The Abyss

Chapter 9: The City

August 26th, Day 4

The city was just like any other city, with stores and giant neon signs leaning off the sides of tall dark gray, bronze and copper colored buildings. Even the people were accounted for; hundreds of silver animatronics clothed in peeling paint. They peered down at us from brightly lit windows, watching as we wandered past. They stood at street corners, along crosswalks, and in intersections conducting traffic. Some stood by carts, vending hotdogs and pretzels to invisible customers. Meanwhile, loud music blasted through open windows and tumbled into the street below, causing the empty city to sound as bustling and busy as New York City. Far away, I heard the chugging and rumbling of monstrous industrial machines which sent columns of filthy black smoke into the sky. Off in the distance, I could hear the whines of emergency vehicles, rushing to the rescue. 

The street we were on was relatively dark, lit only by the neon signs and the occasional streetlamp. The black asphalt transitioned into worn down bricks, which added to the abandoned gloom of the city. The air felt heavy and moist, and the path beneath our feet was darkened by moisture. Thick clouds of steam billowed from vents along the street before dissipating into the air and leaving a faint aroma of soggy filth.

We seemed to be on the main shopping strip. Stores and their according neon signs stretched along the street as far as the eye could see. Bakeries, Chinese restaurants, clothing shops, electronic stores and boutiques in elaborate architectural designs lined the dull gray and brown streets. However, just like the train station, the stores looked old and seemed dark and morbid. A bakery on one side of the street exhibited a decaying pie "freshly baked", while another "coconut cake" was sprinkled not with coconut flakes but what appeared to be human nail clippings. Meanwhile, piled high on a table in another display case was a stack of cookies dripping goop too red and runny to be any kind of jelly, juice, or creme. 

A little farther down the street was an electronic store with extravagant prices and shoddy products. Laptops with crooked screens lined the tables inside and flashed rapidly changing welcome messages with grusome black and white pictures of murders as a background. Phones stood mounted on small round tables, sparking on their charging stations while a collection of headphones with bare copper wires strangled a rat in a noose of cords.

Finally, we turned the corner down an alleyway and found ourselves in a large courtyard, decorated with at least 15 bronze statues. The statues felt like a 3-D snapshot into time, each with a different character acting out a part of their lives. In the corner, beaming proudly, was a statue of the young man wearing a long coat, scarf, and a newsboy cap stood with hands on his hips while a large cheerful dog pranced playfully at his feet. Nearby, a small girl with large aviation goggles on top of her head and pigtails walked a mechanical duckling with large copper gears, a childish smile on her lips. A slender young woman holding a remote control and wearing a short coat and aviation goggles contorted her face in an expression of fascination and excitement as she guided a remote controlled airplane which hung from a short chain on a streetlamp by the entrance of the courtyard, across the sky. Finally, there was a tall, thin old man wearing a suit with long coat tails and a scarf who stood with the help of a cane in the middle of the courtyard. At his feet was an engraving too worn down to read. In fact, all the statues had illegible engravings, almost like a forgotten memorial.

In the back of the courtyard was a massive hotel encrusted in gold. A giant neon sign was attached to a glass window that made up the exterior of the first floor which was three times the height of the surrounding buildings. The sign read "Grand Clockwork Hotel: Home to the Clockwork Ride" in bronze lettering. Below the sign was a sheltered entrance way made of a peaked roof and several support poles all decorated in glistening gold.

We paused before the entranceway and glanced at each other before following Michael and Rachel inside.

When we entered through the revolving glass doors a fancy animatronic doorman wearing a bronze uniform greeted us. "Welcome to the Grand Clockwork Hotel! May I take your bags?" It asked, offering its arms.