My Little Sunshine - Chapter 251

He wiped off the sweat which had managed to cluster on his forehead. The temperature of the area had suddenly increased by a few degrees as the building had caught fire. Grayish black smoke began to accumulate around, limiting his vision.

His eyes roamed around the corridor as his mind went back to the day he had a video conference with the chief architecture and his subordinates. While explaining about the area, one of his subordinates had mentioned about some tunnels. He even explained about their exact locations to him as he had always been a curious cat, just like his dear little wife.

It was then that the chief architecture told him about the abandoned factory site. Instead of building one from scratch, Adam decided to buy an abandoned factory as it would take a lot of time to build a completely new one and he wanted to get the project started as soon as possible. Moreover, it wasn’t easy to get an empty plot in the city which was spread far and wide and would be able to contain the number of buildings he had in mind.

Under his orders, his subordinates began to look for such a site and he finally decided on the current one. All his team had to do now was to renovate the entire place and make sure that the buildings were strong enough to carry on the production. As the factory was recently abandoned as they faced bankruptcy, it was easy for Levinson’s Corp. to get their hands on the area. And they didn’t even have to do much to the buildings, just some basic changes.

During the conference his chief architecture had told him that the ground was once a battlefield, and those tunnels served the purpose of a passageway for soldiers. But they were actually built to allow slaves to escape a couple of decades earlier than that. He asked for his permission to close them all, but Adam refused him since they had a historical importance. In fact, he asked him link those tunnels to the underground floor which was used as a basement.

The tunnels were secured and it was made sure that would stay intact and wouldn’t come collapsing down. If only he could somehow find his way to the basement, he would be able to escape from here.

He was sure that whoever was behind all of this, wouldn’t have known about their existence because he had asked his team to keep their mouths shut regarding the matter. He was sure that they wouldn’t have betrayed him as they were the same group of people who was hired by him for building the bases in different cities, even in some other countries, for his underground business.

He searched for a way out as he heard more crashing sounds. He began to walk around in a haphazard manner, looking for a way out. His steps came to a halt when his eyes landed on a large hole in the floor. Coming close to it, he stood by the edge as he examined the floor below.

It wasn’t a small fall if he decided to jump right below and wouldn’t be able to land on his feet. But he knew that all the training he did in his teens would definitely pay off and he would be able to make the leap. But what worried him was the debris waiting below for him. It would have been much easier for him if those huge chunks of stone were not down there. And to add to his troubles, he could see that they were aflamed.

He closed his eyes and tried to calm his jittery nerves down. A faint smile bloomed on his face when a familiar face popped up against the black curtain. “You can do it, Adam.” He muttered under his breath as he tried to cheer his own self up. Taking in a long breath, he opened his eyes and aimed them to the ground below.

Stretching his arms to his sides, he finally took the leap and jumped. But instead of landed on his feet, he ended up landing on his knees and palms. He stood right away as his palms and knees began to feel hot as a result of being pressed against the hot rubble for too long.

He examined himself after he was standing on his feet. A couple of scratches marred his fair palms, with some dust and tiny stones stuck inside the cut layer of their skin. His knees were in the same conditions as the forced he’s ripped his pants around the knee area.

Not wanting to stay in the same place for too long, he just dusted his palms and began to move as he knew that the building won’t be able to stay up for long. And he had three more floor to cross before he would finally be in the basement.

Using the same method and ignoring the sharp pain which was burning his palms and knees he continued to make his way down, one floor after the other. It wasn’t only his palms and knees which was in pain. His clothes had holes in them by now which were caused either by being scratched really bad by the rough edges of the cement pieces or because of the flames.

After what seemed like an eternity to him, he was finally able to reach the basement. In his disheveled state, he hurriedly looked for the door which connected the building to the tunnels. After two more minutes he was finally able to find the metal door which wasn’t a big one.

Heaving out a long tired sigh, he decided to try his luck with the door. He closed his eyes as he thanked the heavens above when he heard a slight click sound and the door opened. He winced and retracted his injured palm back from the lever, shaking it in the air to provide it some relief from the burning sensation.

Because of the tall orange flames which were engulfing everything coming in their way, turning them into ashes or heating them up to the extent where a single touch would melt a human’s skin.

“F***!” He cursed himself under his breath for being so careless. The increasing temperature of his surroundings, brought him out of his thoughts. He took off his coat which barely looked like it earlier self and used to hold the lever as he tried to open the door. After struggling with the heavy metal door for a little while, he finally succeeded.

He took a step inside the dark hallway as his fingers searched for something. According to his information, his team had traced out the tunnels and put some lights inside which could only be turned on from inside the tunnel itself. He flicked the switch when his fingers were able to locate it, and soon the once darkened path was lit up with bright white lights.

He took in a couple of breaths as he tried to fill his lungs with some fresh air but failed badly as the only thing which entered his lungs was the black smoke filling the room, making him broke into a series of loud coughs. Just as he recovered, a loud crashing sound was heard as the rod of the basement fell behind him. A couple of pieces of the debris came flying his way and hit him on his back.

His hand rested on the wall next to him as he tried to stop himself from stumbling down. Before the man could stand up straight and run out, a large piece of the floor above came tumbling down on his back.

“Ughh!” He groaned through his trembling lips as the pain was too much for him to bear. The stone had grazed his back, piercing through his shirt. He could feel something trickle down his back. And without even having a look, he could tell for sure that it was his own blood which was making his back wet.

He blinked his eyes a couple of times as he tried to regain his focus on the corridor like tunnel ahead. With his shivering body and unfocused eyes, he continued to walk ahead, not paying any attention to the loud banging and crashing sounds which were coming from behind him, becoming louder as it echoed inside. He had only one thing on his mind, which was to get out of here as soon as possible and get some help.

Once he was out of the main tunnel, he saw some a number of smaller ones before him. Following his instincts, he decided to take the one which was closest to him. He didn’t have much time left before tiredness would engulf his body, leaving him no choice but to stop. Moreover, he could still feel something dripping of his back. Based on the stench in the air, it was definitely blood.

He dragged his tired body to the end of the tunnel where he saw another metal door which looked familiar to the previous one. He hurriedly walked up to it and opened the door, using whatever energy his body was left with. He scrunched his eyelids shut as the blinding light entered his eyes. He opened and closed his time a couple of times, allowing them to adjust to the surroundings.

Once his eyes were okay with the bright day light, he took a step outside of the tunnel, only to see himself being surrounded by tall green trees. He cursed under his breath after taking a good look around himself. ‘It’s a damn jungle.’ He thought inwardly. Now how was he supposed to look for help here.

His mind began to work in overdrive mode as he tried his best to think of a way out. But before he could take a step further, black spots began to appear before his eyes before his entire vision turned black and his body collapsed on the ground.

*FLASHBACK ENDS*