drocca

Crossed the 20,000 word mark just before midnight yesterday - Wed, Oct. 28. They're at a high school now.

Chapter 8 Billy loaded his third memory card into his camera, and Melissa drove the van across the street, parking in the driveway of a three-story mansion. The mansion had an elongated shape, much wider than it was deep, with a car port on the left side. The mansion’s condition was better than average for the town, with a very dirty but structurally intact roof. Ivy and plant overgrowth surrounded the mansion, which had a dark green shingled roof and ashlar stone walls. The windows were all intact. There was an overgrown fountain in the front. All five explorers, including Megan, elected to go into this one. “Remember Tim Karaglanis from the computer factory? The mansion we’re about to go in used to belong to him. This was one of the biggest and most expensive houses in all of Izzy. It’s in such good shape for a few reasons. It was only used for a few years; Tim had this mansion custom built around 1984. Tim always believed in keeping things clean and taking care of his stuff, so he kept the house well-maintained. He used quality materials, there’s no builder-grade stuff here. That’s all real stone, real old-growth wood, marble imported from Italy. A lot of people went to this mansion, not just the elite but normal, everyday people. I went here a couple times, once not long after it opened and the second time about a month before the volcano. I actually have probably 30 or 40 pictures taken of this mansion taken, inside and out, in February of ’87 when I did a news story on it.” said Melissa. “Can I see the pictures?” asked Billy. “I don’t have them with me, but I’ll get those pictures to you.” said Melissa. “You should scan them in and upload them onto the internet.” said Billy. “I’ll do that. Great idea.” said Melissa. The condition of this mansion contrasted with the one next door, which was about the same size and had noticeable roof leaks and broken windows. The explorers reasoned that the mansion next door probably wasn’t totally structurally safe. Approaching Tim’s mansion, the explorers saw that the entrance was by the carport. The 5-car garage had separate berths, with separate doors, for each car; the berths were connected at the back by a hallway. The fourth garage door was open, while the rest were closed. The explorers looked at the cars. In the first berth was a burgundy Mercedes-Benz 560SEL sedan. It was very dirty, and had flat tires, but still looked restorable. Billy looked at the interior to try to determine its model year; it was black leather and looked immaculate. There was a CD player in the dash, but it could be aftermarket. The airbag in the steering wheel wasn’t. “Driver airbag. It’s at least an ’84.” said Billy. “Unless he had it imported from Europe.” said Melissa. “Whoa, I forgot about that.” said Billy. Billy opened the driver door of the Benz. The interior smelled like a strange combination of mold and leather. The production date said January 1986; Billy relayed this information to the other explorers. “We don’t care.” said Dirk. In the next berth was a large white Ford conversion van. Melissa opened the back doors of the van to show its interior. Again, the interior smelled like mold and leather, but looked untouched. An NES hooked up to a 27” CRT TV in the second row attracted all of the explorers’ attention. A few boxed cartridges, all early “black box” titles, sat on a small shelf next to the TV. “Wow, an NES in a van. I would have loved that as a kid.” said David. “Did you have an NES as a kid?” asked Billy. “Yes, but I got it in 1988 for my 7th birthday, so um… a year and a half after the volcano.” said David. The third car was a vintage candy apple red Corvette Sting Ray convertible. “DUDE!” said Billy. He made sure to video every detail of the ‘Vette. Though its chrome was tarnished, and its paint faded, it was still in salvageable condition. Its tires had deflated from decades of sitting. “You know the owner and this car’s still fixable. You should get it taken out of here and restored.” said David. “I’ll contact Tim about that now. Once it’s restored, you’re all more than welcome to go for a spin in it. Ever been in a vintage Corvette?” asked Melissa. “I have, a couple times. A ’69 in high school, and a ’66 last summer.” said Billy. “This one’s a ’67 with a 427 Big Block in it.” said Melissa. “You sure you can handle all that power?” asked Dirk. “I’ve driven this very car before.” said Melissa. “Yeah, but now you’re old and your reflexes aren’t as good.” said Dirk. “Not cool.” said David. “Just kidding with you, Lissa.” said Dirk. After admiring the car for a few minutes, Melissa reminded everyone that time was running out during the day. The last berth was empty, so the explorers walked through a side door into a laundry room. The floors felt rock-solid. There were still clothes in the dryer, and new clothes hanging on a bar above the washer and dryer. The next room was the kitchen. The paint was peeling, and the ceiling material was starting to flake off, but the most notable thing about the room was a half-eaten McDonalds cheeseburger on a large, ornate wooden table. “I knew there wasn’t much time to get out, but a half-eaten cheeseburger? I guess when they said abandoned in a few minutes, they meant it.” said Billy. “We had to abandon quite fast. Do you want to hear my story from the evacuation?” asked Melissa. Every explorer gave an enthusiastic yes, and all sat down at the plush red chairs around the table. Billy asked if he could record Melissa. “Absolutely.” she said. “It was a Saturday night, March 28, 1987 just after 10 pm. I had just sat down to watch the new episode of Golden Girls, when suddenly I heard a loud rumble, and everything started to vibrate a little. I dropped the TV remote and looked outside. There were huge red rocks, maybe the size of a car, shooting out of the volcano. The emergency broadcast system suddenly came on, and in big red letters on the screen it said, ‘ALL RESIDENTS OF IZYDORCZAK, EVACUATE IMMEDIATELY.’ An announcer said that everyone needed to get as far away from the city as possible, that lava was going to start flowing down the mountain. I grabbed my wallet, left my house and ran across the street to check on my neighbors.” said Melissa. “I would have gotten the **** out of there.” said Dirk. “I knocked on one door and screamed ‘GET OUT! GET OUT!’ with the ground still vibrating and the volcano still spewing red hot, car sized rocks. I don’t think anyone was there, and there were no fatalities so if they were there, they made it out. I knocked on the next door, screaming some things that probably weren’t the most G-rated. There was a family inside, they were sleeping. They woke up, heard the volcano, and ran to their car to evacuate. By now there was starting to be a little traffic on the road. I ran back inside my house, opened my garage door, and got into my car. Billy, in case you’re wondering, it was a white 1986 Honda Accord LXI sedan. I put my seat belt on, turned up the heat, because it was below freezing that night. Then, I turned on the radio to 102.5, normally they played soft rock-type music like REO Speed Wagon and Peter Gabriel but that night they were saying on continuous loop, ‘ALL RESIDENTS OF IZYDORCZAK, EVACUATE THE CITY IMMEDIATELY. USE A CAR OR MOTORIZED VEHICLE.’ I barely got two houses down, and there was a woman running down the street, holding a baby, right next to my car. I yelled over to them to get in, I stopped the car, they got into the passenger seat and the woman tells me how her husband had the family car that night, and was thanking goodness that I picked her up.” said Melissa. “I can’t imagine! So, you had to leave everything behind, wondering if a flaming hot rock was going to crush you to death at any moment.” said Megan. “It was. The baby and the mom were crying. Everyone in Izzy was using the roads, so traffic was moving, probably, at 1 or 2 miles per hour on average. Walkers were piling into cars. Another walker opened my back door and got in. About 15 minutes later, everyone had gotten into a car, mine probably had 10 people in it, but the traffic was still backed up. People were driving through yards, which ended up only causing more gridlock. Some of the people in my car were telling me ‘go through the yards, go through the yards’. All the lights in the houses were left on, and some of the doors were left wide open.” said Melissa, pausing for a few seconds. “Then, probably 45 minutes after I left the house, there was a loud boom, the car shook a little bit, and all of the lights went out. A few minutes later, I saw a fire truck cutting through people’s yards, with its lights on, going up the hill. I’m thinking ‘what are you doing, you’re going to get yourself killed’. Then we started seeing the news helicopters flying toward the volcano, and by midnight or so we were getting updates on what was going on over the radio. They were saying that there was a ‘lip’ on the volcano that had kept the lava from going into the town so far, but the eruption was very unpredictable. It was the longest 3 hours of my life driving out of that town, until I finally got on the interstate. Once I got onto the interstate, traffic sped up to about 20 miles per hour, but it took me until about 4:30 in the morning to get to Kallal. We tried 3 hotels before we found a Days Inn that had vacancy, they were all packed with other Izzy evacuees. The hotel workers were under emergency orders to give us free accommodations. They put me and my group of about 12 people in two rooms. I had to stay in that hotel for 5 days before one of my sorority sisters from college called me up and said I could be her roommate; she took on the mother with her baby as well. This was on a Thursday, April 2. I finally moved out on June 30, when my insurance check came in. The mom and the baby stayed until August, I believe. I offered to let them move in with me in June, but they said they already had their things moved in with my sister.” said Melissa. “Wow, that was very noble of you to do that! So, you were an angel even back in 1987.” said Billy. He wanted to ask what sorority Melissa was in, being a college Greek himself, but decided to save the question for a more opportune time. “Yeah, I don’t think I would have stuck around. You’re a better person than I am.” said David. “Wow.” said Megan. With that story told, the explorers continued exploring the mansion. The large, fully equipped kitchen had about 50 linear feet of dark granite countertops and a huge stainless-steel fridge. Lining the countertops were a gas range, an oven, a microwave, two sinks, an electric food processor, a coffee grinder with bags of premium Colombian coffee beans still next to it, a coffee maker, a blender, a juicer, a waffle iron, a Crock Pot, a trash compactor, a pressure cooker, an industrial-grade dishwasher, a meat grinder, and a deep fryer. “Holy cow, I would love to have this kitchen in my house.” said Megan. “Somebody ought to fix up this house.” said David. Billy went to open the fridge. “Remember what happened in the airport.” said David. Billy decided against opening the fridge and decided to look in the pantry instead. The next room was the living room. Dead house plants sat at every corner of the room. In the center of the room, there were three large, plush leather couches facing a TV that was 10 feet tall and probably 5 feet thick. Next to the TV was a large stereo, with a shelf by it with about 60 CD cases and even more cassettes and vinyl records. Large speakers were next to the plants. The remotes for the TV and sound system were on an end table. “Oh, I bet a CD in this room would have sounded like being at a concert.” said Billy. “Actually, the early CDs sounded kind of tinny. A vinyl record would have been your best bet.” said Melissa. Then, David noticed something at the back end of the room – a Rembrandt etching. He called the explorers over. After poring over the etching closely, it was determined to be a reprint, but it had a date of 1717 on it – meaning it could still be worth tens of thousands of dollars. “How much is it worth?” asked Dirk. “50 bucks, maybe. They made thousands of these.” said Billy, lying to keep Dirk from trying to steal it. Melissa whispered something in Billy’s ear. “Tim kept the real valuable stuff in the party room, so everyone could see it.” There was also a fully upgraded Commander Dostim Plus computer on a desk in an alcove in the back of the room, about 10 feet to the right from the Rembrandt reprint. The setup was much like the one in the office at the computer factory. “Figures, the head of Commander has a Commander computer.” said David. “There are a lot more Commanders in here.” said Melissa. After finishing the living room, the explorers reached a huge, 3-story tall room with a grand staircase. A catwalk, going from one side of the third story to the other, hung above them. A now-deactivated fountain sat in the middle of the room, directly in front of the front door, with painted porcelain sculptures of ducks on plinths. There were tracks running along the bottom of the fountain. Presumably, when the fountain was in operation, the ducks would appear to be gliding on the water. Abstract paintings hung on the walls, and huge, 3-story tall windows covered the front wall of the foyer, bathing the room in natural light and allowing the explorers to switch off their flashlights. Sconces hung on the walls on all three floors would have provided light decades ago. The atmosphere reminded of a trendy office building lobby. One of the windows was cracked, revealing that the windows were made of laminated glass. All the sconces were still in place, and the ceiling and underside of the catwalk looked structurally intact. “That’s the importance of keeping a structure sealed. Once windows break or holes form, that’s when decay begins. Usually, that’s a lot sooner than 33 years.” said Billy. A pair of glass doors on the right-side wall of the foyer led to a large room with a dried-up swimming pool, perhaps 30 x 50 feet, in it. The walls were painted with palm trees and blue sky to simulate a beach, and wooden beach chairs, with small end tables next to them, sat around the pool on the Tuscan red cement floor tile. There were several bars stocked with soft drinks and bottled water around the pool. “Must have been nice to be able to swim 365 days a year.” said Megan. Melissa pointed to a spiral staircase in the corner of the room. “See that staircase? That led to an area dedicated just to parties and entertaining. When I went here the last time, a month before the volcano, Tim claimed that about one-third of people in Izzy had been in the house. That’s something like 20,000 people in three years.” “He must have thrown parties here every day.” said Billy. “More like an open house. The place was pretty much open on the weekends, you did have to be accompanied by a staff member if you wanted to go outside the entertaining area though.” said Melissa. “Wait a minute. If this place was abandoned, suddenly, on a Saturday night, then why isn’t there leftover food and stuff like that here?” asked Billy. “A few people got together about a week after the volcano, went back in and cleaned it up, because there would have been rotting food. As I understand it, they only spent a few minutes in there.” said Melissa. “Why would they care about rotting food if the town were totally abandoned? And why didn’t people just move out?” asked Billy. “Because, at that time they thought the evacuation was a temporary thing that might last a year at most, and Tim didn’t want vermin in the house for when he moved back in. But, even getting that food out was a risk, people actually coming to move stuff out would have been a huge risk.” said Melissa. Upon finding out there had been a party going on the night of the volcano, Dirk began scanning his EMP meter around the room for ghosts. It was empty yet again. After finishing the pool room, the explorers went back into the lobby. Melissa tested the stairs, just in case of hidden damage; they were rock solid. The rest of the explorers climbed them and went to the right, going into the entertainment room. The L-shaped room was quite large, larger than the pool room. There were stone brick walls and plush carpeting. There was a roller-skating rink covering about 40 percent of the room, at the top of the L; the wooden floor of it was slightly warped. A shelf adjacent to the rink had skates still on it. In another section of the room, there were several arcade machines lined up against a wall – Out Run, Commando, Pac-Man, Arkanoid, Galaga, Dragon’s Lair, Demolition Derby, Donkey Kong, and a few more obscure games. All were sit-down or converted to be sit-down, with plush leather chairs behind each machine. The machines, while covered in dust, otherwise looked exactly as they had over 33 years ago. Next to the arcade machines were two TV’s, one hooked up to an NES and one a Sega Master System, and a computer desk with a fully upgraded Dostim Plus. There was a shelf on the desk, filled with Dostim, NES and Master System games. A pool table was on the other side, the sticks still hung up on their racks. Billy and David looked through the arcade machines and video games. “I didn’t know that Johnny the Duck was that old. I played it in the early ‘90s.” said David, referring to a Dostim game. “I’ve just been so overwhelmed today… this whole town is a gold mine.” said Billy. In the spur of the L, there was another kitchen, like the one downstairs, but with several buffet tables adjacent. They were still stained with the scars of the food that was in them on that fateful night. A long dining table, made of teak wood, had chairs for 20 people. Unfortunately, the only thing left at the table was a dead floral arrangement, its dried-out leaves reaching out of its container. The explorers left the room, went up another flight of stairs, and got to the third floor. To the right, there were several rooms, labeled “Music”, “Theater”, “Gallery”, and “Jacuzzi”, connected by a small hallway. The explorers, except Dirk, all went to the music room first, which was a square, about 25 feet on each side, and featured a DJing booth in one corner, folded chairs against one wall, and a dance floor. The walls of the room were wood paneling, with minimal decoration, and the floor was wooden parquet. The CD player on the DJ booth had a glass window, so the explorers could see what was in there – a CD of “Rock Me Amadeus”. Billy started to sing quietly to himself. “Amadeus, Amadeus…” before catching himself to film the room. His SD card was about 75% full, just from this mansion. The explorers heard a muffled “DANGIT!” coming from a nearby room. In the art gallery room, which was perhaps 25 x 40 feet and directly next to the music room, Dirk had discovered paintings by historic masters worth hundreds of thousands of dollars – but they were all sealed behind Plexiglas. There were perhaps 50 paintings in the room, which had blonde oak floors minimalist white painted walls with slightly peeling paint; a few of the paintings would have been small enough to sneak into his pocket. Melissa and David rushed into the room, leaving Billy and Megan, who stayed in the room a minute longer. “What’s your favorite 80’s song?” asked Billy. “Last Christmas by WHAM.” said Megan. “Love that song too.” said Billy. Billy and Megan caught up with the rest of the group in the art gallery. Billy didn’t find the artworks very interesting. “I never liked art class much.” he said as he filmed the room. Despite being the last in the room, he was the first out, heading across the hall to the jacuzzi room, which was rather unremarkable – it had a jacuzzi and a changing room. He only used a few seconds of his video on it before heading to the final room, a movie theater. The movie theater had a higher ceiling than the others, with a TV that was about 15 feet high and 20 feet wide on one wall of the room. Large speakers were at each corner of the room, and burgundy curtains lined the walls. At the back of the room was a refrigerator and a countertop, with a large bucket of various snacks on it. The refrigerator was labeled “Soda”, so Billy opened it, finding vintage cans of Coke, RC, ginger ale, grape soda, and iced tea. Billy filmed the room and interior of the fridge and then went to sit on one of the large, butterscotch-colored easy chairs facing the screen; there were 6 rows, with 6 seats each, arranged like stadium-style seating in a modern theater. He waited on the rest of the group. After the rest of the group arrived, Billy and Melissa found a door to a small adjoining room. The room’s door was behind one of the curtains and painted the same color as the walls, but a hinge had been visible. Once the explorers were done with the movie theater itself, Billy pointed them toward the door to the adjoining room. The room was small and undecorated, with plain white walls and a plain green carpet floor. A Dostim Plus computer sat on a white table, connected by several wires to a large black machine designed to take film reels, which in turn connected to the television through several wires that ran through holes cut in the wall. The machine was called a “Tristar Film System”, and, of course, it was made by Commander Computer. It was sort of like a VCR that could hold the same film reels that a movie theater would use, and it could hold three of them; a large switch on the front controlled which of the movies would be played. “Lethal Weapon”, “Blind Date”, and “Mannequin” were the films in the machine. “Blind Date. I fell asleep when I saw that movie.” said David. “I’ve only seen Mannequin, in high school. Very ‘80s cheesy, don’t remember much else. Saw it in a marketing class.” said Billy. “I’ve seen all three, and I’d have to say Lethal Weapon is my favorite.” said Melissa. “You don’t strike me as the type who would watch Lethal Weapon.” said Dirk. “Oh yeah. I love me a good chase in a movie.” said Melissa. More ‘80s blockbuster films were stored along another wall of the room, but a ladder attracted the most attention. A pull cord was attached to a door on the ceiling that would lead to a “hidden” 4th floor. Melissa knew what was behind it but didn’t spoil the surprise. She pulled the cord, and all but Megan climbed the ladder, one at a time. “When I was in college, one of my sorority sisters told me about the ‘duck room’. I didn’t believe it, until I came here a month before the volcano.” said Melissa. The room seemed to be a shrine to ducks; there were paintings of ducks, taxidermied ducks on the wall, duck sculptures, and hundreds of rubber ducks on shelves. In addition, there were records of the song “Disco Duck”, VHS tapes featuring Donald Duck, and pretty much anything else that was associated with ducks, whether real or cartoon. This room, which was about 2,000 square feet on its own, was jam-packed with duck-related memorabilia. The hardwood floor had a painting of a duck on it. “Someone likes ducks.” said Billy. “Yeah, what’s with the ducks?” asked Dirk. “Tim was born on January 12th, Duck Day. As a kid, he used to get a lot of rubber ducks as presents. He sort of made it his thing. When he went into the business world, he put the duck thing aside, at least in the public eye. He thought it would be embarrassing, but word started getting around that he was ‘Duck Man’, and people thought it was an adorable quirk. People would ask to see the Duck Room; he was getting ready to put in a staircase and turn the room into a museum.” said Melissa. “Yeah, but what the heck does January 12 have to do with ducks?” asked Dirk. “It’s a holiday that started among the duck hunters of Izzy. Duck season is usually in the winter, and someone noticed that they always got the most ducks on January 12, several years in a row. That’s where it came from.” said Melissa. “Guess they don’t celebrate Duck Day in your neck of the woods, because it’s huge where I am.” said Billy, as he made sure to film every inch and artifact of the room. “I’m out of space on my SD card.” said Billy, with just 1 minute and 14 seconds left of video space on his card after filming the room. “Do you want to finish the mansion or go somewhere else?” asked Melissa. “Is there anything interesting left in the mansion?” asked Billy. “Really, just a few bedrooms. We’ve done probably 70% of it. We can come back later if you want to see the rest.” said Melissa. “Yeah, let’s head out.” said Billy. Everyone else agreed. The explorers left the mansion over an hour older than they entered it. As they left, Billy asked the question that had been on his mind. “What sorority were you in, Melissa?” “Kappa Xi Delta.” “I’m a Kappa Man at my school, Southern Helmintoller University. I love KXiD, they are so nice.” said Billy. He did half of the Kappa Xi Delta hand sign with his right hand, and Melissa finished it with her left. “Kappa Xi Delta there are lucky to have you.” said Melissa. Billy gave her a side hug.

