“Well, we’re here,” said Chester A. Arthur XVII, pulling off what passed for the interstate and onto the New Jersey Turnpike.
“Where’s here?” asked Queen Victoria XXX. “All I see is swamp.”
“Yeah. Welcome to the Meadowlands.”
“This is the famed Meadowlands? The gateway to one of the last bastions of civilization left on this earth?”
“Yep.”
“It smells like ass.”
It did smell like ass. The Meadowlands was, and had always been, swampland reinforced with landfill and littered with dead mobsters and industrial run-off. But one could spit on it from New York City, and therefore it was valuable and convenient real estate.
“Where the hell’s the civilization?” asked William H. Taft XLII.
At least, it was, prior to the sinking of Manhattan. Now it was just there. And, much like a cockroach, the Meadowlands had proved nearly impossible to destroy.
“It’s that hazy cluster of buildings off in the distance.”
Chester A. Arthur XVII sped the car down the open expanse of highway before them, the hazy cluster of buildings off in the distance soon becoming the hazy cluster of buildings right over there.
“According to the sign,” said the dead president, cruising down the exit ramp, “there should be multiple hotels in this general area. Keep an eye out.”
“Or you could just go straight into that shopping plaza,” said William H. Taft XLII, pointing to a directory at the end of the ramp denoting “Hotels” and pointing toward a driveway.
“Or we could just go straight into that shopping plaza.”
Chester A. Arthur XVII steered the car along the curved plaza entrance.
“Of course. No thanks, no credit, for my keen and amazing eyesight,” replied William H. Taft XLII, slumping back into his seat. “I should’ve just let you keep driving around.”
“Yes,” replied Chester A. Arthur XVII, “you really should have.”
The car rolled to a stop along the crest of a small overpass leading into the plaza. Situated throughout the shopping center were a half dozen burning buildings. The trio of world leaders looked out across the smoky expanse, trying to make sense of the scene before them.
“Well, just drive through anyway,” said William H. Taft XLII, taking in the scene. “I mean, what’s the worst that could happen.”
“God damn it, Billy,” said Queen Victoria XXX.