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Extinction Event By Doctor What
Chapter 28 Doomsday is near, die all, die merrily. - William Shakespeare - Henry IV ** Tuesday Aug 19, 2008 – ‘Museum Mile’ – Central Park, Manhattan About 9:30 pm
"--But there is one promise that is given…", sang David at the top of his lungs as he deftly avoided yet another abandoned taxicab in the middle of 5th Avenue, "I'll meet you on God's golden shore! Take it away, Barry!" "He'll meet you on God's golden shore." sang Barry in reply. David nodded his head in acknowledgement and put on another boost of speed on the motorcycle. "Heh. That was pretty good Barry – but you were a bit off with the cadence in a few spots." "Sorry. I seem to be a bit distracted." "By what?" "Something about hanging on for dear life on the back of a motorcycle that’s being driven by a madman singing old blues songs while travelling through the ruins of a dinosaur over-run Manhattan." replied Barry. "Can’t imagine why that image would be on my mind right about now." David shrugged his shoulders. "Neither can I." "Where the hell are we anyway?" David glanced to his left. They were passing by the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Or rather - what was left of it. David unconsciously slowed down the motorcycle to a near crawl as he and Barry took a closer look at it. The Met was heavily damaged -- with numerous large gaping holes in its front entrance and in several other locations along the walls. The fountain in front of the museum was inoperative – either because of the blackout or damage done to the water system, David couldn’t say. Squatting in the fountain was a Hadrasaurus – easily over 15 feet long. It was a mottled green and brown colour –but with very odd looking bright yellow stripes on its back. Its beak and crest was also the same incongruous looking yellow colour. It was apparently making a nest. The nest material was…intriguing. Mixed up with the usual plants and tree branches one would expect to find in a nest were a wide variety of tapestries, paintings, pieces of furniture and even – David actually did a double take – what looked like the crushed and broken remains of some kind of chariot made out of coppery looking metal. The dinosaur glanced up at David and Barry and bellowed. A few seconds later, another Hadrasaurus came out of one of the holes in the building’s walls. It was of similar colouring to the first one but obviously a bit longer and heavier than its companion. It was dragging in its jaws what looked liked some kind of very odd-looking totem pole that was almost as long as its body. Glancing up in response to its mate’s cries, it looked at David and Barry in confusion. Dropping the pole, it began to bellow at them. It was joined by its companion a few seconds later, the two bellows combining into one very loud cacophony of sound. The larger one slowly began taking a few steps toward David and Barry. David revved the cycle’s engine and a moment later they were speeding off down 5th Avenue again, leaving the two dinosaurs – still bellowing – behind them.
David had just got the cycle up to 60 miles an hour and was passing by the Guggenheim when he had to suddenly stop to avoid a marine turtle slowly waddling its way across the street towards the Onassis Reservoir, its flippers making fap-fap-fap sounds on the asphalt as it did so. David waited patiently for the turtle to cross the street. Under the circumstances he really didn’t have much of a choice – as the turtle was the size of a Volkswagen. Finally the turtle managed to cross the street and David once again revved up the engine and took off. He had just passed 91st Street when he heard a loud splash behind him.
David glanced up as he passed by Mt. Sinai Medical Center –and felt his jaw drop. It was like the worse scenes from every World War II movie he had every seen. Mt. Sinai was completely overwhelmed with patients. There were patients sitting shoulder to shoulder near the emergency room entrances, patients lying on makeshift beds and tables in the parking lots, even patients on the sidewalks –with a handful or so spilling out into the street as well. Doctors, nurses, orderlies, police officers and even ordinary civilians were running to and fro from one patient to another. David glanced to his left -- and saw that even the part of Central Park directly in front of the hospital had been commandeered and was now essentially a MASH unit. Even over the roar of the motorcycle, the sounds of screaming and yelling were deafening. David slowed down and zigzagged around an ambulance that was pulling into the hospital – then put on another burst of speed and zoomed off up 5th Avenue again.
