Tales from the Firehouse.
Authors ramble: Right then. I discussed this with Es, its been on my mind for a long time to do this, so with a bit of encouragement here we go. It's an alt story set around the gang (obviously) in a different setting to anything I've seen on here. Give it a go and send me some feedback. Flames will be just binned this time, I'm not giving you a seconds glory or acknowledgement.
Again, work and life permitting, I'll try and update at least once a week, if I can.
x-0-x
Prologue
Her first thought was that this was, at long last, the boogeyman from her closet finally come to get her. The smoke was rising behind him and he wasn't shaped like any other man she'd ever seen.
Usually, whenever she woke up during the night, she found herself looking up at the pale green glow-in-the-dark stars and planets her Mummy had stuck to the ceiling over her bed. Now they all seemed very distant, fuzzy, like the real stars that she could see outside. Sometimes clouds got in the way and the stars looked like they were about to burn out; that's what her personal solar system looked like now. But how could clouds have gotten into her room? Did the boogeyman bring them?
Naomi blinked her eyes, which were watering, and started to sit up. The man held her down, but it wasn't a scary move. She stayed where she was and he said, "Hold tight, honey, we'll get you out of here. But we have to stay low, okay?"
She nodded, eyes locked on the big black stripe that went all around his yellow hat. With his hat and the heavy coat he was wearing, he looked like a miner. But why would a miner be in her bedroom? And why was he wearing a coat when it was so hot? It was almost too much for her to stay under her princess-adorned quilt. He pulled the quilt down and pulled her to the side of the bed, letting her fall gently to the floor. "You okay?" he said.
She nodded and he fumbled with something by his side. Naomi was scared again, but only for a moment. He put the thing over her mouth and nose and told her to hold it there. She did as she was told, never taking her eyes from where his face was supposed to be. "We're going to get out of here as quick as a flash, okay? But we're going to have to crawl at first, because there's a lot of really hot air over our heads."
"Make us cough," she managed in her small, scared voice.
"Yeah," he said. "I don't know about you, but I hate to cough. So we'll just stay low, okay?"
She nodded. He bundled her to his chest, holding her with one arm and making a tent over her body with his own. He crawled on his one free hand and knees, moving through the small bedroom with a speed that almost made Naomi feel like she was on some kind of weird amusement park ride. She wrapped her arms around the monster-man's neck and held on as tight as she could. The thing he'd fastened on her face was slipping and she tried to rearrange it.
"No, honey, you have to keep that on," he said as he covered her hand with his big, thick glove. "I know it's uncomfortable, but it's better than what's out here."
As he crawled out of her room, she saw the living room and kitchen of their little flat. That over there was where Mommy did her crossword puzzles and looked in the dictionary because that was learning, not cheating. Something smelled bad, like when Mommy 'screwed up' in the kitchen and they ordered pizza for dinner.
Now they were in the hallway and she could see doors to the flat across the stairway. It had been broken. Maybe by the monster-man. Maybe they were taking everone away. She felt scared, remembering all the scary stories her Mummy sometimes told her. She didn't want to be holding onto the monster-man anymore, she didn't want to be in this nasty hall and she wanted to be in her bed looking up at the stars like-
"You like stars?" the monster-man asked.
Naomi jumped, afraid that he could read her mind and she shuddered.
"I saw the posters in your bedroom when I was coming to get you. You like stars?"
"Mummy put up a solar system in my bedroom."
"Did she? I missed that. Will you show me when we get your home all fixed up?"
Fixed up? What did that mean? She nodded even though she wasn't sure and then pushed her face against his neck despite how scared she was. The thing on her mouth and nose pressed into her skin and she wanted to yank it off but was scared of what the monster-man might do if she did. Now that they were on the stairs, he wasn't crawling anymore.
Over his shoulder, it looked like the upstairs of their building was disappearing in fog.
'Like Alice,' she thought. 'She followed someone away from home, too, only I don't think the white rabbit was quite as scary as the monster-man.'
"My sister bought me a telescope one year for Christmas. Just sits in the corner of my living room collecting dust."
"Mummy gave me a telescope."
"Really? What kind is it?"
She rattled off the details her Mummy had taught her. She didn't know what they meant, but she'd seemed so proud when she presented it to her. She knew it was probably more than they could afford, so she had jumped up and down and kissed her on the cheek and said he was the best Mummy in the whole world.
They were outside and it was so cold! She clung to the monster-man, mostly because he was still warm, and he carried her across the car park. There were so many cars, so much loud noise all around... she was starting to get scared when she heard her Mummy's voice across the packed car park.
"Naomi...? Naomi!"
