Chapter 11

Melissa and Billy got back in the van, taking the front seats. Melissa started to drive the van northward, crossing an avenue. Billy handed his camera to David in the back seat to show him the pictures of the room he was born in.

“I’m surprised you could even go in it. I would have thought the floors would have been far too damaged.” said David.

“You lucked out. It was one of only two of the birth rooms that we could even go in.” said Billy.

“What was the rest of the hospital like?” asked David.

“Collapses down as far as the 1^st floor, had to watch your step everywhere. Extremely dangerous building, I’m guessing in 5 or 10 years the whole top half is going to be gone.” said Billy.

“Yeah, I was really nervous about you all in there.” said David.

“Would you believe that building was used until the ‘90s? Less than 30 years ago. Maybe even 25. There were apartments on the 2^nd through 5^th floors. It was some kind of commune established after the volcano. I guess they abandoned it because the building was becoming unsafe.” said Billy.

“Well, I’m glad the room I was born in is still there, even if it won’t be for much longer.” said David.

“I am too. As an aside, I heard somewhere that building had more people born in it that test-drove the 2008 Honda Accord in Helmintoller when it came out than any other building.” said Billy.

“Wow, how do they know that? I was born in that building, and I test-drove the ’08 Accord when it came out, but I didn’t know that very building was number one.” said David.

“It was in Izzy, it was a big hospital, and it operated from the early ‘60s to ‘85. A car salesman where I live said that most of the people that test drove those Accords in the first days and weeks were born between about 1975 and whatever would have been 18 years old then, so 1989.” said Billy.

Just then, Melissa turned left. “Why are you going left? It’s only 5:04.” asked Billy.

“The stadium, event center, and library are up here. Really nice buildings.” said Melissa.

“Can I go inside?” asked Dirk.

“Shouldn’t be too sketchy, so yes. But if you disobey any instruction, you’ll get pulled again.” said Melissa.

The first building they explored was the stadium. All five explorers decided to come along on this one, as it was outdoors. The parking lot, while overgrown, was empty, unlike the parking lot of the event center next door.

“Remember, since Izzy was abandoned in March, they wouldn’t have been using this field yet for the season. They only used it from April to October, sometimes November. They played rugby, football, and occasionally a few other outdoor sports and events.” said Melissa.

The field itself was just a large expanse filled with grass 3 to 4 feet tall; any identifying lines had long vanished. At one end of the field were two scoreboards, a rugby scoreboard on the left and a football scoreboard on the right. Both were heavily rusted, with chipped paint, but still standing. Some of the glass pieces covering the score panels themselves were missing. The explorers stayed on the concrete adjacent to the bleachers.

“How’d they get both rugby and football in?” asked David.

“Originally, it was just a football field. Rugby came here in the mid ‘70s. They’d start the field as a rugby field in the spring and convert it to a football field in July or August. Not too much difference.” said Melissa.

The bleachers themselves had sides made of brick, with a concrete structure. The plastic seats were white, with some green seats arranged in a pattern that said “PELES”. A few bricks had fallen from the sides, and the concrete was cracking and had some small plants growing through it, but the structure looked stable enough. There was a press box at the top of the bleachers; it had a few missing bricks near the tops of the walls and the roof appeared to have a hole in it, so exploring it would depend on how it was attached to the bleachers.

“The high school said Peles too. I guess that was the mascot for the town.” said David.

“Bet the whole town felt like idiots after the volcano went off, naming their mascot after the Hawaiian god of fire.” said Dirk.

“The volcanologists all told us that the volcano hadn’t erupted since the time of the pharaohs in Ancient Egypt and that it probably wouldn’t erupt for thousands of years, and even if it did erupt, we’d have at least a week of warning. It was a one in a million thing. As for the mascot, the football, basketball, baseball, and rugby teams were all called the Peles, the hockey team was called the Destroyers.” said Melissa.

“Easy to remember what team was from Izzy.” said Billy.

Melissa climbed a staircase to get onto the bleachers; all but Megan followed. They walked up next to the spine of the “P” in PELES, as Megan took a selfie in front of the bleachers. Billy took a picture of the bleachers from the side and a close-up of seat R1. The bleachers had 26 rows.