David had just crossed 105th Street when he heard the distinct sound of fire engines. Coming directly towards him. What the -- ? Oh! Oh yeah – 5th Avenue is a one way street – and I’m going the wrong direction!… The headlights of the oncoming vehicles nearly blinding him, David swung the motorcycle to his right near 107th Street and waited for the vehicles to pass. Three…four…six…no…eight fire trucks zoomed by…followed by nearly a dozen police cars. What the fuck? David swung his head over his left shoulder and stared at the vehicles as they went by. He saw them slow briefly as they passed Mt. Sinai, their rear lights looking like angry red eyes in the darkness, before speeding up again and continuing their way. "Where the hell are they going?" asked David, out loud. Barry’s outstretched arm, his finger pointing accusingly, came into view near the left side of his face. "Look over there." said Barry. David squinted his eyes. Far to the south – roughly three or so miles away, if he was judging the distance correctly – was a massive cloud of smoke slowly rising into the air. Most of the smoke was white but there were clouds of grey or even pure black smoke – so black that even in the darkness it still showed up, as if it somehow was sucking in the very starlight itself. Deep within the smoke clouds were the occasional flickers of red and orange and yellow flames. It looked like that the fire was near… Oh dear!… Barry let out an immensely deep and long sigh. "Oh don’t worry Barry--I’m pretty sure that Rockefeller Center came through more or less in one piece." quoted Barry, sarcasm practically dripping off every word. "You are SO going to Hell for this, you know that, don’t you?" David shrugged his shoulders. "Go to Heaven for the climate, Hell for the company. Mark Twain." "Show off." They sped off again a moment later, leaving a trail of burnt rubber and skid marks behind them.
David blew through 110th Street intersection at just over 60 miles an hour, leaving Central Park behind them. "Only 70 blocks to go Barry! At this rate we should get to the bridge in five minutes!" "Oh goodie - it’s been a full ten minutes since we’ve destroyed a city landmark – here’s our chance to rectify that situation. Shall we stop at some point and blow up Yankee Stadium?" "Har de har har. You should be a comedian. " "I’m an English Lit Major." "Now that’s funny! Comedy gold that is!" "Har de har har." They speed up 5th Avenue, leaving a trail of fumes and dust behind them.
David screeched to a stop as he reached 120th Street. Fifth Avenue was interrupted at that spot by Marcus Garvey Park. David had been there literally hundreds of times in his life, sometimes to climb its famous watchtower on the hill in its center that on a clear day allowed you to see Yankee Stadium to the north, the Empire State Building to the south, Harlem River to the east, and the Cathedral of St. John the Devine to the west and sometimes to listen some really kick-ass concerts at the Amphitheater. Somewhere back in his apartment in Queens he still had the ticket stub of a Quincy Jones concert he went to. He stared up in shock. The watchtower had been knocked down and was now lying on the ground, its cast iron frame twisted and mangled. "What the hell happened to it?" asked David. "I have an idea. Now granted-- I might be going out on a limb here and the idea itself may seem a bit crazy but I’m thinking that maybe the watchtower was damaged by…oh…a dinosaur of some kind? Does it really matter?" "No – I suppose not." replied David, shaking his head sadly. " So--shall we take Park Avenue or Lenox Avenue?" "Which gets us to the bridge sooner?" "If we take Lenox to the FDR and it is still in one piece, then it will take us straight to the bridge." "Need I tell you what my answer is?" "Hang on!" David turned the bike to the left and sped down 120th Street. By the time he turned north onto Lenox Avenue thirty seconds later, he was already doing fifty miles an hour.
Less than a minute later, David slowed the cycle down to a crawl when he saw what had happened to Harlem.
A mile wide area of the area, apparently centred on City University and stretching from 125th Street to Jackie Robinson Park and from Lenox itself to almost to the shoreline of the Hudson, was … gone. In its place was a massive chunk of swamp that looked like it was better suited being in the Everglades rather than Manhattan. "Damn..." whispered David. Barry looked at the dividing line of the swamp, noticing that it had sliced through buildings, houses and even cars all along the left hand side of the street. Power and phone lines lay scattered all along the road as far as he could see. In one or two places, water from wrecked pipes gushed into the street, slowly adding to the land claimed by the swamp. "What now?" whispered Barry. "What else? Keep driving." They drove off, dodging and weaving around all the debris.
