Nineteen Minutes to Extinction

Miranda walked over and drove the heel of her shoe straight down onto the back of my hand.

"You're just a grease monkey. What makes you think you're some kind of savior? Leon, don't waste time talking to him. Lock him in solitary. We'll deal with him after the alarm stops."

I looked at the timer on the wall. Seventeen minutes left before the core blew.

"If the core blows up, none of us will make it out alive!" I shouted at Leon, spit hitting his boots.

Leon wiped his boots off with a look of disgust and slapped me across the face.

"The shelter doesn't depend on one mechanic. Cole is already on his way." He turned to his guards. "Take him."

They dragged me down the hall like I was a pile of trash.

People lined the corridor, pointing at me. Someone even spat in my direction.

"Disgusting! I can't believe he tried to kill us for a room."

"I used to think Zach was a decent guy. Guess you never really know someone."

I watched in despair as the steel door to the core section slipped farther and farther away.

The red glow from inside had already flooded half the hallway.

-

The solitary room was cold and damp, lit by a single dim bulb.

They cuffed my hands behind the chair. I sat there, burning with urgency.

Time kept slipping away, second by second.

I looked up at the vent in the ceiling. The vibrations coming through it were getting stronger.

That was the core, crying out.

The door opened. Miranda stepped in in her high heels, calm and composed. She held a half-eaten chocolate bar in her hand, one of the shelter's restricted supplies.

"Not feeling so great now, huh?"

She leaned against the table, looking at me in contempt.

I forced myself to stay calm and met her eyes.

"Miranda, what do you want? What do you gain by stopping me from fixing the core?"

She took another bite of chocolate, smiling as if she had already won.

"What do I gain? Plenty."

She leaned in closer, lowering her voice.

"All the scarce supplies in the core district warehouse are under my name now. If you went in there and saw half the antibiotics and canned food missing, how do you think I'd explain that?"

My whole body went rigid. I stared at her, stunned. "Are you out of your mind? You stole strategic reserves?"

"Stole?" Miranda let out a cold laugh. "Leon runs the guard. What he says goes in this shelter."

She tossed the chocolate wrapper onto my face.

"Cole is an old fool. He won't dig into anything. He just follows procedures. Once he lowers the pressure, I'll fix the records. No one will ever know."

"He can't lower it!" I shouted, panic breaking through. "The pressure spike is from thermal backflow. You have to seal the cracks with nano repair compound! If he tries to vent it, the core will blow instantly!"

Miranda curled her lip, unimpressed.

"Stop trying to scare me. You think I don't get it? You just want credit. You want that private room. Zach, as long as I'm here, you're never getting anywhere."

Right then, the entire room jolted hard. The light overhead swung violently, dust shaking loose from the ceiling.

Miranda screamed, nearly losing her balance.

That was the sound of a partial collapse.

"What was that? Didn't they say Cole was already there?"

Her face went pale, a flicker of panic breaking through.

I slammed my body against the chair, desperate.

"He messed up! He must've opened the secondary pressure release valve! Quick, take me to the comms room. I need to guide him. If that valve doesn't get shut, we're done!"

Miranda steadied herself. Her eyes flickered, then hardened into something colder. She walked to the corner and yanked the internal comm line straight out of the wall.

"Guide him? Sounds more like you want to trigger the explosion remotely. Zach, a terrorist like you doesn't get to talk."

She dropped the severed wire, turned, and ran out, locking the door behind her.

"Miranda!" I roared. "Get back here! You're gonna kill everyone!"