Stacking up on the hatchway/vaultway/doorway, you can't help but notice a chill in the air nearby --- that might be because your breath comes out in thin wisps of condensate, just like on any brisk and chilly NY morning. The air smells a lot like a chilly NY morning, too, what with the burning barrels all going, providing heat to the indigents down by the docks, the smells of burning wood, paper, plastic (Yeah, some of those dolts don't know you're not supposed to burn plastics - but hey, they gotta' stay warm SOME way, right?), the air is thick with the smell of burning wood. Or something. The chill suddenly running across your body sort of serves as a wake-up call, too. When the THOOOMMM-THoooom-thoooom sounds now, you can hear it - loud-LOud-LOUDLY, and it sounds as if it comes from a long, long way off. Like some hellishly large artillery, miles away, dropping percussive disaster even farther off. But that's okay, because the docks there are...
The docks. Where are the docks? In accordance to the plans (Ace can back this up to you, if you'd like, he's been "in there" with the plans) this is supposed to be a standard double-truck/trailer bay, fit to hold two twenty-foot carriers (usually a single- or double-axle truck, but sometimes a short trailer is hauled in here as well, for tonnage reasons) side-by-side with five feet of strolling room between them, and between the walls and the other side(s). In this bay, the docks appear to be missing. And that includes the doors (at the far end) that are supposed to open into one of the businesses incubated here. (That's what business centers - especially OLD business centers - become just before the urban renewal comes...) So. The docks are missing, and the doors to the other end seems to be gone as well - the blank wall appears to have never had those installed. Another mystery - but there's more!
The edges of the docking space are done up in some truly weird colors, running from black to dark violet, to dried blood red, with ochre yellow piercing the lot giving it some really violent overtones. The entire color spectrum is represented here, though, from ultra-violent to infra-dead, and just about everything in between. From the glances you take here and there, you think it looks a LOT like an old 1970's-era Parliament (or P-Funk) album cover: bizarre, inter-related, but utterly unrelatable, at least to you. But in the center of the room is where the center of attention lies: there is a gurney, with what seems to be a young-ish pregnant person (she is but a sillhouette against the bonfire, further down in the bay) that *MAY* be shackled down - it's hard to tell in the firelight that is available. There appear to be five or six people in attendance, running somewhat evenly down the sides - each holding what looks to be a large syrette (cylindrical something, just guessing here) with a plastic tube running back toward the gurney.
Off in the distance, the unseen drum resounds another unearthly THOOOMMM-THoooom-thoooom.
...and that's about all you get in your stack-up and glances. Everything now seems to be running in slow motion, yet it's happening so fast... |
