Free Break The Ice by Kevin P Gardner Page A

window remains. Once his eyes find mine, any trace of humor disappears. He can’t get out this way, but he walks closer to me, shifting his head from side to side like a confused dog.
    I regret calling out to him. It’s none of my business. Even if that means him standing inside a burning ice cream shop.
    When he gets close enough to the window, his face becomes clearer than before. Half a dozen blisters boil on his chin. His skin sags, almost like gravity wants to pull it off. And fire smolders in his eyes. Literal fire, burning behind his pupils.
    In a single blow, his fist breaks through the cement blocks. He tugs back but the building locks his hand tight. Rather than trying again, he pushes outwards, and knocks the wall out from in front of him. He steps over the threshold, his intense stare following my every move. Eyes wide, mouth bent, muscles twitching, he breaks off a chunk of exposed brick.
    I retreat back out onto the patio, surrounded by the dead. An intense cringe tightens every muscle in my chest. If he can do that to brick, snapping my bones will be a synch. “Stay back,” I say. I want to sound confident, but I can’t hide the pleading in my voice. Puffing out my chest, I stomp my foot on the ground. “I said stay back.” That’s more like it.
    He holds the brick, a piece larger than my fist, in his right hand. Raising it up to his face, he flicks his wrist and the brick catches fire. A smile tugs at his lips. He tosses the flaming brick from hand to hand.
    Fighting seems the worst option at this point, so I keep stepping back and hopping away from the flames to my side. I follow the fire in his hands back and forth, waiting until he makes a move with it. In my retreat, my foot bumps something soft behind me. The red hem of a shirt covers my heel. If I keep this up, I’m going to lead the madman right to Kaitlyn.
    I take off running, away from the Orange Cone. Away from Kaitlyn. No cars in the street and only a few in the parking lot left unscathed–Mel’s included. Ten steps from her car, I hook a right. If I run to the car, this guy will destroy it with a flaming boulder.
    The sound comes before the pain. A whizzing noise, almost like a train’s whistle out in the distance. It gets louder and louder until a searing pain whips my neck. The car next to me shakes with the impact, the door folding in on itself. A dozen pieces of smoking rock rattle onto the pavement.
    The lunatic threw fire at me.
    I face him again. He didn’t follow me very far, still standing next to the building, a new piece of it in his hand. A metal rod this time, three feet long and broken at the end. Sharp, metal, and crawling with flames.
    Poised to throw, the man takes a few steps backward. He bounces on his heel and takes a running start. Once he builds up the momentum, he releases the rod, ready for me become his newest kabob.
    From somewhere to my right, a rush of cold air soothes the stinging in my neck. The blast pushes the spear off course. A second wave douses the flames. When the rod crashes into my shoulder, it snaps in two pieces, hits the ground, and then splinters into a hundred icicles.
    Fire-guy is not happy with the turn of events. He searches for the heaviest thing he can find and launches it. Not at me, but at whoever saved me.
    A man, bluer than the afternoon sky, dodges the attack. He dashes forward, sprinting at the building. Ten feet away, he leaps into the air and crashes down on top of the man.
    The Dinmani swings again and again, his knuckles colliding with the Sunjin’s burning face. Each hit distorts the man’s skin a little more, until it looks ready to peel off. Standing over his cowering enemy, the Dinmani places a hand atop the Sunjin’s head and chants out loud.
    “Sik mo ple ni shil!” A blue light envelops the Sunjin.
    Bones crunch and a muffled scream escapes. The light disappears and along with it, the mangled corpse of the Sunjin. It takes all the will power I can muster to not run