Chapter 7 - The Ridge Ambush
Darkness swallowed the cabin as Daniel swept Ethan into his arms and kicked open a trapdoor beneath the kitchen rug.
""Root cellar leads to an irrigation tunnel,"" Daniel whispered urgently to Rachel. ""Follow Kane. He knows the pickup route.""
""I am not leaving you again!"" Rachel insisted, grabbing his sleeve in the dark.
""I have to trigger the countermeasures, or none of us make it past the tree line,"" Daniel said, kissing her forehead fiercely. ""I will be right behind you. I swear on my life.""
High-velocity rounds tore through the cabin walls, splintering pine logs into jagged projectiles. Window glass rained down in sheets. Kane grabbed Rachel by the collar, dragging her down the steep wooden ladder into the damp earth below just as a flashbang grenade detonated in the living room above.
The concussive blast rattled Rachel’s teeth, the cellar trembling with falling dust. Kane led the way with a red-filtered pocket light, navigating the narrow tunnel with Ethan tucked under one arm. Rachel scrambled behind them, her knees scraping against rocks.
Behind them, gunfire erupted in rapid, deafening bursts, followed by a violent roar of an explosion as Daniel triggered the propane reserves stored beneath the cabin floor.
The shockwave knocked them all flat in the dirt. Rachel coughed through the billowing smoke, turning to look back toward the burning entrance.
May you like
""Daniel!"" she screamed into the darkness.
No footsteps followed them. Only the sound of falling timber and the crackle of an inferno above answered her call.
