Exit Kingdom

only afterwards that he hears the raucous thunder of the
explosion itself – as though soundwere not a herald but an afterthought.
    *
    Black smoke engulfs the building at the end of the row.
    Moses, his ears ringing, clambers to his feet just as the second building goes and he is knocked down once more.
    And now the world is muffled near to deafness. What he can hear is his own heart beating, his teeth clacking against one another. The dead, who have no concept ofself-protection, remain
immobile, turning their heads slowly towards the fire to gaze with mild wonder upon the shifting colours. They will stand, mesmerized, until the flame has engulfed them – Moses has seen it.
And so it happens now to one dead woman standing near the second building. She catches fire, her dress melting to her flesh as a single cinder, stumbling forward, surprised, mewling,not trying to
put herself out. She collapses to a sitting position, mystified finally by the abomination of her own skin fluid with flame, raising her own arm to see the way the fire enrobes it – until at
last the heat boils her brain and she falls, stinking, to the ground.
    Abraham, Moses says. It could be a whisper or a shout – he does not know, because he cannot hear his own words.

    Hell falls on the place and Moses has not found his brother. He does not even look behind him to the hills. Escape means nothing to him. He will die here looking for his only kin. A suitable end
– it’s what men wish for, finally.
    There’s a third explosion – not another of the low buildings this time, but one of the gargantuan metal towers. The explosion at the base causes the tower tolean, crippled,
suspended for a moment at a limping angle – then, with a strain and break of metal joints that Moses can feel in his sternum more than hear, the tower crashes to the ground.
    That’s when he sees Abraham. At first it’s just a figure, on fire, running crazy from behind one of the buildings, arms waving. Then Moses recognizes the boots. The tooled leather
cowboy boots his brotherhas always been so proud of. He would polish them at night by firelight, bring them tenderly back to full lustre with a rag and a spit shine. A man, sometimes, is told by
his boots when the rest of him has got aflame.
    Then Moses is running. He tackles his burning brother to the ground and rolls him in the mud till the flames go out.
    Abe! Moses says. It’s me. It’s your brother. Abe!

    There is no response, but Moses can see that he’s still alive. He takes a fistful of mud and slathers it as a salve over the melted and charred face and neck of his brother. He does not
know what else to do, and such an act feels proper to nature.
    Another building explodes now, this one very near.
    Moses sees his brother’s lips move.
    I can’t hear you Abe, Moses says. I can’t hearnothin. We got to get. You ready?
    Moses lifts the slack body of his brother and slings it over his shoulder. Then he runs. He runs towards the tree line at the base of the hill. Another explosion shakes the earth behind him.
Everything is on fire now – the heat of the valley, he can see it in the shivering air.
    Then he’s climbing up through the trees, the weight of his brother’s bodyon his shoulder, pulling himself up on the slippery hillside, his breath coming short and ragged. Two more
buildings explode behind him. How could there be anything left to destroy? A point must come when the forces of destruction must be stymied by their own completeness. Mustn’t it?
    He rests, bracing himself against the trunk of a tree, only for a moment. Something collapses in the gasworksbehind him, but again he does not look to see. He keeps his eyes focused on the
bright snowy rim of the hilltop. Then he shifts Abraham on his shoulder and starts forwards again.
    Higher he climbs until he has crested the hilltop, well above the buildings of the valley. There he stops in a small clearing in the trees and sets down his brother gently in the snow. Moses can
hardly breathe,but he falls to his hands and knees to check on Abraham. His brother’s face, he sees now, is melted away – and one of the eyes is open, and he doesn’t seem to be
breathing.
    Moses leans down and puts his ear to Abraham’s mouth, and he takes the wrist to find the pulse. But there’s nothing.
    He can’t even catch his breath long enough to curse his brother for dying.
    Instead he sits backagainst a tree trunk and listens to the crackling inferno in