Inside The Ruins

We arrived at the hospital late in the evening, maybe 9 or 10 o'clock. This wasn't unusual in those days - in spite of the extra "doom" factor of darkness, stealth sometimes required the cover of night. I think we knew what areas we'd be exploring. That was the good thing about knowing the hospital. You knew where things were and where things were likely to be. A dim torch causes few problems if you know a place like the back of your hand. That said, it's a surprising fact that "new" places kept turning up whilst scouring the ruins. One day, you might come across a new room - somewhere that hadn't been discovered before or accidentally missed. The area we were in that night was off to the left as you go into the main reception area from the front. Previously, as I mentioned before, we had uncovered interesting X-rays in the alcoves around this area. Scattered under rusty bedsprings and fallen asbestos (like we're not going to die before we're 50...), an assortment of fascinating artefacts would often turn up.

My memory fails to recall if we picked up anything intrinsic on this particular night - I merely remember that we made our way around the winding labyrinth of rooms and corridors down to where the maternity wings were. The only unusual thing about this was that we failed to spend time in our, I guess you could say, "favourite" sections: The stage room with its "Buxton" chair and piano of doom (now completely caved in, so I hear); the swimming pool room; the boiler room; the "dripping terrapins" - aside from "The Black Room" (known to many of you as "The Animal House") off the south side and the chapel in the middle - the northern buildings had always held our greatest interest. So, we found ourselves creeping along with, and I remember this distinctly, a dying torch (its fading orange glow not particularly helping us) past the strange angled passage which links to the grand corridor (the "wooden" passage where trees had wrestled their way inside). We approached a distinctive area (and Owen might be able to help me out on this one seeing as he's no doubt visited more recently than I) I think some kind of red (?) railing thing blocking half the passage, with perhaps a ramp or some steps (some sort of intersection with the maternity wing I think). I also recall some red metal apparatus - a hydrant thing, or maybe an extinguisher on the wall around here. Please excuse my twisted attention to detail. Being the labyrinth that it truly is, and in the dark no less (if you have been there yourself you'll understand) - it is tricky, some six years after the fact, to recall the exact positioning and detail of the features. I'm fairly confident though that, used in conjunction with the map, the above location description would considerably assist any potential Flinch-hunter. Again, perhaps if Owen can post some detailed recollections, it may become somewhat clearer. So there we were, pretty much in the dark (saving the torch battery whenever we could), and near the entrance to the maternity wards.

That is when it happened.