Steampunk Prime_ A Vintage Steampunk Reader - Mike Ashley [104]
I did not find out what was the matter, even when I got into the street, but thousands of frightened people were running along the footways, and numberless cars and vehicles were going full speed along both sides of the road, in one direction. “Run for your lives!” People were shouting, and the cry was taken up by a thousand voices echoing into the air. Out into the crowd I was carried along, buffeted and bewildered. Even in this panic, which was only the beginning, many people were thrown over the balustrades of the footways, to be crushed and mangled by the racing cars beneath. Many were the calls for “Ambulance! Ambulance!” But the ambulance officials had disappeared. Yet no cause for this great panic could I see; neither was it any use inquiring. Several people I asked, like myself, simply did not know. All the same they were as panic stricken as the others.
One man I asked, however, replied in an excited fashion:
“I tell you, friend, it’s a punishment from God! I know it! I know it! And a green flame, a — ” and then this extraordinary man was borne along out of my hearing.
Then, being (though I say it myself) somewhat of a logical disposition, I made up my mind to see the danger for myself before running away from it; so I commenced to push and fight my way in the opposite direction.
II.
EVERYWHERE I went were thousands — nay, millions — of people, all panic-stricken; and as I progressed further towards the east, I began to hear more news. Some said the whole of London was on fire; some said it was a green fire; one man, brawny and half naked, tore along, screaming, “The lightning! The lightning!”
I must have been an hour, at least, fighting and pushing my way with no particular aim, only always against the crowd. Presently I heard a roaring and crashing, and the yelling of the people seemed to grow louder; the heat, also, began to grow more intense, and I judged I was nearer to the scene of the fire, for then I thought it nothing more important than a large block of buildings burning. Then, suddenly turning a corner, I came into full view of it at the end of a long street, and, sure enough, it was only a fire — but what a fire! The flames were of a brilliant green color; volumes of smoke rose, fortunately overhead, for it has since been discovered that the slightest breathing of this smoke meant death.
Out of the green flame lightning flashed continually in all directions, and huge balls of fire were hurled into the air.
One of these electric fireballs descended close to where I was standing. People near yelled and stampeded, several being knocked over, and trampled on; with a fierce hissing noise the fireball came down, killing and scorching every living thing within an area of several meters.
Electric sparks shot from the victims; but even as they struggled, the rushing people quickly passed over them, and they were literally obliterated. Then I began to catch the infection of terror myself. The green flame, spreading with frightful rapidity, had come within one hundred meters from where I was, and nothing could stand against it; the boasted fire-proof buildings were worse than useless: the green flame melted them at the joints like lead, and the vast steel girders came down, crashing, killing, and maiming hundreds at a time.
My pen is powerless to depict the terror of the people. No car or vehicle could move in the dense mass of people, and many were being broken up in the crowd; men, women, and children were fighting, screaming, pushing, raving, and trampling each other under foot. Wherever I turned it was the same; lightning flashed, and fireballs descended frequently,