Z 2134

without a single light, so dark it may as well have been outside The Wall on a moonless midnight, their footsteps echoing back to them. Adam found it odd that none of the hallway seemed familiar. If it was the floor beneath the TV hall, it should have been one of the teaching levels, not some dusty living quarters.
    Then he realized that the walls, unlike the other floors he’d been on, weren’t black, but rather a faded stone-brown color. It was as if they were in an entirely different building — kind of like a secret wing in an ancient mansion or castle he’d read about in his books.
    “What is this?” Adam whispered. “These aren’t the classrooms.”
    “It’s one of the secret floors,” Jayla whispered back. There’s a few of them between the other floors, places the elevators don’t get off.”
    “Wow!” Adam said. “How did you know this was here?”
    “When you grow up in The Rock, you hear things,” Jayla said, smiling.
    Somewhere, behind one of the many doors in the hallway, something made a loud groaning sound.
    Adam jumped, startled, and everyone laughed, way too loud for his comfort. He was certain someone would hear them and they’d get in trouble, but he didn’t dare whine — not in front of Jayla.
    “Relax,” Tommy said, slapping Adam’s back playfully. “It’s just the pipes. Haven’t you ever heard the pipes before?”
    Adam laughed, feeling foolish, and smiled. Jayla caught his eyes and smiled.
    They reached the end of the hall and ran into a second set of stairs leading one direction — up. They climbed the narrow stairwell, then opened a black wooden door with faded peeling paint that led to a gleaming, white kitchen.
    “I told you we were going to the mess hall,” Morgan laughed.
    Adam gasped as he stepped into the light. He had never seen the world on the other side of the cafeteria line, but everything in the kitchen seemed shockingly clean and surprisingly new. Everything else in Chimney Rock was ancient and dingy, but the white tile and gleaming aluminum inside the kitchen reminded Adam of the high ceilings and wide-open rooms of his father’s office at CityWatch.
    He swallowed his hesitation and stepped into his bravest voice. “Why are we here?”
    “Because,” Jayla chirped, “they’re about to show the Top 10 Opening Games Moments, and everyone goes out to the hall to watch. Starla noticed it about seven Games back.”
    The girl who must’ve been Starla — the blonde one who had said nothing so far, the one who had been standing to Melissa’s left — smiled and gave Adam a tiny wave. Daniel, Tommy, and Morgan were already in the kitchen’s middle, kneeling beside a giant alloy cabinet and digging through the second-to-bottom drawer.
    “Let’s load up,” Jayla said, shaking her pillowcase.
    Adam joined the huddle and stared down into the drawer, packed high with various-sized white boxes marked “City 6 Rations” over a listing of each box’s contents: cereal, crackers, jam, cookies, dried fruits, nuts, beans, soups, and dried meats.
    “Oh my God. There’s so much food,” Adam whispered.
    Adam salivated, then fell to his knees and started scooping rations into a pillowcase that had fallen into his hand without his even realizing it.
    “Not too many,” Jayla warned. “We have to be careful. If they notice, we can never come back. Let’s move to that one.” She pointed to a second alloy stall on the far side of the kitchen.
    “Good idea,” Morgan said, pulling a pillowcase from Starla’s hand and crossing the kitchen. Halfway there a loud clang rang from behind them.
    Adam’s heart froze.
    “Hey!” a woman shouted into the silence. “Who’s in here?”
    Without any words, the bottom drawer slammed shut and they ran back the way they’d come. Adam’s heart pounded in his chest as he followed, certain that at any second they’d run into an adult.
    “Hello?” the woman shouted from behind, but she seemed to be far enough away that they’d escaped her sight.
    They reached the door to the stairwell and ran down the stairs, back down the hall, and then into the room where they’d been smoking the cigarette.
    Adam was the last through the door and was surprised to find Jayla waiting at the door for him, a huge smile on her face, her eyes wide and alive. Once Adam was inside, she pulled the door closed and locked it.
    “Oh my God!” Starla said, “That was soooo close!”
    Adam collapsed on the couch, his lungs on fire,