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side of the bunker, her
nails scraping on the floor as she crawled between crates and boxes to hide
from the racket.
    I sang to myself once more from the top, determined to get the
most out of a crappy situation, and ignored Callie’s irritated meows in the
process.
    Finished, I drew in a large breath and held it as I made my
wish. Please l et Dad and Toby be alive. Then I blew out the
candle.
    I pretty much wasted my wish, but I didn’t want anything
else in the world but that. If dad or Toby were alive, they would’ve come for
me by now. No other explanation made sense. I didn’t want to believe they might
be dead, but with each ticking day, it became more and more clear they could be.
Dad would have never left me here like this. Not for this long. But it was my birthday
and I could wish for whatever I wanted.
    Complete darkness encompassed me now that the little flame
had died, but I wasn’t afraid. Nothing could get me, not even in the dark.
Without my sight, the only sound was my breathing. Callie had gone quiet once I’d
stopped singing. She obviously hadn’t been a fan of my vocal abilities, but
captive audiences don’t get to have opinions.
    I held my hands in front of me and couldn’t see my own
fingers. I wiggled them. Still nothing. The darkness was powerful and amazing.
Not even a hint of light showed anywhere.
    Carefully, I made my way down the center of the bunker, my
hands out as a guide. Ten steps to my destination and I recognized the open
door to the decontamination area. I ran my fingers over the wall to the right,
searching the metal for the switches to turn everything back on.
    I flipped the two main switches upward, but the bunker
remained in darkness. I tried again. Nothing. The blackness around me no longer
felt powerful and amazing, but stifling and heavy. Panicked, I flipped the
switches up and down several more times. Come on, come on!
    They controlled the generator, which controlled the lights,
the heater, and the intake of air. Please, please!
    Nothing happened.
    My chest tightened and my hands shook. What do I do? I
had no idea. Is there a backup? A control panel somewhere? Another switch or
button to push? What?
    I turned in a circle, wracking my petrified brain for the full
layout of the bunker in the pitch dark. Every nook and cranny had been
explored, but nothing stood out as the answer.
    Shelves of food. Beds. Toilet. Water storage. Disposal. If I
had ever found a hidden box with wires to twist to bring everything back to
life, I would have run right to it, because bored people explore and touch
everything, and I had done both those things!
    Yes, there was a crank for the air unit. I could manually
bring in fresh air from the outside by continually turning the lever, but for
how long? That wouldn’t bring back the lights, the electricity, everything else
I needed to survive.
    I managed to get myself turned around in my tiny hole in the
earth, and as my hands brushed over the walls in a frenzy to grab onto
something, my chest squeezed tighter and breathing became more difficult.
    I tried to reorient myself and couldn’t. Was I facing the
front or the back? The bunker was only so big, but it seemed to have increased and
decrease in size at the same time. One second, it was huge. The next it felt
like a coffin.
    How much air did I have? Five minutes? Ten? An hour?
    Questions swirled inside my head, blurring my thoughts, but
one thing was for certain: I had to get out of there.
    Frantic, I grabbed the wall to use as my guide, refusing to
let go for even a second. When I came to the open door, I nearly tumbled
through it, but caught myself in time, finally realizing where I was. With my
arms stretched out in front of me, I managed to find my way along the bunk
beds, past the couch, and to the kitchen area.
    The candle remained in the cake with the lighter at its
side, and when I relit it and the tiny light began to glow, I took in a great
big lungful of air, just noticing I’d been