Life on the Run: San Tierro

[Deathtoall 28]

wow nice work, it's good to see it's still here! I really like your photoshop skills!

[justanothersim86 83]

To all who commented, Thanks

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[Rabbit903 1]

Ān

[justanothersim86 83]

Soon, maybe tomorrow.

[justanothersim86 83]

            Chapter 10

        The Black Smoke

    The sun was shining brightly onto the streetscape of Cornica Cove as I staggered onwards towards the historic district. I put my coat over my shoulders to combat the chilly air that came with a passing cold front earlier (which would explain the heavy rainfall). I yearned for a bathroom after all that went on just minutes ago. A store, which doors were left wide open, would relief me of my squirming.

    Ahead of me was Frederick Square, a small little island in the intersection of Commissioners and Egliton Streets. There was nothing spectacular about it, but it seemed like a good place to rest.

    I noticed a line of police vehicles lined up on Commissioners, all of the cars were facing North towards the hill from where I came. A dense fog was building when I arrived at the square, another storm system was moving in from the west over the bay. A light rumble of thunder was heard from the northwest and a light rain commenced.

 

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    A'wight! Move it along, now!, hollored a nearby officer, making jesters with his hand to continue south. I asked what the baracade was for and he pelied: The office of the Prime Minister has ordered all local police departments to use any force in means of holding back the invaders.  They sent in em'military to stop these brutes! It should be tomorrow when they'll arrive, I wager.

    There won't be a city to defend tomorrow at this rate, sir., I blurted, pointing at the fires buring on the hill. The whole damn city up there has been wiped out! What makes you think you'll stop them?, I fumed.

    Just keep moving, young sir., he retorted, rolling the eyes.

    Once I passed him, I couldn't help notice the look he gave me before he said that. I could tell that he was hit by the thought that he may be dead soon, a horror of the knowledge that this may be his last evening sunset. The chubby officer turned around and continued to yell out orders to evacuee's, pushing the thought back into his subconcious.

 

    I decided to stand a block away and watch the orange and smokey sky in the distance. The sky was a dark blue now, and a slight redish-orange glow was on the horizen to my west. The day was ending, bringing in the unkown and frightening prospect of nightime. The rain poured harder, the sky to the west was clear of clouds, an odd sight when you look upwards and see the dark storm cell overhead. A branch of lightning streaked across the sky, and the thunder roared a mere seconds later.

    The searchlights in the police baracade burst on, and magnificent, powerful beams of blue light rose hundreds, thousands of feet into the air and lit up the low lying storm clouds above. The rain could be seen falling in the searchlights as they went back and forth against the sky.

 

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    What surprised me was that many buildings were lite up, with people looking out towards the hill.

They had ignored the order to evacuate, for reasons I can't comprehend. The roads leeding out of the city were clogged with traffic, and going by foot seemed impossible. Maybe these were the reasons, or not.

    I couldn't finish my thought when a hissing noise was ringing in my ears. I ducked on impulse, waiting for an intense heat to evapourate me to ash. I sat, terrified, for over a minute till I got up. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, everything looked okay to me.

    That was, until, I noticed a thick black cloud was rolling over the roofs of buildings to my northeast. It wasn't any ordinary cloud or fog, it was a thick, almost inky, cloud that swallowed everything in its path and moved with fairly good speed. The officers stood and regarded the smoke with a stunned curiosity. It was moving southeastward, away from us, but into the wealthy suburb of Westminster. The lights of buildings, and the people inside, dissappeared into the shadowy blanket of vapour.

    I was astonished, but very fearful of this mysterious cloud. I believed that this was some kind of weapon, a deadly gas, much like a biological weapon used to wipe out an enemy army. Just like World War 1, the british were unkown to the mustard gas, which led to the death of many. This was eerily similar.

 

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    Then, suddenly, the cloud turned to a near liquid and fell from the sky and onto the houses. It coated them in a blackish powder which swirled when a gust of rain or wind blew through.

    It went to a dead silence once te cloud evapourated. The lights in the houses were still on, but the people in them were nowhere to be seen. A clap of thunder broke the quiet as it peacefully rumbled down the wet streetscape. I waited and waited for any sign of life from the East, any. But there was just the pouring rain and occasional flash of light, no living thing was to be seen.

