It was basically a moment of mind-numbing sheer terror. She said that even though we loved her painting, most people weren't into it.
However, the smokestack came out of the roof of a pretty wide industrial building. I'd just have to go back down and be really quick and careful about it.
However, we found a door that was nearly rusted shut that hid the stairway. That was fine with me. 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. Usually, the shop still had its sign outside to tell us what it had been, but sometimes they didn't and sometimes we just weren't familiar with the name. I'd brought my ten million CP spotlight, but it hadn't charged fully in the car on the way there, so we were stuck with flashlights.
He's probably going to have people asking that all the time. A little past that, we also found a dead raccoon that had met its fate in the tunnel, but its head was still firmly attached to its body. Hiccup and I had even tried and failed to find it in the dark shortly before this trip.
We spent a while down there checking it out and rolling balls down the lanes, but eventually we went back the way we came.
Right before our stunned eyes, half of the house broke away and fell into the sinkhole, stopping just short of sliding all the way to the bottom. My little near-death experience had left me pretty shaken up, and I'm usually pretty unflappable.
They were mostly empty, with some junk, although one contained tanks for what was probably once a sprinkler system.
It wasn't a basement, because the walls were natural rock and the chamber looked to be manmade and mined out. Usually, the shop still had its sign outside to tell us what it had been, but sometimes they didn't and sometimes we just weren't familiar with the name. We were basically down in a little valley surrounded by trees, but I took a few pictures anyway. From there, we wandered around a bit until we came to another set of escalators going up.
I ran from one end of the roof to the other, trying hard not to be seen, and then found a small building at one end of the roof with a ladder going down below.
I slipped down inside and found myself in an old steam tunnel. There were pins scattered at the ends of the lanes, although they were mostly cracked or broken, as well as the occasional bowling ball. From there, we were able to go down a floor to another section we hadn't been able to access, and it was the same way.