Chapter 7 - The Barricade
Richard's cold, calculating eyes darted rapidly between Elena, the exhausted paramedics, and the tiny babies now safely breathing in their incubators.
The highly corrupt police chief whimpered softly under the gun, clearly regretting his terrible decision to ever take bribe money from the billionaire.
"Put the children securely in the transport carriers right now, Elena," Richard ordered coldly, pulling the heavy hammer back on his loaded pistol.
David bravely stepped directly in front of Clara and the vulnerable babies, willingly using his own muscular body as a human shield.
"You'll have to shoot every single one of us, Richard, and that's going to make a hell of a lot of noise for the press gathered outside," David said with absolute defiance.
Richard just laughed darkly, pointing his expensive gun casually toward the thick, reinforced concrete walls of the specialized intensive care unit.
He arrogantly reminded them that the pediatric ICU was completely soundproofed by design, meaning absolutely no one outside would hear a single gunshot.
Suddenly, little Lily gently tugged on her mother's hospital gown, her small face remarkably calm and calculating for a six-year-old trapped in a deadly hostage situation.
Lily silently pointed her tiny finger toward a large, glowing red button on the wall clearly labeled "Emergency Contagion Quarantine."
Before anyone could even attempt to stop her, the incredibly brave little girl slammed her small fist aggressively against the red button.
A thick, military-grade bulletproof glass partition instantly dropped from the ceiling, slamming into the floor with a thud and completely separating Richard from the room.
Richard roared in absolute, unhinged anger, wildly firing his gun at the glass, but the heavy bullets simply bounced harmlessly off the reinforced surface.
He was entirely trapped out in the outer hallway, while the terrified group was temporarily sealed safely inside the inner medical ward.
Clara quickly rushed forward and locked the manual steel deadbolts on the glass partition, ensuring it absolutely couldn't be electronically overridden from the outside.
"That buys us a little bit of time, but we are completely and utterly trapped inside this room now," Clara said, frantically looking around the sealed enclosure.
Elena quickly grabbed David's strong arm, pointing desperately toward an old, rusted grated ventilation shaft located dangerously high near the ceiling.
She excitedly explained that when she worked here as a struggling nighttime cleaner years ago, she learned that specific shaft led straight up to the emergency helipad on the roof.
David quickly stacked two heavy waiting room chairs on top of a sturdy medical desk, climbing precariously up to unscrew the heavy metal grate.
He managed to forcefully pull the rusted grate free, revealing a dark, narrow, terrifying tunnel that smelled intensely of dry dust and old metal.
As he reached down to help Clara safely pass the fragile babies up into the dark shaft, a horrible, deafening grinding noise erupted from the hallway.
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They looked in sheer terror through the glass partition to see Richard standing there holding a massive, heavy industrial blowtorch he found in a maintenance closet.
The violently blinding blue flame hissed aggressively as Richard began to easily slice right through the bulletproof glass, smiling at them like a literal demon.
