Doom: Hell on Earth.
Central Park, New York. 15th July 2145. 11:00am.
Harry Carmack enjoyed his life. He led a simple one, he drove his cab every day around new york, seeing and meeting the most interesting people, collecting a decent buck as the day flew by, to then go home to his lovely wife Anna, who always had a nice dinner on the table waiting for him. He couldn't imagine living the one life he had been given any other way.
Central Park was bustling with people on a sweltering July morning. Joggers ran by with iPod's plugged into their heads, people sat on blankets on the grass with a book or magazine, children would run by firing water pistols at each other, accidentally getting others wet in the process. But nobody minded, it seemed everybody was content with this fine day. Harry was soon brought out of his trance by a sudden disturbance.
"Taxi! Taxi!" A man yelled, and Harry squinted in the rear view mirror as he tried to catch sight of the man. The man was dressed smartly, in an expensive suit and clutched a briefcase. Obviously the business type from some high-end company. The light turned to green and Harry turned in to pick up the fare.
The man opened the door and slumped into the back seat. He let out a relieved sigh, Harry thought it must be boiling in that suit he was wearing.
"Hey buddy, where to?" Said Harry politely and friendly, as he always did.
"The Beekman Building please pal." Replied the middle aged gentlemen. "Sure thing." And with that Harry rejoined the flow of traffic and made his way away from the hustle and bustle of Central Park. "So how's things?" Harry asked. Harry was a forward person and found silence in the presence of other people quite awkward. Some people admired him for this, others were quite intimidated.
"Yeah it's all good thanks, how's business?" Asked the man, he seemed pleased Harry was chatty.
"Oh yeah good." Replied Harry, "Much better now the sun has decided to turn up."
"Haha, sure thing."
To avoid a silence Harry came in with another question.
"So what do you do at the Beekman building?" Asked Harry, genuinely interested. The Beekman building was home to the UAC's administration offices. The Union Aerospace Corporation were military-industrial research and development conglomerate dealing in space exploration, weapon research and, more recently, teleportation. Harry was fascinated by this research. Could they really be close to teleportation? Being able to fly from one side of the Earth to the other in a matter of seconds, or maybe even planets. Harry's mind seemed to get lost in thought for a moment and he returned to the reality of his cab, a part of him hoped this man was high up in the UAC, he wanted to know the ins and outs of this teleportation technology and how far along the development process it was.
"I'm with the UAC, I'm CEO of the Phobos Base on Mars." Harry heart skipped a beat. The Phobos base on mars, what a place to be. So far from Earth working on technology nobody has ever heard of.
"Whoa!" said Harry. "I've heard a lot about the UAC, working on teleportation now I've been told."
The man looked distressed at Harry's remark.
"Yeah well, that was supposed to be confidential, but somehow it got leaked back to Earth, but never mind, these things happen." Harry felt guilty to ask anymore, but he just had to, he'd probably never get a chance like this again.
"I'm sorry to hear that." said Harry, although he wasn't, "but is it coming along well, will we be able to be in Florida for breakfast and then down to Australia by dinner?"
Harry chuckled but the CEO of the Phobos Base didn't look impressed. "Look, I'm sorry but I shouldn't be talking to anyone about this sort of thing, it's bad enough it had been leaked already. I have enough on my plate with Phobos as it is at the moment."
Harry knew that was all the information he'd get out of the man, and his heart sank a little, but he could understand the man's reluctance to reveal information about a once top secret project, especially to some random taxi driver. Harry felt that things were going pretty badly up there at the Phobos base however and he had to quell the urge to pry on the subject any more.
"No worries," Said Harry, "I understand." He said with a smile and a glance at the man in the rear view mirror. The man looked very stressed, something wasn't going well in his line of work and Harry wondered what was going on. Newly formed wrinkled could be seen on the man's face and recent grey hair starting to sprout around his temples. Harry felt for the man and turned his attention to the road.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to sound rude." Said the man, still seeming quite bitter, although not at Harry but the situation he was in, whatever it was.
"No don't worry, I didn't mean to pry so much." Harry smiled again to show there was no hard feelings and turned down 115th Street.
"Don't worry about…" The man had started but a violent shaking interrupted his sentence. Harry and the man were both lost for words, it wasn't the car that shook, it was the ground itself. The vibration only lasted a few seconds before ceasing completely.
"What the hell!" Harry exclaimed, puzzled just as much as the man on the back seat. Harry looked at the pedestrians on the street. All were puzzled by the sudden rumble. Some people clasped railings and fences, others picked themselves from the floor.
"What in the…." The man started again, only to be interrupted by a second burst, this time longer and more violent. Harry had to struggle to keep the car on the road and he slowed significantly. Earthquakes in New York? It can't be. Harry mind tried to pick out a rational explanation but all were discarded. The man in the back clutched for dear life to the seatbelt.
A third tremble came, so violent this time that Harry swerved, narrowly missing pedestrians as he mounted the footpath and came to a stop. He was shaking hard. He couldn't understand what was happening and neither could the people around him. The man in the back looked around in total bewilderment as did the people on the street, they either knelt on the floor to avoid being knocked over or were running to find a safe spot if a full blown earthquake did decide to occur.
Harry opened the car door and stood on the sidewalk. Looking around at the puzzled faces and traffic around him. Cars had bumped and crashed into one another, some even were smoking from the radiators the force was so hard. His fare soon came out of the cab to join him.
As Harry turned to look down the other end of the street he saw something he definitely could not explain, there was nothing natural about what he could see, and the people on the street knew it too. Some screamed, some decided to run, some called family and some just stood in total confusion, as did Harry.