City of IF

[Bookwizard]

Curse of Vesuvius

One mans life forever gone, lost in the endless rifts of time.


79 A.D. August 23, Pompeii

Tadius walked down the street smiling watching as the festivities raged all around him, he loved Volcanalia. Every year he would wholeheartedly participate in all the games, sacrifice fish a plenty and start a great amount of bonfires. He was sure that Vulcan must love him, as he loved Vulcan, such a great powerful god he must be, almost all of Tadius’s prayers were to Vulcan, except of course Jupiter. Which he prayed for every day, for he knew Jupiter would greatly punish him if he favored any other god over him.

Though as years passed by Tadius started to notice that people were not appreciating Volcanalia nearly as much as they should, as they used to, this made Tadius annoyed and nervous. Annoyed because he though that Vulcan was a great and powerful god, as was fire, and should be properly respected. Nervous because Tadius was scared the Vulcan would notice this lack of respect… and take action. There were many cases he knew, where the gods had demonstrated their wrath as a result of disrespect.

Though Tadius decided to cast these thoughts aside as he pushed his way through a crowd to participate in a sacrifice. As he made his way through the crowd a line started to form in front of him, in which he joined, and watched as the people in front of him threw fish into the fire muttering half-hearted prayers. The fish were outrageously small, but morsels to the fish that should have been being sacrificed, Tadius spat in disgust. He could almost feel the heat of Vulcan’s rage as it vibrated through the air, and as if on que, the ground moved slightly. Tadius was of course used to this, there had been a great amount of these movements lately, it was like a part of life, and no one gave them a second thought. Though this one almost seemed as a sign to Tadius, he knew it must be Vulcan displaying his anger. Though he would appease the great fire god with his sacrifice, and Vulcan would then realize that not all were so graceless.

It was Tadius’s turn to step up to the brightly burning bonfire that was before him and make his sacrifice. From his pouch Tadius pulled out a massive sparkling fish slightly moist and held it out to blazing heat. He held the fish firm, ignoring the searing pain shooting up his arm; he would take such punishment for the crimes of others. “VULCAN OH GOD OF FIRE” he shouted audibly “PLEASE FORGIVE THE CRIMES OF SUCH UNWORTHY, WE WILL AMEND THESE CRIMES, AND PRAISE YOU FOREVER MORE, AND IF YOU WILL NOT FORGIVE SUCH CRIMES, SPARE ME, FOR YOU KNOW I AM FAITHFUL”. With that Tadius threw the fish into the center of the fire with great force from his now seared hand. All the people around him backed away, as if scared that he were Vulcan himself, come to punish them, quickly the crowd dispersed from the fire, and moved to others throughout the city.

These reaction pleased Tadius, “yes let them be afraid, let them cower in fear at their masters feet”. Spurred by a though he left the fire and headed through the throngs of the city to his humble abode. Upon returning there he set to work, with needle and thread, and some red cloth, he began crafting a sort of suit. It had a hood and it completely encompassed his body, with scrapes of cloth hanging on all sides as if flames erupting from the suit. It took two hours for the whole suit to finally be completed and Tadius let out a small childish giggle, this would be grand. He threw the suit upon himself and slipped into one of the side streets heading straight for the center square.

When he arrived, there was some sort of commotion going on, one of the fires had gotten out of hand and was spreading across the square, ‘this is my chance’ thought Tadius, the fire would be put out soon, he had to act now. Wearing his newly made suit of red flames, Tadius jumped into the chaos and in his most booming voice half screamed, half yelled “HALT”. This had a greater effect then Tadius had first expected, the yell only earned him a slight glance from everyone around but in that slight glance they took in his form, and then he had their complete attention. Soon all activity to put out the fires stopped, and all eyes were on Tadius, soon the fires would get out of hand again. “I AM”… Tadius began, then stopped, he had been about to say Vulcan, he had almost impersonated a god, that would have done the exact opposite of what he wanted to achieve, he would have to be more careful. I AM A SERVANT OF VULCAN; YOU HAVE ALL BEEN DISRESPECTFUL Tadius went on. At this the crowed assembled before him dropped to their knees making signs of forgiveness.

Then one defiant voice rang out “What have we done wrong, we worship Jupiter every day, and would never think of angering him or the more important gods, who cares about Vulcan”. There were some mumbled agreements at this, and Tadius was about to yell back in rage when a burning wooden post that no one had noticed in the commotion came crashing down on top of the man. There was a moment of silence, only the horrible screams off the man could be heard, soon even those stopped, “that’s why” Tadius whispered to himself, as the square erupted into chaos once more.

That night Tadius lay in bed, praying to Vulcan to spare him, and to punish the unworthy, and soon he drifted off to sleep…


79 A.D. August 24, Pompeii

The night lay silent over the sleeping city of Pompeii, all was peaceful, all seemed well, and everyone was tired from the previous days festivities. Though cloaked in the secret of darkness trouble was brewing atop something the Romans had no name for, atop something of massive and seemingly limitless power, atop… a volcano.

