The house was in shambles. Uniformed officers trolled
through the rubble. The detectives
hadn’t arrived on scene yet. There
really wasn’t much for them to do at this point, other than to try to preserve
the scene.
The scene. The scene was fucked. And not in a good way. The neighbors reported
shouting. It was actually the domestic that they were responding to. It had
become part of the beat. Not that it was exclusive to this part of town. Just
more…common.
The heat blew past the car before they even turned the
corner. The neighboring buildings were miraculously untouched. It wasn’t really magic. That’s just the
bullshit that would pass for news. Masking a tragedy with a sliver of good
news. There weren’t enough silver linings these days.
“What the fuck?!” This was definitely not something that was
ever covered in any academy course. They would both know, they weren’t in the
uniforms a full year yet.
The car lurched as they drove in to what could easily pass
for a war zone at this point. They were out of the car and radioing for
additional emergency services with a calm air. The viscera and stench of burnt
dreams notwithstanding, witnesses would see two cops moving with an almost
machine like presence through the destruction.
Later the arson detectives and fire marshall would
officially rule that the cause of the blast was a faulty utility line coming in
to the one of the inner units. The blast emanated from there. Out from the center.
The monitor snapped to black in the board room.
“So…gentlemen. You’ve seen what they can do. How many can we
put your city down for?”