Chapter 8 - Darkness Falls on Prescott Harbor
The linen room was pitch black, smelling of damp cotton, industrial bleach, and the unmistakable brine of the Atlantic ocean rising from below.
Lauren slammed the door shut and shoved a heavy wheeled hamper against the handle.
“Josie, where is the ladder?” Lauren whispered, kneeling down in the dark.
Josie dropped to her knees, feeling along the damp concrete floor until her hands struck iron grating. “Here! The square door!”
Lauren felt the iron hatch. It was secured with a simple sliding latch, slick with condensation. She set Eli down on a pile of clean sheets for five precious seconds, threw her weight against the latch, and hauled the iron hatch open.
A blast of freezing, salt-laden air surged up from the black void below, carrying the hollow, booming sound of waves crashing against stone pilings.
Lauren clicked on a small disposable penlight, holding it between her teeth.
The narrow shaft plunged twenty-five feet down into the old stone foundations of Prescott Harbor. An ancient iron ship's ladder was bolted into the masonry, slick with green algae and sea spray. At the bottom, a narrow wooden walkway ran alongside the surging black water of the harbor surge basin.
“Josie,” Lauren took the penlight from her mouth. “I need you to climb down first. Can you do that? Keep three points of contact. Don't look at the water.”
Josie looked at the yawning, freezing darkness below, then looked back at Lauren. The little girl reached out and touched the yellow rubber glove sticking out of Lauren’s pocket.
“Mommy said you wouldn't let go,” Josie said softly.
“I won't. I swear to God I won't,” Lauren said.
Josie gripped the rusted iron rungs and slipped into the hole without another word. Her bare feet disappeared into the shadows.
Suddenly, the linen room door shuddered violently.
*Bang! Bang!*
Two high-caliber rounds punched through the stainless steel door, blowing chunks of foam and metal into the room. The wheeled hamper groaned under the impact of a heavy body slamming against the other side.
“Open the door, Nurse Pierce!” the lead agent’s muffled voice boomed over the gunfire outside. “The perimeter is sealed! You have nowhere to run!”
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Lauren grabbed the nylon bag, strapped it over her chest, and wrapped Eli inside her scrub top, zip-tying the hem of her shirt around her waist so the baby was secured tight against her ribs.
She swung her legs over the lip of the shaft and began to climb down into the dark.