“I love how the rows are A to Z, so you know exactly how far from the bottom or top you are.” said Billy.

“We don’t care.” said Dirk.

“I went to this stadium many times and didn’t remember that. Interesting little detail.” said Melissa.

Melissa opened the door to the press box, putting one foot on the floor to test it out. It felt solid. She motioned for the rest of the explorers to follow. The first room was a corridor, empty except for three stacks of posters, about two feet tall each. Billy looked at the posters on the top; a poster for a football match between the Peles and the Gorham Sailors on October 4, 1986, a football playoff match between the Peles and the Cornelius City Griffins on November 1, 1986, and a 14^th Annual Water Balloon War, put on by Phi Gamma Alpha Fraternity on September 12, 1986.

“Water balloon fight, that sounds like a dream! I need to get a DeLorean and go to 1986.” said Billy.

“Most of the Greek community at Izzy University came down here every year to hurl water balloons at each other on Friday night. Sometimes, even alumni would come, I was at the last one in fall 1986 even though I’d graduated in May. Every organization got a few thousand balloons – ours were green – and we just went nuts with them.” said Melissa.

In the next room, there were three torn black leather chairs and a table with a camera mounted in front of it, facing out a still-intact window toward the field. The explorers gave the room a quick once over and walked out.

Next door to the field was the city’s main event venue, a large building that, at a distance, looked sort of like the airport terminal, clad in numerous windows. A label scar said “Medley Arena”; the actual lettering for the arena, red letters about 8 feet tall, had torn loose and were laying in a mangled lump in front of the arena. The exterior of the arena was covered in laminated-glass windows, some of them cracked and all covered in dirt and grime. While it appeared to be in worse condition than the mansion they explored earlier, it still looked very much structurally stable, a relief for Melissa, Billy, and Dirk. All explorers, including Megan, went in.

The interior of the building smelled musty, though no plant life was visible inside. In the entrance concourse, the light-tan, marble floors looked ahead of their time for the 1980s, and they and the white marble walls looked to be largely intact. There were a few flakes of paint and drywall from the ceiling on the ground, but the ceiling – painted with a beautiful mural of the city – still had 90% of its paint and covering.

“Wow, this place looks modern for 1987. The event arena in my hometown still looked a lot like this until they renovated it a few years ago. It’s in great shape, too.” said Billy.

“They’d just done a top-to-bottom renovation of the arena in 1984. Had they abandoned it a few years earlier, it would be in a lot worse shape; the old arena had roof leaks, as well as hideous avocado-green walls. They’d been wanting to repair and update it for at least a decade, and they finally did, only for it to be abandoned a few years later. They built, and renovated, this place to last and to take the weight of thousands of people on the floors at once. Izzy was booming in the ‘80s, so several of the major attractions in the city were renovated just a few years before the volcano.”

“What’s your best memory here?” asked Megan.

“Probably the Steven Wonderful concert in December 1984. It was a huge event that they hyped up since that summer. They actually had to do 3 nights, because they could only hold about 15,000 people in here. 15,000 tickets sold out in 15 minutes, so they expanded to a second night, and that sold out quickly. They added a third night, and that almost sold out. I went on the first night, and let me tell you, it was the most amazing concert I’ve ever been to, before or since. Steve was on top of his game that night.” said Melissa.

“Any other big-name singers sing here?” asked Billy.

“We got Michael Jefferson, Wham-O, Motley Crew, GEO Speed Wagon, they all came to Izzy. Steve was the first, the 1984 renovation made the big names take this venue seriously. They tripled the size of the venue in ’84. We had probably 20 or 30 concerts scheduled that had to be canceled because of the volcano, ’87 was going to be the biggest year yet.” said Melissa.

“Why were there no cars in the parking lot, then?” asked Billy.

“The night of the volcano, there had been a hockey game that let out at 9, I believe. Don’t quote me on that, I wasn’t there, but everyone would have gone home before the volcano hit after 10.” said Melissa.

On a wall to their right, the explorers found a marquee board with a list of major events listed on it. Only a couple of the letters had fallen, so it was still readable. There were three sections: Sports, Music, and Events, as well as a calendar in a binder with laminated pages on a small, elevated table underneath. Although the city had been abandoned on March 28, 1987, the calendar didn’t have an opening until August 18 of that year.

