Extinguishing the Flame

There are some questions you don't want the answers to...

One of the more ubiquitous items in the East Campus dormitory was the fire extinguisher. Each floor had two issued officially to it and they were located in recesses built into the hallways. At least that's where they were supposed to be located. Sometimes they disappeared into the dorm rooms of individual students. There were no worries; they would always be replaced. Not only that, but there were spares. Third East had 40 students and 42 fire extinguishers. On Second East, there were not only multiple extinguishers charged with plain old water, there were even a few CO2 extinguishers. Those were the nuclear option; they spit smoke and dry ice and they made a horrendous sound when their contents were discharged. The water extinguishers were just wet - and lots of it. After all, if that obnoxious freshman in the lounge were on fire, you wanted to be able to douse the flame. And they were convenient; if they lost their charge, you could recharge them with a bicycle pump.

Fire extinguishers were good offensive weapons - and good defensive weapons. I even acquired one. I'm not saying where it came from, but there was a laboratory somewhere in the Infinite Corridor that needed a replacement. I never had to use it much, but I could if I had to (make my day!). And you could have had my fire extinguisher - the moment you pried my cold, dead fingers off the trigger.