Chapter 13 - The DeliveryThe contraction nearly tore me in half.
I screamed.
Ethan held my hand.
“We're getting you out.”
“How?”
He pointed toward the ventilation shaft.
I stared.
“You're joking.”
“No.”
Detective Morgan looked too.
“If we can reach the emergency tunnel, it leads to the old maternity wing.”
“Can we make it?”
The doctor answered:
“She won't last long.”
Another contraction hit.
I cried out.
My mother stepped forward.
“I'll distract them.”
“No.”
She shook her head.
“Claire, I owe you this.”
She walked toward my father.
“Daniel.”
He turned.
“I'll cooperate.”
Everyone stared.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
She smiled through tears.
“You want the baby?”
“Yes.”
“Then take me instead.”
He frowned.
“What?”
“I know where the research records are.”
Reed's eyes widened.
“Where?”
My mother smiled.
“Somewhere you will never find them.”
My father grabbed her arm.
Detective Morgan moved.
Ethan pushed my bed.
The doctor followed.
We reached the tunnel.
Behind us, shouting erupted.
Then gunfire.
We entered the narrow passage.
It smelled like dust and rust.
The walls shook.
I screamed as another contraction came.
“She’s coming,” the doctor said.
“What?”
“The baby.”
“No.”
He looked at me.
“We need to deliver now.”
We stopped.
Ethan knelt beside me.
“Claire.”
I could barely breathe.
“My baby.”
“She’s ready.”
The doctor prepared.
The tunnel became our delivery room.
No bright lights.
No family.
No luxury.
Just concrete walls and the sound of distant gunfire.
Then the doctor shouted:
“I can see the head.”
I cried.
“Come on, baby.”
Ethan kissed my forehead.
“You've got this.”
Another push.
Then silence.
For one terrifying second, there was no cry.
I looked at the doctor.
“Why isn't she crying?”
He lifted her.
Then she screamed.
The sound echoed through the tunnel.
I sobbed.
“My baby.”
He placed her against my chest.
She was tiny.
Red-faced.
Furious.
Alive.
Ethan cried openly.
“She made it.”
Then the tunnel lights suddenly came on.
A speaker crackled overhead.
Reed's voice.
“Congratulations.”
I looked up.
“You're broadcasting this?”
“We have cameras everywhere.”
Then my father's voice came through.
“You thought giving birth would end this.”
He laughed.
“It has only begun.”
The doctor looked at the baby.
Her wrist had a strange red mark.
A tiny crescent.
Just beneath it was a dark dot.
Crown Marker.
My stomach dropped.
“She has it.”
Ethan stared.
The speaker crackled again.
“We've waited twenty-five years for her.”
Then the doors at the end of the tunnel began opening.
Armed men entered.
I held my daughter tighter.
Ethan stood between us and them.
Detective Morgan raised her weapon.
“Put her down!”
Nobody moved.
Then my mother appeared behind the men.
Blood covered her face.
She was holding a flash drive.
She looked directly at me.
“Claire!”
I froze.
“Take this!”
She threw the drive.
I caught it.
Then my father shot her.
She collapsed.
“Mom!”
I screamed.
The armed men stepped forward.
But Detective Morgan shouted:
“FEDERAL AGENTS!”
The corridor exploded with movement.
Agents stormed in from the opposite side.
My father looked stunned.
Reed ran.
Ethan grabbed me.
“Move!”
We ran toward the exit.
Behind us, my father shouted:
“YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT SHE IS!”
I looked down at my daughter.
May you like
Her tiny eyes opened.
And beneath the crescent mark, something on her skin began to glow.
