Chapter 10

By now, it was 4:11 pm; with sunset at 7:21, there was about 3½ hours left to explore for the day. At about 45 minutes per location, they could get 4, possibly 5 more locations in for the day. Billy’s camera battery was at 46%; it would definitely need a charge tonight.

The next place on the agenda was the hospital. It was close, next door to the school. Melissa drove the van a few hundred feet, parking in front of the hospital.

The hospital was massive – and massively decayed. An entire section of the 10-story hospital, five stories high and nearly half of the floors’ area, had collapsed into the remainder of the building. A cross-section of the hospital from the 6^th to 10^th floors was visible from the ground. The parking lot was overgrown, with hundreds of cars filling about half of the parking spaces. Other than the totally collapsed gas station, it was the worst-condition building they’d explored yet. The entire building looked like it had been bombed.

Billy saw a relatively modern, Helvetica-like font on a sign on the 8^th floor that said, “Birth Ward”. “If I’m not mistaken, this building was renovated some time in the ‘70s and now it looks like this. Unbelievable.” said Billy.

“1977.” said Melissa.

“Must have been poorly maintained.” said Billy.

“It was. I had a summer job in one of the hospital cafeterias in 1982, they were already building the replacement to this building. Even in ’82, the building was already having structural problems. They built the first five floors of the building around 1951, then they added the top five floors in the early ‘60s. They tried to fix it in ’77, but it didn’t work. As an aside, I was born in this building, room 827… looks like it’s not there anymore.” said Melissa.

“Wow, seeing the place where you were born become thin air… I can’t imagine.” said Billy.

“I was born in that building too, room 810. I think it was toward the back of the building, might still be there. My mom said there were cracks in the walls when I was born in 1981.” said David.

“Is this the hospital where they shot people up with Thorazine?” asked Dirk.

“Not when I worked there. They might have like in the ’60s, but by ’82 that was all at the hospital up on the hill, and they had some pretty serious restrictions around that stuff. Anyway, they closed this hospital in 1985, just two years before the volcano. I went back in 1996, and there was already a hole on the 10^th floor. They had converted some of the lower floors to apartments, but of course everything was long abandoned by 1996. They actually condemned the upper floors right before the volcano and were going to demolish them, I want to say, within a few weeks of when the volcano hit. Evidently, Mother Nature is well in the process of that now. Does anyone feel comfortable going in?” asked Melissa.

“I’m not going anywhere near that building.” said Megan.

“I think I’ll stay out here too. A building that’s literally missing a big chunk is where I draw the line. But if anyone does go in, and it’s safe to go up there, try to film room 810 for me.” said David.

“Sissies. It’s a ******* concrete building, it’s going to be fine.” said Dirk.

“I’ll admit it looks sketchy, but I want to go in, at least as far as I safely can.” said Billy.

“All right, let’s head in. I’m going to ask that you all follow me.” said Melissa.

“Ok, Mom.” said Dirk, sarcastically.

While Billy followed Melissa, Dirk took his own path leading up to the hospital, nearly cutting his ankle on a bramble in the process. The explorers entered the hospital lobby, which was probably in better shape than most of the building. Still, it was in awful condition; the tile floor was crumbling, exposing the bare concrete underneath, and the interior walls were cracked and buckling, evidence of severe water damage. Wood planks and tile-ceiling mush scattered the floors, where the ceiling had entirely vanished and most of the wall paneling had come off. There were even a couple of exposed fluorescent light tubes on the floor. This floor was somehow still stable. Since the hospital had closed before the volcano, it had been emptied out, for the most part.

Little signs of the hospital’s former use remained. A chair from the lobby here, a December 1983 Reader’s Digest there. A directory marquee listed what was on each floor, though many of the letters had fallen off. A few things could still be discerned: acute care on the 1^st floor, cafeteria on the 5^th floor, oncology on the 6^th floor, birth ward on the 8^th floor. Since there were 10 floors, the explorers agreed to let Melissa take them to the most interesting areas of the building, given the limited time.

Melissa immediately started walking toward the nearest stairwell, Dirk and Billy following. As they walked down a hallway, Melissa saw a pile of debris in a room to their right – walls, flooring, and objects from the floors above. The battered remains of a mid-1980s, 19” RCA Colortrak TV sat on top of the pile, underneath the hole that was about 5 feet in diameter. The explorers all went into the room.

Billy and Melissa peered up and found that the floors on the 2^nd, 3^rd, and 4^th floors had all collapsed in the same area; the underside of the 5^th floor looked buckled and weak but was still there.

Further down the hall, the conditions improved slightly, with about 20 percent of the ceiling remaining and most of the tiles of the floor still being there.

“The back half of the building’s always been in better shape than the front half. I’m not sure why.” said Melissa.

