Chapter 3 - The Highway Crash
Mark felt the blood completely drain from his face.
His father, Arthur, was a ruthless crime lord whom Mark had spent ten agonizing years hiding from.
Arthur calmly explained over the phone that he needed Jake for a very specific medical procedure.
Mark realized with absolute horror that the extraction team was never a legitimate child protection service.
He had unknowingly called his own father's violent mercenaries directly to his front door.
He cursed himself loudly for letting his anger toward his wife blind his judgment.
He remembered his wife being violently dragged into the dark van by the armed men.
He knew he had to find a secure place to hide his son before he could mount a rescue.
Mark navigated the heavy truck onto the desolate interstate highway.
He constantly checked his rearview mirror for any signs of pursuit.
The dark road behind them remained completely empty for several miles.
Jake sat quietly in the passenger seat, clutching his knees to his bruised chest.
Mark reached over and gently squeezed his son's shoulder to offer some silent comfort.
He promised the boy that nobody was ever going to hurt him again.
Suddenly, a massive spotlight flooded the cabin of the truck from above.
A black helicopter descended rapidly from the dark clouds, matching their highway speed.
Mark swerved wildly as a shower of bullets rained down upon the asphalt ahead of them.
He realized he could not outrun an armed aircraft on a straight highway.
He jerked the steering wheel hard to the right, crashing through the metal guardrail.
The heavy truck plummeted down a steep, muddy embankment covered in dense trees.
The vehicle violently flipped twice before finally slamming into a massive oak tree.
The airbags deployed with a deafening pop, filling the cabin with white powder.
Mark kicked his shattered door open and desperately pulled his son from the wreckage.
They scrambled into the dense, freezing woods just as armed men began repelling from the helicopter above.
Mark checked his pockets and realized his phone had been completely destroyed in the crash.
As they hid beneath a fallen log, a strange burner phone in Jake's jacket pocket suddenly began to vibrate.
May you like
Mark pulled it out and answered the unknown call.
His wife's voice urgently whispered through the speaker that she had the encrypted flash drive, but she was trapped inside the slaughterhouse.
