There had once been basketball goals at each end of the room, and you could still faintly make out the court lines on the wooden floor. A few of them swang out a few times, but none of them jumped in either. There was really nothing left to tell what it might have been, although a department store was a safe bet.
Neither of us could remember exactly where we'd come into the main part of the mall.
Judging by the funny way he went walking off, though, it hurt him a lot more.
Honestly, there wasn't time to think about it.
There were clothes, furntiure, and pretty much anything else you'd expect to find at a garage sale. Honestly, there wasn't time to think about it.
I guess I couldn't blame him.
Everything had been gutted out, leaving bare concrete colummns and floors.
There wasn't too much to see, so we went up the wooden stairs to the upper floor.
I just went for what instintively seemed safest, and that was to try and go up to the next rung and grab the top of the smokestack, which was just a couple feet out of my reach. He's probably going to have people asking that all the time. However, we found a door that was nearly rusted shut that hid the stairway.
The bottom floor was filled with all kinds of random junk, again just stuff you'd expect to see at a garage sale. I'd only been to the Dodd City Schoolhouse once before, when Slim Jim and myself had stumbled upon it by accident a few years back, so I didn't really remember where it was. There were clothes, furntiure, and pretty much anything else you'd expect to find at a garage sale. That was fine with me.
At first we thought he was joking, but if he was, he never let up on it. After a bit, they decided it would be easiest, if we didn't mind, to go over to the studio and do it there.
Just beside the park, there was a large pool of water where several springs gurgled up out of the ground. Chris had bailed over the wall after me and had gone down the tunnel as well. When those rungs started breaking underneath me, I experienced a panic that I have never felt in my life.
There, they'd embedded a massive steel girder into the ground and attached a rope swing to it.
I took a few quick flash pictures of the area, which I'd been relucant to do as we were going in, and then we rushed out of the area. It seemed to be the place where I'd heard the water dripping earlier. The bridge was begging to be explored, but there was absolutely no way to walk across it without being seen by everyone in the area.
Before we actually left the roof, though, we saw someone walking down inside the building through the skylight.
He told us it was video him being struck by lightning.
When those rungs started breaking underneath me, I experienced a panic that I have never felt in my life. Apparently, a new sinkhole had opened up inside the Nixa city limits, right underneath a guy's house.
As we were heading out, she was just coming into the room, and we chatted with her a bit. There was no ladder, but someone had propped a rectangular piece of scrap against the wall. The bridge was begging to be explored, but there was absolutely no way to walk across it without being seen by everyone in the area.
In the middle of the thoroughfare, there was also a large clock, as well as raised concrete area that had once had plants growing in it. The water, however, looked about five or six feet deep, so there was no point in breaking out the waders we'd brought with us. But, as we were leaving, we watched a cop drive over to where we'd had it hidden in the bushes.
So, we started heading over that way. It wasn't a big deal, but I tended to be a little more paranoid about sneaking into new places in large, unfamiliar cities. Personally, the idea of sitting up there for hours waiting on a helicopter was almost as sickening as the idea of climbing down.