City in the Fire

by Fred Crawley

  “Are you okay?” said Tina as they started to walk again. “We can stop for longer if you need to?”

  Abi shook her head. She didn’t want to stop, she wanted to find Craig and hopefully a glass of cold water. She could rest when she was back at home.

  “I wonder what’s going on,” said Tina. “You would have thought the power would be back on again by now.”

  Abi nodded but didn’t reply. She needed all of her energy to keep walking.

  “And it’s all the way out here as well,” Tina said. Abi looked at the buildings they were passing and couldn’t see lights on in any of them. “Maybe it’s the power station.”

  “Maybe,” said Abi but she didn’t really want to discuss it further. She had an idea that electricity didn’t work quite like that. Maybe some of the city would be on the same grid but not all of it. They’d had power cuts at home before and sometimes it was just one side of the street that was affected.

  They kept walking, it felt unbearably warm but she couldn’t tell whether that was just her or not. Tina seemed quite content in her big jacket, she wasn’t even sweating. But there was a heat haze rising up from the road in the distance and that couldn’t just be her imagination. The glass towers seemed to radiate heat and the grey cloud continued to spread across the sky like an oil leak. If they were lucky it would be a storm cloud and it might rain.

  Her legs felt wobbly and she seemed to be able to feel her blood pulsing in her head. They kept walking but they didn’t seem to be getting anywhere. The great glass tower loomed in the distance, just as it had done since they set out. She felt as if they would never reach it.

  “Are you okay?” said Tina and Abi felt the girl grab her arm as she wobbled. She reached out for the fence that ran around the lawn outside one of the buildings and managed to steady herself. “Abi?”

  She turned and looked at the girl and saw her face flushed with concern. “I’m fine,” she said but even she didn’t believe that. “I just need to rest for a minute.”

  Tina shook her head. “You don’t look alright. You need to drink something.”

  “Do you have something?” she said hopefully.

  Tina shook her head. “There must be a shop or something around here.”

  It was already taking them too long to get to Craig, she didn’t want to waste even more time wandering off looking for water. She shook her head. “Just help me up.”

  She watched Tina strain to pull her up. It didn’t make her feel any better about herself but there wasn’t time for self-loathing. Something wasn’t right and it was more than just a power cut, she realised that now. Whether it was some sort of premonition or just adding up the facts at hand she knew that she had to get to Craig soon or she might never see him again.

  They walked slowly and Abi began to feel her lungs burning from the heat. She coughed once but when Tina turned to look at her with concern she forced herself to stop. Her eyes watered as a misty smoke filled the air. She could smell burning but couldn’t see any flames.

  Now even Tina removed her jacket. She held Abi by the arm like she was a little old lady being taken out for a walk around the park.

  Dry heat sucked all of the moisture out of the air and her skin. She could hear a roaring sound that she realised had always been there but was only now loud enough to notice. Whatever it is, she thought, whatever is causing all this we’re getting closer to it.

  They carried on. Each step seemed to take an enormous amount of energy. Fighting against her atrophying muscles it felt as if she was trying to walk through treacle. She glanced at Tina, her face red and smeared with dark eyeliner where she was sweating. She wiped her own face and her hand came away black. For a moment she thought it was makeup but she wasn’t wearing any.

  “Maybe we should stop,” said Tina, she was panting now and wobbling back and forth. Abi was supporting her as much as the other way around.

  “We’re almost there now,” she said. She could see the tower ahead, a clear path just up another slight hill that looked more like a mountain from where they were standing. There were no lights on in the building so either they didn’t have generators or they had already been used up. It seemed impossible that they had failed to notice the smokey world outside. “Just a little further.”

  Tina nodded but didn’t say anything. She looked exhausted and her skin glistened with dirty sweat. Abi wondered if this was really such a good idea; she was breathing in the filthy smokey air and who knew what that was doing to poor baby Victoria. She knew that Craig wouldn’t want her to do anything that would put their child at risk. But she had to see him, she had to because the feeling that something was wrong, terribly wrong, was growing and she couldn’t shake it, she didn’t even know if she should try to shake it.

  “Abi, I...” she turned to see Tina stop walking. She seemed to float there for a moment, swaying back and forth. Her face was pale beneath the soot and grime that had coated her skin. The girl opened her mouth to speak but no sound came out.

  “Oh shit,” she said and tried to catch Tina but she was too slow and the girl was already falling towards the ground face first. She caught hold of her t-shirt but it tore easily and did nothing to slow her down. She hit the ground with a slap. “Tina?”

  She didn’t respond.

  Abi never should have let her come with her. If she had known what it was going to be like, she told herself, she wouldn’t. Really she had just been trying to do her a favour and give her a lift home, she didn’t know this was going to happen. She bent down beside her, moving slowly because that was just about all she was capable of.

  She lost her balance about half-way down and started to fall. The world seemed to swim around her and she thought she was going to pass out. She did, but not before she hit the ground and felt the pain of doing so. Then there was only darkness.

