Chapter 9 - The Final Stand

I kicked the steel door again, the heavy boots jarring my spine with the impact.

The metal groaned, but the reinforced deadbolts held firm against my desperate assault.

The ceiling above me cracked dangerously, showering the hallway with burning embers and toxic black smoke.

I fell to my knees, choking on the ash, trying to get my face close to the floor where the air was slightly cooler.

"Drew, listen to me!" I yelled through the small ventilation grate.

"Is the heavy folding table still in there?"

"Yes!" Drew coughed, his voice sounding terribly weak.

"Use the metal leg to hit the hinges from the inside, hit them as hard as you can!" I instructed.

I heard the metallic clatter of the boy struggling to lift the heavy object.

Then, a loud, rhythmic banging started from the other side of the door.

My six-year-old nephew, with a broken leg and smoke filling his lungs, was fighting for his life.

I grabbed the broken handle of the fire extinguisher a firefighter had dropped in the hallway.

I timed my strikes with Drew's, smashing the heavy metal canister against the weakened locking mechanism.

With a deafening crack, the digital lock finally gave way, and the heavy steel door swung inward.

I crawled into the suffocating darkness of the hidden room, reaching out blindly in the smoke.

My hands found Lily first, curled into a tight ball on the floor, barely breathing.

I scooped her up in my left arm and felt Drew grab tightly onto my collar.

"I got you both," I whispered, hoisting Drew onto my back despite the agonizing pain in my burns.

We stumbled out of the hidden room just as the main support beam of the hallway collapsed in a shower of sparks.

I blindly navigated the burning wreckage, carrying the weight of my brother's legacy through the flames.

We burst through the front door and collapsed onto the cool, wet grass of the front lawn.

Paramedics swarmed us immediately, ripping the kids from my arms and rushing them to the waiting ambulances.

I lay in the grass, gasping for clean air, watching the roof of the house finally cave in completely.

Sarah knelt beside me, pressing an oxygen mask over my face.

"We got her, Calder," Sarah said, pointing toward the police cruisers.

Reena was screaming and fighting as four officers dragged her away in handcuffs.

"She's going away for a long time," Sarah assured me, squeezing my shoulder.

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I closed my eyes, finally letting the exhaustion pull me into darkness, knowing the nightmare was over.

Or so I thought.