The room was different than the others. The fireball in the middle of the room showed a town burning to the ground. We weren’t just watching it happen. It was closer than that. The heat filled the room.

“I didn’t think the disasters could come into this place?”

“We are still a part of their world. Just as much as they are a part of ours.”

“Can it hurt me?” I asked.

“Not as long as you do your job. Don’t deviate. Stick to the plan and you’ll be safe.”

It sounded simple enough. I learned though, that sometimes the plan was terrible. The plan for Jonas Hale and his family wasn’t going to end well. I could tell just by looking at them. Jonas was leading his wife, Melinda, and their son, Tucker, out of their home. Smoke had engulfed their house. Outside they soon realized the smoke had overtaken most of the neighborhood.

Brookewill was a community located in very close vicinity to the northwestern wilderness. Normally a popular summer camping spot, the driest summer in a hundred years created an ecosystem ready to explode. The forest fires started fast and were untamable by the local firefighters. Help was on the way but Brookewill was going to be lost. The flames were coming. They were hungry. Jonas and his family were right in their sights.

Jonas held Melinda’s hand in his right hand and Tucker’s in his left. The houses on their left were already burning. They were running towards the middle of town. The way out was leading them through the fire. In reality though, the fire was everywhere. Tucker looked at one of the burning houses as they ran. His attention was pulled to it by the sound of screaming. Someone was inside screaming. They were trying to get out through a small bathroom window. Their arm was reaching out of it. The rest of them couldn’t fit.

“Don’t look!” Jonas yelled.

Jonas pulled his son closer to him.

“Keep your eyes forward. We’re going to be okay. Just keep your eyes forward.”

They kept running down the road towards the middle of town. I lost them though. I was still stuck at the house. My eyes were trained on the arm hanging out of the window. It had stopped moving. The person it was attached to, dead, hopefully dead, and hopefully not just melting on the other side of the window, unable to even scream for help. I couldn’t move. I couldn’t do my job.

“Krissy.”

I was stuck. The fire filled my eyes. The roasting arm was being seared into my retinas.

“Krissy!”

Mr. Calamity’s hand was on my shoulder. He pulled me back from the fiery hell I’d been watching. I still couldn’t move, or talk, or do anything really.

“Go. Go back to your living quarters. Don’t come back until you feel ready. Or just don’t come back if you decide this isn’t for you.”

He pushed me towards the door. My legs carried me through the threshold, everything else was still in the fire. Stuck like that person in the bathroom. The fire had engulfed me.