#fridayflash "Run!"

*Today's flash is still inspired by the world of my Phoenix Trilogy, except over 3000 years in the future. It takes place about 15 years after last week's #fridayflash "Consequences" and focuses on the girl Apenth saved. Enjoy!*

Run!

Light blasted inches above my head. Stone crumbled and coated my hair. The shockblaster's beams missed again. My feet flew over the pavement. I longed for my hoverboard, but it was too late.

We just had to run.

"Come on, honey, hurry up!" My mother glanced back at me. Her eyes wide in unspoken fear. I'd never seen her afraid before, and it jumpstarted my heart to pound more erratically.

I turned my head. Three guards were on our heels. One raised a slender, elongated weapon. The word "firegun" popped into my mind a second before a stream of flames erupted from it. Heat lapped at me. I smelled smoke.

"Phoenix!" Dad's voice cried in alarm as he patted my long hair. My singed hair.

Hurt and anger sat bitter in my stomach. I opened my mouth to cuss them out when dad grabbed my arm and jerked me forward.

Another shot from the shockblaster missed me.

The rotten smell of sewage wrinkled my nose, restricted my rapid breaths. We were nearing Lordéhi River. They would trap us between the city and the riverbank.

"Dad, we gotta find another way." My hand mumbled my words.

"Come on!" Mom looked at us.

Then, she slammed into an invisible wall.

"Mom!" I sprinted toward her as she slumped in the capture box. My fists pounded on solid air.

Dad shoved me away from it. "Keep running. Don't stop."

"But mom—"

"Don't stop." He pushed me again, and I stumbled and fell.

I saw a capture skid across the pavement.

"Dad, no!"

I turned to grab him, but the metal capture disc danced along the cobblestones. It landed at his foot. A second later the invisible glass enclosed him in. He struck it to no avail.

"Run, run, run!" He mouthed the word over and over. I couldn't hear him, but I knew.

I knew.

With tears blurring my vision, I ran.