Chapter 7 - The Desperate Measure
Valerie watched in sheer terror as the needle began to slowly descend toward Lila's skin.
The child whimpered, clutching Valerie's arm as the metallic mesh tightened automatically.
Richard screamed in frustration, violently tearing at the thick straps with his bare, bloody hands.
The synthetic material was reinforced with steel wire and refused to break.
There were only forty-five seconds left on the digital timer.
Valerie's mind raced through every piece of first aid training and survival knowledge she had ever learned.
She remembered the warning she had read on medical defibrillators about electrical interference.
She turned to Richard and asked if a massive electrical shock would fry the circuit board inside the vest.
Richard nodded frantically, but pointed out that shocking the vest while it was on Lila could stop her small heart.
Valerie knew they had absolutely no other choice.
If the needle dropped, Lila was guaranteed to die from the neurotoxin.
She grabbed the heavy flashlight that Officer Davis had dropped on the floor.
She unscrewed the bottom cap and dumped the large lithium batteries into her hand.
She pulled a copper wire from a broken electrical conduit dangling near the water heater.
Thirty seconds left.
Valerie worked furiously, connecting the raw copper wire to the positive and negative terminals of the battery stack.
She told Richard to hold Lila as still as he possibly could.
She warned the little girl that this was going to hurt, but it would save her life.
Lila squeezed her eyes shut and buried her face into her father's bloody shoulder.
Fifteen seconds left.
Valerie pressed the exposed ends of the electrified copper wire directly against the metal casing of the black box.
A brilliant shower of blue sparks erupted in the dark tunnel.
Lila screamed in pain as the electrical current shocked her chest.
The digital display on the vest flickered wildly, the numbers turning to random gibberish.
Ten seconds left.
Valerie pressed harder, burning her own fingers on the overheating wire.
The black box suddenly let out a loud pop, and a thin trail of gray smoke rose from the plastic casing.
The red light turned completely dark.
The timer screen shattered, and the mechanical whirring sound stopped entirely.
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The needle had frozen less than a millimeter above Lila's pale skin.
Before they could breathe a sigh of relief, the heavy steel door at the end of the tunnel was violently blown open.
