Story: The Ninja of Health, III

( Part II , IV )

The Toddlingham Street Allotments were in chaos, acting as a staging area for the disaster unfolding around them. Fire engines were parked next to the closest hydrants, and their crew members hosing down the burning fronts of the facing houses. Ambulance people were handling burns cases, abrasions and panic-caused injuries, while the Army stood by on alert. The Army? Something terrible had truly happened.

The Man and Woman looked separated and moved quickly towards the triage area, expertly and effortlessly evading the police cordon by simply being elsewhere than the lines of gaze. The picked up a helmet and merged into the throng, while the Woman became so graceful as to be one with the chaos. Wherever they went, the injured people they passed looked just that bit more relieved and relaxed, and the panic eased away under their inner calmness.

While circulating, they also picked up the details of the incident that had caused the houses to catch fire and now implode. More fire crews were coming in from Smootles and Lakefield, but whether they would be in time to stop flames sweeping outward was an open question. They certainly wouldn't stop the devastation to the allotment plots, not muddied up beyond repair. A projectile of some kind had flared down from the sky, and ignited the mighty blaze. The Man and the Woman were powerless in the face of such a disaster, and contrived to help as many people as they could. Many people lived who might not have in other circumstances.

Finally, their eyes interlocking, they left the triage area and examined the impact area. The building seemed to have imploded, sending out a heat wave around it. Several sheds on the allotment had just collapsed instantly. The crater, which they looked at hurriedly as the specialists were beginning to get interested themselves, was small and deep and at the bottom was what looked like a grand giant marble, the sort that giants might have played with. The marble began to wobble in the crater.

The Man and the Woman backed away just as the wobbling of the marble grew greater and greater, and then they heard a resounding crack.

There shall be more...