Chapter 14 - The Unbreakable Lock
Gabriel looked around frantically. On the catwalk above, a heavy industrial steel pry bar was chained to an emergency valve station.
He scrambled up the wet steps, hooked his knife into the chain link, and wrenched it free with a surge of adrenaline. Leaping back into the rising water, he wedged the four-foot iron bar between the damaged door and the concrete frame, right beside the deadbolt.
"Lean back, Sarah!" he screamed.
With a roar that tore the muscles in his wounded shoulder, Gabriel threw his entire body weight against the lever. The steel bar groaned, bowing under the immense torque. The concrete around the frame began to crack, spitting chunks of stone into the swirling current.
The main siren shifted into a continuous, deafening whine. Above them, the massive iron floodgate lifted another foot, unleashing a wall of white water down the spillway chute.
"Gabriel, leave me! Save Maya!" Sarah wept, water now lapping at her shoulders.
"She’s outside waiting for you!" Gabriel bellowed, veins bulging in his neck, blood soaking through the bandages on his shoulder. "And I don't leave my family behind twice!"
With a final, explosive heave, the door frame shattered. The deadbolt snapped with a sound like a rifle crack, and the door swung open, allowing a torrent of water to rush into the chamber.
Gabriel plunged inside, the current nearly sweeping him off his feet. He pulled his heavy wire-cutters from his tool belt, snapping the chain link holding Sarah's cuffs to the pipe just as the water hit her chin.
Sarah fell into his arms, gasping for breath, coughing up river water.
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Gabriel hoisted her over his shoulder, fighting his way out of the drowning room against the crushing force of the surging current. He caught the iron railing of the spiral stairs with one hand just as a massive wall of water slammed down the chute, completely obliterating the walkway where they had stood seconds earlier.
Drenched, battered, and bleeding, Gabriel carried Sarah step by step up the iron staircase, rising out of the roaring abyss into the quiet warmth of the afternoon sun.
