Since their route out by entrance they came in through was henceforth blocked because of the flames, Valiant and Plaster had no choice for their own safety but to press on deeper into the underside, moving as quickly as they dared, thru the grind and clanking of the machinery, driven on faster and faster, w new urgency by the dense approaching smoke, the distant yells, the shouts of distress from the passengers above and the growing glowing ‘sudden intensity of heat’ ©.

*

Up in Olympia the absence of Codswallop was soon noticed just like that of Artemis etc had been weeks before, only this time without so much commotion. Everyone basically already swore they wunt get involved in anything down on Earth anymore no matter what the cause, there was too much stress and destruction in it. So the fact that Codswallop went down there was somehow probably best ignored is what ppl seemed to think and instead of getting excised abt her absence most of the Gods just rather gathered at the pool and looked down in impotent horrors at what was happening with the big fire in Endland.

Most of the Gods were genuinely concerned, tho tbh some were acting all de-sensitised since the Bophal leak reprise, even speculating what the fuck other disasters might re-up in the next days/months to haunt Endland across space and thru time. Will it be the Chernobyl they were saying haha or Exxon Valdeze or what about that Kader Toy Factory fire or the fire at the Ali Enterprises garment factory in Karachi and the more cynic of the Gods were competing to name more obscure (ie non-Western) terrible fires, industrial accidents and toxic spillages, not even summoning them from memory but rather secretly looking them up on their smart phones and yelling them into the conversation like they had just thought of them. As an example of godly behaviour it was just dire in the Absolut extreme and even before it was over Gods like Top Shop, Shiva, Clytemnestra, Kit Kat and Goldilocks were forthright in their criticism of the conversation and the ugly turn it had taken, rounding on the cynics and telling them to grow the fcuk up, for all the fcuking good it did.

*

Things happened fast.

A huge layer of flames spread over the Wheel of Misfortune, a stop motion crawling ivy of fire advancing laterally at “terrifying rate” with then large quantities of debris falling from the burning structure in all different directions, crashing down into the underside, spawning new flames in each new place that it fell.

By the time Codswallop arrived at the Old Endland Amusement Park much of the zone under the Wheel of Misfortune was engulfed deeply in the fire, and in those few/scant places where flame had yet to spread there was already thick thick smoke, low visibility and extreme heat that made it hard for fire and rescue teams to get any kind of entrance.