Finally, all his time spent tinkering would prove useful for once. Vitally useful.

Bob smiled to himself as he straightened his safety harness and pushed the ignition in his souped-up, two-seater ZX7. He had been working on this little hobby rocketship for years. The thrusters ignited and shot him into the sky with a lurch. He eyed the instruments with glee as the small craft accelerated rapidly, approaching escape velocity exactly as he built it to.

He did it! He was in space! He was still picking up speed, and could see the ball of Earth out the window getting steadily smaller. As he watched, the blue circle turned a blinding, bright white, and exploded violently into dust. A few seconds later, the shockwave jolted and buffered the ship, but thankfully, no debris hit it.

This little ZX7 had saved his life. Where were all the scoffers now, hmm? The friends and colleagues who had called it just a waste of time?

Where were they? They were back there. They were dead. The smile vanished from his face.