Chapter 5 - The Supply Closet
Ethan looked down at his chest, instinctively wrapping his large hand over the tiny silver angel.
"A girl gave it to me a long time ago, on the worst day of my life," he answered, coughing as the smoke filled his lungs.
The digital timer on the wall mercilessly ticked down to exactly two minutes.
Claire closed her eyes, tears streaming down her soot-stained cheeks as the memories violently collided.
She saw a twelve-year-old boy in a navy sweatshirt, crying so hard he could barely breathe.
"You were the boy in the hospital supply closet," she whispered, opening her eyes to meet his gaze.
Ethan froze, the raging fire around them suddenly fading into absolute background noise.
He stared at her messy brown hair, her determined eyes, and the way she stood her ground against the fear.
"Claire?" he breathed out, the name tasting like a miracle on his dry tongue.
"You kept him," she sobbed, reaching out to lightly touch the metal wings resting against his chest.
"He watched over me until I didn't need him anymore," Ethan replied, repeating the very words she had spoken twenty-two years ago.
A sudden, violent explosion from the far corner of the server room shattered their reunion.
Flames erupted along the walls, eating through the drywall and blocking their path to the main door.
The temperature in the room skyrocketed, blistering their skin and making it impossible to breathe.
"I finally found you, and I am going to lose you in the same hour," Ethan said, pulling her flush against his chest.
"No, you are not," Claire shouted fiercely, her survival instincts kicking into overdrive.
She pointed to the heavy steel grate covering the floor ventilation system just a few feet away.
"Help me lift that grate before the thermal overload ignites the main power cells," she ordered.
Ethan nodded, dropping to his knees and wedging his bleeding fingers under the scorching hot metal.
They pulled with every ounce of strength they possessed, screaming as the metal seared their palms.
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The grate finally popped loose, revealing a narrow, pitch-black drop into the building's maintenance shafts.
Just as they prepared to jump, a massive flaming support beam cracked overhead and began to fall directly toward Claire.
