Sublimation

The air was suffocating. Sophie took in short, sharp, labored breaths as she crawled forward on her forearms and shins. The earth vibrated from the stampede of booted men. She hadn't seen them yet. She heard their mayhem first. The rat-a-tat-tat of their automatic blastars. The pleas for mercy. The screams of agony. Sophie looked behind her to her mother  for assurance. Her mother smiled and motioned for  Sophie to continue. They were approaching the tunnel entrance, their only chance to escape.

When they reached, the already-open tunnel entrance surprised Sophie's mother, Ileana. She checked her intercom for any messages from the other refugees. Nothing. Her nerves fried, Ileana embraced her baby girl and whispered a prayer. "Please Lord, if one of us will live to see tomorrow, let it be Sophie."
Step by step down the ladder, they descending into the tunnel. The cold, damp metal seemed to perspire along with them. Sophie, afraid of heights, tried not to look down. Looking down to her mother for assurance would only remind her how far from the bottom they were. Instead, Sophie focused on counting each step she touched to distract her mind.

Ileana's mind obsessed over a different calculus. She struggled to understand how they were caught off guard. She wondered how the Panoptes had found them. She wondered who left the tunnel entrance had open. She wondered how many of her kind had survived.

Reaching the bottom, mother and daughter embraced again. Their breath was heavy and their minds raced. They only noticed the looming figure when he flicked on the right from his flashlight. Sophie couldn't see his face, but she saw an insignia on his left breast pocket. It was three eyes in a triangular arrangement.

To be continued...