Shadow of Fire

Preface – Start of Shadows

There had been an inexplicably large explosion in the downtown slums. One of the larger houses in the area had burst outward, spreading flames and debris out in a many block wide diameter. The sun was just beginning to set on the darkening city and the dark high-rises were lit by that last crimson glow from the reflection in the clouds. Below the buildings, however, the rest of the houses and shops saw a different crimson glow as the soot and dust from the explosion mixed with the red glow of both sunlight and fire shadows to create a hellish atmosphere.

Firefighters quickly arrived at the scene, followed and following the police and ambulance cars whose sirens had cleared the quickest path to the explosion site. The civilian crowd was organized at a safe distance by gunpoint and multitudes of threats as the police tried to set up a barrier around the still flaming building. After having realized that all the fire hydrants from the immediate area would be of no use since all were either melted or too close to the flames to put the hoses, the firefighters moved their trucks up a few blocks from the site and made use of the many curious civilians to assist with moving the heavy canvas hoses in a winding path back to the remnants of the neighborhood. Warning everyone back from the grounded hose, fire Sgt. James Howards gave the order for the water to be turned on and the men holding the hoses to be ready to make use of them.

The powerful spray hit the hungry flames on the dead wood and all onlookers could immediately tell something was not going well. The roar of the fire had been a murmur, powerful but background noise, compared to the noisy chaos of the destruction zone full of people yelling and sirens wailing. Strangely, or perhaps at some pre-ordained signal from high, almost all of the noise had dropped directly after Sgt Howards had bellowed the order for the hoses to be used. Everybody wanted to see the beastly heat smothered and tamed to a controllable scene. The moment a blaze is tamed is very powerful both in the forces required and expended on both sides and in its effect on the crowd.

Mr. Blake had never seen a fire in anything besides a fireplace before. In fact, he had never been to this town before in his life either. He had just come from visiting a few contacts he had in the area when he’d heard the crump and felt the boom in his eardrums. Grabbing up his jacket and briefcase he’d rushed to the site of such action and had held his breathe with the rest of the onlookers as the firefighters held the hoses up and blasted that heavy rush of water directly at the blazing heap. To be able to control that force, tame that force, what an incredible power man had over such forces of Nature. Suddenly Thomas Blake was snapped out of his nearly reverent daze by a startling fact that was beginning to be caught by all the onlookers. As if in slow motion he raised his hand and pointed directly at the flames that seemed to be looming higher above the crowd than before.

“What’s going on? Why didn’t the water work? Do your job, put the flames out!” He yelled in the general direction of the firefighters, nearly jumping up and down in a sudden rage. Man was supposed to be the controlling force in the universe yet here was Nature, resisting the natural order of things and refusing to be put out by the powerful tools being used against it.

The crowd around him was caught up in the same angry excitement and the scene began to become unruly. The blaze continued to eat up the rest of the house but the firefighters and police could spare little attention to it right now. Those who were manning the hoses continued to spray the usually effective substance onto the roaring source of crimson glow with no effect. The crowd had reached riot status and the police had called orders back to Headquarters for reinforcements. Barriers were pushed back as civilians advanced on the police and what firefighters weren’t busy, moved closer to the crackle of the fire. The people were afraid now and that fear had led to anger as quickly and easily as control over the blaze had deteriorated. The scene now resembled something out of a choreographed disaster gone horribly wrong. Soot and ash filled the air, making it hard to breathe while what little light remained was filtered through it which only added to the dark crimson light glowing from the disaster itself.

Police were everywhere and helicopters were beginning to circle above the crowd as panic broke rampant. Familiar neighbors were turned into sooty shadows and unrecognizable threats as the riot rolled through the gathering and everything spread outwards. Sgt. Howards took one last look at the orange and red monster they had originally come to control and ,shaking his sweaty hair out of his soot-streaked face, gave the order to pull back the forces and leave the area. The blaze was too strong now to control and with the riot just starting there were likely to be more minor disasters that would need to be dealt with around the city. He stayed clinging to the back of his truck as they slowly backed away from the immense fire and watched the area around it be devoured until the scene was entirely lost from sight. There was nothing there, nobody had lived in that part of town for years, but it was still a sad sight to see everything being devoured so greedily even in mindlessness. The sooty glow was visible even from miles away as Sgt. Howards and his crew rushed around the city that night in response to dozens of calls and multiple disasters. From something that started as a house fire, the explosion that was never explained began a harsh night for the town, one that was marked for all by chaos and tragedy. Weeks later, as the clean-up crews were finally getting down to the last dredges of their work, the city council voted on a new name for the town; Inferno.