Trapped in New York

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Trapped in New York ( English original title: City of Darkness ) is a dystopian novel by the American writer and journalist Ben Bova . The book was published in the USA in 1976 and in German in 1978.

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Trapped in New York tells the fictional story of the teenage Ron Morgan , who escapes from his father in the evacuated city of New York, which is only open during the summer holidays, and is trapped there. This is due to Sylvia , a girl who claims to always live in New York. The two get to know each other in a cinema and Sylvia takes care of a room for Ron. On the way to the hotel, she is threatened by a boy named Dino . Ron feels responsible for her and starts a fight with Dino, from which he emerges as the winner. Sylvia accompanies him to his room and is asked to stay with him for the night because Ron fears that Dino is ambushing her.

When Ron wakes up, it's 2 a.m. and Sylvia has disappeared without a trace. Worried that Dino might lie in wait for her, he wants to go looking for her to protect her. When he leaves the hotel, Dino and his people wait for him in front of the hotel and beat him up. Ron collapses in pain and wakes up in the morning with bruises and relieved of his ID and $ 2,000 leaning against a wall. With pain he dragged himself to his hotel, but collapsed in the entrance hall. When he comes to, he tries to get a key to his room, but because he only paid for one night, his room has already been vacated. Ron collapses again. When he wakes up again, he is in a run-down room, next to him Davy , a malnourished child who is singing a song. When Davy realizes that Ron is awake, he runs out of the room and fetches Sylvia. She explains to him that she was worried about Ron and had gone back to the hotel. When she saw him lying on the floor, she worried that Ron might die or be locked up in New York prison by the so-called blues (police officers). Suddenly a boy called Al comes into the room. Al introduces himself to Ron as a New York gang leader. He tells him that he would come from New York without ID and that Sylvia, not Dino, stole his money. Ron is suspicious, but makes his way to the gates of New York City.

Shortly before the gates of the city, he is caught by Sylvia, who makes it clear to him that he cannot leave the city without ID because otherwise he would end up in prison. He confronts her about the stolen money and learns from her that this is the only way for the gangs to get money. Ron doesn't want to spend a full year in New York under any circumstances, so he's determined to fight Dino and get the ID back that way. So the two of them make their way to the house where Ron woke up and he is already making plans about what he will do when he's out of New York and how he will smuggle Silvia and Davy out with him. When they arrive at the house, they find an abandoned apartment, Davy is not there. Sylvia offers Ron a drink from a juice bottle because of the heat while she goes in search of Davy. Ron takes a sip and then passes out due to the fact that there is an anesthetic in the bottle.

The next morning, Ron wakes up to find with horror that the gates of New York are closed and will not reopen until next year. Sylvia suggests that Ron stay in the apartment during the day and talk to Al in the evening so as not to run into gang member Dino. Ron grudgingly agrees because he's hopelessly overwhelmed with the situation. During the day, Ron makes himself useful and fixes both the air conditioning and the refrigerator in the small room. In the evening Al comes home and is anything but happy that Ron is still in his turf. However, when Sylvia tells him that Ron can repair machines, Al becomes curious and sets Ron a task: The old generator from the basement has to be started again. If Ron can do that, he'll be allowed to stay, if he fails, he'll have to see for himself how he gets by. The next day, Al and his gang, officially called the Gramercy Association , raid a Chelsea gang warehouse and look for the parts they need to repair it. This leads to an exchange of fire between the boys of the other gang and Al's people, whereby a member of Al's gang has to die.

Because he can repair the generator, Ron is accepted into Al's gang and used as a mechanic. From now on, his main areas of responsibility are repairing machines and pistols. At the time, Al is in a meeting with the other gang leaders at the Empire State Building to negotiate a ceasefire because the raids have gotten worse and too many people have died. When Al comes back three days later, he reports to his group that the gang leaders have negotiated a ceasefire with each other and are trying to join forces because they face a new threat: the black Muslim gang . Al comes up with the idea of ​​taking money from the other gangs if he makes Ron and his services available to everyone. This idea turns out to be good and is gladly used by the other groups, which Al sees as an opportunity to get the group new tools on the black market. Conflicts begin within the group, among other things about Ron and his expenses on the black market. However, Al is not very impressed by this opinion and rejects the demand that the black market deals be canceled directly.

After several months, Ron is approached by a dealer on the black market who introduces himself to him as Dewey . In the middle of the first conversation between Dewey and Ron, they hear an engine noise. Dewey unlocks his front door for Ron and lets him go inside to hide because only the Muslims and Als gang have cars and the gang wouldn't drive Al to the black market. In consultation with Ron, Dewey decides to let him stay with him until the Muslims have left the black market.

