Root: Part IV, Chapter 11

Trapped in a pit of A.A.’s making, Hasta’s crew must work together like never before if any of them hope to escape. But what if that means only one can?

For more on this project, please see “This Year a Serial Takes Root.”

11.0 Ivan

Beneath their feet, the floor of the pit began to slope backward. Ivan, bruised from a twenty-foot fall and exhausted from everything else, began to lose his balance. He pitched himself forward onto his right shoulder, cradling his left elbow, which he thought might be broken.…