The rain fell, its icy drops tickling the hot ground as the thunder storm hovered above the city of San Francisco. Few cars drove by as the yellow street lamps illuminated the roads and sidewalks. It was in the evening, perhaps around nine or ten at night. Few people were still out and about, the more popular roads were busy with traffic. Bars were filled to the brim and the music from clubs all across the city could be heard.
The storm above didn’t seem to be bothering anyone, or keeping them from going out and having a good time.
Ashley wasn’t really bothered by the rain either, she rather liked it.. even though it was a hot storm.. the rain drops were cool to the skin. She really liked being out in the storm, it was a form of relaxation for her.. but then again she was also smoking a well rolled blunt.
She didn’t care that she was smoking the weed in public, she could give a rats ass if someone tried to confront her.. police officer or other. It was her business and no one else’s..
However no one really bothered her as she walked down the quiet street alone. The hood of her faux leather jacket was pulled over her head to keep her hair from getting soaked. The front was zipped up also to keep her from getting wet. On her shoulders she carried a regular school backpack stuffed with some of her belongings.
Ashley was only about fifteen years old and besides her jacket she was wearing a pair of ratty stained jeans and a tee-shirt under her jacket. She was also wearing a pair of torn, dirty beat up black vans.
A typical rocker appeal.. but the kid also couldn’t afford clothes, so she basically wore what she had.. and if she needed to she would resort to stealing in the end.
The girl is one of those children that fell off the radar after running away from the foster care facility and child services..ya they might have looked for her when she first ran away, but they had only so many resources and it wasn’t uncommon for orphans to run away and never be found.
So she figured they didn’t look that hard, because it wasn’t like she tried her damndest to not be found… she was usually right in plain sight.
Ashley came to a street corner and paused momentarily.. she inhaled a deep breath of smoke from the blunt her eyes pausing on an older couple. She watched them as they laughed and clung to each other, both were dressed in a fancy attire.. probably coming from a dinner party.. or going to it. They looked like the type to have kids.. kids waiting at home for their parents, parents that didn’t care..Ashley almost started to chew on the end of her blunt in annoyance before the couple disappeared into a club.
However as she stood there almost hesitating to cross the street she saw something out the corner of her eye.. a shift in the darkness.. in the ally way.. “Huh.” She was suspicious but she wasn’t on guard..and she didn’t expect what was going to happen next…
The sound was something out of a war movie, the loud almost sound defining noise followed by that sudden sense of slow motion as everything quickly turned into utter chaos. The club the couple had walked into exploded into a fireball. Glass, and parts of the building shot out around a three mile wide vicinity. The buildings next the club lost their windows and maybe a wall or two.. Flames shout out toward the sky, and it was almost hard to tell if people were screaming inside the burning club.