04/03/04

The night air is cool as the wind races through what little hair I have left. Burzum, sitting to my right, thrashes his head wildly as Jessicka screams her torment through the speakers. He is bristling with excitement as we get nearer to our destination, what he now calls, ‘His Playground’. His previous visits had been with Squib, and now it was my turn.

Park a couple blocks away, short walk through an apartment complex, duck off the main road real quick and make our way through the low brush, and occasional thistle to a nice section of fence with no barbwire. The climb was smooth on the way in. Burzum fared much better this time around, only ripping his pants two, or three times, and just a couple of small lacerations. Thanks to the past 6 months of rock climbing I’ve been doing I was able to make my way quickly and cleanly over the fence despite being a fat-ass. The return trip, however, was much less graceful.

Once in we quickly move to the shadows and away from the nasty strip mall next to the entry point. We move along quickly past some of the outlying buildings and make our way through the complex. This site consists of approximately 50 abandoned building on 183 acres of land, and has been almost completely abandoned for 8 years. There are 2 buildings on the site still in use near the front gate.

We made our way up and around the main target on a service road. We circled half way around the target, looking for signs of anything. Security, vandals, bums, other UE’ers. Nothing. Acres and acres of dead buildings. Cracks filled in with grass. Ivy engulfing entire buildings. Nature reclaiming its land.

Just the way we like it!

As we make our way to the object of our affection, Burzum mentions that he and Squib had found some living quarters and a few structures you could enter to the north. Tonight, however, he had more interest in checking out new buildings.

Down the stairs, through the over grown walkways, littered with years of eucalyptus droppings. The structure begins too loom over us. Tall, 8 Stories, dark, and dead.

We circle the perimeter, looking for a point of entry. Every door boarded, barred. We creep around the base, nearly 10 years of dead leaves crunching under our feet. One entrance that has a glass foyer has been the victim of recent vandalism. Let’s just say it’s a steel frame foyer at present. Still, door is boarded up, and all we have is just our flashlights, not much help for prying boards off.



We find another door that used to be a point of entry, obviously used by someone who thought to bring a crow bar with them. Welded shut now. No way am I dragging a torch in here. We continue on noting the open windows on the upper floors. The concrete base of the building is designed in such a way that there is nothing to climb on. Smooth, almost featureless. All the windows have boards on them.

Half-way around the structure we come to the access door where the main entrance used to be. Large chain, large padlock. Through the two holes the chain goes through we are able to shine a light in one and look through the other. Beyond that access door we can see that front entrance of the hospital is wide open. Just one large lock and chain between us and the promised land.


We press on with cautious optimisim. Around the south side to what’s left of some of the HVAC equipment. About 30 feet down in this fenced in courtyard we see a metal door that has been busted and jimmied open. And then welded shut by some unknown protagonist.

Having completed a circuit of the building and not finding a suitable means of entry, and being equipped only with flashlights, cameras and respirators, we headed south. Up some more overgrown stairs, through the large empty parking lots to a building labeled BEQ 501.

There are a few benches scattered about that look like they are from a crappy 70’s sci-fi movie. Some bed frames, a lot of broken glass from where people had thrown rocks through some of the windows on the upper floors. Some busted up bike lockers filled with trash, and old porn mags. Cause what’s a military installation without porno? The structure was in the form of an H, with the uprights being 3 story concrete blocks, and the cross beam a 1 story concrete block. Perfectly flat and featureless aside from the access staircases on each end of the 3 story structures, and the plywood over the first floor windows and doors.
We check every door on the access stairs; all welded and marked ‘FEMALES ONLY’, so we couldn’t have gone in even if the doors were open. Around the side we see a spot where ivy has grown into one of the rooms through a broken window and is taking over.

So quiet. Hard to believe we are in Oakland.

We head down the main road to the BEQ and come across the power box for the building. The gates are open, all the doors are open, but most of the equipment is gone. You can see huge mounts that are left. Some VERY large switches, and linkages, a strange rusted circuit board with an LCD display left to the elements.


As we continue away from the BEQ and towards the west side of the complex, also the front of the complex, we encounter a stairway that goes down. Down into the darkness, very over grown. Shining our flashlights you can barely see the bottom, covered in leaves. I don’t know what was down there, probably nothing of consequence. But the whole look of the scene pretty much scared the shit out of me, and I made the case for pressing on to the building I could see in the distance.


Through some of the huge empty parking lots in front of the main building we trod along. We see a very old building in front of us, probably what used to be the original hospital before the concrete beast was constructed in the 1970’s. Made of wood lathe, and hand rolled glass windows. I only know this cause we finally found a window not covered with plywood. It was covered with a steel grate you could kinda see through. After the main structure was completed this building had been turned into a gym. Now it’s just rotting waiting for a wrecking ball, and us to find a way in.

Getting closer to the front of the complex now, the buildings are looking older. The staircases are getting sketchier.
Behind the gym we find a large freezer with ‘POLICE ONLY’ stenciled on the front of it. One can only wonder the meaning of this. Though I suggest you don’t dwell on it too long.


