A/N: This took me a really long time to write, and I would be happy to fix things and reupload if you have any problems with it...

-=-=-(O)\

Jaha

It's been five years since we entered the bunker, and the only thought I could conjure up was not at all important to the task at hand. For, when I woke up in my quarters, the only thing I could muster was the thought that I was growing old.

My hair had almost gone all gray, and you could start to see the bags of my skin. This peculiarity was only my most hated thought. For whenever I wake up, I always seem to think this. And most days, this was my hardest problem I had to deal with of the day, for, in this bunker, most people were too caught up with trying to actually survive than to kill and steal. Crime was almost non-existent, and that made my job as chancellor easy.

I was put into my position as chancellor in a strange way, for unlike every other time I had put in a position of power after leaving the ark, this position was completely purposeful, and again, unlike the other positions I had been in, I had no malicious intent with this one.

After Octavia had a mental breakdown in the beginning, she decided to give up her position of power to Kane, but when Kane stepped down from power to deal with family issues, I was the most obvious choice for a position. I had been in this position for two years, and today was my biggest day, and even though my only thoughts consisted of my graying hair, they would soon change. It was five years in, and my job was to open the door to get us out.

I rose from my sheets which had shielded me from the outside world, and got down to business. My beard had been hard to maintain with my growing age, so I decided to shave it all off. New world, new me. Or at least, that's what I thought…

It took me a few moments to make it up to the command sector, as my quarters was situated on the bottom floor of the entrance module, which was one of three modules, where one module was the lowest, and the top floor led into the other two, but neither of the others were connected in any way, forcing you to go through the middle module.

I entered the command room just as Miller left. "See you on the surface." He exchanged the simple greeting as he went up to the gate.

I opened up the door and got on the coms with the other 7 members of the team, which included Wick, Gaia, Niylah, Jackson, Gulliver, Deiver, and Aden. "Try and keep your people working, don't get them too excited. We're gonna try and keep this a secret for now, don't want too many people to freak out over leaving." That earned me a chuckle.

"Yo, Jaha, can we talk? I need to tell you something important." It was Wick. He obviously had something worrying him, and it showed in his voice.

"Yeah, come on up here." It would take a bit for him to make his way to the command sector, seeing as engineering was near the top of the opposite module, so I decided to get to work.

I turned on the camera and coms in the gate room, getting ready to open the place up.

Miller was already in the gate room. He moved meticulously, but with purpose. A small part of me wanted to ask him if he'd been practicing, as he was organizing his movements in a way similar to choreography. It was beautiful to watch.

He stepped up to the door, ready to push it open, and turned up to the camera and gave me a thumbs up. He was ready.

I typed in the keywords and got only positive responses. I weren't to push the buttons but paused. "You ready up there, Miller?" I knew he was, this was mostly just so that he was not caught off guard by the sudden lack of resistance on the door. He nodded in a way that you may mistake it for a nervous twitch if you weren't paying attention.

I pushed the button and watched as Miller put his entire weight on the door, trying to force it to open. "You pressed the button yet?" My eyes widened. The door wasn't opening. The door wouldn't open.

"No, maybe it's jammed. Try getting more people." Miller suddenly stopped the choreography he had so wonderfully performed and instead chose a sheer hysterical performance of panic as he took out his radio and tried to get some more of his men up. He started pacing, waiting for his men to come up. I was frantic on the keyboard, trying to find any fault that could lead to this. I didn't even notice when Wick walked into the room.

"We have a problem, boss," Wick emphasized the word boss, mostly because he discovered early on that it slightly annoyed me, but also out of a sort of habit.

"You think I don't know that?" I responded in a way he may think of as anger, but in reality was merely the release of many built up emotions. "The door is jammed, and I don't know what's going on.

"That wasn't what I was talking about, but I think your problem may be a little more important." Wick rushed over, moving my defeated form out of the way, and took his place at the keyboard. He spoke after a few minutes of tinkering. "Nothing seems wrong with the door itself." He frowned. "An outside force is acting on the door, something big and heavy."

"What does that mean, exactly?" I pondered, knowing all too well what it meant.

Wick opened up the com, and completely ignored Jaha, "Miller, you can call off your men. There's no way you're getting that door open."

Miller looked up at the camera, and without turning away brought up his radio and told his men to forget about it. He let his radio fall to the ground and slowly, his face morphed into pure anger, and without thinking, he punched the nearest wall. He cursed loudly and sunk down to his knees. He was defeated.

"That makes the both of us," I muttered under my breath, hoping no one heard.

"We should call a meeting. I have something to say." Wick looked serious. "And it will mean life or death."

