10K.

     "Fuck it, I'm tired of this shit," Niki said. "I'm going for it."

     "I was afraid you were going to say that," Trevor replied.  

     They'd been hacking away at those who attacked them for a good fifteen minutes by that time. They were within six feet of the exit now, but two dozen derelicts with laser whips still surrounded them.

     Niki leaped into a clot of six of them, her laser whip whipping. As she did, she dodged each of their zizzing whips.​

     Fuck, Trevor thought. There are just too many of them. One of those whips is going to catch Niki sooner or later if I don't jump in.

     He hit two of them with stun-lines. He went sideways on his anti-gravs, and, as he did, he got his own laser whip whipping, catching the legs and thighs of several of their assailants. 

     They yelped, and their laser whips went wild. For one terrifying moment, Trevor saw nothing but laser flash, and he felt certain one was going to, at least, nick him. 

     Didn't happen. So close, though.

     Both Niki and Trevor dove for the exit blocked by a mass of attackers. The exit was no larger than a normal door in a normal home. They got to within touching distance of the door when they realized they could go no further. It was just too clogged with other assailants flooding in.

     "Bomb blast," Niki said.

     "No!" Trevor roared back. "Let me do it!"

     Too late. Niki dove for the center of the thickest knot of attackers she saw.

     And off she went like a grenade.

     She had her laser whip out and her laser blade and her wrist blades, and she sent her stun-lines flying, and she flipped this was and that to strike at everybody on all sides. Those around her either had to attack or flee, and enough of them fled for Trevor to, at last, zip out the exit. 

     Only he didn't go.

     He wasn't about to leave his partner behind while he escaped.

     He got in the doorframe of the exit and did a little bomb blast of his own. 

     And, man, those whips were zizzing by that time.

     One made a one-inch slash along Trevor's forearm. 

     Yeow!

     He'd already taken a couple of slashes eight thousand years before, yet still only that morning, and they worked him, too.

     Shit!

     Still, his efforts created a space for Niki to scoot out with Trevor.

     Now they were both outside.

     Although they were still being attacked from all sides, Niki managed to do a quick scan of her surroundings.

     And, holy shit. 

     "This fight's just getting started," Niki said.

​     "Where the fuck ​are we?" Trevor yelled. 

CONTINUE