The Fire

Author's note: some of the events have been changed. The fire at the travel agency really happened. And all the data was recovered. However, it happened at night after everyone went home. A sawzall was not used to extract the hard drive. I would also not recommend using a pick axe to free a computer from a solid block of ice. And remember- always have a backup copy of your data!

Milton reached for his coffee mug and peered inside. Empty. He let out a sigh as he swiveled his chair around. The coffee maker sat innocently on the counter thirty feet away. Milton looked at it longingly, wishing it would sprout legs and come to him for once. But it didn't. Reluctantly, he got up and walked over to the lunch area. Stuck his mug in the coffee maker and pushed the button. With a hiss, the steaming brown liquid poured into the waiting mug. Milton felt better already. He patted the little black machine.

"You're a life-saver," he uttered. "Don't know how I'd get through the day without you."

When the dispenser relinquished the last drops of coffee, Milton trudged back over to his desk. After a sip, he set the mug back on his desk and resumed work. The office emptied out as the clock ticked past five o'clock. Milton remained at his desk.

In the business next door, Charlie Logan was just leaving the desk at his Sayreville, NJ travel agency.

Milton glanced at the clock at the lower right corner of glowing monitor. 9:47 PM. He sat back in his chair and sighed- it was going to be another long night. One of Milton's co-workers, Chester, who also elected to stay behind to work on the big project, strolled over to Milton's cubicle.

"You smell something? I think I smell something.burning." Chester sniffed the air. Milton did the same.

"Yeah, me too. Smells like.sniff sniff.plastic."

"Huh, wonder what it could be?"

"Bet someone left a phone charger plugged in or something. I need some coffee. Looks like you need some, too." Chester motioned to Milton's again-empty mug. The two men walked over to the break room. Then they stopped."

Well, I think we found the source of the smell of burning plastic," stated Chester. "We should probably call 9-1-1 or something." And with that Chester turned and hurried to the nearest phone.

Before Milton sat the coffee maker, now engulfed in flames. In fact, the entire counter top looked like a hibachi table in a Japanese restaurant. Flames leapt up everywhere. The prized coffee maker was a now a flaming heap of melting plastic.

"Holy cow. That looks pretty serious." Suddenly a flame shot up toward the ceiling, dislodging a few ceiling tiles. Flaming pieces of ceiling tile began to rain down on the floor. One landed on a chair, which promptly ignited. Milton ran back to his desk;

"He dialed the boss's number, but was interrupted by the scream of the fire alarm. Soon after the sprinkler system kicked in, instantly dousing everyone and everything in water. "Hey, it's Milton, sorry to bother you at this hour. There's a fire. At the office. Pretty big. Gotta go" Milton slammed the phone onto the desk and bolted outside into the cold. An explosion blew out a row of windows, spraying glass through the air. A giant fireball rose into the sky under a cloud of black smoke.

"Well this sucks," remarked Chester. "Got any marshmallows?"

Flames soon engulfed the rest of building, reaching ever higher toward the frigid night sky.

-------------------

Charlie's phone rang. He looked at the number, a bit perplexed. It was the alarm company, for the office.

"Hello? What." He froze and dropped the phone.

His wife sat up in bed. "Honey what's wrong?" Charlie grabbed his keys, forwent his coat and hopped in his car. He could see the glow of the flames from the burning building on the horizon. A number of fire trucks were already there, dousing the building with powerful streams of water. Police had blocked access to the building, their blue and red emergency lights reflecting off the smoke. Charlie looked on in disbelief. His business- his life- was burning before his eyes. He began to panic. What about my computer? He had no backups. No other access to all his precious data. If he lost his computer, he lost his business. An explosion caused Charlie to turn away from the intense blast of heat. He dug into his pocket for his phone. Please help me.

-------------------

The sweet laughter of half a dozen beautiful young women filled the air. Sven Technissen reclined in the Jacuzzi, regaling his audience with stories of his many adventures. His phone began to ring.

"And so I said, that's not a candy bar, that's your hard drive! Oh, dear, excuse me, will you?" Sven climbed out of the tub, the eyes of the other occupants watching him lustfully.

"Sven here," he answered. "Yeah.okay.oh really? Wow.alright.alright.sure, I'm in North Jersey.I'll be there in a bit.okay, bye." He hung up the phone. "Sorry to disappoint you ladies, but I've gotta go." Sven flashed his trademark smile, then headed to the room to change.

___________

A couple hours later, a distraught Charlie met Sven at the charred skeleton of the former office building.

"I'm not sure what's left, if anything. Looks like the fire pretty much destroyed everything. It would be a miracle if my computer survived. We won't be able to get in there for another week, though. Firemen won't let anyone in." Charlie looked longingly at the smoldering heap of rubble.

