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Page 272
When the truck finally blew, it blew big. There was a low throaty rumble; it was building to a grand finale, and I knew it. Suddenly it erupted into a blinding ball of blue-orange that consumed the night. The world was transformed into bizarre halfimages and distortions. There was an eerie, ear shattering shriek, the smell of gasoline, the sound of a thousand thunders, a stench, a terrifying, paralyzing roar, a rain of shrapnel, and the truck was consumed in a flaming orgy.
At first I didn't see it, didn't realize what was happening. Maybe it was the agonizing, near human scream that alerted me. It sounded like something out of a Saturday morning cartoon show, almost electronic in origin yet totally terrifying.
But there were no lasers or high tech, only fireangry, consuming, deadly, defeating.
The stunned monster stood there, its yawning, gaping, prehistoric face all too visible. It was on fire, watching in a kind of stupefied awe as the fire engulfed and consumed it.
The air went out of me. My eyes went shut, and I struggled to begin breathing again.

The voice was intelligible, but a trifle strident and damned unsympathetic. "Every time I turn around we're scraping this guy up off the pavement somewhere

 
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