Narrow Escape

"Ugh... Is everyone okay?". I asked, blood dripping down from my body as a result of the broken glass.

I looked back and almost everyone was in complete disarray. Karl was the only one with his head on his shoulders.

I could smell smoke from the back of the car, and I could hear the crackling sound of fire. I could tell immediately, that the car was beyond compromised.

"Everyone, get out!" Charles screamed. Apparently, he had his head on his shoulders as well.

Charles, Karl and I pulled out Evelyn and the others. Evelyn herself suffered only minor injuries, same with the second woman. But Franklin, Franklin was in bad shape. He had multiple glass shards stuck in his body and he was losing blood fast.

"I... I can still run, please don't leave me." Franklin said.

"Of course we won't." I quickly replied.

"Boom." We heard the footstep of the death machine and were immediately reminded of how dire our situation was.

"Everyone split u-"

Boom!!

The car exploded behind us, but this was a good thing. While the tripod was distracted by the explosion, we all split up into different small groups of two. Karl with the other lady, I with Evelyn and Charles with Franklin.

While we were running, a couple of fighter jets arrived to take out the tripod. They fired off their missiles and the tripod came crashing down. We were elated, but just before the tripod crashed to the ground, it fired off six cylinders to chase after us.

Our joy quickly changed back into fear as we could now visualize our demise rolling towards us in the shape of giant cylindrical machines.

We all ran towards the first houses we could see and the fighter jet pilots tried their best to destroy the cylinders.

At that moment, one of the fighter jets exploded leaving only debris, it parts falling down to the earth as smoke stained the air. Apparently, the tripod was still kicking.

The tripod couldn't stand but its laser beams were more than enough to take the remaining two fighter jets by surprise. They had relaxed thinking they had defeated the machine, a fatal mistake.

Before they met their fiery demise, the pilots managed to destroy two of the cylinders chasing after us. Four wasn't a reassuring number but at least they tried.

The cylinders chasing us, we all ran into separate houses as we tried our hardest to escape.

"Evelyn, over there!" I shouted to her

"I know, I'm coming." She replied.

The first location made available to us after forcing the door open was the living room. It was a really spacious living room with a lovely little chandelier at the ceiling but I didn't really have the time to sit and admire the room.

I used the largest chair in the room to barricade the door, ensuring that even if the door is lasered open, it would still prove difficult for the machine to push through.

"We need to hide." I said to Evelyn.

"No shit genius." She replied.

"Come on, let's look for a good hiding spot." I said.

"Really? so you'll get me killed just like my husband? I don't think so- "

"Boom! Boom! Boom!"

Loud thudding sounds came from the door and we instinctively knew what was trying to get in, but the barricade wasn't making it easy for the machine to enter.

I scanned the rooms looking for items I could use to escape this dire situation as the door was slowly giving way.

"What are you doing?" Evelyn asked.

"Trying to figure out a way to get us out of this mess." I replied.

"Really?" She said.

"Of course really, what else would I be doing." I replied

"Boom! Boom!" The sound interrupted and also reasserted the fact that we didn't have time to squabble.

"Look, we don't have time for this, you can either help me find something we can use or you can just sit and wait." I said.

"Then wait I will, it's not like you can find anything to turn this situation around." She said.

"Just you wait and see, I'm not going to die, not here." I responded as I made my way towards the kitchen to look for something I could use.

It was in the kitchen that I hit my goldmine. I found a gas tank and immediately checked if it still had gas in it. Thankfully, it did. I proceeded to look for a lighter and I found it rather easily. From this point on, the plan was formed.

The rooms didn't have burglary proof windows and it was a bungalow so we could easily escape when the time comes.

"Hey, come here, I have a plan." I said to Evelyn.

"You're still going on about that, just sit down and wait for your death! There's nothing we can do. Wait, why is this place suddenly smelling weir- "

"Boom! Boom!"

The banging sound got even louder and the cylinder broke through the barricade. It burst into the room ready to take a life, but I was about to turn the tables on it.

"Come on!" I screamed at Evelyn.

I grabbed her hand and we ran towards the window. The cylinder prepared to fire, and immediately the laser was released-

"Boom!!!"

