BOMB

Author’s Note: If you like my writing style in my short stories, then I’m sure you’d love my book, RED FIST, which will launch in September, possibly October if I can’t choose a book cover in time. Here’s another short story below.

The police and firefighters sprinted past us and vaulted over the yellow tape, towards the pillars of smoke, towards the ever-growing cries of chaos and pain. There were still people trapped inside the building, multiple workers unaccounted for. I knew people were dead, their body parts burnt black. The blast was like a flash from some driver behind you, and then, all I remember was waking up next to the guy who worked the desk across me, Steve, coughing from all the smoke in the air. It all happened instantaneously.

There was one big, bearded officer with an odd tan that was uncommon this time of year in New York. He walked around the herd of people that I stood with and questioned them.

“Was there any suspicious activity you noticed today?”

“Any odd individuals you spotted recently?”

“Do you know of anybody who would have some sort of personal vendetta against this company?”

And then he strode over to me. He let out a breath as if he was annoyed, but when I looked up into his small eyes, they were a warm brown, inviting. His smile comforted me. “How ya doing miss?”

I shook my head, “Actually, not so good.”

“Well, that certainly is understandable,” he laughed, and my lips curled into a semi-smile.

“I have some questions for you,” the officer stated. I read his name tag. Last name: Haynes.

I nodded, and he continued. “Have you noticed anybody suspicious lately hanging around that normally doesn’t?”

I thought for a second and shook my head no.

“Do you know of any co-workers or peers that work here that had any sort of malicious intent to harm the company?”

“No,” I answered.

“Ok, well—”

The ground shook. Haynes grabbed hold of me, his large body wrapping around mine. My ears seemed to short circuit, and all I saw was a black monster, racing upwards into the sky, tangling with a bright orange one. Glass shattered, cutting the air as the individual shards rained down upon us. I heard this low moan like some animal was dying loudly. But it wasn’t an animal that was dying, it was the building.

“Holy shit!” Haynes yelled. He picked me up, “Run, everybody fucking run, the building is coming down!”

The sky was falling, and I just knew, no matter how fast we ran, we couldn’t escape.