The cuffs around my hands were starting to hurt my wrists. The policemen treated me roughly, pushing me along the walkway as soon as they got me out of the hover van. I looked up and scanned the crowd for any sign of rescue, but saw only unkind faces. There had to be a thousand people assembled around the town square where a huge platform had been erected just for this occasion. I looked high up above me at the noose that was hanging down from a tall pole. The more well off people in the crowd were dressed in their garish suits, but even the commoners that cleaned the streets were gathered there. It seemed that the only thing that brought together the different classes was a public execution. As I looked out over the angry faces and fists that people were raising in the air, I thought of how little progress we had made as a society compared to some of the planets I had visited. Sure, we had hover cars, jet packs and high-speed hover trains that could go from New York to Los Angeles in two hours, but we were still a brutal and divided society. The people dressed in suits were all huddled together towards the front while the commoners were all on the fringes, just like they were in every other aspect of society. I shook my head and wondered if these people would really want to see my head in a noose if they knew my story. All that they had been told was that I was a traitor that deserved death and that was enough to ignite their bloodlust.

I looked to my left and several security guards and policemen armed with laser guns began to escort the main judge out to a remote microphone attached to his expensive-looking, outlandish suit. In the years, since my childhood and on, the members of the upper classes had gone out of their way to make themselves stand out even more from the increasing number of poor people with brightly colored, specially-made suits made from rare materials. The sight of them disgusted me because I knew that their opulence had resulted in the increasing desperation of the majority of people. When the judge appeared, everyone began to cheer for him. I was later told that this judge had his own virtual reality program that was one of the most popular shows at that time.

The judge put his arm into the air to get everyone’s attention. The crowd stopped its deafening roar to hear what this virtual reality star had to say.

“As you all know, I am Judge Randall and I have been asked to come here today to pass judgment on a revolting traitor that has turned her back on her country and her comrades!” As soon as he said this, the yelling and booing returned. I looked away from the scowling and jeering people, hoping to catch sight of my rescuers, but I didn’t spot them.

“She was tasked with finding and bringing Karkastians to justice and instead, she chose to injure her own comrade and go AWOL, helping an enemy combatant and then stealing a space pod to make her escape!”

“BOO! Down with the traitor! Hang her!” they yelled.

I loved how the judge left out certain parts of the story like how James nearly killed Yahn when his orders were to capture him. The judge knew what the crowd wanted to hear and he was going to continue to play upon their bloodlust.

“Let her execution stand as a symbol of our continued unity and desire to root out all known evil in the universe, even when it resides amongst us.” When he said this he cast a judgmental gaze in my direction. I looked at him indifferently to show that his words did not affect me. Deep down I was scared out of my wits- scared of dying when I was so young and had so much left to live for.

“Alright, boys, the time has come. I Judge Randall find the defendant guilty of treason! Her punishment is death by hanging!” The crowd went wild, and it chilled my blood to think of all of these people that desired my death without knowing the full story. I was also shocked by the primitive nature of executions. It seemed that painful, old-fashioned methods of execution had come back into style to act as a deterrent against those that would rise up against the established order.

The guards pushed me forward and led me to the stairway that led up to the high platform where the gallows awaited me. My heart began to pound faster in my chest the higher up we climbed. When I reached the platform, I gazed out over Washington at the tall towers, hover dwellings and glass walkways. I looked at the crowded hover ways above what used to be roads and thought that it looked ugly compared to the forested mountains of Padure or even the swirling gasses of Neutomia. We had created a civilized monster compared with many other planets. One of the guards pushed me over the collapsible floor and placed the noose around my neck. I closed my eyes and sought out Yahn one last time.

Goodbye, my love. I will always remember the precious times that we spent together. If there is another plane of existence, I will wait for you there.

No need, we are here and we are going to save you, Jessie. Yahn answered me. I looked through the crowd and noticed a loud commotion over to the right of the platform.

“Stop this brutal execution right now or these men will meet their fate!” David shouted. I looked hopefully over in the direction of his voice and saw Yahn on one side of a group of policemen and David on the other with their guns pointed at them.

“What is this?” Judge Randall said indignantly into the microphone.

