And he started sprinting, hastily descending the hill, the grain shifting beneath his feet. He pushed his feet to their limit, dashing forward to see what was wrong, to see why they were running in such a panic, to see why the constant history csses were te. He hoped it was nothing, but deep down he knew better. Something had happened. Something big and the mere fact that the history csses hadn't started yet was the proof. Jonah panted, his legs feeling like they were burning but still he ran because he needed to know. He was close. Just one more turn and… Before he could do the final turn he came face to face with a few of the students.

  Their faces were pale but they seemed… Not calm but steadier compared to whatever it was like before. If something truly bad happened then the worst was already behind them.

  “What happened?Whywereallofyou running, why di-“

  “The grains Jonah.” Aria suddenly blurted, her voice trembling as she cut him off. “Its insi…”

  That was all he needed to hear. He darted towards the vault, forgetting his exhaustion.

  As he sprinted, he sucked in shallow unsatisfying dry gasps, never enough to fill his lungs. Stick sweat began beading up on his forehead and his body, his clothes became damp and the sweat made them cling to his skin, and now his damp body slowly started to be covered in grain dust he stirred from running. His mind raced, maybe he misheard? Maybe he should go back to let Aria finish in case it's a misunderstanding? No. He was already running. There would be no point in turning back now.

  The vault door stood just a few seconds away…

  The bunker door was just like any other, except it was rigged in a way so it would open if enough pressure was made from the outside. Facing the door Jonah remembered this was one of the more recent changes the survivors made to the bunker. He turned his head. There was a pile of grain to the side of it. And the

  Jonah body smmed the door. At first, it didn't give way like it was supposed to. He put his hand on the cold metal of the door and gritting his teeth he pushed with full force. The door groaned resisting for a moment. But after a moment it gave way. He stumbled to the vault's entrance and heard… Nobody. Nothing. There was even no grain in the vault entrance unlike the usual.

  Jonah’s pulse slowed. There was no grain. He scanned the room vigorously but still, there was none. His breath came in from uneven bursts and he forced himself to take a deep breath. Going inside in his current state would be fatal if there was nothing wrong so Jonah, thinking he was somehow pranked or he gravely misunderstood Aria, went to the entrance bathroom. He stripped and took a swift, cold shower to get all the grain seeds off him. Then he changed into fresh clothes from his locker.

  Once clean, Jonah went to the door where the stairs were at. He pressed the button to open it and heard a mechanical hiss. A door slid open but it was not the stairwell. The door that opened was the control room’s door.

  Another history student, Marcus, came out. His expression seemed distant and he seemed deep in thought. When their eyes met Marcus noticed Jonah and he smiled. He seemed genuinely gd to see him… no not him just another person.

  Jonah pressed the button again… Nothing. No sound. It was refusing to open. He jabbed at the button several times, each jab more aggressive than the st, stabbing the screen's surface almost like he intended to destroy it but still it refused to open. He even smmed his palm into the screen, thinking it would make a difference but no. Unfortunately, this was the only door that allowed passage into the main vault. Just as Jonah was about to try other doors, Marcus stepped forward.

  “It's futile” He said ftly, his voice cutting through the tension. “The doors are locked. They were locked for hours.” Marcus sighed, rubbing his temple. “The systems are fine I checked it but the doors aren't opening.I tried manually overriding the button itself but it didn't work. I assume it has something to do with the grain potentially getting in the vault, but I have no idea how that would even cause the doors to lock up… maybe static? Maybe something else? … ” and he trailed off, muttering to himself, seemingly lost in thought again.

  Jonah, not believing what he said and thinking this was a prank, went to open the other doors. Marcus muttered ‘It's futile’ again and it truly was. None of the doors opened. Except two. The cleaning room and the control room, the tter was the door Marcus came out from. Before doing anything else, Jonah wanted to make sure. “What exactly did you try and what do you mean by grain got inside?”

  “We tried brute forcing and majority of the protocols. None worked. A part of my friends volunteered to find something that could be used as a battering ram and the other part to find the air filtration vent outsi- ” Marcus cut himself off and went into deep thought again. After a while “We didn't search the inside enough.” And then he went to the cleaning room, carefully inspecting the walls, not responding to Jonah’s second question.

  Jonah’s expression tightened, his face faltering. Marcus not responding properly? This was bad. Marcus needed to answer him. He followed Marcus into the cleaning room to question him. What protocols did they use and what happened with the grains? Marcus was staring at the walls, busy touching them, inspecting them. Jonah tapped his shoulder then he turned around. “What protocols did you try? If the situation is too severe and grain actually got in we don't have time, let's cut off the entire power and make use of the time between power and emergency power.”

  Marcus thought for a bit. After a while of fidgeting, “The grain did get in.” After he said that sentence, the rest flowed more quickly. “The emergency power isnt full. It would make the situation way worse if that ran out even if we got them out. We cleaned the grain off the lobby so we could try that but just before doing it we decided against it just for that reason..”

  He kept shifting his weight from one foot to the other. “Maybe we could somehow fill it ourselves? I don't think we have a good enough source for it though..”

  In the past, Jonah had seen his father tinker with generators to get them working. Johan even helped him and they were unable to fix it at first, but thanks to both their efforts they were able to fix it eventually.With that thought in mind “Would a car battery work? Or just a battery of any kind, or a generator or something? There should be some gasoline in the city”

  “Hadn't thought about that. Good idea. I don't see why it wouldn't so go for it. I don't think you can carry a generator yourself so I'll come to help you carry and find a generator. I remember seeing it somewhere a few months ago…”

  With that Marcus and Jonah left the bunker in a hurry.