Excerpt: The Dustmen

. It was pitch black inside his blanket, but at least the sand was staying on the outside of it. Even if he was buried here in the outhouse, it would be harder for the sand to crush him unless the roof collapsed. He figured if it hadn’t yet, he’d be safe.
Sam huddled further down into the dirt pile that was in the outhouse and pulled his space blanket tighter around him. He could hear the wind howling around the building, and occasionally he could hear the crackle of static electricity. Thank goodness that a hundred years ago they didn’t have metal door handles for this kind of thing. Sam would have been fried.
A particularly loud CRACK of electricity went over Sam’s head. A moment later, he felt an extra weight drop onto his back. Not too much, maybe no more than a few pounds, but it sunk him further into the dust and flattened his face into his space blanket. That was when he realized that the crack hadn’t been the static.
The hundred year old roof was collapsing onto him.