“Do you know anything about this Izzy Car Show, scheduled for June 1-7?” asked Billy.

“I actually drove people around in the new cars the last two times they held it. It was a lot of fun. They paid me $200 a day just to drive the new cars. Helped me pay off my college debt, too.” said Melissa.

The explorers walked down the concourse, finding a restaurant called “Frisco Burrito” on their left. The theme was similar to a Chipotle, with an adobe and red color scheme.

“Wow, I bet in the ‘80s that was trendy.” said Megan.

“Yeah, and delicious.” said Melissa.

Next to the Frisco Burrito, there was a passageway to the main event room itself. The room itself was massive, and much more decayed than the concourse. The humidity was noticeably higher than in the concourse.

The concrete floor of the main room was covered in steel coils, with no sign of the ice that would have been on the rink; there was a large amount of moss growing from the concrete floor and steel coils, and even some moss growing on the walls that separated the rink from the spectator area.

“Hmmm… I wonder how that worked?” asked Megan.

“I think they send a really cold liquid, something that can get to below zero without freezing, through the steel coils. The coils get to below zero and that freezes the water around them.” said David.

“And what about when they needed to use the arena for something else?” asked Megan.

“They laid an insulated, foldable floor over it. It would feel like a normal floor, but there would be ice underneath.” said Melissa.

Above them, the ceiling was about 40 feet above them. Though covered in moss and grime, the concrete roof structure was intact, and all the little workers’ passageways running a few feet below the ceiling looked stable. Some pieces of plastic, from the rings of advertising that lined the walls at the boundaries between levels, had fallen on the high-backed green chairs ringing the stadium. There were probably 60 rows of these seats.

“Yeah, just looks like the inside of a stadium, with a little more decay.” said Dirk. For once, everyone agreed with him.

“I’d love to go up to the walkways near the ceiling and get a top-down shot.” said Billy.

“I’ve been up on those walkways at another stadium, as a maintenance worker. It’s an interesting novelty the first time you go up.” said David.

“If we can get up there, and they’re stable, we’ll walk on them.” said Melissa.

The explorers left the ice rink room by climbing up through the seating area, reaching row 63 and leaving through section 314. They walked back toward the lower numbered sections, 313, 312… until they found a luxury lounge near section 308.

A sign on the wall said, “Rhodes Furniture Lounge”, next to a large door that said, “Members Only”.

“No sense in keeping my poor butt out.” said Dirk, as the explorers walked into the room.

“Did you ever get to go in here, Melissa? I only got to walk by it, I always wondered what was in here.” said David.

“Yes, once. It looked just like this, but in better shape, obviously. Tim got me an invitation in here in 1985.” said Melissa.

The lounge was wrecked; the entire drop ceiling had come down, covering everything in the room with a thick coating of plastic and drywall. The tan shag carpet was covered in moss. The bare concrete walls were visible in some spots where the green and white wood paneling had come off.

A white patch on the top of the big screen TV revealed one of the sources of the decay.

“Bird crap. Birds are getting in here somehow.” said Billy.

An overstuffed red couch was ripped and had bird droppings on it as well. The explorers soon found where they could have come from, a broken skylight. A serving cart’s troughs were filled with dead vermin. Plates were left on a table, and there were even cups laying on the floor.

“Somebody didn’t clean up in here.” said Billy.

“I’m out. Eew.” said Megan. She left the room and went back out to the 3^rd floor concourse. The remaining explorers continued to explore the lounge for a few more minutes before leaving to keep looking for the maintenance room.

During the walk toward the maintenance room, Dirk reached in his pocket for his cell phone; he felt some pain in his shoulder. “Ow, my shoulder.”

“Oh, boy. Not this again.” said Billy.

“Melissa hurt my shoulder in the hospital. I just tripped over something little and she grabbed my shoulders like a ******* gorilla.” said Dirk.

“No, you were falling into a hole where you would have died, and I grabbed you so you wouldn’t fall to your death.” said Melissa.

