Chapter 37 - The EscapeA heavy, black tear-gas canister rolled across the living room rug, instantly spewing thick, choking white smoke into the small house.
"Down!" Mateo roared, tackling Laura to the floor behind the heavy oak dining table.
"The kids!" Laura screamed, coughing violently as the acrid smoke burned her lungs.
"I’ll get them! Stay low!"
Mateo crawled frantically on his hands and knees, navigating the familiar layout of his home completely blind. He burst into the children's room.
Emiliano and Jimena were sitting up in their beds, coughing, terrified by the sound of the shattering glass.
"Papa! What’s happening?" Emiliano cried.
"Shadow Game, right now!" Mateo ordered, his voice commanding but calm, hiding his own terror. "Keep your heads down. Cover your mouths with your blankets. We are moving to the bathroom!"
He grabbed Jimena in his left arm, wrapping her securely, and grabbed Emiliano’s hand with his right. He dragged them low to the ground, back out into the hallway.
The front door began to splinter violently under the heavy blows of a battering ram.
Hector’s men were breaching the house.
Mateo pulled the kids into the hallway bathroom, locking the door behind them. Laura was already inside, having crawled through the smoke. She grabbed the children, pulling them into the dry bathtub, shielding their bodies with her own.
"They're coming through the front door," Mateo coughed, his eyes watering profusely. He looked at the small, frosted glass window above the toilet. It was their only way out.
He grabbed the heavy porcelain lid from the toilet tank and smashed it directly through the window frame, clearing the glass.
"Laura, you first," Mateo commanded. "Take Jimena."
He hoisted his wife up. Laura scrambled through the tight window frame, dropping into the dark, narrow alleyway between their house and the neighbor’s property. Mateo lifted Jimena, passing the crying little girl into her mother’s arms.
The bathroom door shuddered violently. Someone was kicking it from the hallway.
"Go, Emiliano! Hurry!" Mateo lifted his son, shoving him through the window.
The bathroom door splintered, the heavy wood giving way.
Mateo grabbed the shower curtain rod, ripping it violently from the wall. As a heavily armed man in tactical gear stepped through the broken door, blinded by the smoke, Mateo swung the heavy metal rod like a baseball bat, striking the man directly across the face.
The man collapsed backward.
Mateo didn't wait. He dove headfirst through the broken window, landing hard on the dirt alleyway just as automatic gunfire shredded the bathroom walls.
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"Run!" Mateo yelled, grabbing Laura’s hand.
They sprinted down the dark alley, disappearing into the labyrinth of Guadalajara's back streets, leaving their home burning behind them.
