Imnsvale
22-01-2004, 05:52
She trudged away from the town. Naomi didn't look back, she kept her head down. The evacuation of the town went as best as could be expected. All of the trees dropped their leaves ages ago. Now they were all an ashen, ghastly white. The branches reached for the sky like cracks in glass. The pavement was mucilaginous and gluey and adhered to her boots like paste. The streets and sidewalks were cracked in too many places to count.
Carmaghe was on fire. Not the town or buildings. The coal under it. A mining accident started a fire in the rich bituminous coal seam under Carmaghe and putting it out wasn't a viable option. Attempting to put it out would cut the town in half, cost hundreds of millions of dollars and still might not put it out. They had no choice but to leave. They could have stayed; nobody forced them to leave. But the toxic, sulfurous gasses had a way of making people want to leave. The town is estimated to keep burning for the next few hundred years, slowly burning up the coal into carbon dioxide.
Carmaghe was on fire. Not the town or buildings. The coal under it. A mining accident started a fire in the rich bituminous coal seam under Carmaghe and putting it out wasn't a viable option. Attempting to put it out would cut the town in half, cost hundreds of millions of dollars and still might not put it out. They had no choice but to leave. They could have stayed; nobody forced them to leave. But the toxic, sulfurous gasses had a way of making people want to leave. The town is estimated to keep burning for the next few hundred years, slowly burning up the coal into carbon dioxide.