Chapter 14

The explorers all got back in the van. Dirk tried to take the middle row right seat. “Get in the very back.” said David, as he motioned to get in the seat. Billy got the front passenger seat again, putting his camera in the glove box. He looked and noticed he’d taken up six 64 gigabyte SD cards, and a little of a seventh for a total of almost 400 gigabytes, from just one day. The 5-terabyte hard drive that Billy had just gotten was going to have a significant chunk filled by just one trip.

It was 7:54 pm, and almost completely dark outside. Melissa carefully navigated the pothole-filled University Road southward before coming to the avenue that ran along the city’s southern border. The sensation of driving on a completely dark road yet surrounded by buildings was alien to the explorers. Billy relaxed into the leather seat as Melissa carefully avoided the potholes and plants growing from the avenue.

“My arms still hurt, by the way.” said Dirk.

“Be quiet.” said Megan.

About ten minutes after they had left, the explorers’ van got to the freeway. Megan, David, and Billy dozed off, while Dirk played on his phone.

At 8:29, Billy woke back up. He looked over and saw that the van was going 106 mph.

“Are we in a hurry?” asked Billy, quietly.

“Yeah, we have dinner reservations that were supposed to start at (looks at clock) 8:30,” said Melissa. “Unfortunately, Dirk put us behind about 20 minutes”, Melissa whispered, so as not to draw Dirk’s attention.

Billy could see the faint lights of Kallal City in the distance. “Looks like you’ve made the time up well.” said Billy.

“Yeah, we should be there in the next 10 minutes,” said Melissa. “But I was planning on going 80, 85 miles per hour, not 106.” said Melissa.

“Are you okay? You seem a bit, um, off.” asked Billy.

‘I’ll be fine.” said Melissa.  

“I know that house meant a lot to you.” said Billy.

“Eh, Mother Nature was going to demolish it in due time anyway.” said Melissa.

A couple minutes later, Melissa woke the others in the van up. “Wakey wakey. We’re almost at dinner.” Shortly after, Billy asked Melissa, “Do you remember when my dad signed the wall? My dad always wore old sorority shirts when I was a little kid, and he told me how good K-Xi-D and some of the others were.”

“Yeah, I was there that day. He’d booked an appointment to see the K-Xi-D house and I wanted to make sure I was there. I actually drove him back to campus afterwards.” said Melissa.

“Yeah, he was class of ’88, would have been ’87 but, we know what happened. He would have been a freshman in fall ’83. What did you drive back then?” asked Billy.

“An ’82 Accord Special Edition. That’s why they had me drive him back, I had the nicest car.” said Melissa.

“Mmmm, an ’82 Accord, that sounds like a really nice car for back then.” said Billy.

“I got it when I graduated high school. It was the first Honda in my family.” said Melissa.

“My dad’s been a big Volkswagen fan his whole life, he’s drove nothing but Volkswagens since his first car. He told me, ‘you gotta get a Volkswagen’ since I was a baby. When I was 10, we went to Germany, to the plant in Wolfsburg. It was his lifelong dream to go there. We rented an Audi A6 and spent 3 days in Germany, going to see the plant on the second day. I remember at lunch we waited half an hour in line to eat a sausage called a ‘currywurst’ that Volkswagen makes itself. As we were eating our lunch, my dad told me that Volkswagen actually makes more sausages than cars.” said Billy.

“You can’t be serious.” said Megan.

“Yup. I looked it up. Volkswagen actually makes more currywurst sausages than cars.” said Billy.

“How do they taste?” asked Megan.

“Delicious. I still eat them occasionally.” said Billy.

“I’ve had one of the Volkswagen currywursts myself.” said Melissa.

“When did you have one?” asked Billy.

“It would have been a long time ago… 1993 maybe? By the way, if your dad was such a Volkswagen fan, how’d you end up in a Honda?” asked Melissa.

