2007 -New York

December: Friday... after a lazy morning and a packed breakfast at the River View Diner (delish corned beef with fried onion, potatoes and poached eggs), we climbed into David's jeep and headed upstate. The motive of the journey was twofold: (1) get away from the city and enjoy some open air, (2) allow me to explore some of the locations mapped out in Yellow Dawn.

This picture is of the Western end of the George Washington Bridge. In Yellow Dawn this marks the inner edge of the Dead Zone, and the start of the "infection free zone", guarded by troops in flame-thrower towers, leading into the western gate of the Living City of New York.

2007 -New York

December: in Yellow Dawn, the route leading from the George Washington Bridge would continue to push west, following the I-80 towards Alphano. However, I wanted to see a very special place, further north...that marks a key point within the Northern Corridor of the New York Dead Zone:

Tappan Zee Bridge. In Yellow Dawn you would head out of the north end of Manhattan island, across the Henry Hudson bridge, and join the I-87, finding yourself at the easten end of Tappan Zee after 22 miles of urban Dead Zone. Tappan Zee bridge itself, is 3 miles long, and snakes like a subtle 'S' shape across the Hudson river. In Yellow Dawn, the whole bridge represents a secure settlement, protected from infection, and retro-fitted with houses, bars, shops in a sort of crazy future/medieval carnival town vibe.

This photograph is taking from the Pallisades Interstate Parkway, overlooking the central hump and western end of the Tappan Zee bridge.

2007 -New York

December: another similar shot.

2007 -New York

December: the small settlement of Piermont sits on the western shore of the Hudson river, just down from the Tappan Zee bridge. It suffers from zombie attacks every now and then and a chronic lack of through-traffic, but some people have been able to make basic repairs to the structures there and reoccupy buildings after the first wave killed off most folk.

2007 -New York

December: other structures in piermont have been repaired to a better quality, althought the place still looks abandoned on the best of days. The main traffic comes from the river, with people mooring larger vessels here, and using the road link to get to the sanctuary of Tappan Zee.

2007 -New York

December: this is one of the mooring sections at Piermont. You can see the central hump of the Tappan Zee Bridge, and the steep incline as the bridge drops to almost hug the river; don't forget this is 3 miles across.

2007 -New York

December: Piermont has several unusual stores for survivors... this one shows Jo and Sarah celebration their birthday 40 years from now.

2007 -New York

December: Piermont has a cafe serving "dogs bollix" coffee. I'm not too sure of the symbolism...perhaps the owner was changed by the 1st pathogen and has some Orc in his blood now?

2007 -New York

December: leaving Piermont, heading north along the river edge road, the weather changed abruptly... the wind picked up and freezing blanket of fog and snow drifted in. You can see the far western end of Tappan Zee bridge, the point where it finishes descending from the central elevated hump, down to the river-hugging final stretch.

2007 -New York

December: another shot from the road along the river edge. To get a sense of perspective, look at the small grey/white box shape travelling along the bridge near the left (west) edge... that's a huge articulated trailer...almost dwarfed by the overwhelming size of the bridge strutcure.

2007 -New York

December: final shot of the Tappan Zee Bridge, where the far western tip reconnects with the shore of the Hudson river... the road I'm travelling passes beneath the structure of the bridge, but an off ramp circles round to connect with the area that will become an infection free zone / flamethrower barrier in Yellow Dawn.

2007 -New York

December: coming off the western end of the Tappan Zee bridge, you're faced with another 15 miles of Dead Zone before you pop out into the support zone around the fortress settlement of Suffern.

This picture is taken within the support zone of New York.

2007 -New York

December: with New York being a major Living City and centre of survivors in Yellow Dawn, even the roads in the support zone can see a lot of traffic at times.

2007 -New York

December: one of the settlements in the support zone that have managed to maintain power generation to the general community.

2007 -New York

December: we were now approaching the far northern edge of the New York support zone... a few miles further and the number of surivor settlements would drop off sharply, and the distance between them would increase from an average of 6 miles to an average of 30 or so. We had ascended to a high elevation, and the snow was coming down thick.

2007 -New York

December: after a few moments we realised that the area had fallen under the alien, mysterious and monstrous influence of the Fungi from Yuggoth... they were up on the mountain, minning for the rare mineral that see's them travelling the length and breadth of the universe.

2007 -New York

December: it wasn't safe for us to return by the main road we'd come in by...just in case agents of the Fungi tried to stop us. We took an unused road through the mountains, trying to find our way back south towards Tappan Zee bridge.

2007 -New York

December: back in the Living City of New York we were comforted by the familiar sights of civillisation that had managed to shrug free of the horrors and decay of Yellow Dawn.

2007 -New York - Djr, Oj

December.

2007 -New York - Sean

December: Sean, with his delightful Irish accent and quirky sense of humour.

2007 -New York - Sarah, David, Oj

December: back in Ramona's apartment, drinking, eating and laughing. It was fabulous to be able t spend so much time with Ramona and her brother David again.

2007 -New York - Jessica

December.

2007 -New York

December: Saturday. It was our final day. We were catching flights from JFK that night. We all grabbed another delish breakfast in the River View diner (better coffee this time!) and then I cut loose and jumped on a gypsy van, through the Lincoln Tunnel to outside Port Authority. I walked, drank coffee, wrote, and walked and walked.

2007 -New York

December: another new arrival in the big apple.

2007 -New York

December: Bryant park had turned itself into an ice rink, with a plethora of cute stalls selling all sorts...including hot apple cider (with cinnamon stick) and belgian waffles (mmmmMMM).

2007 -New York

December: a strange man doing strange things in public, on the steps of New York City Library... more than a free-floating full torso apparition.

2007 -New York

December.

2007 -New York

December: random moment; there were about 100 of them in total.

2007 -New York

December: the sun started setting and I made my way back from downtown to mid-town to meet the girls back at Bryant Park for one final rendezvous.

2007 -New York

December.

2007 -New York

December.

2007 -New York - Jessica, Sarah, Oj, Ramona (in ghost form)

December: you got to love those Belgian Waffles. Just divine.

2007 -New York - Oj, Jessica, Ramona, Sarah.

December: taken under the Christmas Tree in Bryant Park. This was our final hour together; we headed over to Ramona's office, were our bags were being kept safe, sat in a low-lit kitchen area drinking really nice coffee, reflecting on and discussing the week gone by, and then Jo, Sarah and I climbed onto a bus outside Grand Central Station and Ramona and Jessica stood and waved us off.

Fantastic trip.

2007 - Bristol - Cosy Castle

December: Sunday... the journey was almost 12 hours door to door, not dissimilar to the length of time it used to take me to get from Bristol to Newcastle by National Express Coaches in the 1990's. And yet we had travelled between two worlds. The week before we went to New York, Jo and I had a cast-iron wood burning stove installed in the lounge; the old 1950's fireplace ripped out. We had not been able to light a full fire for the first few days... to allow the thing to settle in and seal itself. So, walking in after being dropped off by the taxi, I got busy making a roaring fire.

Memory note: Jo creaking about upstairs and me lying on the floor below grinning. Anticipation. Christmas pressy from last year. Fantastic.