Chapter 19 - The Final Sacrifice
The victory was short-lived.
From the shadows of the upper catwalk, a wounded Serpent's Ring mercenary, bleeding from a shoulder shot, raised a heavy grenade launcher, aiming directly at the main fan structure to destroy the cure distribution system.
"Julian! Watch out!" Cora screamed.
Julian didn't hesitate. He dove across the metal catwalk, throwing his body over Cora just as the mercenary fired.
EXPLOSION.
The blast tore through the upper steel support beams. A massive iron girder collapsed from the ceiling, crashing down onto the catwalk with deafening force.
The metal structure buckled and snapped. Cora and Julian were thrown into the dark abyss of the lower maintenance shaft as flames engulfed the ceiling above.
Cora hit the concrete floor ten feet below, coughing through the thick black smoke. She scrambled to her feet, her hands searching through the debris. "Julian! Julian!"
She found him pinned under a burning section of the iron beam. Blood was pooling beneath his chest, his face pale, his breathing shallow and metallic—a tension pneumothorax from a crushed ribcage.
"Cora..." Julian whispered weakly, his dark eyes searching for her through the smoke. "Get... get out... the building is coming down..."
"Shut up!" Cora cried, tears cutting clean streaks through the soot on her face. "You don't get to die on me now! Do you hear me, Julian Voss? You don't get to leave me!"
Working with frantic, desperate strength, Cora jammed a steel crowbar beneath the iron girder, using every ounce of her weight to leverage the heavy beam off his chest. She heaved with a visceral scream, shifting the beam just enough to drag Julian’s limp body free.
His heart stopped. The monitor line in her head flatlined.
Cora didn't panic. She knelt over him amidst the falling sparks and burning debris, placing her hands in the center of his chest, and began rhythmic, forceful CPR.
"One, two, three, four... breathe, damn you!" she screamed, tilting his head back and forcing air into his lungs. "Come back to me! BREATHE!"
She pulled an emergency epinephrine auto-injector from her tactical belt, slamming it straight through his chest plate directly into his cardiac tissue.
THUMP.
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Julian gasped violently, his chest heaving as his dark eyes snapped open, locking onto hers through the smoke and fire.
Cora wrapped her arms around his neck, weeping uncontrollably as she pulled him up against her chest, the flames roaring around them as the sirens of the arriving emergency vehicles echoed from the streets above.