 “When I went off to college at Helmintoller Tech in 2013, I fell in love with Honda. One of my first friends there had a fully loaded black 2011 Accord, that car was nice. I didn’t know how to drive then, and wasn’t ready for college, but that’s one thing I took from there. It just so happened that the spring of my first year, so spring 2014, I felt like I was ready to drive. Of course, when I told my dad I wanted an Accord, he said ‘are you crazy? They’re built like tin cans; nothing beats Volkswagen engineering’ and reminding me ‘your mom almost died in an Accord’. One evening, me and my mom snuck off and bought that white Accord I have now. Dad wasn’t happy but he got over it.” said Billy.

By now, the van was in the city, driving on surface streets.

“Hondas are for losers. They make about 17 horsepower and sound like a lawnmower.” said Dirk.

Melissa pulled the van into the parking lot of a restaurant called “Tamiko’s Sushi”, next to a brand-new white Honda Accord Touring, at a spot near the entrance. The restaurant, with a capacity of about 200 people, had a pagoda design and looked to be busy, but not packed. She and everyone else got out of the van, Billy grabbing his camera and SD cards, and followed Melissa to meet a middle-aged man, about 5’10 and of medium build, standing on a sidewalk near the front door of the restaurant.

“This is my husband, Roger.” said Melissa.

“Nice to meet you, Roger.” said Billy.

“Sup, Rog.” said Dirk.

“Go with Roger, Dirk. If anyone else needs to go back to their car, you can go with Roger, too.” said Melissa.

Billy moved to go with Roger. “I gotta get my laptop.” he said.

While Melissa, David, and Megan went into the restaurant, Dirk and David went with Roger.

“Shotgun!” exclaimed Billy.

“You’re not going to let me have the front seat?” asked Dirk.

“Not after that stunt you pulled at the sorority house.” said Billy.

Billy took the front passenger seat of the white Accord Touring, while Dirk sat behind Billy. On the way back, Billy talked to Roger while Dirk played with his phone in the back seat.

“What did you guys explore?” asked Roger.

“It’s been a busy day. We only really got around to the south side of the city.” said Billy.

“So, like the airport, main library, University of Izzy, places like that?” asked Roger.

“Yes. One place that really got to me was the old hospital, that place was a death trap. A big chunk of the building is gone entirely. The decay in there is just incredible, it blows my mind that that place was used just 35 years ago. Melissa told me that she was born there, and that the hospital was poorly built. Are you from Izzy, by chance?” asked Billy.

“Yes, but I wasn’t born there, I moved there when I was 8.” said Roger.

“Hold that thought. Do you mind if I record this? I’m doing a video on Izzy. Just say you’re Melissa’s husband, she’s already in the video, and tell me about your life in Izzy. If you can, give me some dates for reference, but if you can’t remember a date, that’s fine.” said Billy.

“Go right ahead.” said Roger. Billy started recording on his camera.

“I’m Melissa’s husband, I met her when we were students at the University of Izydor-“

As Roger spoke, Dirk interjected with a profane statement about how Melissa and Dirk had supposedly met. Disgusted, Billy turned off the camera.

“Never mind, I’ll just record this bit after Dirk’s gone.” said Billy.

Within two minutes, they were back at the McDonalds where the day had started. Dirk left the Accord, delivered a profane gesture, and got in his Firebird and peeled out. Meanwhile, Billy got a bag, which contained his laptop, external hard drive, and medications out of his own Accord before getting back into Roger’s Accord.

“Something is not right about that man.” said Roger.

“Yeah, I haven’t been too happy with him either. He almost died in the hospital when he fell through a floor that Melissa specifically told him not to walk on. It was the most impressive feat I’ve ever seen a human pull off. He was literally falling through the floor and she grabbed him by the shoulders and pulled him back. That man, that man who was just in the back seat of your car, is alive because of your wife.” said Billy.

“That’s why I married Melissa, her big heart. She’s always been a person who will go out of her way to do what’s right by people.” said Roger.

“Well, Dirk repaid that big heart by whining about how much his arms hurt, and then damaging Melissa’s old sorority house trying to steal scrap metal. Real piece of work.” said Billy.

