Existence - Millennia to Mars

II

Matthew and Sam had grown up together and Sam still remembered the day that Matthew's dad went missing. They had been in middle school and the worst part of the devastation on Earth had been enveloping their nation like a wildfire.

Everyone was always talking about the world ending, and one day after classes, Matthew had brought Sam over to his house to play video games, only find Matthew's mother sobbing at the kitchen table with the phone in front of her. 

"What's wrong mom?" Matthew said as he walked cautiously over to his mother.

"It's your father..." She choked out the words between heavy sobs, "he's gone..."

"Gone? Gone where?" Matthew's voice raised.

"Their research, Hydra... It's happening. He tried to stop it and they wouldn't listen...."

"What are you talking about mom? Dad's project for the water company? Where's dad mom?"

"He left this." His mom pushed a note across the table towards Matthew.

Sam watched as Matthew picked up the note and read it.

"This says he's gone into hiding mom. Gone where? Mom answer me! Where's dad, what's going on!" Matthew had fear in his voice now.

"Matthew, they're going to kill him. I just know it." His mom fell into heavier sobs and reached for a tissue to blow her nose, her hands were shaking violently.

"Who's going to kill dad?" Matthew practically screamed at his mother as the panic within him rose to an intense level.

"Hydrotics." Is mother whispered so quietly that Sam could hardly hear her.

Suddenly there was a shattering of glass from the sliding glass door beside where Matthew's mother sat at the dining room table. Something whizzed through the window and there was a sound of silent impact into his mother's head. Sam watched in horror as she went silent and slumped down to the ground, her head falling grotesquely to its side and rolling back and forth as her lifeless body fell out of its chair.

"Mom!" Matthew's scream penetrated the air and he moved towards his mother's body.

"No!" Sam yelled and grabbed him back, pulling him down to the ground as two more bullets whizzed into the dining room through the shattered sliding glass door.

Matthew and Samuel hit the ground and started moving out of the dining room towards the hallway where there weren't any windows.

"We have to get out of here, fast." Sam said as they crawled on their elbows and knees through the hallway.

"My dad... Mom..." Matthew starting shaking slightly.

"Focus on getting out of here alive Matt. Hey wait, where is your dad's office?" Sam had a sudden idea.

"It's down the hall here, the second door on the left." Matthew was close to tears, his voice cracking up as he spoke.

"Wait here. I'll be right back." Sam looked at Matthew to give him some reassurance, but Matt wasn't looking at him. Turning towards the house, Samuel hurried into it and kept low to the floor, avoiding the windows as he searched through Marcus's desk.

He found a paper file in the top drawer that was full of documents, and beside it, a tiny little USB drive that had one word written on it, "Hydrotics".

Grabbing up the USB drive and pushing shut the drawer, Sam headed back out into the hallway. He found Matthew sitting there with his knees pulled up against his chest, sobbing and shaking.

"We have to get out of here Matt. Whoever killed your mom is still out there. Where are the keys to your parent's car?"

Sam was trying to be brave and thinking as clearly as he could he began to formulate an escape route. It was just like playing a video game he told himself. The killers had come to silence the people who knew something, and to take whatever secret information that Matt's dad had harvested. Sam planned on getting out of this house with the USB and seeing what it was that they wanted to kill Matthew's parents for.

"They're hanging on a hook near the garage door." Matthew was going into shock it seemed, and it was going to be up to Samuel to get them out of here alive.

"Ok. Listen to me Matt. We are going to go get those keys, get into the car and get the hell out of here, fast. You got it?"

"Ok..." Matthew wiped his nose on his sleeve and took a deep breath.

"Let's go."

Samuel turned back down the hallway, going back the way they had come and heading towards the garage. The house was silent, but maybe it was too silent, Sam thought bitterly as he lead the way to the garage.

He saw the keys sitting on a hook beside the door that led out to the garage. Standing up, he grabbed the keys and opened the garage door slowly, not sure what awaited them on the other side.

The only thing in the garage was Matthew's parents' grey BMW. The boys headed over to the car and Sam hit the unlock button. He climbed into the driver's seat and Matt got into the passenger seat.

"Do you even know how to drive?" Matt looked over at Sam and for a second it was though they were just kids again.

"No, but I've played enough Need for Speed to figure it out I think. Gas, brake, drive. Right?" Sam looked at Matt and for a moment they both smiled.

"Let's go then." Matt's smile faded as he reached up to the visor and hit the garage door opener.

The groaning of metal filled the garage as the doors slid upwards, letting the afternoon sun into the dark garage. Sam pushed the key into its slot and hit the ignition button. Nothing happened.

"I think you have to have your foot on the brake pedal when you push it." Matthew suggested from the passenger side.

Samuel pressed his foot down on the gas and pushed the ignition again. The car's motor rushed to life, growling and revving. The boys scanned the street in front of them and saw nothing but the usual day to day life, there was a lady pushing a baby carriage and an older car driving down the street. Samuel looked down at the driving stick and pushed it into drive. Pressing the gas, he sped out of the garage a turned right onto the street in front of them.

Half expecting someone to start chasing them, the two boys kept looking behind them as Sam tried to blend in with the other traffic. Years of playing race car video games had actually given him a steady hand at driving, although he wasn't able to conceal that fact that it was his first time on the road. He was cutting corners and slamming on the brakes frequently as he sped away from the crime scene that had once been Matthew's family home.

"What did you grab from my father's office Sam?" Matthew hadn't begun to breakdown again yet and he had dried his face of all the tears.

"A USB drive labelled "Hydrotics". Whoever killed your parents was looking for your father's research, I'm sure of it." Samuel sounded wise beyond his years as he focused on the road and getting them to safety.

'Although,' he thought, 'where was it safe for them now?'