Water in Shaft 37

Daniel swallowed hard. “Old data relay shaft,” he said. “That’s where the state heat and load data get pushed up to the emergency center. The temperature curve you saw earlier came through here.” Lin felt his breathing tighten. They were not just moving through disaster. They were walking through the disaster’s editing room. Then a huge muffled boom rolled through the tunnel, as if the surface world had just been stepped on hard. The lights went out for two seconds. When they came back, the air already smelled hotter. “What was that?” Marcus asked. Daniel went white. “The surface is on fire.” “Which side?” “The side full of people.”