#Flash Fiction Friday 70 (Undead (A Universal RobberySnippet))
@flashfictionfridayofficial
Wordcount: ~370
In the future she's dead, Didi thinks, trying not to look away from the person pointing the gun-Milkamdur make, c. 2278-at her. Their face is obscured by a heavy mask. She's almost grateful for that, though she tries not to be; it makes it easier to not look away.
The gun clicks as the person presses it, readying it for use, bringing it closer to her future death. She would try to run, but two soldiers are holding her tight against the wall, and more are gathered around in the passageways, all of them just as faceless as the one readying the gun.
In the future she's dead, she thinks again, as the person raises the gun's eyepiece to their eye, the mouth of the gun pointing towards her.
The only thing wrong about that thought is that it's not true yet. She hasn't been born yet and the person getting ready to shoot her died long ago, probably from disease or starvation, like most soldiers in this war that takes place on a planet she never goes to in the future.
In the future, she'll join the Academy, and then she'll steal a ship and that will go sideways very quick. But that hasn't happened yet. She's not dead yet in the future: she's a fugitive. All traces of her will probably disappear. An average lifespan will pass by and everyone except the conspiracy theorists will assume she's dead. They won't be wrong. It will just take them a while.
Then, something catches her eye. It's just a shiver in the sky she can see through the half-open half-barred ceiling, normal on a muggy day. It shouldn't give her hope, but she lets it and smiles. The soldier fires and Etty, somewhere above them, fires back, exploding the bullet backward into the man. Shrapnel still flies everywhere but it's okay because one of the soldiers holding her lets go and Tom drops down from between the wooden bars and grabs her. A piece of shrapnel grazes her arm but she doesn't feel it, not when she's suddenly still alive.
She'll die in the the future, she knows-everyone does-but she's not dead yet.