Chapter 8 coming soon. Melissa tells her story of evacuating Izzy on March 28, 1987. Also, I'm test-driving a 2021 Honda Odyssey Elite next Monday, October 26! This is the van that is like the one Melissa drives. Hers is a 2018, the '21 has some changes but is the same body style.

Chapter 7 Back in the van, Melissa started driving, looking for a good spot for the explorers to eat lunch. “Hey, interstate’s the other way, dumb***.” said Dirk. Melissa, unfazed by the insult, soon pulled the van over in a large, relatively intact parking lot, at the boundary of the commercial and residential districts, across from a large mansion. The explorers got out of the van as Melissa hit the tailgate button on the dash. She asked if someone could help her remove a large white box from the cargo area of the van, and Billy obliged. Three large blankets were underneath the box. Inside the box was a small battery powered fridge, a small Weber grill, a potato slicer, a pot, tongs, bottled water, Cokes, cooking gloves, paper towels, utensils, plates, a bowl, olive oil, Neely’s dry rub, and Purell hand sanitizer. “So that’s why we put what we liked to eat on the online signup sheet. Do you need any more help?” said Billy. “I think I’m good.” said Melissa. “This woman came prepared.” said David. Melissa got the blankets out, found a section of ground with no overgrowth, and laid them down. She then opened the fridge, revealing five packaged well-marbled ribeye steaks and five large Idaho potatoes, along with A-1 steak sauce, butter, salt and pepper, and ketchup. “Oh my gosh, those steaks look delicious!” said Billy. Melissa set the steaks on a plate in the cargo area of the van to warm up and washed her hands with sanitizer. She turned the grill on low, put the gloves on, poured some of the bottled water in the pot, and started boiling the potatoes. As she cooked, Billy did some filming, and she and the other explorers talked about events in their lives and places that they wanted to go in Izzy. “I want to see that hospital where they gave insane people Thorazine. I saw a video, taken in Izzy, where a murderer tried to run up the hill behind the hospital, but they caught him and handcuffed him in the snow. Maybe his ghost is up there.” said Dirk. “I’ve seen that video too. I want to see that hospital, but I’m not chomping at the bit for it yet. I want to get to the university.” said Billy. “1982? He could still be alive.” said Megan. “He did die in Izzy, I think in 1984 at the hospital about a half-mile that way.” said Melissa, pointing east. “Was Izzy a dangerous town?” asked Megan. “Izzy was a very safe town. You’d hear about the occasional robbery or something like that, usually on the east side of town. I think there was more crime before I came along, but in the ‘60s, ‘70s and ‘80s we never talked about it much.” said Melissa. “Izzy seems like a good place to have grown up.” said Billy. The explorers continued to converse, and the fifteen minutes before the fries were done seemed to fly by. Melissa sanitized her hands again, and then asked how everyone wanted their steaks cooked: Dirk said well-done, Megan said medium, David medium-rare and Billy “still mooing”. Melissa’s steak would be cooked medium, like Megan’s. “Enjoy your food poisoning.” said Dirk. “Enjoy your shoe leather.” said Billy. Melissa put the five steaks on the grill and turned up the heat. Billy’s steak only took a couple minutes to cook, David’s, Megan’s and Melissa’s were done within a few minutes of Billy’s, but Dirk’s took a while. Billy and David looked slightly annoyed but waited patiently for Dirk’s steak to finish before Melissa portioned out the steaks, fries, plates, and utensils, also putting out the ketchup and steak sauce. At this time, she also closed the grill. Billy filmed part of the cooking process, using up the last space on his second memory card. “You cook like you have a lot of experience. How long have you been cooking steaks?” asked Billy. “I learned how to cook them my freshman year of college, late 1982 or early ‘83.” said Melissa. Billy cut into his steak, finding a thin strip of brown around the outside and a cool, red, nearly raw center. Pouring some sauce on his plate, he cut his steak into strips and took the first bite. “Wow! You’re the only person who can cook steaks as good as my mom’s! This is delicious!” exclaimed Billy. “Thank you very much! I’m glad it turned out good.” said Melissa. “Yeah, this is delicious. You have a real talent.” said Megan. “Wow, I didn’t know we had a master chef with us. You should go on TV.” said David. “This steak is **** good.” said Dirk. A few minutes later, Melissa put the grill and fridge back in the box after everyone agreed their steaks were perfectly cooked and they had all the condiments they needed. Just a minute later, Dirk’s praise would turn to disappointment when he saw a slight hint of a faint pink in the center of his steak, which he had already half eaten. He showed it to everyone. “My steak is undercooked.” said Dirk. “I can throw it back on the grill if you want.” said Melissa. “It looks fine to me.” said David. “I ate well-done years ago, and that looks like a perfect well-done.” said Billy. Melissa went to get the grill back out of the van. “Really, Dirk? Just eat the d*** steak.” said Billy. She put Dirk’s steak on the grill and fired the grill back up as Billy, Megan and David finished up their steaks. A short time later, the steak was done and fully brown on the inside. Dirk took a bite. “It’s overcooked. You messed it up.” he said, literally throwing the rest of the steak out. Melissa put the grill back up and finished eating her steak. “Melissa bends over backwards for you, and you walk all over her.” said Billy. “It’s okay, Billy.” said Melissa. “Sorry, I just get a little upset when I see people I care about treated like garbage. Thank you for the delightful steaks.” said Billy. “Yeah, don’t let Dirk get you down.” said Megan. The explorers wanted a few minutes to let their food settle before heading to their next location, so all but Dirk helped clean up, and then they got back in the van to relax. After about 20 minutes, they were ready to start exploring again, starting with the mansion across the street.

