Chapter 7 - The Furnace
The basement quickly transformed into a roaring, suffocating inferno.
Black smoke billowed toward the ceiling, making it almost impossible to breathe or see.
Lawrence sprinted up the concrete stairs and slammed the heavy iron door shut.
Clara heard the terrifying sound of a heavy steel padlock clicking into place on the other side.
They were completely trapped inside a burning underground cage.
Leonard grabbed Clara by the hand and pulled her away from the rapidly spreading fire.
“We have to find another way out before the smoke takes us,” Leonard coughed.
He dragged her toward the far corner of the basement, where the flames had not yet reached.
Clara felt her lungs burning with every desperate breath she took.
“There are no windows down here,” Clara choked out, her eyes watering intensely.
Leonard wiped the sweat from his forehead and stared intently at the damp brick wall.
“I designed the structural retrofit for this building ten years ago,” Leonard said rapidly.
He traced his bloody fingers along a vertical crack in the old masonry.
“This specific wall is non-load-bearing, and there is an old storm drain right behind it,” he explained.
He raised the heavy steel wrench and began smashing it against the brittle red bricks.
Sparks flew, and mortar turned to dust as he struck the wall with everything he had left.
The heat in the room became unbearable, singing the edges of Clara's hair.
She grabbed a fallen iron pipe and started hitting the wall right beside her son.
Together, they chipped away at the barrier as the fire licked at their heels.
Finally, a large section of the brickwork crumbled outward into a dark, muddy tunnel.
A rush of cold, fresh air blew into the burning basement.
Leonard pushed his mother through the narrow opening first.
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Just as Leonard climbed through the hole, a pair of hands reached out from the darkness of the tunnel.
The hands grabbed Leonard by the collar and aggressively yanked him into the pitch-black pipe.
