Chapter 8 - Inferno
The intense heat of the fire immediately blistered Luca’s skin.
The locked room was rapidly filling with thick, suffocating black smoke.
Elena coughed violently, struggling against the tight zip ties binding her wrists.
Luca ignored the searing pain and activated the hidden mechanism in his watch.
A tiny, razor-sharp wire snapped out from the titanium casing.
He twisted his wrists agonizingly and began sawing at his own bonds.
The fire crawled up the walls, melting the old wallpaper into toxic sludge.
"Hold on, Elena!" Luca shouted over the roaring flames.
With one final, desperate pull, his ties snapped apart completely.
He instantly dropped to the floor and low-crawled over to his coughing wife.
He used his wire cutter to slice through her thick restraints.
He pulled her up into his arms and covered her face with his jacket.
"We have to go through the window!" Luca yelled over the deafening fire.
"We are on the third floor!" Elena screamed back in sheer terror.
"I know, trust me!" he commanded, pulling her toward the shattered glass.
The floorboards beneath them groaned dangerously under the intense heat of the blaze.
Luca grabbed a heavy metal chair and hurled it through the remaining windowpanes.
He wrapped his arms tightly around Elena's waist and leaped into the open night air.
They plummeted rapidly toward the concrete parking lot below.
Suddenly, they crashed brutally through the thick canvas awning of a hospital entrance.
The tough fabric ripped and slowed their fall just enough to save their lives.
They hit the ground hard, rolling wildly across the damp pavement.
Luca groaned in agony, clutching his already broken ribs.
Elena scrambled over to him, her hands checking him frantically for blood.
"I am okay," he wheezed, forcing a painful smile.
The sound of a heavy helicopter rotor began thumping loudly from the hospital roof.
Arthur was trying to make his cowardly escape into the night sky.
Luca forced himself to stand up, his eyes burning with absolute murderous intent.
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He picked up a discarded mercenary rifle from the ground.
"Stay here," Luca ordered, before running back into the burning building.
