Chapter 14 - The Siege of Willow Street
The night sky outside shattered with the blinding glare of high-intensity searchlights. Heavy tactical boots thundered across the front lawn, followed by the deafening sound of a battering ram smashing through the front door.
"Get the girl!" Sarah shouted, grabbing Ignacio by the shoulder and dragging him toward the back hallway. "Through the basement hatch! Move!"
Ignacio scooped April into his arms, clutching her tightly against his chest as the toddler buried her face in his neck, remarkably silent amid the chaos. They plunged down the dark wooden stairs into the damp basement just as a volley of suppressed gunfire ripped through the living room walls, chewing up family portraits and shattering plaster.
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Sarah fired three precise shots back up the stairwell, buying them precious seconds. "The storm drain! It leads to the old railway tunnels two blocks down!"
They scrambled through the rusted iron access hatch just as a flashbang grenade detonated in the basement behind them, filling the air with blinding white fire and a concussive boom that left Ignacio’s ears ringing. He crawled through the dark, damp concrete pipe, holding April safe above the muddy water, driven entirely by a primal, unbreakable instinct to protect his wife's legacy.
