"Lapis and Lazuli: An Android Backstory"

Chapter 1: The Great Escape, Part 1

Setup: The backstory of our favorite androids opens with them as teenagers. They're preparing to run away from home and their abusive, drunk of a father. Their mother died years ago when they were just kids and now, that they're finally old enough, they're fleeing the cold, unsafe homelife that they dealt with for way too long. The abuse and drunkardness of their father has only gotten worse as time as gone on and they've finally had enough.

Lapis (17): "Come on Lazuli! We've got to get out of here!"

Lazuli, or as we know her as 18, stands in the middle of the living room, just staring. Lapis is at the doorway of the kitchen with a duffle bag of random cans and packages of food next to him. There's probably some bread and other food items also sticking out of it.

Lapis: "Lazuli!"

Lazuli: "Huh?" Snapping out of her trance and turning to look at her twin brother.

Lapis: "Come on, you know we have to get out of here before Father gets home. Unless you want another beating."

She looks down at the bruises on her wrist and arm.

Lazuli: "Right! You've got the food packed up, Lapis?"

Lapis: "Yep." He lifts up the now closed duffle bag of food. "I've cleaned out the cupboards of every canned food and anything else that will fit in this bag. You got the money stashes?"

Lazuli: "Yeah, ours and the one Father hid under his mattress."

Lapis: "Good. That should tide us over for a while. Now come on. He could be come home any minute."

Lazuli: "I doubt it. It's too early for the bar to close."

Lapis: "Unless he gets thrown out again like the other day. Or did you forget how that lamp almost hit me in the head when he threw it at us?"

Lazuli looks around the room again. There's some of the remains of a broken lamp in the corner.

Lapis has crossed over to the other side of the kitchen with the duffle bag of food and a backpack slung over his shoulder.

Lapis: shouting: "Lazuli! We have to go, now! We have to get away before he returns. If he catches us, if he catches us with all of the stuff, if he realizes what we're doing, he'll kill us! He'll beat us until we're dead! You and both know it! It's not getting better! He's only been getting worse. If we stay, we'll die. You know that! Now come on!"

Lazuli takes a deep breath, closes her eyes, and looks up.

Lazuli: upon looking back down and opening her eyes, which narrow: "I know."

Lapis now at the back door, which is open.

Lapis: "Then stop standing in the middle of the living room like a weirdo and come on already!" He walks out of the house through the open door.

Lazuli picks up the backpack that has been sitting beside her on the floor and starts for the door to the kitchen. She stops, pauses, and turns back, lightly running back across the room over to a bookshelf with a few framed photos on it. She grabs one that contains a photo of a lady with blonde hair and blue eyes that looks like a lot like Lapis and Lazuli, and another one containing a photo of the lady with the two teenagers when they were young kids. She looks at them for a minute and then and runs back across the room and into the kitchen where she grabs another duffle bag unzips it and stuffs the two frames inside of it before closing it and slinging the bag over her shoulder. She then heads out the same door as her brother.

Lapis: "About time. What took you so long."

Lazuli: "I just had to grab one more thing. Are you ready to go?"

Lapis: "Yeah. Let's do this!"

Lazuli: Closing the door to their house: "There's no turning back now."

She jogs across the small yard and meets her brother at the open gate that leads to a dirt road or alley. The whole neighborhood looks old and run down. There's some empty lots and abandoned houses and other buildings. All are small. The houses that are still occupied still look run down. A lot of the buildings, whether occupied or not have unkept lawns. Some have junk in them. A few have an attempt at flowers or maybe a garden, but even the plants look sad. It's definitely a very poor neighborhood.

Lazuli: "So, which way should we go?"

Lapis: looking around: "Well, the bar is that way," (he looks to the right) "so I suppose we should go in the opposite direction as that so that we don't risk any chance of getting caught. I doubt he'll come after us once we're gone so our goal is to get as far away as possible as quickly as possible."

