Not the usual hum of bugs or busted power lines. This was a low, mechanical sound—like a radio left on in another room, or maybe a spaceship powering up somewhere underground. But no one talked about it yet. They were too busy brushing ash off their shoes and pretending they hadn’t watched Mason kill a chicken monster with a stick.
In the van—The Cosmic Bean, now proudly spray-painted with a unicorn shooting lasers—Peppa was chewing on a marker and reading a map of the town that Daisy had drawn on a pizza box. There were red circles around “Old Gravel Pit”, “Jenkins’ Abandoned Gas Station”, and “That Hole Mason Fell In That One Time.”
Bug was upside-down in the hammock, watching the ceiling. “Why do we need dirt samples again?”
“Because,” Peppa said, tapping the map with her marker like it was a war plan, “the chicken probably got mutated from something in the ground. Radiation, chemicals, alien sludge. We dig, we test, we find the source.”
“You mean we get sweaty and risk tetanus,” muttered Alex, sharpening a spoon like it was a weapon.
Mason appeared, wearing his usual black jeans and a patched denim jacket. “I packed PB&Js, duct tape, three flashlights, and a machete.”
"Why do you have a machete?" asked Hannah.
“I just do.”
The crew assembled like the weirdest field trip ever.
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Mason, Peppa, Bug, Daisy, Hannah, Alex, and Twig. (And the dog).
Plus Twig’s frog, which might’ve been dead. No one wanted to check.
Their first stop: the Old Gravel Pit.
It looked like nothing special—just a giant, empty crater. But there was a buzzing in the air. The closer they got, the worse it got. The dog, Stinkwurst McMangledank, wouldn’t go near it. He just growled low and peed on Peppa’s boot.
“Gross,” she muttered, wiping it on a rock.
“Feels like we’re standing on a microwave,” said Daisy, pulling her purple cloak tighter. “Like... the earth’s got a fever.”
“I think it’s alive,” said Bug quietly.
Everyone stared at her.
She shrugged.
“I just do.”
They split into teams.
-
Peppa and Bug handled soil samples.
-
Mason and Alex tried to set up a Geiger counter (which may or may not have been made from a toaster).
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Daisy and Hannah took readings from Daisy’s “vibe detector” (a VHS player rigged with dowsing rods).
-
Twig fell in a hole.
“Twig’s gone,” said Alex calmly.
“No I’m not!” Twig called from under the dirt.
“Oh.”
They pulled him out. He was covered in green goo.
Everyone froze.
“...You touched anything down there?” Mason asked slowly.
Twig held up a shiny, humming rock. “This.”
It pulsed.
Peppa took two steps back. “Nope. Nope. Bad. Evil. Cursed rock.”
Bug leaned closer. “Or it’s a key.”
“To what?” Daisy asked.
Bug smiled. “The next part.”
Back in the van, they locked the rock in a metal lunchbox and hid it under Twig’s mattress. Peppa made sure it was wrapped in tinfoil, garlic, duct tape, and a sock.
"That'll stop it," she muttered.
"From what?" asked Hannah.
“Coming to life and eating our faces.”
Outside, thunder cracked over the desert—loud, dry, and wrong.
No rain.
Just sound.
Far in the distance, a light blinked on at the edge of the gravel pit.
A door. Metal. Glowing.
They all stared at it.
No one moved.
Until Mason whispered, “...So. Who’s going first?”