Overdue Maintenance

Jack parks the truck just before the exit of a tunnel and they get out. Roaring water echoes from somewhere deep below. Annie grabs her bag and goes ahead. The tunnel wall to the right features doors, large gates, and windows that allow a peek into abandoned offices and control rooms. The end of the tunnel connects to a balcony extending into a narrow ravine with walkways going from either side. She steps onto it, making sure to keep her distance to the railing, and looks around. The walkway to the right connects to the top of a dam blocking the ravine. Large flowers, a couple bushes, and a small tree grow on top of it and the wall is partially green from the moss growing on it. Water flows over the spillway, falling into the depths where it joins a torrent of water coming from two big pipes at the bottom of the dam.

She turns around to see the others unloading the truck. Jack is getting a large toolbox from the truck. James and Michelle are standing next to one of the doors, holding a box full of random spare parts that Jack had found in the bunker. She hurries over to them and opens the door pulling a loop of wire through the latching mechanism to bypass the lock.

Inside is the main control room. The walls are lines with metal cabinets that have levers, buttons, dials, and large gauges on them. The wall to the left features a front of windows allowing a view of the spillway and the top of the dam. Some of the windows have cracks but, by some miracle, none are broken. In front of them is a ransom collection of furniture, primarily desks and chairs. The center of the room is taken up by a large console with more buttons, switches, and gauges, facing the windows and an opening in the floor covered by a thick glass pane.

They set down their things and roam around the room. Out of nowhere, Michelle asks:
Jack, what's the status on that dome city you're building? You guys only have two years to finish that project.
Oh no, I guess we're gonna have to slack less while waiting for bureaucracy to take its course. I sure hope we get these plans approved by the end of the month.
Look, the power lines are gonna get hooked up to the battery bank in a couple days. Aren't you excited for that?
Not my department but I sure hope we're no longer gonna habe to rely on batteries down there. Having a working power grid is gonna be so nice.
They are looking at a calendar on the wall and laughing. It shows October 1991 with a bunch of crossed-out days and a few entries over the rest of the month.

Annie steps onto the glass pane in front of the center console and looks down.