Into the Dark

Elara and Kael hit the concrete floor of the subterranean tunnel, rolling in the pitch blackness.

"The internal seal!" Kael coughed, scrambling up in the dark.

Elara found her footing, her hands frantically feeling the concrete wall. She found the heavy, manual hydraulic lever for the secondary internal blast doors.

"Help me!" Elara yelled over the apocalyptic roar of the firestorm outside.

Kael found the lever in the dark. Together, they threw their combined body weight against the rusted iron. The lever groaned, protested, and finally gave way with a massive *clunk*.

Above them, thick steel blast doors slammed shut, sealing the maintenance tunnel, locking the blinding heat and the screaming death of the surface world outside forever.

The silence that followed was absolute, terrifying, and profound.

They were in complete, suffocating darkness. The air was cool, smelling of ancient dust and stagnant concrete.

Elara collapsed against the cold steel of the blast door, sliding down to sit on the floor. Her lungs burned. Her arm was bleeding. She was exhausted down to the marrow of her bones.

She listened in the dark. She heard the heavy, ragged sound of Kael’s breathing a few feet away.

"We're alive," Kael whispered into the void. The cynicism was completely gone from his voice, replaced by a quiet, breathless awe.

"Yes," Elara breathed.

A sharp *scritch* echoed in the tunnel.

A small spark flared, followed by the brilliant, sputtering red glare of a chemical emergency flare.

Kael held the flare up. The harsh red light cast long, dancing shadows down the seemingly endless concrete corridor stretching out before them.

He turned to look at Elara.

She was sitting against the door. The white silk of her wedding dress was completely ruined—stained with grease, dark with dried blood, scorched by plasma, and ripped to shreds. Her hair was wild, her face streaked with soot and sweat.

She looked nothing like a Bride of the Stars. She looked like something forged in the fire, something unbreakable.

Kael looked at her, his tarnished silver eyes reflecting the red light of the flare. He slowly extended his free hand toward her.

"I don't know what's down there," Kael said softly. "I don't know if there's oxygen, or food, or a way out. I don't know if we survive the week."

Elara looked at his extended, grease-stained hand. She thought about the endless dark of the tunnel. She thought about the burned, dead world above them.

She didn't have faith in the sky anymore. She didn't have faith in the old world. But as she reached out and tightly gripped Kael’s hand, feeling the solid, living warmth of his callouses against her skin, she realized she finally had faith in something real.

"Then we find out," Elara said.

She let him pull her to her feet. Together, illuminated by the single, burning flare, they turned away from the sealed door and stepped forward into the dark.