Evacuation work was going on as cars crowded onto the bridges leading out of the city. Warnings were issued of unstable ground, that residual quakes might follow the initial event. The mayor in a bid to save himself from potential harm, was one of the first to leave.
Miller hadn't managed to stop the blimp from getting away, but as a surprise concession, he found an unconscious Bullock behind several crates in the hangar. Upon waking, Bullock didn't recall how he'd got there, all he remembered was meeting Hugo Strange together with a couple of Talons.
Due to the effect of the quake, part of the not-yet-opened Iceberg Lounge caved in. The rubble had cracked the huge centerpiece that held a frozen Edward Nygma. Penguin had returned with Zsasz to find him gone - how devastated was Oswald, perhaps more for the loss of his nemesis, than the partial destruction of his club.
Tabitha Galavan had barely escaped falling rubble, but it wasn't her that she now worried about. She had sent Selina Kyle to get the sample of Venom, and Selina had not returned. She was still out there, possibly harmed by the quake, possibly unable to return. Tabitha set out to look for her.
The swat team had entered the broadcasting station after the event of the quake. The effects of the quake had been less severe in the main city than in the more northern part, especially in the vicinity of the Narrows. Apart from some structural cracks and crumbling ceiling, the broadcasting station, together with other the buildings nearby stayed mostly intact. Jerome Valeska however, had already made his escape by the time of their entry. All they found was his female accomplice, hit on the head by rubble and sent to a vastly shorthanded Gotham General for recovery.
About half of the patients at Gotham General had been sent out into the great exodus of vehicles departing Gotham City. The only ones that were left behind were the immobile patients - among them, Barbara Kean lay on her bed, paralyzed from the waist down by the bullet left behind by Zsasz. She'd been scheduled for surgery, but with all that had occurred, her appointment would be indefinitely delayed.
Waylon Jones and Lucius Fox had parted ways shortly after crashing Lucius' Ford into the old radio tower. From there, Lucius made a long trek through perilous territory where the enhanced effect of the quake had been most severe. Almost the whole of the Narrows was covered in rubble. On his trek back to the main city, he found a group of beleaguered survivors who decided to follow him to where they might get help.
Gordon and the rest of the police force made themselves busy with rescue efforts. Thankfully the G.C.P.D continued to stand strong through it all, and none of the cops had been hurt by the quake. Hearing from Miller and Bullock was a great relief, and even more when Harper and Bill returned with several men and women in their custody. It was strongly suspect that those men and women were part of the elusive society named the Court of Owls, also believed to be partially responsible for the state that Gotham now found itself in. They would be made to answer for their crimes in court.
Jervis Tetch never got that hatch opened. He waited till the quake had calmed before escaping. The snarls from the basement had quietened down even before the quake had ended. Tetch never got to find out who exactly was down there, but he was fairly certain that they'd all be dead in there.
As for the blimp, it remained in the air for a while. The insanity gas that Jerome Valeska had warned of was never discharged. Instead, they found an unconscious Johnathan Crane on the rooftop of the G.C.P.D, a long severed cable attached to his waist - almost like he'd been lowered down from the sky. A box of gaseous canisters lay beside him, a note attached that read "Do not open."
Close to dawn, the blimp came down. It settled on the outskirts of the city and was found empty, apart from a single black ski mask. Miller had sworn that Crane had escaped into the sky on that blimp, but he couldn't explain how Crane had ended up on the rooftop of the G.C.P.D, or how the blimp had landed itself. Perhaps there was a second party on that blimp, one that belonged to that ski mask. One that had long departed the blimp.
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