More of a cage than an elevator, the rusting frame was a relic of The Great Leap Forward, the Herculean effort to build the new world above the rubble of the old. The concrete pylon was over two hundred feet in diameter, extending almost quarter of a mile beneath the ground. It was one of the numerous foundations upon which the new world rested so securely. With no cables supporting it, the lift ran up a saw-tooth track on the side of the pylon. The gears of the lift meshed with the teeth on the track as the cage crept higher. The lift had a gentle rocking motion that put Harrison to sleep. His head rested in the corner of the lift, his hat tilting down over his face. A cool breeze ran through the shaft, chilling Susan as she sat next to him on a bench seat, amazed he could fall asleep so easily. A light drizzle fell gently from the sky, blowing in through the open sides of the lift. After almost an hour, the lumbering cage approached the surface. At first, a faint glow appeared above them.
