The Brass Battery

Indoor walls could hold my ambition no longer; I descended the concrete stairwell and breached the heavy ground-floor sliders to reclaim the street. Flanking the entrance against the weathered brick loomed a twin-pipe Siamese fire connection, its dual brass nozzles jutting like heavy siege cannons. I refused to let such firepower sit uncalibrated. Scaling the coarse mortar lines, I hauled my frame onto the junction and seized the knurled brass cap with both hands. Bracing my boot against the masonry, I threw my weight into the metal until the threads ground tight and the retaining chain pulled rigid under my heel. This battery now answers exclusively to my front line.