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Chapter 6 - Izzy Means Business
drocca posted a City Journal entry in Izzy City - A Ghost Town Exploration Story
Chapter 6 The explorers got back in the van for another three-block ride, leaving the industrial district and entering a commercial district. Melissa parked the van on the side of the road, in front of some shops, and the explorers got out and started walking along the road, looking for buildings that would be interesting and relatively safe to explore. One of the first buildings to catch their eyes was a gas station with a two-story convenience store attached. The entire top floor of the building had buckled in the middle and fallen into the first floor, turning the first floor into a sort of “bucket” that held both its own contents and the destroyed contents and structure of the second floor. The convenience store’s exterior was finished in rustic wood shingles. “Wow. That store’s seen better days. Anyone want to take a look?” asked Billy. The other explorers agreed and walked into the store’s parking lot, which was now mostly a grass field. A sign said, “Checker Gas”, priced at 95 cents for unleaded, $1.00 for premium unleaded, $1.00 for diesel, and $1.10 for leaded. “I’ve never seen a Checker Gas before, or gas that cheap. I do remember it being $1.20 or $1.30 when I was a little kid.” said Billy. “I haven’t seen a Checker since maybe 1990. They’re long out of business.” said David. There were 12 green, rusting, old-style gas pumps underneath a large green detached awning, about 10 feet in front of the store, that had somehow stayed standing. One of the nozzles had been left disconnected and hanging. The store itself had so much debris inside that it was totally impassable, but through the broken windows, the explorers could see what looked like rotting wooden beams and 1980s snack food packages put in a blender. The floor had a green-and-white checkerboard pattern. David saw the gas station as a backdrop to get his picture taken. He asked Melissa to take his picture on his phone, and she obliged. Meanwhile, Billy filmed what he could through the windows, Dirk scanned for ghosts, and Megan stayed with Billy. After just a few minutes at the gas station, the explorers walked to the building next door, a small strip mall. This was a one-story building that was still standing; the walls were made of a light beige brick, with a black shingle roof. Most of the windows were broken. There were 5 stores: a toy store, two clothing stores, a sports bar, and a hair salon. The building was quite dirty and decayed, but the roof, while missing shingles, looked structurally intact. “Where do you all want to go?” asked Melissa. “Toy store.” said Billy. “Yeah, I’m not that into fashion. I want to see the toys I grew up on.” said David. Confounded by the vast difference in condition between the gas station and strip mall, Billy asked when the buildings were built. “This part of town was first developed in the 1950s, I believe. The east side of town was first, in the ‘20s and ‘30s, then the south side we’re in during the ‘50s, then the west side, up toward the mountain, in the ‘60s and ‘70s.” said Melissa. “Hmmm. Probably differences in maintenance, or construction quality.” said Billy. Walking up to the store, they could see that it was called “Toy Safari”, but all of the letters, each about 8” tall, had fallen off and were laying on the ground. Megan decided to stay outside, only looking into the store through the front windows with her smartphone’s zoom. In the front window of the store, a bird’s nest sat on a Transformers standee; the standee itself was faded, and it and some of the action figures within had bird droppings on them. Crossing a threshold of broken glass and deftly dodging the fallen letters, the rest of the explorers entered the toy store. Due to the small space, Melissa stayed with Dirk, while David stayed with Billy. Inside the store, there was a noticeably musty smell that was quite significant even through the masks. The store was about 30 feet wide, maybe 100 feet deep. The toys were mostly still on the shelves, arranged in four aisles, although a shelf in aisle 1 had fallen, spilling racks of Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots, He-Man action figures and Superman action figures on the floor. Billy was a bit disappointed that there were no video games, while David was elated to see toys he’d had as a kid, frozen in time. Flaked off pieces of the ceiling covered the toys on the top shelf; the ceiling itself was very moldy, deteriorated, and cracked, but still structurally barely hanging on. At the front of aisle 1 were Lego sets; somewhat ironically, Lego Town playsets were heavily featured. Next to them were other building sets; Construx, Erector Set, Lincoln Logs, and