“Well, you don’t have to worry about Dirk anymore.” said Roger.

“That man deserves something to happen to him that will change the way he looks at life.” said Billy.

Soon, Billy and Roger were back at the restaurant. Roger looked at his phone to see where Melissa and the explorers were sitting. As it turned out, that was unnecessary, as they were sitting near the front of the restaurant, around a U-shaped table with a hibachi grill in the middle.

Roger sat on Melissa’s right side, while Billy sat on her left side, on the right side of the “U”. Along the bottom leg of the U were a man Billy had never met before, David, and Megan.

“This is Tim Karaglanis, the man whose mansion we went to today.” said Melissa.

“Hi, Tim. As a collector of old video games and a man very interested in old computers, I’m honored to meet you.” said Billy.

“As a man who grew up on Commander computers, I’m honored to meet you.” said David.

“Nice to meet you.” said Megan.

The waiter came within a minute to take their orders. After taking their orders, the waiter asked who would be paying.

“I’m paying for this whole table.” said Melissa, covering the explorers, Roger, and Tim, as well as a couple, whom she or the others didn’t know.

“No, I’m paying for the whole table.” said Tim.

“No, you save your money.” said Melissa.

After a couple minutes of debating, the two came to an agreement where each would pay for half of the bill.

“Tell them about your experience with Commander Computer.” said Melissa. Billy got out his camera to record.

“I started working there in 1967 straight out of college. At that time, we mostly made big calculators and typewriters, and we were a small operation. We had a factory in the Zodiac Valley we leased space in, but the head office was in Izzy. I was in the product development division, so I worked at the head office.” said Tim.

“Did you live in Izzy your entire life before the volcano?” asked Megan.

“Yes, from birth until the volcano hit when I was 42. Anyway, we moved into consumer calculators in about 1969, 1970. Some of our lower-end models were quite cheap, 30 bucks or so back then, and they became quite popular. I was the head design engineer for our best-selling calculator, the HM-20, which came out in 1972. We were floored at how successful they were, and we had to build a new factory to keep up with demand.” said Tim.

“That factory on the southwest side of the city, near the interstate exit? We visited there today. That’s where I first saw your name.” asked Billy.

“That’s the one. We actually used modular construction to get that factory up in 4 months. The HM-20 came out in June of ’72, the boss ordered the factory on July 10^th, and we had production, I believe, the week before Thanksgiving. The offices weren’t done yet, just the bare minimum to get the factory running. We had a big ribbon cutting ceremony February 19^th, 1973 to mark the factory’s completion. Everyone there got a special HM-20 calculator. We sold over 400,000 HM-20’s that first year.” Tim stopped for a few seconds to catch his breath.

“At some point, you all had to go from calculators to computers, because I know that Commander eventually ended production of calculators in the early ‘80s, I think. I also know that, at some point, I think I read in the late ‘70s, you became CEO. What’s the stories there?” asked Billy.

“They appointed me the CEO in 1976. At the time, we had become a very successful calculator company and were looking for our next product. I guess, in hindsight, we could have stuck with calculators, but our R&D team was doing research on computers after things like the Altair had become somewhat successful. They wanted to cancel the project, but I told them, keep going, one day businesses and some homes will have a computer.” said Tim.

“They all do now. Heck, we have computers in our pockets that are millions of times more powerful than those ‘70s computers that cost thousands to buy.” said Melissa.

“Our first computer came out in ’77 and was called the Dual – because it could run CPL, a proprietary language we developed, but it could also do regular BASIC. It was supposed to be CPL entirely, but CPL proved to have a steep learning curve, so we developed a dialect of BASIC, called Commander BASIC, and put that in. It was somewhat successful, but no one ended up using CPL, so it was a good call to put the BASIC in. Our next computer was called the V-50, and that’s where things really took off. I don’t know if you went to my old house, but I started building that in ’81, after we made more money off the V-50 in its first 3 months on the market than the Dual made in almost four years. In hindsight, it was sort of a speculative move, but then the 64K came out and things just kept getting better, we came out with the Dostim and PC compatibles after that, so it seemed to be smooth sailing. At the time of the volcano, we were, by far, the biggest company in Izzy.” said Tim.

