CHAPTER 15:The Siege
752 Words
The first red laser dot settled on the cracked stone floor.
Then another appeared on the wooden altar.
Within seconds, dozens of crimson beams swept across the chapel walls.
Everyone instinctively dropped to the ground.
"Snipers!" Adrian shouted.
The stained-glass window exploded inward.
Crash!
Fragments of colored glass scattered across the floor as the first bullet tore through the chapel.
"Down!" Samuel yelled.
Grace threw herself over Sophia while Elena crawled behind one of the thick stone pillars.
Outside, Sheriff Daniel Brooks raised a megaphone.
"Elena!"
"I know you can hear me."
"You've been lied to."
"Come outside peacefully."
"No one else has to get hurt."
Adrian carefully peered through a broken window.
"There are at least twenty armed men."
Samuel crawled beside him.
"And the sheriff?"
"Standing right in the middle."
Grace looked toward Sophia.
"You said not to trust him."
Sophia nodded weakly.
"He... worked with Victor."
Elena's eyes widened.
"He betrayed Dad?"
Sophia closed her eyes.
"He betrayed all of us."
---
Another voice suddenly echoed through the megaphone.
Calm.
Cold.
Confident.
Victor Blackwood.
"I know you're inside, Elena."
"You've caused enough deaths."
"Your father."
He paused.
"The warehouse."
Another pause.
"And now your mother."
Elena clenched her fists.
Victor continued.
"You still have a chance to end this."
"Walk outside."
"Give me Vault Key 731."
"I'll let everyone else leave."
Samuel laughed bitterly.
"He's lying."
"I know," Elena replied quietly.
Victor had never intended to let anyone leave.
---
Inside the chapel, Adrian unfolded an old map of the surrounding area.
"There are only two exits."
"The front door..."
He pointed toward the entrance.
"...and the tunnel."
Samuel frowned.
"The tunnel leads back toward the mountains."
"They'll expect that."
Adrian nodded.
"Exactly."
Elena looked at him.
"So what do we do?"
A slow smile appeared on Adrian's face.
"We do the unexpected."
---
Ten minutes later...
Samuel carried an old fuel can toward the front entrance.
"What are you planning?" Grace whispered.
Adrian checked his watch.
"We're going to convince them we've already escaped."
Samuel splashed gasoline across the wooden pews.
The smell quickly filled the chapel.
Grace immediately understood.
"You want to burn it."
Adrian nodded.
"If they think we're trapped inside..."
"They'll rush in."
"And while they're distracted..."
"We leave through the tunnel."
Samuel struck a match.
For a brief moment, he hesitated.
"This place protected us for years."
Grace placed a gentle hand on his shoulder.
"It has one final job to do."
Samuel dropped the match.
Whoosh!
Flames raced across the wooden floor.
Within seconds, the old chapel was burning.
Smoke billowed toward the ceiling.
Outside, the sheriff shouted.
"Fire!"
Victor narrowed his eyes.
"They're destroying evidence."
One of his men stepped forward.
"Should we go in?"
Victor smiled.
"No."
"Wait."
"They'll come out."
---
Hidden beneath the burning chapel, Elena and the others hurried through the tunnel.
The heat above them caused dust to fall from the ceiling.
Sophia's condition continued to worsen.
Her breathing had become shallow.
Grace checked her pulse.
"We have to reach a safe place soon."
Adrian led them through another narrow passage until they reached a heavy steel door.
Unlike the others, this one looked new.
A keypad was mounted beside it.
Samuel frowned.
"I've never seen this before."
Neither had Adrian.
Elena noticed something engraved above the keypad.
A crescent moon.
The same symbol that had followed her since the beginning.
Beneath it were six empty spaces.
"A six-digit code," Adrian said.
Sophia opened her eyes.
With great effort, she whispered,
"Your birthday..."
Elena looked confused.
"My birthday?"
Sophia nodded.
"The day..."
"...everything changed."
Elena slowly entered the numbers.
090318
The keypad beeped.
For one long second...
Nothing happened.
Then...
A green light appeared.
Access Granted.
With a deep mechanical rumble, the steel door slowly slid open.
Beyond it was not another tunnel.
It was a vast underground facility.
Bright emergency lights illuminated spotless white corridors.
Computer monitors still glowed.
Laboratories stood untouched, as though people had left only moments before.
On one wall, written in large black letters, were the words:
ECHO FOUNDATION – SECTOR 7
Elena stared in disbelief.
"We're... inside it."
Adrian's expression hardened.
"No."
He looked around the silent facility.
"We're beneath it."
Somewhere overhead, alarms suddenly began to sound.
A computerized voice echoed through the empty halls.
"Unauthorized access detected."
"Welcome back... Subject E-17."
Elena's blood ran cold.
She looked around in confusion.
"Who is Subject E-17?"
No one answered.
Because every pair of eyes in the room had turned toward her.
- Writer
