Anji didn't even flinch when the motorbike, along with its rider, smashed into a waiting shed she just passed 20 seconds ago.

She held Lulu tighter in her arms and kept walking. Where should I go? Where should I go, She thought desperately. There has to be a way!

Another man shoved right past her and she barely noticed. Another shirtless man on top of his SUV shouted at her if she wanted to party. "Common babe, Don't you wanna spend your last moment with a real man?" He emphasized this with a crude thrusting of his pelvis. Anji barely noticed him as well.

Four men were assaulting a couple, including a woman in her thirties. Then one of the men holding the man noticed Anji and Lulu in her arms. His face lit up with a terrible smile of delight. "You can have that whore," He said to his companion. "I want mine a little bit younger!" His eyes never leaving Lulu's back. He stood up, and took a step forward.

Anji raised her gun and blew his head off.

The rest of them stared at their dead comrade in disbelief. The couple under them struggled up and simply walk away, while the remaining would be rapist stared at Anji with wide eyes. The face of the youngest man in the far end is brimming with tears. "You bitch! You just killed Michael! When I get my hands on you-"

Anji pointed her gun at him and fired twice in his chest, he silently toppled over with his butt sticking out in the air.

Anji kept her gun pointed to the stunned survivors until she rounded the corner.

The fire alarm saxon blared continuously. The sound of small arms fire can be heard barking all around the city accompanied by the occasional explosion, while the scream and shout of merriment of different people around the city drowned any other sound.

Then a sign in a nearby establishment caught Anji's attention. "NETOPIA Internet Cafe" blared in red under bright yellow background. Hope sprung to Anji's mind. "It's a long shot," Anji whispered to herself. "But this is the only idea I have left."

Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author's preferred platform and support their work!

"Where are we going?" Lulu asked in alarm as Anji descended a stairway going down into a dark basement.

"Shhh," Anji purred. "It's all going to be alright."

She opened the door at the end of the corridor and rows upon rows of computer opened up to her. A few nerd-looking boys are watching porn in a few open computer consoles as they madly masturbated as if the end of the world is coming, which by the way is true. Anji ignored them and marched toward the last room. She opened it and she almost cried out in relief.

Six Virtual reality capsule stood in a row, computer consoles beeping to one side. VRMMO took the world by surprise and became one of the biggest technological wonders in modern times. Games graphics were lightyears ahead of the resolution during 2020, just 9 years ago and new breeds of nerds are now enjoying this newest games their dads and granddads can only dream of.

But Anji wasn't interested in games. What she was interested in is the built-in life support system attached to this kind of machines. Although internet shops limit the used of this capsules to a maximum of 48 hrs per player at any given day, Anji read somewhere that VRMMO capsule, especially those owned by private individuals, can stay in their capsules for weeks on end. They have their own built-in battery and specialized liquid that transmute minerals into the body as well as get rid of waste materials.

Anji activated the machine and gently lowered her precious niece into the first capsule, then walk toward a nearby admin computer and made sure the two farthest capsule have no time limit. One of the nerds in the next room started screaming, "It's coming! It's coming!" Anji rolled her eyes in disgust, but then she realized that the boy is not talking about his dick. Anji alt-tab the computer and open the CNN website in Chrome. There on the front page showed a smartphone cam picture of a MIRV missile falling to Manila in a live stream. Anji ran back into the capsule.

She kissed the child's forehead before she gently pushed Lulu back in the capsule and closing it to the terrified child. "It's going to be alright, I promised," She said to the child who despite herself is starting to fall asleep inside the capsule. Some sort of a medication is inside the capsule to knock you out. Then she took a deep breath before climbing inside her own capsule. She can feel the pounding of her heart, but also how it slowed down as it relaxed from the drugged infused inside the capsule.

Her eyes slowly closed just as the earth begun to rumble around her and the air grew hot. The scream of the nerds was shrill and filled with terror and pain, but she was already sleeping when red fire and smoke consumed everything around her.

Then darkness.