A Hazy Shade of Winter

[Dracos]

"If it's shiny it's not to be touched.  If it's black, it is."

Dracos

[Rezantis]

"But, what if I polish the black and MAKE it shiny?"

[Brian]

After the two of you climb into the car, where Ginrai is (im)patiently waiting, you begin the long drive towards San Francisco.

It's shortly after noon when you reach the city of San Jose, which is actually a pretty sizable city, if much diminished after the Silicon Valley bomb.  Your route is forced to detour around the center of the valley, as Moffet Field was right next to highway 101, and the area is still very much 'off limits'.

After a detour from 101 to the Guadelupe parkway in San Jose, you take 237 to Menlo Park, and get back on 101 West, less than a hundred miles between you and the sea ... and, of course, San Francisco.

You arrive at the edge of the city at almost exactly 1:37 PM.  Coming through the San Andreas foothills, you have an excelent view of the surrounding area.  The low passes are roofed with massive volumes of cloud, but they clear as you crest the rise, allowing you to see the remnants of San Francisco.

Much of the city is gone, as opposed to the photographs you've seen.  Whole acres of housing developments have been completely buldozed and cleared away, and many of the 'celebrities' of the San Francisco skyline are missing, too.  You see a number large buildings still standing, some with visible cracks in them.

Whatever was in the valley imediately below you has been cleared out to make room for a rubble-processing facility, and a seemingly endless line of trucks hauls cement blocks and litter from the city to be filtered into a base for more cement.

The road is slushy, the afternoon having melted the snow in the area.

After rolling down the windows, you find it chilly, but the scent of the sea somehow carries across the length of the city.  It's cold, it's dusty, and there's ... something ... you can't quite place in that scent that doesn't seem quite, but it's the sea anyway.  Behind everything, vast and boundless, lies the Pacific Ocean, and to the north, you can barely make out the towers of the Golden Gate bridge.

[Brian]

A Hazy Shade of Winter comes to an end.  We now continue to: Hey!  Teacher!  Leave Those Kids Alone!