Survive. Survive. Survive. Lilac’s mind screeched at her to run or do anything that would save her from death, but her body stood still. She was a small animal, freezing in the face of danger.

A man screamed as the light touched his arm. Lilac flinched, snapped out of her trance. She watched with horror as ashen grey spread from the point of contact to the whole body within a heartbeat. He froze momentarily and, with a silent whoosh, crumbled to ash.

Lilac blinked, registering the beam’s rapid, jerky movement as it consumed metres of space in a second. Her eyes fell on the pile of ash. Only one strong command issued itself into her psyche.

Run.

With a burst of frantic energy, she sprinted away, milliseconds before the beam of illumination reached the spot where she once stood. It was only then that a cacophony of screams erupted behind her.

Lilac pushed on, searching for any sanctuary, searching for any cover from the beams of death. She gasped as light missed her by a few centimetres.

“Help m-” A person leapt through the air, only to disintegrate in front of her face.

Lilac closed her eyes and coughed. Blinking rapidly, she reached out as the landscape blurred into greys and whites. Lights and buildings mashed into a blurred canvas of colour and shapes. The girl staggered and heaved. All around her were broken screams overlapping each other in one jagged blade of sound.

The girl blinked away the last of the grittiness from her eyes, only to stumble and fall onto the hard, ash-covered streets. A light passed in front of her as if she was invisible.

Lilac looked around, frowning at the people lining the cramped walls.

“What just-”

A man turned his head. “The lights only target that street and only that street. You had some dumb luck.”

Lilac sighed and propped herself on the cold concrete walls. Turning to the side, she watched people turn to ash one by one before even having the chance to scream. She averted her eyes. Moments later, a high-pitched whine arced through the air.

The girl looked back once more and watched as the lights stopped before advancing. Only this time, they headed in a different direction.

A voice beside her yelled.

“Run! They’re heading toward us!”

Lilac attempted to stand up, staggering as her trembling legs protested against their prolonged use. With uneven steps, she followed the hurrying stream of people as they took a sharp turn left. The distance between her and the others widened. The girl gritted her teeth and reached out. A harsh syllable scraped against her throat.

“Wait!”

Everyone continued running straight into the darkness.

Lilac pursed her lips, suppressing the need to weep. What else did she expect? Taking a deep, shuddering breath, she continued forward.

A light passed right in front of her, millimetres from vaporising her face.

Lilac gulped and froze as the beating of her heart pounded in her ears. It shot off to the left, leaving the street in half-darkness. She turned back, watching as another light approached her alleyway. Her legs shook violently, and tears of bitter desperation made a slow crawl down her cheek.

The girl promptly collapsed, her body refusing to listen. The beam of illumination lit up the alleyway, blindingly bright. Metres of space were all that stood between her and oblivion.

Lilac looked down and smiled faintly at the sleeping Chickadee. Without a sigh, she closed her eyes. Surviving was exhausting. Perhaps, at last, she could get some rest.

A high-pitched whine filled the air, and then darkness. With a snap and a boom, something fell with a metallic clutter. Footsteps approached, loud and fast.

“Mestiire! Was that a good idea?”

Lilac opened her eyes at the short sharp command. She squinted into muted darkness as the heavy footsteps grew louder. The silhouettes of two men loomed above her. One of them crouched down and swiped upwards, making a blinding blue holoscreen flicker into existence. “Analytics says the DNA signature matches the target individual but this…person does not seem to be as they described.

A beep filled the air. The crouching man cursed and tapped a metal bangle on his wrist. Blue light filled the street as a holoprojection of a blank face came into view. “What is it?”

“Manager Mestiire, we have a situation.”

Mestiire sighed. “Then take care of it. Quickly. We might not be able to escape beyond this small window of time.”

There was a pause as the projected face looked around. "I don't-"

“Lorick! We are seventeen minutes from your position. The jammers won’t last forever. You need to find your own solution.”

The face frowned before nodding.

Mestiire closed his eyes and rubbed his forehead. “Do what you need to do. Just get out of there.” With that, the holoprojection flickered off. He opened his eyes, glancing at the man next to him. “What do we do now, Mr Sekravos? I say we leave the girl and run. Our window of time is also very limited.”

Sekravos sighed. “The Inquisitor stated-”

Mestiire stood up. “I don’t care what The Inquisitor said. It’s their fault that our city is in this state. It is their fault that we have to flee!”

There was another long moment of silence. “Mestiire, what was the result of your analytics?”

“Nothing that amounted to anything significant. The only thing that really stood out was the type of genetic modification the target individual possesses.”

Another light approached, and the two flattened themselves against the wall. Lilac closed her eyes, giving into exhaustion. A short, sharp command interrupted her descent into unconsciousness.

“Elaborate.”

“Genetic modification type I-08.5.”

“That makes no sense. That was outlawed how many decades ago?”

“Precisely.”

There was silence and then a prick of pain. Suddenly, something unbearably cold slipped under the girl’s skin, crawling up her body before it reached her head. The headache subsided, and the exhaustion disappeared. Lilac opened her eyes to a masked man.

“Mestiire, how long will this girl be conscious?”

Mestiire tapped on the metal bangle. “You have an estimated thirty seconds, tops. I couldn’t give her too much, not with her body in this state.”

The other masked man nodded. “Girl, I need you to answer my question, and I need you to answer them now. Do you understand?”

Lilac frowned and nodded.

Lilac blinked and turned her attention back to the man. “Have you heard of The Inquisitor?”

Lilac shook her head. She closed her eyes, sighing as the exhaustion flooded her mind.

“How is this possible?”

“That’s why I said we leave and go! We have only twenty minutes left. Are you still-”

“Okay, just one last question.”

Lilac opened her eyes.

The man tilted his head. “What is your name?”

Lilac opened her mouth and closed it. She opened it once more. “Lilac.”

The two men froze. Mestiire opened up his holoprojector. “It matches the target name. Now what?”

The other man stood up. “Use your PTD to transport the girl and her companion to medical facility H-125. I want you to find Lorick and escape with him. I’ll be leaving once I receive the information promised.”

“But sir-”

“Now! If The Inquisitor is right, we have nothing to lose and everything to gain.”

There was silence.

Lilac flinched as the man threw a ball of metal at her head. Light exploded from the device. Red illumination burnt her retinas before exhaustion and pain smothered her consciousness.