CHAPTER 6 — “The Chase Across the Mountains”
CHAPTER 6 — “The Chase Across the Mountains”
At 2:17 a.m., every light inside my house switched off.
Complete darkness.
Then the backup generator failed.
Teresa frowned.
"Someone cut the power."
Marcus immediately grabbed his flashlight.
"Everyone downstairs."
Lucy clutched her baby tightly as we moved into the reinforced basement safe room.
Outside...
engines.
More than one.
Through the security cameras we saw three SUVs pulling into the driveway.
Their headlights remained off.
Doors opened.
Six figures stepped out wearing dark clothing.
One carried bolt cutters.
Another held a drone.
"This isn't Oscar," Marcus muttered.
"This is organized."
Police units were still ten minutes away.
Too far.
The first fence came down.
Then the second.
One man disabled the front security camera with a suppressed shot.
Another jammed the driveway gate.
Teresa whispered,
"They studied this house."
Marcus nodded.
"They've been watching us."
Then a familiar voice echoed through a loudspeaker.
"Lucy!"
Oscar.
"I know you're inside."
His tone was strangely calm.
"I don't want anyone hurt."
Lucy buried her face against her baby's head.
Oscar continued.
"Come outside with my son."
"My son."
The words made Lucy tremble with anger instead of fear.
She whispered,
"He never even changed one diaper."
Marcus motioned for silence.
He quietly contacted the tactical unit.
"They're six minutes out."
Too long.
Outside, Oscar spoke again.
"Lucy... if the police get involved, they'll think you're hiding the baby from his father."
No answer.
He smiled.
"You've always been stubborn."
Then Regina's voice came over the speaker.
"Sweetheart..."
"We can still forgive you."
Lucy closed her eyes.
"No."
For the first time since all of this began...
her voice was steady.
"I forgive people who make mistakes."
She looked directly at the security camera.
"I don't forgive monsters."
Oscar's smile vanished.
"Break the door."
The men rushed forward.
A steel ram slammed into the front entrance.
Once.
Twice.
Three times.
The reinforced frame groaned.
Marcus looked at me.
"If they get inside..."
I understood.
We had one chance.
The basement contained an old storm tunnel built decades earlier, leading nearly two hundred yards into a neighboring property.
Few people even knew it existed.
Quietly, we moved.
Lucy carried her son.
Teresa carried the evidence drives.
Mr. Medina carried the black notebook recovered from Elaine's office.
Every piece of proof that could destroy the organization was now in our hands.
Halfway through the tunnel...
Lucy's phone vibrated.
Unknown number.
A video appeared.
It showed the front of my house.
Live.
Oscar stood outside.
Then he looked directly into the camera.
And smiled.
"There's no point running."
The video suddenly shifted.
The image zoomed toward the backyard.
Toward the hidden storm-tunnel exit.
Marcus stopped walking.
His face went pale.
"Impossible..."
Someone had revealed the escape route.
Oscar already knew exactly where we were going.
Before anyone could react...
a metallic clang echoed ahead.
The tunnel door...
was being locked from the outside.
We were trapped underground.
Then a child's voice drifted through the darkness above us.
Soft.
Terrified.
"Mommy..."
Lucy froze.
It sounded exactly like a little boy.
But her newborn was still asleep in her arms.
Teresa slowly raised her flashlight toward the sealed tunnel door.
Scratched into the rusted metal, barely visible beneath years of dirt, were six haunting words:
"THEY NEVER LET THE MOTHERS LEAVE."
And in that instant, we realized this tunnel had been used before.
May you like
Many years before.
By someone else who had tried—and failed—to escape.
