Chapter 4 - The Burner Phone
The flames rapidly consumed the cheap wooden door, filling the apartment with suffocating smoke.
Rachel coughed violently as the intense heat blistered the peeling wallpaper.
She knew she only had a few seconds before the entire room became an absolute inferno.
She grabbed a heavy wooden dining chair and hurled it aggressively through the living room window.
The glass shattered into a thousand pieces, letting in the freezing rain.
Rachel dove through the broken window, landing hard on the rusted metal fire escape.
She scrambled down the iron stairs just as a massive explosion blew the apartment completely apart.
Rachel hit the wet alley pavement and ran until her lungs burned.
She pulled out her cell phone and sent a secure text message to Marcus.
They met ten minutes later in the dark parking lot of an abandoned diner.
Marcus unlocked the passenger door of his civilian car, and Rachel quickly climbed inside.
"I tracked Sarah's burner phone using the cell towers," Marcus announced, typing frantically on his laptop.
"The signal is completely stationary at the old shipping docks."
They sped through the empty city streets, arriving at a desolate maze of towering metal shipping containers.
They followed the GPS signal to a rusted red container and broke the heavy padlock.
Rachel shined her flashlight inside, expecting to find the missing mother.
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Instead, the beam illuminated the dead body of Officer Jenkins.
Lying directly next to his bloody hand was Rachel's own backup service weapon.
