Dark Destiny

Chapter 10 - Ace, Tom, Joshua & Sammy

CHAPTER 10—ACE, TOM, JOSHUA, & SAMMY

The streets of Denpasar reflect a scene of utter chaos. Mere moments before, an explosion wracked the normal quiet calm of this medium-sized Indonesian city. There were five cars that were caught in the immediate explosion. The first vehicle, the one that was directly hit in the explosion, is nestled in between the others. It is a hollowed shell of a car. The vehicles on either side of it are also charred and blackened from the aftermath of the explosion, and some are also hollowed shells. There is much groaning from the survivors and those caught either in the blast, or those who were in the path of flying shrapnel. There are a number of people lying along the streets who are suffering from the effects of the explosion. A man clutches his bloody leg, where a piece of flying glass lodged into his thigh. Others have injuries to various parts of their bodies, and some lie prone on the asphalt streets, unmoving. The sides of the buildings are also ashen in appearance, many of them having a trail of black soot pasted onto the doors and siding of their businesses and other such buildings. Some of the buildings have shattered glass windows, and glass lies on both sides of those windows, so intense was the explosion that occurred mere moments before. A black smoke fills the air, drifting upward from the area immediately around the vehicle, causing people to cough and choke from the pungent odor.

The people react in different ways to the aftermath of the explosion of the vehicle. Some rush for cover, while others look on with a morbid curiosity. Still others rush towards telephones to call for help. And still others continue their track to their destinations, either on car or on foot, as if they witnessed nothing. However, four figures rush directly toward ground zero of the explosion. There, they find a gutted vehicle, a mere shell of its former self. It is a shell, sitting on empty tire mounts, the rubber tires vaporized from the heat of the explosion. Shrapnel lies across the street, as car parts were blown in all directions from the impact of the blast. This is the vehicle that they had been following, the one that belonged to the agents of El-Fahd. As they rush over to the vehicle, they quickly see that there is no hope for those inside the vehicle. A blood-covered hand is stretched out across the blown-out passenger's window of the car, which is blackened and charred from the explosion. Ace is the first to reach the car, rushing over to inspect its contents. He looks into the car, and steps back, stunned by the sight and smell of the devastated vehicle, and the remnants of its passengers, shaking his head at the others, who are even now arriving onto the scene.

While Sammy and Ace stay behind, Tom and Joshua rush forward, to the next car in the line of traffic that was disrupted from the blast. Much of that vehicle has also been hollowed out by the blast, and the back end of the small passenger car is blackened from the fiery explosion. The car is blackened in many areas, and the paint has been melted from the driver's side door, leaving a pasty-white surface underneath on the door. Tom shouts at the crowd. "Can someone get me some water here?" he calls out to the crowd, noticing that the vehicle is still smoldering. Within moments, brave souls rush to help out with the other cars, even as Sammy and Ace stay behind to deal with the car at the dead center of the explosion. Behind them, people empty large buckets of water all around the vehicles, and on some of them, putting out the small, smoldering fires that were still burning in the wake of the explosion, and helping to prevent any additional conflagration.

"I don't envy the EMTs assigned to this job," Ace comments, as he looks into the car once again. There is no longer a driver's door, and he sees very little in the way of the car's interior. Lying across the remnant of a steering wheel is what is left of the driver of the vehicle, who is missing most of his face, and one of his arms. What is left of his body is charred, hardly recognizable as a human being. Ace shakes his head again. "At least, for them, it was quick."