The sound of a loud explosion echoed around the entire district as flames roared through the windows and glass shattered across every facet of the building.

We barely escaped the explosion, we got to the window but Evelyn wasn't fast enough in her attempt to scale the window. I had to shield her with my body as we rolled and tumbled on the ground. We barely escaped death's door but my gamble paid off.

"You… you saved me" Evelyn said.

"No time to worry about that, let's get out of here." I replied.

I didn't know whether or not the cylinder was still functional, but I wasn't going to wait and find out, we bolted out of the compound and searched for another house to hide in.

We entered a house and made sure we turned off all the lights and closed all the windows. The last thing we did was to barricade the front and back doors.

The sky was steadily getting darker. Slowly but surely, another night would soon be upon us. I wondered how the others were doing and I hoped they were all alright.

"This place looks pretty dead now, I doubt we'll be getting any visits from those things. Not tonight at least." I said to Evelyn.

"Yeah… hopefully." Evelyn replied. She had a troubled look on her face so I decided to ask her about it.

"Umm… something wrong?" I asked.

"Nothing… it's just that, you saved me. After everything I've said to you, you saved me, even after continuously blaming you for my husband's death, you still bothered to save me, why?" Evelyn said.

I looked at Evelyn, closed my eyes, took a deep breath and spoke.

"Honestly, I could say something along the lines of, because it's the right thing to do or that, that's just how I am but I think it's deeper than that."

"We are in difficult times, times when people lose grips with who they are and they're morality. I think that no matter how bad things get, people should still keep their humanity. That means helping each other in times of need. I think that's what will separate us from them. Who knows whether it's our humanity that'll help us win this war?"

I glanced at Evelyn, she was looking at me with a puzzled look on her face as she was obviously perplexed by my answer to such a simple question.

"You look a bit puzzled. To put it simply, I did it because it was the right thing to do." I said with a playful smile on my face.

She let go an ever so slight smile and responded.

"Thank you… and… I'm sorry." She said.

"Don't worry about it, I'd do it again if you want me to. I mean, the cylinder is just there if you want to go back and try again." I said jokingly.

She laughed and declined politely, then the room became quiet and the mood became a bit tense and serious.

"You know… I miss him." Evelyn said, a tinge of sorrow in her voice.

I looked at her and tried to formulate sentences that would console her, but the loss of a husband wasn't something a simple "Sorry" or "Things will always get better" would fix, so I gave her my honest thoughts.

"I don't have a wife or someone close to what a wife is so I can't say I completely understand, but I do have people I care about. And though they might number only a few, it would still cause me extreme pain if any of them were to die."

"There is nothing you can do about his death, but there are things you can do in your life. You being here is evidence that you still have the will to live, and though it may hurt and sometimes the pain might be unbearable, though it may hurt to breathe because you are not breathing the same air as him, I still think that you should continue living."

"Live for him if anything, let the smiles you shared together and all the memories you had be the driving force keeping you alive. You don't know if you'll be able to experience such memories once you hit the great beyond. Live and be happy, I think that's what he would want." I said.

I think my words struck a chord with Evelyn because immediately I finished speaking, I could see tears streaming down her face. She tried to hold it back but she eventually burst into tears and wailed as she was probably reminiscing about her dead husband.

She had probably held in those feelings for a long time and now she was letting it all out. She cried and the rays from the setting sun reflected on the tears streaming down her face.

Eventually, Evelyn slept off and I left the room to go ponder about the condition of the others. Were they safe? How was Karl doing? How was Charles coping with Franklin? Or better yet, how was Franklin coping with Charles?

I prayed for the safety of all of them and I also decided to take a rest. There was nothing I could do about their situation right now so I decided to wait until tomorrow to go on a search for them.

I shut my eyelids and sleep slowly took hold of my body. I earnestly awaited the next day so I could confirm the whereabouts of my friend and the people we were helping.

I prayed for their safety once again and made my way to the world of dreams. Hoping that when I wake up, I would see all the people that I left that car with. And I prayed earnestly, that Franklin would somehow survive this ordeal.