Monday February 11th, 1980

The Flame in the Desert

< The Hunt

The Forgotten World John and Mick fall foul of some extreme potholing

Bonfire Night Waen’s first time at the annual village fireworks display

TERM 1 A day-by-day account of Waen’s first term at Fairburn School

TERM 2 The birth of the 1980s - Blake’s 7, Blondie and battles in space

Great Space Battles Three mighty empires take their first steps into outer space

The Fugitive >

Ward’s 7 John Ward and his band of rebels fight the evil Federation

I think this is another one of those exercises where we were given a picture and asked to write the story behind it. Maybe because the title is an abstract image. I suppose it might even have been a Christmas card, with the three wise men following a star, but more likely just some abstract or context- free picture showing fire in a sandy environment. Here’s one and here are many more, so these things do exist. Naturally, the story I chose to tell was a science- fiction horror story full of fire and destruction, in which the world is destroyed by an unquenchable inferno. There are two halves to the tale: one concerning a group of riders who stumble upon the fire in the desert; and another following the scientist who was responsible for the fire. In an unexpectedly progressive turn of events, we’re first introduced to three non-white protagonists. But that’s only because it’s the desert, so they have to be Arabs, because that’s where Arabs live. They also ride camels, believe in the devil and speak to each other like they just fell off the back of a cheap old Hollywood film. So maybe ‘progressive’ is a stretch. But it’s not long before they’re off, and we tuck into the meat of the tale. The scientist is an idiot, and the story treats him as such. He’s obviously in possession of some fine technology - he has a spaceship and a Kill Gun, and a thing which makes his face appear in fire - exactly the sort of thing you need if you want to scare a camel. But he doesn’t pay attention to the smaller details (too small for me to mention at any rate - we’re left to imagine for ourselves what caused all this), so his lab catches fire and the whole world is destroyed. He manages to escape into space, laughing as he pretends he meant to destroy the earth all along (he obviously didn’t), but fortunately there are people on the moon with even better technology which can turn back time AND put out unextinguishable fires. In the meantime, the scientist’s so thick he doesn’t look where he’s going and ends up crashing his ship. He isn’t dead by the end of it, but he’s swearing so he can’t be happy. There are lots of nice little details - I love that the alien speaks in weird symbols that don’t have an obvious pronunciation. I love that each of his lines is translated except the last one, which is obviously alien swearing. I love the little interjection telling you how clever I am that I know sand usually puts fires out. And I love the clumsily melodramatic way it’s structured, with the three-pronged “Little did they know” section and the list of things that couldn’t put out the fire. “Answer: NOTHING!” In fact, despite its stupidity, it’s got quite a bit of comical and dramatic flair. It’s complete rubbish of course - we never find out why this is happening, who the scientist is, where he came from or what he’s supposed to be doing. The sudden leaps from Earth’s destruction to it suddenly being OK again prove I don’t have any plan for this and haven’t thought of anything beyond next sentence I’m currently writing. But it still feels satisfying when it finishes, because the scientist has been proven to be a total charlatan who isn’t really as dangerous as he seems.

The Fugitive A man runs - but who is he? And what is he running from?