I glance up at the clock the hand moves to hit the six, by now the sun must be gone over the mountains, but I wouldn't know. You see, three years ago the pollution and the sun's rays broke through the earth's ozone layer the sun began to burn brighter than usual. Many of the elderly became blind within a week of the rupturing. My parents say it's because they have been living with intense sun for longer than we have, but after the ozone disappeared their cataracts began to fog more rapidly and intensely. More than half the people in my village had to go blind before the chairman let us move into the bunkers. Legend has it that the Earth people will have a fallout with the sun. Upon hearing of the prophecy our ancestors pre-made subterranean chambers. I can only assume they are dark, eerie and damp. The bunkers only hold up to five hundred people. Because at the time that was more than enough room for the village. However our village has grown immensely and even with all of the deaths there is still too many people.

“Everybody line up” I remember the guards saying this, because usually they tell us when the inspections are coming up. I didn’t know what to expect maybe they are just going to tell us to get our things together to move in. But something completely different happened. I was one of the first people in line I watched everyone run to the east side of the village. My grandparents stood next to me.  A select few had stepped out of line on the chairman's instructions. I noticed the only people stepping out of line were older than sixty. He picked both of my grandparents and they took one step forward, just like the others. I tried to make eye contact with my grandpa but he just stared straight ahead like I didn’t exist. That's when it hit me he was selecting people to stay out in the sun because there was not enough room for all of us. The next thing I knew my brown hair was flicking my face as I ran down the line of people, meeting terrified eyes of those who had already figured it out.
“No, no you can’t do this please these people have families.” I had found myself shouting at the chairman barely being able to get the sentence out before the tears started to come uncontrollably.

“Take her away” He said to no one in particular. Without a word the guards stepped to my side.

“Get off of me” I shouted as loudly as possible hoping they might actually put me down. The guards didn’t react, instead they picked me up and carried me off. My eyes opened, it took a minute for everything to come out of the haze.  A young man was sitting by my cell.

“Who are you?” I asked in a groggy voice. His head swiveled and our eyes met his were green, like the forest outside, just like mine.

“I’m Zach” He said in an innocent yet important tone. From the clothes he was wearing I knew he was a first year guard. For some reason I felt like I needed to tell him that I was not a criminal even if it looked that way.
“I’m not a criminal?” I said trying to make myself look better

“I already know… I think it was a very brave thing you did.”  The next thing I remembered was Zach motioning the people who had stepped out of line the day before, into my cell.

“What do you think you are doing?” I hissed, feeling doubt bubble up inside of me. Then I realized he was sneaking them in, trying to save them. That's when I saw my grandparents come around the corner. “Papa, Nana” I shouted too loudly, but the happiness inside me overcame the worry that someone might hear. About a minute later just after our reunion, guards came marching around the corner only to see fifty extra people in my holding cell.  Bullets started to fly, my grandma went down next to me. Before I could think Zach was pulling me out of the war zone just as the man standing behind me fell to the cold concrete floor. When the tension in my arm ceased I found myself in a separate chamber of the bunker where I began to sob.

“It it’s all my fault, I shouldn’t have called out for them” I cried out and the echo mimics me.

“It’s not your fault I couldn’t have kept them hidden forever, if it's anyone's fault it's mine for bringing them in here, I should have know this would happen.” He says trying to console me, only to put the blame on himself. 
It didn’t feel like the right time to tell him but I said it anyway

“My name is Paige, by the way.”  I said trying to break the awkward and depressing feeling in the room. He took me by the hands and helped me up. Without a warning he wrapped his arms around me and whispered in my ear. 

“I’m so sorry.”

Zach and I began to grow close, little by little we got over what we saw that night. No one else knew what had happened in holding cell seven. Zach was sentenced to be the cook at the cafeteria for the rest of his life. So I volunteered to be the waitress. Surprisingly he found a hidden talent and everyone loves his food. Zach and I have been married for a year and every thing is going well in the bunker. The scientists believe in one hundred years they will have the technology to allow us to return to where we belong. The chairman passed away six months ago and now the bunker is running as smoothly as ever.  The bunker turned out to be much cozier than I had expected.