more generic-branded blocks. There were about 50 feet worth of building sets, ending just a few feet from the fallen shelf, stacked floor-to-ceiling. David dug into a 1000-brick Lego set, building a simple tower before taking it apart and putting it back in the box. “If this place were made of Lego, we could just re-build everything.” said David. “Reminds me of that Simpsons episode where everything was made of Lego.” said Billy. “I loved Legos as a kid. Had many of those Town sets, but most of that was after I left Izzy.” said David. “I loved them too, but I always got the sets that weren’t pre-made. Liked the creativity. Do you mind if I video you reminiscing over the Lego sets?” said Billy. David approved, and Billy got his first video of David reminiscing; he already had several scenes of Melissa recounting her time in Izzy. Meanwhile, Dirk led Melissa into aisle 4, walking past the cash registers. He was drawn to the “dangerous” toys in the store; the Daisy air guns and lawn darts. Midway through line 4, he saw the lawn darts display. “Aww, they’re the ***** plastic tips, not the real ones. Did you ever play with the real ones?” asked Dirk. “Yes, quite often in fact, until I was 8. Then one hit me in the back of the leg, near my ankle, and I had to go to the emergency room. I couldn’t walk for a week because it cut a muscle in my leg. I still have the scar from it.” said Melissa. “Can I see the scar?” asked Dirk. Melissa pulled up the back of her pants leg slightly, showing Dirk the scar about six inches above her ankle. “Gnarly. Does it still hurt?” asked Dirk. “No, it’s fine. Just a rough patch of skin.” said Melissa. David and Billy turned around upon reaching the fallen shelf, looping back around, and going down aisle 2, where they saw board games. “Wow, they had Go for Broke here. My grandparents had that game, that’s how I remember it.” said Billy. “Even I don’t remember that one.” said David. Billy and David continued exploring the aisles in ascending order, as Melissa and Dirk came the opposite way. Then, David froze. In a small open space behind the aisles, he saw the toy he’d longed for as a kid – a Thomas the Tank Engine toy train set. Against the back wall of the store, there were dozens of blue boxes about 24” high x 30” wide x 16’ deep, stacked three high, with the train sets in them; folded-up tables sat in long, brown boxes. The boxes were warped and buckled from moisture exposure. A price banner, laying on the floor after the tape holding it to one of the boxes had failed, said $149.99 for the train set and table combination. A table, with a train set already set up on it, sat on the floor. It was about two feet high and suffering from some dry rot. David blew some dust off one of the trains and gingerly moved it around the track for a couple minutes, until Melissa and Dirk finished their exploration of the store. “I wanted one of these for Christmas back when I was 5. One of my few memories in Izzy is playing with this very train set during the weeks leading up to Christmas 1986. My parents brought me to Kay Dee Toys a few times, and I got everything I wanted on my Christmas list, except for the train set. My parents got me one of those off-brand train sets, it had about half what this one did. They told me they’d get me the real thing for my birthday. Of course, the volcano hit, and my birthday was just 6 months later, so they still had more important things on their mind. I grew out of Thomas the Tank Engine after a couple years, but I never forgot that train set. Thanks for letting me relive a piece of my childhood.” said David. The explorers were all touched by the speech. Melissa gave David a pat on the shoulder. Even Dirk was moved. On that touching moment, and with it nearing 1 pm, the explorers left the toy store for another place, catching up with Megan, who was in the van. Billy showed her a few pictures of the inside of the toy store. Megan stayed in the van once she found out the next exploration target: a real estate office located 200 feet down the street. This was a two-story building, about 2,000 square feet total. It had a rather Italianate look, with yellow-beige stucco walls and burgundy ceiling tiles on its hipped roof. Even from the outside, the explorers could see that this building was in far worse condition than the toy store. Roof tiles were missing, with holes formed in the roof. The windows were all broken out. There was a hole in the wall on the second floor, about four feet wide and half the height of the floor. A pile of bricks lay under the hole. Whatever signage was on the building had long disappeared, but Melissa demystified things, giving a historical explanation in the parking lot to the explorers. “This is the old Brambling Real Estate office. It was a family run business, owned by a man named John