Chapter 12 - Out of the Ashes
The smoke grew thicker,
stinging my eyes and making me cough violently as it filled the room.
Ethan slammed his shoulder against the secondary exit door,
but the heavy steel didn't budge.
"It's locked tight,"
he gasped,
wiping sweat and soot from his forehead with his sleeve.
"Vivian,
we need to find another way out before the smoke suffocates us completely."
I looked around the archive room,
my mind racing through the architectural layout of the basement floor.
As a night cleaner,
I knew that every archive room had an emergency ventilation hatch.
A hatch designed to vent toxic gas in case of a chemical spill in the building.
"Over there!"
I shouted,
pointing to a large metal grate near the ceiling behind the cabinets.
"We need to climb the storage shelves to reach it,
hurry!"
Ethan scrambled up the metal framing,
using his strength to kick the heavy iron grate loose.
The grate fell to the floor with a loud clang,
revealing a dark,
narrow air shaft.
"Go first,
Vivian!"
Ethan yelled,
helping me pull myself up into the cramped concrete opening.
I crawled through the tight space,
the metal scratching my hands as I dragged myself forward.
The sound of an explosion echoed behind us as the front doors finally gave way to the fire.
Flames roared into the archive room,
but we were already moving deep inside the ventilation system.
We crawled for what felt like miles,
following the cool breeze of fresh air from the outside.
Finally,
the shaft opened up into a small alleyway behind the Meridian building garage.
I tumbled out onto the wet asphalt,
gasping for air as the cool night rain hit my face.
Ethan landed right beside me,
coughing up black soot but completely alive and uninjured.
We looked back and saw thick black smoke pouring from the lower levels of the tower.
"We made it,"
I breathed,
clutching my chest as my heart pounded in pure relief.
"But Morrison thinks we are dead inside that burning room right now,"
Ethan noted.
"Good,"
I said,
a cold smile touching my lips as I stood up in the rain.
"Let him think he won,
because that is exactly when a predator becomes careless."
"Where is Arthur?"
I asked suddenly,
a wave of maternal panic hitting me.
"He is safe at the estate with my personal security team,"
Ethan reassured me quickly.
"Morrison doesn't know about the secret bunker beneath the main house."
"We need to get there immediately,
before he realizes his plan failed."
We slipped out of the alleyway,
avoiding the arriving fire trucks and police cars.
We caught a taxi blocks away,
keeping our faces hidden in the shadows of the backseat.
As the car drove away from the burning tower,
I felt a new level of determination take hold.
Doctor Morrison had crossed the final line by trying to kill my family for money.
He thought he was a master manipulator,
but he had underestimated the forensic auditor he created.
May you like
I knew his secrets now,
and I was going to use them to destroy him completely.