Chapter 1 The plan was to meet at the McDonalds on the west side of Kallal City on Saturday, September 26 at 7 am. This Mickey D’s was chosen because it was the last bastion of civilization for the next 60 miles, and thus was the closest place to the ghost town that the group of five explorers, accompanied by one of the town’s former residents, would meet at. The Mickey D’s wouldn’t open until 8, so there wouldn’t be any customers there. The weather only added to the desolate atmosphere; it was 54 degrees, windy, with a pall of clouds and a thin fog. Billy was the first to arrive, a man who appeared to be in his early 20s, about 6’ tall with short mousy brown hair and a medium-stocky build. He was wearing a beat-up Sonic the Hedgehog shirt and long khakis. He pulled his white 2014 Honda Accord in at 6:35 am. This was followed by Melissa, the group leader, just two minutes later, in a black 2018 Honda Odyssey Elite van, who parked two spaces to the right of Billy. She had medium-length blonde hair and was of a medium build. She was wearing a Kelly-green T-shirt, a light jacket, and khaki pants. As soon as Melissa arrived, Billy got out of his car, and Melissa got out of her van. They met in the parking space between their cars. “Hi, I’m Billy. Are you here for the Izzy trip?” “Hi, I’m Melissa. I’m here for the trip.” “Oh, you’re the organizer of the trip,” said Billy, having seen the name on the invitation. “I’ve been waiting for this day for months. I’ve been into Izzy since I was a kid. I’ve studied on it on the Internet for 15 years, and I’ve seen every picture I could get a hold of, but I’ve always wanted to go myself, but it’s been so dangerous until the last couple years. I wasn’t even born until 8 years after Izzy was abandoned, so I like the time capsule aspect, seeing a place frozen in time since before I was born. Have you ever been to Izzy?” asked Billy. “Been to it? Oh, I just lived there the first 23 years of my life.” said Melissa, chuckling. Billy was awed. “First off, you are not 56 years old. I might believe you lived in Izzy as a child, but no way you’re over 45. Second, I’m doing a video on Izzy, and I don’t want this to be awkward, but do you mind if I film you giving some stories from your time living there? I don’t have to put your face in it.” “You’re more than welcome to, and you can put my face in too. Glad to help you with your video.” said Melissa. “I’ll keep your secret about being 56.” said Billy. “Why’s it gotta be a secret? I don’t care if people know how old I am. They’ll figure it out anyway.” said Melissa, chuckling slightly as she pat Billy on the shoulder. They’d only met minutes ago, and Billy already felt like he could be fully himself around Melissa. I’ve hit the jackpot, he thought. I never thought my trip to Izzy would be this good. “Let me get my cameras.” said Billy, grabbing a small backpack from his back seat. He put the bag on his back. “You can put your bag in the van if you’d like.” said Melissa. Billy opened the right rear door of the van and put his bag in the middle, between the first and second rows of seats. After a couple minutes standing, they got in the van, Melissa in the driver’s seat and Billy in the passenger seat and talked until the rest arrived. A young woman was the next to arrive; at 6:56 am, she pulled her red 2014 Ford Escape as Melissa and Billy got out to greet her. She looked about Billy’s age. About 5’4”, with medium length brown hair and a light-medium build, Megan was rather attractive. She was wearing a “University of South Helmintoller” hoodie and jeans. “Hey guys! I’m Megan.” “Hey!” said Melissa and Billy, simultaneously. “Whoa, Ms. Melissa, I didn’t know you were on this trip!” exclaimed Megan. “Well, Murphy’s a common last name.” said Melissa. “You know Melissa?” asked Billy. “She’s my favorite professor I’ve ever had. She’s very nice and a great teacher. I’m looking forward to this.” said Megan. Right at the stroke of 7, the fourth member of the trip arrived, a man who appeared to be around 40, give or take. He was about 6’2”, with short red hair and a medium build, wearing a white shirt with a pocket and jeans. He was driving a blue 2008 Nissan Pathfinder. “Hi,” said the man. “I’m David.” he said, reaching out his right hand to do a handshake. Melissa, Billy, and Megan introduced themselves, shaking David’s hand. His handshake was sure and firm. The four got in the van, Billy getting the front seat because of his photographic equipment. To give Megan and David more room and for easy access, Billy put his DSLR, associated equipment, and flash memory cards in the glove box. After a few minutes of talking, David revealed that he was born in Izzy. “I was actually born in Izzy, but I was just 5 when I left. All my things, my old toys and books are still in my house in West Izzy, right near the volcano. This is the first time I’ve been there since the volcano, and I just want to see what became of my old town.” “Where’s your old house? We can go there.” asked Melissa. “255 Balboa Road. When you get into town, you just keep going north. It’s past the two blue towers.” said David. “I know exactly where that is. I lived on Wood Road, just across the little commercial district toward the mountain.” said Melissa. “The blue towers, are those the Western House Towers?” asked Billy. “That’s the one. I’d forgotten what they were called. Do you have family from Izzy?” asked David. “No, I’ve just researched Izzy for many years, always wanted to go,” said Billy. “Never been.” “This trip is a birthday present for me. I turn 39 next Wednesday.” said David. “Hmmm… 9/30/81… That makes you born on a Wednesday.” said Billy. “Wow, you’re smart.” said David. “What day of the week was April 28, 1964?” asked Melissa. “Tuesday.” answered Billy. After Billy told Megan that Oct. 28, 1998 was a Wednesday, and Dec. 24, 1995, his own birthday, was a Sunday, the conversation went back to Izzy. Eventually, David noticed that it was 7:26, and they hadn’t left yet. “Why haven’t we left? We’re almost 30 minutes behind.” said David. “We have one more coming.” said Melissa. “I say, if he isn’t here by 7:40, we leave,” said David. “I think a 40-minute grace period is plenty.” 7:40 came and went, and Billy, David, and Megan all wanted to leave. Finally, Melissa decided that she would leave at 8. The employees of the McDonalds arrived to start their workdays. At 7:58, a red 1998 Pontiac Firebird roared into the parking lot. It was rusty and loud, in an obnoxious way. The Firebird parked right next to Billy. A man, about 5’10”, of muscular build, with a goatee and tattoos, came out. Oh gosh, please don’t let this be the last member of our party, thought Billy. Melissa rolled down her driver window. “Hi. Are you here for the Izzy trip?” asked Melissa. “Yeah bro.” said the man. “Come on in.” said Melissa. “Shotgun!” shouted the man. He opened the passenger door, only to find Billy sitting there. “Sorry, if you wanted the front seat, you shouldn’t have gotten here an hour late.” said Billy. “Billy needs the front seat for his photo equipment.” said Melissa. Megan opened the back right door, and the man got in the third row of the van. Melissa backed out of the parking spot and started on the trip. “What’s your name?” asked Billy. “Dirk,” said the man. “I thought we were going to be in a bada** Jeep or something.” “What are your plans for this trip?” asked Melissa. “I’m going to find me some ghosts.” said Dirk, pulling an EMF meter out of his pocket. “I don’t think there are any ghosts here. Just abandoned buildings with a lot of ‘80s stuff inside.” said David. “Bruh. Have you ever seen that show Ghost Catchers?” asked Dirk. “I was born in this town, and I’ve never heard of any ghosts.” said David. “I guess there could be some ghosts, but I doubt it.” said Billy. “This place is ****ing crawling with ghosts,” said Dirk. “It’s been abandoned for, what, 50 years?” “33.” said Melissa.

