Monday, August 02, 2010

Corner Building

   Jack saw a vision of his two daughters trapped on the first floor of a burning building.  The building sat on the corner of the lowest city block, closest to the waterfront.  The road beyond extended at a gradient into the river where dancing reflections of flame mingled with those of street lights and stars.  Jack vowed not to let this vision come to pass; they were in the tiered city, and this corner building was their destination, but Jack would not let his daughters be harmed.

   Snapping back to reality, Jack and his two daughters entered the train.  It began to speed through the city down toward the river, taking the steep inclines with abandon.  The three passengers braced as they barreled into an opposing train.  Time slowed as the other train was split asunder, its material funneled outward like a parachute.  Jack's train was unharmed and continued its race downward.  They split yet another train before finally crashing into the corner building from Jack's vision.  The train exploded in a ball of fire, engulfing the building as Jack and his daughters tried frantically to free themselves from the inferno.

   Once free of the wreckage, Jack was horrified to see only one of his daughters with him; the other was surely still trapped in the building.  Jack froze, panic written on his face, his mind screaming as his legs and limbs stayed firmly rooted.

   The daughter that had freed herself put on a large coat and gloves, ran down the road into the river and submerged herself.  She raced back as quickly as she could and began reaching into the flames to clear the burning wreckage, aided by the protection her waterlogged winter gear afforded.

   "Good idea," Jack hastily observed, running into the river himself while his daughter continued to work.  Jack ran back to find that a path had been cleared into the interior of the building where his daughter was. She was just out of reach through the window, waist-deep in a tub of water.  Jack reached for her in desperate panic, his arm straining ever closer to his daughter's extended hand.  Just a little further, almost there...