Chapter 2 - The Concrete Vein
Screams filled the air as the chandeliers above them flickered and died.
Emergency backup lights cast a sickly yellow glow over the rushing water.
"Move to the north exit!" Georgia shouted over the chaos.
Two young kitchen workers grabbed the handles of her stretcher without waiting for orders.
They pushed the cart toward the heavy steel doors that led to the utility corridor.
The corridor was a concrete tunnel connecting the main lodge to the maintenance barn uphill.
It was cold, windowless, and smelled heavily of diesel fuel and damp earth.
Guests poured into the tunnel, shoving past one another in blind terror.
Ruth Caldwell, the resort nurse, jogged beside Georgia’s cart.
"How is the leg?" Ruth asked, her eyes scanning the swollen flesh above the splint.
"Numb," Georgia lied.
She did not want to tell the nurse that the deadness was slowly crawling past her knee.
Scott pushed past a crying child to catch up with the cart.
"This tunnel isn't safe," Scott argued, panting heavily.
"It’s built into the bedrock," Georgia replied without looking at him.
"It is the only thing on this mountain that won't slide into the valley."
The floor of the tunnel began to incline steeply as they pushed upward toward the barn.
Freezing water chased them, swirling around the ankles of the fleeing guests.
The kitchen workers hit the heavy metal double doors at the end of the corridor.
They shoved hard against the crash bars.
The doors did not move.
One of the workers slammed his shoulder into the steel.
"It's locked!" the boy yelled.
Georgia felt a cold knot form in her stomach.
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The maintenance barn possessed an exterior mechanical lock, but the interior crash bars were designed to never stick.
Someone had deliberately bolted the doors from the inside.
