In the Public Eye: Part 56
The house only blew up a little bit -- at least by comparison to an atomic bomb, for example. It didn't have a mushroom cloud, just gouts of flame pouring out the kitchen windows and doors. To judge from what it looked like afterwards, it must have blasted out a couple pieces of wall too, but I was too distracted by the flames and smoke to notice.
We had already gotten out when it happened. The explosion destroyed the kitchen, part of the dining room, and started most of the back of the house burning. Even through my armor I could feel the heat a little.
I hit the ground when it blew like everyone else, realizing belatedly that I probably didn't have to.
As Marcus, Haley, Water and I began to stand up, the Rhinomobile pulled around the side of the house. Daniel stayed on the ground in front of me, still not feeling well enough to stand. Vaughn and the mayor lay near Daniel's feet.
The Rhinomobile stopped just short of us. A firehose led down the lawn from the back of vehicle to a fire hydrant.
Over the loudspeakers, Larry shouted, "Anybody still in there? If you need help, give a shout. Otherwise I'm hosing this place down."
The side of the Rhinomobile opened and Larry walked out onto the ledge above a tread carrying another hose. He jumped down and ran to the back of the Rhinomobile and attached it.
Daniel said, "There's no one left inside. No one living anyway."
"Got it," Larry said, and opened up with the hose. It didn't take long before he'd put out the worst of it.
We all rode back in the Rhinomobile. No one bothered to chase us. In fact, cars pulled off the side of the road to let us go past.
They probably didn't want to get run over.
I stood in the opening between the sleeping area and the... I don't know what to call it. The cockpit? The cab? Whatever you call the place people sit in to drive a vehicle that doesn't fly.
Larry drove, of course. Marcus sat in the bucket seat next to him, asking questions about the dashboard.
It had a lot of buttons.
"That's for the oil slick," Larry said.
Marcus pointed to another button. "That one?"
"Engages the flamethrowers," Larry said. "I like to start the oil slick on fire."
"Is that why you've got a firehose?" I asked.
"Nah," Larry said. "I've got a firehose because even when I don't start the fire it seems like half the time I go anywhere something starts burning."