Terra Firma

The Vault

"Okay, ready?" Luna fixed Todd with a stare until he gulped and nodded, then walked over to the front door. Pressing her face to the peephole, what she saw made her stomach drop to the floor. There really was an army of droids out there.

Why did they want Todd back so badly? And if they wanted him, why did they leave him behind in the city? Or, maybe ... she gulped too. Maybe they weren't here to save him.

"Alright, when I open this door, we're going to have three seconds to leg it to the buggy." Luna's voice shook as she rested her hand on the doorknob.

"I'll be right behind you, Luna."

She looked at him then, at his flushed cheeks and nervous, but determined grimace. Not for the first time, she wondered who he really was.

"Go!"

Luna slammed the door open, tossing the bundle as far to the centre of the group of droids as she could. "Run!" She screamed, pushing her legs as fast as they could go towards the buggy. Lucky's frantic barking pitched higher as they darted past a droid.

The first explosion rocked the ground under their feet. Luna stumbled, almost falling to the ground when a pair of strong arms grasped her under the armpits. She looked up to see Todd's impossibly blue eyes, and for a split second, she was frozen. He began to pull on her arm, his mouth moving, but Luna couldn't make out the words. Her head was full of a furious ringing, and it felt like the ground was tilted under her feet.

He picked her up under the arms and the knees, running for the buggy. Luna's head spun; she looked over his shoulder and saw her bunker, blasted apart, and blooming flowers of fire reaching up for the sky.

Todd sat her in the buggy, climbing into the other side. He looked over the panel, confusion distorting his face as he tried to figure it out. Something in her mind snapped back into place and Luna twisted the ignition, fighting back tears as everything she had worked so hard on crumbled to ashes. Jamming her foot on the accelerator, the buggy leapt forward. Lucky yelped at their feet as she toppled against Todd's legs.

The second explosion threw the buggy into the air.

It was like time had stopped. Luna saw Todd, mouth wide in horror as the vehicle started to spin in the air. She saw Lucky, as Todd wrapped one arm around her and grabbed the rail of the buggy. When the sky and the earth switched places, she saw fire. Fire everywhere. She couldn't even begin to tell where her bunker used to be. The only thing she noticed were bits of droids scattered around, throwing acrid black smoke high into the air.

Everything was gone.

Luna grasped the rails of the buggy, closing her eyes as the noise of the world came crashing back to her. Then, they hit the ground. Luna and Todd screamed as they started to roll, slamming into something solid. Luna slid out of the side of the buggy, tumbling to the ground and coughing in the cloud of dust their crash had created.

Lucky jumped out beside her, barking so loudly that Luna's brain began to shake.

"Shh, Lucky, not so loud." Luna reached out a hand, gritting her teeth against the pain that radiated from every bone in her body. She didn't know if they had gotten all the droids that were chasing them. If they were safe. They needed to find somewhere out of the open.

"We need to keep going." Luna pushed herself to her elbows, groaning. Everything hurt. "Todd, we can't stay here. They might still be after us. Todd?" She looked around, her heart coming to a halt.

Lucky whined, crawling into Luna's lap and pushing her cold nose into Luna's palm.

"Todd?" Luna gently lifted the dog onto the ground, forcing herself to her feet. The world lurched around her. Luna folded, pressing her hands to her stomach as it threatened to upend itself.