At 135th Street, David screeched to a stop just in front of Harlem Hospital. Harlem Hospital was – if anything – in even worse shape than Mt. Sinai. But that wasn’t what had gotten David’s attention. There were literally hundreds of people lined up along the entire edge of the swamp. Even a quick scan showed the group to be indicative of a cross-section of humanity, with blacks, whites, Asians, Arabs and Latinos. David even saw one or two turbaned heads in the crowd. The crowd ranged in age from wizened old men who looked like they were WWII veterans to males (and females) who looked like they were still in high school. The clothing styles were an eclectic mix running the gauntlet from uniformed police and soldiers to blue collar factory workers to shopkeepers still wearing their aprons to even a few individuals wearing obvious gang colours. Each and every single individual was holding a gun. Here too the diversity reigned supreme, with the crowd holding everything from handguns to shotguns to –at least to David’s unpractised eyes—what appeared to be assault rifles. The source of the crowd’s attention was a spot about hundred feet or so in front of them. Standing in the spot, over the remains of a half-eaten fifty foot long brontosaurus-like dinosaur and looking completely and utterly confused and bemused – was a tyrannosaurus. "Another one? What the hell is this – a freaking convention?" yelled David. "Maybe they heard about the all you can eat buffet?" replied Barry. David glanced up as he heard the familiar whump-whump-whump sound of a helicopter. Correction. Helicopters. There were at least five helicopters –each from a different TV station - hovering overhead, each dodging and weaving around each other in an attempt to get the best view of the spectacle. David wasn’t quite sure which outcome they were hoping for. The part of David that wasn’t cynical was hoping that they were interested in seeing something good come out of this. The – rather large – cynical part of David’s persona was firmly convinced that they were hoping to see something else entirely. A policeman about thirty or forty feet away from David suddenly picked up a bullhorn and paused for a moment, the bullhorn near his lips. The tyrannosaurus began to growl. And then – slowly, hesitantly and with obvious reluctance – took a single step forward ... "FIRE!" shouted the cop into the bullhorn. David was sure that the very skies themselves were ripped asunder as the crowd opened fire. The tyrannosaurus howled and shrieked and screamed and bellowed. And then – it fell forward – -- and died ... An immense cheer rose up from the crowd, as if shouted by one single unifying voice. They applauded and smiled and laughed and whooped for joy. David saw two men – one a tall middle-aged blonde haired cop, the other a black teenager wearing a shirt emblazoned with the slogan ‘KILL WHITEY’ – high five one another, laughing and smiling. "Ah – it fills me with great happiness to see humanity put aside their cultural and racial and religious differences and work together for a single unifying goal that all can agree on." said David, yelling a bit to make himself heard over the ringing in his ears and the shouts of the crowd. "Helping one another in their time of need?" "No – blowing stuff up with a shit-load of weapons." David wiped away a tear from his eye. "Makes me proud to be a New Yorker." Barry sighed. "Oy vey..." Overhead, the news helicopters took a few last shots of the dead tyrannosaurus and the cheering crowd and then zoomed southwards, dodging and weaving around each other as they did so.
A few minutes later David and Barry resumed their driving.
David came to a stop once again when he arrived at 145th Street and saw the FDR Drive. Or what was left of it.
"Wow." said David, obviously stunned by the spectacle in front of him. From High Bridge Park to the Macombs Dam Bridge near 155th Street, the FDR Drive was nothing but a smouldering and half-melted pile of asphalt and metal. Peeking out of the gooey mess in a few spots – like half-submerged metallic icebergs – were the burnt out hulks of at least one hundred cars. The smoke – and the smell –was overwhelming. "Oh boy – that’s going to be a bitch to clean up." "Where to now?" asked Barry "The 145th Street Bridge. Hang on!" David turned the cycle to his right and they shot eastwards towards the bridge.
