Superheroine - Chapter 38
After rushing from the room and down the hall, Dominick darted into the opening to his left, entering another corridor. Thirty feet later this hall ended at a door. Dominick opened it and slipped through the doorway. After closing the door behind him, he leveled his gaze at the handle and latch.
Sapphire Angel would be coming, and he couldn’t let her capture him. His suicide attempt with the empty gun had given him remarkable clarity. The fates had saved him because there was still hope for Ashley. Yes, that was it. He was meant to save his daughter. He just needed to escape this place, take his child somewhere safe, and come up with a new plan.
Dominick made a quick decision, fumbling in his belt and pulling out another handgun he had picked up off the floor when fleeing from Sapphire Angel. This one was loaded. He stepped back, aimed at the handle and latch, and fired. The shot sent an echo through the hall, hurting his ears, and leaving a mangled mess of the area around the door’s strike plate. He fired twice more for good measure before reaching down to test the door. He smiled when the handle wouldn’t turn. The door was jammed, and Sapphire Angel would need to rip it from its hinges to get to him. Which she might be able to do, he considered with a frown. At least this would slow her down.
He turned, racing down the hall toward the back of the building. The exit, and freedom, were just ahead. Even his men didn’t know of the exit’s existence, since it was hidden behind the door on the inside and a tangle of growth on the outside.
He fumbled through his keys after reaching the door. After finding the correct one, he inserted it into the lock and turned. When he pushed, though, the door only moved a few inches before stopping amid the sound of rattling chains. Wrinkling his brow, he pushed again, harder. Again the door barely moved, and again he heard rattling chains. With a soft curse, he glanced into the opening, and saw a thick chain wrapped around the exterior door handle, extending sideways. At this angle, Dominick couldn’t see the full length of the chain, but he knew it was securing the door.
With dawning realization, his heart sank. Someone had trapped him inside the building. He knew who had done it, without having to think. The man with the silver eyes. The strange man certainly didn’t plan to lock him in the building to be found by the authorities. The robed man was locking him in the building to kill him. Something bigger was coming.
Refusing to give up, Dominick pushed the door open as far as he could with one hand and aimed the gun at the chain. He fired and looked away, wary of the bullet deflecting back toward him. When he returned his gaze back to the chain, he saw his shot had barely damaged it, taking out only a small fleck of metal. He knew it was futile, but Dominick fired the remaining shots from the weapon. His shoulders sank when the chain remained in place. He stepped back, charged, and slammed his considerable girth into the door, but still the chain didn’t budge.
A slim smile born of sadness and appreciation crept across Dominick’s face. The robed man had said there could be no trace of his involvement, and Dominick now fully appreciated those words. If nothing else, the robed man was efficient.
Dominick sighed and stepped away from the door. He looked down the hall and shook his head. With the lock destroyed, he was trapped. His only hope of salvation would be if Sapphire Angel found him before the silver-eyed man’s retribution came to fruition.
Before sprinting from the room, Sapphire Angel remembered Dominick’s words, directing his men to take Ethan to the garage. With that thought in mind, she hurried down the hall, shivering in remembrance when she passed where she had first felt the draining of her powers.
As she approached the end of the hall, the door through which she had entered the building stood ahead of her. To her left and right were the two openings she had ignored during her entrance. She stepped into the opening to her left, seeing another hall ending in a closed door. After stepping across the hall to the other opening, she spied a short corridor ending with a stairway headed down. She rushed to the stairs and headed down, knowing there was at least one more guard waiting, and possibly more.
The stairs stopped at an open doorway. She tiptoed to the doorway and peered through it, spying a short catwalk. Four stairs descended from the far end of the catwalk to the floor of a large garage. The garage filled the entire ground floor and was just as filthy and cluttered as the upstairs. Three cars sat across from a metal door, arranged in a neat line that seemed out of place in the disorganized room.
A massive metallic tube ran lengthwise against the side wall. A boiler, she realized, remembering one of her family’s earliest homes. Three individuals sat on the floor against the boiler, their wrists and ankles bound to the contraption’s thick pipes. They were all gagged.
Beth put a hand to her mouth to stop herself from called out with joy when she recognized Ethan. Remarkably, his eyes were open. His shoulders sagged, and even at this distance he looked haggard, but he was conscious. The other two prisoners were twisted slightly away from her, leaning sideways against the boiler, so she couldn’t determine if they were awake.