A week later, Sven and Charlie reconvened at the office building. "I've been worried sick all week. I need that computer because I don't have any backups. My life is in that pile of debris somewhere."

"Well, there's only one way to find out. Let's take a peek, shall we?" Sven led the way into the defunct building.

"My office was right over there." Charlie pointed to a gaping hole in one of the walls, through which he could barely distinguish what was once his office. The two men wove their way through a maze of melted plastic chairs. Puddles of water left from the firemen's hoses had frozen, leaving patches of slippery ice. Icicles stretched down from the remainder of the ceiling like the teeth of a frozen beast. Sven looked up. Rays from the winter sun filtered down through a gaping hole in the roof.

"Here was my office." Charlie spun a slow circle, arms held out to his sides, motioning to the ruin around him. "Somewhere over there is.or rather was.my desk." But Sven was already there. Under a pile of bricks and encased in a block of ice was Charlie's computer. The plastic front had completely melted away. The buttons were gone. The metal sides were warped and charred. Dislodging the computer would be a chore. Luckily, though, Sven Technissen always comes prepared. "Wait here. I'll be right back." Sven made his way cautiously back to his truck, then returned moments later with a pick axe.

"Alright, stand back." Sven took a mighty swing at the block of ice. The tip stuck, sending chips of ice flying in every direction. Sven recovered his axe then took another swing. A huge crack ran through the ice.

"One more swing oughta do it." Sven swung again. This time, the tip of the axe went clean through the ice, cleaving the massive block in two. There stood Charlie's computer. Frozen and charred.

"I'll bring it over to my office and see what I can do. Who knows, the hard disk might still be okay."

"Thank you, Sven, thank you very much."

-------------------

Sven plunked the heap of metal on the counter back at his lab. Rupert Gilford strode over to take a look.

"Whoaaaaa. What on earth is that?"

"That," said Sven, pointing at the burnt computer, "is a computer."

"Looks more like a burnt marshmallow that was held over the fire too long," Rupert laughed.

Sven grabbed a screw driver and tried the screws on the casing. It was no good. The screws had melted and fused to the metal casing.

"Hmm. Okay, then." Sven disappeared into the tool closet while Rupert headed back to his desk, chuckling slightly to himself at the sight of the burnt old computer. Sven returned with a sawzall and a pair of goggles. The blade screeched against the metal and sparks flew. Carefully, and with incredible precision, Sven used the sawzall to cut a hole in the side of the casing. Once the scrap was removed, Sven peered inside. There was not much to see. The wires looked like dried licorice. The motherboard was a huge slice of burnt toast. The hard disk was blackened on the outside. Sven picked up his handy screw driver, but again the screws were melted beyond use. He eyed his sawzall, then thought better of it. But then he picked it up, lowered his goggles, and got to work. Finally, the hard drive was removed. A pile of burned metal scraps lay scattered on the table before him.

"Good going there," said Rupert as he removed his hands from his ears. "Hook it up to this machine over here. Let's see if there's anything on this bad boy." Sven and Rupert connected the baked hard drive to another machine, then booted it. A faint whir filled the air. Sven placed his hand, gently, on top of the drive. It was vibrating, as if the disk within were spinning.

"You know, Sven, you're the only person I've ever heard of to extract a hard drive from a computer with a sawzall." Sven just smiled. A few seconds later, the monitor displayed a login screen. Rupert logged in as Charlie. The machine thought for a few moments, then the desktop flashed on the screen.

"Well I'll be. It works. He got lucky this time."

Sven and Rupert exchanged high-fives.

-------------------

Charlie's phone rang. He picked it up, then heard Sven's voice. Charlie's body tensed.

"So.is everything okay?"

"Charlie, everything is a-okay. We hooked up the hard drive and were able to recover all of your files." But Sven was unable to finish his thought, for he was interrupted by a flood of gratitude from Charlie.

"Oh my God. Thank you, thank you, thank you! I have my life back! Wow.I cannot thank you enough, Sven, I really can't. You saved my business." Charlie continued to gush for another few minutes. Finally, Charlie took a deep breath and collected himself. "I'll come by tomorrow to pick the old drive. I have a machine here I can use."

"Whatever works for ya. See ya tomorrow." Sven hung up the phone, a satisfied grin illuminating his face.

The next day, Charlie visited Sven to collect his hard drive. "Thanks again, Sven. I.I don't know how to repay you."

Sven thought for a moment, then replied, "You know, Charlie, I've always wanted to run with the llamas in Ecaudor."

About the Author Dek Wright:

Dek Wright, the son of DeckerWright Corp‘s head honcho Marshall Wright, is a third-year engineering student at the University of New Orleans studying Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering. During the summers, Dek works at DeckerWright Corp and has recently begun writing suspenseful, compelling tales for the DWC e-Newsletter and blog.

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