Chapter 5 - The Medical Records
The deafening, concussive explosion knocked us entirely off our feet.
Drywall dust and sharp wooden splinters rained down on us inside the narrow, claustrophobic wall cavity.
"We have to reach the basement tunnel before they breach the second defensive layer," Sarah yelled over the ringing in our ears.
She scrambled up quickly, pulling a terrified Lily along, and I followed closely behind them in the dark.
We squeezed through the tight wooden framing, the terrifying sound of heavy boots echoing directly above our heads.
"Where is the little girl?" I asked, my heart aching desperately for the terrified child I had just met.
"Her name is Maya, and she knows the emergency escape routes far better than I do," Sarah assured me, pushing forward.
We dropped down a rickety wooden ladder into the cold, unfinished concrete basement.
Maya was already waiting there, huddled deeply behind a massive furnace, shivering uncontrollably in the dark.
I rushed over to her without hesitation and gently wrapped my warm fleece jacket around her tiny shoulders.
"I've got you, Maya, and I am never letting you go," I promised, feeling a sudden, fierce paternal instinct ignite in my chest.
She looked up at me with eyes that were exactly the same vibrant shade of green as Chloe's eyes.
Sarah punched a long security code into a digital keypad on the wall, and a heavy iron door swung open, revealing a dark underground tunnel.
"This old Prohibition tunnel leads to a drainage pipe half a mile away in the deep woods," Sarah explained, ushering us inside.
We ran through the damp, pitch-black tunnel for what felt like hours, our breathing echoing loudly in the enclosed space.
When we finally emerged into the freezing night air, we were deep inside the safety of the dense forest.
Sarah led us through the brush to a rusted, abandoned pickup truck hidden perfectly beneath a heavy camouflage tarp.
She skillfully hotwired the old engine, and we sped onto a deserted, unlit backroad.
I sat in the passenger seat, securely holding both Lily and Maya in my arms to keep them warm.
"Why does my father want Maya back so badly after all these years?" I asked, staring at Sarah's bruised and exhausted face.
"He doesn't just want a biological heir to carry on the family name, Ryan," Sarah said grimly, gripping the steering wheel.
She reached over into the glove compartment and handed me a thick, stolen medical file.
I turned on the dim overhead cab light and flipped open the heavy manila folder.
The highly classified documents detailed my father's recent, closely guarded medical history.
He had been diagnosed with a rare, highly aggressive, and terminal genetic blood disease.
"He needs an experimental bone marrow and organ transplant from a direct, perfectly genetically compatible descendant," Sarah explained coldly.
"You were tested secretly years ago and were not a match, Ryan, so you are entirely useless to his survival."
I read the final, horrifying page of the medical report and felt my blood run completely cold in my veins.
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My father did not want to raise Maya as his beloved granddaughter.
He wanted to harvest her organs to save his own miserable, pathetic life.
