Monday, June 22, 2009
When Sharks Fly: Year Two
The air was so clear, they could see the distant schools of hammerheads near the horizon. The walk to work was pleasant, with no incidents. Some tiger sharks breached the cage last week near downtown, but folks made it to the emergency cages in plenty of time. The Mayor had already made a tv spot with the footage, touting his emergency cage initiative, justifying the higher taxes. Some things, it seemed, would never change.
San Jose, just south of San Francisco, attempted to erect a safety cage over 25 miles of freeway. Their community, designed for driving, was just too spread out for people to expect to walk everywhere. But soon after the grand opening, disaster. The cars, the sudden mass of noise and exhaust and movement, attracted the sharks from everywhere. Thousands and thousands of them, so many that the sky went dark. They converged on the roads, ripping and tearing at the cages with a ferocity not seen since they first took to the air. The feeding frenzy took many lives. The people responsible found themselves locked inside cages of their own.
All plans for resurrecting mass transit were abandoned.
larger one here.
Earlier "chapters": One, Two, and Three.