Brambling. Their logo was a, sort of stylized, black and gold brambling bird to play off that. John had been a football superstar at Central Izzy High School in the ‘60s. He founded his real estate agency probably sometime in the ‘70s, I know by 1986 it was one of the biggest real estate agencies in town. All my friends told me to go to Brambling or Enter Realty. I went to Brambling the last month I was in college before I graduated. I had a good job lined up as a feature writer for the Izzy City Herald making 30 grand a year, so I came to Brambling and looked at the house listings they had and went to a few open houses. I got a nice two-story, 2,500 square foot house up on the hill for $130,000. It was built in 1973 and had just been renovated top to bottom. I saw the house and saw that it was the one for me, and I moved in on July 18, 1986. Brambling had the best service, they told me everything I needed to know and got me a well-maintained home at a good price. I think he’s still a real estate agent.” said Melissa. “Aw, I want to see your old house, if it’s still there!” said Billy. “I was here last year, and it’s still there and structurally pretty stable. You’re more than welcome to see it. It’s 126 Lampley Road. We’ll actually all get there later on.” said Melissa. The explorers walked through the agency’s front door, into a large room, maybe 20 feet wide and 30 feet deep, with a dark oak wood floor, a peeling brown and beige wallpaper, and elegant pendant light fixtures. There was a large hole in the ceiling at the rear of the room where a section of floor, about 3 x 4 feet, had collapsed on the upper floor. Large, overstuffed leather chairs sat at the front of the room, in a small lobby area. A bit further back, there was an empty water cooler, and two identical desks, both with a Commander 64K computer and three chairs around them, one behind the computer where the agent would sit, and two on the opposite side where the prospective buyers would sit. On those sides of the desk, moldy, mildewed pages in binders showed houses that had been for sale. Under the hole in the ceiling, pieces of wood from the upper floor and two chairs had fallen onto the broker’s chair on the rear desk. As the explorers went forward, they found the floor inside the room largely stable. Billy thumbed through the pages of one, amazed at the houses one could get for the low prices. A 2,367 square foot house, built in 1974, on the slopes of a volcano then-dormant for centuries for $120,000 would be a good deal even adjusted for inflation. The other explorers gathered around him. Even after seeing all the abandoned artifacts left behind, seeing pictures of houses, all prepped for sale and decorated, from 33 years earlier was a surreal experience. They perused the binder on the desk in the front for a few minutes. Billy got the pictures in his filming. “Such a shame. All that work to prep those houses, and they never got a chance to sell.” he said. In a central hallway, the explorers found a staircase and climbed it. Going to the right, they found the room just above the one they’d just been in. It looked like its downstairs counterpart, other than having several roof leaks and the aforementioned collapsed section of floor, which a desk tilted precariously toward. While the other explorers stayed on a relatively stable piece of floor near the staircase, Melissa put her left foot on the floor; it felt very spongy, like if she stepped on it, it would immediately collapse. Not wanting to risk it, she turned around. “Floor’s bad in there. You might not want to go in.” said Melissa. After they went back down the stairs, Melissa shared another memory. “I sat in one of those very chairs that fell through the floor as I signed the deed to my house.” They left the building to head to their next building, which they decided would be their final building on this walk before heading back to the van for something else. A Cadillac dealer got the honors. Dirk saw the rows of old luxury cars next to a crumbling glass-fronted building, and the explorers went across the street to the dealership. “Let’s look at this stealership” said Dirk. The explorers looked at the cars on the lot first – there had to be at least 100 rotting 1987 Cadillacs, all with very few miles, here. The paint was severely degraded on all of them, to the point that rusty bare metal covered some one-third of the total surface area, and the tires had deflated over the years at different rates, leaving the cars tilted at odd angles. About half of all the car windows had broken. Various molds, mosses, and even full-sized plants grew out of the cars. The showroom’s front wall was entirely made of windows, and they were all broken; part of the roof had collapsed. The Allantes were the first thing the explorers looked at. This was a