The Fire Fight

Jake Morrison's POV

Jake Morrison climbed out of the underground tube just as the explosion rocked the night sky.

"No!" he shouted, seeing flames shoot up from behind the old textile factory. "That's where Danny took the townspeople!"

Emma rushed out behind him, coughing from the tunnel dust. "We have to help them!"

But Jake's eyes went wide as he looked around. Millbrook wasn't just dealing with one fire. The whole town was burning.

City Hall was on fire. The police station had fires shooting from its windows. Even the library was starting to smoke.

"Webb's men are burning everything," Jake realized with fear. "They're destroying all the evidence!"

People were running through the streets, some trying to fight the fires with yard hoses, others just trying to escape. Jake heard gunshots in the distance, breaking glass, angry yells.

His quiet village had become a war zone.

"Jake, look!" Emma pointed toward Main Street.

A group of guys in dark clothes were throwing gasoline bombs through store windows. Webb's security team, making sure nothing survived to show their crimes.

"We have to stop them," Jake said.

"How?" Emma asked desperately. "There's only two of us and dozens of them!"

Jake pulled the USB drive from his pocket—the one holding all of Judge Brennan's files. Twenty years of proof, bank records, recordings, photographs. Everything they needed to put Webb away forever.

"We don't have to stop them," Jake said. "We just have to get this evidence to someone who can."

But who? Sheriff Morrison was crooked. Judge Brennan was a thief. Mayor Whitfield was dead. Everyone in power was either bad or gone.

That's when Jake heard the most beautiful sound of his life.

Sirens. Lots of them. Coming from outside of town.

"The state police!" Emma gasped. "Someone must have called them!"

Red and blue lights emerged on the highway, at least twenty patrol cars racing toward Millbrook. Behind them came fire trucks and ambulances.

Jake's heart soared with hope. Real cops. Honest cops who weren't part of Webb's corruption.

"Come on!" He grabbed Emma's hand and started running toward Main Street, where the state police would enter town.

They dodged through the chaos, jumping over broken glass and avoiding burning debris. Jake's lawyer senses were screaming that this was his only chance. If he could give the proof to the state police before Webb's men destroyed it, justice might actually win.

But the fires were everywhere now, closing streets and filling the air with choking smoke.

"This way!" Emma pulled him down an alley.

They exited onto Main Street just as the state police cars screeched to a stop. A tall woman in a state trooper uniform jumped out, her face hard with power.

"I'm Captain Rodriguez," she stated. "Everyone stay calm! We're taking control of this situation!"

Jake ran toward her, waving the USB drive. "Captain! I'm Jake Morrison, a lawyer! I have evidence of corruption involving Judge Brennan and Marcus Webb!"

Captain Rodriguez's eyes went sharp. "We've been investigating Webb for months. What do you have?"

"Everything," Jake said excitedly. "Bank records, recordings, proof of murders and bribes going back twenty years."

Another explosion boomed from the direction of the plant. Captain Rodriguez barked orders into her radio, sending her officers to help the locals and put out the fires.

"Give me that drive," she ordered, reaching for it.

Jake paused for just a second. After weeks of everyone in power being crooked, it was hard to trust any authority figure.

But Emma squeezed his hand. "It's okay. She's real."

Jake gave over the drive. "There's more proof at the factory dump site. Toxic waste barrels that show Webb was poisoning the town."

"We're on it," Captain Rodriguez said, locking the drive in an evidence bag. "Where's Marcus Webb now?"

"I don't know," Jake admitted. "Last I heard, he was trying to escape."

That's when gunfire burst from the courthouse.

Everyone turned to see smoke pouring from the basement windows. More shots rang out, followed by yelling.

"Someone's still fighting in there," Captain Rodriguez said sadly. She grabbed her radio. "All units, we have an active shooter at the building. Move in with care."

Jake's cousin Dale ran out of the smoke, his hands raised in submission. "Don't shoot! I'm giving up! I'll tell you everything about Webb's plan!"

State police tackled Dale to the ground and handcuffed him. Jake felt a strange mix of anger and sadness watching his own family member get jailed.

But then Emma screamed.

Jake spun around and saw Marcus Webb stumbling out of the courthouse's side door. His clothes were burned, his face was bleeding, but he was living.

And he was holding a gun to someone's head.

Jake's blood turned to ice when he saw who Webb had caught.

Maya Chen.

Jake's partner. His friend. The woman who'd helped him fight this whole war.

"Everybody back off!" Webb shouted, pressing the gun against Maya's head. "I'm walking out of here, and she's coming with me!"

Captain Rodriguez drew her pistol. "You're surrounded, Webb. Let her go!"

"I'll kill her!" Webb's eyes were wild with fear. "I'll blow her brains out right here!"

Maya's face was pale with fear, but her eyes found Jake's. She was trying to be brave, but Jake could see how scared she was.

"Please," Jake begged, moving forward. "She's got nothing to do with this. Take me instead."

"Stay back, Morrison!" Webb warned. "I know you're the one who's been digging up all my secrets. This is your fault!"

Jake's mind raced. He had to save Maya. Had to do something before Webb pulled that gun.

"The evidence is already gone," Jake said, trying to keep his voice calm. "The state cops have everything. Killing Maya won't help you now."

"But it'll make me feel better!" Webb snarled.

More state troopers emerged, surrounding Webb from all sides. But nobody could risk taking a shot with Maya right there.

"Last chance, Webb," Captain Rodriguez said coldly. "Drop the weapon."

Webb's finger tightened on the trigger.

Maya closed her eyes.

Jake's heart stopped.

And then something impossible happened.

A shot rang out, but not from Webb's gun.

Webb screamed and dropped his weapon, holding his shoulder where a bullet had just torn through. He collapsed to the ground, and state cops rushed in to grab Maya and pull her to safety.

Jake ran to Maya, wrapping her in his arms while she shook with fear and relief.

"Who shot him?" Captain Rodriguez ordered, scanning the rooftops.

Jake looked up and saw a figure on top of the library across the street. A woman with a rifle, silhouetted against the fires.

Even from this distance, Jake recognized her.

Helen Brennan. Judge Brennan's supposedly dead wife. Emma's mother.

Helen lowered her rifle and slipped into the smoke before anyone could reach her.

"Morrison, who was that?" Captain Rodriguez asked.

Before Jake could answer, another explosion rocked the building.

Then another.

And another.

The toxic trash barrels were exploding one by one, sending clouds of poison into the air.

"Everyone get inside!" Captain Rodriguez shouted. "That smoke is poisonous! We need to clear the whole town!"

But as Jake looked around at the burning buildings, the panicked crowds, and the spreading poison clouds, he realized something terrible.

There was nowhere safe to flee to.

The poison was spreading in every direction, and the wind was blowing it straight toward where hundreds of townspeople were trapped behind the plant.

Including Danny Santos and Tommy Whitfield.

"We have to warn them!" Emma yelled over the chaos.

Jake pulled out his phone to call Danny, but the screen showed no service. The blaze must have knocked out the cell towers.

There was no way to warn them.

No way to tell them that a cloud of dangerous poison was rolling toward them right now.

And they had maybe five minutes before it killed them all.