Snippet #2374791

Charles was momentarily taken aback by the soldier's lack of both a lighter and a habit of smoking. Merely by observing the man's handling of the cigar Charles could guess that he was dealing with the rare breed of none smoking soldier.

Memories of his own military career filled his mind. Charles smiled weakly for a moment recalling that all the "boys" on his base smoked… the higher the rank, the heavier the smoker.
Charles elegantly opened his upper left pocket and presented the soldier with an obviously antiquated lighter. A flicker of a finger produced small concentrated flames which quickly lit the cigar.

Charles removed a second cigar from his pack and lit it for himself. As he took a few soothing puffs of the familiar Tabaco Charles wondered what on Earth he would do once his supply ran out.
As Charles turned to talk to the soldier he felt a sudden disturbance in the Earth as if a minute Earth quake was taking place. A dozen or so other such quakes followed each progressively getting stronger and more intense.

By the fifth of these occurrences small pockets of debris began to descend from the tunnel sealing to the platform below. A short silence followed returning a measure of confidence to the concerned passengers and staff; maybe there was nothing to it?

As soon as these thoughts crossed their minds the entire tunnels where shaken violently as if a giant was hammering the station between a hammer and anvil. The ferocity of the chaos grew and a terrible blast of power, heat and sound blasted into even this deep crypt of the Earth.

Charles ducked downwards and covered himself, for the first time today he could no longer find anything funny about his situation.