The explorers climbed the stairs and went to the 2^nd floor, passing an elevator bank. “I wish we could take the elevators.” said Billy.

On Floor 2, the explorers encountered a room that had “Apartment 7” painted on a wall. The back half of the second floor, where they were, was in about the same condition as the lobby. Melissa walked into the apartment, which seemed to just be four rooms jerry-rigged together into an apartment of about 1,000 square feet. Dirk and Billy followed.

The first room was the living room. At the front of the room was a 27” RCA Colortrak TV, basically a larger version of the one they’d seen on the first floor. The ceiling sagged in a few spots, and the floor sagged underneath a coffee table that still had a large book on it titled “Birds: A Spotter’s Guide”.

Billy took a close look at the Garfield poster on the wall.

“Hey, this has a copyright date of 1989. I thought everyone left Izzy in March of 1987.” said Billy.

“Yeah, I did too, I remember hearing on the news that the town was totally deserted by the afternoon after the volcano hit. I guess, maybe some people moved back after the fact. When I explored this hospital in 1996, no one was here, so whatever would have been established here after the volcano would have been short lived.” said Melissa.

“Do you think people were still living here on April 18, 1990?” asked Dirk.

“How about December 24, 1995?” asked Billy.

“1990, hard to say but probably. ’95, I’d say everyone was gone by then. Based on what I’ve seen, I’d guess they moved out in the early ‘90s.” said Melissa.

“What kind of person lives in a volcano ravaged city?” asked Dirk.

“Your guess is as good as mine. Probably people who wanted a rough, bohemian lifestyle.” said Melissa.

In the second room, there were several folding card tables arranged like a countertop, a fridge, and an oven. A folding divider, about 7 feet tall, separated off a toilet, shower, and sink. The bathroom and kitchen both looked like DIY jobs, not professional. Room 3 had a bedroom, again with a DIY bedframe and a mattress.

“This was some kind of squat, or commune, or something.” said Billy.

“I remember hearing it was some kind of commune. There should be a store in one of these rooms.” said Melissa.

The explorers finished with the apartment and went to the 4^th floor. Dirk and Billy wanted to see the front half of the building, so Melissa carefully led them down a corridor. Halfway down the corridor, the floor dropped two inches and there were massive cracks in the wall – the line between the stable rear half of the floor and unstable front half. Debris – drywall, plaster, ceiling tiles, and the like – covered the floor throughout, but the amount of debris was at least twice as thick in the front half of the building. Walls buckled and tilted at odd angles, threatening to fall at any moment.

In a room to the side, the explorers saw the hole they’d seen from the first floor, in the center of the living room of Apartment 27. Two easy chairs tilted precariously toward the hole, and a computer sat on a dilapidated desk. One of the desk’s legs was over the hole, meaning the desk was being supported by 3 of its legs, and the chair that had been at the desk had vanished into the hole. Melissa walked toward the room, but backed off as she entered; she’d put her left foot on the floor at the entrance to the room, several feet from the hole, but since the floor was very soft, she hadn’t put her full weight on it. The explorers continued down the hall slowly, following Melissa’s every step.

They saw the front wall of the hospital itself, but a large pile of debris from another multi-level floor collapse above blocked their path about 10 feet short of the front wall. The explorers turned left onto another hallway, sidestepping another hole in the floor. Soon, they saw that the floor ahead of them was gone.

There was a vast chasm, perhaps 40 feet deep and 30 feet wide, that had formed where a large section of the 4^th and 5^th floors had collapsed, and debris had piled up on the 3^rd floor. Since the outside wall was still in place, this collapse hadn’t been visible from the outside, unlike the collapse above it. Getting as close as he safely could, Billy could see that the debris pile was at least 10 feet high and putting immense weight on the 3^rd floor. Above the pile, the sky was clearly visible.

“7 stories of rubble in that one pile.” said Billy. Melissa and Dirk stood in awe as Billy filmed, looking for details in the rubble. A capitalized red “T”, A”, and “L”, each about 8 feet tall, sat on top of the rubble, the remnants of the hospital sign. Amid the chunks of concrete and drywall, more artifacts emerged. Billy found a half-buried packet of beef jerky, a corner of a mattress, and two mangled hospital beds in the pile with his zoom lens.

“There’s a wall that says Oncology.” said Melissa, pointing toward the right. Billy filmed the word.

“Oh my gosh!” said Billy.

“What?” said Melissa and Dirk, simultaneously.

“What room were you born in?” asked Billy.

“827.” said Melissa.

“Up about 15 feet and to the right. There’s a sign that says 827.” said Billy. It took Melissa a few seconds, but she found the sign.

“I guess that confirms it.” said Melissa.

“I don’t know how I’d feel seeing the crumbled remains of my birth room. You’re taking this better than I would.” said Billy.

