The green EXIT sign stayed lit above the locked door.
Eli checked the handle without forcing it. The door did not move. He compared the label on the frame with the copy of the safety plan in his hand. Both identified this as the second evacuation exit.
Keir came up beside him. “Is it part of the exercise?”
“The instructions say a marked evacuation exit must remain available. We need an official to check it.”
Keir’s radio carrier called the nearest station judge. The judge approached from the junction, tried the handle, and confirmed that the door was locked. He pressed his radio button and asked control to open it or identify an alternate exit.
Static answered. A second call reached someone who said the request was being checked. No one gave a time.
“Mark it,” the judge told them. “Don’t direct contestants here until we have an answer.”
Eli placed a supplied warning marker beside the door, not over the EXIT sign. Keir wrote BLOCKED, TIME NOTED on the group sheet. The radio carrier repeated the location to the members at the junction.