“Let me get this straight. Melissa saved your life and you’re going to try to frame her for hurting you?” asked Billy. Billy showed Megan and David a picture of the hole. “This is the hole he almost fell down. He stepped on it, after Melissa told him not to go in there, and it fell out from under him.”

“Yeah, I’d say that’s a pretty serious hole. You did the right thing, Melissa.” said David.

“If Dirk tries to get you in trouble, we’re all behind you.” said Billy.

“Yeah, you’ve been nothing but nice to all of us.” said Megan.

Finally, between sections 301 and 328, they found a door that said, “Employees Only”. Melissa tried the door, expecting it to be locked. It opened. She looked at the walkway in front of her, finding its connections secure and structure stable. The walkway, made of black corrugated steel, was about 2 feet wide and had a black steel railing that was about 4 feet tall. She called for the explorers to follow her, and all but Megan did. David followed Melissa on to the walkway, and Billy followed behind, followed by Dirk at the back. The walkway moved unsteadily with all four on it.

“Billy and Dirk, you need to go back to the concourse. I’ll come get you in 5 minutes.” said Melissa. They left, while Melissa and David walked on the walkways for a few minutes.

“You gotta see the control center over the scoreboard.” said David.

Five minutes later, Melissa came back. It was Billy’s turn. Melissa followed about two feet behind Billy, so he could film unobstructed. Billy filmed every second of the walk, getting a few top-down shots of the ice rink itself, as well as the ceiling. On the ceiling, the explorers got a close-up view of the air ducts and water pipes that serviced the building. Billy reached out and touched an air duct at a place where it ran inches from the walkway.

The walkways intersected at the center of the arena, directly above the score board, around the control room at the center of the room like a porch on a house. The walkway that the explorers walked on ran across the diameter of the short side of the room and was about 60 feet long between the entrance and control center at the center of the arena.

The control center was an enclosed circular room about 7 feet in diameter. Billy realized that the best place to get a good top-down video wouldn’t be from the control room or its immediate vicinity, but about 4 feet away. Billy zoomed his camera out to its widest angle and pointed the camera toward the ice rink and seats on one side, then to the ice rink and seats on the other side.

Then, Billy had an idea: put his arm through the camera strap and poke his camera through the railing to get a direct overhead shot with no walkway in the way. With the camera pointing straight down, he took a picture, getting the whole ice rink and at least 30 rows of seats in the frame.

“Wow. Melissa, take a look at this.” said Billy.

“Impressive. I haven’t seen many pictures that capture their subject so well, and I taught photography classes for 5 years.” said Melissa.

‘Didn’t know I had it in me. Dumb luck, perhaps.” said Billy.

After the picture, Billy opened the door to the control center; Melissa followed.

“What, did they not have any locks on the doors in this place?” asked Billy.

“Guess not. They would have had security staffed there, so I guess they didn’t see the need to lock stuff up.” said Melissa.

The control center had papers on the table still left over from the last hockey game. The Destroyers had 6 points, the opposing team, the Kallal Ducks, had gotten 4. The game-ending time was 9:21 pm, less than 45 minutes before the volcano.

“I live in Kallal, but I’ll root for the Destroyers here. It was their last game.” said Billy.

“They were having a good season. They let them go to the Yelnats Cup the next year as the Murphysville Destroyers, and they won, so it was a victory, just a year late.” said Melissa.

“That was so nice of the HHL. How long were they out?” asked Billy.

“I think they came back around April of 1988, a little after the first anniversary of the volcano. They were all away games for a couple years after that.” said Melissa.

“I love a good resurgence story. What about the Izzy Car Show?” asked Billy.

“That was brought back in ’88. It’s been held in Cormack City since then, but it’s still called the Izzy Car Show.” said Melissa.

“So, I take it, ’88 was the year stuff really came back, at least all the big events.” said Billy.

“You really started to see the re-scheduled concerts and events start coming back around Christmastime of ’87, though most of our big events came back in ’88, some in ’89. Most of them were in venues in the Cormack City/Murphysville area, as that’s where most of us moved.” said Melissa.

Billy finished exploring the control room, and then Melissa went back with Dirk. A few minutes later, the explorers were done with this building, and it was 6:09 pm.