She twisted in the man's arms and looked frantically for her Mum. She was in her pajamas and running barefoot towards her. The monster-man released her and her Mummy wrapped her arms around her at the same instant. She hugged her, smelling her smell instead of the stinky smoke smell of the monster-man. "They wouldn't let me go back in," her Mummy was saying over and over again.
Her Mum was stroking her hair, crying really loud and Naomi wondered if the monster-man had broken something in the apartment. It was so loud and so bright! Why was everything so loud when it was still the middle of the night?
They sat in the back of a big, bright truck that was red on the outside and very, very white on the inside. She sat on her Mummy's knee because she didn't seem to want to let her go. She spotted the monster-man a few feet away, recognizing him because of his gloves; the little finger was torn and ragged. She remembered seeing that finger in her bedroom.
As she watched, the man took off his hat and put it down on the back of a big red truck with a ladder on top. He yanked on something that was on his head - it looked like a stretchy sock - and a wave of black hair appeared. Someone walked past him and he turned, smiling at the other man's comment. Naomi frowned, leaning to one side to look at the man's face.
"What is it, honey?" her Mum said quietly, rubbing her back between her shoulders. "What are you looking at?"
"That man."
"What about him?" her Mommy asked.
"He's..." Naomi screwed her face up and tilted her head, trying to find the right word. "He's just... an ordinary man."
"No, honey," her mother smiled, cradling her head to her chest. "He's an ordinary man who does special things, he brought you back to me. He's my hero."
Naomi stared at the man for a while while her mummy stroked her hair and decided her mum was right on this too.
x-0-x
"Oh, mama, I'm in fear for my life from the long arm of the law..."
She hummed the next line, walking confidently down the narrow corridor between the empty offices. Her shoes made hollow, echoing claps against the bare walls. The doors had all been removed from their hinges, leaving all the offices open like cells in a prison. All the 9 to 5 prisoners were long-gone by now, of course. All that remained was an occasional chair, one desk without any drawers and a chair that she had rolled back and forth in for about twenty minutes before becoming bored.
The last office had been that of the company's manger, long before the company moved to a better building. She had the jerry can tucked under her arm and she put it down where the manager's desk had once been. She didn't remember who sang the song she was humming; Styx? Sounded right. A good old classic oldie.
She looked out the window, down at the abandoned parking area. The building was dead; grass shooting up between the cement squares. The white lines marking spaces had long since faded, the street-level walls defaced by graffiti and gang signs. She pursed his lips. The building had been dead too long; it was time to give it life. She turned and walked back to the jerry can, picking it up and splashing some in a circle around herself. "Law man has put an end to my running and I'm so far from my home," she sang, stepping out of the circle and leaving the office. The can was again under her arm, only this time it was backwards, upside-down. It left a wet, pungent trail behind her as she sang softly to herself.
When the can was empty, she hurled it across the wide open area that had once been separated into cubicles. It landed with a loud clatter and she reached into one pocket. The matches were from a bar she'd never been to before; a crowded place where the bartender would never be able to pick her out of a line-up. Not that the matches would ever be traced back to anyone. She was smarter than that.
She lit one match, tucking it into the cover and laying it on the floor. It was close enough to the end of the gas trail that, when the flame reached the other matches and blew them, it would ignite. Then it was a matter of dominoes... fire moving down the hall, much as she had moments ago, leaving ashes in its wake as it rampaged through each room.
Tucking her hands into her pockets, she turned and walked down the stairs. "The jig is up, the news is out, they finally found me... The renegade who had it made retrieved for a bounty," she sang. She loved the song for its irony; she was one renegade they would never find. Not until it was either too late or she had chosen to put an end to her running on her own terms.
She left the building, looking up as she headed across the car park. A small flicker in a top-office window. Years ago, it could have denoted a night owl burning both ends of the candle. Now, it signified the return of life to an empty husk in a deprived area. She hurried across the street and hoped a concerned citizen was looking the right direction. Timing was everything. If she didn't hear sirens soon, she would have to-
Ahhh, there. Sirens. Right on schedule, the good men and women of Merseyside's Fire & Rescue Service were on their way to put out the blaze. Had there been smoke detectors? Her plan relied on a watchful civilian, but a smoke detector was all the better. It just meant her game could begin that much earlier.
The big red truck pulled in through the chain link fence, parking on the side of the building she'd just exited. She settled into the nest she'd built for herself, smiling broadly as she watched the yellow-jackets buzz around like bees, doing what they'd been trained to do... put the wet stuff on the red stuff... She took note of the names on the backs of their coats: McCLAIR, COOK, TOMONE, JONES, CAMPBELL...
Oh she was going to have fun, this was only the start of things for her new pet.
