Page 69 of Alien Prince's Claim

I seized the handle and turned it as hard as I could, straining beneath the resistance.

I had assumed it would be tight but to feel it in my hands now, struggling to get it to budge even an inch, I began to worry.

After all, if this hatch idea didn’t work out… What exactly were we supposed to do?

The hatch was located at the end of a tunnel for obvious reasons — when the tunnel needed to be flooded and the pressure released, it was best for only the lower levels to be flooded and not the entire Facility.

As I leaned into the handle harder, utilizing my every ounce of strength to work it loose, I felt it give, and then, seizing upon the hope that gave me, added a little more pressure and—

Crack!

The hatch snapped and the wheel lock gave way.

But I immediately knew something was wrong.

The handle should never have given way how it had.

It should have loosened up, relaxed a little, but there should still have been some resistance.

Instead, the hatch had snapped off and came away in my hands.

It was the final blow.

The disaster that I had hoped to avoid had reared its ugly head.

Our escape had failed.

Absolutely and completely.

I peered over at Emily, whose expression of happiness and hope were immediately consumed with fear.

But now it was gone.

And there was nothing left but the disappointment of failure.

My failure.

I had failed her.

I had failed us.

I had failed our future.

I grabbed the wheel more tightly in my hands and turned to face the approaching Goblar swarm.

At least now I had a weapon and would wield it and swing it with all my might for as long as necessary to get Emily out of there.

But as hopeful as I was, even I could not believe we were going to escape from this place, could not even begin to accept that I had the energy to fight our way free.

There was no way.

But there was one thing I could not bring myself to believe even greater than that, and that was to not put up a fight, to not do everything open to me.

The chances of success were virtually zero… but that was not zero.

I tightened my grip on the handle and vowed to crush as many skulls as needed to cleave a way out of there.

“So I suppose… this is the end,” Emily said in a hauntingly pitiful voice.

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