Chapter 6 The explorers got back in the van for another three-block ride, leaving the industrial district and entering a commercial district. Melissa parked the van on the side of the road, in front of some shops, and the explorers got out and started walking along the road, looking for buildings that would be interesting and relatively safe to explore. One of the first buildings to catch their eyes was a gas station with a two-story convenience store attached. The entire top floor of the building had buckled in the middle and fallen into the first floor, turning the first floor into a sort of “bucket” that held both its own contents and the destroyed contents and structure of the second floor. The convenience store’s exterior was finished in rustic wood shingles. “Wow. That store’s seen better days. Anyone want to take a look?” asked Billy. The other explorers agreed and walked into the store’s parking lot, which was now mostly a grass field. A sign said, “Checker Gas”, priced at 95 cents for unleaded, $1.00 for premium unleaded, $1.00 for diesel, and $1.10 for leaded. “I’ve never seen a Checker Gas before, or gas that cheap. I do remember it being $1.20 or $1.30 when I was a little kid.” said Billy. “I haven’t seen a Checker since maybe 1990. They’re long out of business.” said David. There were 12 green, rusting, old-style gas pumps underneath a large green detached awning, about 10 feet in front of the store, that had somehow stayed standing. One of the nozzles had been left disconnected and hanging. The store itself had so much debris inside that it was totally impassable, but through the broken windows, the explorers could see what looked like rotting wooden beams and 1980s snack food packages put in a blender. The floor had a green-and-white checkerboard pattern. David saw the gas station as a backdrop to get his picture taken. He asked Melissa to take his picture on his phone, and she obliged. Meanwhile, Billy filmed what he could through the windows, Dirk scanned for ghosts, and Megan stayed with Billy. After just a few minutes at the gas station, the explorers walked to the building next door, a small strip mall. This was a one-story building that was still standing; the walls were made of a light beige brick, with a black shingle roof. Most of the windows were broken. There were 5 stores: a toy store, two clothing stores, a sports bar, and a hair salon. The building was quite dirty and decayed, but the roof, while missing shingles, looked structurally intact. “Where do you all want to go?” asked Melissa. “Toy store.” said Billy. “Yeah, I’m not that into fashion. I want to see the toys I grew up on.” said David. Confounded by the vast difference in condition between the gas station and strip mall, Billy asked when the buildings were built. “This part of town was first developed in the 1950s, I believe. The east side of town was first, in the ‘20s and ‘30s, then the south side we’re in during the ‘50s, then the west side, up toward the mountain, in the ‘60s and ‘70s.” said Melissa. “Hmmm. Probably differences in maintenance, or construction quality.” said Billy. Walking up to the store, they could see that it was called “Toy Safari”, but all of the letters, each about 8” tall, had fallen off and were laying on the ground. Megan decided to stay outside, only looking into the store through the front windows with her smartphone’s zoom. In the front window of the store, a bird’s nest sat on a Transformers standee; the standee itself was faded, and it and some of the action figures within had bird droppings on them. Crossing a threshold of broken glass and deftly dodging the fallen letters, the rest of the explorers entered the toy store. Due to the small space, Melissa stayed with Dirk, while David stayed with Billy. Inside the store, there was a noticeably musty smell that was quite significant even through the masks. The store was about 30 feet wide, maybe 100 feet deep. The toys were mostly still on the shelves, arranged in four aisles, although a shelf in aisle 1 had fallen, spilling racks of Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots, He-Man action figures and Superman action figures on the floor. Billy was a bit disappointed that there were no video games, while David was elated to see toys he’d had as a kid, frozen in time. Flaked off pieces of the ceiling covered the toys on the top shelf; the ceiling itself was very moldy, deteriorated, and cracked, but still structurally barely hanging on. At the front of aisle 1 were Lego sets; somewhat ironically, Lego Town playsets were heavily featured. Next to them were other building sets; Construx, Erector Set, Lincoln Logs, and more generic-branded blocks. There were about 50 feet worth of building sets, ending just a few feet from the fallen shelf, stacked floor-to-ceiling. David dug into a 1000-brick Lego set, building a simple tower before taking it apart and putting it back in the box. “If this place were made of Lego, we could just re-build everything.” said David. “Reminds me of that Simpsons episode where everything was made of Lego.” said Billy. “I loved Legos as a kid. Had many of those Town sets, but most of that was after I left Izzy.” said David. “I loved them too, but I always got the sets that weren’t pre-made. Liked the creativity. Do you mind if I video you reminiscing over the Lego sets?” said Billy. David approved, and Billy got his first video of David reminiscing; he already had several scenes of Melissa recounting her time in Izzy. Meanwhile, Dirk led Melissa into aisle 4, walking past the cash registers. He was drawn to the “dangerous” toys in the store; the Daisy air guns and lawn darts. Midway through line 4, he saw the lawn darts display. “Aww, they’re the ***** plastic tips, not the real ones. Did you ever play with the real ones?” asked Dirk. “Yes, quite often in fact, until I was 8. Then one hit me in the back of the leg, near my ankle, and I had to go to the emergency room. I couldn’t walk for a week because it cut a muscle in my leg. I still have the scar from it.” said Melissa. “Can I see the scar?” asked Dirk. Melissa pulled up the back of her pants leg slightly, showing Dirk the scar about six inches above her ankle. “Gnarly. Does it still hurt?” asked Dirk. “No, it’s fine. Just a rough patch of skin.” said Melissa. David and Billy turned around upon reaching the fallen shelf, looping back around, and going down aisle 2, where they saw board games. “Wow, they had Go for Broke here. My grandparents had that game, that’s how I remember it.” said Billy. “Even I don’t remember that one.” said David. Billy and David continued exploring the aisles in ascending order, as Melissa and Dirk came the opposite way. Then, David froze. In a small open space behind the aisles, he saw the toy he’d longed for as a kid – a Thomas the Tank Engine toy train set. Against the back wall of the store, there were dozens of blue boxes about 24” high x 30” wide x 16’ deep, stacked three high, with the train sets in them; folded-up tables sat in long, brown boxes. The boxes were warped and buckled from moisture exposure. A price banner, laying on the floor after the tape holding it to one of the boxes had failed, said $149.99 for the train set and table combination. A table, with a train set already set up on it, sat on the floor. It was about two feet high and suffering from some dry rot. David blew some dust off one of the trains and gingerly moved it around the track for a couple minutes, until Melissa and Dirk finished their exploration of the store. “I wanted one of these for Christmas back when I was 5. One of my few memories in Izzy is playing with this very train set during the weeks leading up to Christmas 1986. My parents brought me to Kay Dee Toys a few times, and I got everything I wanted on my Christmas list, except for the train set. My parents got me one of those off-brand train sets, it had about half what this one did. They told me they’d get me the real thing for my birthday. Of course, the volcano hit, and my birthday was just 6 months later, so they still had more important things on their mind. I grew out of Thomas the Tank Engine after a couple years, but I never forgot that train set. Thanks for letting me relive a piece of my childhood.” said David. The explorers were all touched by the speech. Melissa gave David a pat on the shoulder. Even Dirk was moved. On that touching moment, and with it nearing 1 pm, the explorers left the toy store for another place, catching up with Megan, who was in the van. Billy showed her a few pictures of the inside of the toy store. Megan stayed in the van once she found out the next exploration target: a real estate office located 200 feet down the street. This was a two-story building, about 2,000 square feet total. It had a rather Italianate look, with yellow-beige stucco walls and burgundy ceiling tiles on its hipped roof. Even from the outside, the explorers could see that this building was in far worse condition than the toy store. Roof tiles were missing, with holes formed in the roof. The windows were all broken out. There was a hole in the wall on the second floor, about four feet wide and half the height of the floor. A pile of bricks lay under the hole. Whatever signage was on the building had long disappeared, but Melissa demystified things, giving a historical explanation in the parking lot to the explorers. “This is the old Brambling Real Estate office. It was a family run business, owned by a man named John Brambling. Their logo was a, sort of stylized, black and gold brambling bird to play off that. John had been a football superstar at Central Izzy High School in the ‘60s. He founded his real estate agency probably sometime in the ‘70s, I know by 1986 it was one of the biggest real estate agencies in town. All my friends told me to go to Brambling or Enter Realty. I went to Brambling the last month I was in college before I graduated. I had a good job lined up as a feature writer for the Izzy City Herald making 30 grand a year, so I came to Brambling and looked at the house listings they had and went to a few open houses. I got a nice two-story, 2,500 square foot house up on the hill for $130,000. It was built in 1973 and had just been renovated top to bottom. I saw the house and saw that it was the one for me, and I moved in on July 18, 1986. Brambling had the best service, they told me everything I needed to know and got me a well-maintained home at a good price. I think he’s still a real estate agent.” said Melissa. “Aw, I want to see your old house, if it’s still there!” said Billy. “I was here last year, and it’s still there and structurally pretty stable. You’re more than welcome to see it. It’s 126 Lampley Road. We’ll actually all get there later on.” said Melissa. The explorers walked through the agency’s front door, into a large room, maybe 20 feet wide and 30 feet deep, with a dark oak wood floor, a peeling brown and beige wallpaper, and elegant pendant light fixtures. There was a large hole in the ceiling at the rear of the room where a section of floor, about 3 x 4 feet, had collapsed on the upper floor. Large, overstuffed leather chairs sat at the front of the room, in a small lobby area. A bit further back, there was an empty water cooler, and two identical desks, both with a Commander 64K computer and three chairs around them, one behind the computer where the agent would sit, and two on the opposite side where the prospective buyers would sit. On those sides of the desk, moldy, mildewed pages in binders showed houses that had been for sale. Under the hole in the ceiling, pieces of wood from the upper floor and two chairs had fallen onto the broker’s chair on the rear desk. As the explorers went forward, they found the floor inside the room largely stable. Billy thumbed through the pages of one, amazed at the houses one could get for the low prices. A 2,367 square foot house, built in 1974, on the slopes of a volcano then-dormant for centuries for $120,000 would be a good deal even adjusted for inflation. The other explorers gathered around him. Even after seeing all the abandoned artifacts left behind, seeing pictures of houses, all prepped for sale and decorated, from 33 years earlier was a surreal experience. They perused the binder on the desk in the front for a few minutes. Billy got the pictures in his filming. “Such a shame. All that work to prep those houses, and they never got a chance to sell.” he said. In a central hallway, the explorers found a staircase and climbed it. Going to the right, they found the room just above the one they’d just been in. It looked like its downstairs counterpart, other than having several roof leaks and the aforementioned collapsed section of floor, which a desk tilted precariously toward. While the other explorers stayed on a relatively stable piece of floor near the staircase, Melissa put her left foot on the floor; it felt very spongy, like if she stepped on it, it would immediately collapse. Not wanting to risk it, she turned around. “Floor’s bad in there. You might not want to go in.” said Melissa. After they went back down the stairs, Melissa shared another memory. “I sat in one of those very chairs that fell through the floor as I signed the deed to my house.” They left the building to head to their next building, which they decided would be their final building on this walk before heading back to the van for something else. A Cadillac dealer got the honors. Dirk saw the rows of old luxury cars next to a crumbling glass-fronted building, and the explorers went across the street to the dealership. “Let’s look at this stealership” said Dirk. The explorers looked at the cars on the lot first – there had to be at least 100 rotting 1987 Cadillacs, all with very few miles, here. The paint was severely degraded on all of them, to the point that rusty bare metal covered some one-third of the total surface area, and the tires had deflated over the years at different rates, leaving the cars tilted at odd angles. About half of all the car windows had broken. Various molds, mosses, and even full-sized plants grew out of the cars. The showroom’s front wall was entirely made of windows, and they were all broken; part of the roof had collapsed. The Allantes were the first thing the explorers looked at. This was a soft-top convertible that had just launched months before the volcano. Billy and David explored them, while Melissa and Dirk explored other Allantes. The Allante that Billy and David went to first appeared to have once been gold with a burgundy interior but was now ransacked. The convertible top’s fabric had completely dislodged and fallen into the car. Large pieces had fallen off the severely cracked dashboard. The steering wheel was missing its hub. The seat frames showed where the cushioning had rotted away. Much of the interior and exterior was coated in a green mold, and mosses grew out of the interior of the car. “Cadillacs of the late 80s were junk anyway. My uncle had a ’81 Deville when I was little, he loved the thing. Then, he got an ’85 Deville because it was the new design. He said it rode like an ox-cart compared to the ’81. He swore off Cadillacs until recently, he got a ’17 Escalade and is happy with it.” said David. “Glad he likes his new Escalade. I’ve been in one, they’re really nice.” said Billy. “One of my college friends test-drove an Allante when it came out. I think it was actually a couple days before it officially launched, he got up early one morning and test drove it. He told me it wasn’t worth the $55,000. Same guy test-drove a new Ferrari, I don’t know how the heck he pulled that off. He was only a few years older than me; I think he was born in 1961 and drove a late 70s Chevy Monte Carlo.” said Melissa. “What was a college kid doing driving a new Ferrari? Surely they knew he wasn’t going to buy it.” said Dirk. “That’s my dad.” said Billy. “Quit BS-ing.” said Dirk. “No, really, his name is Dave Alexander, and he was born November 12, 1961. He used to test-drive a lot of cars back then.” said Billy. “You know what they say about Scorpios, they’re weird.” said Dirk. “It’s not about the zodiac sign, it’s about the person.” said Melissa. After looking at a few more unsalvageable decayed Cadillacs, the explorers decided to look in the building. The grey carpet was covered in leaves, and a Seville and Coupe de Ville were in similar condition to the cars outside, but underneath the section of collapsed roof was a navy-blue Sedan de Ville crushed to about a foot tall. Billy made sure to film the pancaked Cadillac with as much detail as he could get, one of the most interesting things he’d seen so far. After a few more minutes of exploring, they were ready to move on. “I’m hungry.” said Billy. “Who’s up for lunch?” asked Melissa. Everyone agreed; it was 1:31 pm after all. [Disclaimer: the characters in this story are fictional. Any similarity to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.]

