“Mom, what are you doing?!” Rami yelled, as Orion’s vision blurred. He told himself this wasn’t real, despite the obvious evidence.

His mom continued to talk to the person on the phone until Rami ripped it out of her hands and threw it against the wall. It broke in half.

“I will not stand for this in my house. In our house. You go to your room right now, Rami. And you need to leave immediately, Orion.”

“What did you do?! You can’t kick him out! He didn’t do anything!”

“I saw it with my own eyes, Rami. I came out to check on the two of you once I saw lightning strike near the barn, and you two were kissing. He turned you into a homosexual. He turned you to sin.”

“He did none of that. I was already gay before he crashed into that wheat field!”

“I know that’s just the devil talking through you. As soon as the pastor finds out about this, we will get you fixed. Now go to your room.”

“Mom, what did you do?”

“I reported him. With that helpline. Syndra’s men will come to pick him up shortly.”

“They’ll kill him.”

She looked dead at Orion. All the warmth he’d seen her have before was drained away. “Then they’ll be doing our country a favor.”

Rami’s eyes turned to horror as she spoke, and his dad came down the stairs, shotgun in hand. Orion’s apparently spry fight-or-flight kicked in, and he immediately booked it for the door. He had barely dived down the patio stairs when the blast went off, blowing holes through their front door.

The Clockwork clicked into action, charging at a speed Orion hadn’t seen yet towards the front door. It burst through it with intent and disappeared inside.

“Stop!” Orion yelled after it. Rami was next to appear, throwing a jacket on and running out of the now shattered doorframe and almost stumbling down the slick staircase. He then helped Orion to his feet.

“We have to go,” he whispered, his voice shaky. “We have to get you out of here.”

He grabbed Orion by the arm and started dragging him out to the field. Eventually Orion got over the initial shock of being shot at and scrambled to the field with him. Heavy stomps behind them indicated his protectorate was following.

Another shotgun blast sounded off, and some projectiles could be heard pinging off of the Clockwork’s body. The rest came nowhere near the group, as they had gotten way out of range.

“What are we going to do?” Orion asked, slowing down. The rain wasn’t making this any easier for them.

“You have to go. Leave and don’t come back. They’ll kill you if you do.”

“I can’t leave you here. They might kill you, too.”

“They think this is all your fault. If I lie enough and follow along, I should make it out without them doing too much to me.”

“I don’t want to risk that. What if I never see you again?”

“You will. You promised me. We’ll travel the world together.”

Amongst all the other sounds, a steady beating noise filled the air. They looked up to see a few lights illuminating three or four helicopters, which were slowly descending, as well as the familiar shape of cloudships a bit higher.

He was here.

“We don’t have time to debate this anymore,” Rami said. “Fly away. Get out of here.”

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Orion looked between Rami and the Clockwork. “We could both fit if we hold on tight.”

He felt like he was pleading, and it was borderline desperate. He didn’t want to do this again, especially alone. Especially knowing what Rami’s parents were evidently capable of.

“Go.” He gave him a deep kiss as the first helicopter landed. Five armed men hopped out and rushed their way, closing in quickly.

“You need to go, too,” Orion said, looking around. Two other helicopters landed, effectively boxing the three of them in. Rami threw his head back, clearly not registering this information.

The Clockwork’s whirring reached a point where it sounded more like whistling. A man approached them, clearly above the rest of them, but not Syndra. He wore traditional military garb, including some sort of beret.

“Orion Muldane,” the man said, arms behind his back. “It’s about time someone found you.”

“Leave him alone!” Rami yelled out viciously. “He has done nothing wrong!”

“My employer would tend to disagree,” the man continued. “Evading our patrols for a couple of days. Hiding away with some family stupid enough to take you in. Only you couldn’t control yourself, could you? You got sloppy, and you got too intimate with their son. And look where it’s gotten you.”

“Who are you?” Orion asked, stalling for an idea that wouldn’t come to mind.

“The name is General William McIntosh. Head of Syndra’s arms unit and in charge of getting you to him, dead or alive. Well, actually, you’re the least important part of this equation, other than your little fling here.”

“Get us out of here, Clockwork,” Orion said, grabbing hold of its arm.

“I wouldn’t recommend that. You will be in for a world of hurt. All three helicopters, ten men, and five cloudships are heavily armed. You wouldn’t make it fifteen feet into the air.”

The rest of the men all closed in, weapons pointed. It really did feel like a dead end. Still, the Clockwork revved up, its feet slowly extending to reveal the rockets on the bottoms. Orion adjusted himself onto its back, where he found two spots to wrap his fingers around.

“I won’t hesitate to have them shoot,” the general said.

“Sounds like you are to me,” Orion said. He reached out for Rami.

Rami looked around. It was either stay low, risk whatever the soldiers were going to do to him and whatever his parents were going to do to him, or try to escape with Orion.

Whatever it was that made him change his mind, he reached out for Orion’s hand. They clasped together, and the Clockwork started a slow ascent.

And then the bullets rang out. Most pinged off of the metal beast, but Rami screamed out in pain and let go of Orion’s hand, falling a few feet to the ground. He continued to yell as the Clockwork continued to rise and the bullets continued to fly.

“No!” Orion yelled, arm still outstretched toward the ground. His heart dropped, and he felt sick.

They went blasting through the sky, up and out of the range of the guns on the ground. The helicopters rose back up after them, and the cloudships took notice.

A heavy mortar attack soared by them in the air from one of the cloudships. The Clockwork dodged to the side, nearly causing Orion to fall off. He quickly grabbed hold of the Clockwork with his free hand again, gripping tightly out of fear and anger.

More attacks rained down from the five cloudships as the Clockwork rose to their level, dodging the heavy fire while taking the lighter bullets in nearly full volume, seemingly unscathed.

The helicopters, much more agile than their airship counterparts, were hot on their tail, machine guns roaring. They were much less accurate, but Orion was on full display for them.

The Clockwork must have realized they were in serious trouble, because it kicked into overdrive, its rockets roaring hot white and launching the two of them across the countryside horizontally. The ground below them moved faster than Orion had ever seen before, and for a moment, he thought they were actually going to escape.

Until he heard the scream of the first missile. It came up from their left side and nearly blasted them out of the sky, but the Clockwork dipped down right at the last second. The missile got confused and did a bit of a loop in front of them until it had fully recalculated. Then, it repeated the process.

Orion figured they had to have been flying a kilometer about every fifteen seconds. At this rate, they’d hit the mountains in no time at all. Maybe even too fast. All of that was no worry, of course, if the missiles got to them first. A second one screeched behind them and to their right.

The Clockwork went almost immediately vertical, narrowly dodging another explosive ending but giving its passenger a serious case of vertigo in the process. The missiles took about two seconds to react and also recalculated to move straight up.

The duo traveled upward for close to ten seconds before the Clockwork once again appeared to have a new idea. Its head rotated fully around to look at Orion before it raised its arms, turned off the rockets on its feet, and activated two previously unused rockets in its hands.

The sudden jolt made Orion’s stomach flip, but now they were plummeting faster than the rockets could account for. With that two-second delay, they connected in midair where the duo used to be, and exploded in a fiery mess, dulled by the surrounding rain. Orion could feel the heat of it on his fingers and face, but was otherwise perfectly fine.

He looked back at where they had been. They were a far distance away now from the farm and the people chasing after them. The Clockwork hovered in place with its arms for a moment before darting off north, dipping in and out of clouds for invisibility.