Two guards stood in front of the prisoners, and a third crouched near the boiler, examining something she couldn’t discern. All three had their weapons holstered at their hips.
Sapphire Angel sprinted the length of the short catwalk, her feet clattering on the metal. As she hurtled herself through the air, the three men looked up and fumbled to pull their guns from their holsters. They fired as she landed a few feet away. With the bullets dropping to the ground around her, Sapphire Angel lunged at the two closest men, drilling one with a punch to the face, and landing a softer blow to the second man with her follow through. The first man slammed into the boiler and slumped to the floor. The punch to the second man was enough to make him stumble, giving her time to finish him with a punch with her opposite fist.
The guard who had been crouching near the boiler turned and ran, heading for the garage door. Sapphire Angel took two steps and leapt, closing the distance and slamming into his back with her feet. She rode him to the ground, coming down with her knees in his back. His head slammed into the floor, and he didn’t move.
The costumed woman didn’t waste time, tearing his shirt into strips, and using it to tie the wrists and ankles of the three men. The entire time, Ethan watched her with wide eyes and an expression of amazement across his face. As she worked, she stole glances at the other two prisoners — Tom and Nicole, from the pen at the farm. They were bound and unconscious, but not gagged.
Sapphire Angel ran to Ethan and pulled off his gag. She worked on his bonds, relief flooding over her.
“I’m glad I found you,” she said.
“Sapphire Angel, we have to get out of here!”
She paused, momentarily taken aback by the name he used, before she remembered he didn’t recognize her as Beth.
“It’s okay now,” she said. “I took care of Dominick and his men. It’s over.”
“No, we need to go! Now!”
“What are you talking about?”
“Look closer at the boiler!” Ethan said, nodding toward the large contraption.
“For what?” she said, frowning.
“Can’t you see the timer?” he asked, his voice shrill with impatience. “I think it’s a bomb! That’s what that guy was checking out. He had sent another guard upstairs to alert them.”
As her head jerked up to study the old machine, Beth thought of the guard who had run into the room upstairs and tackled her. He must have been coming to warn Dominick. Her eyes scanned the boiler, spying a small black box with several wires running from it and disappearing into the boiler.
“Are you sure it's a bomb? Why would Dominick blow up his own building?”
“Because it wasn’t Dominick. It was a strange dude with silver eyes. He came while we were tied up here, alone. He probably thought I didn’t see him, or was dead. He rigged that up and slipped out, just before they took me upstairs. I tried to warn them, but I was gagged so they probably thought I was screaming in fear. I was finally able to tell them a few minutes ago.”
“Did you see him enter a code?”
Ethan shook his head, and Sapphire Angel rose and hurried over toward the boiler to get a closer look at the black box. Three minutes, thirty-five seconds. She thought about moving the device, but she worried it might explode if disturbed.
She spun and rushed back to the prisoners. She finished ripping Ethan’s bonds from his wrists and ankles, and barked a command.
“Get out of here!”
“You’ve got to leave, too!” Ethan pleaded.
“I’m getting these two,” she replied.
The superheroine bent down and heaved Tom over one shoulder and Nicole over her the other. Ethan looked on in amazement.
“Move!” she ordered. The timer in her head counted down.
Ethan turned and sprinted to the large garage door, with the dazzling superwoman just behind him. He reached the door and pushed, but it didn’t budge. Beth came up beside him, reared back her leg, and kicked at a rusty panel. As the heel of her boot struck the panel, it ripped away from the door, falling into the darkness outside.
“Through there!” she yelled, nodding at the narrow opening. “Hurry!”
As Ethan crawled through the hole, she lowered Tom and Nicole to the floor. When Ethan was clear, she pushed them through, one at a time, before diving into the opening herself. She somersaulted to a stop in the dirt outside the door and jumped to her feet.
Ethan was moving away, toward the hills overlooking the warehouse. He lumbered and stumbled, reminding her of John when they had attempted to escape the Fizzure building. She forced those comparisons from her mind.
Sapphire Angel grabbed Tom and Nicole again, lifting them over her shoulders. She set off in a run behind Ethan, closing the distance quickly. As they reached a group of trees, Ethan slumped to the ground, breathing heavily, and wincing in pain. Beth set the two prisoners down and ordered Ethan to stay put. She turned back toward the warehouse.