I called up the members of the core group and watched eagerly as they all shuffled their way in. Miller came in last, with an obvious anger in his form.

"So what's this great information you have to tell us about?" Miller spoke with anger, and it was directed specifically at Wick at this current point in time. "And how the hell is it going to get us out of here?"

Wick took some liberties with his answer and made a great show of looking at everyone. He was doing one of two things, he was either enjoying this, knowing all the answers, or he was unsure of how exactly to respond. Eventually, though, he forced it out. "We are experiencing a problem, not unlike that of the ark. We're running out of air."

I already knew what he was going to say, but was holding on to the hope that I was wrong, and he would surprise us with some form of a: 'but I have a solution!'. It never came.

"One of the workers noticed it a few months ago but decided against telling anyone, because, at the rate of corrosion, we would have three days to spare after opening the door before it malfunctioned. Meaning, at that time, it would be useless to us." Wick frowned, but continued to speak, "being a pessimist, one of his friends managed to talk him into telling people, so he told me. In three days, our air system will break. And we don't have the parts to fix it." He paused, again. "We're running out of air."

A solemn silence filled the room. Not for fear of being the first to speak, but in a silent mourning. It lasted nearly five whole minutes of shuffling and nervous twitches from every individual at the table.

Jackson was the first to speak, breaking the silence that we had so readily accepted. "What do we do, now that, you know..." He frowned, unable to bring himself to talk anymore, barely choking out the last line. He looked around expectantly, hoping for someone to speak, someone to confirm his suspicions.

Gulliver shifted as if to speak, instead, however, he got up and did something more powerful than any words could convey: he left the room. Not many people would see Gulliver after that point, as he made the choice to barricade himself, not even opening it for his closest friends. It was sad, but it was the decision he made. We all had a decision to make. The most important one, however, was not the group effort we were currently focused on, but rather the decision on how to spend our final days.

"We do nothing." Wick turned and looked around at all the sorrowful faces in the group. "We hold on to any possessions we have, make amends, and say our goodbyes. I know it seems sad, but after 2 months, no one will be alive in this bunker." A few faces turned downwards, trying to avoid anyone's gaze.

"I don't know about you, but I'm gonna go collect my thoughts in preparation for the end." Wick stood up and walked out in almost as much enthusiasm as the sorrow in Gulliver's action.

Slowly but surely, the rest of the nine started to collect themselves, murmuring things to themselves beneath their breaths. Soon, after four of the faces had shuffled out, presumably to deal with any remaining problems, all that was left was Miller and I.

"Why are you still here, Miller?" I frowned at him, waiting for a response.

"I have nothing to fix." He smiled sadly. "And besides, who wants to die in silence, when he can watch from a tower the destruction of his people?"

I chuckled, unable to argue with the young man. "I would say the same, but I feel I owe a lunatic an apology." I got up to leave but hesitated. "Perhaps, Kane will be better, knowing he will see her again."

"Perhaps. But, then who shall tell the people?" Miller inquired, hoping for more.

"You can. Maybe it will help put your mind at ease, to all the things you have suffered, but are unable to condemn." He looked as if he wanted to protest, but thought against it, and instead only nodded.

I turned to leave and exited the room without a second thought. Only a few moments into my walk, I heard the crackling of the speakers come to life, and the voice of a young man, condemned to die, fill the corridors.

"Hello. You may not know me, but I'm Nathan Miller. I am the representative from the control sector and am here to bring you some highly unpleasant news. Today is the day we were supposed to get out, to populate the surface. But the door is jammed. We have a month of air left, so I suggest you start making amends with people. Find your loved ones, and stay with them." A large sigh filled the rooms, "Bryan. If you still care for me, please come back. I will be waiting for the one thing I could never solve, hopefully fixing the one thing I could never fix."

The speakers turned off, and it was as if the entire bunker was holding their breath. No one spoke, no one moved. I was not to be the one who would break the spell.

I looked around at the people near me. Some of them young, some of them old, and they just found out they were going to die. I save as they each took it differently. Some of them had taken up a religion based loosely on a book found in the deep recesses of the bunker, they were the few who would sit with their hands clasped, praying out to whichever God could protect them. Others merely cried. I was among neither, maybe it was due to the adrenaline, but I felt no need for emotion.

The one who did eventually break the spell was Miller. He slowly walked out of the command module, gave me a quick salute, and made his way up the stairs towards the gate room. I turned and made my decision of where to spend my last few weeks. It wasn't my quarters, but rather the Commons area in the middle of the bunker.

I pushed open the door to the bottom module when I ran into Bryan.

"You gonna go up and talk with him?" I pondered, quizzically.

"I think that may be my best choice right now." He smiled softly. "I'd rather not die hating him."

