We were woken at 4 a.m. by a series of explosions.
At first, I thought I had dreamed them — a particularly unpleasant dream I was having about a military coup kicking off here in the US with the support of half the population.
Then I heard another. And another. Definitely while awake. Flashing back to my dream now. Not a pleasant way to wake up — adrenaline.
Went to the window and could see the column of black smoke, under-lit by a roaring column of fire, barely a half mile away. Another explosion, throwing flaming bits high into the air.
The dream was further away now, but my writer-brain started churning up a zombie apocalypse, featuring a truck loaded with Experimental Stuff that explodes on the highway, and the smoke which poisons those nearby, raising them as zombies… Seemed perfect accompaniment to the conflagration at 4 in the morning.
The sirens began. Soon the fire was gone, and the smoke turning to the ash-grey that indicates that water had entered the equation.
Found out this morning that it was a semi that had caught fire on the turnpike. No fatalities.
Still no idea of what it was carrying, though.
