Chapter 20

The explorers left the apartment, met up with Megan in the parking lot and got back in the van. Melissa drove the van down the avenue, until they reached an avenue-avenue intersection. Ahead of them was a steep, 20-degree slope. The road condition still looked reasonably good.

“Imagine trying to get up that slope in a cheap ‘80s car like a Chevette.” said Megan.

“I’ve been in a Ford Pinto going up this hill. Not fun, you have to floor it the whole way and it still got down to 15 mph. This was after it was known that they were explosive, too. Not fun.” said Melissa.

“Do you think your van could get up there easily?” asked Billy.

“No problem. Want to go up the hill?” asked Melissa.

The others agreed, and Melissa drove the van up the hill, turned around at the crest, and drove back down, effortlessly.

“Cars have come a long way.” said Billy.

After proving the Odyssey’s prowess, the explorers went to a Baptist church. The church had several buildings, in various states of disrepair; a fire-hall like building was completely collapsed, and a small chapel was on the verge of collapse, but a gym building, and two other brick buildings still looked to be in relatively good shape. It was a sizable church, probably with a congregation numbering near a thousand, as well as a school, as evidenced by an overgrown sports field with a collapsed restroom building next to it.

“This was the General Baptist Church of Izydorczak, the largest church in Izzy. I went here for the first 23 years of my life.” said Melissa.

“I’m surprised this is the largest. I would have expected a megachurch somewhere. I’ve seen a lot of churches here, though.” said Billy.

“Nope, we had 204 churches in Izzy. There would always be something going on at one near your house. Izzy was about 97% Christian, and probably close to 90% of people would be at church on any given Sunday morning.” said Melissa.

“I know I go every Sunday. I would’ve probably enjoyed it here.” said Billy.

“I would have welcomed you with open arms.” said Melissa.

Melissa parked the van, and the explorers got out at the gym building. The building, which had a circular medallion at the top that said “1985”, was missing most of its roof shingles, but the building itself was still relatively intact. Some of the windows were blown out.

“We only had, I think, 4 services in this gym. The building was brand new when it was abandoned, we’d just inaugurated it on March 1. Two years to build it, used for just a few weeks. I remember we had a $400,000 fundraiser to build this gym, I donated a grand myself. At least we know it was well built.” said Melissa.

The gym’s wood floor was only buckled slightly. The red paint on the cinderblock walls was still mostly intact, and the school’s mascot, the Cavaliers, was still painted at the ends of the basketball court. About 400 chairs were set up for the March 29, 1987 service, which never came.

There was little to the room that wasn’t visible from an overview look, so the explorers moved on to a hallway that served as a reception area.

“Had this building been abandoned just half a day later, it would be in a lot worse shape. On this table, they always set out donuts and coffee.” said Melissa.

A stack of church bulletins was on the wooden table, all dated March 29, 1987.

“Can I have one?” asked Billy.

“Yes, but just one.” said Melissa.

Billy looked at the church bulletin, which was a six-page hamburger-style folded, stapled document typed out on a typewriter. The first page had statistics: membership of 626, last Sunday’s attendance of 831, peak attendance recorded August 3, 1986 at 1,017.

Turning the page, Billy could see that the sermon planned for March 29^th was “spiritual rebirth”.

“How odd that the sermon would be on ‘rebirth’ the day after everyone in Izzy was forced to go through a major change, a rebirth in a different sort of way. Almost poetic. I think that God was trying to send the people of Izzy out into the rest of the world at large, to make it a better place.” said Billy.

“I’d like to think so myself.” said Melissa.

The next page of the bulletin listed upcoming events, and there was at least one for each day of the week: Monday’s homeless shelter ministry, Tuesday’s visit to the retirement home, Wednesday’s youth and college ministries, Thursday’s community lunch, and Friday’s game night. There was a total of 12 events one could go to – and even 3 job openings.

“Someone could have practically lived here if they wanted to.” said Billy.

