Chapter 669 - Beds Are Burning
Chapter 669 – Beds Are Burning
Kat dashed back down the road and launched herself into the window… or that was the attempt. It seemed relying purely on her instincts for such things was not a great idea at the moment. Something she should have already learned. Kat tried to fan out her wings but didn't quite make it in time to prevent slamming through the wooden walls and tumbling into the desk. Kat stood up as quickly as she could, leading to the floorboards breaking.
*Curse it. This place is already falling apart!* For Kat it wasn't so bad, but there was smoke everywhere and the fire had spread upstairs now, taking over the landing and most of the office she was currently in. Kat ran through the flames, not feeling any of them and quickly using her now standard technique to pull the door off. What she found was an old lady Thyme with a hand clutched over her chest, frozen in the middle of a heart attack. Kat felt the world slow.
*Ok shit. I have no idea what the procedure is for this? I mean… it's just a Thyme copy, I don't feel bad about this… but how does this effect scoring? Like… do I bring the body? Is it a waste of time? Would it be better or worse for the kid? Hmm… you know what. Let's take… her? It? When does a body become an it? Whatever let's ask Nixilei.*
Kat walked over to the body and pulled it into her arms. When it didn't mould as expected into her arms like a normal, or how she assumed a recently dead would, Kat frowned. *Well now what. How do I get what is now essentially a plank of wood out of here… hmm…* Kat glanced at the wall of the burning house and decided it was a bad idea… that was until she glanced out of the doorway and saw the flames already coming in. Wall it is.
Kat ran at the wall and kicked it in, wood crumbling easily under her kick… perhaps a bit too easily as bits of wood shot out onto the street. Kat ignored it for the most part and pushed through, making sure to check the 'body' wouldn't catch on anything as she ran out. There was some slight manoeuvring necessary but it wasn't too difficult for Kat to get back out onto the street. The kid was looking at Kat before their face quickly fell.
Kat carefully put the 'body' down and turned to face Nixilei and Gareth who had shown up at some point. "So… um… not really sure what to do about," Kat gestured towards the two Thyme's as she spoke. "It's a little weird… and I don't know how it effects our score?" Kat could hear sobbing the background, "So just like… in the future…?"
Nixilei frowned at the question. "Gareth can you get started on the wall? I'll have a look at this… person… I suppose," Nixilei saw Gareth's nod and stalked over to the crying teen to summon up her magic. A green circle appeared for a few moments before glitching out and shattering. "Hmm… seems animate… a little strange but truthfully not unexpected…"
"What do you mean?" asked Kat, "Aren't all corpses inanimate?"
Nixilei shook her head, "No not quite, or not when it comes to healing magic. I don't have time to explain it all, but people can be healed shortly after death. It usually won't bring them back, but the body can be fixed. What you brought however," Nixilei waved at the granny Thyme, "gives me the same feedback a table would."
Kat nodded and Nixilei continued, "Ok… I don't quite know what I want you to do about fake corpses in the future… there really is nothing to be done, and even in a real world scenario it's not usually worth taking the body as well… but if it's not too hard I suppose you should do it anyway, keep the people from charging back in or something. I can't do anything with them healing wise though. So I leave it up to you,"
Kat gave a solid nod to indicate understanding as she heard a rumbling sound. Kat turned to watch Gareth slam his shield into the ground causing a thick wall of rock to rise up, wide enough to cover 3 houses. "Um Nixilei?" asked Kat worriedly.
"Only way to make sure the fire won't spread when we crush it. Debris flying out of the sides could become a real issues so I'm just making sure…" the wall split into three sections and dropped. The middle war fell slightly before the others crushing the house and throwing some flaming debris but the other two walls fell catching the fire and smothering it once again, "the fire is completely contained. Now, Kat can you go check the rest of the houses on this street? Gareth and I will be making sure no stray flames cross the roads."
Kat nodded and dashed into the nearby houses that were on fire. She instantly wrote off the bakery and the five closest houses, one to the left right, back and diagonally the same as the first two, they had been completely burnt down. She also wrote off the next closest as well as while they hadn't collapsed yet the chance of survival was extremely low. So Kat start by just bursting straight through the door and looking around in the next house. It was only a single story and after checking all the rooms, instead of exiting normally, bust through the back wall into the house behind the one she was currently in.
Kat searched this house as well before taking out the wall to the left and continuing her investigation. Kat moved through the houses this way, checking every room available before knocking down the wall connecting it to another house. A couple buildings fell after this, but it was no real consequence. The first thing of note was a Thyme she found, but quickly passed over. One of the support beams from the ceiling had cracked and fallen on them, crushing their head completely. Kat quickly decided it wasn't worth the time extracting them would cost.
A few more houses went by before she finished everything in that half of the street. Kat burst out onto the road, and sucked in a deep beautiful breath of fresh air as the ash and soot slid off her body before steeling herself and heading back in. Kat ignored another four houses that had collapsed in the time she took to check, and found Nixilei was holding onto a large rag from somewhere and smothering any fire that attempted to cross the street. Gareth was presumably doing the same thing on the other side.
The pair gave a matching nod at each other as they passed and Kat dove into the next home. She found very little for her efforts. Most had managed to escape their homes before the fires got to them, at least in this section of the city. *Probably because everyone heard the explosion and came to check it out before the fire really got going. Just based on debris from the bakery shell, I can guess it was heard all around.*
Just as Kat was about to leave the second last house, she noticed something amidst the smoke. This house wasn't quite on fire just yet… but she could see a red glow coming from underneath the floorboards. Kat looked around for a way to get down but wasn't seeing anything obvious to indicate a trapdoor. She was currently in the kitchen. There were no rugs, there was no walk in cupboard that might hide one and the kitchen table was large but had no tablecloth and easily revealed the plain boards below it.
*Shit… where do I go downstairs? Do I just bust my way down there? Waste time looking around?* Kat bit her lip. *Should I check the other houses first? I only have one left… but…* Kat shook her head and charged for the neighbouring wall, deciding to investigate the strange glow later. She dashed all through the final house looking for any signs of remaining inhabitants and found nothing, so she turned around… only to find the wall she'd charged through had collapsed part of the kitchen.
*Ah dammit.* With the all the noise from the fire Kat had basically tuned out her hearing completely and missed the fact the side of the house had crumbled. *Now how am I supposed to get deal with this little problem… and is it worth trying at all? Curse it. I should have just bashed my way through the floorboards or pried a few of them up at least to check down there. Now I have a bunch of rubble in the way and a time limit… then again… I suppose I have checked all the other houses nearby.. If only there wasn't TWO MORE FIRES to deal with.*