CITY DOOM

Chapter 3

I woke up to the banging of the door.

"Skye! Wake up! Wake up!" Rik shouted. "We're late to work, Skye."

I stretch myself to the bed, thinking that is too early for work.

"Wait for a while, Rik," I shouted. "The farm will not go anywhere."

When I glance at the clock, it's already quarter to nine. That must be why Rik was pounding the door nonstop.

"I'm coming, Rik," I shouted.

I rushed out of bed, gathered my things, and went outside to meet Rik. I didn't even have the time to fix myself.

"What's taking you too long, Skye?" Rik said.

"I'm sorry, Rik, I overslept." I try to fix my bag, checking for the things I need.

"Maybe because I didn't have enough sleep last night," I added. While walking to the electric cart.

"It's okay," Rik replied. "By the way, did you feel the earthquake last night?"

I thought about what he said. "Not really, why did you ask?" I must be so tired not to feel it.

"I hope you secure your belongings," Rik sighs. "My house is a mess right now because of the earthquake."

I paused for a while, and it had me thinking, Why would there be any earthquake inside the doom if the shield was also beneath us, like we were in a big snow globe and elevated a few feet above the main land? Is the shield deteriorating?

"What is it, Skye?" Rik asked.

I looked at Rik in the driver's seat, waiting for my answer.

"I hope the earthquake didn't cause damage to my sound system," I replied.

I didn't want to explain what's in my head because it would be an endless interrogation while Rik smirked at me and said, "Hurry up." I hop on and let Rik smell my armpit to check if we're good to go. He protested at my childish acts and drove to the tomato field as fast as he could.

We started our day strong so that we could finish what was left of yesterday's work as well as today's task. While doing so, I was thinking about any surprise activities that I could do later in the evening to celebrate Rik's birthday while Rik was occupied with finishing our work. All of a sudden, the ground moved as if there were something beneath us. We paused and observed the ground for a while to see if it really moved. I looked around and saw some of our fellow farmers run towards the main road, where all of our electric carts were. It appeared that they were shouting, but we can't confirm it because they are too far away to be heard; some even waved their hands to warn us of something. A few seconds had passed, and nothing was happening, so Rik went back to work. As soon as Rik stepped on the metal platform, something burst out beneath him, causing the platform to be lifted as high as my forehead and flip in my direction, which caused Rik to lose balance. Luckily, his instinct kicked in, and he jumped, producing enough force to do a side somersault. Only this time do I truly appreciate the basic military training we had at school, and as I recalled, Rik is the highest-performing student in that class. Sadly, the triumphant moment is gone as he plops back first on the ground. I could feel his pain as he took a deep breath; vines appeared all over his reddest face. I grabbed his shoulder to help him get on his feet.

"Are you okay?" I asked. While dragging him towards the cart.

"Do I look okay to you?" he exclaimed. "Come on."

Rik retrieved his strength, and we ran behind the electric cart and tried to find out what attacked him a while ago. We peeked at the top of the cart to see what had transpired in the area where the attack had happened, but there was no one out there. The only thing we saw that was not there before was the big hole, big enough to fit five adults together. Next to it was the platform, and the other was the frame that is being dismantled, and silence was all we could hear. I looked around to see if there were other farmers in the field, but there was no trace of them.