By the time they reached the stop sign, the gas tank was less than half full. Jeremy felt sick to his stomach. Everything seemed normal. Clouds drifted through the sky overhead. The wind rustled through the trees on the sides of the road. Moira leaned toward him and snapped a selfie, her smiling in the foreground and him frowning out the windshield behind her.
“I’m sending it to all my friends so they know who I was with if I go missing.” She warned him. They were a little past that concern by now. They’d left behind the remnants of an ancient spell that ended life as the world knew it. She’d merrily climbed into the car with him over an hour ago. A drive to the highway that should have taken twenty minutes stretched into two hours.
“What is going on with them right now?” He asked.
“Nothing really, I guess.” She said, “Most of them are stuck in their dorms because college campuses are shut down. Everything is shut down. They won’t let my friend’s private plane take off so she can go home to her parents.”
“That sucks.”
“Traffic is pretty terrible, too, apparently.”
They had not seen a single car yet. Jeremy tried not to let that feed his growing panic. Moira assured them that there was more civilization close to the highway. It would typically only take another ten minutes from the stop sign, which translated to another hour. They would barely make it with the amount of gas they had left. Jeremy tried not to think about the video of cars lining up at the gas stations.
Not thinking was about as effective as closing your eyes and reciting, ‘If I can’t see them, they can’t see me.’ When they reached town, Jeremy was sorely tempted to drive back out into the wilderness. It took them half an hour to get through two traffic lights and the three car accidents between them. One particularly spectacular one blocked the entrance to Wal-Mart. People abandoned their cars in the street and rushed up the hill on foot. The gas stations were all worse than the video. One or two had cardboard signs taped over their prices declaring they were out of gas.
Jeremy and Moira were silent as they pulled into the long line. Ahead of them, two middle-aged men stood outside their cars, smoking and reminiscing about the 1970’s oil crisis. Moira rolled down the window and propped her feet on the side mirror.
“Do you really think all this is because of that god my Aunt and Uncle tried to sacrifice us to?” She asked.
“I never saw real magic before last night, and whatever they were trying to do obviously went wrong, so…” Jeremy shrugged, “I guess we will find out more if there is any information in your uncle’s office.”
Moira sighed. She tried her boyfriend again. He did not pick up the phone. She began to amuse herself by snapping her fingers and staring at them intently.
“What are you doing?” Jeremy asked. He shut the car off so they wouldn’t run out while waiting in line.
“Trying to do magic.” She said, “You always see people snap their fingers to get a flame.”
“Is that the best idea when we are in a line of idling cars at a gas station?”
She pouted at him but switched to cupping her hands and staring at them. A bunch of shouting in line ahead drew her attention away before anything happened. The two middle-aged smokers walked up a little way to see. Moira pushed open the door and stood.
“What’s going on?” Jeremy said, doing the same.
“Some kid is filling up a whole truck bed full of gas containers.” One of the smokers chuckled and shook his head while walking back to his car. Over the tops of the cars, Jeremy could see hands waving around in jerky, angry motions. Then, a huge red and orange fireball swelled around the gas station and sent a blast of heat outward. Jeremy ducked behind the car door.
He heard no huge kaboom, only the roar of fire, so he peered through the window. Flames licked up the roof over the station and consumed the pumps and closer cars. The middle-aged man from the car in front of him hid behind his door in the same position. He looked back at Jeremy with wide eyes.
“Damn,” Moira grumbled from across the car, “Now we need to find another gas station. Let’s go before all these people beat us to the next line.”
Jeremy stared across the console as she plopped in the passenger seat and closed the door. She made a motion to hurry him along. Back at the mansion, his confidence that nobody survived the old god and mansion collapse was high. Here, there were likely injured people that he could help.
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“We should try to help.” He looked back through the window. The middle-aged dude stood and tossed his cigarette to the side. He and the other middle-aged dude exchanged a look, then jogged toward the fire.
Moira made a face. “Look, there’s people going to help. Let’s go.”
“No.” Jeremy stood and walked around the car door. The fire’s heat washed over him. He grit his teeth.
“Look, give me the keys, and I’ll get in line at the next gas station.” Moira crawled across the console and held out her hand. “There is one a couple of blocks that way if you turn right at the light. Meet me there.”
“Fine.” Jeremy tossed the keys and ran toward the fire.
People tore flaming clothes off and clutched burns while stumbling away from the fire. A few lay still on the ground. The two middle-aged dudes were dragging bodies away from the cars and the gas pumps. The gas station attendant stood beside the emergency shut-off, hollering into her phone. A couple of others helped people out of their burning cars.
