Fireworks

3

I sprint closely behind Isa, not caring that I'm following her to a creepy camper in an abandoned field.

Big plumes of black smoke are starting to rise from where a small fire is quickly spreading into a large one. Multiple people are running around trying to put it out, but it's starting to head towards the treeline, where lots of dry brush is waiting to catch flame.

Isa and I make it there in no time, and I see a young-looking woman freaking out while holding a hose, though I'm not sure what it's connected to considering there's no power source nearby. An elderly-looking man is working alongside the boy that dropped Isa off at Vinnies to toss buckets of water on the fire. An older woman is screaming into a phone while running around, presumably looking for a water source or a fire extinguisher of some kind.

I take a moment to access the surroundings. How did this happen?

Behind the Camper, there's a trailer even larger than the camper itself, full of cardboard boxes, and a big green dumpster next to it. I look over at the trailer and see if the fire is coming from the kitchen or something, but the fire is coming from the...

I feel inclined to curse as dirty as Isa.

Now that I see it, I can smell it. The propane has been leaking from the trailer.

Water isn't going to help this much.

I would go to the propane tank and figure out how to stop this, but I don't want the valve to discharge. I hurriedly look around. The fire isn't too big yet, there may be a way to stop it if we act soon. It's good that it isn't in a contained space, either, that would most likely be bad. The water is clearly not helping, and it looks as though we're running out of that too. I know that a quick way to put out fires like this is baking soda, but that won't do any good.

This is bad, the water is just spreading the flames, at least in the way that these guys are doing it.

I run over to the tattooed boy and older man and yell, "Hey!" as loud as I can, though there's a lot of chaos going on so I have to do it a couple of times before they hear me.

The boy turns to me in annoyance and snaps, "What?"

I swallow but quickly say, "The water is spreading the flame, you need to either douse it or stop,"

His eye twitches and he looks like he's about to retort, but the old man says, "Damn, she's right. Look,"

He points to where they've been aiming the water and sure enough, the flames are only rising higher.

"It's a gas-fueled fire, do you have any baking soda or salt?" I call desperately to the man, but he seems distracted.

I cough a little as a thick wave of smoke is blown in our direction, and everyone curses, turning their faces away.

I look around and a light goes off in my head when I see a large cloth tarp hanging out of the trailer opening. I grab a bucket of water in each hand and run over to the tarp. It's slightly folded, but I start soaking it as effectively as I can with the few buckets of water I have. Luckily the thick cloth is more absorbent than I thought it was and holds the water nicely.

I hear the man start to chastise me for wasting the water, but soon the tattooed boy, Arlo, is next to me, helping me pour the water over the covering.

We meet each other's eyes in a brief moment of understanding and work quickly. In a few moments and many buckets of water later, we manage to get the majority of the tarp covered.