Free Crisis Event: Black Feast by Greg Shows, Zachary Womack Page A

later when she poured the mixture into the brick form and covered the lock completely. The powder she’d mixed would melt the flesh off her fingers if she wasn’t careful, so she dribbled drinking water onto her fingers and wiped them on pages she tore from a lab manual.
    To finish her preparation Sadie pulled her torch lighter out and tore a strip of magnesium ribbon off the spool.
    “Ready or not,” she said, and pulled her folding hatchet out of her bag. She opened the hatchet and put it onto the table next to the iron rod.
    Before proceeding, she repacked most of her belongings, leaving out only the things she needed in the next few minutes. She zipped up the pack and set it on the end of the table. She needed to be able to snatch it up on her way out if things went wrong.
    Remembering how her grandfather had worked on making his fireworks so carefully and meticulously, she rechecked everything. Then she clicked her lighter and held the flame against the magnesium ribbon. When the ribbon caught she shoved it into the form, only to see the glow fade to black.
    “Crap,” she said, and wondered if she shouldn’t try some other ignition method. But then she relit the ribbon and shoved it inside the form, and knew immediately it had worked. A six foot white flame shot out of the form, barely missing her leg.
    Sadie jumped sideways and banged her hip against the table.
    She barely noticed.
    The reaction from the powdered mixture was incredible.
    White sparks sprayed out, accompanied by tongues of fire that blasted against the metal shelves and glassware on the other side of the room. A wave of heat blasted across Sadie’s face and she was blinded by the ignition, as if she’d managed to direct a lightning strike into the room. She stood blinking sparks popped and crackled and sprayed in all directions. Several times she had to swat at the burning metal slag sticking to her parka and pants.
    Finally the white hot flame retreated back into the form and the intensity of the sparks lessened. The room darkened as the powder, which was undergoing a thermite reaction, continued to pop and crackle inside the metal form. Sadie hoped the reaction had melted the steel hasp of the Master Lock—or at least the metal rings it passed through.
    By the time Sadie could see clearly again the textbooks and lab manuals beneath the form had caught fire.
    She laughed.
    The strange irony of chemistry textbooks becoming part of a chemical reaction—turning plant cellulose into carbon, heat, and light in an exothermic reaction—was too much.
    She watched the fire burn, enjoying the heat against her face and hands—despite it being just a little too hot in the room. Cold wet sludge awaited her return to the outside world, and she’d wish she was back here when that time came.
    After a few more minutes the crackling inside the form subsided and the white flames disappeared. All that was left was the glowing red metal inside the form.
    Sadie picked up the iron rod and her hatchet and kicked the chair over. She stomped out the flaming chemistry books, then shoved the end of the iron rod against the steel hasp and pinned it against the metal cabinet behind it.
    The metal rings through which the lock was secured had softened and began to give way beneath the iron rod. Sadie tapped the other end of the rod with her hatchet, using short hard strokes so she didn’t miss the target and smash her fingers.
    She winced every time the metal clanged.
    The sound was deafening, as if someone was repeatedly kicking an old locker in the hallway of a high school. But the metal rings were giving way, and when she smacked the rod with a final hard shot the rings separated from the rest of the locker and the lock fell to the floor with a dull thump.
    “Jackpot” Sadie said as the metal doors swung open and her flashlight illuminated the contents of the cabinet.
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    Chapter 7
     
    It wasn’t a money jackpot, but for Sadie,