Cassandra Byrne heard a succession of loud frantic knocks on her front door at three in the morning.
Normally, this would have scared the living daylights out of the old woman turned young woman. She and her wife Meredith didn't get a lot of visitors, and even though violent crime had gone down across the board since men had disappeared, you never know.
But she recognized those knocks. A mother always knows the sound of their child.
She went down to open the door and smiled warmly at the person behind the door.
It was Clay, her precious son.
"Mom!" Clay yelled with relief in his voice, hugging his mom tightly, sweetly. "I can't believe it, you're OK, thank God!"
"Of course I'm OK, Clay, sweety. Come on in!"
It had taken Cassandra a long time to accept that her son, who had gone missing as a child, assumed to be dead at the hands of some sick predator, had turned back up as an adult man five years ago claiming to have been abducted by aliens. According to Clay, alien pirates had shanghaied him on his way home from the mall, forcing the child at lasergunpoint to be an indentured servant for ten years. Then when he was fully grown, the indoctrinated young man had become a space pirate himself.
Before The Great Change, and the Transform Or Dare curse, and the Fimbulwinter, and goddess knows what else, that story would have seemed absurd. Something out of Star Wars or comic books. But now Cassandra knew better.
"Mom, I'm sorry, but there's no time! Is Dad home?"
"Well yeah, Meredith is sleeping. And she's your second mom now, young man."
"Whatever. Just wake her up, get dressed, grab whatever you can in five minutes and meet me outside. We have to get the hell off of Earth!"
"What? Honey, why?".
Clay looked nervous.
"Mom, I'm in trouble with some really bad people. I...I did something wrong, my partners and I robbed a bank off of Orion three months ago, But it went all wrong..."
"Oh honey" Cassandra said, touching Clays cheek. "You didn't have to do that. There's plenty of money here at home."
"Mom, that's not the problem. These people, if you can call them people, they know I'm from Earth. They're coming here *right now*, and they're going to raze the entire planet looking for me. You and Dad aren't safe here. You both have to come with me! We have to lay low for a while until things cool down."
Cassandra took all of this odd information in and laughed a little bit, not knowing how to take it.
"Mom, this isn't a joke! Earth isn't prepared for these guys. They have weapons that can crack the planet in half! Please, grab your stuff and come with me!" Clay begged.