The silence that followed the heavy, concussive slam of the iron ventilation dampers was instant, absolute, and suffocating. It did not merely cut off the cold offshore wind from the delta; it compressed the remaining air inside the three-hundred-foot salt drift into a stagnant, metallic pocket that tasted of dry brine and ancient sulfur deposits.
The yellow flame of Sarah's remaining hand-lamp began to shrink immediately, its wick sputtering as the blue edges of the fire turned a dull, sluggish orange under the rapid depletion of the oxygen grid.