“What happened after the volcano? I know Commander was re-founded and successful for a while but went out of business in 1997.” asked Billy.

“We had everything back in production by May 15^th and a new headquarters, converted from an abandoned factory, open by July 1^st. However, this was also when our fortunes started going south. We were able to keep our fortunes up for a while by sales to Eastern Europe and other emerging markets, but the markets were all going toward IBM compatibles, and our IBM compatibles weren’t selling well.” said Tim.

“I bought one of your IBM compatible computers. Good computer, shame they weren’t successful.” said Melissa.

“Thanks for your business. Anyway, I left in ’91, a lot of people started leaving around that time. We went through a succession of CEOs and top brass after that, before we were finally bought out by HBM in 1997.” said Tim.

“Thank you. You gave a lot of good information.” said Billy.

“We went to your old house today as well.” said Melissa.

“How’s it holding up?” asked Tim.

“Pretty well. Definitely still salvageable.” said Melissa.

“We found a vintage Corvette in there.” said Billy.

“Oh, the Corvette. I miss that car.” said Tim.

“We were thinking about getting it out of Izzy and maybe restoring it in the future if we can get the money. For now, though, I just want it out of that ghost town.” said Melissa.

“I’ll be glad to help you get it out of there. Just bring it to my house. While you’re at it, it would be nice if you could get the other cars too, if that’s feasible.” said Tim.

“What are you driving today?” asked Billy.

“I’m in a 1985 Ferrari Testarossa. There’s an interesting story behind that car, it was the car that I drove out of Izzy.” said Tim.

“Melissa told me that you used to have open houses most weekends at your house. Since the volcano hit on a Saturday evening, what happened at your house after that?” asked Billy.

“The house was far from the volcano, so we heard a faint rumble, but the volcano was a couple miles away so we didn’t see anything, initially. A few people were saying ‘what the heck was that’ and things like that. I probably had 80, maybe 100 people in the house, watching TV, eating, playing games, and swimming in the pool. I was in the pool myself. A young woman burst into the room and yelled ‘THE VOLCANO IS EXPLODING! GET OUT OF TOWN!’. People ran over to her, a few immediately ran out of the house in their swim trunks, some went to get dressed, some asked more questions.  Me and about 25 other people followed her upstairs where a projection TV simply said, in red letters on a black background, ‘ALL RESIDENTS OF IZYDORCZAK, EVACUATE IMMEDIATELY’. A loud, high pitched buzzer alternated with a voice saying ‘Samberg Volcano has erupted. All people in Izydorczak must evacuate immediately. This is a life-threatening situation.’ I’ll never forget the chaos. People were going into the dressing rooms yelling ‘GET OUT NOW!’, screaming, cursing, total panic. I ran to my Ferrari, some young hippie type guy ran behind me and got in the passenger seat as soon as I unlocked the door. There were no words. As I backed out, I hit a blue station wagon, and we just kept driving – over lawns, through fields, anything we could do to get to the freeway. I saw a few people who just drove through the fields next to the freeway. Total chaos.” said Tim.

“Wow. Whatever happened to you and the hippy guy? Did he ever talk?” asked David.

“He didn’t say a word for half an hour, he just looked shocked. Once we were about maybe 5, 7 miles out of town or so, he finally said ‘Thank you’. I asked him if he was with anyone and he said his girlfriend, she’d been watching a movie upstairs while he was in the pool, and that if she’d taken the car, she’d be in a white Ford Fairmont. I managed to call one of my friends in Helmintoller City to stay until I could get back on my feet, I dropped the hippy looking guy off at a hotel where they had police set up to help re-connect missing parties. That’s the last I saw of him; I think he found his girlfriend the next day. I finally got to my friend’s house at 6 in the morning, I was literally dozing off to sleep behind the wheel. I’ve never before, or since, literally slept a day away.” said Tim.

