Post by Kelolon on Nov 20, 2019 17:13:59 GMT -4
It began there and encroached upon humanity thereupon.
It wasn’t long before the breath of a God wriggled through the breach
and swallow'd the land and sea in an all-consuming inferno.
BREAKING NEWS
Those words flashed in bold before fading to reveal the newscaster who looked as old as the ragged tie he wore. He tapped once on the laptop before him and gazed into the camera.
“Good morning. We come to you now as a destructive fire ravages the Izu island one-hundred-and-eighty miles from the mainland: Miyakejima.”
The camera transitions to the scene from above. A stable view of the small island provided by a helicopter. Miyakejima was most certainly on fire. From coast to coast, the circular isle settled neatly in the black ocean looked like a candle in a void. There wasn’t a spot, not a single inch of that island that wasn’t currently burning. The newscaster continued to report over the footage with a disinterested tone.
“Some of us may remember the controversial privatisation of Miyakejima that left its one-thousand residents without a home after military contractors bought the island back in 2057. While its present owner, Schwarzpole, was unavailable for comment, the Ministry of Defense has reported that the island was abandoned last year and thus no casualties are expected.”
Even the slopes of the volcano were on fire.
“It is unclear currently what caused the fire, or what allowed it to rage so suddenly as we approach a colder, wetter time of year; but experts suggest that Schwarzpole, a self-proclaimed “Abnormality Researcher”, may have been experimenting with highly flammable chemicals. However, the most likely cause is the volcano at the centre of the isla-” The camera cuts back to the newscaster, holding a finger to his ear. Why did he dye his hair? The grey was easy to make out. “Yes, we now have a correspondent in the air, Williams-san, please tell us what you see.”
The old fool is replaced with an attractive young woman with foreigners' eyes and bold makeup. She isn’t wearing a helmet, though her hair is short enough for the blustering wind from the open helicopter door didn’t make much of a difference. Miyakejima was captured within the door-frame. Burning.
“Thank you, Mojichi-sama. I’m here a few thousand feet above Miyake Island now with live footage of the wildfire.” It’s so red. So bright. If you touch your screen you might feel the heat of the flames licking your fingertips. “New evidence suggests a silent eruption of Myakejima’s volcano overnight may have been the sole cause of the fires. Endemic life on the island, once protected under various environmental acts, are expected to perish in the fire. Seeing the destruction for myself, how much history and how many creatures- I cannot put to words-” She’s crying. “We can all only be glad that no human lives were taken as a result of this gross negligence.”
This and similar reports would be made almost hourly on national news for the remainder of the day. No human casualties, but as the day progressed, more and more speculation was made on the origin of the flames. Online conspiracies were, hilariously, a wildfire. Many blame the volcano, many blame the government, some blame specifically Schwarzpole, who did not make any public statement on the matter.
The fire finally dies out somewhere in the following night and the destruction was on an otherworldly scale. A vast island with infrastructure and forests and brick buildings and countless creatures and animals - obliterated. All that was left was a smouldering waste, flattened and charred. For the next month, if it picked up enough, Japan would be able to smell the sinister char on the wind. This would be remembered as one of the most devastating natural disasters of all time that, thankfully, took no human lives.
One of nature’s great displays.
Or, at least, that’s what would be assumed.
