John held out a hand to Barb, intending to lead the women back to the gully.

As their hands touched and Marie held tight to his chest, the house flashed to a fierce orange light. It poured from the eves of the roof and the wreckage of the second floor. The windows were suddenly balls of flame that shot from the house like streams of water.

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His eyes closed against the painful brightness of the explosion. The thunder of destruction reached him while pushed from his feet to land on his back, the breath knocked out of his lungs.

The heat of the fire in the ravine was nothing compared to this, he thought, then darkness claimed John.

Survivors in the gully pitched to the ground and waited for the eruption to stop.