“A few people did, mostly retirees or college students on summer break.” said Melissa.

The explorers continued to find a plaque still hanging on the wall, intact, revealing the name of the gym as the “Jim Utz Memorial Gym”. Underneath was a short description of Jim Utz’s life.

JAMES RICHARD UTZ – April 2, 1934 – October 8, 1984

Jim Utz was a life-long member of General Baptist of Izzy and brought a great deal of joy and comfort to everyone he encountered during his 50 years. He was often among the first faces our church members saw as a greeter and stood out as an especially kind member of our church. In addition to his impact at GBI, he also worked as a therapist and took great pride in his work. We dedicate this gymnasium to his memory.

Dedicated Sunday, March 1, 1987

“That’s terrible, he died at only 50 and then his memorial plaque was only seen for a month.” said Megan.

“What did he die of?” asked David.

“Bowel cancer. My dad knew him for a few years, maybe about ’80 to ’83 or so? He looked for Jim again in the late ‘80s, looking to reconnect, but Jim had been deceased for a few years and he didn’t know because he’d been off at college, he’d been at a campus ministry but out of church.” said Billy.

“That’s really sad, your dad was a blessed man for having known Jim though.” said Melissa.

The explorers left the gym and went to the chapel. The chapel’s white paint was heavily chipped, the windows were all gone, and the whole structure leaned to the right at about a 5-degree angle. The building looked ready to keel over to the right and fall.

“I presume you don’t want to go in this one, Megan?” asked Billy.

“I don’t even want to get within 50 feet of it.” said Megan.

“Yeah, this is a bridge too far even for me.” said David.

“I guess it’s just me and you, Melissa.” said Billy.

Billy and Melissa carefully walked into the chapel.

“Do they have no standards on what they’ll explore?” asked David.

The interior of the chapel was wrecked. The dark green carpet floor was cracked down the middle, leaving the left side of the floor intact, but the right side angled downward at about a 15-degree angle. The wall covering was nearly gone, leaving only a few bits of plaster and paint exposed amid the bare lath. The multicolored pieces of a stained-glass window were strewn about the choir’s area at the front of the chapel, amid a baby grand piano and digital organ. Near the broken windows, there was grass, 4 inches tall in some spots. Church bulletins were piled up against the right-side wall, next to a small end table; both had fallen whenever the floor had caved in.

“Stay to the left.” said Melissa.

There wasn’t much of the chapel they could explore; the stairs to the basement and upper level would have required walking over the obviously unstable floors on the right side of the room. Nevertheless, Billy got to a spot near the middle of the left wall and filmed the entire main room and what he could of the balcony. Looking back, both could see that the balcony was visibly sagging, and a section had fallen on the right side.

The Bibles in the pews, which were wooden with upholstery the same color as the floor, were still largely intact, shielded from the elements by their pockets. Billy sat down in a pew and said a prayer for the explorers’ safety on the trip and thanked God for the opportunity. Melissa put her left hand on Billy’s head and joined him in prayer.

About 15 seconds after the prayer was finished, Billy heard a cracking sound under him.

“Oh, s- no!” he yelled, springing to his feet. “We gotta get out of here.”

Billy looked down, finding the pew he was sitting in to be intact. Nevertheless, he and Melissa worried that there might have been hidden damage. Both quickly left the chapel.

Back outside the chapel, Melissa and Billy re-grouped with the others, and they headed to the church’s main building – a sprawling, one-story building with orange roof tiles and a tan stucco exterior. Most of the windows were intact, and the building still seemed reasonably structurally stable, with the roof worn in spots but no visible holes.

The explorers, including Megan, walked in through a bashed-out door window. Near the bashed-out window, moss grew on the burgundy carpet. On a marble countertop, there was a stack of church bulletins, although wind had blown a few of them off and scattered them on the carpet. About half of the white ceiling covering was missing, mostly closer to the entrance. An analog clock had stopped at 11:08.

