Chapter 13 — THE HUNT
Sub-level three was cold, damp, and smelled heavily of rust and stagnant water.
Rachel’s lungs burned. The carbon monoxide was already sinking into the lower levels, making the air thin and metallic to breathe. Lucy was coughing into her mother's shoulder.
"Here!" Rachel gasped, illuminating the wall with a flashlight she had grabbed from the emergency box.
Behind a row of massive water purification tanks was a heavy iron grate, rusted shut from decades of neglect.
Sarah holstered her weapon and grabbed the edge of the grate, straining with all her might. "It's... stuck!"
Rachel set Lucy down. "Baby, turn around and cover your ears."
Rachel grabbed a heavy steel wrench from a nearby toolbox. She channeled every ounce of anger, fear, and desperation she felt toward Ethan, toward The Architect, and toward the men hunting them above. She swung the heavy wrench like a baseball bat, smashing it into the rusted padlock securing the grate.
CLANG!
Sparks flew. The lock held.
She swung again. And again. On the fourth strike, the rusted metal shattered, and the lock dropped to the floor.
Sarah yanked the iron grate open, revealing a narrow, claustrophobic tunnel angling sharply upward into the darkness.
"I'll go first," Sarah said, crawling into the shaft. "Hand Lucy up to me."
Rachel lifted her daughter, boosting her up into the medic's waiting arms. Just as Rachel began to pull herself into the shaft, the heavy metal door to the water filtration room crashed open.
Two mercenaries swept into the room, their flashlights piercing the gloom.
"Target spotted!" one of them yelled, raising his submachine gun.
Sarah leaned out of the shaft, firing three quick shots from her pistol. The first mercenary took a round to the shoulder and went down hard.
"Go, Rachel, climb!" Sarah screamed.
Rachel scrambled into the dark shaft, her hands scraping against the rough concrete. The tunnel was agonizingly tight, especially with her pregnant stomach. She had to shimmy upward, her boots slipping on the slick surface.
Bullets struck the iron grate below them, ricocheting wildly inside the tunnel.
"Keep moving! Don't look back!" Sarah ordered, pushing Lucy higher while covering their rear.
They climbed for what felt like hours, their breathing ragged and echoing in the confined space. The air here was cleaner, pulling fresh oxygen from the mountain above, but the physical toll was devastating. Rachel’s abdominal muscles screamed in protest, a sharp, terrifying cramp seizing her lower back.
Not now. Please, God, not now, she prayed, gritting her teeth through the pain.
"I see the exit hatch!" Sarah called down from above.
A heavy THUMP echoed from below them in the shaft.
Rachel looked down between her boots. The beam of a tactical flashlight was sweeping up the tunnel. The second mercenary was crawling into the shaft after them. He was fast, unencumbered, and highly motivated.
"He's in the tunnel!" Rachel yelled.
Sarah pushed open the heavy wooden hatch at the top, tumbling out into the freezing mountain rain. She grabbed Lucy, pulling the child up into the dense forest.
Rachel reached for the ledge, her fingers slipping on the wet mud.
A hand clamped around her left ankle like a steel vice.
Rachel screamed as she was suddenly yanked backward, sliding a foot down the concrete shaft. The mercenary had caught up to her.
"Gotcha, you bitch," the man snarled, reaching for his combat knife.
Rachel didn't panic. She didn't freeze. She looked down at the man's face, illuminated by his own shoulder-mounted flashlight.
She brought her right boot up, driving the heavy heel squarely into the center of the mercenary's face with bone-crushing force.
The man cried out, his nose shattering instantly. His grip on her ankle loosened just enough.
Rachel kicked him again, this time in the throat.
The mercenary let go completely, tumbling backward down the steep shaft. His body bounced off the concrete walls before splashing violently into the water filtration room thirty feet below.
Sarah grabbed Rachel by the arms, hauling her up into the muddy forest floor.
Rachel collapsed against the base of a massive pine tree, gasping for air. The freezing rain poured down over them, washing away the dirt and grime.
"Are you hit?" Sarah asked frantically, checking Rachel for wounds.
May you like
"No," Rachel panted, clutching her stomach. "But we have to keep moving. They'll send more."
Before they could take another step, the low, thrumming roar of helicopter rotors tore through the sky above the tree line.