Chapter 5 Back in the van, Billy put the test reports in the door pocket, opened the glove box, and switched out the memory cards on his camera. Melissa drove the van the 600 feet or so over to the computer factory, with Billy in the passenger’s seat. The clock in the van said 11:26 AM; it hadn’t felt like almost 2½ hours had passed. At the factory, they found Megan standing outside the factory. Melissa parked the van, and both got out and walked up to Megan. The factory was a one-story, overgrown brick building. The shingled roof was a mess, and was missing many of its shingles, but was structurally sound. “What are you doing out here?” asked Melissa. “I don’t feel comfortable going in there. It looks dangerous.” said Megan. “Feel free to stay out here. I’ll leave the van on. If you need anything, feel free to contact me,” said Melissa. “Billy, do you want to go in?” “Absolutely.” said Billy, and Billy and Melissa walked toward the entrance. “How bad is it in there?” asked Billy, over the walkie-talkie to David. “Not too bad. The floors are fine. Really interesting stuff in here.” said David. Melissa opened the door and walked into the factory lobby. “David says it’s not bad inside. You sure you don’t want to go in?” asked Billy. “I guess I’ll give it a look.” said Megan, who walked into the factory with Billy. Melissa held the door for them. Inside, the plaster drop ceiling in the lobby had largely flaked away to the ground, its material accumulating like snow on the grey carpet. On the wall, behind a desk, the sign said “C an r C p r”; the remaining letters of “Commander Computer” were piled up on the floor. Melissa, Megan, and Billy went inside the main factory floor, a massive room, perhaps 50,000 square feet, with no ceiling. The roof was still there, if sagging in a few places. Pipes and ducting ran through the roof, hanging down in a few places. The concrete floor was mostly clear of debris, save for one 10-foot long piece of air conditioner ducting that had fallen. There were about 20 long tables, in rows about 10 feet apart, about chest high, with chairs by them and computer parts and computers in various stages of completion as far as the eye could see. At the head of the assembly line on Row 1 was a pile of green silicon sheets, about 4 x 6 inches; down the line was a machine, which had the wiring pattern that would go on the motherboard. Further down the line was a station called “Motherboard Inspection”, with a magnifying glass, a completed motherboard, and a blue leather office chair that the inspector would sit in. Then, there were stations with boxes of computer chips and soldering guns. At the other end of the room, near the end of the row, were cases, stacked up against a wall; this is where case and motherboard were joined together, completing the production of the computer on one continuous line about 150 feet long or so. Billy walked quickly through the aisles to David and Dirk, who were at the head of Row 1. Megan walked slower and more hesitantly, and Melissa stayed with her for reassurance. They reached the row two minutes later; during those several minutes David and Dirk looked at the adjacent rows, finding them to make the same type of computer as Row 1; Billy walked down Row 1, filming the entire row in one continuous shot before going back to the top of the row just as Melissa and Megan met up with them. Together, the explorers walked down Row 1 together; Billy didn’t reveal what type of computer that the line made. As they walked by the chip boxes, Billy picked up a few MOS 6502 processor chips and looked at the dates. They seemed to be made at random times between January and March 1987. The end of the line revealed the computer to be a Commander 64K, an extremely popular computer of its era. “Cool, a Commander 64K. I had one as a kid. It was a lot of fun.” said David. “I had a 64K too, in college. A lot of my friends did too. I didn’t know they were still making them in ’87, I’d moved on to a Commander 1000 PC by then. Remember coding in BASIC on the 64? I often would get computer magazines that had BASIC programs you had to type in yourself, because the disks you’d get at the store were a lot more expensive.” said Melissa. “Typing in your own programs? Doesn’t sound fun. Anyway, why didn’t the crash test lab have any Commander computers?” asked Megan. “Commander was a cheaper computer designed for the general public, at least from what I can remember. If you look in the houses, you’ll probably find a lot of Commanders left behind.” said Melissa. “Makes sense that people would own Commander computers with the factory right here in town.” said Billy. “Izzy was always a city that was big on technology. This isn’t even the only computer factory in town, there were a couple of others, for HBM and Helmintoller Instruments. Pretty much every piece of 80’s technology you could think of was made in Izzy. We had factories that built Atari video games under license, TVs, VCRs, the chips that went into computers. We even had our own internet service of sorts.” said Melissa. “What was that like?” asked Billy. “Was there X rated stuff on it?” asked Dirk. “It was all text. It was called Izzy-Net, we could get the news and all kinds of information, send messages to one another, and we could even connect to Usenet and talk to people around the world. It was a dollar an hour to talk to people locally or get local news, but if you wanted to access stuff from the outside world it was 5 dollars an hour. It was free if you accessed it from the college campus. It came out in about 1983, I think. The first night I got access to it, not long after it came out, I was at a computer lab at Izzy University here in town. It was quite easy and intuitive to use, and about maybe 10 minutes after I first got on, I was chatting with a guy from France. We talked for four hours, until the computer lab closed at midnight and they kicked us all out. And Dirk, to answer your question, there were adult boards on there, but I never went to them.” said Melissa. “How fast was it?” asked Billy. “It wasn’t bad, actually. Since it was all text, the amount of data was small. It was a bit slower than texting on a modern phone if you were chatting. Getting a newspaper article or something like that did take a while though.” said Melissa. “How many of the people in Izzy had computers and Izzy-Net?” asked Billy. “Computers, probably a good three-quarters of households had a computer of some kind, quite a few people even had a main computer and maybe a cheaper or older computer for the kids. Izzy-Net, I’d say maybe 20 percent, but it was spreading fast. You have to remember, we could get this stuff cheaper in Izzy than they could in most places because it was locally made.” said Melissa. “David, did you ever use Izzy-Net, or CompuServe, or any of the early internet services?” asked Billy. “Could you knock it off, Billy?” asked Dirk. “You’re asking too many questions.” “Remember, this is supposed to be a learning experience. Asking questions is good.” said Melissa. “No, I was too young to use Izzy-Net, I didn’t get to use the internet until about ’94. We got AOL then.” said David. The explorers proceeded to explore the remainder of the large room. On rows 7-12 were hundreds of completed computers, all ready to be boxed up. At the ends of the rows were boxes piled up on the tables, and several dozen boxed computers, all ready to be shipped, against a wall next to a large loading dock door. The computers were all still clean and looked to be in operable condition. All were tempted to take one. Dirk reached for a boxed Model 1000 PC. “Don’t you dare.” said David. The explorers looked at the other rows, finding similar production lines to the 64K line they saw earlier, only these lines made models called the 1000 PC on 3 lines, 1500 PC on two, Dostim on 3 and Dostim Plus on 2. “These were more expensive computers than the 64K, so they didn’t sell as many. When I got my 1000 PC, I cross-shopped Dostims. The Dostims were about the same price as the 1000 PC but didn’t have IBM compatibility. My 1000 PC was $1,399 at Lechmere, the 64K’s would have been going for probably $200 then. I brought it home on March 7th, 1987, just three weeks before the volcano.” said Melissa. “Whoa, 1400 bucks. That would be about 3 grand today. Oof, sorry about that.” said Billy. “It’s fine, that computer would be long out of date anyway.” said Melissa. “I could grab you one out of here.” said Billy. “I can just buy one myself, there’s probably thousands around.” said Melissa. “Maybe we could get the one out of your old house.” said Billy. “You can have it if you want, but I don’t need it.” said Melissa. “I’ll have to think about that. By the way, Dostim is Uzbek for ‘friend’. That’s why they named a computer that.” said Billy. “Interesting.” said Melissa. The explorers looked around the rest of the building, finding no more computer manufacturing floors, only some offices. They decided to look at the big corner office, which had belonged to the factory manager. This room had a plush red carpet and a plaster drop ceiling; though about 80% of the plaster was still attached, there was a small hole in the roof at the very corner of the building. The large windows were intact, but their view was only of overgrowth. A slit, a few inches wide, had formed in the walls directly under the hole, and a few leaves poked through the slit, but the remaining 95% of the room, about 20 feet square in size, was in remarkably good shape for its period of abandonment. The explorers reasoned that with the hole, the room would quickly deteriorate over the next few years. There was a large, ornately detailed wooden desk against the right-side wall, with a chair that sort of looked like an Aeron chair behind it. On the desk was a name plate that said Timothy A. Karaglanis. Seeing the name, Dirk started scanning his EMF meter. “I’m pretty sure Tim is still alive. He’s a family friend.” said Melissa. “Seems like an interesting guy.” said David. “Do you want to meet him?” asked Melissa. “Yes.” said David. “Me too.” said Billy. “All right, I’ll shoot him a text. He’d be glad to meet both of you.” said Melissa. Tim’s desk still had a fully upgraded Dostim Plus computer on it, though it was yellowed almost to the point of being brown, with an equally yellowed 20-inch monitor on it. There were no pieces of paper on the desk, though there were 3 stacks of about 3½ inch floppy disks, about 50 disks in all. Most of their labels suggested they had run-of-the-mill business data on them, but there were a few games and tech demos mixed in. These were more treasures that needed to be rescued, but they’d be safe in this room for the near future. “That computer could really use a retro-bright.” said Billy. “What’s retro-bright?” asked Melissa. “It’s a process where they take the plastic pieces from a computer that’s yellowed and expose them to peroxide and UV light to make them their original color again. There’s several ways to do it, but you can’t just pour peroxide on an old computer and put it in the sun. It’s an involved process, you’d have to go on the Internet to figure out exactly how to do it. It’s ironic that sun causes the yellowing, but you can use the sun in combination with peroxide to reverse it. I don’t actually retro-bright stuff, that takes someone who knows what they’re doing with computer repair.” said Billy. “Amazing that people figured that out.” said Melissa. On the left side of the room were several bookshelves, with hundreds of old programming and computer books on them. They included rare books on long-dead programming languages from ABC ALGOL to Z++, manuals for computers both common and rare, and books on all types of software. It seemed that every book printed about computers up to 1987 was in this very room. All the explorers decided to peruse a few of the books, making sure to be gentle with the aged paper, except Dirk, who luckily didn’t do any damage. After a few minutes, they put the books back and headed out for their next location.