Jeremy reached one of the cars damaged by the fire. The paint was scorched clean off. The air filled with the stench of gasoline, hot steel, and burning flesh. Jeremy blinked against the heat and smoke and saw a person in the car. He grabbed the door handle, then hissed and snatched his hand back. A raw, red burn already glowed on his palm. He cursed and looked around.
To his right, a car suddenly erupted into a torrent of flames and sent a wave of unbelievable heat over his body. To avoid the heat, he crossed to the other side of the car with the person in it. This time, he shrugged his jacket off and used it to touch the door handle.
The unconscious man in the driver’s seat shifted as Jeremy wrenched the door open. He, like his car, hadn’t caught fire, but several burns spread across his face and arms. Jeremy wrapped his arms around the guy’s chest and hauled him out of the car. He started to regain consciousness and helped Jeremy get him over the shifter. They both scrambled back from the gas station. A young man ran past them toward the fire.
Instead of ducking into a car to pull someone out or grabbing a fire extinguisher like the gas station attendant brandished, he held his hands over his head. Jeremy blinked away the sting of smoke and watched a red symbol, an upside down triangle, appear by his hands. Water splashed into his cupped hands.
“No!” The gas station attendant screamed as the man tossed the water cupped in his hands at one of the gas pumps. He watched the fire spread out with a dumbstruck expression on his face. Jeremy surged forward to grab the back of his shirt and shove him away. He darted toward the pump, using the jacket to shield himself from the heat so he could grab the fire extinguisher on the pole next to it. He ripped off the plastic and sprayed down the little pockets of fire that the water had spread around.
But the entire station was up in flames already. The gas station attendant turned her attention to cooling the fires spreading through the cars. Jeremy’s fire extinguisher ran out. He cursed and tossed it to the side. He backed away from the heat a bit.
The man just conjured water out of thin air. If that was possible, then it had to be possible to conjure any element out of thin air. If that was possible, maybe Jeremy could do the opposite and get rid of the fire. He stared at the flames crackling from a nearby car and willed them to extinguish. He blew out his breath and furrowed his brow. Red symbols flashed before him. The flames went out. The car sat blackened and ruined and silent.
Jeremy laughed and stumbled back. He looked at another car and tried to do it again. This time, when the flames went out, he felt a surge of exhaustion wash over him. Using magic probably required some energy expenditure, then. He would not be able to put out all the fires individually like this. But the gas station attendant had caught onto what he was doing. As did the two middle-aged guys and a few other people. As a group, they managed to tamp out all the fires.
In all the chaos, a fire truck and ambulance showed up. A gas station fire was still scary enough to elicit an emergency response. The EMT’s began treating the people with burns. The firefighters stood by their truck in their gear with surprised expressions. One of the middle-aged guys went over and explained how they had put out the fires. The other one stood beside Jeremy. He offered a cigarette.
“No thanks.” Jeremy shook his head. The man sat heavily on the curb and lit one up. Jeremy looked at the bright red ember for a moment. His palm burned. He looked down at the bright red burn on his palm.
The little gas station store had caught fire, but most of the flames had not gotten inside. Jeremy went in, tracking sooty sneaker prints. He looked around at the shattered glass and blackened ceiling where the flames had scorched the tiles. The chip bags and candies close to the blown-out windows were melted and welded to the metal shelves. The station attendant, Katie, according to her nametag, came to stand in the doorway and watch him.
“Were you the only one working?” He asked.
“Yeah.” She wiped some sweat from her forehead and left a streak of soot.
“That’s pretty terrible, considering the line.” He reached over the counter to grab a plastic bag, then went toward the back of the store and started dumping granola bars into it.
“It’s not like anyone else was going to come in to help.” Katie grumbled, “I locked the door.”
That’s why there was still food in here. Jeremy grabbed another plastic bag and filled it with water bottles. He frowned.
“Do you have any paper maps?”
“Over there.” Kaite gestured. She went behind the counter and contemplated the cash register. Jeremy grabbed a few maps and then looked around the little store. He set the stuff down on the counter. Katie raised her eyebrows at him.
“I don’t really think it matters if I ring you up.” She said.
“Okay.” Jeremy flipped open his wallet and pulled out a twenty to slap on the counter.
He nodded to the people who had put out the fire with him, then started down the street toward the stoplight to find Moira.