The rear wall of the lobby was painted with a cross and “GBI” above it. Two couches and two chairs were arranged, facing each other; the wooden end tables next to them were empty. Billy filmed the room, paying particular attention to the “GBI” painting before the explorers moved on to a supply closet to the left of the lobby.

 The supply closet, despite being less than a fifth the size of the lobby, proved to be far more interesting. Along the right wall was a stack of Bibles, 27 high and 15 wide. Somehow, they were all still standing perfectly still, despite the mess in the rest of the room; church bulletins, various religious books and games for Sunday school were scattered haphazardly. There were no holes in the ceiling or walls, and no wind in the room, which had a stale, musty odor.

“I think they fell.” said Megan.

“Well, what kept the Bibles standing?” asked David.

“Divine intervention.” said Billy.

Looking closer, the explorers could see that a stack of miscellaneous books that had fallen had stopped just an inch from the Bibles. While Billy filmed in the room and paid close attention to the dates on the scattered church bulletins – looking for the oldest he could find – Melissa waxed nostalgic on the games.

“I remember the Noah’s Ark Operation game. We played it every so often when the lesson would be about the book of Genesis.” said Melissa.

“We played this Trivial Pursuit Bible Edition game in my Sunday school, too.” said Megan.

Billy saw a bulletin dated September 18, 1977 and decided to dig for older ones. June 2, 1968, January 4, 1959, July 22, 1956… all had the same general format as the 1987 ones. Then, he found the October 29, 1939 bulletin.

“In a city were everything was ‘new’, here’s a rare artifact – a church bulletin from 1939, 48 years before the volcano.” said Billy.

The bulletin was hand-written, and just one page. The attendance of 76 had been struck through and corrected to 77. The little errors on the page – no comma between Wednesday and November 1, Margaret spelled “Margeret” – also helped to paint a picture of a fledgling church in a fledgling town in the distant past. The lesson, on Habakkuk 3 – extolling that God always triumphs, even in bad times – wasn’t dressed up, just the scripture and some pastor’s notes. The church had two community lunches that week, as well as a radio broadcast of Sunday’s message the following Monday.

While Billy busied himself collecting statistics from old church bulletins, the rest went into the sanctuary, finding it to be in somewhat worse condition – with a couple of small roof leaks. The carpet was forest green, contrasting with the burgundy in the rest of the church. The elevated stage platform at the front of the room was collapsed, the supports having rusted and crashed to the actual floor. The black lacquer Steinway piano had fallen with the stage but stood upright and intact on a flat piece of fallen stage. A Vox organ was not so fortunate; caught between two sections of stage collapsed at different angles, it had fallen on its front and was probably a total loss. Again, there were no pews, just the foldable chairs they’d found in the gym building.

“Unusual design choice.” said Megan.

“At one time, all the carpet was green. Some time in the late ‘70s they put the red carpet in the rest of the church but kept the carpet in here green.” said Melissa.

The explorers spent about ten more minutes in the Sunday school classrooms and nursery at the back of the building before Billy left the closet and caught up with the other explorers.

“What’d I miss?” asked Billy.

“Not much, since the church was abandoned on a Saturday a lot of the stuff would have been put up, and the Sunday school classrooms don’t look all that different from school classrooms.” said Melissa.

The explorers left the building and went to the back of the church campus, finding a sign that said “Mansion”. The mansion itself was nowhere to be found, having been crushed into matchsticks by a landslide that had come from the hill above.

“I think this would have happened after one of the later eruptions, because I’ve never heard of any landslides happening during the initial eruption. I always heard they started happening years later.” said Billy.

“Some of them happened within a couple days, but you’re right, every successive eruption and seismic event caused them. That’s one of the reasons it was so unsafe to come here until recently. There haven’t been that many landslides, luckily.” said Melissa.

“I guess, since we haven’t seen any buildings destroyed by them until now.” said Billy.

“There are a few in the northwestern part of town, and maybe a couple more in this part of town, but I’d say maybe 20 or 30 in the whole city.” said Melissa.