Chapter 12 - The Iron Tube
The echoes of boots sliding down the loose shale behind them sounded like thunder in the narrow creek bed. Sarah’s lungs burned with every breath as she half-dragged, half-carried Emma toward the yawning mouth of the concrete drainage culvert.
Up above, a sharp command rang out through the crisp mountain air.
“They’re heading for the drainage pipe! Cut them off!”
A burst of automatic gunfire chipped into the rocks just inches to their left, sending a shower of sharp granite fragments flying into Sarah’s face. She didn't dare look back.
“Hurry, Emma! Just a few more steps!” Sarah pleaded, her voice cracking with exhaustion.
Jax reached the mouth of the culvert first. He fired three rapid shots back up the embankment from his Sig Sauer, suppressing the advancing tactical agents long enough to buy them precious seconds. Then, he turned and dove headfirst into the dark, damp interior of the concrete pipe, extending a massive hand outward.
Sarah lunged forward, shoving Emma into the dark opening. Jax caught the little girl securely, pulling her inside before grabbing Sarah by the tactical vest and hauling her through the narrow entrance just as a barrage of bullets hammered the concrete rim outside.
Sparks flew as lead struck the reinforced pipe, the deafening concussive sound reverberating inside the confined space like rolling thunder.
Emma shrieked, covering her ears, burying her face against Jax’s heavy leather vest.
“Keep moving! Don't stop!” Jax growled, pushing himself up onto his hands and knees in the ankle-deep runoff water that pooled at the bottom of the culvert.
They crawled deeper into the absolute darkness, the air growing thick, damp, and smelling of rusted iron and stagnant water. Behind them, the voices of the tactical team echoed faintly from the entrance, followed by the heavy thud of boots entering the pipe.
“They’re inside,” Sarah whispered, her heart hammering against her ribs as she crawled blindly behind Jax, keeping one hand locked onto Emma’s ankle.
“They won't follow us far,” Jax muttered back, not slowing his pace. “This pipe was built during the Cold War. It drains directly into the containment basin of the main black site facility two miles down the valley.”
Sarah froze in place, her knees scraping painfully against the rough concrete floor. “Wait. You’re saying this pipe leads into the base?”
“That’s the point,” Jax said over his shoulder, his voice echoing eerily in the metal-and-concrete tube. “The government built these secret facilities with back doors for emergency evacuations. Most people forgot they existed. Daniel helped me map this one out before he was taken.”
Behind them, the faint sound of a flashlight beam cut through the darkness, illuminating the curved walls of the culvert fifty yards back.
“They’re using night vision,” Sarah hissed, panic flaring in her chest.
Jax stopped crawling. He turned around in the narrow space, resting his back against one side of the pipe and his boots against the other. He reached into his tactical vest and pulled out a small, metallic cylinder with a pin at the top—a military-grade flashbang grenade.
“Get the kid behind that junction box up ahead,” Jax ordered, his voice terrifyingly calm.
“Jax, what are you doing?” Sarah demanded.
“Buying us a mile,” he replied, pulling the pin with his teeth.
Before Sarah could argue, Jax tossed the grenade down the center of the pipe, spinning around and crawling backward toward them at full speed.
“Cover your ears and shut your eyes!” Jax roared.
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Sarah slammed her hands over Emma’s ears, pressing the little girl’s face hard against her chest and squeezing her own eyes shut just as a blinding flash of magnesium light turned the dark tunnel into the surface of the sun, followed immediately by a concussive shockwave that shook the entire mountain.
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