Chapter 4 - The Groundskeeper Cabin
Richard screamed in pain as the heavy car door crushed his wrist.
The silver pistol clattered onto the dark asphalt of the highway.
Ethan did not waste a single second of this desperate opportunity.
He grabbed Sophie and dragged her into the dense, snow-covered woods.
He could hear Richard cursing wildly and struggling to open the jammed car door.
The thick trees provided excellent cover from the bright headlights of the cruiser.
Ethan navigated the treacherous terrain using only the faint moonlight shining through the branches.
He remembered an abandoned groundskeeper cabin located deep within the property lines.
It was a place he used to play as a child, completely hidden from the main estate.
They ran for twenty grueling minutes until the small wooden structure appeared in the clearing.
Ethan kicked the rotting wooden door open and pushed Sophie inside.
The cabin smelled heavily of mildew and damp earth.
He barricaded the door with a rusted iron bed frame and an old wooden dresser.
Ethan knelt beside Sophie and tightly wrapped his coat around her shivering body.
He pulled his phone from his pocket, but there was absolutely zero cellular service.
He began searching the small cabin for anything that could be used as a weapon.
Underneath the rotting floorboards, he noticed a pristine, waterproof plastic container.
He pried the boards up and pulled the heavy container out of the dirt.
Ethan popped the latches open and stared at the contents in complete shock.
The box contained stacks of hundred-dollar bills totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Resting on top of the money was a brand new passport bearing Celeste's photograph.
The name on the passport was Elena Volkova, a notorious fugitive from Eastern Europe.
Celeste was a completely fabricated identity created to infiltrate wealthy American families.
Ethan realized they were dealing with an international criminal syndicate.
A terrifying crackling sound suddenly interrupted his dark thoughts.
He looked through the dirty window and saw bright orange flames engulfing the surrounding trees.
Richard had intentionally set the forest on fire to smoke them out.
The cabin was rapidly becoming a deadly, burning cage.
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Ethan grabbed the bag of cash and kicked the back window out.
He looked down and realized the cabin was built over a steep, rocky ravine.
