The two kids, whose faces were spread all over town, made their way to the factory without getting caught, but as they reached the final house before the substantial brick building, a plain area was to be crossed next, with two inevitable obstacles. 

The first hurdle to pass was the skin-melting rain, and the second would be reaching one of the vehicles without getting noticed by the three men standing inside an open garage, guarding the spacecrafts. 

They were standing in the dry open room while chatting about irrelevant matters. From far away, Finn heard only a portion of what the guys were discussing, but it was audibly not work-related and for a moment Finn's mind separated these men from the soldier he had been chased by.  

These men seemed to be normal human beings, with families and with personal problems. One of them laughed about his colleague's tale, which left Finn to think. Could it be that those men were not the heartless beast he had thought of?

Lena's elbow prodded Finn. They were both crouching at the rear of a retired military truck, parked under the ruins of an old depot. Both were attentively inspecting their surroundings, still unheeded by anyone.

The soldiers' focus was on each other, while Finn's focus was on one of the spacecrafts which stayed hidden by a seaweed green tarpaulin. It had its place in the middle of the plain, right between three armed men and two guilty kids.

Finn wore the gas mask and pulled the sweatshirt down to cover all his knuckles, then he gave Lena a signal when they agreed that no one was looking into their direction. With their backs still bent, they rushed to the vehicle. 

Finn opened the door without lifting the plastic blanket and let Lena find her seat before Finn squeezed in. His long legs could hardly fit, and he felt his hair brush the ceiling. As soundlessly as possible, he closed the door behind him.

"Now what?" whispered Lena from the passenger seat.

The vehicle was no bigger than a car, with powerful engines on its bottom, and one large window stretching horizontally over the front, its vision still blocked by the tarp. 

Finn rubbed his hands against his pants to dry off from the burning water during taxing agony. 

Beneath the window, in front of their legs, was a mass of buttons, handles and levers, screens, and switches. Finn pushed the only button he recognized from his journey with Fortem, and a cyber voice greeted Finn with his full name. 

He was a long way from happy but smiled in satisfaction regardless.

"Lena, this is Una," introduced Finn, thankful for his luck. "She will be our pilot."

"Phineas Clarkson?" asked Lena, "Is that your name?"

"Indeed, it is." Finn removed the gas mask from his face and dropped it where he saw fit.

"How does it know your name?"

"I didn't know that it did. I was honestly just hoping for an autopilot, but the button must function with the scanning of fingerprints. Una knew me when I wore my suit in the rocket, yet I'm surprised its information transferred to this old thing."

"Old thing?"

"Absolutely. It looks like one of the early models. I bet they only use it as an emergency escape for their soldiers, in case of an evacuation."

One of the men shushed the others. "Did you hear something?"

"Good to know," said Lena scornful of irony, "that there are just enough of these to save our good friends (the guards), and no one else."

Neither had noticed how quiet their environment had become. The sound of pelting rain remained, but voices in the background had perished thoroughly. A shadow scurried by, and Lena froze her pose.

"Hey, Finn?" spoke Lena with low vocals, and without moving her lips, "Can you get us out of here? I think they heard us."

Finn grabbed the u-shaped steering wheel in a firm grip and voiced a command to Una. The engines turned on, causing all three of the men to bounce to safety. Once dealt with confusion, they raised their guns and began to shoot at the vehicle when it lifted off the ground.

"What's happening?" yelled one of the men.

Out of the dirt snatched the ropes, allowing the tarp to fall off the ship's roof as they rose higher. Finn's face was now apparent and recognized by the man standing in between the other two; Arrakis. 

Rage ruled his face. Green eyes and a clean shave did not hint towards his abhorrent and shameful personality, however, the blood on his hands did. He was young, only two years older than Finn, yet ranked higher than the older men he worked with. His body was built, and he cared to hide it as little as he cared to hide the tattoos that covered his arms and neck.

"Hold your fire!" screamed the guard on the left, "It's the white-haired boy and that brat of a thief!"

But the shooting continued.

"Arrakis, what are you doing! He's wanted alive, stop shooting at him!"

"I'm aiming for the engines! If they leave, we won't get the reward!"

Arrakis' hand drove through his messy brown hair when he lost the ship's sight in the thicket of clouds. Like a maniac, and unbothered by the rain, he bolted to one of the ships and ripped off its cover.

"What are you doing?" shouted one guard while the sky growled from thunder.

"I'm following them!" yelled Arrakis back at his workmate.

"Are you mad?"

"Yeah man, you'll crash that thing," agreed the other man in shock.

Without luck to persuade their leader to stay, the two fellows witnessed how Arrakis steered the ship mindlessly through the storm. Speechless, they returned to their post as if nothing had happened.

"We better inform that engineer guy," said one of the two guards and grabbed his radio.

"Dr. Clarkson?" asked the other guard, and tore the radio out of his colleague's hands. "No way! We won't say a word!"

"But—" the man scratched his head and stared perplexed, "he's waiting for his son to be found, and that kid was clearly his son."

"If anyone finds out we let them escape, we'll be fired, Thane. Got it?"

Thane nodded pie-faced.

While the tiny rocket pierced the clouds on an unpolished flight, Lena clutched her arms tight around Finn's right biceps and buried her head in the fabric of his sweatshirt, between his chest and shoulder.

As they exited a gray sea of aerosols, the movements smoothed and Finn looked behind him, where he saw the storm from outer space. The arms of a monstrous hurricane touched the city's border.

Astounded that they made it out alive, Finn exhaled the air he had been storing in his lungs. Without perceiving his own wounds, he looked after Lena first.

"Are you hurt?" asked Finn, her eyes remaining shut.

"Are we dead?"

"Of course not."

"Are you sure?" Her arms hugged his, like a snake winding around its victim.

"Yes," he laughed, "open your eyes."

Too frantic to open them both at once, she first peeked with one eye, and at the first sight, she jumped back into her seat to get a closer look at what lay on the other side of the glass.

"Do you like the view?" Finn asked Lena, and just like her, he was unable to look away.

She would have enjoyed raving about the stars, but she had never seen them before, and could not bring herself to say a word.

"You don't have to say it. I can see it by the way your eyes twinkle from the glut of joy."

From the corner of his eyes, he studied her looks and felt forced to admit that her eyes shone with a brilliance divergent to anything he had ever seen in a star. Simply brighter and more alive.

The display lit up red with the word caution blinking hysterically.

"Propellant tank damaged," said UNA as calmly as a lizard on a hot rock.

"What does that mean?" asked Lena.

"Um," Finn pressed his teeth together and tapped the display to access an image of the vehicle's anatomy.

"Main engine nozzle damaged," added UNA.

"Is the damage from the bullets? Finn?"

"Not good," said Finn under his breath."

"Please don't ignore me, I'm freaking out!"

"Our oxygen tank is at 50%."

"Already?" Lena swallowed what felt like an anchor. "How far is Kepler?"

"Far. Too far. But we don't have to go there anyway. We just have to get in touch with my father now, and he will come to get us." His fingers touched a button for commands; "Una, make contact with Fortem."

"Error. Satellite damaged."

"Yup, we're dead." Finn let his body fall back into the seat and gazed downhearted into the depths of darkness. 

Their shared silence was the unspoken acceptance of their bitter fate.