24-04-11 40 For you and I are past our dancing days. Knox saw the uproar in Mechanical as just another emergency to overcome. Like the time thebasement subwall had sprung a leak, or when the oil rig had hit that pocket of methane and they hadto evacuate eigh...

24-04-11 39 Wisely and slow; they stumble that run fastJuliette forced her way through the inner airlock door and scrambled to get it closed. Darknessoverwhelmed her as the heavy door squealed on its hinges and settled against its dry seals. Shegroped for th...

24-04-11 38 Sharp misery had worn him to the bones; And about his shelves, a beggarly account of empty boxes. Lukas arrived at thirty-four breathless and clutching the small box, more exhausted from the laws hehad broken than this habitual climb to work. He...

24-04-11 37 For now, these hot days, is the mad blood stirring. Walker made it to the end of the hallway and found himself leaving the comforting confines of a tightcorridor to enter the wider entrance hall to Mechanical. The room, he saw, was full of youngs...

24-04-11 36 Eyes, look your last! Arms, take your last embrace! And, lips, O you the doors of breath, seal with a righteous kissa dateless bargain to engrossing death! The bodies were everywhere. Covered in dust and dirt, suits worn down by the toxic eaters...

24-04-11 35 One, two, and the third in your bosom. Lukas held the small box tightly against his chest as he hiked up to the landing on thirty-eight. Herewas a mixed-use level of offices, shops, a plastics factory, and one of the small water treatmentplants....

24-04-11 34 Is there no pity sitting in the clouds that sees into the bottom of my grief? O sweet my mother, cast me not away! The heavy steel doors of the silo parted, and a great cloud of argon billowed out with an angry hiss. The cloud seemed to materiali...

24-04-11 33 Thy old groans ring yet in my ancient ears. Walker the electrician bent over a cluttered workbench and adjusted his magnifier. The great bulbouslens was attached to his head with a hoop that mightve been uncomfortable had he not been wearingit fo...

24-04-11 32 A glooming peace this morning with it brings;The sun, for sorrow, will not show his head. Go hence, to have more talk of these sad things;Some shall be pardond, and some punished. It was the morning of the worst cleaning of Lukass lifeand for onc...

24-04-11 Part 4 The Unraveling 31 The Tragic Historye of Romeus and JulietteThe walk was long, and longer still for her young mind. Though Juliette took few of the steps withher own small feet, it felt as though she and her parents had traveled for weeks. To...