Screams of panic erupted from terrified students and resonated through Jerome's ears. The yellow lights above flickered, and when more rocks fell, smaller this time, darkness followed. A light materialized suddenly, and then grew, illuminating the room in a lantern. Jonathan blew out the match and extended the lantern out. Aero kneeled down and took it from him.

"Well come one then!" Someone urged. "Let's get out of here!"

A few kids took off down one of the corridors, while the rest stayed in a circle around Jonathan, unsure of what to do. The rumbles had lessened for the time being, so the rock fall wasn't as predominant. Jerome kneeled next to Aero, examining the guide. Jonathan looked older than ever, practically ancient in the state he was in. His wrinkles were well-defined in the light of the lantern, coated with sweat and dust. There was no use moving the boulder crushing his legs, and when Aero tried to, Jonathan howled in pain.

Jerome clasped Jonathan's arthritic hand, noticing a layer of coal dust underneath the fingernails. "Boy." Jonathan rasped. Kyra Fairmount was crying on the other side of Jonathan, her whimpers drowning out what Jonathan was whispering, but it was quickly cut-off by Aero's harsh "shh".

"Leave me, boy. Get out while you can."

In Jerome's boggled mind, he sensed something was missing. Those kids who ran off choose a pathway by chance; there was no way to know where to go unless you knew the mine like the back of your hand. Miners did. Jonathan did. But for everyone else, they would rely on the red emergency light bulbs to lead them to the exit, just liked Jonathan said. And those lights were nowhere to be found.

"Jonathan." Jerome gently slapped the guide's cheek. "You gotta stay with me. The red bulbs. They're gone. How do we get out?"

Jonathan's shaking hand pointed down one of the corridors just as another rumble began. "Let's go." As soon as Jerome said it, all of his jumpy classmates moved toward the shown path. Aero and Aven were the last to go, and when Aero turned back to look at Jerome, Jerome nodded them on. The light dimmed as they moved further and further away. Jerome lit another match and observed Jonathan, whose face matched his voice.

"Whut are you still doin here, boy?" Jonathan asked.

"I wanted to say that I'm sorry that I can't save you." Jerome apologized.

Jonathan coughed. "Well, if you stay here much longer, yer not gonna be able ter save yerself. Now get!"

Jerome blew out the match and lit another. He stood up to leave, when Jonathan coughed again. "How fitting it is that I died here. In the room where my fellow miners are honored. Now we can be reunited. And I can say… I'm sorry I survived… when they didn't. Until now..." Cursing, Jerome dropped the match, clenching his flame-licked fingers into a fist. As the match ran out of fuel and went out, the room went pitch-black again. A chill ran through Jerome, telling him to run.

0O0O0O0

Delly sprinted full-out toward Footprint Path. The bombs grew thicker, exploding all around her. She turned to her right and saw the mayor's house on fire. Snapping her head to the other side she watched as bombs pummeled the shops, reducing them to blackened ash. Her eyes instinctively found where her house should have been. Instead, she found more flames lapping at the heavens, and spreading. Delly wanted to curl up into a ball and cry, but she could only hope her parents got out and keep running for Jerome.

A bomb went off to the left of Delly, igniting a shed and slamming her into the ground. She stood up on the blurry, tilting ground, ignored the sharp pain in her shoulder, and kept running.

She reached the main entrance to the mine and flung open the iron door. Grasping for the elevator door, Delly realized the elevator must be at the bottom. She pressed the button to send it up, but it simply groaned at her and shuttered. No elevator came up.

"Jerome?" Delly called into the hole. "Are you in there? JEROME!" Her shouts echoed through the elevator shaft, but no one answer followed. "Jerome!"

"Hey! What are you doing here? Come on, we need to move. Now!" A Seam man yelled at Delly. He gripped her arm and began to pull her away from the mine, away from Jerome.

Panicking, Delly twisted out of the man's grip and swung her out toward him, missing completely. When he went to grab her again, she dodged his arms and knocked into the iron door. "Jerome! Are you in there?"

The Seam man clutched Delly's waist and snarled through grit teeth, "I will not have your blood on my hands." He pulled on her middle again, but she held onto the iron door, her fingers turning purple. "Come with me—so I don't have to live with the fact that you are dead and I didn't save you." With one mighty heave, Delly's fingers slipped out and the Seam man simply had to scoop her up and start running. "JEROME!"

0O0O0O0

Jerome jogged along the corridor, feeling the wall as he went until he met up with the red bulbs, which from there led him toward his classmates. At one point he tripped over something, and when he looked down he saw the body of Rupert Accardi, one of the kids who ran ahead without Aero's group, half-under a pile of rocks. "Sorry, bro." Another rumble stimulated Jerome to keep moving.

He turned a corner and saw half the group jogging at a slow pace.

"This way guys! Come on!" An enthusiastic voice echoed.

Jerome fell in step with Aven, who was holding the lantern while Aero and a few others carried Kyra Fairmount. "What happened?"