“Well, I’m glad he’s okay, and he got to ride in a Ferrari even if it was under terrifying conditions.” said Billy, wrapping up his recording.

“I guess there’s a silver lining to everything.” said Tim.

“That was something very heroic you did.” said Billy.

“Thank you, we all did what we had to that night.” said Tim.

“You know, I’ve never been in a Ferrari, or any Italian supercar for that matter.” said Billy.

“Do you want to?” asked Roger.

Billy could hardly contain his excitement. “Oh my gosh, YES!” he shouted.

“Me too!” said David. Roger and Megan followed.

“It’s a two-seater, so we’ll have to do this one at a time. Take it away, Melissa.” said Tim.

Melissa thought it over, realizing it would take 5 trips. “Do you mind if I let Roger drive one of the trips?” she asked.

“Go right ahead.” said Tim.

“If you need to leave, we can just do this another day. It’s 9:41.” said Billy.

“Eh, just try to keep it reasonably short. Don’t go all the way to Wheatley and back.” said Tim.

-“He just lets you drive his Ferrari?” asks David.

They worked it out, with Billy saying “I want to go last. I want to savor the anticipation.” Roger and David went first. They were gone for 9 minutes. After that, Roger took Megan for a spin, which lasted 10 minutes. During this 19-minute period, Billy tried his best to stay as calm as he could, but a close observer could tell he was a bit jitterier than normal. At 10:02, Billy’s time finally came.

“Who do you want to drive you?” asked Melissa.

“I don’t particularly care, but you I guess.” said Billy.

“I can take the rest back to the hotel. Wait, I guess someone should stay behind with Tim.” said Roger.

Realizing that she was the only one who needed a ride to the hotel, Megan stayed behind. “You don’t have to go out of your way to take me back to the hotel.” she said.

Melissa and Billy walked out to the Ferrari, as Roger walked out to his Accord and left. As soon as they got in, both buckled their seat belts and Billy turned his camera on.

“THISSS is a Ferrari Testarossa. I wasn’t expecting to ride in it today, but it’s owned by the old CEO of Commander Computer, so this is kind of a historical and car review video at the same time. This is a 1985 model, it was actually in Izzy back in the day, and the owner drove it out of there. It has, how many miles does it have, Melissa?” asked Billy.

“128,105.” said Melissa.

“I don’t know much about the Testarossa, so I’m just going to show you the car.” said Billy. He turned off the camera momentarily. “Do you mind if I turn a light on in here?” asked Billy.

“Go ahead.” said Melissa.

Billy turned on the light and videoed the still-pristine interior as Melissa merged onto the interstate. The road ahead was clear.

“You got a good hold on your camera?” asked Melissa.

“Yes.” said Billy.

“You ready to see this thing run?” asked Melissa.

“Yup.” said Billy. Melissa floored the Ferrari as Billy filmed. Both took in the whine of the V12 engine as the speed climbed to 125 mph.

“Whoa.” said Billy, as he turned off his camera and relaxed for the rest of the ride.

“I bet Dirk would have enjoyed this.” said Melissa.

“That’s what you get when you act like a total jerk. I would have kicked him out after the hospital incident.” said Billy.

“I probably should have, come to think of it.” said Melissa.

“That was nice of Tim to come and bring his Ferrari. What are the odds?” asked Billy.

“Truth be told, I set up the whole thing. If you can’t tell by the fact, he lets me drive his priceless Ferrari, me and Tim have been friends for over 35 years.” said Melissa.

“I think I remember you saying Tim would be glad to meet us, but I didn’t know it would be tonight.” said Billy.

“I planned it weeks ahead of time. When you all signed up for the trip and put what you wanted to eat, I took the most popular option and set it up with Tim. I just finalized the details over text at the factory.” said Melissa.

“And the Ferrari? Surely, he wouldn’t have brought that randomly. Were you behind that too?” asked Billy.

“Maybe.” said Melissa.

