Chapter 3 - Outrun the Fire
The iron scent of spent gunpowder filled the chapel corridor as Ethan dragged his mother through the rear double doors. Claire’s legs were half-numb from whatever paralytic Richard had dosed her with, her bare feet dragging against the slick utility room tile.
"Keep moving, Mom," Ethan gritted his teeth, his shoulder burning under her weight. "Don't stop looking at the door."
Behind them, heavy boots slammed against the marble altar steps. Richard was already up.
"Ethan! Claire!" Richard’s voice echoed down the hallway, strangely melodic and chillingly calm. "Where are you going to go? The coroner signed the death certificate six hours ago. Legally, Claire, you don't even exist anymore. You think anyone out there is going to take a dead woman's word over mine?"
Claire leaned heavily against a metal shelving unit, knocking over cans of floor polish. She reached up with trembling, bruised fingers and ripped the gold chain from beneath the collar of her burial gown. A heavy, tear-shaped silver locket fell into Ethan’s palm.
"Take it," she whispered, her voice rough, stripped raw from screaming into the velvet lining of the casket. "The keycard and the encrypted drive are inside. It has the bank routing codes, the offshore dummy corporations, and the dashcam footage from the night he ran me off the road. He staged the crash, Ethan. He bribed Dr. Mercer at the county morgue to pronounce me dead on arrival before pumping me full of succinylcholine."
Ethan stared at the cool metal in his hand. The reality hit him with the force of a sledgehammer. The crying family members, the flower arrangements, the polished cedar box—none of it was grief. It was an execution disguised as an open-and-shut tragedy.
BANG.
A bullet splintered the wooden doorframe inches above Ethan’s head. Plaster dust exploded into the air, stinging his eyes.
"Run!" Claire shoved Ethan forward into the loading alley behind the chapel.
Outside, a torrential rain was pounding the asphalt. Thunder cracked across the gray afternoon sky, rattling the storm drains. Parked near the dumpster was a black municipal van with its engine idling—the vehicle Richard had hired to transport the casket directly to the county crematorium without a police escort. The keys were swinging from the ignition barrel, left behind by a terrified driver who had fled the moment shots rang out inside.
Ethan pulled the driver’s side door open and shoved Claire onto the passenger bench. He scrambled up into the driver's seat, his sneakers barely reaching the rubber pedals.
"Ethan, you can't drive this!" Claire gasped, clutching her bruised ribs as she tried to reach over.
"I played enough racing games, and you can't even push the brake right now!" Ethan yelled, slamming the shift lever into reverse and stomping the gas.
The heavy tires spun on the slick wet pavement, screeching against the asphalt before gripping and launching the van backward just as Richard kicked open the alley exit. Richard raised his handgun, bracing his wrist with his left hand, and fired three rapid rounds through the front windshield.
CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!
Spiderweb cracks bloomed across the reinforced glass. Ethan ducked, wrenching the wheel hard to the left. The rear bumper clipped a massive steel dumpster, sending it crashing into Richard’s path and forcing him to dive sideways into the mud.
Ethan threw the transmission into drive, stomped the accelerator to the floor, and tore out of the alleyway, rocketing onto Highway 9 just as the sirens of distant police cruisers began to wail in the distance.
Claire slumped against the passenger window, her chest heaving. She looked at Ethan, her eyes wide with terror and sudden realization.
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"Ethan... Richard isn't working alone," she gasped, pointing at the dashboard GPS monitor. A red blinking icon was already tracking their vehicle in real time. "He bought the precinct. That wasn't local police sirens you heard."
Right on cue, two unmarked black SUVs materialized out of the curtain of rain behind them, their high beams flashing as they accelerated to ramming speed.