“This is your chance to save your men and give up the prisoner!” David shouted back. The crowd began to chat amongst themselves in confusion.

Some of the judge’s advisors, including the chief of police, came up and began to whisper to him.

“I said release the prisoner!” David repeated. The judge looked up at the guards, reluctantly and gave them an order.

“Go on and do it. We will not risk the lives of our men. However, these men will not get away with their attempt to usurp our divine system of judgment!” the judge said, indignantly.

One of the guards removed the noose from around my neck and they led me down the stairway, pushing me when I didn’t move fast enough to suit them. I breathed a sigh of relief as they brought me over to David’s side. The crowd began to shout at us as we slowly began to back away from the scene. David and Yahn had four officers with us that they ordered to get into the back of their hover car. I got in the front with David and Yahn. Yahn took the wheel. The armed policemen closed in behind the car, with their laser guns drawn.

“Allow us to escape or we will execute your precious officers, immediately! I am not joking!” David said. Yahn threw the car into a high gear and we took off over the crowd. Almost immediately a whole fleet of police hover cars began to chase us.

“Hold on!” Yahn said as he put the pedal to the floor and the hover car jolted forward. We began a jarring chase through the city. Yahn would take sudden turns and dips as the policemen began to reach us. Luckily, they had gained access to one of the fastest hover cars on the market and we were able to stay ahead of the police cars so that they couldn’t surround us.

“Look!” David shouted as he took out the owner’s manual from the glove compartment and pointed to a red knob to the left of the steering wheel. These new models are equipped with a cloaking device! Just hit the red button and we should be able to give them the slip.”

“It will help, but they will still be able to pick us up on radar,” Yahn said as he pushed the red button. Seconds after we became invisible, Yahn took a sharp right turn and guided the car up above the main traffic lanes and above the clouds. He turned on the hyperdrive and put the pedal to the floor. The car went so fast, we were pressed against our seats, unable to move due to the g-forces. The combination of our invisibility and Yahn’s quick maneuvering had helped us lose the police. We stayed up above the clouds until we reached the outskirts of the city. We saw police cars everywhere, so we stayed where we were until we were far out in the country. We stopped at a fueling station on a hover platform and turned off the invisibility device.

“Alright, I think it’s safe to release the prisoners now,” Yahn said.

“You heard him, out of the car!” David said. The four policemen frowned at us and got out of the back seat. They were still handcuffed to one another. A fuel station worker looked at us and the officers in puzzlement.

“Have a great day!” I said to the worker as we turned the cloaking device back on and left the station. Seconds later, several police hover cars arrived on the scene, but we were long gone.

I leaned over and kissed Yahn as my eyes grew watery. I became emotional thinking of how close I had come to death.

“I didn’t think anything was going to save me. I really thought I was going to die,” I said as Yahn took my hand.

“I wasn’t going to let that happen, my dear. You are safe now, but we need to think of our next move,” he said.

“I know. My uncle used to have a cabin deep in the woods about twenty miles from where we are. I’m sure it’s still there.” I pulled up the hover car’s navigator and typed in the location.

“There, to the northeast just south of Grinder’s Creek,” I said. Yahn nodded, looked at the navigator and we began to head in that direction.

I looked down and saw the small cabin, surrounded by forested hills and memories of my childhood came streaming back. My uncle owned about fifty acres of woods and fields. Private land holdings such as these were becoming a rare thing because the government was buying up more and more land for development.

We landed the car in a field outside the barn. We kept the cloaking device on and turned the car off. Now that the car wasn’t running, the police wouldn’t be able to track us. We quickly got out of the hover car and walked over to the cabin that sat on the edge of the woods. The door was locked, but I knew that there was a key around the back under a brick, so I went and got it and opened the door. Yahn and David were amazed to see an old fashioned door that opened with a key rather than a retina scan door or an electromagnetic key like the doors of the prisons.

“I haven’t seen a building or a door like this in many years,” David remarked.

We got inside just in time as a police hover copter scanned the area and then moved on.

“We should be able to hide out here for a while safely,” I said and sat down in a wooden rocking chair that my uncle had made himself.