(no subject)

[gone_byebye]

The door opens, as it generally does, onto a grey and dingy alley in Manhattan in mid-September. Ray glances up at the sky, then says, "Hang on a second." A few moments later he trots back from the street. "Okay. Had to check the paper- once in a while the door puts me out in the wrong universe, but this is definitely mine."

The newspaper in his hands has a headline involving someone called 'Super Dave', but the paper is folded in half, so it's hard to say what else it's talking about.

Comments

[gone_byebye]

"Total, or just on this island?" Ray says. "We've got one point six million people here in Manhattan, but there's close to nine million in New York City total."

[vance_prime]

It's questionable whether there are nine million people left in North America in Alyx's world.

"Wow."

[gone_byebye]

"New York City's one of the biggest cities in the world," Ray notes. "Biggest city in the country, certainly. There was a time when this was the most densely populated area on the planet, too, but that was back around the end of the nineteenth century. Somewhere in Asia has the distinction now. Hong Kong, I think."

[vance_prime]

"Where do they all sleep??"

[gone_byebye]

"A lot of these buildings are apartment buildings," Ray says. "Different levels of size and quality, of course. But you need to have thirty and forty-floor buildings all over town to house that many people on one island."

[vance_prime]

Alyx lets out a long, slow breath. "Incredible."

[gone_byebye]

"There's actually even more people here during the day than that," Ray says. "Most of the daytime population of New York City doesn't actually live here. They come in from out of town to work- that's why there's so much traffic, it's people driving into and out of town. We've also got a huge mass transit system for people to travel around the city underground. Manhattan couldn't really function otherwise."

[vance_prime]

"And it's safe underground?"

[gone_byebye]

"Structurally? Yeah, although it needs serious revamping to deal with hurricane-level rains," Ray says. "Criminally? We're still working on that. Although I've been using the subway since I was fourteen and haven't been robbed, assaulted, or anything else even once."

[vance_prime]

Alyx was thinking more along the lines of 'are there zombies or giant bugs down there,' but based on what Ray just said she's going to assume the answer is 'no.'

"Hm. Must be nice."

[gone_byebye]

Just exceptionally persistent rats.

"It's okay. There are cities with much nicer subways," Ray says. "And it smells nasty during high summer... oh, hey."

They're coming up on 33rd Street.

"See that building up there? That's the Empire State Building. One of the tallest buildings in the world."

[vance_prime]

"...and it's human-built?"

[gone_byebye]

"Yep. Ecto, how old is it again?"

"Finished in 1931," Ecto replies, blue lights pulsing on her dashboard. "So it's seventy-seven years old this year."

Ray nods. "There we go. We've got taller buildings in the United States and a few taller buildings elsewhere in the world, but the Empire State Building's older than all of them. And they're all human-made."

[vance_prime]

A low whistle. "There's nothing that big back home that wasn't made by the Combine. How long did it take to build?"

[gone_byebye]

"Excavation for the foundations started on January 22nd of 1930," Ecto reports. "They opened the doors and officially opened it on May 31st of 1931."

[vance_prime]

A year and a half. That's damned impressive. "Is that typical?"

[gone_byebye]

"Not really. There was sort of a race on," says Ecto matter-of-factly. "Two other buildings were going up around the same time, and all the companies involved wanted to be the first to finish so they could claim to be the owners of the tallest building in the world. Mostly a building that size takes three or four years to finish."

"There's an elevator up to the top, if you want to see," Ray offers. "Well- up to the eighty-sixth floor, anyway. Only building employees go all the way up to the hundred and second floor. You'd be able to see all of New York City from up there at once."

"And nothing's gonna fly up there except the pigeons," Ecto adds. "Aircraft aren't allowed to fly anywhere near that part of town. Safety rules."

[vance_prime]

Alyx grins. "Oh, I definitely want to see that."

Uh-oh, Ray. You're talking to a woman who takes 'you can't do that' as a personal challenge.

[gone_byebye]

Poor, poor blissfully ignorant Ray.

"Okay then! Ecto, can you drop us off?"

"Sure thing, Dad. I'll go find some parking."

The car turns onto Thirty-fourth Street and pulls to a stop near the Fifth Avenue corner. "Everybody out," Ecto announces. "I'll see you guys later."

As she peels away Ray notes, "We can get a camera if you want, but if you're all right with digital pictures, my phone has a built-in camera we can use. Most people want pictures once they're up there."

[vance_prime]

"Works for me," says Alyx as she eyes the structure towering above them. "I'm lousy with darkroom work anyway."

[gone_byebye]

"Oh, we'd be getting them developed here regardless," Ray says. "Anyway. Here goes."

The lobby ceiling is three stories high and ringed in a vast aluminum bas-relief of the city skyline, centered on an image of the building itself, sans antenna. Ray gestures to a corridor ahead of them, its walls paneled with the Seven Wonders of the World, plus an eighth- the building itself again.

"The builders had a little bit of an ego, but I can't really blame them," Ray says. "Our elevators are down there."

[vance_prime]

Alyx dawdles in her walk, half admiring the architecture, half looking for potential entry and exit points. (It's an old reflex.) "What are these pictures of?"

[gone_byebye]

"The seven wonders of the ancient world- basically, seven structures known from ancient history, considered particularly outstanding for their construction and scale given that they were built at a time when humanity was still working on the concept of smelting iron into steel," Ray says. "Except for that one, there. The Great Pyramid at Giza was built when humans hadn't even figured out iron yet and were still working with copper, bronze, and stone. It also happens to be the only one of the ancient seven still in existence today- the others've all been lost to time and various disasters."

[vance_prime]

"Hm. Wonder if it's still standing on my Earth."

(It probably is; to paraphrase someone much wittier than the mun, even a partially collapsed pyramid is still basically pyramid-shaped.)

[gone_byebye]

"You'd have to get over to Africa and most of the way down the Mediterranean before you found the river that'd take you to the right area to find it," Ray says. "I always thought that the Great Wall of China needed to be on the list too, but the original seven were compiled by Greeks who wouldn't have known where that was."

The elevator to the top is one of a bank of about sixteen, and takes a while to arrive. "You're probably going to need to equalize the pressure in your ears on the way up, by the way," Ray says. "I know I always do."