[ WP ] All of Earth 's cities have been converted into spaceships and are about to take off and head in different directions . A close knit family living in different cities have to decide what to do .

The line crackled. 
 
 `` I'm sorry mum, I could n't get out, the gates...'' I pressed my forehead against the cold plaster of my apartment wall. 
 
 My mother sobbed, distortion making it something like a cough. I could picture her shoulders heaving. It killed me. 
 
 I could see out of my window from where I stood if I twisted my neck. The ground was starting to shake. I'd felt earthquakes before - they'd been pretty common at the time - but this was different. Regular, subtle. The engines were firing up. The line crackled harder. It was only a matter of time before the connection dropped. My heart was seized by a vice grip and my nose stung as I realised what that meant. 
 
 `` Mum, listen to me. I love you. I love you. We will survive this, and I will make it to you, wherever you end up. Do n't worry about me. Give my love to-'' I covered the receiver with my hand as the whiskey bottle vibrated off the edge of the counter and smashed on the tiles. Tears were flowing freely from my eyes now, I had to make this quick. `` Give my love to dad. I mean that.'' 
 
 My mother wailed, the connection dissolving into static for a moment. We only had seconds left. The rumbling intensified. My flatscreen was wobbling on its stand. 
 
 Her voice came through crystal clear. It was pitchy, but she was showing strength for me. `` I love you Benji, take care of yourself. Do n't come after us.'' I held my breath, unable to talk, fighting desperately to hold back the sobs that racked my body. Frozen by the magnitude of the moment. I knew the line would break at any second now. I could n't think of anything to say that was *big* enough, to explain to her what she meant to me. What it meant to me that I might never see her again. 
 
 `` Mom, I... I love you.'' 
 
 The line dissolved completely. As the floor shook, I hurled the phone at the TV. Instead of the dramatic crash and phone-shaped hole I expected, the screen just spiderwebbed, my phone dropping to the carpet limply with the screen still lit. 
 
 I sank to my knees beside the counter as the vibrations and the sobbing took my body, the rumbling too loud now for my triple glazed, anti-UV windows to keep it out. 
 
 Liftoff.
