Dregs of the Culver Waste Book 1(Sand and Scrap)

Michael Carter was neither a warrior nor a hero. He was just another dreg. Parentless and without home or cause, he had but one direction in life: the war-torn Culver Waste, last stop for the broke and dying.

After weeks of baking along the Culver work lines, Michael lands a job cleansing the Blackened Stix, one of the most dangerous and polluted zones in the Waste. There, knee deep in ash and mud, he uncovers a massive bunker hidden beneath the ground. A bunker which may hold the mineral that spurned the last great war: meridium. A rock, which once ingested, gives it's wielder power over the elements.

However, the meridium is encased in an impenetrable chamber, one which can only be opened with a specific key. And after Michael accidentally triggers an ancient trap within the bunker, infecting himself with the life force of a prisoner, he is forced to abandon his work detail in search of the very same key. For the meridium is the only known thing which can now sever their bond.

But unbeknownst to Michael, the rock has another purpose altogether: it is a beacon to those of the astral plain, the original seeders of the planet who have long since vanished into the cosmos. Once it is freed from the chamber, mankind's life force will awaken its homing power, ushering in the end of the world as it is known.

Now it is up to Michael to retrieve the meridium, free himself of the presence's soul and stave off another apocalypse lurking just beyond the stars.