For a change, nothing eventful happened as they made the short drive across the bridge nor when they turned onto River Avenue a moment afterwards. David actually breathed a sigh of relief. Were they actually going to get out of this damn city once and for all? David spotted the familiar profile of Yankee Stadium less than half a mile ahead. There was something odd about it – something about it and the whole area around it that wasn’t … quite … right… David shook his head. He was far too tired and far too stressed out to really care anymore at this point. "151st Street, Barry! Less than thirty blocks to go!" screamed David, glancing over his shoulder and smiling at Barry. Barry grinned back– then widened his eyes in shock a moment later. "Look out!" David turned around – just in time to see what it was that his mind had subconsciously had picked up in the darkness in spite of the stress and fatigue that was racking his body right now. Another of those damn replacing areas had come down. Right on Yankee Stadium – slicing it in half…. The motorcycle – still going at a rather impressive speed – suddenly found itself, not on a slab of asphalt of possibly questionable quality made by a possibly questionable New York City construction company, but rather bouncing and bumping through a swamp instead. David clutched the handlebars of the cycle, screaming and hanging on for dear life and trying to simultaneously steer, slow down and avoid getting his head torn off by flailing tree branches and plants. He heard a scream from behind him and felt the cycle suddenly lose a lot of weight behind him. Barry! David – finally – was able to bring the cycle under control and slid to a stop, the wheels of the cycle making squelching sounds in the ground as it did so. He turned around and glanced behind him – terrified at what he might see. "Barry?" David heaved a sigh of relief as he saw Barry – about 50 or 60 feet away from him – slowly begin to stand up. He looked pretty banged up and was covered in mud and crushed plants but was still –thankfully –very much alive. "Barry?" repeated David. Barry groaned and slowly straightened up, weaving back and forth slightly. He looked at David and smiled wanly. And then – for the second time in as many minutes – he suddenly widened his eyes in shock as the blood drained from his face. He was staring at David… no… behind David…. David shifted his gaze to his left—and drew in a loud gasp. Less than twenty feet away from him – staring at him from a clump of plants – were two of the creatures that had attacked them in Queens. And had killed Rosie… The creatures stared at them, their gaze shifting between David and Barry every few seconds. It was obvious that they weren’t quite sure what to make of the two of them. It was also quite obvious that that confusion and hesitation wasn’t going to last very long… David was impressed at how fast he was able to work out his options. He knew what these things were capable of. If they charged at him, he had – what? – maybe half a second to react. He was on a street motorcycle – not a dirt bike. Even if he somehow managed to get the bike moving in the half second of time he had to react, it would take at least a few seconds for the bike to get any kind of speed going. He’ll never have a chance. On the other hand … If he hit the gas right now and zoomed off – he’ll catch the creatures off guard. He’ll certainly have a good two or three seconds of confusion before they’ll react and start chasing him. If he did that, he might – just might –be able to stay one step ahead of them until he hit a street and was able to really open up the bike and leave them behind choking on the fumes. The only problem was…he’ll be abandoning Barry…. Option three… Drive the bike to Barry and pick him up and drive off? Or have Barry run to him and leap on the bike and the two of them burn rubber out of here? Hah – not a chance! One or both of them will be attacked before they could do that. What to do? What to do? Unbeknownst to David – Barry had come up with a fourth option… "Mr. Elias – David – I need you to go as fast and far away as possible…" "Huh? Barry? What are you talk—" David was never able to finish his sentence, as Barry suddenly screamed like a banshee and started waving his arms. "YO! Ugly! Over here! Look at me! Woo hoo!" And with that – Barry turned and ran into swamp, still screaming and waving his arms. The two creatures – apparently almost as shocked as David was at this spectacle – hesitated for a few seconds. And then started chasing after Barry…. "BARRY!" screamed David. One of the creatures ignored David and kept running. The second stopped. And then it turned around and stared at David, a look of vague confusion on its face. It hesitated, staring at David then in the direction that Barry had run off to, then back at David. Back and forth. David had no intention of sticking around to see what it would finally decide on. He opened up the throttle and zoomed off as fast as the heavy bike could go, bouncing and bumping its way through the swamp. The hesitating creature finally made up its mind its mind a few seconds later. And started chasing after David…
David never knew how on earth he was able to hang on. He was bouncing up and down on the seat like a ping pong ball. It was pitch dark. He was travelling through a primordial swamp and kept getting swatted in the face with a plethora of braches and fronds. The bike was barely steerable. And he was fairly certain that a few pieces of the bike had fallen off on that last bump. And yet – he was still moving and was, in fact, actually beginning to slowly pick up some speed. I think I’m using the Force here... Barely visible in the rear view mirror, the creature was still chasing him.