Tadius sat up in his bed, something was wrong he could feel it in the air, something was terribly wrong… he just didn’t know what. Suddenly he was thrown off his bed by some great force, another movement! But bigger the ever before, Tadius picked himself up, grabbed some shoes and ran outside his abode.

The mountain was on fire! It was happening, punishment! In excitement Tadius ran down the street screaming with exhilaration, the unworthy were to be burned, then a though struck him, and he slowed down. What was going to happen exactly, how was he going to be spared? ‘Well no matter’ Tadius thought, “I’ll be spared one way or another, Vulcan loves me”.

Tadius watched as more people left their homes and exclaimed at the fiery mountin, several tremors came and went, and at one point the light went away. This was unnerving even for Tadius, he had never been in such darkness, and it was as if the whole city had been buried. Oh and the smoke, the smoke was horrible, it choked you and hurt so much, Tadius murmured a bit, something about sparring him.

Everyone was in a state of panic and the city was in turmoil, but this could hardly be noticed over the massive roaring coming from the mountain, and all the smoke and darkness raging around them. Tadius turned around to get back to his house, but to his horror found he had no idea where he was. He started to cough, and suddenly panic overtook him, his only thought was to get inside. He rushed to what he thought might be the nearest door, it was just a barren wall, he felt his way along the wall as if he were at the edge of a cliff until he reached something that resembled an opening. He banged on it with all his might, someone looked out slightly and hope filled Tadius, then the door slammed shut again. “Graceless brutes” exclaimed Tadius and collapsed on the door, he woke up suddenly realizing he had lapsed into unconsciousness and then he panicked again.

He ran through the city knocking on every door he saw, never getting an answer, all the while exhausting himself and inhaling great amounts of smoke and ash. Tadius did this for hours until he collapsed in the middle of the now unrecognizable center square panting, almost dead. He heard a great roaring sound, and screams off in the distance, the roaring grew bigger, and a great dread settled upon him, a darkness darker then the night around him. He raised his hands high in the air well kneeling and yelled into the air thick with fear “VULCAN FORGIVE ME” as he was buried alive in masses of ash and derbies…


1861 A.D. August 24, Pompeii

Louis walked towards the excavation site excited; he had just got out of university and now got to do some real work. He was overjoyed when he had been accepted to come and help with the excavation of none other then the mysterious city of Pompeii. Today he was going to be led around the site by the Excavation Head and then retire to his new quarters, where as the next day, he would begin work.

“Why if it isn’t a Frenchman, I’m darned glad to see you, we needed some more help around here,” exclaimed the Head of the Excavation when he saw Louis approaching. “Thank you” Louis said a bit nervously, he was not used to this directness. “Your people turned this excavation around all those years ago, you know, completely organized it and got things going, I’m sure you’ll do the same” stated the Head of the Excavation, “my name is Ted, don’t even think about calling me anything else”.

Louis just stood there nervously; “my name is Louis” he finally got out, “very nice to meet you”. “Well, I suppose that I’ll have to give you a bit of a tour won’t I, come along” said Ted. Louis followed him through the west side of the town, all of which had been uncovered, something like childish glee overcame him, and excitement overran nervousness once more. He continually asked Ted question after question “what’s that, when is this going to be uncovered, can we go inside the stable buildings, what is the condition of the excavation on the east side” all of these questions Ted wholeheartedly answered. After about 3 hours of touring, and many questions Ted said he had something he had to attend to and bid Lois time to explore on his own.

Louis headed closer to the current excavation, which was slowly, but surly moving into the eastern districts of the city. He came upon a side street and followed it slowly examining everything until he came upon a large square. He happened to notice something in the middle, so he headed over to investigate, again slowly making his way through the square. When he came upon the object his heart stopped, it was the perfect mold of a man incased in ash and stone, hands raised to the heavens in eternal prayer. A horrible dread came over Louis as if he could feel the fear of that night so long ago…

How did you all like it?

[solus.serpen]

Yeah - it was an interesting take on the disaster. As it's fiction I can't really somplain about facts - but Vesuvias actually erupted 25th August (by my notes anyway). People in their houses were more at risk because there was so much pumice stone falling that their roofs collapsed and buried them. At the time Tadius would probably have died before he was buried beneath the ruble due to either dehydration caused by the pumice rock mixed with ash he was breathing in or, if he had access to water, he would still have died as the citizens of Pompeii outdoors breathed in hot gas and ash which then mixed with the fluids inside their body, turning to cement inside their lungs. The third inhalation would have thickened the cement in their lungs, causing them to suffocate. So, in reality, very very few people actually died because of of pyroclastic surges (or, if they were outside, ash and debries - some people tied pillows to their heads to avoid being hurt by the pumice stone).
Anyway, sorry for rambling but I've got my mocks after Christmas so this helped me at least. :)
Otherwise I liked your story although I think the ending is left a little too open unless you're intending on writing a sequel?
Merry Christmas!
~Solus