Chapter 4 As Melissa drove the van toward town, she and the explorers saw a large, unusual looking building. From above, it sort of looked like a lowercase “d”, with a 3-story, grey-brick circular building with windows joined to a long, windowless hall. Another building, a two-story, peeked out from behind it. The van made a left turn, passing a couple of crumbling factories to get to the building. As they got closer, they saw that only the top two floors were circular, and the bottom was a square footprint. All the explorers saw this building as a must-explore. Melissa turned left, and then left again, ignoring the long-deactivated traffic lights and parking in front of the building. A concrete sign said “HELMINTOLLER MOTORS AUTOMOTIVE SAFETY RESEARCH CENTER”; about half of the glue-on letters had fallen onto the ground, but since the concrete itself was recessed in the shapes of the letters mounted to them, it was still clear what it said. The building was heavily overgrown and decayed; most of the windows were broken, the roof had holes in it and was missing most of its shingles, and ivy crawled up the entire height of the building. The parking lot and paved grounds were heavily cracked, with grasses growing through. Immediately next to the building, the once artfully arranged flowers, hedges, and cut grass had grown out of control, the grass now being about two feet tall. The explorers walked toward a collapsed awning and break in the overgrowth, carefully stepping over the metal remains of the awning to get to the entrance door. A plaque next to the door said, “Dedicated December 3, 1973”. “Looks pretty rough for 47 years old.” said Melissa. The lobby floor was covered by ceiling tiles which had mostly turned to a strange mush that was an inch deep in some places; about 70% had fallen. Fluorescent lights were in the ceiling, some missing their covers. Moss grew in some places on the grey-tiled floor and ceiling tile mush. The white paint on the walls had almost entirely peeled off; in some places, the drywall itself had disintegrated due to water damage, revealing dirty cinder blocks. The floor above looked to be bowed down slightly. There were a few office chairs in the lobby; a water-damaged car safety newsletter, dated March 14, 1987, sat on an end table. The headline said, “GM plans 3 million driver air bags for 1992 models”. On the opposite wall was a directory; the first floor was a sled testing area and crash test observation area, the second floor was safety feature development, and the third floor was offices and the test library. “Has anyone ever had an airbag go off on them? I hear the older ones hurt pretty bad, but the newer ones are a lot better.” asked Melissa. “I have. They didn’t hurt me at all, but my car was a 2015 model.” said Megan. “Glad you were okay.” said Melissa. “I think it’s a good thing that we live in a world now where everyone has airbags. I’ve never had one go off on me, but my mom was saved by one in a major head on crash in 2001.” said Billy, who was filming the lobby and got a close-up of the newsletter, and would continue to film the rest of the building. “Oh my! Glad the airbag saved her.” said Melissa. Passing an elevator and going to the sled test area room, they found an occupant compartment of a car mounted to a rail that ran under the floor. Everything forward of the firewall, everything behind the rear seats, the doors, and the undercarriage had been removed, but the car had a boxy shape, much like a typical mid-1980s American midsize sedan. The floor in this room was solid concrete, and in much better shape than the tile floor in the lobby. A sticker on the car said, “032387 AIRBAG TEST”. The interior of the car had brown leather seats, and four deflated airbags hung out of the steering wheel, dashboard, and both front seat backs for the rear occupants. “Did they ever put the rear seat airbag system in any production cars?” asked Billy. “Not that I’m aware of. There would be safety concerns involving children, so that’s probably why they never put it in cars.” said Melissa. “They probably could today with the much more advanced airbags in cars.” said Megan. “Airbags are a crock. If you’re a good driver, you don’t need them.” said Dirk. “My mom is a good driver, but the 19-year-old drunk that crossed the center line and hit her wasn’t. They were in a dually pickup truck; my mom was in a ’96 Honda Accord. Her ankle was crushed, and she was in the hospital for several days, but the firefighters on the scene said the airbag saved her. I rest my case.” said Billy. The explorers walked toward the back of the room, finding a part of the roof missing in the corner. Directly underneath the missing section of roof was an IBM PC XT computer. Pieces of roof and ceiling material covered the corner of the room and the computer; a small plant grew out of the computer’s keyboard. “Somebody ought to send that thing to the 8-Bit Guy. It might still work with a deep cleaning and restoration.” said David. The next room was an observation room for the crash hall; a large window, now broken, looked out of the room toward the barrier, and a glass door connected the room and the crash hall itself. A small room to the side of the observation room had the crash test controls. In the observation room, there was stadium-style seating in three rows of 20, sort of like in a modern movie theater, and four CRT monitors hanging from the ceiling labeled “CAMERA 1”, “CAMERA 2”, and “CAMERA 4”; the sticker for Camera 3 was gone. At one end of the observation room, the floor above had fallen through, leaving a large hole that covered perhaps 25% of the ceiling area in the room. A strange object, about 7 feet tall and 10 feet wide at the base, had come through the floor and had landed on one end of the seating rows, crushing seats 1 through 5 in each row. The object itself was severely damaged, with cracks all over. The explorers went to look at the object, looking for any evidence of what it might have been. The unmistakable green of computer boards shined through, and Megan found a badge on it. “It says Cray-1S. Looks like some kind of old supercomputer.” said Megan. “Yup, Cray Supercomputer.” said Billy. He looked for any computer chips that may have been showing. “I see, I think, an 8107 on one of the chips. That’s 7th week of 1981, so about February. So, they got a few years of use out of it.” The explorers decided to look at the control room before going into the crash hall itself. Dirk hit the big red button that started the test, but, of course, it didn’t do anything. There wasn’t much to look at in the small room, so they went back out and went into the crash hall. The crash hall was a large room, about two stories high, with numerous holes in the roof. Pieces of metal and ceiling material covered the concrete floor, and the entire area was covered in a greenish grime. Next to the barrier, large lights, which once lit up crashing vehicles for the slow-mo cameras, had fallen to the ground and pulled a section of roof down with them. There was an underground rail that cars would be attached to guide them into the barrier. The explorers carefully dodged the pieces of metal on the ground as they walked to the other end of the crash hall, the section where the cars would have started on their journey to doom. A midsize coupe, labeled “1988 Saber Supreme Prototype”, sat at the end of the runway, its tires deflated from decades of sitting. Two dummies sat in the driver and passenger seats, still in their seat belts and sitting up as straight as they had been 33 years ago, staring forward, waiting for an impact that would never come. The somewhat creepy humanoid figures, sitting in a dirty car, staring forward would make a great video thumbnail for one of Billy’s videos. More dummies were against a wall, standing in racks; there were six adult size dummies and four dummies about the size of 3-year-olds. Just like the dummies in the car, they were eerily frozen in place despite the mess that had rained down on them for decades. A large metal cabinet was against another wall, with a computer and a notepad on it. The back wall, directly behind the car, had a large garage door; presumably, this is where cars that were destined to be crashed would come through. Along the wall that joined the crash hall and main building, there was a staircase that led to the second floor. After about twenty minutes exploring the crash hall, the explorers had seen everything they’d wanted to see. “Do you all feel comfortable going upstairs?” asked Melissa. “This building’s sketchy.” said Megan. “This building’s boring.” said Dirk. Not wanting Megan to be left alone with Dirk, David decided to stay downstairs. “I’m going to stay with them.” said David. “This is probably one of my favorite buildings I’ve ever been in. I want to see upstairs.” said Billy. “Just remember to let me know where you’re going with the walkie talkies. I’m going to stay with Billy.” said Melissa. “Mama’s boy.” said Dirk. “She’s not my mom.” said Billy. Billy began climbing the stairs, with Melissa following. Billy opened the door to the second floor. It led into a hallway that was in significantly worse condition than the first-floor rooms had been. The floor was the same grey tile as had been in the lobby, and the same ceiling tile mush covered parts of it. The same peeling white paint was on the walls, but these walls were standard house-style wood construction. The walls were a strange mix of paint, exposed plaster, and even exposed wood, depending on how much water damage was in that spot. There was a small hole in part of the ceiling. Billy stayed to the left side of the hallway; Melissa took the other side, both staying close to the walls where the floor was strongest. A door was labeled “Passive Restraint Development” to the left. Billy opened it, and both walked into the room. In the center of the room was a cutaway of the dashboard and front seating areas of a car. The floor was sagging under the car, so they didn’t go near it, but they could see that it had automatic seat belts because the driver’s seat belt was extended forward, but the passenger’s seat belt was buckled normally. “Those automatic seat belts. I hated those. The regular seat belts, ironically, are so much more convenient.” said Melissa. “Never had one in my family that I can remember. They were federally mandated for a while in the early ‘90s on cars without airbags, but eventually they just required airbags.” said Billy. “Yeah, my ’90 Accord had them. They were a pain in the neck. I, and most people I knew, wore their seat belts then anyway.” said Melissa. In one corner of the room were three Macintosh SE computers on desks, each with a black leather chair, all connected to a printer. There was no drafting table to be found – the facility had gone full AutoCAD. A whiteboard on another wall still had lots written on it; the deadline for the revised seat belt design to be finalized on the 1989 “WF-20” sedan was June 30, 1987 – the targeted HICs in a 35-mph frontal crash test were below 700. The ’88 Saber Supreme, the car they’d seen in the crash hall, was scheduled for testing March 31, 1987. On the top of the whiteboard, in red letters, said “COMPUTER SWITCHOVER MONDAY, MARCH 23 – OLD COMPUTERS WILL BE REMOVED AFTER FRIDAY, MARCH 20”. “Wow, those computers were only used for a week. What a waste.” said Billy. “I bet we’ve seen millions of dollars of stuff left to rot already.” said Melissa. “I want to ask you your story of evacuating, but I’ll savor the mystery for now.” said Billy. “Whenever you’re ready.” said Melissa. In another corner of the room, right next to where Melissa and Billy were, was a car dashboard, with dual airbags deployed from it, inflated for display purposes. Both were both amazed that the bags had stayed inflated for so long and a bit miffed that airbags hadn’t been implemented in most new vehicles by 1987. As Billy filmed the room, he noticed that his memory card in his camera could store only 26 more minutes of video, giving this building’s exploration new urgency. Billy attempted to reach under the passenger airbag and open the glove box, but the bag was too firm. In fact, the bag covered both the glove box and the entire center stack of the dashboard; combined with the driver bag, little on the dashboard was visible. The passenger bag came out over 3 feet deep from the dash. “Gosh, I hope your passenger airbag isn’t that big, or mine. That could kill someone.” said Billy. “I wouldn’t think they would be. I bought my cars because of the high safety ratings. I’m an Uber driver and have passengers in and out of my car all the time, and if we get in a crash, I want me and them to be as protected as possible. Can’t have that with an airbag that gives you a Mike Tyson punch.” said Melissa. “What cars do you have?” asked Billy. “The 2018 Honda Odyssey Elite I brought on this trip, and a 2020 Honda Accord Touring” said Melissa. “Nice cars.” said Billy. They left the room and decided to go into another room labeled “Structural Development”. “This building certainly needs some structural development.” said Billy. Melissa laughed. This room was approximately in the same condition as the passive restraint room, and was laid out similarly, except instead of seatbelts and airbags on display, it was the frame of a car, the same one they’d seen in the passenger restraint room. Billy decided to give the room a once-over with his camera and go to the next room, the “Accident Avoidance” room. Again, it was laid out like the other two rooms on that floor, except with brakes and suspension systems, but was in worse shape. The floor had a large crack that extended across the middle of the room, and its center was sagging severely; crossing to the back half of the room would be suicidal. Billy took a close look at two anti-lock brakes that had been taken from cars. One was labeled “Production”, and the other “Concept”; both looked quite like one another. Billy was stumped; the only reason he could come up with is that maybe the new design was cheaper. The last major room on the second floor of this building was the Supercomputing Room, though the floor directory said that there was a second instance of each of the four major rooms, as well as several minor office rooms, storage rooms, and the like, meaning that perhaps only a third of the total square footage of the floor had been explored. Given the poor condition of the building and the limited time of the trip, Billy didn’t want to explore rooms that would largely be duplicates or ones with nothing interesting in them. Billy opened the door, and most of the floor was gone, including the section directly in front of the door. He and Melissa looked inside the room. Against the right wall of the room, on the sole section of intact floor, were six terminals, with black leather chairs behind them. Instructions for the supercomputer’s operation still hung on the walls next to where the supercomputer had been. There was a hole in the roof, about one-foot square, above the collapsed section of floor. A slow drip of water came from a corner of the hole. “All those years of water dripping down must have weakened the floor, and it just couldn’t hold that heavy computer anymore.” said Melissa. “That thing’s probably several tons and has less power than my smartphone. The ‘80s was a long time ago, in more ways than one.” said Billy. Leaving the room, they found the building’s central staircase. It looked passable, but in rough condition, with lots of debris and a few small holes in some of the steps. “Can we go to the third floor?” asked Billy. Melissa approved, and they carefully climbed the steps, which moved unsettlingly. When they reached the steps, the library doors were directly in front of them, meaning that the library was on the opposite side of the third floor than where they’d explored on the second, and thus a totally unknown quantity. The section of floor nearest the door was still stable, but the floor was warped and buckled across most of the library. Some of the bookcases had tipped over, and a few had even fallen through a hole in the floor. The room was well-lit; most of the glass panes in the skylight directly above the hole in the floor had broken out, and there were various other small holes in the roof. The only intact section of ceiling was near that same section near the door; the rest of the ceiling was entirely gone. “When I get back into town, I’m going to see about getting all of these books and documents taken out of this library by someone with specialized equipment. The urban explorer’s creed is to take only pictures and leave only footprints, but these are irreplaceable documents that are (puts her fingers very close together) this close to disappearing forever. Another two years and this floor’s going to be all gone. I wouldn’t go into this room if I were you.” said Melissa. Against Melissa’s advice, Billy studied the room and decided to walk toward a section labeled “Technical Documents”. He found what appeared to be a beam under the floor and carefully walked on it; Melissa walked on another beam, about two feet to his left, ready to grab Billy if the beam gave way. He got to the documents, which were labeled chronologically, and grabbed a handful that dated to late 1986. Just as he withdrew his hand, he heard a loud bang underneath him. Then, his body moved back rapidly. Billy looked, and saw Melissa’s hands tightly clamped around his left arm and right shoulder. Standing on a more stable patch of floor, Billy saw that the floor where he’d been standing had no additional damage. “False alarm? Whatever it is, I’m getting the **** out of here.” said Billy. While they were leaving the library, Melissa’s walkie-talkie buzzed to life. “Perfect timing.” said Billy “We found a computer chip fab. Me and Dirk want to go inside it.” said David. “Where’s it at, and what identifying features does it have?” asked Melissa. “It says Commander Computer, it’s a brick building, and it’s directly to the right of the crash test lab if you’re looking at it from the front.” said David. “All right, you can go ahead and go in, we’ll be there in a few minutes.” said Melissa.

Chapter 4 is taking a while to write; it's of the advanced research center, which Billy finds very interesting. It's 2,553 words and counting, the whole story is at 7,622. Going to wrap up Chapter 4 before it gets to 3,000 words, then the crew is on to a computer factory and then to some long-abandoned businesses.

The red numbers in the image indicates where the chapter takes place. Chapter 3 The airport terminal building, made of concrete, still looked relatively stable. Most of the windows were still in place, but some were broken out, their tempered glass piled up along parts of the perimeter of the building. Melissa went to the back of the van and grabbed a mask and a walkie-talkie for each person; each explorer donned their mask and put their walkie-talkie in their pocket. All five opened a front door that said, “Airport Employees Only” and walked in. The interior of the terminal was huge, probably at least 150 feet wide and 80 feet deep, with a 20-foot high ceiling. Dirt, leaves, and bits of fallen plaster from the ceiling covered the red-carpet floor. Above, the plaster came off the roof in some places, revealing the concrete roof underneath. The floor was at ground level and rock solid. About every 30 feet or so, there were concrete pillars. A hallway came off each end of the room; the left one was labeled Food, and the right one Services. A metal fence, about 5’ high was about 15 feet in front of them; looking to the right they saw the main entrance to the terminal, a pair of doors between the railing and front wall. A baggage claim conveyor belt was in the middle of the room. Only a railing separated the check-in area from the rest of the terminal. The explorers observed that that would never fly in the present day. The back wall facing the runways was mostly windows, but there were sections of wall, with peeling beige paint, at regular intervals; about 10 linear feet of floor-to-ceiling wall, then 40 linear feet of floor-to-ceiling windows, in a repeating pattern. On each section of wall, there was a number – from 1 to 3 – and a large board which would show flight details. Board #3 had fallen and was laying, broken, at an angle propped up on a chair. Banks of large beige leather chairs, probably about 80 per section, were adjacent to the back wall, covered in the same detritus that covered the floor. There were also small booths where airport employees would check tickets. All the explorers, except Billy and Dirk, took a wide-shot picture of the terminal; Billy took a video of the room, panning his camera from left to right. Dirk got out his EMF meter, scanning for ghosts. Melissa explained the purpose of the airport. “This airport took people to other small airports within a few hundred miles or to the big international airports in Helmintoller and Cormack City. People wanting to take a vacation overseas would normally take a flight of about an hour to Helmintoller City and then catch their main flight there. During peak tourist season, sometimes there would be 5 or 6 flights a day to and from Helmintoller City alone. But it never was a particularly busy airport, if a plane was coming every hour then it was a busy day. The big jet planes, like 747s, never flew here. We’d mostly get the smaller turboprop type planes, 50 or 60 passenger tops.” “Did you ever catch a flight out of here?” asked Billy. “A few times. I went to New York City in ‘74, to the U.S. Virgin Islands spring break of my junior year of college in ‘85, and a couple of local flights in between. My dad also brought us here in 1977 when they expanded the airport. We didn’t take a flight then, but it was a source of local pride for us to finally have an up-to-date airport.” said Melissa. Dirk walked off during Melissa’s speech, scanning his EMF meter around the room, but it wasn’t indicating anything. Melissa kept an eye on Dirk as she and the rest of the explorers went to the back of the room. Staying several feet back from the board in case it fell, they read it. A line of “CANCELED” notices ran down the right of the board. Even a chair said “CANCELED”, one of the decals having come off and landed on it. “People weren’t very worried about their flights. The minute the volcano hit, all of that got canceled. I remember hearing that they sent everyone at the airport home. There was an inbound flight, they diverted it to Cormack.” said Melissa. Billy wiped off one of the cleaner looking chairs and sat down. “Still comfortable after all these years.” he said. David tried one out too, coming to a similar conclusion. Dirk was near the opposite wall of the terminal near the ticket check-in booths, so the group went that way. The outside of the booths was fairly non-descript; faded white letters said HELMINTOLLER AIRLINES, EXPRESS AIR, AIR IZZY. Another flight information board, bigger than the ones near the other wall, hung between the Helmintoller Airlines and Air Izzy booths. Megan found a door that led to the interior of the booths. The interior of the Helmintoller Airlines booth was a small room, a square about 10 feet on each side. A desk at the front of the room had an old Macintosh computer on one side, connected to a printer on the other. Somewhat protected from the main terminal area itself, the room was remarkably clean; the red-carpet floor still felt in good shape. A paper on the table said, “LIST OF SCHEDULED FLIGHTS: MARCH 28-30, 1987”. The first four flights, the last of which had left for Helmintoller City at 9:00 pm on March 28, were checked off as departed. The 5th to 11th flights, which would leave at various hours on the 29th and 30th, were marked through with a red line, the red Sharpie still laying a few inches away. Tickets for the next flight had been printed. It was a connecting flight from Izzy to Helmintoller, which would then leave for Orlando, FL. The date on the tickets said “SUN MAR 29, 1987 6:00 AM” “What you are seeing is several canceled vacations. I hope all these people eventually got to go where they wanted to go.” said Billy, filming the papers close-up. They might have data he could put on Wikipedia or something. Melissa responded to Billy, adding to his video. “Helmintoller Airlines was really good about giving refunds if I recall correctly. My mom’s friend had a flight canceled from the volcano, and she got her money back within a few weeks. So, they probably did get to make them up, but it might have been a year or two later.” Seeing that the others were beginning to wait on him, Billy turned off the camera and went back toward the group. As they walked toward one of the hallways that led out of the main terminal room, Billy asked if it would be okay if he put video of the airline tickets on the internet. “I don’t see why not. They don’t have any personal information and they’re 33 years old.” said Melissa. “Why would you take video of airline tickets?” asked Dirk. “I find the data interesting.” said Billy. “Weirdo.” said Dirk. “Some people like that kind of stuff. It’s not weird.” said Megan. The left hallway of the terminal was lined with advertisements for various airlines. The ceiling was lower in here, but much of the drop ceiling had come down, littering the floor with the ceiling tiles, and leaving pieces of the ceiling framing hanging down. The explorers had to watch their steps to avoid slipping on the tiles; luckily, the ceiling was high enough that the framing hanging down was still above their heads. The metal roof itself was mostly intact but had a couple of small holes in it. The hallway itself was only about 25 feet long before opening into a large circular area with white tables and attached chairs in the middle, still arranged as they had been decades ago. The walls were beige, and the carpet blue in this area. Restroom doors were at the very end of the hallway. There was a large dome skylight above the tables. Most of the glass panes were intact. “Whoa, they had a Queso Burgers here. I’ve always wanted to go to a Queso Burger again. I only went once, when I was like 7, and it was delicious.” said Billy. “What’s a Queso Burger?” asked Megan. “It was a burger place where you could get burgers with spicy cheese dip right inside the patties. I think it started here in Izzy in the ‘70s. When I was growing up, they were everywhere. It was one of my favorite places to eat, they were delicious. Then about 2005 or so they went out of business.” said David.” “Maybe you should have eaten a few less of them.” said Dirk. “Maybe you should be a little less negative.” said Melissa. There were two other restaurants in the food court: Uno’s Pizza and Subway. While Melissa and Megan explored them, and Dirk kept “ghost hunting”, Billy and David went over to the Queso Burger. Aside from being very dirty and stained with rotting food, the serving troughs looked just as David remembered them. They opened a door and went into the kitchen. The scents of mold and rotting food wafted through the air. It smelled bad, but not overpoweringly bad. Then David opened a large fridge. That was a mistake. David and Billy quickly walked out of the room, recoiling at the smell of beef rotted decades ago and dead bugs. “Serves you right, dumba**es.” said Dirk. David and Billy cleared off two chairs and sat down to catch their breath; Melissa and Megan walked over to them and stood nearby. “Are you two okay?” asked Melissa. “Yeah, pardon my French, but that kitchen smells like s***.” said Billy. After about two minutes, Billy and David got back up. Billy got out his camera and filmed the food court, making sure to get close-ups of the serving areas of all three restaurants and poking his camera into Queso Burger’s kitchen. “I’m warning you, any prospective explorers, do NOT open anything in this kitchen.” said Billy. The group then went to leave the food court area. Billy filmed down the hallway, choosing the return trip so he could better chart his course so he wouldn’t slip on any of the fallen ceiling tiles. After that, the group crossed the main terminal room again and went into the right-side hallway. In here was the non-food services of the airport: a rental car agency, a gift shop, and a money exchange. This hallway was, architecturally, a mirror image of the other, and the level of decay was remarkably similar. Melissa, David, and Megan looked through the duty-free shop while Billy went to the rental-car agency counter and Dirk looked at the money exchange. The rental-car agency was rather plainly labeled, “Airport Rent-A-Car”. Billy perused the binder on the counter, finding a selection of Ford and Toyota vehicles, everything from Toyota Tercels and Ford Escorts to Lincoln Town Cars. Billy also peeked inside the booth and found a desk with a computer and a printer, much like he’d seen at the check-in terminal. He moved on to the gift shop and met up with those in there. Everything had been left on the shelves of the gift shop; T-shirts, cups, and various other souvenirs that said, “We call it Izzy because even we can’t pronounce Izydorczak”, along with various other corny slogans. The gifts were covered in a thick layer of dust, but somehow 98% of them were still on the shelves. Meanwhile, Dirk stuffed 50 dollars in his pocket from the money exchange – no one was the wiser. The group had been in the airport for over an hour and were eager to start exploring the city itself. After finishing up with the airport exploration, the group went outside to find it noticeably warmer and sunnier than when they’d came into the airport. That was a rather small airport, but I’ll take it, thought Billy, as they walked back toward the van. They’d explored only about 30% of the airport. “SHOTGUN!” yelled Dirk. He climbed in the front seat of the van; Billy and David got the second row, while Megan took the third. In her mind, Melissa didn’t want Dirk getting the front seat, but she didn’t say anything. Melissa turned the van turned around and went back down Airport Road, making a left turn at the end of the road to go into the ghost town itself.