With an explosion of plants, mud and insects, David erupted from the swamp and was literally airborne for nearly half a second before gravity seemed to finally notice him and belatedly and rather rudely yanked him down onto the street. Leaving a trail of sparks and what felt like a few other – hopefully minor – bits and pieces of the bike, David yanked on the throttle and barely avoided a street sign lying on the road marked ‘E 167th Street’. The cycle’s engine revved up and David felt the cycle instantly double its speed. The creature chasing him erupted from the swamp as well and continued chasing him. But – as David looked into the rearview mirror – he saw that the chase was all over. It still tenaciously continued pursuing him but David gave a whoop of joy as he saw it quickly began to recede behind him. Clearly it was hopelessly outmatched by the power of a Harley. Avoiding a four car pile up lying right at the intersection of River and Jerome, David squeezed a little bit of extra speed out of the bike and zoomed up the street. I am going to make it! I’m finally going to get out of this city! Yeah –and all it required was to leave Barry behind... David screeched to a stop next to an overturned car, the bike making an impressive U-turn as he did so. No. NO! I lost one friend tonight. I’m not going to lose another. No way. No fucking way at all! He glanced up the street. The creature reappeared next to the pile up and stopped as well, as it spotted David. It cocked its head to one side, as if it wasn’t quite sure what to make of this new development. David glanced downwards. The overturned car had spilled the entire contents of its trunk onto the street. He grinned as he spotted something rather interesting and bent down and picked it up. He glanced back up the street. The creature was still there, looking utterly confused. Oh – I’ll make you really confused in a minute! "Hang on Barry –I’m coming for you!" yelled David as he gunned the bike and drove straight towards the creature. The moonlight glinted off the tire iron he held in his hand. "And you!" screamed David, his voice echoing throughout the area, as he charged towards the now terrified as well as still confused creature. "GET THE HELL OUT OF MY CITY!"
Tuesday Aug 19, 2008 – Large swamp (formerly Yankee Stadium) – Bronx, New York City About 10 pm In retrospect, realized Barry, it was probably a mistake to have been screaming like a little girl. On the other hand – he was being chased through a swamp by an enraged and obviously hungry half bird/half reptile thing the size of a rather large wolf for the last five minutes, so he had a good excuse to be doing a bit of shrieking and squealing. How he was able to actually keep ahead of the damn thing for so long was a complete mystery to him. Why he had done this absolutely insane thing in the first place was running as a close second, mystery-wise, as well. Oh sure – it had been the only idea he could think of that would have given David a chance at surviving. But he was beginning to realize that he – perhaps – had not quite fully contemplated the ramifications of his plan before he put it into effect. He erupted out of the swamp and found himself heading straight for the pitcher’s mound of Yankee Stadium. Unfortunately, he had been going at a rather impressive run and instead of running up and over the mound he ended up tripping over the mound instead. Barry sprawled to the ground, screaming, as he tumbled head over heels. His pursuer ran out of the swamp, howling, and leapt onto the top of the mound. Barry glanced up – to see the creature staring down at him. Barry would have sworn that the creature was actually ... smiling. And then – Barry heard something else. Something that sounded like... In the last three hours Barry had seen a great many crazy and bizarre and downright incredible things. Truth be told – Barry was sure that he was actually becoming a bit blasé about things now. It would have taken something truly mind-bogglingly weird to really surprise him at this point. It would have taken something like – for example – seeing a wild-eyed and crazed looking middle-aged bearded man riding a battered Harley and swinging a bloodstained tire iron over his head come flying out of the swamp at nearly waist high level and shrieking at the top of his lungs "GERONIMO!" Something just like that...
