As you likely already know, The City of Ember takes place in the year 241 in the underground city of Ember. The city was created by "builders." It's something like a safe space. The people have to live there for around 200 to 230 years.

To help the people of Ember make it, they've been given supplies. The supplies are kept in a big network of storerooms, which are located beneath the streets of Ember. The supplies include clothes, medicine, cooking utensils, paper, soap, bedding, and furniture.

In the year 241, the supplies are seriously diminishing. They're about to run out. The lack of supplies creates a panic among the Ember inhabitants. At one point, Lina goes to the Supply Depot and sees "long, disorderly lines that stretched out the door." People are trying to get the supplies while they're still there.

The current run on supplies contrasts sharply with prior times. Lina's grandma tells her about the time when the storerooms were so stocked and plentiful that schoolchildren would get to tour them as a part of their education. There was a period when the storerooms were a point of pride.

Alas, those times have long gone. Not only are the supplies running dangerously low, they're also being pilfered by a storeroom employee named Looper. He's looting the supplies for Mayor Cole. The corruption of Mayor Cole seems to be evident in his grotesque, sickly appearance. He is a large man with a gray face and gray teeth. When Lina's friend Doon sums up Mayor Cole, he says, "All he cares about is his fat stomach."