The Last Sanctuary (PAPERBACK)

Heat blasts me from below as smoke rises to sting my eyes. I’m clinging to the side of a building, 7-months pregnant, with tears streaming down my face. It isn’t just the smoke making me cry, but the gut-wrenching choice I’ve just made, leaving my husband, best friend and others behind, trapped in a burning building.
I try to concentrate on the task, climbing from the sixth floor down to the ground. I’m not safe yet. I remind myself that once this task is complete, I can cry all I want for Diogo, Emery and Grayson. Right now, I need to pay attention, pick out a path, make my way through the flames. Save my baby.
Just as I reach the fourth floor, the sound of shattering glass followed by roaring and intense heat startles me. I cling harder to the windowsill, hugging the building, remaining motionless until the worst of the heat passes. I look down. One of the windows about ten feet down was blown out by the pressure of the fire, and now flames are licking the side of the building. The path I’d carefully picked out to the ground has become cut off.
I search desperately, squinting through the smoke and choking back my coughs. I breathe a sigh of relief when I see that there’s still a clear path down if I crawl sideways about twenty feet. I move as quickly as I can with my protruding stomach bumping into the side of the building. Luckily, I’m not showing as much as I thought I would at 7 months. But I still have a healthy sized belly making the climb feel far more awkward and difficult than it would have been in the past.
Exhaustion beats at me competing with the adrenalin rushing through my system. I feel myself growing weaker with each step, the strength draining from each part of me. My hands are sore, my legs shaky and my lungs on fire with lack of oxygen. I promise myself, and the baby, that if we reach the ground, we can sleep for a week after this.