Water in Shaft 37

“Because my brother texted me last night,” she said. “He waited three hours at the North Ring cooling point. After he got inside, they pushed him back out. Said it was full. He said there were no beds anyway. Just fans and people with lists. Then he stopped replying.” The room seemed to sink under the weight of that. The pump room alarm suddenly shrieked. The lights flickered. A red line flashed across the screen: water tower pressure below threshold. “They cut supply outside,” Daniel said. Marcus lunged for the control panel and slapped it twice, uselessly. Lin’s eyes moved to the remote lock code. He had seen the same system in state drills. It was never fully sealed. There was usually a manual local bypass if you knew where to look.