Book 18: Collapse

Alex

“Well, shit,” Mark, the engineering department head grumbles, crouching to get a better view. He braces his hands on his hips while huddled around the same screen I’m sharing with Toby. He’s been knocking his head on the ceiling of this tunnel all evening, but that has more to do with his height and less to do with the already overly cramped quarters we’re sharing. He’s from the Deadlands and built like it. Burly and broad, he stands several inches taller than me, and I’m taller than most men on campus, but he has at least sixty pounds or more on me, and it shows. They breed them big in the Deadlands, supposedly. Toby’s words; not mine.

“Shit,” Toby parrots, shaking his head as the drill several hundred feet below us whirls and kicks up liquid sediment.

“I wasn’t expecting a water pocket.” I curse under my breath, rolling my neck to try to a