Instructions through Chapter 2 Summary

In "The Instructions," the city of Ember has been constructed and the chief builder says the people must live in the city for at least two hundred years, perhaps two hundred and twenty years. An assistant asks how the people will know when it's time to leave and the chief says they'll leave instructions in a box with a lock set to open at the appointed time. The mayor of the city will not know what's in the box but caring for the box and passing it to the next mayor will be an important part of each mayor's duties. The plan works until a mayor contracts an illness that is sweeping Ember. The mayor believes the cure may be in the box and he tries to open it to no avail. That mayor dies without passing on the...