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“ S orry, my pretty girls. I’ll miss you both. Say hello to Maggie for me.”

Henry’s voice filtered through the wall of rocks. Henry had collapsed the exit. Had trapped them inside. The name of his wife cut through the terror racing through Sierra’s brain. Maggie. His dead wife. Henry wanted them to say hello to his dead wife. He didn’t expect them to live.

“Henry, no! Wait. It doesn’t have to be like this. Please, let us go. We won’t tell anyone you were involved.”

Nothing but silence past the wall of rocks.

“Henry!”

The only sound was the racing of her pulse in her ears and Dawn’s sobbing.

Sierra crawled over the rocks until she was able to reach Dawn. “Come on, we have to go now.” She grabbed Dawn’s good hand and pulled her up.

“No, please.”

“Dawn, he’s blocked the exit. The only way out of here is back through the basement. Hurry. We still have a chance at beating Henry back.”

Dawn tried to pull free. “No. I can’t go back there. Please, they’ll kill us.”

“And if we stay here, we’re dead.” Sierra ran while pulling Dawn along with her.

Sierra’s lungs burned from the dust in the air. She could feel herself slowing down. The extent of what she’d gone through, the drugs she’d been injected with, taking their toll.

Their breaths came in gasps. Bent over and stumbling through the claustrophobic space, it felt as if it took twice as long to reach the end of the tunnel. Almost there, surely.

A terrifying sound stopped her dead in her tracks. Another explosion. Just like the one that blocked the exit. This one was even more terrifying because it took away their only chance of escape.

“Why are you stopping?” Dawn asked. “What was that noise?”

“He blew up the entrance to the tunnel. We’re trapped in here.”

Sierra bent over and dragged in handfuls of breaths to try and assuage the panic spiraling inside.

Don’t fall apart. Don’t you dare fall apart.

She forced herself not to think about being trapped in here and running out of air. She had to do the next useful thing.

“We have to go back.” Her voice sounded anything but confident.

“Why? You said we’re trapped here? There’s nothing we can do. We’re going to die here.”

She turned to face Dawn, her hand descending on her shoulder. “We might be trapped, but I’m not going to give up so easily. I’m not dying here, Dawn and neither are you. Let’s go.”

With her arm looped through Dawn’s arm once more, Sierra led them back to the pile of rubble using the flashlight to guide their steps.

“What now?” Dawn asked once they reached the first pile of rocks.

“I’m going to see if I can move the rocks out of the way.”

“That’ll take hours, Sierra. We’ll run out of oxygen by then.”

She resisted the urge to snap at Dawn, who was frightened and injured. And like Sierra, she’d gone through something terrifying. But, right now, the woman wasn’t helping.

“Wait here.” She helped Dawn lower herself to the ground and handed her the flashlight. “Point the light this way.”

Sierra crawled her way over to the exit piled high with rocks. Where did she start? One false move and the stack of rocks might bury her alive.

She found a rock big enough to stand on and tried to lift the top rock from its precarious resting place.

The effort shifted the rock pile, and she stepped backward quickly as the rock fell from its perch and landed where Sierra had been standing.

That was so close. The desire to give up grew. Zeke’s face flashed through her mind. “I love you, Zeke. I’m not going to let some sicko write the ending to our story.”

Sierra returned to the rockpile and found her perch rock unharmed. She stood on it again and felt where the rock had been. There were more. How many layers of rocks blocked the exit?

Lord, I can’t do this alone. I need help getting this wall down. Please don’t let the flashlight go dead. We need it.

“Let me help.”

Sierra jerked around at the sound of Dawn’s voice and almost lost her footing on the rock.

“What about your wrist?”

“I have two. Tell me what you need me to do.”

Sierra smiled. “Well, we have a problem. There are several layers of rocks blocking the exit. I guess first of all we need to remove the closet stack of rocks.”

“Well, okay then.” Dawn set the flashlight on a rock and found a stable rock to stand on. Using her one good arm, she started moving rocks away.

“Girl, you deserve a medal,” Sierra told her as they got into a rhythm and the effort went faster than Sierra believed it would. She looked upward. Thank You, Lord.

Once the first pile of rocks was removed, yet another stack of rocks every bit as daunting as the first threatened to break Sierra.

“Let’s take a break.” Dawn sank down to the stone she’d stood on.

Sierra dropped beside her, exhausted. How many more layers were there waiting for them?

Say hello to Maggie for me.

Henry was smart. He’d want to make sure if things went south, his escape route would be destroyed. This wasn’t going to be easy.

“Do you think anyone heard the explosions?” Dawn asked.

“It’s possible someone nearby might have heard them and called the police.”

“Maybe we should just wait for the cops to come and rescue us.”

Say hello to Maggie for me.

Henry seemed certain they’d be dead soon . . . She lowered her kerchief and sniffed the air. Nothing.

There were plenty of gases that were odorless and deadly.

She jumped to her feet. Immediately, Sierra felt dizzy. Her stomach turned. “Get up.”

“What?” Dawn’s panicked tone reached out to her.

“There’s some type of gas in here. It’s going to asphyxiate us.” She grabbed Dawn’s arm and hauled her up. “We’ve got to get this exit open before we pass out.”

Dawn swayed on her feet.

“Hurry, Dawn.” Sierra grabbed the first rock and tossed it aside. Her limbs began to feel heavy as if weighed down.

“I don’t feel so well.”

“Keep going. Whatever you do, don’t stop moving.”

Sierra believed as long as they were working and focused on escaping, they could stave off the effects of whatever gas Henry used to try and silence them.

The task became increasingly harder. Her vision blurred. The rocks felt as if they weighed tons.

“Help us, Lord.”

Dawn had stopped working and stood there with her eyes closed.

“Hey, no. You can’t go to sleep.” Sierra grabbed her arm and shook her. “Let’s go. We’re getting closer.”

But she had no idea if that were true. After each rock they removed, another one was there to take its place. It would be so easy to simply give in to their circumstances and accept their fate.

“No.” She shouted the word aloud and started singing her favorite song, “Goodness of God.”

“I know that song,” Dawn murmured and joined in.

Their voices harmonized together. Some of the dizziness cleared away. Sierra got a burst of energy that she poured into removing the rubble.

They reached the end of the song. “Keep going.” Sierra started singing it again. This time, their voices rose higher, filling the space that one person had intended to be their prison.

But Sierra believed God had other plans.