They didn't have long to wait.
Soon, brilliant showers from slow-burning, highly-flammable incendiaries cast a hazy red glow in the night sky. Some embers fell sizzling and popping to the ground. With a delayed explosive charge, at first only smoke and fumes was evident; any danger perceived was easily dismissed.
"See, I told you they were throwing a party."
"Then, what is all this pink stuff floating in the air?" Some in the crowds wondered as they began to cough.
"What's going on? What are those things on the ground? Is that where the smoke is coming from?"
"Aw, it's nothing. Just a dud," a scratchy voice reassured.
"Get back, it could still go off."
The crowd grew more anxious.
"It's just a Roman Candle or bottle rocket that didn't go off."
"How would you know? Have you ever seen a Roman Candle or bottle rocket?"
"My throat hurts. Does anyone feel that? I think something toxic is in the smoke."
People backed up, but they did not run.
As soon as they had inhaled the toxic fumes, some dropped to their knees coughing, retching, and vomiting. A few more clutched their chests and fell. They were dead before they hit the pavement.
In all the confusion, the people who witnessed those reactions couldn't grasp the significance.
Now getting closer, clouds of smoke and fire billowed into the air. None of those observing the event had been alive during the first attacks over a century earlier. Having never seen such sights before, they didn't recognize the dangers or the nature of what they were seeing.
It didn't register until more planes returned.
Finally, when the bombs began to fall on Fallhaven and the fires broke out, the residents understood what was happening … however, by then, it was too late for them.
By then, it was their turn to die.
Just as they had done in Summerhaven and Springhaven, the airplanes made pass after pass dropping their payloads in rapid succession over Winterhaven.
6| Friends & Foes
Meanwhile, with their mouths and noses covered by scarves to protect them from the blast fumes, Salazar and Miki had reached the inner city. It wasn't a safe place to venture during the best of times, but now, even as buildings were blasted to hell and bombs fell on Fallhaven, looting was in full swing.
Salazar had never seen a crowd behave the way these people were acting. It was as if they were on speed or crank. With their faces twisted in grimaces and their eyes wild and dilated, crazed men and women ran through the streets in spite of the dangers of the aerial raid. Many were killed by direct hits or torn to shreds by shrapnel. Still, those dangers did not dissuade them. It didn't slow them down or prevent them from trying to complete their insane mission to raid and pillage.
Salazar couldn't understand why they behaved that way.
Even among the fires and blasting, residents ransacked stores and took whatever they could steal, whatever they could manage to carry, whether they needed it or not. If it hadn't been so horrifying, it might have been comical to watch some men roar and beat their chests before they attacked someone with better stolen goods. But, it wasn't amusing to see neighbors attacking each other. Nothing that Salazar and Miki witnessed was entertaining.
The people appeared to be in panic mode… or out of their minds. Either way, it was a terrible scene. Perhaps it was a last-ditch effort to get some payback for the nasty abuses they had suffered. Maybe, they thought that, if it was the end of the world, they would go out with one last fight.
Then again, perhaps it was something else altogether.
Salazar began to suspect that these people were drugged. His eyes carefully scanned the area and besides the roaring fires and shattered buildings, the only thing he could see that might account for this change in behavior was the strange fumes that lazily drifted through the air.
Pinkish in color and thick in consistency, Salazar wondered why the gases were part of the air raid. Wanting to understand, he silently observed as some people grabbed their chests in pain and died. Some grew paranoid and quickly ran away. While others… others seemed to instantly go stark-raving mad.
He wanted to steer clear of those.
They were the ones that caused the hair on the back of his neck to stand up. As he kept scanning the area, he realized that a lot of the residents were affected in that same way. He slowed down and pulled Miki into the shadows of a building.
"Look, Mother. Look at our neighbors and tell me what you see," he whispered as he pointed at two individuals they knew personally.
"It looks as if they are no longer in their right mind," Miki concluded after observing the men for a few minutes.
"What do you think could cause such a thing?" he asked.
"I'm not sure, Son. I can't possible understand what would cause any of them to want to steal during such a time. You'd think they would be looking for shelter like we are."
"Yes, you would think," he agreed.
Miki felt an itch in the back of her throat and began to cough. At first it was a dry, tickling rasp as if she couldn't clear her throat. It was her body's natural response to try to rid itself of mucus or a foreign substance that had entered her airway. She looked up at her son as he also began to cough.
"We've been out here too long, Salazar. Now, we have been exposed to whatever it is. We must hurry and get to wherever we are going," she urged between coughing fits.
"We will," Salazar replied. He coughed two or three times before continuing, "I just needed to make sure that my assessment of our neighbors was the same as yours."
Now completely overcome by a hacking fit, his mother couldn't reply. In only a matter of moments, her cough became so violent that she slid to her knees and vomited.
"Oh, I'm really sorry about that. I think I got some on your shoes, Son. Help me up… we must get to our shelter right away or we might not get there at all," Miki pressed, feeling a consuming urgency to get away from the chaos.
Salazar knew his mother was right about that, however, the only response he could make right then was to join her on the pavement as he expelled his own stomach's contents.
When they had both recovered some and he was able, he took Miki's arm and they continued on their way. Still, he thought about the pinkish gases and wondered if it was a new biological weapon. From the looks of things, if that was true, it seemed that inhaling the substance brought out the worst in many of the people but not everyone. Some were sick; however, they still acted normally. Just as he did, they shied away from those who had gone insane.
He wondered why and how it affected everyone differently.
Did the gases attack some dormant characteristic in those who were already bent on chaos? Did the fumes inflame some particular trait causing it to surface?
Not having any real answers, Salazar could only observe its effects. Nevertheless, his instincts led him to believe that the fumes were responsible for the things he and Miki witnessed.
Hoping not to attract any attention from the crazed mob, Salazar and Miki crept along in the shadows. They stayed close to the buildings that had not yet been bombed as they carefully made their way to the entrance Serena had previously pointed out.
Even after all this time, it still looked the same – a jagged, crumbled opening where a mortar blast had torn away the façade many years ago during the first war and rebellion. However, just before they could duck inside and out of sight, two men spotted them and approached from behind.