Chapter 10 - The Narrow Escape
The blinding glare of the oncoming train illuminated the grim walls of the subway tunnel like lightning. The deafening roar of the engine filled the narrow space, vibrating violently through the soles of their shoes and threatening to swallow them whole.
"Get down against the wall!" Julian roared over the screech of iron rails.
He threw his body over Leo, pressing the boy flat into the narrow maintenance clearance recess carved into the concrete tunnel wall just inches from the path of the train.
The express train thundered past with terrifying velocity, a massive wall of screaming steel and displaced wind that whipped Julian’s hair wildly and tore at his ruined suit. The heat of the engine washed over them in a suffocating wave. For several agonizing seconds, the world dissolved into deafening noise and blinding light.
And then, just as suddenly as it had appeared, the train roared past, its red tail-lights fading into the darkness down the line, leaving behind a thick cloud of brake dust and ozone.
Julian coughed violently, pushing himself up from the gravel ballast and pulling Leo to his feet.
"Are you alright? Did it touch you?" Julian asked frantically, inspecting the boy from head to toe.
Leo nodded mutely, pale as a ghost, his wide green eyes staring down the dark tracks where the train had disappeared. "I'm okay. I'm okay."
Julian exhaled a shaky breath, glancing back toward the corridor they had fled from. Through the haze of dust, the flashlights of Vance’s pursuing guards illuminated the opposite side of the tracks. They had survived the train, but the delay had allowed their hunters to bridge the gap.
"They're crossing the rails," Julian muttered, scanning the tunnel walls for an alternate exit.
Just a few yards ahead, half-hidden behind a rusted utility box, sat an old iron maintenance door marked with faded lettering: EMERGENCY EXIT ONLY - ALARM WILL SOUND.
Julian didn't hesitate. He lunged toward the door, threw his shoulder against the heavy metal latch, and threw his weight into it. With a loud, protesting screech of rusted hinges, the door burst open, revealing a steep flight of concrete stairs leading upward into total darkness.
"Go! Up!" Julian commanded, shoving Leo through the threshold just as a barrage of silenced gunfire pinged off the metal doorframe behind them, sending sparks flying into the dark.
May you like
They scrambled up the stairs as fast as their trembling legs could carry them, slamming a heavy security bar into place across the door just as the first pursuer reached the threshold. The heavy metal rattled violently under a furious kick from below, but the reinforced deadbolt held firm.
---
