Chapter 8 - The Poisoned Air
A sharp, chemical smell began pouring into the wine cellar from the ventilation grate almost immediately.
It was a toxic, heavy gas designed to suffocate us slowly and quietly in the dark.
Dominic rushed toward the heavy iron door, throwing his entire body weight against it.
The thick metal did not even budge a single millimeter.
"Cover their faces with your clothes!" Dominic yelled to me over his shoulder.
I quickly stripped off my housekeeper apron, tearing the fabric in half to press over Lily and Ethan's mouths.
"Breathe as shallowly as you can, babies," I instructed them, trying to keep the panic entirely out of my voice.
Dominic pulled out his pistol and fired point-blank into the heavy deadbolt mechanism.
The bullets sparked against the iron, but the reinforced lock remained completely intact.
He cursed loudly in Italian, coughing as the dangerous gas began to fill the lower half of the room.
"There has to be another way out of here," I gasped, my own throat starting to burn.
"You said this was a Prohibition-era cellar!"
Dominic stopped shooting and turned to me, his dark eyes wide with sudden realization.
"The smugglers' tunnel," he coughed out, rushing toward the far wall of wine racks.
We both started pulling heavy, expensive bottles off the shelves, smashing them carelessly onto the stone floor.
Behind the wooden racks, there was a section of brick that looked slightly newer than the rest.
Dominic grabbed a heavy iron pipe from a broken wine press and started swinging it furiously at the masonry.
I joined him, using an empty champagne bottle to smash away the crumbling mortar.
The toxic gas was getting thicker, making my vision blur and my head spin violently.
Lily began to whimper, and Ethan leaned heavily against the wall, barely able to keep his eyes open.
"Just hold on a little longer!" Dominic shouted, striking the wall with inhuman strength.
With one final, massive blow, the brick wall collapsed outward into a dark, narrow dirt tunnel.
Fresh, cold air rushed into the cellar, feeling like an absolute miracle against my burning lungs.
We pushed the children through the hole first, practically throwing them into the safety of the tunnel.
Dominic climbed through next, turning around to grab my hand and pull me out of the deadly gas.
We collapsed onto the damp dirt floor, gasping hungrily for the clean, unpolluted oxygen.
"We made it," I cried, resting my head against Dominic's solid chest in sheer exhaustion.
He wrapped his arms around me, holding me tight in the darkness of the forgotten tunnel.
Suddenly, the harsh glare of a high-powered flashlight blinded us from the end of the passage.
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"I was really hoping you would remember the old tunnel, Dominic," Dr. Harris chuckled, stepping out of the shadows.
He was standing at the exit, aiming a tactical shotgun directly at Ethan's head.
