Chapter 5: Shimmering Truths
The journey toward the dome started out quietly.
Richy walked along the cracked streets, the cat padding a few steps behind. Its limp was still there, but weaker now — each movement seemed steadier than the last. Every so often, it would pause to sniff the air, ears flicking as if following an invisible trail.
"You're acting like you know where we're going," Richy said, glancing over his shoulder. The cat gave him a slow blink and continued walking. "...Right. Guess I'm just the chauffeur now."
The city around them grew stranger as they approached the distant shimmer he'd glimpsed earlier. Buildings twisted with metallic vines. Cracks in the road pulsed faintly, like veins under skin. Even the air felt… different. Charged. Alive.
And the cat was changing too.
By the time they passed an overturned bus, its once-weak gait had become firm. The glowing veins under its fur had brightened, especially near the wound. The gauze he wrapped earlier now clung to a partially healed leg, new skin forming underneath like accelerated regeneration.
Richy crouched, watching it closely. "...You've gotta be kidding me. You were limping a few hours ago. Now you're walking like nothing happened."
The cat tilted its head, both tails swaying lazily. If cats could look smug, this one did.
He looked toward the distant shimmer again — faint, but growing clearer with each step. "It's the dome, isn't it? You're drawing energy from it."
He didn't get a response, obviously. But the way the cat's fur subtly rippled with faint energy told him enough.
---
After a few blocks, the shimmer transformed into something tangible.
A translucent hemisphere rose above the city like a massive glass bubble, only visible where the sunlight refracted off its surface. The edges hummed faintly, distorting the air like heatwaves. Everything inside the boundary was brighter, almost hyper-saturated with color.
Richy stopped at a safe distance. "…That's not a weather phenomenon."
He approached slowly, careful to observe rather than rush in. His fingers traced the air just short of the surface. He felt… pressure. Not physical, but something deeper — like the hum of power vibrating against his skin.
"This is an active energy field," he whispered. "But… how?"
The cat padded forward and sat calmly near the edge, tails flicking. Its fur shimmered faintly in response to the field, as if syncing with it.
Richy exhaled, mind racing. His major wasn't biology, but he wasn't ignorant either. *Geography and mechanical engineering.* He knew about magnetic anomalies, tectonic shifts, radiation zones… but this? This was different.
"Okay… energy fields that affect matter exist. Geothermal. Electromagnetic. Radiation. But this…" He gestured at the dome. "This is stable. Structured. Like someone *designed* it. And it's altering you."
He pointed at the cat, which now looked almost fully healed. Its tails emitted faint motes of light that disappeared into the air.
"You're biological," he continued, talking to himself more than the cat. "You have cells. DNA. And this thing is causing changes *at the genetic level* in real time. That shouldn't even be possible. Not naturally."
The words tumbled out faster the more he spoke.
"Genetic variation requires replication cycles, mutation, or forced modification — CRISPR, radiation-induced changes, maybe even viral vectors. But this…" He touched the field lightly, feeling that humming resonance again. "…This is raw energy. How does energy rewrite genes?"
He stood there for a long moment, silent except for the buzzing air. His mind struggled between scientific reasoning and the absurd reality in front of him.
The cat walked closer to the dome and pressed its nose gently against it. A ripple spread out like water. Its body glowed faintly for a heartbeat, and then — nothing dramatic happened. But its breathing steadied. The last of its limp vanished.
Richy stared, half in awe, half in disbelief. "...You absorbed it. Like it's normal. Like your body is *meant* to take this in."
He crouched beside the cat, muttering softly. "If this field directly triggers adaptive mutations… this could explain the creatures. The plants. Everything mutating overnight. It's not just environmental pressure. It's a *mechanism*."
He glanced at the translucent dome again. "Either nature evolved something insane overnight… or someone flipped a switch."
---
His thoughts spiraled deeper, drawing on fragments of his engineering and geography knowledge.
"Energy patterns like this don't just appear. There's a source. Maybe underground… or an artificial emitter. And if it's causing genetic rewrites, then anything alive inside would be… constantly changing."
He rubbed his temple. "The longer something stays in here, the more adapted it becomes. The cat's basically a walking data point."
He looked at the cat again. "I don't suppose you can talk and confirm that, huh?"
The cat flicked both tails, unimpressed.
"…Yeah. Didn't think so."
Despite the tension, a small grin tugged at his lips. The surrealism of the situation hadn't fully faded, but his curiosity burned brighter than his fear now. This dome wasn't just a mystery — it was the **key** to everything happening.
---
He decided to stay just outside the boundary for now, observing. The cat curled up nearby, basking in the ambient energy like it was lying in the sun. Richmond pulled out the shard of alloy he'd taken earlier and held it up. Under the dome's proximity, it vibrated faintly, almost resonating with the field.
"…Same frequency," he muttered. "The plants, the dome, the creatures… it's all connected."
He scribbled rough notes on a torn piece of paper, sketching the dome shape and energy flow based on what he could see. His handwriting was messy, but his thoughts were sharp.
"If this spreads… if this dome is just one of many…"
He didn't get to finish the thought.
A rustling sound echoed from the street behind him.
Richy froze.
The cat's ears perked, both tails stiffening. Its golden eyes narrowed toward the source of the noise.
From the shadow of an overturned trash container, a creature emerged — hunched, fur bristled, eyes glowing faint orange. At first, it looked like an oversized raccoon… until it opened its mouth and revealed rows of needle-like teeth.
"…Oh, hell no," Richy whispered, wrench tightening in his grip.
The raccoon's lips curled back, releasing a guttural hiss unlike anything a normal animal would make. It crouched low, muscles tensing.
The cat stood beside Richy, its tails rising like banners.
The street went silent.
And then — it leapt.