Light-bars atop police cruisers and fire-trucks strobe and flash in the early morning darkness. A massive set of explosions had rocked the La Push Reservation about 4am, the few residents still left in town waking and calling emergency services quickly.
Nothing could quite prepare the first responders for the carnage they found.
The parking lot and auditorium were both ablaze.
Flames rose from nearly a hundred vehicles parked there, the asphalt growing soft and the rubber of tires popping and boiling in the heat. Brighter, hotter white-orange flames roared from out of the front doors of the building.
The firefighters had little choice but to simply let it burn. It was so hot, they couldn't get near enough to start battling the flames.
Not that they hadn't tried.
The water sprayed at the fire simply evaporated before it struck the building or cars. The spray foam melted as it was thrown out at the blaze. The firefighters were all awestruck; it took heat that was virtually impossible to create outside of a controlled environment to melt their firefoam.
So they all just sat and watched, smoking cigarettes and chatting while the fire burned itself out.
They weren't the only ones smoking cancer-sticks though.
A hooded stranger stood off in the woods near the backside of the auditorium, hidden from easy sight by a tree trunk. Flames glittered off the keen blue eyes hidden beneath his hood. The wires of headphones ran down his front to one of his pockets. He hummed a tune softly, the melody to Hollywood Undead's "City".
"Let's watch it burn…"
Smiling darkly as he flicks the cigarette, the stranger turns away and pads silently off into the forest, vanishing around the trunk of another tree. A breath later, a single star twinkling high above the conflagration in the parking lot flashes brightly. Thunder rumbles across the early morning half-light and one of the cops points at the star, commenting on its odd behavior.
The star ceases its twinkling and the cop goes back to watching it all burn away.
Terminus
Thanks goes out again to OCDMess for an amazing story and some fun inspiration. I had an absolute blast writing this and waited til after HBD was finished to post it. Feel free to review or not, cuss out or not, trounce or not.
Barring all else, I hope, simply, that you enjoyed it, Travelers.