soft-top convertible that had just launched months before the volcano. Billy and David explored them, while Melissa and Dirk explored other Allantes. The Allante that Billy and David went to first appeared to have once been gold with a burgundy interior but was now ransacked. The convertible top’s fabric had completely dislodged and fallen into the car. Large pieces had fallen off the severely cracked dashboard. The steering wheel was missing its hub. The seat frames showed where the cushioning had rotted away. Much of the interior and exterior was coated in a green mold, and mosses grew out of the interior of the car. “Cadillacs of the late 80s were junk anyway. My uncle had a ’81 Deville when I was little, he loved the thing. Then, he got an ’85 Deville because it was the new design. He said it rode like an ox-cart compared to the ’81. He swore off Cadillacs until recently, he got a ’17 Escalade and is happy with it.” said David. “Glad he likes his new Escalade. I’ve been in one, they’re really nice.” said Billy. “One of my college friends test-drove an Allante when it came out. I think it was actually a couple days before it officially launched, he got up early one morning and test drove it. He told me it wasn’t worth the $55,000. Same guy test-drove a new Ferrari, I don’t know how the heck he pulled that off. He was only a few years older than me; I think he was born in 1961 and drove a late 70s Chevy Monte Carlo.” said Melissa. “What was a college kid doing driving a new Ferrari? Surely they knew he wasn’t going to buy it.” said Dirk. “That’s my dad.” said Billy. “Quit BS-ing.” said Dirk. “No, really, his name is Dave Alexander, and he was born November 12, 1961. He used to test-drive a lot of cars back then.” said Billy. “You know what they say about Scorpios, they’re weird.” said Dirk. “It’s not about the zodiac sign, it’s about the person.” said Melissa. After looking at a few more unsalvageable decayed Cadillacs, the explorers decided to look in the building. The grey carpet was covered in leaves, and a Seville and Coupe de Ville were in similar condition to the cars outside, but underneath the section of collapsed roof was a navy-blue Sedan de Ville crushed to about a foot tall. Billy made sure to film the pancaked Cadillac with as much detail as he could get, one of the most interesting things he’d seen so far. After a few more minutes of exploring, they were ready to move on. “I’m hungry.” said Billy. “Who’s up for lunch?” asked Melissa. Everyone agreed; it was 1:31 pm after all. [Disclaimer: the characters in this story are fictional. Any similarity to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.] -
Version 1.0
796 Downloads
Living the high life can be obtained in a myriad of ways, as long as you have the proper connections or the resources to do so. Yet, when you find your way into that lifestyle your options for vehicles are all the same garish brands that each bring you the same judging sneers from the public at large. But you don't give a Hoover Damn! You feed on it! You earned your position early on and they are only jealous! It doesn't matter if you're a small time rap star, or a failed real estate mogul, or the mayor of Podunk in Whoknowswhere County, you still deserve a chariot from which to show off in! About the Upload- The vehicle is a 2017 Cadillac Escalade and is driveable once the Mayor's House is constructed in your city. It is a replacement for the Maxis Mayor's Limousine. Also includes a second matching file for use as standard automata. Dependencies? None needed. Components for the textures were derived from Kelley Blue Book. -
Version 1.0
984 Downloads
Keeping up with the latest auto trends is no fun. Once upon a time, everyone had a modest domestic coupe in the driveway. As time went on, those got replaced with newer, shinier models with bigger engines and now with utility features. And then there was the one-hit wonder from the early 2000's showing off one of those huge tanks with big wheels and a chrome wrap. Every trip to the dealer to get one of these high-dollar SUV's ended the same. One credit check, two sales associates pointing and laughing at your credit history, and three weeks of humiliation from that visit and you still have no replacement. Enter- the Cadillac Escalade! It doesn't matter that it's trim is a plastic veneer! Nor does it matter it's leather is synthetic! You are now at the top of the pile with all the other high rollers and that's the important part! Now you can start your own rap career or demand to see a manager the proper way! About the Upload- There are five vehicles included in this upload. Each one is a 2017 Cadillac Escalade. They are high-wealth vehicles and will appear on your road networks. Dependencies? None required. Components for the textures were derived from Kelley Blue Book.
