Chapter 14 - The Hidden Tunnel"Are we safe, Grandma?" Chloe cried out, trembling as she scrambled off the cot and threw her small arms around my legs.
"Yes, baby, we're safe for now," I panted, kneeling down to hug her tight, though my heart was hammering against my ribs like a trapped bird.
The panic room was small, lit only by a dim battery-powered overhead bulb. But as I looked around the concrete walls, I noticed something odd. A low, cool draft of air was rising from the floor beneath the metal storage shelves.
I pulled the shelves aside.
Revealed in the floor was a heavy iron hatch, rusted at the hinges, with a faded yellow stencil reading: EMERGENCY EGRESS - STORM DRAIN / SEWER ACCESS.
"Hold onto my hand, Chloe," I said, my adrenaline spiking again. "We're going on an adventure."
I heaved upward on the iron ring. With a screech of protesting metal, the hatch swung open, revealing a steep concrete ladder descending into pitch blackness, smelling of damp earth and rushing water.
We climbed down into the dark, pulling the heavy hatch closed behind us just as a series of muffled, violent explosions echoed from the panic room door above. They were trying to blow the hinges.
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We waded through the shallow, flowing water of the concrete drainage tunnel, guided only by the faint glow of my smartphone screen, pushing deeper into the underground labyrinth beneath the Chicago suburbs.
After ten minutes of breathless walking, the tunnel opened up into a wider junction beneath an old industrial rail yard. And waiting there, leaning against a concrete pillar with a bloody bandage wrapped around his shoulder, was Julian.
