Chapter 4 - The Safe Room
The blaring alarm echoed endlessly through the pitch-black hallways of the mansion.
Red emergency lights flared to life, casting bloody shadows across the luxurious walls.
Harlan grabbed my arm and dragged me out of the bedroom with terrifying strength.
He told me Silas had just disabled the main power grid and unlocked the perimeter gates.
We sprinted down the long corridor toward the medical wing where Belle was sleeping.
The sounds of heavy gunfire and shattering glass echoed from the ground floor below us.
Silas and his heavily armed mercenaries were already inside the house.
We burst into the medical suite just as Belle woke up crying from the loud alarms.
Harlan scooped his daughter into his arms, ripping the IV lines from her hands.
He kicked a large wooden bookshelf in the corner of the room, revealing a hidden steel door.
He frantically typed a code into the keypad, and the heavy door hissed open.
He pushed me inside the small panic room and followed closely behind with Belle.
The steel door slammed shut, sealing us inside a heavily reinforced concrete cube.
A bank of security monitors on the wall flickered to life, showing live feeds of the estate.
We watched in horror as Silas led a dozen masked men through the grand foyer.
Silas was executing Harlan's loyal guards with ruthless, calculated precision.
Belle buried her face into my chest, sobbing quietly in the dark.
I wrapped my arms around her, rocking her gently to keep her calm.
Harlan stared at the monitors, his jaw clenched so tightly I thought his teeth might break.
He reached for a secure wall phone to call for outside backup.
The line was completely dead.
Silas had severed the underground communication cables before breaching the house.
We were entirely trapped in a steel box with a small army waiting right outside our door.
I looked up at the air ventilation grate near the ceiling.
A faint, sweet-smelling white mist was beginning to pour into the small room.
Harlan smelled it too and cursed violently under his breath.
He realized Silas was pumping lethal nerve gas directly into our isolated ventilation system.
My lungs began to burn with every single breath I took.
Harlan looked at me and said we had less than three minutes before the gas killed us all.
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He reached under a metal bench and pulled out a heavy tactical shotgun.
He told me to cover Belle's eyes because he was going to blow the electronic lock off the door.