“Where are you going?” Ethan asked.
“Dominick’s people are in there, tied up. I have to get them out.”
Without waiting for Ethan’s reply, the heroine rushed forward. She made it to the garage door, when a concussive blast of energy and flame burst outward.
Demarco Dominick sat on the floor of the hallway, his back against the exterior door. His escape was close, but unattainable, thanks to the man with silver eyes. He could blame himself, too. If he hadn’t sealed the hallway door, he might make it to another exit. More likely, though, the silver-eyed man had chained all the doors closed.
He hoped Ashley could understand his reasons for what he had done. It had all been for her. Deep inside, though, he knew Sapphire Angel was right. Ashley wouldn’t have killed others, even to save a loved one. But could she understand why a father would?
Dominick’s shoulders slumped, and a great sadness filled him. He had failed his daughter in more ways than one. Not only had he failed to save her, but he had failed as a father. She would be devastated if she learned the full extent of his actions.
A rumble sounded from the down the hall. And from above him. And from below him, too. It was all around. The entire building shook, as if in the middle of a terrible earthquake. Through tear-filled eyes, he looked up to see the door at the end of the hall blow off its hinges and cartwheel down the hall, followed by a wall of fire and light. Dominick closed his eyes as the flames consumed him.
The force of the explosion threw Sapphire Angel back, catapulting her away from the building. She crashed to the ground thirty yards from the structure, tumbling head over heels before coming to a stop. Ethan lumbered to her side, grunting and wincing with every step.
“Sapphire Angel!” he exclaimed as he reached her.
She sat up and held a hand to her head. Ethan looked down at her, his jaw hanging open.
“You don’t have a mark on you,” he murmured.
She climbed to her feet and surveyed her body. Aside from a dull ache, she couldn’t find any indication she’d been in the middle of a violent explosion. It made sense, actually. Even when she had taken blows over the past few days, she had suffered no cuts or bruising. Her powers continued to amaze her.
“Oh no…” she murmured, looking at flames dancing over the rubble of the building. The entire place had been flattened, and now was a pile of brick, mortar, and twisted steel. What workers had taken months to build, many years ago, the explosion had leveled to rubble in a matter of seconds.
“Nobody is walking away from that,” Ethan said next to her.
He was right. She balled her fists at her sides as she looked at the devastation. There were people in there, all dead. And it was partially her fault. They were criminals, and some might say they deserved it, but she still felt a pang of guilt
“I left them in there, tied up and helpless.”
“What?” Ethan asked.
“To get to you and the other two prisoners, I had to take out Dominick, his guards, and his scientists. Dominick slipped away, but I tied up the others, just like the ones in the garage. Even if they woke up, they didn’t have a chance to get out.”
“Woah, wait a second,” Ethan said. “You couldn’t have known someone would blow the place to kingdom come. If it weren’t for you, more people would be dead. Including me.”
She supposed he was right, but it didn’t make it any easier to stomach. Dominick’s men had been part of something horrible, but some might not have known the full extent of Dominick’s plan.
The sound of sirens in the distance brought her focus back to the building. The rubble was isolated enough that the fire didn’t look to be in any danger of spreading beyond the ruins, but fire and police personnel would arrive soon.
“What kind of shape are they in?” the heroine asked, gesturing to the other two prisoners. She noticed that they were awake but looked like they had awoken from long naps. They both stared at her, confusion on their faces.
“If they’re like me, Dominick’s goons shot them up with a drug to knock them out. They’ll be fine.”
She nodded. “Keep an eye on them. It sounds like help will be here soon.”
Sapphire Angel turned and took a step toward the nearest hill.
“Where are you going?” Ethan called out after her.
She turned back to Ethan, noting with worry his sickly appearance.
“I don’t know if the authorities are ready for someone like me,” she replied.
She turned and sprinted toward the hill.
“But you’re a hero!” Ethan called after her.
Sapphire Angel sprinted up the hill, ignoring his words. At the top, she turned and saw Ethan, Nicole, and Tom staring after her. She gave a short nod before disappearing over the back of the hill.
Thanks for reading! We’re in the home stretch now. Next chapter coming soon. If you’re reading this on the website, it helps me get an idea if there’s an audience if you hit the like button or leave a comment — or, better yet, sign up to get future chapters delivered to you via email. Thanks!