Chapter 36 - Siege on Bunker Seven
"Arthur, now!" Marcus yelled.
Arthur didn't hesitate. He pulled the pin on a flash-concussion grenade hooked to his belt and dropped it into an open floor drain at his feet.
"Close your eyes!"
The resulting detonation didn't just produce light; it channeled the blast wave through the underground plumbing, rupturing the high-pressure water mains running along the ceiling. A torrential downpour of freezing, rust-brown water slammed into the room, creating an impenetrable curtain of spray and blinding steam.
Arthur fired his rifle in disciplined bursts, driving the grey-armored contractors back into the hallway. "Marcus! The ventilation service duct behind the autoclave! It leads directly to the subway tunnels beneath Charles Street! Take Chloe and run!"
"I'm not leaving you again!" Marcus yelled, hoisting Chloe into his arms. The little girl was burning hot, her small head resting limply on his collarbone.
"You're not saving me, Marcus, you're saving her!" Arthur shouted back, swapping out a spent magazine with practiced, terrifying speed. "If they get her marrow, everything we suffered was for nothing! Go!"
Marcus gritted his teeth, the agonizing truth tearing at his soul. He turned toward the narrow ventilation shaft behind the steam autoclave. With one arm supporting Chloe’s limp body, he used his free hand to rip the rusted mesh grille from the wall.
"Target is escaping through the duct!" Dr. Harrison’s voice rang out through the gunfire. "Terminate the father! Retrieve the girl alive!"
Rounds chewed through the concrete inches from Marcus’s head, kicking sharp stone fragments into his neck and cheeks. Arthur threw his own body into the line of fire, taking a round to his tactical vest that knocked him to one knee, but he kept firing, his roaring rifle holding the doorway for the five precious seconds Marcus needed.
Marcus slid into the darkness of the narrow, square duct, pulling Chloe in after him.
Behind him, the roar of automatic gunfire reached a deafening crescendo, followed by the wet, sickening thud of hand-to-hand combat. Then, through the metal shaft, Arthur’s voice boomed one last time:
"Run, Marcus! Don't look back!"
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A second explosion tore through the bunker, the shockwave ripping through the ventilation shaft and blowing Marcus forward through the dark, iron belly of Boston.
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