Quotes / Ghost Town

"When the Mechanika Virus broke out, some people were addicted to the transient bliss brought about by the disease whereas some built shelters across the continent to hunker down. As the virus progressed, the shelters were reduced in size and some even went off the radar. Before the world restored order, the shelters were thought to be no man's land. It was therefore shocking when a few survivors began to emerge from the shelters. They testified that the shelters had long become hotbeds of dangers and unknowns. Perhaps for now, humanity had best move on from what happened there, but there are daredevils eager to venture into the unknown."

— ANNO: Mutationem's Lore Codex on Freeway 42

"Albia is the sort of post-Rockwellian rural mess that 30 years of Reagan and post-Reaganism (with its accompanying agrarian fantasies in what is a stellar feat of cruel irony) has created. That these rural tombs are the sick legacy of 30 years of a rapidly expanding income gap and the massive consolidation of wealth into the hands of the richest 1% of Americans. The problem of Albia can be summed up with one simple fact — in 2000, in the entire town, there were only 82 children living there. Replacement rate? Forget it. This is a city that exists for no reason other than its failure to fully collapse."
—Elizabeth Sandifer

"Since the age of two, it's pretty much been a downward progression for Jacksonville. Unlike their expansion siblings in Carolina, which has the requisite Super Bowl appearance and suitbully owner to qualify as a legitimate NFL franchise, the Jaguars don't really feel like they belong here. They feel like an af2 team that got promoted to the NFL by accident. They are the old storefront in your neighborhood that is BEGGING to be torn down. You drive by it and you're like, 'When are they gonna tear that place down and put in a Chick-fil-A'? You know it's a matter of time, but the permits haven't been approved yet."
—Drew Magary, "Why Your Team Sucks 2014: Jacksonville Jaguars"

"This town, is coming like a ghost town
All the clubs have been closed down
This place, is coming like a ghost town
Bands won't play no more
Too much fighting on the dance floor."

— The Specials, "Ghost Town"

"Small towns are like people, some get old and die, some get murdered."

— Mike Pearson, Phantasm II

You wander through the empty, winding streets. Zeeweed hangs from windowsills. Thatches are sodden. Drenched bunting hangs, limply, from the eaves. You check house after house, and don't find a soul. The carpets squelch underfoot, oozing zeewater. The curtains drip. No valuables have been left behind - no jewellery, no heirlooms. But there is still cutlery in the drawers; plates and bowls stacked in the damp-stinking cupboards. Something rattles in a coal scuttle. You tip it over, and a crab crawls out. It peers around, clearly lost.

—Mutton Island "After The Festival", Sunless Sea

The village of Toldstadt is no longer there. Oh, the buildings, cottages, even the town will remain, but the folk that once walked the central avenue are gone. Their doors hang open, their suppers sit rotting upon mouldering trenchers, half-eaten, as if they had been interrupted by important guests even as they dined.”

—Dolwen Featherbright, Elf Scout, Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay: Children Of The Horned Rat - A Guide To Skaven

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