The Prison-Made Queen novel Chapter 918

Meanwhile.

Callahan had barely finished telling the group not to act rashly when Shaun Keane lost his patience.

Throwing his entire body weight forward, Shaun brutally slammed his shoulder into the massive metal door. A deafening boom echoed through the room, but the door didn't even vibrate.

He stumbled back, panting heavily, rubbing his bruised shoulder. His face was twisted with sheer frustration. "Damn it, is this thing solid steel?"

"It's not budging an inch!"

Callahan's eyes instantly swept the room, his sharp gaze dissecting every shadow.

The abandoned lab was a graveyard of broken equipment and grotesque specimen jars. There was absolutely nothing they could use as a battering ram.

The air was suffocating, heavy with the sharp sting of bleach and the metallic tang of old blood. Being trapped in this rotting box was making everyone's nerves fray.

Callahan took a slow, deep breath, forcing his mind into absolute clarity.

His eyes snapped toward the back of the room, locking onto the wall behind the tiger's cage.

There was a ventilation grate.

The mastermind behind this trap understood the psychology of panic perfectly—hiding the exit in plain sight, right behind the most immediate threat.

If they let fear dictate their actions, they would entirely overlook it.

"Stop wasting your energy!"

"I found the way out."

Callahan marched across the room, brushing past the agitated tiger pacing behind the bars.

He dropped to one knee, his fingers tracing the edges of the rusted grate. His voice was commanding. "Look at this!"

Abel immediately looked at Leilani. Seeing her subtle nod, he jogged over, following Callahan's pointed finger.

"The scratches on the metal are fresh. The screws aren't tight."

"This is the real exit the psycho laid out for us. That massive door was just a distraction to drain our time."

"This is our way out! Hurry, Abel, help me pry this open!"

The tunnel was tight, but for the rest of them, it was entirely manageable.

But for Payton—who was entirely blind and paralyzed from the waist down—it was practically a death sentence.

Hearing the heavy silence fall over the group, Payton immediately grasped the reality of the situation.

"Is this exit... difficult for me?"

"No."

"We're just coordinating the best order to go in."

Leilani instinctively tried to shield him from the truth.

But a man like Payton wasn't going to be fooled that easily.

"Leilani, please. Don't lie to me."

"This tunnel... I can't climb through that. Right now, I'm nothing but a dead weight to all of you."