Chapter 7 - The Breakout
The heat was unbearable. The fabric of my winter jacket was beginning to scorch.
"There's no way out!" Sarah shrieked, clutching Marcus’s waist as he coughed violently beside her.
"Hold on to him!" I ordered.
I turned toward the heavy double-hung bay window on the side wall. It was reinforced with wooden storm shutters on the outside to keep out the winter cold.
I unslung my rifle, raised the heavy buttplate, and slammed it against the glass.
CRASH!
The glass shattered into a thousand pieces, but the outer storm shutters held firm, locked with heavy iron slide bolts from the outside.
From outside, through the cracks in the wood, I heard a violent, furious bark.
Rex.
"Rex!" I screamed through the broken glass. "Pull!"
Outside, Rex heard my command. He leaped onto the wooden sill, locked his jaws around the protruding iron latch of the shutter, and leaned back with all eighty-five pounds of his muscular body, shaking his head with wild, primal force.
SCREECH!
The aged wood around the screws splintered and tore free. The shutter swung open into the snow!
I lifted Sarah up first, shoving her through the window into the deep snowdrift outside.
"Take him!" I yelled, lifting Marcus's emaciated frame up to the ledge.
Sarah pulled from the outside while I pushed from the inside. We tumbled through the window together just as the entire roof of the logging cabin collapsed in a violent fountain of sparks and roaring flames.
We fell into the cold, soft snow, gasping for fresh air.
Rex was instantly beside us, licking Marcus's soot-stained face and whining with deep relief.
From fifty feet away, a tiny figure came sprinting through the blizzard, her prosthetic leg clicking rhythmically against the icy ground, completely ignoring the freezing cold.
"MOM! DAD!" Lena sobbed, throwing herself onto the snow beside them.
Sarah wrapped her arms around her daughter, pulling her close, weeping so hard her shoulders shook uncontrollably. "My baby... my sweet baby..."
Marcus slowly reached out a thin, trembling hand, touching Lena's pink wool hat. A single tear cut a clean track through the black soot on his cheek.
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"Lena..." Marcus whispered, his voice clearer than it had been in years. "My little girl..."
I stood up, breathing heavily, watching the family embrace in the snow while the cabin burned down behind us, sending a pillar of fire into the Montana sky.
