An Awakener's Peradventure

Chapter 2: Escape the Danger

Outside the atmosphere, the planet is covered in black fire and massive nuclear explosions come bursting out of into its atmosphere. A group of escape pods has left the planet but is blown up by an unknown laser. The meteor shower hit had exploded. The planetary barrier that was 'Boheki' had broken apart.

Kiuborex is in a state of complete chaos. Metallic buildings have been liquefied; the innocents are in absolute hysteria, and an enemy general is leading a relentless attack with 80,000 soldiers marching behind.

Inside the remains of a scorched building, the wounded doyen is lying against a wall on the ground, a large blood red wound impaled by shrapnel in the stomach and his left kidney. His two sons knelt beside him, worried for his life.

"Afrim please. You two must ... continue without me," the father said.

"No, don't say that!" Afrim replies. "We're not leaving you here!" They take cover as the sounds of gunfire went off. A swarm of intensified plasma bolts fly past that kill the nearby civilians. Three shots go off that destroy a skyscraper. They look over to see a unit of tungphene tanks in front of the building.

"Please son, you and Void must go," He coughed, a puddle of blood that shot out at Afrim's face. "Our world will be gone," he warned them. Afrim and Void could go nowhere. Their father, the one other member of their family, was about to suffer an eternal death.

They searched through their pockets for anything to heal him, to no avail. All Afrim could do now was bandage his wound. Their father nodded, providing assurance that they would be fine.

Void, realising the futility, embraced his father one last time. Tears spilled out of his eyes. "Listen, there's a portal inside the space station-," his father weakly spoke as more bombs and gunfire can be heard, louder as they are set off closer from them, "Which will take you ... to a planet far away from us," he explained. He gave Afrim a yellow fifty petabyte pen drive, along with a laminated orange key card.

"Inside the pen drive is a collection of all my memories. When ... you are safe, read everything I left you. I also ... give you my bedroom key to gather as much of my research as you can." Afrim gave his father one last hug, letting out large droplets of tears.

"And promise me one thing," the father said.

"Yes," Afrim said. "What is it?"

"Promise me that ... you take care of each other. The universe will be in your hands..." he whispered into his ear, his voice trailing off.

Rubbing away his tears, Afrim answered, "I ... I promise we will not falter." He saw his father motionless; he had passed away from blood loss. Afrim could say nothing else.

Void looked down as he said, "I'm sorry." Afrim got up and placed the pen drive in a small back pocket of his trousers. They both knew they had to hurry for the portal as fast as possible. They need to pass by their house first to gather their battle gear.

"I found them!" a soldier shouted. "The children of the Abraharith family."

"Exterminate them all," a loud, deep voice shouted. "Make sure their name is extinct."

Void pulled out a tiny grenade that was inside his suit jacket pocket. He pulled the safety pin and threw it in their direction. The grenade exploded, releasing a cloud of foggy grey smoke. They ran off in the opposite direction, through the rubble of the building inside. They escaped just in time before the building melted down. Their deceased family members were sprawled on the road as they ran by, blood trickling onto the rough tarmac. They glanced behind to see the army following them, firing plasma bolts.

They ran west through the roads of the city; more skyscrapers and buildings fell towards them. With their tanks, the army had smelted the fallen metal.