Disburse/Disperse

I see this often. The innocent villagers see the evil overlord's ruthless soldiers coming to destroy their peaceful existence. The villagers, untrained in weaponry, have no choice but to disburse.

What? They're throwing money at the problem? Well, perhaps they are, but the next scene often shows our hapless villagers in many separate and distinct locations. This leads me to believe the author intended the characters to flee for their lives, rather than worry about their wallets. And besides, if the villagers had enough money to stop an army of bloodthirsty mercenaries in their tracks, why wouldn't they just hire their own band of mercenaries?

Definitions from Merriam-Webster online

Disburse -- transitive verb
1 a : to pay out : expend especially from a fund b : to make a payment in settlement of
2 : DISTRIBUTE

Disperse -- transitive verb
1 a : to cause to break up b : to cause to become spread widely c : to cause to evaporate or vanish
2 : to spread or distribute from a fixed or constant source: as a archaic : DISSEMINATE b : to subject (as light) to dispersion c : to distribute (as fine particles) more or less evenly throughout a medium
intransitive verb
1 : to break up in random fashion
2 a : to become dispersed b : DISSIPATE, VANISH
synonym see SCATTER