  CHAPTER 10

  GWEN LOOKED UP AT THE SOUND OF HER name and saw Dawson standing outside the car. His stony faced expression gave no hint as to his true feelings about this job. He was every inch the professional but sometimes she wished that he would tell her what he really thought and then maybe she could do the same. Did he feel unsure as to whether this was the right thing to do? Did he feel any guilt about the people they were sentencing to death in the burning city? Sometimes she just wished she had someone she could talk to but she didn’t, all of her fears, worries and concerns were hers alone. She wiped her eyes and opened the window.

  “The ground force are ready and waiting for inspection M’am,” said Dawson.

  She nodded. “Thank you, I’ll be along in a minute.”

  “Very good M’am,” he said and turned and walked away, already looking down at his phone and placing another call.

  She looked down at her laptop which was currently displaying the live satellite footage. The fire was heating up and the smoke was starting to drift across the city, thick enough to block out the sun in places. However, the fire wasn’t spreading as quickly as she had hoped. The newer buildings in the business district were failing to catch and that meant that there were lots of people still in them waiting for rescue.

  Gwen didn’t think of herself as a killer. She had an important and difficult job to do an sometimes that meant making sacrifices. She tapped her fingers against her lips. It was her decision and her decision alone.

  She slammed the laptop closed and dropped it on the seat next to her. She pushed open the car door and climbed out into the cool morning air. It was a beautiful day. The wind carried the smoke away from their position on the bridge and the cold air meant she could see for miles. They needed to get moving in the next ten minutes so she had to make this quick.

  She walked past the control centre and could hear them talking inside, making jokes about the people trapped in the city, it broke her heart a little. These weren’t terrible people, they had a difficult job to do and making jokes was just their way of coping with it, but it still hurt. She ignored them and continued along the bridge.


  She could hear the blades of the six helicopters ripping through the air, feel the wind that they generated whipping across her face and blowing back the few strands of hair that had managed to get loose from her bun. Beside each helicopter stood three field agents dressed in black body suits, each carrying a kit bag that was filled with weapons and, crucially, explosive equipment.

  Dawson came running towards her keeping a hand on his head as if he was afraid his hair would blow away. Maybe, she thought with a smile, he was really bald and the dark meticulously coiffed hair was actually a piece. She wasn’t sure why the idea pleased her so much other than that it made him slightly less desirable.

  “All ready Captain Shelton,” he said, shouting to be heard above the whirling birds.

  She nodded but didn’t try to speak to him. He led her over to the helicopters and she walked down the line making sure everything was in place. It was an informal procedure and she didn’t expect to find anything wrong but it was her career at stake if there were problems so it paid to be sure.

  When she got to the end of the line she pulled the commander aside. “Is there a problem captain?” he said.

  She shook her head, no problem, “we need to evacuate sector twelve,” she said.

  “The business district?” he said and she nodded.

  “Get them into the underground and we’ll deal with them all at once.”

  “Captain?” he said.

  “Is there a problem with that?” she said making it very clear that he’d better not find one.

  “No captain,” he said making it very clear that he thought there was but the chain of command would be respected and the instructions would be carried out as given. She didn’t want to give the order but she had no choice, no one could be allowed out of the city.

  “Good,” she said and watched him walk back to his team, already forwarding the instruction over the radio. She returned to where Dawson was waiting for her.

  “Everything okay?” he said and for a moment she thought he was talking about her and asking whether she was okay but, of course, he wasn’t.

  “All set,” she said. “Send them on their way.”

  Dawson picked up his radio and shouted into it. Gwen turned and walked away, back towards her car. The helicopters whirled over her head as they turned in the direction of the city where they would reign down even more destruction on the poor people trapped inside. The poor people that she had trapped inside. She didn’t look back.

  The engine was already running by the time she climbed into the back of the car. As soon as the door was closed and her seat belt was on they started moving. It wasn’t a long journey to the next site and she could monitor the city just as easily while they were on the move but she would feel better once they were settled in their final location. She picked up her laptop and watched the glowing red dots that represented the helicopters as they approached the city.

  CHAPTER 11

  ABI OPENED HER EYES AND STARED UP. SHE couldn’t hear anything but she no longer felt as if she was being cooked alive. She was laying on something bristly which, after a moment, she realised was probably carpet and she could see walls from the corners of her eyes.

  Automatically her hand went to her stomach, an act that sought to reassure both herself and her unborn daughter.

  She lay there for a moment, stroking her belly and waiting for her mind to catch up with her body and deal with the fact that she was now inside. After a moment she rolled onto her side and pushed herself up. Her arms and legs were stiff and her movements awkward. It took her a full minute to get to her feet and then she had to clutch the desk until the room stopped spinning. She was in an office but it didn’t look occupied. The desk was clear and the blinds were drawn. Opposite that a wooden door was set in a frosted glass wall.

