My Bother's Keeper Chapter Two.

There were a total of ninteen murders in the city this week. Five killings were from this same incident. From just this one single day. Two of the victims' are policemen, one a county ambulance driver. There were fourteen more killings that same week. But few were as spectacular as these.

The newspapers were full of the killings front page for the next two days; the murders taking a forefront until more important matters had over-shadowed them. It would never have lasted that long if the two cops and the ambulance driver hadn't died so graphically, and in full public view, complete with pictures. I was there. Called to help with the first killing.

The ambulance pulled way, running up to full speed as quickly as traffic would allow. I watched it pull away. Half a block later, not fifteen seconds it pulled off to the left, hitting a half dozen parked cars and a streetlight.

Half the police in town were there by then and all the press, all of us running a fast as humanly possible to reach the broken wreck. Miraculously still on its wheels. Flames were coming underneath the hood a lake of fire
spreading underneath.

The first ones that reached the doors found them jammed shut. Two of them on each handle couldn't budge them an inch. Someone brought a pry bar and busied them selves with it. I reached them just as the smoke began to poor from the
burning asphalt just under the bumper. It didn't smell like gasoline or anything else that I had ever smelled burning. More like sulfur must have been from the asphalt. I joined the two pulling on the door.

I should have been able to see inside, I called to them, shouted to them as loud as I could along with everyone else trying to help. Shouting re-assurance to those trapped inside. I never heard a thing out of them. Windows to small to crawl through, there was no rescue there. Should have been able to see inside through them. The only thing I could see on the other side the windows was a smeared red film. A very real looking dark red smear on so thick nothing could be seen from the other side.

Two officers were beating on the front windshield trying to break it open, hoping to pull them out from the outside. The windows refused to break or even crack despite repeated blows. The roar of a siren and the fire truck backed up and from behind me, unseen hands pulling me back from the doors as two yellow-coated fireman jumped on top of bumper attaching a cable to the doors handle. I jumped back farther away, the fireman signaling with a hand while the twin cables tightened.

The doors didn't budge. Four firemen approached from either side with extinguishers throwing foam at the blaze that was quickly surrounding the truck. “Won't take long to put this out. Get ready to pull them out!” The flames spread further, licking up the sides of the truck and over the roof.

Smoke obscured the van even from this close. More firemen arrived. More foam. Flames roaring, higher then higher yet, the tips reaching over to touch the nearby building. The blasting heat driving the rescuers back step by step.

“If anyone is alive in there they won't last much longer!” The van jerked as the cables pulled with all the force the fire engine could muster, pulling against the van. Flames ignoring the fire retardant foam, seemingly reaching
out towards emergency crew surrounding them.
Without warning the cables attached to the fire truck snapped in two, screaming through the space between the van and truck. The opening in the back of the van still sealed shut. “Those guys are toast now! Everyone back! Now!”
Someone sounding like authority shouted out. “Move! Move! That fuel tank can't take much of this! Move it!” Dark figures scurried away from the flaming van and far enough away into darkness from the fallen lamppost.

"We couldn't do any more for them, no one could be alive in side that van, not after this. I've never seen a fire like this before.” The fireman standing next to me mumbled. The van doors exploded outward. “It’s hit the oxygen tank!” Flying off the hinges, it flew outward a hundred yards before hitting the ground bouncing
again and again before spinning to a stop inside a broken shop window.

Looking inside I tried to see if by some miracle anyone might have survived, knowing they were beyond any help from anyone here if they had. Flames breakout from the rear of the broken ambulance, but for just a moment it was clear from smoke. Out of the back of the ambulance a dark shadow not of smoke but a billowing cloud of gas flew up, pausing for a moment, then before running away down the street slowing for just a moment as it passed through a watching policeman. Disappearing for a moment then reappearing on the other side and fading away into the dark motionless night sky. But for just a moment it stood out clearly against the
moon.

When the van imploded, force of the incoming air that fed the blast crushed it like a pop can in a giant fist. The second explosion pushed the walls riding outward in a rushing wave of blue and orange flame, shaking the ground and anything around it for a block. Small off shoots of flame sprouted immediately here and there from the trailing debris, keeping everyone busy for the next several hours cleaning up and putting out the many fires.

The next morning the charred remains were removed and the autopsies begun.