    Once my body got the message, I bolted away from the square and towards the Southshore and Kilborn neighbourhoods. I breathed heavily in pain and frustration, the rain was soaking my head and giving me chills ehich added to the misery. I felt alone, hopeless, and even a bit angry as I struggled onwards. All the events of the past two days caught up to me now, hitting me like a ton of bricks. Now stress was an almost bigger threat than the black smoke itself. I wanted to just stand there and wait for it to be over with, end it here, just kill me! However, another part of my mind wanted to keep going, to survive, things will be better soon.

    I decided with the survival instinct, and ran forward into Southshore. The street lights eluminated the wet streets and gave off a mirror-like reflection, like another world was below me.

    I quickly came back to reality when the glow of heat ray ran behind me. It jumped over me and slashed through the houses beside me and they exploded in firery splinters of wood and bricks. A car flipped over in a driveway, and a telephone poll fell onto the street in a burst of bright yellow sparks.

 

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I turned onto San Clement Dr. and headed east. I passed by a group of mid-rise condo's and a bus was going in the opposite direction when another flash of green flame threw the bus in the air. It rolled over many times before resting on its roof in a crumpled heap. While flipping over, a person was thrown through the window and was crushed by the bus. I tried not to rest, but the constant running was taking a toll on me.

 

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    Two blocks and a half later, it stopped. I stuttered onto the sidewalk and sat down holding my knees. I was in a quiet suburb with a small hill in front of me. The sky was dark and the rain had dissapeared. The sky was clear and quiet and the homes were lit with the glow of televisions and lamps. I looked over the hill and over the three story apartment complex ahead, to see the machine standing a block away from them with only his shoulders and head visible. It shined its blue searchlight over the area and it blinded me as it passed by.

    It was the strangest thing; a quiet neighbourhood with humble citizens going to sleep; a clear, unpolluted air as a result of the rain; and a tall, unkown, monster standing and observing it without anyone but me even knowing. As I watched it, a flash of lightning flickered behind him, and a small, peaceful rumble of thunder cracked the air.

    I sat, and waited. Watching it with care, care for what it was thinking, what it was planning. All I know, is that it won't be anything of good manner. Nope.

   

 

   

[noname1029 0]

at this rate there won't be any more places to hide... good update though!

[justanothersim86 83]

I,ve decided to bring this cj back.

I am ready to update this evening, just got to add new effects.

 

Just don't expect me to update very often. I konw some people were anxious, but its really difficult to update even once a week. I have school, home, social, BAT's and other stuff to do. So don't think that it will be updated quickly like other cj's, mine has effects and stories to put in.

[Nardo69 51]

Well, it is okaynot to update every or every second day - as long as my pc was working I did also update my CJ once a week and I do know it IS time consuming ...

But pls do update as I am REALLY cur

[justanothersim86 83]

Its taking longer than I thought to do this update so if it isn't updated tonight, here's a teaser :

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That bridge scene (three pics for the bridge) took 2 hours to make. Those cars weren't there in the game, I had to add them with all those red steel beams in the way! The shot before shows the whole bridge intact.

[Kent B. Rong 0]

Date: 11/8/2005 3:53:00 PM Author: Nardo69  there seems to be a doomed(?!?) connection between the hero and the monster ... Nardo

quote>

 

Nah...

 

Just sneeze on them, I say!

[Deathtoall 28]

Greatr work, that bridge scene will be great(waits pateintly)I think you have a great cj

[jacqulina 162]

wow what effects excellent work

[hitchins 0]

Thank you thank you thank you

You have just made a very dull morning in the office exciting!! What an amazing imagination.

 

Great pics and great story

[justanothersim86 83]

            Chapter 11

     What I Saw of the  Destruction in Wokking

 

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    I remeber coming too in a well lit, small room at dawn. The ceiling fan was spinning in a hipnotic fashion with streams of light filtering through the semi-closed blinds to my right. There was a television at the end of the room and the door was located in the corner furthestr from me and the window. I thrust my arm onto the nightstand nearby and clutched the alarm clock.