"Rocks happened." Aven said bluntly. "And Kyra here decided she was done walking. Not to say it wasn't justified. If I move the lantern closer you might be able to see bone-"

"Are we close?" Jerome wasn't interested in seeing any bone. Injuries needing more than a simple bandage always nauseated him.

Aven shrugged. "Hard to say. I've come to accept that I may die within the next five minutes, though." She looked him up and down. "You probably should too." She moved the lantern toward Kyra, whose eyes were closed and breathing slowing…slowing…until it was imperceptible. "I know she has. Someone check her pulse."

Aero obeyed. "Dead. Alright guys, put her down here."

They started to, when one guy complained. "You can't just leave her here."

Aero looked at him and waved his hand toward Kyra. "You want to carry her. Be my guest." The boy said nothing. Without any prodding, the group picked up the pace until they came to the elevator, where the other half waited.

Bryce Evans saw Aero and nodded. "Good, you guys made it. I was getting worried. Now we can—where's Kyra?"

"She didn't make it." Aero stated.

Bryce's face paled and he turned to the elevator. "We need to get out of here. If only this thing would open." He shook the iron door to the elevator with no results.

Jerome noticed the rusty chains and the dust around the edges of the hinges and saw a disaster waiting to happen. Another rumble began. "Bryce, wait." Jerome said in a low, urgent voice. But Bryce either didn't hear him or ignored his warning, because he kept shaking the door with more fury than ever.

"GET—US—OUT OF HERE! NOW! NOW! AHHHH!" Bryce screamed.

"Bryce, STOP!"

"AHH!" And with the last shake, the chains snapped and the entire elevator crashed down, colliding with the door and falling into a metallic heap. When the dust cleared, Jerome ran over and searched for Bryce, who would have gotten caught somewhere underneath the door.

"Bryce! Aven, the lantern!" Jerome called.

Aven hopped onto the treacherous metal pile and knelt next to Jerome. "He's gone, Jerome. Nothing we can do."

Frustrated, Jerome stood up and pulled on his hair. Unsatisfied with hurting himself, he turned around and punched the wall before he remembered its unsteadiness.

"NO!" Aven screeched, dropping the lantern as she lunged forward. Everyone grew dead silent, waiting for the ominous rumble and shake to seal their fate. After a moment, they realized the only sound they would be listening to was Aven's outburst echoing off the walls. Jerome exhaled the breath he'd been holding and leaned his head on the wall in relief. Closing his eyes, he didn't notice the fist-size rock that dislodged from a crevice and thumped his on the top of his skull.

Jerome was alone. Surrounding him were bodies of everyone he loved. He tried to look at individual faces, but at the last moment, their features disappeared. And he wept. He sat down with his knees to his chest and wept for the dead, wept for his family, wept for himself. Because he was the only survivor. He stood up and gazed at the crumbled Justice Building. Not District Twelve. Thirteen. A sudden wash of relief came over Jerome. Why did he feel so safe all of a sudden? He began to calmly walk toward the Justice Building, with no bodies. They were gone. Jerome smiled, and then the ground opened up and he got swallowed by the earth.

"Jerome!"

Jerome sat up, shaking. "Where'd I go?" he asked. "I fell. Where'd I go? What's in the hole?"

Nan was hovering over Jerome with a draught expression. "You got hit by a rock and blacked out for a few seconds. We're in the mine."

Just when Jerome opened his mouth to tell her that's not what he was asking about, Nan was replaced by Aero, who held out his hand to help him up. "That rock really got you good, didn't it? You, uh, you got some blood in your hair." Aero pulled him up, but immediately Jerome swayed to the side and his vision was filled with black spots. "Whoa." Aero steadied him. "Easy there. Now." He said, turning to the rest of the group. "How the hell do we escape?"

Jerome studied Nan, who seemed to be in deep thought. Suddenly, her lips started moving slightly, but no words came out. Jerome stood straight, swatting off Aero, who tried to stabilize him again. "What is it, Nan?" Jerome asked.

Nan nodded her head. "Remember what Jonathan said about where the coal went after it was mined?" Everyone stared at her blankly.

A girl toward the back of the group smiled at Nan, "Oh, sweetheart, we don't pay attention on these field trips."

"Shut up, Morra," the boy next to her snapped. "Go on," he said to Nan.

"Jonathan said that once the coal was mined, it was put on a cart on a track to a tunnel..."

"…and taken to the surface." Jerome finished. "Nan you're a genius!" He rushed over, ignoring the severe pounding in his head, to Nan, whose face was filled with pure delight. He put his hands on Nan's shoulders.

She placed her hands on top of his. "Thank you," Nan breathed. She gave him a lopsided smile, feeling her cheeks go warm. Standing on her toes, she-

"Do you remember where he said the tunnel was?" Jerome questioned.

Nan stepped back, clearing her mind. To think. "This way," she said after a second, pointing back down into the mine.

"Well, let's get going." Aero announced, stepping forward. Rumble. "This place is going down, and I don't plan on being here when that happens."

"Follow me." Nan turned and began running, with the rest of the group on her tail.