Page 5 of Corrupted Lies

It must be the smoke affecting her brain combined with the fear of dying.

“Okay,” she agreed. Jake had been in Delta Force like his dad, before going to work for Prey Security’s Charlie Team. He knew what he was doing, and she had to trust him to make the best decisions for them both.

Grabbing her hips, he did more than just give her a boost, he lifted her so she could grab onto the edges of the hole in the door and then kept a hold of her as she pulled herself through it.The air was thicker outside the office, the smoke hanging heavily in the room, and she choked on it again as she quickly climbed down the shelves so Jake could get himself out.

Already her eyes were stinging and watering badly, and it was difficult to breathe.

Reality was quickly sinking in.

They were on the opposite side of the basement to the staircase that would lead them to safety, and she wasn't sure they were going to make it.

Jake barely paused when his feet hit the ground. He just grabbed her hand and tugged her down to the floor.

“Less smoke and more oxygen down here. We’ll crawl to the stairs, I want you to hold onto my ankle and not let go. If we get separated down here, I might not be able to find you.”

His warning hung heavily in the air as he guided her onto her hands and knees, placed one of her hands on his ankle, and started moving. The last thing she wanted was to be alone in the thick smoke, fighting to breathe, confused and turned around. With Jake, she was safe.

Always safe with Jake.

It was awkward crawling with one hand on Jake’s ankle, but she wasn't letting go of him for anything.

Blocking out everything else, Alannah focused just on crawling, getting closer to the stairs, closer to safety and fresh air.

While it felt like it took them an hour, it was probably more like a couple of minutes at the most to work their way through the corridors and into the open space where the stairs were, and when they did, all the air left her lungs in a rush.

The entire childcare area at the bottom of the stairs was alight.

Flames danced everywhere.

Consuming everything in their path.

There was no way through them.

They were trapped.

They were going to die.

Chapter

Two

October 13th

1:08 P.M.

This was bad.

Really bad.

The kind of bad you didn't always survive.

Jake stared in horror at the ferocity of the flames dancing about in front of him and Alannah.

Blocking their only exit.

There were no other ways out of the basement.

It was go up the stairs or nothing.

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