Please note that this is the rough draft, so any input on improving the quality of my writing is welcome.

Escape

“Good night, O’mes.”
“Good night, father. I wish we could do more. Why do the people we elected ignore us? What have we done?”
O’mes Mentris looked up at his father and noticed the disgust on the man’s face as he brought up the recent actions of their government leaders. Several new laws made no sense, but the one which hurt the most had affected their family in a horrible way. Mila’ra, Omes’ second sister, had vanished after a new edict about religious charities became law and remained missing for over a week. When anyone attempted to inquire after her, the house server would respond by saying that she couldn’t be located. The Mentris family wanted to know if she’d been arrested or fled, but no reports on what had happened to the charity she’d been with could be found in the Jolnarkan Federation records.
“I don’t know. But good always triumphs over evil. Remember, it is better if one person dies than if an empire or federation wallows in disbelief. We must all do things we find unpleasant at times, no matter who we are — you, me, your brothers and sisters, and even your mother.”
His father’s comment sent chills down his back and he felt his horn quiver with fear. His father, however, seemed steadfast and unperturbed, and his horn seemed firm and motionless.
“Even if it means losing Mila’ra?”
His father nodded. “Yes, even if it includes losing Mila’ra. Or if it means losing your mother, me, Naha’ni, Qr’al, Kl’an, or even Peru’ni. The most important thing you can do it remain true to who you are, O’mes. Stay true to what your mother and I have taught you and refuse to allow yourself to fall victim to the temptations of the evil ones.”
“Thanks, dad. But what if Mila’ra is dead?”
“Then she died doing what she knew to be right, O’mes. Now let yourself relax and get some sleep, okay?”
O’mes lay back against his pillow and nodded. “Yes, dad.”
His father left the bedroom, closing the door shield behind him, and the security plate shut after him, the shield dropping again after it did. The lights then went out and O’mes lay back, listening to the silence, and closed his eyes.

