Chapter Text
Within five minutes of the first wisps of smoke being spotted, every student, teacher, and even the principal was staring out a window. A few students who had been straggling late to class had stepped outside, looking down at the scene unfolding below them. Even as the teachers ordered students to retake their seats, they couldn’t help but try and see for themselves what was going on.
Black smoke was rising towards the sky, stretching towards the hills, the wind bringing it closer the further it rose.
“Well that can’t be anything good.” Jasper muttered, bouncing slightly as another handful of students joined them on the grass.
“Is it an office building? I mean the building itself would have to be larger than any house for a fire to be visible from here, unless of course it’s spreading but any building worth its safety rating wouldn’t catch that fast. Although that’s assuming there’s no accelerant involved-”
“It’s a school.” Raven cut across Monty. “Polis. It’s small but that’s definitely it.”
An odd silence fell across the group as people muttered around them. The distant wail of a fire engine rang out, accompanied by the faint flashing blue lights that disappeared behind the slowly growing cloud of smoke.
“I hope everyone’s okay.” Clarke couldn’t help but think of the students, how scared they must be, how many of them must have been in the building. It was only ten o’clock. It would have been full.
“Better them than us.” Murphy muttered but was quickly silenced by Raven elbowing him hard in the ribs. “What the hell! We were all thinking it!”
“No we weren’t, asshole.” Raven said, not taking her eyes off the base of the smoking cloud. She couldn’t get the image of it out of her head, the fire consuming the old building, flames stripping the walls and burning it to a crisp.
A sudden boom echoed from the school causing a thick black smoke to start billowing through the sky and eliciting a few gasps from even more students now gathered outside the school.
“What’s going on down there?” Clarke asked, thinking back to what Monty had said about an accelerant. She looked to him, hoping he was wrong for once. It was just a school.
Monty met her gaze and shook his head.
“A gas line, maybe? or some kind of other reasonable explanation for a school exploding.”
“Too small for a bomb,” Octavia continued as Monty trailed off. Clarke couldn’t believe they were all even having this conversation. “but that’s Trigedakru territory. I’d bet my money on it being some kind of attack.”
Monty reached out and gave Ravens hand a small squeeze and she finally tore her eyes away from the fire, giving him a small smile.
“But they’re just kids...” Clarkes words were quiet but everyone heard.
Monty looked over at Nathan who had quietly joined the group. “What a way to start the school year.”