I've abandoned the city, and am running the simulation for 33 years abandoned. It's harder than you think, because I have to keep the occasional fires from completely destroying whole blocks of the city. In real-life abandoned cities, you usually don't see huge swaths of the city burned. I'm letting the fires destroy one building at a time, hopefully after 33 years we'll see something like a few percent of the buildings burned and 95% still standing. These burned buildings will sort of represent buildings that have completely collapsed. If you look at real-life abandoned buildings that are left abandoned for 33 years, a lot of times they do have internal floor collapses in some areas and things like that but the building itself is normally still mostly standing. Obviously it isn't going to look the exact same close-up in SC4 as it would in real life. I'm going to use edited screenshots to show where Melissa and co. are going. A city with 61,945 people on the eve of abandonment has a lot to explore! Chapter 3 is coming soon, where they explore the airport, which is directly southwest of the city itself. The city is in the shape of a "U", with a couple avenues connecting the top prongs of the U. The exploration is roughly going to go from the bottom of the U, to the right prong, crossing an avenue to the left prong and exiting back out where they came in, on the south-west side of the city (between the left prong and bottom).

Chapter 2 Thirty minutes after leaving, and halfway to Izzy, they had only seen one car on the highway that ran between Kallal and Izzy, and even that had been 25 minutes ago. The lands the interstate ran across were rugged, wild, and heavily forested. A faded sign said, “Izzy City: 32 miles”. The highway was in an oddly good condition to be going only to a town abandoned for 33 years. Melissa decided to give a little history. “Back in the ‘80s, this highway would be crowded at this time of day on a weekend. It was our main way out into the world outside Izzy. I remember being a kid, I guess this would have been in the late ‘60s, and this road had a speed limit of 45 and no fences or lights. You always had to worry about hitting a deer on the way home. My dad hit a big deer with me in the passenger seat when I was 5. We were in a ’66 Ford Falcon, no seat belts, and we were lucky to walk away. Almost totaled the car.” “Glad you were okay!” said Megan. “Fortunately, I’ve never been in any other serious car crashes. And the road was upgraded. About 1972 or so, they finally put fences up so no one hit deer anymore. But 45 mph was still pretty slow, took almost two hours to get anywhere. Between my sophomore and junior years of college, so 1984, they upgraded the road to the 6-lane, 70 mph highway they have today. The city of Izzy paid for the whole thing and finished it in six months. They had the road closed weekdays from midnight to 6 am for a while. They used concrete that was supposed to last 40 years between re-paving. They said it was the best-made road in all Helmintoller when it was built. I think it cost something like half a million Simoleons. It’s a shame it was only really used for a couple of years.” said Melissa. “Well maybe if Izzy makes a comeback, it’ll be used.” said Billy. “I don’t think Izzy’s going to come back to life. It’s just too cost-prohibitive to fix it up.” said Melissa. “They had the money to build this highway, so they must have been a rather wealthy city.” said Billy. “Izzy was, financially, a very well-run city. I went to a couple of city council meetings back in the day- “ “You were on the city council there? How old ARE you, granny?” asked Dirk. Melissa laughed it off. “56. The volcano happened right before I turned 23.” said Melissa. “That wasn’t very nice, Dirk. She’s taking you on a trip, and you call her granny?! Anyway, go ahead, Melissa.” said Billy. “The years before the volcano, Izzy was making about a 6,000 simoleon profit every month. We had a great school system, great hospitals, great roads, all the things that made a city run well. The taxes were still fairly low, so I don’t know how they made it all work. Everything in town was clean, well-maintained, and just worked. The DMV wasn’t a pain in the neck.” “Oh, if only it were that way today.” said Megan. A few minutes later, Billy took out his camera for the first time. He took out a memory card labeled “IZZY 1” and put it in the camera. “Filming the highway.” said Billy. “Why do you have to film a road?” asked Dirk. “This highway’s part of the trip too.” said Melissa. “If anyone has anything to add, feel free to say it.” said Billy. Billy started his video, pointing his camera out the windshield. “This is the highway that runs from Kallal to Izzy. This road, I assume, dates back to 1924 in one form or another, but the smooth highway we’re riding on was built in 1984 and hasn’t been repaved since then. I guess since it’s been a road to nowhere for 90% of its history, so it hasn’t got a lot of wear. As you can see… not a car in sight. It’s a Saturday morning, September 26, at about 8:40 am as I film this. We’re on our way to Izzy.” said Billy. He looked over and saw that the van was moving at 96 mph. He didn’t say anything until the camera was off and back in the glove box. “You’re going pretty fast. I’m not on to you, and I trust your driving, but I don’t want to get pulled over.” said Billy. “There hasn’t been a cop on this highway in decades.” said Melissa. A few minutes later, evidence of a nearby city came into view. The rusting frame of a billboard was the first sign; the content of the billboard had long disappeared. Billy got his camera out. Another billboard a half-mile later, in slightly better condition, said “Thomasina’s Bar and Grill”; Billy managed to get a semi-decent shot. The volcano appeared in the distance. Soon, some of the taller buildings in Izzy began to appear out the windshield; the buildings were dark and looked heavily decayed. Billy started filming again. As the buildings got closer, the other passengers in the van began to look to the right. One tall building, perhaps 10-15 stories, had about half its windows broken and half intact, in no discernible pattern. University Street Tower’s sign had decayed to “UN E I Y S REET T R”. Soon, shorter buildings began to appear in the distance. All the buildings appeared to be coated in a thick layer of grime and dirt. Most looked to be barely standing; some had collapsed. Megan, David, and Dirk all got out their cameras and started taking pictures. About a minute later, the city was right next to the van, about a half-mile to the right. Melissa slowed the van to 55 mph as everyone looked in awe at the city, which seemed to go on forever. Directly to the right of the van, there were about 20 blocks of factories and various industrial buildings, then many more blocks of houses, mansions interspersed with more modest houses, then finally, various shops and offices. Around the time the industrial district yielded to the residential, the highway turned into an avenue, and the van slowed to about 20 mph. The avenue wasn’t in nearly as good of condition; potholes had eaten away at it, requiring Melissa to swerve the van around them in spots. “Wow,” said Billy. “This place is massive. I knew it would be big, but it’s hard to put into words just how big without being there in person.” “I bet there’s a ****load of ghosts in there.” said Dirk. Billy would have to edit the profanity out of his video, which aimed to be family friendly. For the first time in many miles, the road made a sharp turn to the right. Now, the abandoned city filled the view out the front of the van. A red line on the road marked the city limits; the sign itself had fallen over. Melissa turned the van onto a side road. A control tower in the distance made it clear that this road went to an airport. Just before reaching the airport, Melissa stopped the van. She asked everyone to get out. “Before we go into the city, I’d like to lay down some ground rules and explain the trip. As explained in the online signup, this is a 3-day, exhaustive tour of Izzy City. There are thousands of buildings in the city, and we won’t have time to explore them all. We’ll be exploring quite a few buildings, and we’ll try to get a good sample of them. That being said, these are buildings that haven’t been maintained in a very long time, and they could be structurally unsound. You all are adults and we can go inside the buildings, but you must wear a N95 mask, bring a walkie-talkie, and go in groups of at least two; no one should go inside the buildings alone. I have masks and walkie-talkies in the van for everyone. Also, make sure to test the floors and don’t walk on them if you feel unsafe. You don’t have to go into any of the buildings if you don’t want to. I’ll be going in as much as I safely can. Any questions?” “Yeah, why do I need a mask just to go inside an empty building?” asked Dirk. “Because there could be mold in there, and if you inhale it, it’s bad news.” said Melissa. “Why can’t I go inside the buildings alone?” asked Dirk. “Because if the worst happens, having someone there could mean the difference between life and death.” “What if a ghost spooks me?” asked Dirk. “Then I’ll use my Ghost-B-Gone spray on him.” said Melissa. “Where can I buy Ghost-B-Gone spray?” asked Dirk. “You have to get it online.” said Melissa, jokingly. After five more minutes of inane questions from Dirk, Billy had had enough. “Knock it off, Dirk. Quit asking questions so we can get to your ghost hunt.”

I put it on the main CJ board.

My mom had a 2003 Corolla from March 2003 - December 2014. That's the car I was in when I got SC4 Deluxe when it first came out when I was 10 years old. I drive a 2011 Honda Accord, hence the name Drocca (Accord backwards). I think I'll probably put in some flashback scenes to show life in the '70s and '80s in Izzy, and of course one of the main characters, Melissa, will tell stories throughout of her life in Izzy before the volcano went off.

