Chapter 6 - SURVIVAL INSTINCTS
The bunker’s lights flickered and died, replaced by the eerie, pulsating glow of red emergency sirens. Dust choked the air. The six guards Gabriel had left with me instantly formed a perimeter around the medical bay, their assault rifles raised toward the reinforced steel door that was currently bowing inward from a thermite charge.
"Ma'am, get behind the surgical table!" the lead guard yelled over the screeching alarm.
I didn't hide. The trauma nurse in me—the woman who had fought off a butcher with a scalpel—took over. I sprinted toward the medical supply cabinets. I wasn't just Gabriel’s weakness; I was going to be the reason we survived. I grabbed glass bottles of pure medical-grade oxygen, rubbing alcohol, and heavy gauze.
"When that door blows, they are going to flood the room with flashbangs!" I shouted to the guards. "Don't look at the door! Aim at waist height and fire through the smoke!"
BOOM.
The steel doors blew completely off their hinges, flattening two of our guards instantly. Smoke and blinding light poured into the room. Gunfire erupted in a chaotic, deafening roar. Bullets shattered the glass cabinets around me. I crawled along the floor, my pregnant belly making every movement agonizing.
Mercenaries breached the smoke. Our guards were falling. I twisted open the valves on the oxygen tanks, shoved a piece of alcohol-soaked gauze into the nozzle, sparked a flint from a survival kit, and hurled the makeshift incendiary device toward the chokepoint at the door.
The explosion was spectacular. The pure oxygen ignited into a blinding, searing wall of white-hot fire, engulfing the front line of the attackers. Their screams echoed through the bunker. The remaining loyal guards used the fiery distraction to mow down the second wave.
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But a shadow slipped through the flames. A towering mercenary, scorched but alive, raised his weapon directly at me. I was out of tricks. I closed my eyes, wrapping my arms around my stomach.
A single, booming shot echoed. The mercenary’s head snapped back, and he collapsed to the floor. Standing in the smoking doorway, his suit ruined, his face a mask of absolute, terrifying fury, was Gabriel.