I couldn't argue with that, so we parted ways. I made my way into the commons area and sat at the table. One person decided to sit opposite of me. Her name was Moneal. She was one of many who decided to come and talk with me. All of them had a single purpose. There was something wrong with their life, and somehow, due to the death wave, they had no way of coming to terms with the decisions they had made.

One finally got to me, however. After a night of talking, one, a small boy, named Ethan. He had lost his father during the choosing ceremony. He was 10, and for half of his life, he had not known a father. His biggest regret was not losing his father but never letting him go. He never let go of him, and never chose to accept his death. He finally decided to let go, but I realized something through our conversation. I wasn't going to let go.

I stood up abruptly after he was done confessing, and I looked him straight in the eye. "You never let go. I let go too early. Go back to farm station, help out a little here and there, but spread the word. I'm not giving up. I'm not letting go." He smiled up at me and laughed slightly. He stood up and made to leave, but stopped. "How?"

I smiled, no, I beamed. "How do you open an unusable door? You don't. Instead, you destroy it." He obviously wasn't following but went with it anyway.

"You do that." He walked off, turning back occasionally to smile.

I was formulating a plan, but I needed someone for it to work. I needed Wick. There was no easy way to contact him, as he typically kept his com off, but I was hoping that he would leave it on now that we were all dying.

"Wick, where are you?" I spoke into my walkie with force, thinking added force may bring him to me.

He responded casually, almost as if we all weren't about to die. "I'm at engineering, writing. Why do you ask?"

"How quickly can you make it up to the gate room?" I moved a little faster as adrenaline rushed through my veins. After 4 hours of talking through loss and heartache, I was not about to talk through my own. "Because I may need you to make a bomb."

All Wick managed to get out was: "Holy shit." I assumed he was coming.

I powered my way up the steps, trying to avoid eye contact. A surprising amount of people had situated themselves in the command sector, and I was frankly shocked. Why weren't they trying to live? Why were they moseying around when they just learned they were gonna die? If I were in their positions, I would be fixing everything I had wronged.

I found myself in front the Gate room. I knocked to make sure I wouldn't interrupt anything. "Come in!" I heard some shuffling inside after Miller shouted out to me.

I opened the door, and found Miller sitting on the floor with a bottle of whiskey in his hand. Bryan was sleeping next to him. "Did you stay here all night?"

"Yeah. Bryan and I talked for hours, and we sorta fell asleep." He yawned, before then deciding a yawn was not a correct expression, and instead belched really loudly. "What ya doing here?" Miller slurred.

"I'm fixing the problem." Thankfully, Wick rushed in at that moment to prohibit me from the need to explain my plan to Miller.

"Heard you needed a bomb?" Wick beamed a smile greater than any smile he had ever had. "I brought some supplies."

Miller was intrigued, and actually stood up. His face contorted, as if he was about to speak, but decided against it, as the light suddenly flipped in his head. "We're blowing open the door." He stated, not as a question.

"Hell yeah, we are. Go clear out the areas around the gate room, specifically the top 2 floors." Wick turned to the supplies he had gathered. "I'll be working over here."

I left the room with Miller dragging Bryan out behind me. It seemed Bryan wasn't going to be woken out of his hungover state, so Miller slapped him a few times.

I, however, paid no attention to the slaps that were given out. I moved into the top floor (giving Miller the second), and started to clear out the area. "You need to get out. There is a probability you will be killed in a fiery explosion." People started moving slowly, clearly still not out of their state of sorrow, "did you hear me? Do you want to live?" I snapped at them, hoping that it would hurry them along, and it did.

After I had secured everyone in the bottom of the cylindrical room, far away from death, I went closer to the gate room. Wick walked out and turned to me. "We're ready to go. I recommend we go a bit further down the stairs though." He motioned with his hands what seemEd to be a silly excuse for an explosion. He even added silly sound effects.

I felt a tap on my shoulder and turned to see Miller. "We decided we'd hang out in the control room if that's okay with you." I nodded, knowing they were pretty tired from their obviously apparent hangover.

I turned back to Wick once we were a safe distance away. "Blow the damn thing up." And Wick pressed the button.

I heard the explosion, and saw something peculiar, something that I would never have guessed would have happened in a thousand years. The doors to the gate room flung open as a jet of water erupted into the room.

I was hit head on with the water because I was an idiot and wasn't really paying as much attention as I should have been. I'm pretty sure Wick made it out, but I wouldn't be surprised if he didn't.

Surprise, my story is over. I hit the back wall of the room with a force not unlike falling from a great height, before proceeding to fall off the metal catwalk steps, and onto the ground 20 feet below. It's safe to say I won't be breathing after that one.