The wooden platform crackled and splintered as the fire ate away at it. “Yeah.”
“Good girl.”
I didn’t think. I couldn’t because everything in my mind was telling me I was crazy to jump through a wall of flames. But we’d be dead in minutes if we didn’t get out of here.
I ran across the mat for the gate, then jumped. I landed hard on the cement, and my legs gave out. I collapsed and rolled.
Vic was right behind me. He didn’t roll, just jumped and landed beside me. He grabbed my hand and pulled me to my feet. “You good?”
I nodded. “Yeah.”
He kept his hand locked in mine, and we ran for the tunnel. He pulled a flashlight from his vest without missing a beat and flicked it on as we went deeper into the tunnel. I didn’t know how far we had to go or where this tunnel led. I just ran as fast as my trembling legs could move.
There was a loud blast and a rumble just ahead.
Vic squeezed my hand and kept running.
We reached a door, and my heart stopped. It was blocked. The blast had collapsed the ceiling, and there were enormous chunks of cement in front of the door.
Vic bent down and moved aside a few smaller pieces. I gasped, my hand flying to my mouth when I saw the body. No. Don’t let it be Ethan. Please God. I just got him back. Jackson needed his uncle.
Vic moved aside more rubble, and I fell to my knees beside him to help. The face was charred, and I couldn’t tell who it was. Vic moved another larger piece, and I collapsed in his arms.
It was Aiden.
“They got out,” I said. My brother got out.
“Yeah,” Vic said. He put his hand to Aiden’s throat, as if making sure there was no chance he’d survived. Then he stood up, bringing me with him.
“Is there another door? Another tunnel?” I asked. We couldn’t go back. The fire was spreading too fast, and even this far down the tunnel, the smoke was getting heavier.
Vic shook his head. “No, baby. They are all blocked.”
We were trapped.
Macayla
Vic’s hand tightened in mine, and we started running back the other way. “There’s an overflow waterway off this tunnel that leads to a well. We need to get to it before the fire does.”
I coughed on the smoke as it grew thicker. It wouldn’t be long before we’d suffocate.
“Keep low. Cover your face,” Vic ordered.
I lifted the bottom of my shirt and covered my mouth and nose. We couldn’t see anything through the smoke, and we slowed to a jog as Vic used his hand on the wall to guide us.
There was a clang and Vic stopped. “Here.” He yanked on an iron gate, but it was padlocked. “Stand back, baby.”
He unholstered his gun and shot the padlock off the gate. The chain clattered to the floor. He swung open the rusted gate, and we hurried along a narrow culvert, our feet splashing through an inch of water.
The shaft opened up into a room where there was a huge, circular wooden cistern. He pulled me over to a ladder that led to the top of it.
“What is this?”
“Overflow from the well. There is a shaft that leads to it.”
My heart skipped a beat. “What do you mean?”
“We can swim through it, and it opens up into the well.”