In the days that Ron stays with the old man, he learns a lot about the government's methods and the New York closure. Dewey notices that Ron is very talented and gives him the opportunity to start working with him as a partner.

When Ron is on his way home after the siege of the black market by the Muslims, he sees smoke rising from the Gramercy district and realizes that the Muslims met one of the white gangs on their way. When he arrives at Als Gang's headquarters, he only meets Sylvia at first, who tells him what happened. She also tells him that the boys are meeting on the roof for a group meeting. Ron heads straight for this briefing, which is currently being discussed as to whether the Gramercy Association is launching an attack on the Muslims or not. When Ron disturbs the gathering, everyone except Dino is happy that Ron is still alive because they all assumed he was killed in the shootout or on the black market. Dino, who fell on Al's ears with his suggestion to attack the Muslims, leaves the meeting exasperated when Ron shows up. Ron approaches Al with a request to leave the gang to become Dewey's business partner. He is currently rejecting it because, he says, times are uncertain and he is needed more here than on the black market. As Al and Ron go back into the house, they hear a pained scream coming from Davy. Sylvia and Davy were beaten and badly injured by Dino, who was furious and decided to leave the gang.

A week later, Al allows him to go to the black market again with two armed warriors to buy tools and spare parts. Here he is chatting with Dewey and assuring him that he wants to start with him in the near future.

It's getting to be winter under the New York Dome. The other gangs have hardly any money left to be able to afford the repairs at Ron, because the money is needed for food. Due to this food and money shortage, the gangs no longer want to keep the ceasefire and start attacking each other again to get money and food, as well as weapons.

One night the Chelsea gang carried out a surprise attack on the headquarters of the Gramercy Association. Ron, Sylvia and Davy flee from the window of Sylvia's living area shortly before a Chelsea gang warrior boy storms the room. When they get to the ground, they run to the nearest cellar to find shelter there. The next morning, Sylvia and Ron see Dino and a boy from the Chelsea Gang approach one of the bodies lying on the floor. When Ron takes a closer look, he recognizes the dead: it's Al. When Ron tells Sylvia of this fact, she begins to burst into tears and tells Ron that Davy is her son and Al was the father. That came as a surprise to Ron ...

The next day Ron notices that the basement is not as unoccupied as it first seemed and they decide to move to the upper floors. Davy had been a little weak and sickly before the Chelsea warriors attacked, but in the old basement things got so bad that Ron decided to ask Dewey for medication. Sylvia is initially against this decision, but lets him go to help Davy. He willingly gave Ron the requested medication and Ron is on his way home. When he gets back to the building where Sylvia and Davy are supposed to be hiding, he doesn't find them. On the first floor, Dino and his friends from the Chelsea Gang are waiting for Ron, who tell him that Davy is dead, knock him out and take him away.

Ron wakes up in a completely darkened room with no windows or the like and is reproaching but also thinking about his future. Suddenly he hears footsteps and then an exchange of blows between one of the guards and a stranger. The guard goes down, the stranger unlocks the cell and urges Ron to hurry, as there is little time left. The two walk many blocks until they come to a car in which a black driver is sitting and is already waiting for Ron. Ron gets in and is driven past Central Park by the unwilling driver and stopped in front of a former church. Ron enters the church and is greeted by Timmy Jim , the leader of the Muslims. It is made clear to him that from now on he should work for the Muslims and teach the children to repair. As the season goes by, Timmy Jim invites Ron over to his office and tells him about his plan to raid the settlements one by one.

One day, while Ron is teaching the children, a warrior asks Ron to come outside. Sylvia is waiting there, who tells him that Dino is dead and that she has received Ron's identity card, which she gives him directly.

In the next few weeks, Ron is in the process of developing an escape plan to get out of New York as quickly as possible because the city gates will open again shortly. When the time comes, Ron sets out in a night-and-fog action and escapes from the Muslim district, into the life of the city, where he first gets new clothes and then rents a room to take another shower . As he is making his way to the door of the hotel, Timmy Jim and two armed warriors come into the room and Timmy Jim confronts Ron that he is not allowed to go. But Ron has nothing more to lose: he gives Timmy Jim the choice of either letting him go or killing him, claiming that he paid his debt by training young Muslims. Tim asks him if he wants to warn the people outside and tells him it is useless. However, Ron wants to open people's eyes to the misery in which people live in the city and leaves the city.

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