    In bright red numbers it read 7:27. My mouth managed a slight sigh before I put the clock back down with a tiresome lengthening of my arm. In those few moments of peace, I had completely forgot all my troubles and worries, an ignorant bliss of what was happening around me. Then the whole realization of the situation came back and hit me like a ton of bricks.

    The memory of the previous night was slowly coming back to me. All I could remember was stting on the curb and putting my face in hands, and the monster just beyond the apartments. I tried with frustration to remember what occured in the moments following, but no success.

    A woman, who a reconized as a nurse, came in the room. She didn't even stop to check on me and went straight to the window and pushed open a slat in the blinds. All I heard was some mumbling which I could make out various profanities, and a hasty Oh my. With a loud groan, I got her attention. She reached over and turned off the TV at the end of the room with a click of the knob, and turned to face me.

    We have to leave soon. The news channel said that all area's west of San Andreas are to be evacuated eastwards and southwards. The millitary has been sent in., she replied in a encited manner, walking back and forth in the room looking for god knows what.  I got no answer as to how I got here or survived my encounter with the machines, but I arose and made my way out of the room.

 

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    Through the maze of hallways and down the stairs, I reached the street. I was a typical cold, misty, mountain day with gust of wind blowing papers, bags and leaves around in spectacular swirls.

Before was a long downhill slope, at the bottom was a river. Beyond that, was an endless line of trees and mighty purple hills and snowcapped mountains far away like giants of the earth. Behind me was the uphill slope, which at the top, were two tall transmission towers. If I headed right, I would go down to the main road which lead to the only road bridge over the river for some while.

    One thing that stoped my heart dead cold, was the fact that, like in Bayview, all the cars weren't moving. All trucks, cars, buses, taxis, vans and such were inanimate. The hoods popped open, and dumbfounded citizens peaking in, trying to figuire out the problem at hand. Groups of people were scattered everywhere with men and women running between each cluster in excitement.

   

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    I put my chalky hand through my dusty hair in a bid of stress. The world around me seemed to be collapsing like a poorly built rocker. I regarded the masses of people in the kind of perplextion that a biologist experiences when remarking a group of animals or bacteria.

    But before I could go on, I was thrown to the ground by a massive explosion behind me. Me and the world seem to have been thrown into a blender as everything went up and down. Debris, mostly dirt and rocks, rained down like a volcanic eruption might spew ash on innocent civilians. I was hit repeatively with stones and branches as they fell from the sky in a dark, lumanous cloud of dirt.

 

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    Once it all settled, I rose up painfully from the pavement and brushed off the dust from my jacket. Large, ground shaking jolts could be felt throughout the common area. At first, it was believed to be nothing more than aftershocks (from what?). It was soon reconized as monsterous footsteps coming from the direction of the atteneas.

    Every single living being had its attention fixed on the crest of the hill, a momentary silence, as all fears came horrifyingly true. The very monster that the towns folk had been reading about was here early, with that, the footsteps halted. You could hear the beating wings of birds above, who were flying away as far as possible. The golden sun was poking thorugh the thin grey clouds over the mountains, and for a moment, all was peaceful.

    This was broken by a bright green flash of the heat ray. It cinged the tops of the trees near the towers and plowed a mansion up the street. At this development, the crowds of people let out a cry of terror before running in a stampede of humans towards the only bridge out of Wokking.

    This wasn't it, another machine appeared within a half mile of the first machine in the valley to the left of us. It climded up the side of the hill to join its comrade. We ran as fast as possible to escape the looming danger just behind us. I was shocked that they didn't wipe us out immediately. Maybe they had other plans than destruction?

     My heart jumped out of my throat when another powerful explosion ripped through the hill. From behind the monsters was a rising cloud of fire and smoke, startling the machines.

 

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    This was a poorly thought out defense tactive from the military as I would find out later. 

 

    The attack failed, and the monsters brought the heat ray among the houses nearby with a flash of fire and debris. It danced across the road in front of me, no more than 40 yards, and wiped out a large group of people who I was previously standing beside just moments earlier. They burst in a puff of ash and clothes. Seeing this oncoming hazard, I turned right down another road towards the main street.