  When she had recovered herself she walked around the desk to the white blinds and pulled them aside. She could barely see a thing. The smoke was so thick that, for a moment, she thought it was a false window; white plastic with a light behind it so that, with the blinds closed, it tricked you into believing there was something out there. But the whiteness moved, tiny particles caught in a breeze. It was smoke and there was a lot of it.

  She stepped back from the window and let the blind fall closed. She realised that she could feel a cool breeze herself and that the air conditioning was running. It felt soothing on her burned arms and face and the goosebumps were welcome for once. It helped to clear her mind and she began to wonder what she should do next.

  The first thing, she decided, was to find Tina. She didn’t know whether whoever had brought her here had also brought the girl. The second thing to do would be to find out where ‘here’ was. And she wasn’t going to be able to do either without leaving the little office.

  She walked to the door and half expected to find it locked but it wasn’t. The handle turned and the door opened inwards bringing the muttering of distant voices with it. Abi had no reason to suspect that the people here meant her any harm but it seemed wise to remain cautious until she knew more about them.

  Outside the room a narrow corridor ran to the left and right. There were more doors on the same side as the one she came out of and a few metres further to the left there was an opening on the other side. Not wanting to walk past that opening, and risk being seen, Abi started to walk in the other direction.

  She stopped outside the first door she came to and listened. She couldn’t hear anything inside but that didn’t mean there wasn’t anyone there. She realised that she was being silly, she wasn’t in any danger; if someone had wanted to hurt her they could have done so easily while she was unconscious. There was no danger, just the mystery of where Tina was.

  She pushed open the door and found an identical room to the one she had woken up in. There was no one inside. She closed the door behind her and moved on to the next one. Abi was on door number twelve when she heard a voice call out behind her. She froze on the spot and didn’t dare turn around. This was the moment when she found out whether she really was safe or not and, if not, whether there was anything she could do about it.

  “Abi,” said the voice, closer to her now and somewhat familiar. “Are you okay?”

  A hand gently touched on her arm and slowly she turned around and saw that it was Tina with another concerned look on her face. The girl had washed all the makeup off her face and now looked no more that fourteen years old. She had changed out of her punky clothes into a track suit. “Abi? Are you alright?” she said.

  “I’m..,” fine, she wanted to say but that didn’t seem like the truth. She was startled by how different her friend looked. “Where are we?”

  Tina smiled. “The Barrett building.”

  The news took a moment to sink in but when it did she thought only one thing: Craig. “Tina we did it!” she said and had to refrain from grabbing hold of the girl. Instantly all of her fears and concerns were gone. They had made it, she had found him.

  Tina looked uncomfortable. “Not exactly,” she said.

  “What do you mean?”

  “I asked around,” she said, “he isn’t here.”

  “What do you mean not here?” she said, painful thoughts of betrayal flashed through her mind; maybe he’d never been here, maybe he had lied to her about where he worked and what he did all day.

  Tina looked around as if someone might appear to answer the question instead of her but it remained just the two of them. “He’s gone.”

  Abi was starting to get frustrated, why wouldn’t the silly little girl tell her what she wanted to know. “Gone where?” she said.

  Tina bowed her head, couldn’t meet her eyes. “He’s gone to look for you.”

  She opened her mouth to respond but it just hung there, her jaw slack. She’d walked all this way through the burning heat and smokey air only to find out that he wasn’t here. They had probably passed within feet of each other on the street.

  “I’m sure he’ll come back,” said Tina, putting a hand on he
r arm again.

  “Why would he do that?” she said.

  “He’ll go to CoffeeKing won’t he? When he sees you aren’t there he’ll come back,” she said.

  Abi wasn’t so sure but she wanted to believe it. She nodded. At least she was somewhere safe while she waited.

  “Come on,” said Tina, “everyone’s downstairs.” She turned to lead her away but the idea of being surrounded by people was unappealing. She shook her head. “Come on, it’s fine.”

  “Did you find out anything else?” she said, stalling for time. “While you were looking for Craig.”

  “There’s a fire,” she said, “but I guess we already knew that from the smoke. It’s a pretty big one though, you can see if from the roof.”

  “You’ve been on the roof?”

  Tina nodded but didn’t say anything. It seemed as if she knew more than she was saying.

  “What is it?” said Abi.

  “It’s nothing, I’m sure it’s fine. They’ve probably dealt with it already.”

  “What is it Tina?” she said more firmly, no longer a question but an order to tell her what she knew.

  “The fire looks like it surrounds the whole city.”

  Abi shook her head.

  “I’m sure it’s nothing,” said Tina.

  “How can it be... I don’t understand.”

  Tina started to reply but before she could a harsh ringing bell cut through the silence.

  “What’s that?” said Abi.

  “Fire alarm,” said Tina. “We’d better go see what’s happening.

  She didn’t want to go anywhere looking like she did but there didn’t seem to be any choice. Tina didn’t let go of her hand and she was dragged along the corridor, past the room she had woken up in and through the opening into an open plan office. There were dozens of desks arranged in rows with blue dividers between them. Each desk was decorated with family photos, toys and half-full coffee cups.