It wasn’t because he was the only obviously Asian person there, though maybe that was part of it. But in her panic, Nita had forgotten that Kovit’s clothes had been spattered with blood from the guard he killed, and they painted him with a bright red bull’s-eye.

“Fuck,” Kovit whispered.

Behind them, someone in the crowd pulled out a gun. People nearby saw and dove out of the way, clearing a straight path for the bullet.

Nita shoved Kovit to the side as the first shot went off. The moment after the shot was perfectly silent, like time had stopped, and all that was left was the ringing in her ears.

Then time started again, and she and Kovit stumbled sideways as the bullet smashed into a garbage can behind them, sending it toppling to the ground and rolling across the pavement, spilling trash as it went.

Nita’s and Kovit’s eyes met, and she whispered, “Run.”

And they did, pushing their already tired limbs to new speeds.

The pedestrians came out of their stupor as soon as Nita and Kovit started to run, and quickly divided into two camps. Those who ran screaming in the other direction.

And those who decided it was a good day to hunt a zannie.

The man with the gun was quickly joined by other people. Young men on Rollerblades, tourists in sun hats wielding selfie sticks like batons. Old and young, foreign and local, people began to mass behind them, a slowly forming mob of humans shedding their surface veneer for the once-in-a-lifetime chance to let their inner monsters free without consequences.

A hamburger flew through the air and smacked into Kovit, but he wiped it off and kept running, ketchup smearing across his face and mixing with the blood. A Rollerblading kid zoomed toward them, and Nita tripped him, sending the kid flying into the concrete barrier separating the walkway from the port. Blood spread red along the gray of the barrier, but Nita didn’t turn back to see the damage.

Ahead, a massive bridge with old, nonfunctioning cranes loomed, a chance to cross and vanish into the tumbling melee of the rest of the city.

Nita licked her lips and hissed, “Go. Run. Hide. I’ll hold them off and meet up with you later.”

He didn’t question her, just put on a burst of speed.

Nita put on her own burst of speed as Kovit elbowed through crowds of confused tourists who had no idea why he was being followed by an ever-growing mob. Her eyes were glued on a motorbike casually parked by the side of the road.

Nita was very strong. She had no myostatin limiting her muscle formation, and she’d been working on her strength for a long time now.

So when she grabbed the motorbike, she swung it round and round, her body dizzy from vertigo, and then threw it at the mob.