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Warm wind curls around your neck and tickles your ear as you open your eyes in a haze of confusion, along your back is the heat of the asphalt beneath you seeping through your clothes, your vision slowly comes into focus as you realize you're lying on your back. You look to your left and right, you're flanked by tall buildings and the rusted shells of destroyed vehicles, something about this is so familiar to you but the more you try to think the harder it gets to remember.
The sky above is a dim orange, like a sunrise without the hues of pink, the clouds above you move strangely. Stopping and starting, they jerk across the sky as if being pulled by invisible chains before dissolving away and forming new smaller clouds that follow this stilted migration. In the center of them lies a cloud still thick and full, while the others are wispy grey smudges against the sky, It's color is deep and black and it only seems to grow in size as time passes. You feel your throat constrict as the air becomes hard to breathe, it scratches the interior of your throat with invisible nails as it goes down, your eyes widen and you scramble to sit up as you realize the cloud is not growing bigger. It is drawing closer.
From the center of the tar colored miasma there's a flash of light, like lightning in storm only a deep red and vibrant yellow, the dense exterior of the mass is pierced by harsh jets of flame. As you struggle to rise to your feet you hear a scream, low at first but gradually rising, the sound of true fury echoes through the empty street as you finally manage to clamber to your feet. Then the heat comes, almost unbearable you feel an intense burn spread across your back as the cloud divides and reveals it's core; a man completely engulfed in flame and smoke. Between the licking flames you get a glimpse of what could only be a charred corpse, the smell is familiar.
You stumble, every instinct screaming at you to flee, your legs feel tight and heavy, despite your best efforts with every step you take your vision sinks lower and lower until you go sprawling forward. You try to catch your fall but the moment your bare flesh touches the asphalt you're met with a deep and spitting sizzle. The screaming grows closer as the entity bears down on you, rolling to your back you try once more to stand but what you see only adds your scream to the cacophony.
Your legs, from ankle to thigh, are no more. Your shoes stand alone where you had risen and a smear of bone white powder leads to the blocky edges of your upper thigh, which crumbles away like old chalk, looking up again you feel blisters swell all over as the skin of your face goes taut and you find your expression stuck in that state of pure horror as the fire consumes you.
