Chapter 218

Stella yanked Charles by the arm, dragging him into the narrow drainage tunnel. The damp, moldy stench mixed with rot hit them in the face. In the darkness, she could feel Charles's muscles tense like steel cables, his breathing ragged. "Just hang on a bit longer," she whispered, fingers brushing against the rusty grating at the end. "We're almost outside the wall." Shouts and hurried footsteps echoed behind them. "They ran this way!" someone yelled. Charles spun around fast, raising his gun, but Stella pressed his wrist down. "Don't waste the bullets." Gritting her teeth, she yanked at the corroded grate. The bolts, nearly rusted through, finally gave way. Right as searchlights swept over them, the two of them squeezed through the gap and toppled into the bushes outside the perimeter. Stella's wound slammed into the ground. The pain nearly knocked her out. But she forced herself up, dragging Charles toward the deeper part of the woods. "There's backup to the east," Charles muttered, h