A few moments ago...

Echo places his father down on the floor of his bedroom, turns, and slams the door to the hallway shut. The door bangs close with a massive thud, which shakes the walls. Turning around once again, Echo sprints for the window and grabs the latch near the bottom.

As Echo pulls up on the window to open it, Vikta says from his spot on the floor, “Grab the physics book that I gave you for your birthday. It’s extremely important.”

Echo turns his head as the window opens and asks, “What’s so important about it? It’s just a book.”

Vikta barks, “It’s not just a book! It’s so much more than that. Don’t question me, dammit. We need that book!”

The bedroom door bursts open and rips itself from the hinges. The door crashes into the floor next to Vikta and slides towards the window. The door clips Echo on the ankle, but he quickly steps up onto the door to avoid getting tripped up. The wind howls through the front of the house, down the hallway, and out the window. Moments later, Lazarus' cape flies down the hallway and past Echo's head. The cape is pitched out the window by the wind and disappears into the night. Turning back around, Echo noticed Andrea at the end of the hallway taking up a defensive fighter's stance and she glances over at him for a moment.

Echo doesn't waste any time and runs over to his desk. He grabs the closed physics book that he had used as a pillow the night before. The book was in immaculate condition and was bound in a black hardcover binding. On the front, in gold lettering, it merely said ‘Advanced Physics: A Master Guide to the Universe’. Jogging back over to Vikta, Echo picks him up off the ground and supports him once again with his shoulders.

Vikta winces as his frozen ankle strikes the floor and sends a hot stinging sensation up his leg. The two of them hobble over to the window. Echo helps his father through the gap, first by helping his busted leg through the window and then the rest of him. Vikta promptly falls over into the mud and lands on his side. As he fell, he accidentally put pressure on his bad ankle and yelped in pain.

Echo clambers out the window with ease and picks Vikta up from the mud. His father is covered head to toe in the thick mud with a sour expression of discomfort. Vikta's ankle was clearly bothering him every step of the way. The large man grunted each time his busted foot grazed against the ground. The two of them make their way to the back of the house uncontested. With no soldiers in sight, they begin making their way over to the train storage building. Halfway to the building and a gust of wind slams into their backs as the storm reaches a crescendo.

The wind flings Echo and Vikta face first into the mud, covering them completely. With his father's arm still draped over his shoulder, Echo helps Vikta up just in time for a long piece of wood to smack against Echo’s back. The hardwood makes a loud slapping sound as it hits the young man and he flinches from the pain. Luckily, the wood hadn’t done any damage to him other than to his pride. Echo turns his head to see where the piece of wood had come from and gapes in astonishment. His house was completely gone. The wind had shredded the house apart, and massive pieces of wall and ceiling were hurtling in their general direction.

Echo screams out as his pushes his father back into the mud, “GET DOWN!”

The massive debris narrowly misses them as it flies overhead. A few pieces of thick plywood fall on top of them, pushing them further into the mud before being picked up again by the wind and hurled away at top speed. Shingles and wood whipped over their heads, traveling at deadly speeds from being launched by the extreme winds. Waiting for a few moments for the wreckage to pass by, Echo then props himself up on his hands and looks behind once again to make sure there wasn’t any more debris flying at them. The lightning flashed overhead, and he could see Lazarus and Andrea already in a heated fight. The Skera seemed to get the upper hand quickly as he dodged Andrea's first blow and slammed into her chest with a knee strike. Echo watched his mother hunch over and fall to the floor. His eyes widened in shock at the sight of his mother being brutally attacked. Lazarus just stood there, shouting at Andrea. At this distance, Echo was unable to make out what they were saying through the rushing winds.

Vikta picks his head up from the mud and screams over the wind, “We can’t stay around here any longer! It's too dangerous!”

Echo nods his head at Vikta and pushes himself up from the mud. Quickly losing strength from carrying his father, Echo struggles to pick up Vikta from the mud. It takes longer than before, and Echo stumbles a few times when the wind blows harder than expected. Finally, with much effort, the two of them stand up together and quickly limp over to the train storage entrance. Echo swings the door open, and a loud shriek pierces his ear. Echo lifts an arm to reach over and turn off the alarm, but Vikta sharply smacks Echo’s hand away. Undeterred by the loud noise, Echo and Vikta then limp over to the train engine cabin.

Climbing up first, Echo helps his father up by grabbing his hands and pulling upwards. Vikta hops up the ladder with his one good leg as he uses Echo to balance himself. Once aboard, they made their way into the cabin of the train. Safely inside the quiet cabin compartment, Vikta says, “We need that alarm to go off. They didn’t cut the power to this building because it basically runs off of wind and solar energy. The alarm will notify Launch Central of the break-in. Not that they can do anything about it now, but at least they’ll know something’s wrong. We need to get this train moving as soon as possible. Andrea can’t hold off Lazarus for very long. Hand me the book, kiddo.”

Echo helped his father sit in the passenger seat on one side and then sat down in the train conductor’s chair. As Vikta gets comfortable in his chair, Echo hands over the book and again is astonished to find it completely clean. The book was untouched by the mud, and not a single crease was to be found on its surface. The mud just fell off the surface and wouldn't leave behind a single mark. Vikta brushed the cover with his muddy hand. The mud from his hand transferred over to the surface of the book but slipped off with ease and dropped onto the floor.

Vikta noticed Echo’s reaction and said, “Did you see that? Completely clean. I told you it’s not just an old physics book. This one is special.”

Echo tore his eyes away from the strange book and began to power up the train. Looking up from the dashboard, Echo noticed that the door covering the tracks was still closed. Echo jogged out of the cabin, jumped down from the walkway on the side of the train, and sprinted towards the massive steel door. Going over to one side of the door, Echo found another black box just like the alarm box on the other side. Flipping open a flap on the front, Echo punched in a code, and the huge metal door began sliding open. Sprinting back to the train, Echo hopped up onto its side and opened the cabin door.

Sitting down in the conductor’s chair once again, Echo pushed forward on the acceleration lever, and the train lurched forward. Echo pushed the lever all the way up to max speed, but the train was slow to respond. With eight shipment containers attached to the back of the train engine, there was literal tons of mass to pull. Once the train fully exited the building, it rapidly gained momentum. Vikta and Echo were finally making their grand escape but left behind a piece of themselves with Andrea. Both of them yearned to turn back and save her, but neither of them spoke about it. Echo began sobbing as the train picked up speed. Vikta drooped his head is disdain and regret. There was nothing more they could do for now. All they could do is escape their worst nightmare.