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City of Ember Chp12-14
City of Ember Chp12-14
● The next week, Doon finishes fixing a leak in the Pipeworks and decides to go to the
secret tunnel again to look for clues.
● When he comes to the locked door, he's shocked to find a key in it. Not so locked
anymore, huh? Doon quietly opens the door, peers in, and sees a brightly lit room
packed with things: jars, boxes, packages, clothes.
● There's a table set with all kinds of food, and a person dozing in a chair. Doon gets a
glimpse of the person's bulky body and chin before he ducks out.
● Lina, in the meantime, is carrying a ton of messages that day. Most of them are short
and have to do with people canceling commitments, preferring to stay home
instead—maybe because of all the weird stuff going down in Ember?
● As she's heading home, Doon finds her and tells her that he saw inside the locked
room. He describes it, and then comes the big reveal: the guy snoozing in the chair?
That was the mayor.They realize that when he was telling the people of Ember that
he had a solution, he meant a solution for himself, the jerk.
● The kids go to a bench to talk, noticing a bunch of Believers singing sappy, annoying
songs. But there are also a few people carrying signs to protest the mayor's lack of
solutions.
● Lina tells Doon about Lizzie and Looper stealing food from the storerooms, and
together they figure out that Looper is the one stealing stuff to supply the mayor's
room.
● That makes sense—the first time they'd been near the forbidden room in Tunnel 351,
they'd heard a scraping sound, which must've been Looper coming down from a
hatch that connects to the storerooms.
● They decide to tell the guards about the mayor's stealing, and so they leave a note
to one of the assistant guards, who seems eager to help.
● Lina also tells Doon that her grandmother died, and he's really sympathetic.
● But he thinks that the Builders' instructions may not be worth anything after all, which
bums Lina out.
● The next day, everyone is let out of work at noon to rehearse for the Singing. While
Lina is chilling by herself, Doon runs up and grabs her, saying he found the place on
the riverbank they were supposed to look for.
● Since everyone's gathering for the rehearsal, the two of them sneak into the
Pipeworks.
● They find the rock marked with an "E" (for Exit, duh) and when they look around,
then find a ladder leading down to a ledge next to the riverbank.
● Despite the fact that it's scary to climb down a tiny ladder over a big roaring river,
they both go for it. They find themselves on a ledge, which connects to a hall.
● At the end of the hall is a door. They open it using information from the Instructions
on where to look for a panel.
● It's dark inside, but they find two boxes and bring them back out to the light. One is
labeled "Matches" and the other "Candles." Neither kid knows what they are, but
through enough fiddling around, they figure out that the matches create fire, and the
candles can hold the fire.
● Using the light from the candles, they explore the room, and find a thing called a
boat and things called paddles. The next room is stocked with equipment. It's all
kinds of awesome.
● Interpreting more of the instructions, Doon and Lina realize that the boats are
something they're supposed to use to travel on the river.
● And that can only mean one thing: the river is the way out of Ember.