"Come on, we have to go, now. We can leave the money behind, I don't think it matters right now!"
The man was shouting at his wife, who was shoving some of their things into a purse.
"You'll thank me later! What's the use of escaping if we've got nothing to live on after we do it? Just give me another minute or two, alright?"
"We don't have a minute! He's here NOW! If we don't go the whole goddamned planet will be a smoking crater. Your money won't be worth-"
Outside, alarms and sirens were going off. People were rushing out of houses left and right, some with no bags, some with one or two. There was screaming and shouting wherever one turned, and as the man and his wife rushed out a bullet whizzed past them.
"You leave me anything in there?" asked the shooter.
"Fuck, steal the whole house if you want!" the man shouted, tugging his wife along before she could protest. Inwardly he was shaking his head. The looters were already starting, they were getting into everything. Fine, he thought. If they wanted to lose their lives chasing stolen wealth, then let them do it.
"Dear, I think-"
"It's just a short distance away," he said, "C'mon, I know we don't run much, but we've got to. We'll be fine."
The wife shook her head and started breathing as heavily and as quickly as she could as they ran-and ran.
The shipyard was only a short distance away and both stepped through the gates red-faced and breathing hard.
"C'mon, c'mon," the man said, walking past numerous ships as they took off. Safety regulations be damned-breathing in fumes like that for a few seconds was nothing compared to the terror of what was coming, and everyone who followed in behind them obviously thought the same, as they all walked through one cloud after another.
"Ah, here we go!"
They'd reached their ship, and he was getting checking the fuel cells when a woman approached. "Please, do you have any space?"
"Oh, Davin," said his wife.
Davin looked back over the woman, and then at the three teens who were following her. "I don't really have room for anyone extra, but-"
"Can you at least take them?" she asked.
"Davin-"
"Fine," he said, "The kids can come."
"Thank you." The woman hugged him, each of her children, and then bolted back for the shipyard gate.
The teens went into the ship quickly, and as soon as he could get in and get it started, they were leaving.
"Oh gods, we're going to make it," his wife said, shaking in her seat, looking with wide eyes out the window. Sometimes at the same time, sometimes not, the smoke would billow out from under the ships. They'd lurch upwards slowly, and after a stuttering start rapidly accelerate, leaving a clouded, burning trail that faded into a thousand almost uniform lines. When she looked at the residue of those who were already gone-it was like a forest of slowly dissipating ivory pillars.
"It's like a meteor shower in reverse," one of the teens, a boy, said.
"I know," said one of his sisters, "It'd be pretty if we weren't running for our lives."
"Yeah, yeah," Davin said, "Any of you kids know how to fly things like this?"
"I do," said the youngest. "This is a KT-5, right?"
"Right."
"Mom taught me on this one."
He smiled briefly, but looked up with fear in his eyes when a loud bang sounded off just outside the ship.
"What was that?!"
"Calm down," he said, "Probably just the engine giving a-"
Clang. WHIIIRrrrr.
"Th-the ship is..."
The lights faded. They hadn't left the atmosphere yet, he knew that much. Had another ship hit them? Had the engines...? What could it possibly be? He kept this thing humming along, didn't neglect any kind of maintenance...
"How can the damn power be off? We're still in the air!"
"Ow! Get off my foot!"
From outside, there was chuckling.
"W-who's that? What's going on?"
"There's someone at the window!" the youngest girl shouted, pointing.
"That's not possible! People can't just fly up like-"
Before the rest of them could turn to look, there was the sound of scraping metal.
"W-what's going on?"
"Davin, what-how-?"
"Damn it, I don't know! Get your sidea-"
More chuckling. It was like the outside of the ship was being pulled away, layer by layer.
"NO! NO!"
"Oh gods, we're all going to DIE-"
"Well," came the even voice once its owner could see them through the smoke that clouded up. "That certainly may be true, but if you cooperate it will be less painful than if you don't. Your choice."
Davin raised his gun and shot twice-he could see the silhouette of a figure, though no details, but it was enough.
The bullets fell harmlessly, as if they'd bounced off the target.
"The hard way it is. I can never understand why you peons always choose the hard way."
A sudden red beam pierced Davin's shoulder. He screamed as he fell back with blood pouring from the wound, and cringed, fumbling to get his gun back. His wife fired hers, but she got the same retaliation that he did.
There was laughter.
"What say you, my dear? Come, come, I can't have all this fun by myself."
The five looked up as a woman flew gracefully down through the now rapidly-clearing smoke and raised a hand.
She was about five foot even, but floating, and the ki building in her hand had them all struck silent, unable to notice anything else.
They were shaking, and after a moment Davin's wife began to beg. She was the first to go. Davin responded by rushing forward with his gun, but the newcomer sidestepped and snapped his wrist before shooting him with another ki beam.
"Were you hoping to be saved?" she asked, looking to the teens, shaking her head and wagging her finger briefly. "This is what hope brings, children. You should remember that."
As the smoke cleared a few seconds later, shards of warped glass and metal fell around them. She was grinning, feeling such a rush of maddening excitement at the screams emanating from the ground.
"Good girl."