“Eh, it’s just a room, it did its job all those years ago.” said Melissa.

“Wow.” said Dirk.

Melissa took in the pile of debris for another minute, then led the explorers back toward the stairwell. They proceeded to the 5^th floor.

 On the 5^th floor, the conditions even in the back half of the building were starting to deteriorate over the lower floors, with some small holes in the floor. The explorers made their way to the cafeteria. A sign on a brick wall said, “Lava Lover’s Commune General Store”. A broken window allowed the explorers to view the store’s interior, a large, open room, about 50 feet square on each side.

“Lava Lover’s Commune. That’s an… interesting name.” said Billy.

Most of the floor in the room was missing; the entire front 40% of the room, farthest from the explorers, had collapsed into the chasm the explorers had seen on the 4^th floor. There were several other large holes, mostly to the left side of the room. The right-rear quarter of the room, nearest the explorers, looked to still have most of its roof, but the roof was largely gone over the rest of the room, which was open to the sky and brightly lit by sunlight. Debris was piled up on the sections of floor remaining, save for a patch about 15 feet square on each side near the right-rear corner. Pillars, each placed about 10 feet apart, held up the remaining section of roof.

Merchandise poked out from under the debris. A shelf full of canned goods stood, covered in debris, on a two-foot wide gap between the chasm and another large hole. A cash register and counter had fallen over, precariously perched on a twisted beam next to another hole. At the left-rear quarter of the room, one freezer unit had stayed in place on a small section of still-intact floor, despite at least two units to its right and three to its left having fallen into the floors below, as evidenced by wiring coming out of the wall.

“Floor-busters sale on aisles 1, 2, 3, 4… everything must go, down to the ground.” said Billy. Dirk laughed.

Melissa led the explorers around a corner to get a better look inside the store through an archway at the rear-right corner of the store. Magazines and books were in this section, their paper warped and ink bleeding from years of rains blowing in from mere feet away.

“Don’t go in there. We’re pushing it just by being right here.” said Melissa.

Just then, Dirk saw a copy of “The Amityville Horror” laying on a table on what appeared to be a relatively stable section of floor. He walked into the store, toward a sagging, discolored section of floor. Melissa began to walk quickly toward Dirk.

Just then, the sound of ripping cardboard echoed through the air. For Dirk, time seemed to slow down as his body started to fall. The table with the book on it started moving toward Dirk as he froze in place, stunned.

Just then, Dirk’s body moved backwards rapidly, and the table disappeared altogether. A deafening bang came from several stories down. Dirk felt a painful sensation in both of his shoulders.

Billy’s jaw dropped. He had seen the whole thing play out. The floor gave way, and just as Dirk’s body began to sink, Melissa had grabbed his upper arms and pulled him back several feet over the new hole and to safety. The pull was so strong, it seemed as if Melissa’s arms had been powered by the V8 engine from a Corvette Z06. Billy was baffled as to how Melissa hadn’t fallen in the hole herself.

Dirk looked back and saw Melissa, who was still gripping Dirk’s arms.

“You’re hurting my arms.” said Dirk, still in shock.

“Look down.” said Melissa.

Dirk looked down and saw the new hole that had formed under him, which extended down four stories to the 1^st floor. Billy stepped forward slightly to get a look at the hole as Melissa loosened her grip and walked Dirk back out of the room.

“You’re a wonderful person, Melissa. Wow, just… wow. Dirk, you owe Melissa a big thank you. She just saved your life.” said Billy.

“Thank you, Melissa.” said Dirk, begrudgingly.

“I’m going to have to take you outside, for your own safety.” said Melissa.

“Why? I make a mistake. I’ve learned my lesson.” said Dirk.

“Urban exploring is very serious business. You disobeyed an instruction and nearly got yourself killed. I’m sorry to say it, but you’ll have to sit the rest of this building out. You’ve seen most of it, anyway.” said Melissa.

Dirk, dejected, began following Melissa out of the building. Billy followed behind them. Melissa got on her walkie-talkie to David and Megan. “We’ve had an incident. Dirk is coming down to stay with you two for the remainder of the exploration.”

While the explorers were walking through the parking lot toward the van, Dirk lifted his shirtsleeve and looked at his left upper arm. A bruise, about 2 inches in diameter, had begun to form.

“You bruised my arm.” said Dirk.

“Would you rather be dead? You’d be dead right now if Melissa hadn’t grabbed you.” said Billy.

“No, I wouldn’t, there was a pile of debris on the bottom that would have broke my fall.” said Dirk.

“45 feet down onto jagged concrete and steel? You’re alive because of that woman right there.” said Billy, pointing at Melissa.

