I only understood the rat’s and Les’s urgency to leave when I looked in the rear view mirror and saw the mushroom cloud.

I slammed my foot down on the accelerator. I still don’t think we’d have made it if Pale and Pasty face hadn’t blinked in at that moment and blue ringed us out of there.

Winding up in surburbia I slammed the brakes on and skidded to a halt outside your normal 1.5 million dollar house.

“Ah, good,” Les said, tapping the box he’d bought from Mike. “We’re just in time.”

A surly teenaged boy opened the door after we’d rung the bell for the fifteenth time. He took one look at the box and snatched it.

“A three terabyte, mind enhanced psi-holo adapter gamestation, wow, thanks. How’d’ya know mine broke, now I can go back to the Great Hand of God.”

“Hey kid,” I asked, struck by some peculiar noises in the house. “Where are your parents?”

“Oh, doing something in kitchen.” He shrugged his shoulders. “I let them alone when they’re weird like that.”

This I had to check.