Father vs. Son

Thomas Morrison's POV

Thomas Morrison pulled himself out of the tunnel opening, his chest burning with pain from where the bullet had touched him.

He wasn't supposed to be living. Webb's men had shot him in the courthouse basement and left him for dead in the tunnels. But Thomas was too stubborn to die tonight.

Not when his son Jake was in danger.

Thomas looked around at the burning town and felt his heart break. This was all his fault. For years, he'd looked the other way while his brother Dale worked for Webb. He'd claimed not to notice the corruption, the bribes, the crimes.

He'd chosen family honor over doing what was right.

And now Millbrook was paying the price.

Through the smoke, Thomas saw state cops surrounding someone near the courthouse. He squinted and recognized his brother Dale on his knees with his hands behind his head.

"Don't move!" a state trooper yelled at Dale.

Thomas felt torn in half. Dale was his baby brother. They'd grown up together, shielded each other, shared everything. How could he just watch Dale get arrested?

But then Thomas heard Jake's voice across the street.

"We have to warn Danny and Tommy! They're stuck at the factory!"

Thomas turned and saw his son standing with Emma and Maya, desperately trying to figure out how to save the trapped townspeople from the poison clouds.

His kid. The boy he'd raised to believe in fairness and truth.

The boy Thomas had failed by staying quiet about Webb's crimes.

Thomas knew what he had to do. He had to make a choice between his brother and his son. Between protecting family and protecting harmless people.

It was the hardest choice of his life.

He took a step toward Jake.

But then Dale's words cut through the chaos.

"Tommy! Help me! Don't let them take me!"

Thomas stopped. Dale's eyes found his, begging and desperate.

"Please," Dale begged. "I'm your brother. You can't leave me now."

The state cops started dragging Dale toward a patrol car. Dale fought against them, still calling for Thomas.

Thomas's feet wouldn't move. His heart was pulling him in two ways at once.

Then he remembered something his father had told him before he died. "A man isn't judged by who he loves, Tommy. He's judged by who he's willing to sacrifice that love for."

Thomas had never understood what that meant until right now.

He turned away from Dale and ran toward Jake.

"Dad!" Jake's eyes went wide with shock. "You're alive!"

"No time to explain," Thomas said, holding his son's shoulders. "The poison clouds—how fast are they spreading?"

"Too fast," Emma answered. "We can't reach Danny and the others. No cell service."

Thomas's police training kicked in. "The old alarm sirens. They're on manual switches at the police office. We can use them to warn everyone."

"The police station is burning," Maya pointed out.

"I know," Thomas said sadly. "But it's our only chance."

Jake grabbed his father's arm. "Dad, you're hurt. Let me go instead."

"No." Thomas pulled Jake into a quick hug. "I've spent too many years letting bad things happen because I was afraid. Not anymore."

He turned to Captain Rodriguez, who was coordinating her troops nearby.

"Captain, I'm Thomas Morrison. Former police chief before I got sick. I know where the emergency siren settings are."

Captain Rodriguez studied him with sharp eyes. "The building is about to fall. You'd never make it out."

"Those people at the factory won't make it either if we don't warn them," Thomas responded.

Jake grabbed his father's hand. "Dad, please. There has to be another way."

Thomas looked at his son and felt tears burning his eyes. He'd wasted so much time being sick, being weak, being a coward while Webb ruined their town.

This was his chance to finally do something right.

"Jake, you're the best thing I ever did in my life," Thomas said softly. "And I'm sorry I wasn't brave enough to be the father you deserved. But I can be that father now."

Before Jake could stop him, Thomas turned and ran toward the burning police station.

"Dad, no!" Jake screamed behind him.

Thomas ignored his son's cries. He had maybe two minutes before the building fell completely.

The front entry was blocked by flames, but Thomas knew another way in. The back door near the holding cells, where he'd entered a thousand times during his years as chief.

He found the door and kicked it open. Heat blasted his face, making him cough. The smoke was so thick he could barely see.

Thomas dropped to his hands and knees where the air was clearer and crawled forward. He knew this building by heart, could navigate it blind if he had to.

The emergency siren settings were in the dispatch room, just past the main office.

His lungs burned. His eyes watered. The heat was getting worse with every second.

But Thomas kept going.

He thought about Jake as a little boy, asking why bad people sometimes won. Thomas hadn't had a good answer then.

But maybe he could give Jake an answer now, through his deeds if not his words.

Good people won when they were willing to give everything for what was right.

Thomas reached the dispatch room and pulled himself up to the control panel. The switches were old-fashioned, mechanical, built to work even during power failures.

He grabbed the master alarm switch and threw it.

Nothing happened.

Thomas's heart sank. The fire must have damaged the circuits.

Then he noticed the hand crank underneath the panel. Of course. The system had a backup that needed someone to physically turn it.

Thomas grabbed the crank and started turning. His injured chest screamed with pain, but he kept turning.

The alarm began to wail, slowly at first, then louder and louder. The sound pierced through the town, telling everyone of danger.

At the factory, Danny and the locals would hear it and know to run from the poison clouds.

Thomas smiled through his pain. He'd done it. He'd saved them.

A beam crashed down behind him, closing the way he'd come in. The building groaned and shifted.

Thomas knew he wasn't getting out of here alive.

But that was okay. His son was safe. The harmless people were warned. He'd finally done the right thing.

"I love you, Jake," he whispered.

Then the entire building shook violently.

Thomas looked up and saw something that made his blood run cold.

The roof wasn't just collapsing from the fire.

Someone had placed bombs in the support beams.

And through the smoke, Thomas saw a timer counting down on the closest bomb.

Five seconds.

Four seconds.

This wasn't an accidental fall. Webb's men had rigged the police station to explode, possibly to destroy evidence.

Three seconds.

Thomas realized with fear that the explosion would be massive. Big enough to take out the entire block.

Two seconds.

Big enough to kill everyone standing outside.

Including Jake.

One second.

Thomas threw himself at the alert radio and screamed into the microphone, hoping someone, anyone, would hear his final warning.

"GET BACK! THE BUILDING IS GOING TO—"

The world turned white and hot and loud.

And Thomas Morrison's last thought was a prayer that his son would forgive him for all the years he'd spent being afraid.