PART 34
The sweet,
sickly smell of the gas filled the air,
making my eyes burn instantly.
I coughed violently,
covering my nose and mouth with my shirt sleeve as I dove into the narrow brick tunnel behind Sarah.
The space was tight,
the bricks cold and scraping against my palms as I dragged myself forward in the dark.
Behind me,
the vault was disappearing into a thick fog of poison.
"Keep moving, Sarah!"
I gasped,
my lungs screaming for clean oxygen.
We crawled for what felt like miles,
the tunnel sloping downward until the sound of rushing water echoed ahead.
We spilled out of the pipe onto a concrete ledge inside the old city sewer system,
the air foul but free of the green gas.
Above us,
a rusted iron ladder led up to a street manhole cover.
Sarah climbed first,
using her shoulder to push the heavy iron disc aside,
the cool night air rushing over her face.
We scrambled out onto the pavement,
gasping for breath,
realizing we were in the alleyway behind the old town hall,
three blocks away from my dad’s property.
Through the trees,
we could see the headlights of three unmarked vehicles parked near the ruins of my father's house.
The syndicate men were packing up,
thinking we were dead inside the vault.
Sarah wiped the sweat from her forehead,
her eyes flashing with a dangerous light.
"They think they won, Emma."
"They think they just buried the evidence."
"Let’s show them what happens when you don't check the body count."
She pulled her emergency radio from her pocket,
the signal finally clear outside the concrete vault.
"All federal units,
this is Mitchell,"
she barked into the receiver.
"Code Red at the Bennett property."
May you like
"Move in,
move in now!"