Behind that we find a bunch of random crap and the boiler room, which has the scariest set of stairs yet. We brave them for nothing, this door, as with all others tonight, is welded shut. We come around the boiler room and approach another building. We didn’t take any time to look at this building since we were approaching the front gate guard shack. Knowing this was still a semi-active site, and how bright the lights were around it, we felt it was best not to walk down the middle of the street to find out if anyone was in it.

I fell back a few yards and scurried across the road with Burzum right behind me. We moved along a side road trying to find a spot where we could come up on the side of the guard booth. Hopefully with some cover. I found a scary looking staircase as we were moving in, and just couldn’t resist tempting fate. Bad habit I’ve had most of my life. Burzum, now hell bent on finding out if anyone is in the guard shack, ignores this great opportunity to injure himself. Very unlike him. Of course, maybe it’s the danger of getting caught that is driving him. Up a few stairs, creak creak. A few more, SNAP. Whoa. Few more steps, okay, that time I felt it lean away from the building.

At the top there is a wooden sundeck. Back in the day it looks like it was a great place to relax and have lunch, maybe hit on one of the sexy nurses that used to work here. But I digress.

I was making my way across the deck towards a door to the building that was probably welded shut. I say probably because I never made it close enough to the door to find out. I took 3 or 4 steps across the deck and felt the entire roof sag under my weight. I took two more steps and the wooden deck on the roof snapped under my feet. Didn’t punch a hole in the roof, but it did put one in the deck. Quickly, I made my way back to the staircase. Really getting kinda freaked out, wondering if I was going to make it back to the ground without breaking anything. Lots of creaking, breaking another step, missing the first one I broke and I’m on the ground again.

Heart pounding, a little freaked, and no Burzum. I circle the building, more welded doors, come up through a parking lot that is directly to the left of the guard shack. But the growth is so thick I can’t actually see the shack, or see a way I can get through. And the last thing I want to do is crash through a bush and end up right in front of the shack. Still, no Burzum. Okay, now I’m starting to get freaked. I don’t hear him, I don’t see him.

Retreat, go back, flee.

I make my way back through the last parking lot, back to the building that tried to kill me. I stand there for a few minutes getting more and more paranoid. Starting to think ‘they’ got him. Wondering if I should look for him, stay put, or get the fuck out.

At this point we had been onsite nearly two hours and it was getting close to midnight. Being the ‘responsible adult’ that I am, I’m generally in bed by 10. As I’m standing there wonder what I’m going to tell the judge as to why the MP’s dragged me out of a corner muttering to myself and twitching. Burzum comes walking down another access road. Immune to the effects of my paranoia (going to have to work on that, could be a valuable power), he ambles on up and announces that he couldn’t find a way to the shack. At this point I think I said something incoherent, and as he looked at me quizzically I mentioned we should get going.

On our way back we made our way to the North gate. Totally abandoned, no lights. The shack there was the one building we scored entry to on this trip. Let me tell you, it wasn’t anything to write home about. It was no surprise they didn’t weld that door shut. We took a couple pictures. This thing was small, it was cramped with two of us in there. It had no ventilation. And a small wall heater. In the summer I think being forced to work that shack would be cruel and unusual punishment.

We checked the gate at the North entrance, at one time the fence was such that on one side it came about 3 feet off the road. Anyone could easily slide under it. Now, it was patched to cover that gap. No easy exit tonight. We continue along the fence towards our entry point looking for a better exit point. At one point in the fence, we see a spot that looks like it had been cut away. Upon examination we find that two sections, one about the size of a person, the other the size of a large vehicle had been cut away, and replaced with newer fence. According to Burzum the fence wasn’t like that last time he was here. Wonder if someone brought a vehicle in to steal something large. Who knows maybe, the military decided to cut that section of fence away and replace it for no good reason at all.

Disappointed, we continue on to the exit point. Nothing is coming easy for us tonight. We pass a couple more of the outlying buildings. One we look into has a passable door if we feel like breaking glass. Inside we can see an old file cabinet and a chair. Plus a whole bunch of random crap.

Just outside this building were two cars. One that looked like and old Chevy Blazer that had been used for a campfire, and a Navy station wagon. Not navy as in color, as in owned by the U.S. Navy. This car, just abandoned, had been left to the elements, and parts thieves. Though, I feel sorry for anyone that has to steal parts for a Chevy Cavalier station wagon.

That was the last stop for the night, we had been on site 2.5 hours, and it was almost 1 in the morning. We made our way back to the exit point, and tackled the fence, Burzum went first, and while he did great on the way up, the way down was accompanied by getting his sweatshirt caught on the fence. I was able to get to the top of the fence again with no problem; I leapt off the top of the fence, landed at a funny angle and fell on my ass into a thistle. So much for getting to make fun of Burzum for not making a perfect entrance and exit, like I hoped I would, on the way home. Gravity is a harsh mistress that can not be tamed not matter how much training you have at defying her will.

The drive home was a fight to stay awake, but still filled with thoughts and ideas for the next visit. I’m thinking crowbar, bolt cutters…….



mrsleep
5/21/04