“Wow, you didn’t have to do that.” said Billy.

“Well, I figured that if there was a car guy and a Ferrari available, I’d try to make something happen.” said Melissa.  

Even though the rides lasted less than 10 minutes, it would be something that Billy, and the others, would remember for a lifetime. When they got back to the restaurant, Melissa gave the keys back to Tim, and the explorers got back in the van to go to the hotel, a 12-story, 3-star hotel called Zodiac Valley Hotel.

At 10:29 pm, the explorers finally reached their room. Billy found it amusing that the floors were named after zodiac signs. The explorers’ room was on the 10^th floor, and was a double suite – two rooms, numbered 1017 and 1018, joined by a door.

“We’re on Libra level. Only in Helmintoller would a floor of a hotel would be named that.” said Billy.   

Melissa and Megan stayed in room 1017, while David and Billy were in room 1018. All four had their own bed, a full-size bed with burgundy sheets and pillows and a white blanket.

“What time do we have to be awake tomorrow?” asked Billy.

“I’d say, maybe 10 am.” said Melissa.

As Melissa and Megan settled into their room, and David laid down to fall asleep, Billy wanted to do the same, but he had to clear his SD cards for another day of exploring. First going to the community tab on his YouTube account, he posted “First day of Izydorczak exploration complete. Went to: airport, crash test hall, computer factory, several businesses and homes, hospital, high school, convention center, library, and a special surprise! Expect the videos uploaded by October 15^th.”

Then, he plugged in his 5-terabyte external hard drive through a USB port and his camera’s off-loading cable through a second USB port. As he drifted in and out of microsleeps, he off-loaded the contents of card 1 onto his laptop, then the remaining 6 cards, before transferring the 397.6 gigabytes of files to his laptop. Finally, after that 26-minute process, he took his bedtime medications.

Finding David fast asleep, he set his alarm for 9:26 am, to commemorate the awesome September 26^th he’d just had. Then, he fell asleep, briefly thought about the awesome day he’d just had, and went out like a light. He was so tired; he’d forgotten to call his parents to tell them he was okay.

For Billy, it felt like he was asleep for a few seconds before he was woken up by his phone ringing. When he looked at his phone, he was surprised to see that it was 1:12 am, and that he’d been asleep for about two hours.

“Hello, Dad.” said Billy.

“How was your trip?” asked Billy’s dad.

“It was great. We got to see quite a few places, we explored most of the southern part of the town, then we had sushi and I got to ride in a Ferrari.” said Billy.

“That’s awesome. Who put all of this on?” asked Billy’s dad.

“Melissa Murphy. She said she remembers you from college. Kappa Xi Delta?” asked Billy.

“Oh, yeah. She was the nicest person I knew. Tell her I said hi.” said Billy’s dad.

“Well, she hasn’t changed one bit. We did have one mean guy that we had to kick out.” said Billy.

David woke up from the conversation. “Could you take your conversation into the bathroom, please?” he asked.

“Sorry, didn’t realize how loud I was talking.” said Billy, walking into the bathroom.

“You’re good.” said David.

“Who was the mean guy and what did he do?” asked Billy’s dad.

“He started off by insulting Melissa, calling her old and just generally being a snarky jerk. Then, he almost died when he disobeyed Melissa and went somewhere, she told us not to. Melissa just barely saved him. He was literally falling through a floor, and she grabbed him.” said Billy.

“Holy ****! Make sure you do what Melissa says.” said Billy’s dad.

“Yeah, it was nuts. I’ve never seen anything so brave. She came up behind him and just yanked him out. Gave me a lot of confidence in her. Anyway, after that happened, he still acted like a butthole. He constantly whined about his arms hurting. Didn’t take responsibility at all. He got kicked out after he tried to steal scrap metal from the old Kappa Xi Delta house. Melissa got pretty ticked off, she was yelling at him.” said Billy.

“Wow, are you serious. What a *******. Anyway, you get some sleep and I’ll talk to you tomorrow.” said Billy’s dad.