    The other machine was doing its way with the people who had ran in the other direction from the hospital just a block north of me. I kept running, even though over the rooftops, the massive machine was firing its deadly ray upon the poor souls. The martian was hazey looking in the swirling mist and fog of the early morning. An eerie, but suprisingly beautiful, sight. Much like an oncoming tornado.

 

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    I passed the local fire station and took a left onto Main St. The bright red bridge was just 200 yards ahead of me. The confusing and beautiful tangle of steel bars was a welcoming sight, a gateway out of hell. Or so I thought.

 

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    When I began to cross the first section of the Wokking Bridge, I noticed a flashing light coming from the group of tree's across the river, just 300 yards down from the bridge. I realized that this was gunfire, the military was here! A tank came into sight, and another, and another. We were saved!

    Just a split second later, a shell was fired from the barrel of a tank. It wizzed through the air with a loud screetching noise. When it reached the monster, I let out a cheer. A direct hit! Unfortunately, my celebration was short lived.

    The shell burst just feet from the machine in a bright yellow light. No explosion, just pieces of shell that rained down from the martian. I was horrified, and paused on the bridge. All hope was lost.

 

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The monster just stood there, staring at the soldiers. Then the other monster raised its heat ray, and fired it at the baracade. The ammunation exploded in a bright red fireball. The soldiers were engulfed with fire and the tanks dissappeared in the explosion of debris and bodies. A tank must have flown nearly 50 feet through the air and land in the river with a powerful splash.

 

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    I knew that I could not reach the other end of the bridge in time. It was difficult to navigate around the dead cars and masses of panicky, desprate people. I yelled out Jump into the river! as I pulled of my jacket and ran to the guardrail. The water was at least 50 feet below me, and was no doubt freezing cold.

    While I was wasting time with my thoughts, the angried machine released its heat ray upon the front end of the bridge. I nearly flew right over the rail as the bridge lurched forward and bent in an S shape with pieces of steel flying into the air. The heat ray ran down the bridge and smoked a least half of the people on the road deck. Cars flew into the air and the front section of the bridge collapsed in a angonizing creak. Cars and people splashed into the freezing river below. 

 

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    Not too long afterwards, our section fell into the river. The bridge seemed to fall out from underneath me before I went with it. The steel was melted and tangled as it fell past me and onto the people in the river. It felt like an eternity as I was falling, and I prepared for death.

 

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    I hit the water with a bone shattering impact. The breath was sucked out of my lungs as I plunged deep into the murky waters below the former bridge. People were drowning all around me and cars were sinking like rocks. Clumps of tangled steel were sinking to, bringing unlucky folks with them.

    I struggled to reach the surface which was iluminated by the bright sun. I swam and swam before I broke through with a lud, pronounced gasp. The bridge above me had dissappeared like a magic trick and dead bodies were floating downstream. I floated in the water, wondering what next?.

 

Comments?

 

 

 

 

 

 

[choco1 4]

Wow, this CJ is breathtaking. That last update was so stunning, I am lost for words... its... just... so... stunning!

I just love your special effects, they are just like nothing I have seen before in a CJ! And all the people on the roads and the bridge, wonderful! The presentation matches your fantastic story! This will be one of the greatest CJs in simtropolis history is you keep this level of work up!

I am definately following this! Cheers, choco.

[thatmonkeysim 8]

OMG!!!!!!!!!!!! that is awesome effects!! too bad i havent seen it till now!! this is spectauclar

[ginchael 1]

I love this movie...SO MUCH. Someone wants to work in Hollywood?

Great job--keep it up!

[Shadow Assassin 336]

Ooo, very War of the Worlds style.

Great special effects.

[jacqulina 162]

amazing pics excellent story great effects i love the close up pics

[Nardo69 51]

That bridge was a masterpiece - the graphics as well as the story!

If waiting is honoured like this I like to wait ....

Nardo

[Deathtoall 28]

That is so bloddy great, you deserve a trixie kmost definitely! You must have spent long hours at night doing this!

[justanothersim86 83]

Bad news.

My computer's hard drive crashed, or something. All imformation has to be cleared and that includes the cities. I am writing this on the computer in the basement instead, and it will take a couple day's to fix the problem.

 

So another update won't be coming for a least a week. My apologies.