Memories came flooding back to Clayton in this moment; there was the birth of his daughter and her first birthday. Going further back there was the Christmas he got a puppy when he was 5, he had loved that dog which lived until he was 17. All of the amazing moments his daughter and father had together. He loved seeing those two like peas in a pod. He knew she would be well cared for in his father's hands.

Its amazing how fast your brain moves when you are about to die, especially staring down the barrel of a gun. His mind moved violently from memory to memory without a particular ordering. But as Clayton braced for the gunshot, he saw the gun fly out of the hands of his attacker. This left Clayton dazed and confused, in a complete state of stupor. What just happened? How am I still alive?

Maybe the cavalry had arrived. Maybe they had realized inside the building what was going on and had come outside to stop the militants. But this fast? It seemed unlikely. Clayton's mind was racing from thought to thought.

Finally as the shock of the situation Clayton sat up to look at what had happened outside his car window. As he looked down he saw a militant dressed in full assault gear, including a bullet proof vest, now laying face down on the ground. The blood pooling on the ground gave the sense that this militant was dead.

At that moment Clayton caught a glimpse at his savior. Partially expecting to see Samual, Clayton was shocked to see an attractive young female face. She was also dressed in full combat gear and she moved swiftly. She was quite young too, perhaps early 20's with long dark hair. Having spent much of his time in the Asian continent he was able to correctly identify her as Chinese. In that moment she appeared to him to be an angel. Maybe she was an angel, or maybe he was dead. No that was silly. Now he looked up as the bright light was briefly blocked by drones at that moment.

The woman came over and tapped on his window. Clayton still a bit stunned by who his savior was looked closely at her gestures.

"Open the door now if you want to live."

Did she really just say that? Well in any case who am I to argue at this point?

Clayton opened the door and jumped out of the car. At that moment he saw the woman tape something to the bottom of his car.

"You see that silver SUV at the corner of the trees? Run there now!"

"But I need t..."

"I said go NOW! You can not save your friends, it is too late."

Under normal circumstances Clayton would have insisted, but the last few moments of time had thrown him off balance. He was unable to put up a fight this time and he did as instructed. The woman followed close behind, peering over her shoulder periodically.

As Clayton and his savior made it to the car, suddenly a young man appeared with similarly colored hair, dressed in the same garb. He also looked to be in his early 20's. Clayton first reacted by reaching for his gun, but the woman grabbed ahold of his hand.

"It's OK, he is with me." She said.

Clayton relaxed.

"Now get in the back." She said sternly.

Clayton did as he was told.

"Picking up strays now?" The mysterious man said.

Stolen novel; please report.

"We came here to save people right? Whether it is 1 or 1 million it should not matter, all people deserve to be saved."

"What of the people inside?"

"You know as well as I do we can not save them. They are already dead. There were too many for us to stop."

As they were talking the two strangers had gotten in the car, with the woman in the drivers seat. They continued to talk as they drove off with screeching tires.

"I left a little present for them." She said as they drove off.

The screeching tires had alerted some of the attackers inside the NSA building to their presence. A few of them ran outside and as they ran toward the SUV were blown into the air by Claytons exploding car.

"Ha very nice, how many did you get sister?"

"I got 3 plus however many were caught in that blast."

"Great I got 2. Not nearly enough though."

"We did not have enough time to make more explosives, otherwise I would have blown the whole building when they went in. I knew they would send a smaller team here."

"You did sister, you know I have always trusted your judgement."

Clayton sat listening intently. In that moment he realized they were heading north.

"Wait, where are we going?" Clayton asked.

"North, specifically to a place in northern New York, far away from population centers." The woman replied.

"But my father and my daughter, I need to get them."

"Sister you know we need to get out of here now. It is too dangerous!" The man said as he set an object on the dashboard and pushed a button.

"That will only hold them off so long you know."

"I know brother, but this man needs his family. Besides he is NSA, he could be of use to us."

"Of use? You know we are up against the project right? How could anyone outside the project be of use?"

"Just trust me brother."

The woman turned to Clayton for a moment, keeping an eye on the road.

"Give me the address."

"335 Wood Street here in Fort Meade Maryland"

The woman dialed in the directions and finally allowed the car to take control of the driving.

"If we don't put it on autopilot that may give us away." The woman said while looking at her brother.

"I know, and perhaps our little side trip will add further confusion. The more confusion the better, they will be looking for us now."

"Please tell me about the program, I have spent years trying to learn more about it, or at least why two members of our agency died while searching for information about it." Clayton said, surmising that they were talking about the very same program.

"In good time and when we are safely away from here. For now we must focus on getting us all to safety, and we must be vigilant. The program you must understand will completely change the world order. But it is a long story and we don't have the energy to talk about it now."

The rest of the short ride was in complete silence until they arrived at Claytons house.

The house itself was nothing too special, a three bedroom house with a tin roof and clean white vinyl siding. Both Clayton and his dad prided themselves on the appearance of the house. The exterior was pressure washed twice a year, there were a few plants in their tiny yard and everything on the exterior got a fresh coat of paint once a year. The driveway was concrete, which was patched frequently by the men, to fix any cracks that surfaced. Home sweet home, Clayton thought as they entered the driveway. But this time he knew he could not stay.

Clayton ran inside and yelled to his father.

"Pops, we have to go now! Grab Nia and some clothes!" Clayton instructed.

"Where are we going son? Did you see the news something is happening in DC."

"I know pops that is why we have to go!"

"Hi dad what is going on?" Nia said nervously. She had never seen her father this frantic.

"Hi baby, don't you worry everything is going to be alright but we need to go. We need to get away from here."

Claytons father had been listening in on the conversation and he recognized the severity of the situation. From his sons tone he knew now was not the time to argue, nor was it time to doddle.

Clayton ran in and grabbed some clothes, a bit of food and supplies, including his sniper rifle he had kept locked in a lock box in a secret compartment in the closet. Nia grabbed some clothes and a couple of books, it was clear from her room that she was an avid reader. Claytons father grabbed some clothes and a hand held radio, he enjoyed watching, or at least listening to the news. The three of them managed to fit their stuff into two suitcases. Clayton grabbed one of the suitcases and the rifle box, while his father grabbed the other suit case and they ran outside.

"Dad, that isn't our car and who are those people inside?"

"Baby, now isn't the time for questions, just jump in the middle. Dad you go on the other side." Clayton said as he rapidly threw the stuff in the rear section of the SUV.

Then the five of them were off, heading North.