It had been way too long since all of us got together and actually explored something. We so rarely get the same days off from work, and when we do we always end up going to the same old spots or driving 2 hours to look at a building from the outside for 5 minutes.

When the 4 of us got together that day we decided that whatever we did, we would do it right. No more walking around outside or visiting the same old haunts.

We unanimously decided to check out the Simms River Medical Center, a place a good friend of ours had briefly mentioned to us recently. We got lost looking for it, felt uneasy when we realized it was surrounded by houses, and it had started to rain a little. We parked on the far end of the lot and walked towards the building. The wind was blowing hard and the building was more secure than anywhere I've ever been. It wasn't shaping up to be a good day.

Feeling pretty defeated, we walked down the main road towards the back of the hospital where we saw the Nurses's building. Obviously built either before the main complex or at the very least with more care, it was definitely a nicer sight than the sterile main complex.

All of the buildings on the hospital campus were built akwardly on an akward hill, which made the nurse's building appear to be only 2 floors from the front, when it was actually 4 (and a half). This actually led to a lot of confusion.

We walked around to the back of the building - clumsily, I might add, as it became apparent that none of us deal well with any kind of slopes - and took a few pictures. While I was taking in the sight of the amazing shutter-style day room windows, Travis was making our day a lot better.

When I turned back, Travis was holding a door open and looking at us somewhat perplexed. he closed the door for a second then opened it again and peeked inside. It was then that I realized the rain had stopped, as had the wind. The sun was shining and the abandoned building musk filled the air, even outside.

If this isn't a good day I don't know what is!

The four of us went through the door that led to the stairwell. We ascended the stairs and looked back to see a red exit sign. Electricity? We looked up to see a flourescent light shining down the stairs. Electricity. Stupid electricity.

While I can't speak for the rest of the group I can safely assume that we were all secretly worried we might have tripped an alarm, or would soon.

We continued on. I was tossing the risk to reward ratio around in my head and figured a few minutes wouldn't do any harm.

Matt and Travis paid close attention to evey door we opened, and every room we entered. While exploring a building with electricity isn't new to us, our past experience with it involved two alarms, 3 cruisers and a lot of running.

We stayed for maybe a half hour - enough time to know that we probably hadn't tripped alarm, but at the same time felt we were pushing our luck. I flipped a light switch and watched the flourscent bulbs flicker on. This has been a good day.

I turned off the lights and we made our way back downstairs.

Travis pushed open the door and we were greeted by an old lady walking her dog. She immediately turned around and started walking around the buidling. No big deal, it's happened before.

We got to the main road and she was walking in the opposite direction we were. We got halfway through the parking lot when Travis took off running. I turned around to see the old woman on a cell phone, running towards us. A second later all four of us were running full speed towards the car - running away from an old lady.

We hopped in the car and sped away and decided that yes, today was a good day.

~Keti Fallout