What's your favorite tile size in SC4 to play with? I like playing with a medium myself, I do like the other size tiles but I can't completely fill a large tile with my computer having a fit. I can usually lay down the entire city layout at the beginning on a small tile; with a medium tile there's a bit of expanding to do, I can zoom out and see my whole city, and I can get more rewards than a small. I feel like a medium is a happy balance for many situations and most of my best tiles are mediums. A small tile is good for a short burst of gameplay and it gives me more "instant gratification". I also like how the large schools and medical center can cover nearly the entire tile. I like the large tiles and what all I can put into them, a finely crafted large tile is a thing of beauty. Often times, on the large tile, I have to settle for a peak EQ in the 180's and a life expectancy in the low 90's. I don't think I've ever gotten the life expectancy to 95 in a large tile. A small or medium can easily go to an EQ of 195+, a life expectancy of 97-98, and no crime whatsoever.

Since December 25, 2015 I have used an Asus desktop PC with Windows 10, and I have quite a collection of SimCity 4 regions/cities built up. A new PC, a Lenovo laptop also with Windows 10, goes into service next week. How do I get my SimCity 4 content ported intact to the new PC so I can just pick up where I left off?

This is awesome. Such a heartwarming post, and a testament to the longevity of SC4 - people born after SC4 came out are enjoying it the same as those of us who were around to enjoy it when it was new. I first got SC4 in September 2003. I remember being in the back seat of my mom's then-new 2003 Toyota Corolla when I got it, I was too young to ride up front at the time. I turn 27 on the 25th of this month, and I'm still playing the same game that I played when I was a kid. When I got that game, I never dreamed that people born that day would have their driver's licenses and I'd still be playing the exact same game.

I use avenues as major thoroughfares for cities, and regular roads in between them. Typically, there will be about 7 roads / 30 tiles or so between avenues, so a rectangle/square of about 40-50 city blocks will be bounded by an avenue on each side. Some cities on the outskirts of a main city won't have avenues, and avenues will be closer-packed in a denser city. I find that this grid pattern keeps commute times down (avg. ~30 min in a large city tile with 50,000 - 100,000 people) in combination with making sure each residential "district" is bordered by commercial and industrial. (Of course, industrial once the city's EQ rises and dirty industry is no longer necessary and/or is confined in a separate city tile)

Wow, that's a lot more effort than I put into my SimCities. I'm impressed.

I remember in SC3K that it was limited to one city, but it was the equivalent of a "large" tile (maybe larger) and the biggest individual SC3K city could be bigger than a large SC4 tile, but on the whole, an SC4 region can be several times more populous than an SC3K city. I feel like SC3K had a few things more realistic than SC4, for instance, how hospitals several miles away from the residents still worked. I think in SC4, hospitals and schools have to be within a mile or so of their populace to have any effect, and that's with the large ones and maximum funding. I would use mods, but I feel like I'm walking on eggshells playing SC4 on my 4 year old Asus with Windows 10. I will when I go to a new computer some time soon. I think a good mod might be to allow schools/hospitals to work across an entire city tile. That way you'd only have to place them in one area per city tile, the largest city tiles are, what, 4x4 miles?

For me, a region is complete when my original vision for the region is complete, and all of the cities are well-functioning (high EQ/HQ, little I-D, low crime, good quality of life). This could be anything from a small region of less than 50,000 people in just a few city tiles to a metropolis with most of the region full and a population of over 2 million. I typically don't build regions that are 100% usable land. Whether it's water, mountains, or a bit of both, I like to vary my terrain. Right now, I'm building a region that has about 70 tiles that are easily buildable on, about 16 that are water, and the remaining 170 are hilly woods/mountains, and most of these tiles will remain empty. I'm looking to have a population of less than 100,000 with this region, which will be a low-density, spread out region with only a couple of small downtown cores and industrial going above low density. By contrast, my largest-ever region features 2,563,036 people in about 160 city tiles and a lot of high-density/urban areas.

SimCity 4 is 16 years old. Think about it, there are people driving on the roads with a license who were born after SC4 came out. And yet we still play it, as a current game. People play games that are 16 and much older as classic games, but SC4 is still offered new for sale, still gets mods, updates, etc. I remember when I started collecting classic video games in 2006, games that were 16 years old then (1990) were bought for historical value just as much as play value. How has SimCity 4 stayed so current? I have some ideas: 1) Game style. The graphics and sounds of SC4 aren't up to 2019 standards, but they don't need to be. They get the job done just as well for a city building game. 2) Flexibility. SimCity 4 offers immense creative latitude. You can sculpt the terrain to your liking and literally build almost anything you want. 3) Deluxe Edition. You never hear about the original release of SC4 anymore. The versions that are sold for download are always the Deluxe Edition, and honestly, the original version isn't really missed. Deluxe Edition launched eight months after the original and added difficulty levels and various transport options. The original SC4's biggest flaw was that it was too difficult. Deluxe Edition solved this flaw, and if you like the difficulty of the original, you can still play on Hard mode in Deluxe. 4) SimCity 2013. I looked forward to this game for a year before EA crapped it out onto store shelves and download websites. I got it in March 2013, maybe the 9th? There was little creative freedom. The whole game just seemed dumbed-down. I feel that in SimCity's effort to stay modern they alienated their fan base that were looking for a "serious" SimCity game. So, serious SimCity players went back to 4 or to different city builders altogether.

I have reached the halfway point of my experiment, at least that's my current plan (I may go longer than a century, or shorter if everyone leaves before then), but just wanted to compare Kuzcek as it was with an active government at its peak (right before the government shutdown) vs. 50 years without government services. Since the government shut down on January 1, Year 40, this is a comparison of October 29, Year 39 vs. December 17, Year 89. Even though there has been massive loss of population and quality of life, I'm surprised the city is even still a thing at this point. Residential Population: Before: 38,168 (approx. 19,000 R$, 15,000 R$$, 4,000 R$$$) - 50% R$, 39% R$$, 11% R$$$ After: 12,045 (approx. 10,600 R$, 1,350 R$$, 85 R$$$) - 88% R$, 11% R$$, <1% R$$$ Change: -68% total population (-44% R$, -91% R$$, -98% R$$$) In the 50-year period, Kuzcek went from having a relatively balanced mix of all wealth levels to becoming predominated by low-wealth. It also underwent a massive drop in population in all wealth levels, with a drop of more than two-thirds total. Commercial Population: Before: 21,726 (approx. 2,600 CS$, 4,200 CS$$, 1,500 CS$$$, 7,900 CO$$, 5,600 CO$$$) - 12% CS$, 19% CS$$, 7% CS$$$, 36% CO$$, 26% CO$$$) After: 4,981 (approx. 3,000 CS$, 1,450 CS$$, 180 CS$$$, 380 CO$$, no CO$$$) - 60% CS$, 29% CS$$, 4% CS$$$, 8% CO$$, no CO$$$) Change: -77% total population (+15% CS$, -65% CS$$, -88% CS$$$, -95% CO$$, -100% CO$$$) A massive shift to lower-wealth businesses corresponding to the shift to low-wealth residents, and a shift from a balanced office-dominated economy to one almost exclusively service-based. Of the individual wealth/zone classes, only CS$ grew. Industrial Population: Before: 7,065 (approx. 2,300 I-D, 4,800 I-HT) - 32% I-D, 68% I-HT After: 1,226 (approx. 1,200 I-D, 27 I-HT) - 98% I-D, 2% I-HT Change: -83% total population (-48% I-D, -99% I-HT) Dirty industry was little affected until a fire on November 5-6, Year 64 wiped out almost half of their businesses. High-tech industry, once the dominant form of industry, virtually disappeared altogether, making industry the zone type most drastically affected by the shutdown. Crime: Before: approx. 1.5 per month, 95% chance of arrest (Crime rate: 3.93 per 100,000) After: approx. 11 per month, no chance of arrest (Crime rate: 91.32 per 100,000) Change: 7.33 times as high crime, -100% arrests (Crime rate: 23.24 times as high!) With no police around, the population went wild. Crime actually peaked in the first few years after the government shutdown before declining along with the population. Nevertheless, Kuzcek is still 23 times more dangerous than it was fifty years ago. Lock your doors, Kuzcekians. Commute time: Before: 23 minutes After: 92 minutes Change: 4 times as high When the roads have effectively been destroyed by fifty years without maintenance, it's going to take a lot longer than it will than it did on Kuzcek's smooth asphalt in "the good old days". Power usage: Before: 10,110 kWh After: 8,871 kWh Change: -12% total power used Water usage: Before: 67,116 cu m3 After: 65,376 cu m3 Change: -3% total water used I'm not quite sure how this works. I would have expected something like an 80% drop in utility use. Air Pollution: Before: approx. 97 After: 59 Change: -39% total air pollution Finally! Something good came out of the government shutdown! Not that it was a problem before anyway, the pollution was always contained away from the residential/commercial/high tech industry zones. I guess this is the silver lining? Sure, the city's turned to crap, but the air... is slightly cleaner! Yay! Garbage: Before: Approx. 14,000 tons, all safely in a landfill After: Approx. 295,000 tons, all in the streets Over half a billion pounds of garbage in the streets, that's 48,983 pounds per person. That's almost the weight of 14 top-trim 2011 Honda Accords worth of garbage... per person, in the street! Imagine living in a house of three and having 42 Honda Accords worth of trash in your yard? Education: Before: 183 After: 23 Change: -87% / 160 EQ points 160 EQ points is considered good for a city. That's what these people have lost since the last school bell rang 50 years ago. Life expectancy: Before: 90 years After: 51 years Change: -43% / 39 years To the people living here now, Kuzcek has been abandoned for a lifetime. 39 years loss is a heck of a lot. If you went back 39 years, the Atari 2600 was state of the art. 13 years longer than I've been alive. Budget: Before: $18,645 income / $14,999 expenses ($3,636 profit) After: $6,576 income / $2,443 expenses ($4,133 profit) In the first few decades after government shutdown, I was making tons of money. Now the population loss is catching up. Funds: Before: $688,833 After: $5,705,294 I could fix this place up and make it a utopia. Mayor Rating: Before: 75 After: 17 Change: -58 points I'm surprised the Sims of Kuzcek don't outright hate me.

@CorinaMarie Unless there's a massive fire. It's gotten down to about 10 before, and there have been instances of a few tiles with mayor rating in the red on the data view after big fires. I'd say I've been in the 20% or so chance of a riot 2 or 3 times, but no riots have happened yet. I reckon a mayor rating of sub-zero COULD happen, but I don't think it would stay longer than a few months. Of course, mayor rating would TECHNICALLY be zero if everyone left. Spoiler alert: I'm up to 80 years (will post an update soon) and the population is less than 7,000.

As Kuzcek continues its slow transformation from crime-infested slum to burned-up ghost town, here's the statistics at 55, 60, and 65 years. This set of statistics is as follows: 40 years post abandonment -> 45 years -> 50 years. Total Population: 10,172 -> 8,850 -> 8,134 Residential Breakdown, after 55 years: R$ approx. 9,200 / R$$ approx. 930 / R$$$ at 64 Residential Breakdown, after 60 years: R$ approx. 8,100 / R$$ approx. 950 / R$$$ at 67 (?) Residential Breakdown, after 65 years: R$ approx. 7,500 / R$$ approx. 830 / R$$$ at 63 (?) Commercial Population: 4,427 -> 4,102 -> 3,738 Commercial Breakdown, after 55 years: CS$ approx. 2,950 / CS$$ approx. 1,100 / CS$$$ approx. 130 / CO$$ approx. 240 / CO$$$ extinct Commercial Breakdown, after 60 years: CS$ approx. 2,900 / CS$$ approx. 950 / CS$$$ approx. 100 / CO$$ approx. 150 / CO$$$ extinct Commercial Breakdown, after 65 years: CS$ approx. 2,800 / CS$$ approx. 800 / CS$$$ approx. 70 / CO$$ approx. 80 / CO$$$ extinct Industrial Population: 1,226 -> 1,226 -> 1,223 Industrial Breakdown, after 55 years: I-D approx. 1,200 / I-HT at 27 Industrial Breakdown, after 60 years: I-D approx. 1,200 / I-HT at 27 Industrial Breakdown, after 65 years: I-D approx. 1,200 / I-HT at 24 Crime: No arrests can be assumed at this point. 11 month -> 8/month -> 8/month Commute time: 93 minutes -> 85 minutes -> 85 minutes Power usage: 8,850 kWh -> 8,772 kWh -> 8,772 kWh Water usage: 65,280 cu m3 -> 65,068 cu m3 -> 65,052 cu m3 Air Pollution: 58 -> 58 -> 58 Garbage: Nearly all garbage in streets, approx. 320,000 tons -> 345,000 tons -> 360,000 tons Education: 16 -> 9 -> 6 Life expectancy: 51 years -> 50 years -> 50 years Average income: Approx. $19,800 -> Approx. $19,800 -> Approx. $19,600 Budget: $5,552 income / $2,530 expenses -> Approx. $5,020 income / $2,550 expenses -> Approx. $4,400 income / $2,350 expenses Funds: $5,920,145 -> $6,089,791 -> $6,232,600 Mayor Rating: Approx. 17 (2 bars out of 12) -> Approx. 16 (2 bars out of 12) -> Approx. 15 (2 bars out of 12) Sorry for no pictures, my internet's acting up at the moment.