Chapter 10 - The Iron Chain

Julian didn't ask how she survived. He didn't ask how she got the phone.

He grabbed the rusted hacksaw from her hand, dropped to his knees in the coal dust, and began sawing at the iron link pinned to her ankle.

Screeech. Screeech.

The sound was blindingly loud to his ears, every stroke of the dull teeth sending a sharp spike of pain directly into his brain.

"Faster," Maya whispered, looking up at the ceiling vent where the sound of heavy footsteps was already echoing down the iron pipe. "He has a spare key to the sub-basement door. He’s coming around the outside stairs."

Julian worked harder, sweat dripping off his chin and washing clean streaks through the black coal dust on his face. His left arm was completely numb now, but his right hand moved with frantic, rhythmic speed.

The iron link was thick, high-carbon steel from the 1940s. The hacksaw teeth were dull, half of them snapped off from previous attempts.

Snap.

The blade broke in half, the jagged steel edge slicing deep into Julian’s thumb. Hot blood spurted over his knuckles, mixing with the black grit on the floor.

Julian didn't stop. He grabbed the broken three-inch stub of the blade with his bare fingers, ignoring the sharp pain cutting into his skin, and kept dragging it back and forth through the groove.

Above them, the heavy reinforced door at the top of the sub-basement stairs groaned as a key turned in the lock.

CLICK.

The heavy bolt slid back.

"Julian!" Maya hissed, grabbing his jacket sleeve.

With a final, desperate heave, Julian drove his iron scraper into the weakened groove in the link and twisted with all his body weight.

The iron link snapped with a sharp POP.

Maya didn't waste a second. She pulled her leg free, standing up on her good foot, though she winced as her bruised ankle hit the floor.

"Which way?" Julian panted, his hand dripping blood onto the coal pile.

Maya pointed to a dark archway in the far corner of the room, half-hidden behind an old iron boiler. "The drainage river. It runs under the highway. But we have to go through the incinerator room first."

The sub-basement door swung open at the top of the stairs.

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