Lazuli: "Right! Let's go!"

The two teens start walking off to the left. They're a few houses down when shouting comes from the distance.

Man's Voice: "What the hell?! Those rotten brats!"

Lazuli: "Oh shit! Did you hear that?!"

Lapis: "Yeah, it sounds like Father came home early."

Lazuli: "How the hell does he know already?!"

Just then a thought crosses her mind. An image of the kitchen with all of cupboards being open, showing that they're empty flashes across her mind and the screen.

Lazuli: "You left the cupboard doors open, didn't you?"

Lapis: "Oh crap. I did."

Lazuli: "Great! He's a dumb drunk, but Father's no idiot! He probably notice all the missing food right away. And then with noticing that we're gone, he probably checked under the mattress and realized that all of the money is gone too!"

Loud angry shouting in the distance again: "I'm gonna kill those two bastards!"

Lapis: "Oh shit!"

Lazuli: "Run!"

The two start running as we hear a really noisy vehicle start up in a hurry. Shortly there after, a truck comes speeding around the corner and barrels down the dirt alleyway towards the teens.

Lapis: "Shit! He's coming already."

The man, their drunken father, is speeding towards them, but as they figured, he is drunk so his driving is terrible. The vehicle is swerving all over the road, taking out garbage cans, mailboxes, and anything else that might be along side the road. Maybe even some fences. The vehicle is taking a beating but the angry man doesn't care.

Lazuli: "There's no way we can out run him! We're fast but we're not that fast!"

Lapis: "Yeah, he's already catching up with us." He looks around a bit. "Quick, take a left at the intersection ahead!"

Lazuli: "What?! Another road?! You realize cars can drive on those, right?! How does that help us?"

Lapis: "There's a fence we can jump a few lots down. If we can escape through that yard, then it's a clear run to that old abandoned factory and we can hide in there. Even if he finds his way to the factory, he'll never find us in it."

Lazuli: "Gotcha."

Lapis: "Alright, go left...now!"

The twins, who have been running this entire time, quickly veer to the left to continue running but now down a different dirt alleyway. As the make the turn, Lazuli trips on a rock sticking sharply out of the edge of the roadway.

Lazuli: "Aah!" as she falls. She hits the ground hard.

Lapis hears this and looks over his shoulder to see his sister on the ground. He stops running, sliding to a hault.

Lapis: "Lazuli! Hurry! Get up!"

She quickly gets up and starts running again, but only after getting a few feet away, she realizes that she's missing something. She looks back and indeed, there is the duffle bag laying on the ground near where she fell.

Lazuli: "Oh no!" She turns and runs back for the bag just as the crazy vehicle skids past the intersection.

Lapis: realizing what his sister is doing: "What are you doing?! Leave it! We've got enough food in the other bag!"

She disregards her brother's words and continues back for the bag. She grabs it and quickly turns around to run back and catch up with her brother. She gains a few yards before the crazy vehicle driven by their drunk, enraged father turns the corner and starts heading towards them.

Lazuli: "Shit!"

Lapis is now at the tall fence. He has thrown his bags over the side and now is waiting for his sister. As she approaches, he crotches down and calls out to her.

Lapis: "Here, step into my hands and I'll boost you over the fence. Then I'll jump over too."

Lazuli: "Right!"

And without missing a beat or even slowly down, she runs to her brother, placing one of her feet into his already cupped hands. He raises his hands, boosting his sister over the fence. She lands and immediately gets up. Lapis quickly leaps over the fence as well. He lands and stands up just as Lazuli hands him his backpack. The truck goes barreling by as Lapis slips his backpack back on and Lazuli hands him his duffle bag.

Lapis: "Thanks." He slings the bag over his shoulder. "Are you okay?"

Lazuli: "Yeah. You?"

Lapis: "Yeah. Come on, let's go. I know he saw us. We've have to keep moving."

Lazuli: "Right."

Lazuli turns and they both take off running across the yard.