together.
“How long do you think it’s been there?” Kagen asked.
Renji shook his head slowly. “Longer than us.”
Kagen crouched, careful not to touch the water. “How’d you get it open?”
Renji lifted the crowbar slightly. “I didn’t. Not really.”
Kagen frowned. “Explain.”
“I pried,” Renji said. “It resisted, and then it… didn’t.”
Kagen followed his gaze to the hatch—to the way the metal rested open, not broken. Waiting.
“…Like it was pushed?” Kagen said.
Renji nodded. “From the other side.”
Slug Cat remained where she was, unmoving.
“She didn’t even move,” Kagen said.
Renji swallowed. “She never does when it matters.”
The violet glow pulsed once, slow and steady.
Kagen straightened his stance.
“Well,” he said, “on the bright side—if this thing explodes, at least we’ll know whose fault it is.”
Renji huffed a laugh. “That’s comforting.”
Kagen didn’t laugh back.
“I don’t like this,” he said instead.
Renji tightened his grip on the crowbar. “Neither do I.”
They didn’t step away.
The ground shuddered beneath their feet. Renji and Kagen exchanged a look, then turned toward the barn to grab a ladder—whatever was beneath the koi pond wasn’t going to wait.
And despite the unease crawling up their spines—despite the sense that something below had been waiting for exactly this—they moved closer to the edge.
As they descended the ladder, a faint light emanating from the cavern grew stronger with every step down they took.
