Page 68 of Alien Prince's Claim

As we drew closer, I realized it wasn’t the end at all but a thick door built into it, one of those circular wheels like on a submarine attached to it.

Yaltah gripped it, holding it tight between his hands.

Then he flexed his muscles.

It wouldn’t give, so he planted his feet and tried again.

I looked over my shoulder and saw the Goblars forming up, their shadows dancing on the walls, their pointed ears tall and stretching as they rushed toward us.

I didn’t know if they knew where we were or not but it didn’t really matter.

They would sweep over the entire Facility before too long and there would be no hiding place.

Yaltah grunted as he flexed his muscles again and attempted to ease the wheel around.

And once again, it refused to give.

The wheel groaned loudly and Yaltah’s face turned red with exertion as he made one final attempt to open it.

The Goblars hacked and hawed and screeched as they raced down the tunnel toward us, drawing ever closer.

I still couldn’t make them out as they were concealed around the corner but it wouldn’t be long before they came into view.

Crack!

My heart leaped for joy as I turned toward the door.

He’d done it!

Yaltah had opened it!

He turned to me, his expression not the hopeful expression of success I had been hoping to see.

Instead, it was ashen. Crestfallen.

He held the wheel in his hands…

From where it had snapped off.

23

YALTAH

There were precious few exits from the service tunnels but the emergency escape hatch was one of them.

It could hardly be described the way it was without it actually being a form of escape.

At least, that’s what I hoped it was…

I recalled the notation from when I had studied the plans before coming to the Facility.

But as we descended deeper and deeper, I began to realize the plans had not been kept up to date and that I was essentially going by instinct alone.

At some point, building work must have been done and no one had thought to supply the library with the new layout.

I had been relieved when we finally came to the end of the tunnel and saw what I had been hoping to find twenty minutes earlier:

The emergency escape hatch that would lead to the underwater system that supplied the Facility with its water and emergency power needs.

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