Aeteanilise

January 8th, 2046
Altadena Streets
Near a Small House
Altadena California
6:17 p.m.

Leitun looked at me as I slammed on the acceleration . I made a sharp turn and he and Kaden moved in momentum. I think it was safe to say that the kid was officially awake.

Leitun reached behind him and buckled up.

“Right!” I said. “Safety first!”

There were some clank and dank sounds from the window behind us. Bullets. Leitun ducked but I didn’t. He stared at me from his ducked position and I winked.

“Bulletproof car,” I explained. “It was Natasha’s brother’s school project.” He looked at me as if it explained everything. Actually, I thought it did explain everything. But I have a habit of not understanding the basic things in life and all. 0

I looked in my mirror to see behind me. Three huge black SUVs were coming up on me fast.

I cursed under my breath. This wasn’t good. Two huge SUVs pulled up on the left side of my car and one pulled up from the right. The SUV furthest up then merged into my lane and slowed down forcing me to slow down too and worse, I was trapped. Two ugly dudes leaned out their windows, pulled out huge guns and began to fire. The bullets ricocheted back and one hit one guy. Pfft. Moron.

It didn’t stop him from continuing with firing lethal bullets at my car. After what imagined their first barrel went empty, the gunmen pulled back in and the two side SUVs began to close in.

“Lilly?” a worried Leitun said looking at me horrified. I couldn’t blame him.
The two SUVs crashed into us. Poor Kaden began to cry. I wanted to cry. It was too loud. It was too hot. It was too much. My adrenaline rose and made me hotter and I just wanted to die.

But it’s impossible to do when you’re about to die.

The two SUVs turned out for a moment and were going to close in again. I lifted a small compartment in the middle of my steering wheel and revealed a purple button. Leitun looked at me.

“Lilly? What’s tha-” I slammed on my breaks. Kaden screamed and Leitun put his hand up to catch himself before slamming into the dashboard. I used the crazy momentum to turn the car around and then zoomed off away from the SUVs which I could hear screeching to a stop. I shot a glance at Leitun to see if he was alright ad as far as I could tell, he was, so I pressed it. No2 or…. Nitrox.. or whatever that super-fast car thing is was released. My little car suddenly accelerated more. The SUVs didn’t have time to stop and they crashed into another. I smirked. Leitun looked at me horrified. I chuckled.

“Oh, Baby,” I started, “Don’t look so surprised. Mama likes her speed too.” The accelerator thing wore off and I eventually was just driving. My little beat-up Yaris hobbled its way across the road. I refused to stop driving until I felt safe. But where was safe? I imagined H.O.M.E would plan to stay near all police stations and hospitals. I sure would.

I pulled over to the side of the street. I could barely breathe. Every huff of air brought a sting into my lungs. I leaned over the steering wheel and pressed my forehead against the wheel. I was dying. It hurt so bad all over. My chest was burning. I felt like going to melt where I stood and my head felt like it had been rammed with a railroad track.

But I couldn’t block it out anymore. The more I tried, the harder it was to ignore. I thought about what just happened and I just kept replaying it over and over. It was so major and yet it happened so quickly. What if I hadn’t been so prepared? What about next time? I don’t just carry around gallons of nitrox in my car. My baby was crying. He didn’t have a bottle. I wanted to cry and didn’t have the luxury of just getting a bottle.

I started to hyperventilate. I couldn’t think straight. I just wanted to-

The door opened. I turned and Leitun was getting out of the car. I followed him with my eyes as he came over to my side of the car. He opened the door and reached out a free hand from under the squirming child in his arms.

“I know where to go.”