the middle of winter, which they had not understood. Meanwhile, Lina leaves with a roamer who travels to old cities to find treasure, hoping to find the city she has been dreaming of and drawing. There she finds not a beautiful city like she expected, but a crumbling ruin of a metropolis (San Francisco after the Disaster). She returns to Sparks after more than a month, disappointed, and is very surprised by the deteriorating political situation. After the people from Ember are deliberately inflicted with itchy rashes by an unknown person, at a time of extreme heat, angry Emberites start to gather in the town square. Tick Hassler urges them to attack the market stalls, seize food, and run, which some of them do. That evening, the village leaders meet and vote (the same) 2-1 to order all former citizens of Ember to leave immediately. When the people of Ember try to decide what to do, Tick organizes a group of people to fight back if the people of Sparks try to make them leave by force or continue to deprive them of adequate food. In the morning, this group enters the large square, followed by the rest of the people of Ember. Ben, who voted to order them to leave, brings the "Terrible Weapon", which is a machine gun built before the "Disaster", from the town hall basement. Ben threatens to 'fire' on them, but Tick and his men charge at the weapon, not knowing what it is. When Ben tries to shoot them, Mary forces him to fire over the crowd by kicking the front upward. As Ben tries to lower it and shoot at the crowd, the age and poor storage of the cannon and its ammunition cause it to explode. The explosion starts a fire, which engulfs a large tree in front of the town hall and threatens to destroy numerous buildings. The Emberites watch passively as the people of Sparks try to extinguish the fire: some hope for the fire to spread, but most of them are simply too afraid, of the fire and their fellow Emberites, to do anything. At this point, Lina decides to help the people of Sparks fight the fire. As this happens, Doon sees that Torren is trapped in the burning tree by the building and saves him before he catches fire. These acts cause most of the people of