13
“California?” Austin asked. “What? Where’s Chief Sharkey?”
Nubern clasped Austin’s hand. “Get up, Recruit.”
A few feet away, Bear and Skylar stood looking like they were in the middle of an elaborate joke. Skylar leaned with her hand on the wall for balance. She opened her mouth and blinked, rubbing at her eyes with her index fingers. As Austin stood, the ground wobbled, and he struggled to find his balance.
“It’ll wear off. This always happens your first trip.” Nubern slapped him on the back. “Come on. We have a schedule to keep.”
Austin rubbed his forehead, trying to break the haze over his mind.
What just happened? What was this place? More pipes like the one he’d just crawled out of stretched on either side of him for fifty yards. People entered and exited the pipes at regular