The sounds of a loud siren woke O’mes with a start, the blaring noise of the house security systems announcing danger to everyone inside. Although groggy, he felt the need to get out of bed without delay and find out what had happened. He dragged himself out of his bed and pulled on his bathrobe, not bothering to tie it closed, and went to his bedroom window, looking out across the back yard, but saw nothing outdoors. Opening the window, however, he heard a great deal of ruckus, albeit muted, indicating the danger came from the front of the house. In spite of these noises sounding like people yelling, however, the structure of the noise came closer to resembling fighting animals than anything coherent enough to be intelligent.
Fear began building up within him, allowing his adrenaline to pull him out of his fatigue and with this increased awareness, he pressed his hand to the security panel next to his bed and requested an image of the surrounding property. A schematic of the outside yard appeared before him, showing scenes similar to what he suspected, with large groups of people entering the property through a breach in the outside wall and pressing their way toward the house. He saw that two sizable bands had broken off from the main body and now attacked the barrier between the front and back yards of the house, seeking to break through, but the majority of the assailants attacked the main building. Teams armed with what appeared to be crude weapons had gathered around the front and garage doors, as well as each of the forward facing windows and now beat at these mercilessly.
Not bothering to determine more, O’mes shoved his feet into his shoes, grabbed the backpack with his emergency supplies, and opened up his bedroom door plate. To his left, he saw Kl’an doing the same, O’mes’ younger older brother similarly attired, so he walked over to the older son and they, together went to the door of their youngest sibling, their sister Peru’ni. Her bedroom, being in the front of the house, unlike theirs, situated in such a way as to make it easier for her to see the assailants. But as Kl’an tried opening the door, as he should have been able to, due to the emergency, it remained fixed in its closed state. No sounds of protective shields being raised or lowered came, nor did the noises made by the security plates sliding in or out of position occur.
“Peru’ni, open up,” Kl’an said.
“It won’t open. I’ve tried several times. I keep getting ‘access denied’ messages. Can you fly your car up to my window?”
“Too many bad guys out there,” Kl’an said. “Tell you what, I’ll go out to my car, then let you know I’m there and you can send me a one time access code for the field. I’ll tell the house teleporter to make a portal between your bedroom and my car.”
“Sounds good. I’ll get my things ready, then. See you in a few minutes.”
O’mes looked at the house security map again to see if the assailants had been able to break through to the back yard, finding they hadn’t, but had a chance to succeed within a few minutes.
“We have to hurry. They’re getting through the back wall.”
The two boys rushed to the stairs and descended, skipping steps as they rushed to the bottom, soon reaching the ground floor, arriving just as the sound of breaking glass rang through the air. Some of the assailants had broken one of the inside panes and, O’mes suspected, would make it inside within a minute or two. The sound came from the parlor, so he and Kl’an made a dash for the dining hall and from there toward the back door. At the door, Kl’an put his hand to the security plate, giving the order for the door to open, then the two boys rushed through and started for the older child’s car. The door they had just used slammed shut, as they ran.
A new alarm sounded and O’mes again looked at the house security map, discovering problems with security, though not yet enough to threaten them directly, though more strength seemed to have been introduced to the intensity of the assailants’ behavior. He estimated a minute before they would end up with no other option than to flee without their sister. They reached the vehicle as he examined the map, but his horn began quivering as it had before, indicating he had some reason to be afraid of something, though he didn’t know exactly what. If the intruders had managed to make in inside, he knew that a group of invaders wouldn’t hesitate to send someone into the backyard. The boys would need to have escaped the estate by then, safely with Peru’ni, he hoped.
“Wall’s been breached. Can’t wait. Fly to the roof and open there.”
Kl’an shook his head. “Can’t. They’ll throw stuff. Still too dangerous. Neighbor’s roof. No baddies there, I hope.”
They climbed in and Kl’an started the engine, but just before he lifted off, something appeared in front of the ship. Looking up, the boys saw themselves facing an android that looked to be about three times taller than a large man, and it grabbed the front of their car with its arms, lifting them up until they came face to face with it. The face appeared to be that of a nightmare, something both boys had heard of, but never imagined could be real. Kl’an tried backing away, but the vessel refused to respond to his commands, yet it returned no errors. O’mes had heard of the Karah, but he had never imagined they could be real, yet he seemed to see one now. Worse, the nightmare he experienced did not come to an end, indicating truth to what he believed he now saw. A voice then began to speak, one deep, harsh, and metallic, further enforcing his many fears.
“I am Karah, but you do not need to fear. I have a message for Ultra King. You will deliver it to him as soon as you can. I, Mallis, have discovered a way to break the curse of loyalty. Now get out of here, and remember what your father said. Do not wait for your sister! Go! Now!”
“Who is this Ultra King?” Kl’an said. “I’ve never heard of him.”
The being released their vessel and Kl’an’s directions began to be obeyed. The ship started to back away quickly, so Kl’an directed it to rise so they would crash into the house. He gained control within seconds and set a course for the house shielding, setting the shield to allow them to pass, and they flew through without any difficulty. Two vehicles began tracking them, both resembling vessels driven by police, but neither turned its lights on, nor did the ships attempt to hail them. Kl’an, having no idea why they might be tracked, began searching for a landing site where they would be safe long enough to collect their sister, despite the android’s warning.
O’mes also looked across the city, hoping to help his brother, but the scene below him looked disheartening. Thousands of fires had been set all around the city and bright flashes of light indicated explosions, some caused by the flames, others looking to be igniting new sources. Any direction he turned his head showed more evidence of arson, and he could now see that trying to rescue Peru’ni from a neighbor’s roof would be impossible. Thugs had entered the yards of their neighbors and much like his home, many of their neighbors homes suffered brutal assaults as well and it appeared that thugs had gotten into several. They would have to find an unaffected location somewhere, but O’mes noticed that several city parks had been set on fire, making landing at those locations impossible.
“Peru’ni,” O’mes said, “we’re sorry, but it’ll be a little longer. The city is a disaster. There are arsonists everywhere.”
“Error, no such person is known to exist,” the computer said.
O’mes thought something sounded strange about the response, other than the obvious denial of his sister’s existence, but he didn’t try to work out what.
“What do you mean? I must talk to Peru’ni Mentris. Please contact her.”
“Error, no such person is known to exist,” the computer said. “No family Mentris is found in our data base. Please check the name and try again. Perhaps attempt to contact another database that might have access to this name.”
“O’mes, that’s the car computer. Something’s wrong. The house server isn’t responding.”
His brother’s report alarmed him. Without access to a house server, neither he nor Kl’an could be contacted, though on the plus side, they couldn’t be tracked by means of communications updates, either. But without a house server, they would also be unable to contact anyone else without going to see them in person, which would not be easy in a city under the assault of violent people. O’mes began to fear that they would have to use violence to survive that evening, and he had no wish to engage in such activities, especially after the stress of escaping from their own home. He knew that Kl’an could navigate well and hoped he would be capable enough to reach safety, though where they would find security remained a mystery to O’mes. He could see no harbor within the city below them, set aflame by violent and uncaring mobs who seemed bent on destruction.
“They can’t have destroyed it that quickly,” O’mes said. “It would take something very strong, like a lightning bolt, to take it off line. Or they would have to disable the house reactor and the battery keeping it up.”
“Maybe it was this Mallis. He might be able to do such a thing, if he’s really Karah, and if he really is able to do what the stories say he can.”
Kl’an’s suggestion sunk to the pit of O’mes’ stomach. If the Karah could do what his brother believed, the two of them might be in deep trouble. The horn on O’mes’ head began feeling numb as he began thinking of his youngest sister, one of the sweetest, kindest people he’d ever known. A girl who would give up the very coat on her back to someone in need, something she’d often done during her childhood. Although his father had warned him that she might have to die in order to save Jolna, coping with that potential loss felt much harder than anything he could imagine. And now it seemed that they had lost their parents as well.
“Mom! Dad! Peru’ni! No!”