Chapter 9 - The Edge of the Abyss
My hands clamped down on Rebecca's wrist just as gravity tried to pull her into the darkness.
She was clutching Sammy tightly to her chest, their combined weight threatening to rip my arms directly out of their sockets.
I screamed in sheer agony, my boots slipping on the slick metal edge of the broken catwalk.
"Don't let go, Mr. Ethan!" Sammy cried out, his small voice echoing in the massive space.
"I have you!" I grunted, wrapping my legs around a solid steel beam to anchor myself.
Below us, Gabriel brutally kicked Vance in the face, knocking the injured security chief completely unconscious.
Gabriel looked up at me dangling precariously over the edge, a twisted smile forming on his lips.
"Such a tragic accident," Gabriel mocked, limping over to a large red lever on the wall.
"The heroic CEO falls to his death trying to save his servants."
He grabbed the heavy lever, which controlled the massive emergency incinerator beneath the smelting vat.
"Goodbye, Ethan," Gabriel whispered, forcefully pulling the lever down.
A massive wall of roaring flames erupted from the bottom of the pit directly below us.
The intense heat instantly singed my clothing and made the metal beam I was holding onto blisteringly hot.
I had mere seconds before the fire reached high enough to consume us all.
I looked down into Rebecca's terrified eyes and knew I only had one impossible option.
"Swing toward the maintenance ladder!" I yelled over the deafening roar of the fire.
I used the last reserves of my physical strength to swing them like a pendulum.
On the third swing, I let go of her wrist with a massive heave.
Rebecca flew through the air and successfully grabbed the sturdy rungs of the steel maintenance ladder on the far wall.
She scrambled upward with Sammy, safely out of the reach of the rising flames.
I let out a gasp of relief, but the metal beam beneath me finally melted from the intense heat.
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The support gave way entirely.
I plummeted backward into the roaring inferno below.
