Chapter Two
The two women once again sat in silence. Barbara has turned down the lights and gloomy shadows surrounded them. She collected her thoughts slowly, finally saying, "There's a lot about that day I haven't thought about in years. In fact, I've gone quite out of my way to avoid thinking about them. If I'm going to do this, I need to work through it slowly. You're just going to have to bear with me."
Helena nodded her consent, afraid that speaking might break the spell.
"Okay." Barbara took another sip of her coffee.
"I'm sure you remember the earthquake. It was one of the biggest ones ever recorded. Most of Gotham crumbled, if not in the first wave, then in one of the many aftershocks. Only the buildings built by WayneTech, like this clock tower, seemed to be left standing. Bruce Wayne seemed to always think ahead and had extra supports built into all of his buildings.
"At first, Gotham at its worst became Gotham at its finest. Almost immediately, everyone put aside their differences and worked together to dig. Survivors or bodies, it didn't matter. What one person had he was willing to share with his neighbors. Hospitals were set up to take the wounded, no matter who they were. Known criminals, rival gang members, whoever; no one really cared at that point. They were simply people in need.
"All of this happened before any rescue crews showed up, but show up they did. From Metropolis, Bludhaven, even as far away as Central City, crews started showing up in droves. They managed to rescue a fair amount of survivors, more than anyone dared to hope, really, but the casualties were staggering. Once the numbers came in of how many were dead and how much money it would take to rebuild, the federal government did the unthinkable: they declared Gotham City a no man's land.
"Residents were given two weeks to vacate the city. Many did, but some people were too injured to be moved or had family members who were and they wouldn't leave them. Others just flat refused. What most people outside of Gotham didn't understand was that Gotham wasn't just a city, it was an entity. It was in the people's blood. Asking some people to leave was like asking them to cut off their own arm for no good reason. They just couldn't do it. I was one of those people.
"At the end of the two weeks, the bridges were destroyed and Gotham was cut off from the rest of the world. Armed troops patrolled the border and any attempt toe leave or enter Gotham was met with deadly force.
"Then the situation became even worse.
"When the earthquake hit, some of the worst criminals ever to breathe were released into the city. Arkham Asylum sat on the fault line and cracked down the middle. Some of the inmates were killed when the quake hit. Others managed to escape afterwards. Those that didn't were release by Dr. Harley Quinzel. If there was ever someone who should have been a patient there, it was her.
"Dr. Quinzel was a borderline schizophrenic before she started work as a psychiatrist at Arkham. She never should have gotten the job to begin with but old man Arkham, who ran the place, wasn't all that choosy when it came to personnel. If someone was willing to work, they were hired.
"After she started, she slowly fell under the spell of, and then in love with, the Joker, the looniest of the loony. He was crazy, without a doubt, but very sly and manipulative when he wanted to be. She eventually became his sidekick and possibly his lover. She called herself Harley Quinn and would do his bidding without a second thought.
"Of the criminals that escaped, many were recaptured quickly by either Batman, Nightwing, who had come over from Bludhaven to help, or me. We placed them in the Blackgate prison in Gotham harbor. Another villain, named Lock-Up, was named warden by Batman. Lock-Up specialized in creating death traps and delighted in making Blackgate into an inescapable fortress. He did his job well. Eventually, Blackgate was destroyed and the prisoners were shipped to a prison called The Vault just outside of Metropolis, but that was much later.
"The villains that remained free the longest managed to grab territory and power and Gotham ended up split into districts. Turf was frequently broke out. Batman held some land under his protection, as did the GCPD, the Gotham City Police Department. My father had stayed behind as had several of his best officers. Slowly, we, the Bat crew, and the GCPD managed to bring more and more of Gotham under more civilized rule. People were beginning to build themselves back into some semblance of a community.
"What we couldn't figure out, and often didn't have time to dwell upon, was where the bad guys were disappearing to. The Riddler, Two-Face, Killer Croc, Mr. Freeze. At one time or another, they all held land but were over thrown. In the meantime, while all of this was going on, the Joker and Harley Quinn were keeping a low profile. We found out later that he had managed to find a previously forgotten series of tunnels and caves near the south side docks. The earthquake had reopened huge caverns and passages not seen since the settling of Gotham. He was hiding there and building an army. As each territory lord was overthrown, he would invite them and their gangs to join him for what he promised to be the biggest killing joke of all.
"They joined him but even they didn't realize at the time how over the edge he had gone. If they'd known what his true plan was, I doubt any of them, even Croc, as dim as he was, would have gone along with it.
"To top it off, we were starting to get complacent. We were thinking with everything that had happened it couldn't get any worse.
"We were wrong."
