Chapter 8 - The Buried Truth
The bright red numbers on the timer mocked them in the dark.
Two minutes and thirty-nine seconds.
Julian hadn't just planned to kill Caleb; he had planned to erase the entire estate from the map.
“We can't outrun a blast that size,” Caleb said, his voice grim as he stared at the wired explosives.
“My legs won't move fast enough in this mud.”
Elise refused to accept death after fighting so hard to survive.
She swept her flashlight around the damp walls of the tunnel, searching for a miracle.
Her beam of light caught the edge of an old, rusted maintenance cart sitting on a set of narrow iron rails.
“Get in the cart,” Elise ordered, dragging Caleb toward the rusty metal box.
“It hasn't been used in fifty years, Elise, the wheels are likely seized,” Caleb argued, though he climbed inside anyway.
Elise didn't listen.
She grabbed a heavy iron pry bar resting near the tracks and jammed it under the back wheels.
Using all her leverage, she popped the rusted brake free with a loud, metallic snap.
Two minutes and ten seconds.
Elise climbed into the cart behind Caleb and grabbed the manual pump lever.
She began pumping the heavy iron handle up and down with terrifying speed.
The cart groaned loudly, the rusted wheels screaming against the iron tracks as they began to roll forward.
One minute and forty seconds.
Elise’s arms burned with lactic acid, her muscles screaming in protest, but she pumped the lever faster and faster.
The cart picked up speed, hurtling through the pitch-black tunnel as the air grew colder.
Forty seconds.
A faint sliver of moonlight appeared in the distance, marking the tunnel exit.
“Keep going!” Caleb shouted, leaning forward to help her pull the heavy lever.
Ten seconds.
The cart smashed through the rotted wooden barricade at the end of the tunnel, launching them out into the freezing night air.
They tumbled out of the cart into the soft, wet grass of the surrounding forest.
Three seconds.
“Get down!” Caleb roared, pulling Elise flat against the earth and covering her head.
Zero.
The ground beneath them violently erupted.
A deafening shockwave tore through the forest, shattering trees and sending massive plumes of dirt and fire into the night sky.
The entire Rowan estate collapsed inward, swallowed completely by the fiery implosion.
Elise lay in the dirt, her ears ringing loudly, completely covered in ash and mud.
She slowly pushed herself up, coughing violently as she looked back at the burning crater that used to be a mansion.
They had actually survived.
“We made it,” Elise whispered, a tear of sheer relief cutting through the dirt on her cheek.
“Yes, you did,” a cold voice echoed from the shadows of the trees.
Elise froze.
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Stepping out from behind a massive oak tree was Julian Rowan.
He looked completely unharmed, holding a high-powered sniper rifle aimed directly at Elise’s forehead.
