Flashfic: From The Depths
Mar. 21st, 2011 02:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ek_johnstonIn the interest of actually posting something here, I requested prompts this morning, and hope to do a couple (hugely unedited) Flashfic posts this week.
This prompt comes care of Lanna, who suggested A group of survivors recounting to the military what the hell happened when the Very Large Monster rose out of the lake and began to stomp all over downtown Toronto. Mostly I made jokes about the Jays.
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From The Depths
They mobilize the military in Toronto once every couple of years. It’s always in the winter when it happens, and always because of snow. It’s not that Torontonians are surprised to get snow in winter in Canada…it’s just that they very quickly run out of places to put it.
So it’s not completely untoward to see the army on the streets.
Except this time it’s the middle of summer. The waterfront was crowded when it happened, thanks to all the money the city government had been spending on making it attractive to tourists, so there were plenty of witnesses. There was a Jays game too, which didn’t increase the number of spectators by a lot, but still added to it.
Early reports varied. First, there was a strange humming sound that everyone assumed was an airplane, except it kept getting louder and nothing appeared in the sky overhead. Then the lake began to heave, pulling kayaks and yachts towards Burlington, and smashing into the breakwaters up and down Lakeshore Drive.
The first tentacle appeared in the Beaches, shooting out of the water and planting itself in the sand amidst all the sunbathers. The second one wrapped around the Ex Place wind turbine as though readying to pull something large from beneath the surface of the lake. The third bisected the pitcher’s mound at the Sky Dome, but due to the scarcity of reporting witnesses, its place in the order is not completely confirmable. The fourth tentacle emerged from the water by the Yacht Club. After that, it got a bit murky.
It took the army a few hours to get on scene, and by the time they had been fully deployed, the damage was done. All up and down the shoreline, boats were capsized and the rocks from the breakwaters had been strewn across what remained of the beaches. The Ex was a smoking ruin, as were all the highrise apartments with lake views. Fort York survived, though the Union Jack was a mite scorched. The same could not be said of the Go Stations and Lakeshore Drive itself.
Reports began to trickle in from across the city, funneled through the hastily set up military checkpoints, until some measure of a clear picture was assembled. It wasn’t much to work with, large monster attacks Toronto, seems to like the CN Tower enough to have left it unscathed, but it was a start.
Further up from the lake, the damage from the creature is less. Instead, the streets are covered with the debris left by fleeing citizens, though even this lessens north of Dundas. The general feeling was one of confusion. What was that thing? Why did it come out of the water today? Why didn’t we know it was in the water before? Does this mean we should just give up on the whole “revitalize the waterfront” thing? Answers were not immediately forthcoming. Instead, the people took stock, salvaging what they could from the disaster area.
And in the wreckage there stands a soldier wondering if, perhaps, he should have brought a shovel.
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Notes: Not really my thing, I think. No more crazy disaster stories for me. Well, none that don't involve a dragon anyway.
Tomorrow: Dragons!
This prompt comes care of Lanna, who suggested A group of survivors recounting to the military what the hell happened when the Very Large Monster rose out of the lake and began to stomp all over downtown Toronto. Mostly I made jokes about the Jays.
From The Depths
They mobilize the military in Toronto once every couple of years. It’s always in the winter when it happens, and always because of snow. It’s not that Torontonians are surprised to get snow in winter in Canada…it’s just that they very quickly run out of places to put it.
So it’s not completely untoward to see the army on the streets.
Except this time it’s the middle of summer. The waterfront was crowded when it happened, thanks to all the money the city government had been spending on making it attractive to tourists, so there were plenty of witnesses. There was a Jays game too, which didn’t increase the number of spectators by a lot, but still added to it.
Early reports varied. First, there was a strange humming sound that everyone assumed was an airplane, except it kept getting louder and nothing appeared in the sky overhead. Then the lake began to heave, pulling kayaks and yachts towards Burlington, and smashing into the breakwaters up and down Lakeshore Drive.
The first tentacle appeared in the Beaches, shooting out of the water and planting itself in the sand amidst all the sunbathers. The second one wrapped around the Ex Place wind turbine as though readying to pull something large from beneath the surface of the lake. The third bisected the pitcher’s mound at the Sky Dome, but due to the scarcity of reporting witnesses, its place in the order is not completely confirmable. The fourth tentacle emerged from the water by the Yacht Club. After that, it got a bit murky.
It took the army a few hours to get on scene, and by the time they had been fully deployed, the damage was done. All up and down the shoreline, boats were capsized and the rocks from the breakwaters had been strewn across what remained of the beaches. The Ex was a smoking ruin, as were all the highrise apartments with lake views. Fort York survived, though the Union Jack was a mite scorched. The same could not be said of the Go Stations and Lakeshore Drive itself.
Reports began to trickle in from across the city, funneled through the hastily set up military checkpoints, until some measure of a clear picture was assembled. It wasn’t much to work with, large monster attacks Toronto, seems to like the CN Tower enough to have left it unscathed, but it was a start.
Further up from the lake, the damage from the creature is less. Instead, the streets are covered with the debris left by fleeing citizens, though even this lessens north of Dundas. The general feeling was one of confusion. What was that thing? Why did it come out of the water today? Why didn’t we know it was in the water before? Does this mean we should just give up on the whole “revitalize the waterfront” thing? Answers were not immediately forthcoming. Instead, the people took stock, salvaging what they could from the disaster area.
And in the wreckage there stands a soldier wondering if, perhaps, he should have brought a shovel.
+++
Notes: Not really my thing, I think. No more crazy disaster stories for me. Well, none that don't involve a dragon anyway.
Tomorrow: Dragons!
no subject
Date: 2011-03-22 12:38 am (UTC)And it wasn't us. It was Mayor Mel and he was an all-around nightmare.
Torontonians are perfectly capable of taking care of our snow. Mel is from North York.
*a-chem*
Apart from that, I think I may love this very much. Yes. Tentacles. From Lake Ontario - we said this would happen when Mike Harris cut all the funds to the MOE. :)
no subject
Date: 2011-03-22 12:44 am (UTC)Glad you liked!
no subject
Date: 2011-03-24 12:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-24 12:55 pm (UTC)