5 min Writing Prompt "Earthquake" #freewrite serial Chapter Seven

Leaning over the opening next to the turbine blades, he peers intently into the gloom below.

The light beneath the opening seems to have grown stronger. Glowing a brighter blue, it illuminates the wooden steps, and now he can see more of the platform below. It's a latticed grillwork floor of some kind, and there appears to be a bannister along it's edge, over some imperceptable distance.

He starts to lower himself through the hole, grabbing hold of roots until he gets his footing on the steps. A faintly familiar odour that he can't place drifts up towards his nostrils.

As he makes his way down, the walls of the hole give way to a wider cavern. More platforms stretch out on all sides around him. The smell grows stronger - some kind of flower, he's sure of it...

Carefully he steps down onto the platform, gingerly testing his weight against the steel surface. The blue light is shining up from below, and as he looks over the railing he sees water far beneath him, amongst curving rocks and massive roots of trees.

Just as he's starting to get a sense of just how vast this underground world might reach, the earthquake first hits.

Seventh chapter in an ongoing serial based on @mariannewest's daily #freewrite writing prompts. Here are the previous chapters listed below:

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

And here is the link to Chapter Eight


Written in five minutes from the writing prompt, "Earthquake" as part of the #freewrite exercise. Image is also by me. You can view the prompt here and check out the other entries; they'll shake the ground under your very feet. Thanks to @mariannewest for creating and running this daily geological exploration of literature.