Walking the Ruins

Trespassing

The trail and the forest end at the bottom of the slope. I reach it right behind Steve and Kevin.

A high wire-mesh fence bars our way. We are wedged in between it and the steep incline behind us.

A door in the fence carries a large, yellow sign showing a guy's head wearing a hard hat. Below him, a friendly message of welcome is printed in fat, black letters.

Private Property – No Trespassing

The bottom right of the sign sports a logo with the word CERN and a pair of overlapping, barbed circles.

On the other side of the door, the trail continues through a field, passing a squat, gray building.

The rain drums on my hood, a melody that has accompanied me all morning. But now the drumming intensifies, working itself into a frenzy.

Through the droplets' noise, a rustle of leaves and the cracking of wood approach from behind me. Before I can turn, something crashes into my back. I fall, and the something settles on top of me. It's heavy.

"Sorry!" A guy's voice.

The weight goes away. I lift my belly from the wet ground and—still on my hands and knees—turn my head and confront a pair of large, black boots.

Sumo. Well, his real name is Sam, but everyone calls him Sumo. He offers his huge, mud-covered hand to help me up. "Sorry, couldn't stop there, 'twas too steep." He's breathing heavily.

"You'd better watch your step before... stepping on girls." I try to be angry, but seeing his apologetic, round face, I can't. My clothes are even dirtier and wetter now, but nothing seems to be damaged. I grin at him.

Relief spreads over his features, all the way down to his second chin. He opens his mouth to say something, but he is interrupted by Jenny breaking through the bushes beside him. As he sees her, he stares, lips still parted.

Even Sumo falls for that blonde.

A few steps down along the fence, two more stragglers arrive. One is a squat figure with a huge backpack and dressed in clashing colors, Rose. The other is her friend and opposite—lanky, quiet Elaine, dressed all in black.

Rose heads straight towards us. Even though her face is hidden under a hood, I would recognize her orange-and-red colored jacket anywhere. To counteract the weight of her impressive backpack with her small body, she leans forward into the straps, letting her arms dangle dejectedly. When she reaches us, she looks up at me.

She juts her chin at the fence. "And now?" She sounds exhausted.

"Exactly," Jenny says. "You see? I've told you. Now we have to turn back." Accusation drips from Jenny's words. Her mouth forms a thin line, her eyes are sparkling slits, and her stare strafes us one by one.

Steve approaches the door in the fence and tries its handle. It opens on screeching hinges. He looks back at us, grinning.

"No way!" Jenny crosses her arms and shakes her head. "Don't you see that sign?" She gestures her chin at the yellow warning tied to the fence.

"That's just a hard hat warning," Steve replies. "They're probably doing construction work here, sometimes. But today it's Saturday. No one's working. Look." He extends his arm along the path, which innocently crosses the field and enters a small road that seems to head straight for our destination. "It's just a field and a road. You don't need no hard hat to walk that. And if it were dangerous, they'd have locked the door."

I study the hard-hatted guy on the sign. He seems to glower at me, but I shrug. "Yeah, let's go on, I really want to get to a dry place."

"But don't they do experiments here?" Rose asks. "You know, with radiation ... and stuff like that?"

Kevin turns the business end of his hoodie towards her. "The experiments they do are far underground. There's no significant radiation even right beside their accelerator. And certainly not up here. As Steve said, it's just a hard hat sign."

Rose shrugs, the motion making rivulets of water flow from her colorful jacket. "OK, if you say so. You're the expert here." Her friend Elaine now towers beside her, nodding vigorously but letting Rose do the talking, as usual.

Rose and Elaine are right. Kevin's our nerd. In stark contrast to the overwhelming majority, he is fascinated by these wild-haired men and their invisible particles. Or is it 'men and women'? I always wonder if female physicists also adapt their trade's fashion of hairstyle. Well, I may find out once we get there.

Steve adjusts his mountain of a backpack. "Let's go then."

Jenny pulls a face. "Really, I don't think that's a good idea."

"Ah, come on," Steve replies. "You don't want to climb back up that mud slope again, do you?"

Jenny opens her mouth, then closes it. She rolls her eyes. "Okay..." She sighs. "But if something goes wrong, it wasn't my idea."

"Nothing will go wrong." Steve turns towards the door and enters the field.

I insert myself right on his heels before Jenny considers usurping this position. Behind me, I hear the rest of the group getting into motion.

Passing the door in the fence, I hesitate. We're trespassers... But I do want to get into the dry. My trousers are soaked and seem to actively seek intimate, clammy contact with my legs. I longingly think of the hot shower I will take when I get home tonight. I glance at my watch. 10:35. The day is still long.

I step onto the soaked field.

We pass the strange, squat building that I noticed from the edge of the forest. I look at it, without much interest, just because it is the least desolate thing the landscape has to offer. Gray concrete walls. Two floors. A wide metal door in the center of the ground floor, closed. Two small windows. An asphalt square in front of it, an unpaved road leading away, to someplace better. Our trail heads for that road. I look forward to reaching it, hoping for firm ground to replace the squelching mess under my feet.

A phone rings. Looking back, I see Kevin searching the pockets of his coat for the source of the irksome noise. He finds it.

"Yes?" he says and listens. "Hi, Mom." His blank face reflects the lack of enthusiasm in his voice.

I feel with him.

"Yes, Mom. I will take care not to get wet," he confirms, like any good boy would, while rivulets of water run down his face.

As I look at him, the light on the trees behind him flickers. I glance up at the rainy sky in confusion, looking for lightning and waiting for thunder.

Suddenly I feel dizzy. Very dizzy. I think of my breakfast and get ready to bid it farewell. Then everything turns dark. And the world goes boom with a loud clap.