David had just enough time to leap off the bike before it rammed into the dinosaur. He landed on his back with a loud grunt. He felt a sharp pain in his right knee as he tumbled end over end over the grass. He was only vaguely aware of screams – coming from both the dinosaur and Barry. It took a few seconds for the flashes of light in his vision to stop and he – hesitantly – began to stand up. Barry was still lying on his back – looking at him as if he was the Angel of Death itself. As for the dinosaur... "Oh for fuck’s sake!" screamed David as he saw the wounded dinosaur twitch and try – with somewhat less success than David had -- to stand up as well. David walked over to the dinosaur and raised the tire iron over his head. "I" – whack – "TOLD" – whack – "you guys" – whack -- "already" – whack – "to" – whack -- "get" –whack – "the hell" – whack whack – "out" – whack whack whack – "of my city!" –whack whack whack whack. David turned towards Barry. Barry was staring back at him, ashen-faced. "Are you alright?" "Gaaaaaargggh?" "You okay, Barry? You don’t look too good." "Hrruuuughhh?" "Seriously – cut that out. You’re kind of freaking me out." "Uhhh—Mr. Elias? Are you alright?" "No. I’m tired, fried, hungry, stressed out and really really fed up. If I see one more dinosaur, I’m going to completely lose it." "Going to lose it?" "Let’s get out of here." "I think the motorcycle is totally trashed." "Then we walk. Let’s go!"
David, limping on one leg and supported by Barry, turned westwards and walked out of Yankee Stadium. Barry let him keep the tire iron.
The area of Bronx that got replaced – they discovered - was a circle roughly half a mile in radius that was centered on Mullaly Park. It ended only steps away from Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, which afforded them a view of the Harlem River. Barry was sure he saw what looked like a twenty foot long crocodile paddle slowly down the river. David didn’t seem to have noticed it, however. Barry wisely decided not to mention it. Barry also made a mental note that he was never, ever, going to lend to David any movie that had dinosaurs in it and was even now compiling a list of such movies. He realized with dismay that it was a rather long list...
They kept walking. As they slowly made their way northwards to the Cross Bronx Expressway, they were joined by other people coming from Harlem to the south or from the Bronx to the east of them. First by ones or twos. By the time they got to the Expressway about half an hour later, it was by fives and tens…
Tuesday Aug 19, 2008 - Cross Bronx Expressway – Entrance ramp to the George Washington Bridge – Washington Heights, New York City About 10:45 pm
David glanced behind him. From here he had an unobstructed view of much of the immediate area. The crowd behind him, in the darkness, looked and moved like droplets of quicksilver. From all around him, as far as the eye could see, small rivulets of fluid trickled together, joining and intertwining with one another until they became brooks and creeks and streams and finally they combined together into just one single flood, carrying with it the flotsam and jetsam of thousands of lives, thousands of shattered dreams, thousands of lost souls. He turned to the south. He couldn’t see Queens from here, of course – but he knew that somewhere off in the distance it was there. His home. His store. Rosie… "David?" said a quiet voice next to him. "Yes Barry?" "Are you going to be alright?" David thought long and hard about that question. He pondered about how all the random events of his life had culminated into him being here – on this precise spot – at this precise time. He had thought about giving up. He suddenly realized that. Rosie’s death had hit him hard and a part of him … died … with her. And he really had nobody else in his life. He always thought that he had … time. Ah –irony…. But now… "David?" repeated the voice. He nodded his head, satisfied that he had reached an answer. "I’ll be back. I promise – I’ll be back." whispered David, so low than not even Barry standing next to him heard it. "Let’s go." said David, much louder this time so that Barry could hear. The two of them turned and joined the ever-flowing torrent moving towards the bridge. Within a few moments, they were as mere motes – indistinguishable from the rest that were crossing it… ~~
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