The Township

In the 23rd century, runaway global warming led to a human induced repeat of the Permian Extinction. The ocean is full of sulfite reducing bacteria, the land is hot, dry, and dead, and complex life on earth is nearly extinct. So far as anyone knows, the Township houses the group of last humans left alive. Cooling systems and oxygen generators are essential for survival, and Technician Jacob Watz ventures outside every day into the hot, toxic atmosphere to keep them working.

But a mysterious explosion during what should have been a routine assignment has him facing discharge from the Engineering Department and a decade of forced labor. Jacob has only one way out: an offer to join a dangerous expedition into the ruins of Inland New York to salvage technologically advanced equipment that the Township desperately needs but can no longer produce.

The crew consists of engineering rejects, political prisoners, and volunteers of questionable sanity. The journey will take them hundreds of kilometers through the wreckage of civilization. What Jacob finds will make him question whether the Township really is the only remaining human settlement-and if it has any hope for survival.