“Did she have to pull so **** hard? It felt like she was trying to pull my arms off. Where the heck did you even get that kind of strength?” asked Dirk.

“I really don’t know. I just saw you falling and reached out.” said Melissa.

When they got to the van, Melissa got her first aid kit out and cleaned and dressed Dirk’s bruises. “You just relax and take a load off.” said Melissa, gently patting Dirk on the back.

“Billy, do you still feel comfortable going further up the hospital?” asked Melissa.

“If you do.” said Billy. Melissa and Billy walked back toward the hospital.

“We have to see Room 810, for David’s sake.” said Billy.

Melissa and Billy re-traced their steps through the lobby, got to the stairwell, and began the climb to the 8^th floor.

“Don’t let Dirk’s unappreciative attitude get you down. To be the kind of person who puts themselves in danger without hesitation to save a life… ‘good person’ is an understatement.” said Billy.

“Thank you. If someone died, I could save them and I didn’t, I couldn’t live with that.” said Melissa.

“Maybe we should kick Dirk out for his own safety.” said Dirk.

“I’m definitely not letting him go in buildings like this one anymore, but he hasn’t done anything to warrant getting totally kicked out. He paid the 400 bucks, it’s his trip too.” said Melissa.

“You haven’t led me wrong so far, I guess you’re right.” said Billy.

As they got to the sixth floor, the solid stairs became less stable. Cracks became visible in the stairwell walls, and some of the stairs were tilted at odd angles. Billy followed a couple steps after Melissa. Both held on to the handrail, but on the 7^th floor, both had to sidestep a hole in a stair.

The 8^th floor was a wreck. The floor was bare concrete, covered in debris, and filled with holes; any tiles or decoration it would have had long gone. Nevertheless, it was still stable enough in some spots to be walked on. The ceiling was similarly filled with holes and devoid of any covering. The yellow paint on the wall, though faded and severely flaked, had survived.

“The whole birth ward was down this hall and the one next to it, there were 28 rooms, I believe. This was the only hospital in town with a birth ward, there were probably 2 or 3 babies born here on a typical day, and they’d stay for a couple days each. Maybe 5 of these rooms would be in use at any one time, 10 at a busy time, but they wanted to make sure there was enough capacity.” said Melissa.

The odds of getting into Room 810 didn’t look good; Room 801’s floor was entirely collapsed, Room 802 would have been suicidal to attempt due to a large hole in the floor in front of the room, and Room 806 had a warped, unstable floor that looked like it would have collapsed if one breathed on it wrong. Melissa and Billy walked inside 805, briefly: there were cabinets, a countertop with a box of sterile gloves on top of it, a hospital bed, and two battered wooden chairs.

“How would we get to 803 and 804?” asked Billy.

“There’s a little hallway off to the right that connects the two halls, like an ‘H’. I’m not sure if that hall is still here.” said Melissa.

Rooms 809 through 812, the third row of rooms out of seven, were the frontmost row that were still there, their front walls now part of the outside walls of the building; the connecting hallway was gone, as were all of the rooms numbered 813 through 828. Room 809’s floor was sagging and full of holes; Room 810 was the most stable room of them all, though it still had a hole, about a foot in diameter, in the floor in one corner. Melissa and Billy walked to about four feet from the end of what was left of the hall and looked out. From eight stories high, much of the southeastern portion of Izzy was visible, including the university, more houses, and a small commercial district.

Billy pointed forward and to the right. “Up there, maybe about 70 or 80 feet up and 30 feet to the right, is where you would have been born.”

“My mom tells me it was a really nice room then; it was brand new. She says the equipment was some of the best in all of Helmintoller in the time, and the room itself was large, with plenty of room for the doctors and nurses to do what they needed to do. I showed her pictures of the room in 1996 and she was shocked at how fast it had deteriorated. From brand new to completely gone in less than 60 years… wow.” said Melissa.

In the van, David, Dirk, and Megan could see Melissa and Billy.

“I think they’re near room 810 now.” said David.

“I can’t look.” said Megan.

Melissa and Billy went into room 810. Inside it, there was a hospital bed, dirty and covered in debris, three amber-colored plastic chairs, and a dry-erase board on the wall. The whiteboard said, “DATE: 4/26/85, PATIENT: Allison, DOCTOR ON DUTY: Hughes, TIME OF BIRTH: 4/24/85 9:20 AM, STATUS: Healthy, ready for discharge.”

“Wow imagine being 35 and the place you were born being completely gone from natural decay. I hope that person’s doing well.” said Billy.

Billy took over a dozen pictures and a video of every inch of the small, 20x20 foot room, then he and Melissa walked back down the hall, climbed down 8 flights of steps, and were done with the hospital.

“Wow, that’s the sketchiest building I’ve ever seen – online or otherwise.” said Billy.