I am apparently downloading Windows 11 right now, so this is a bit of a ‘get this up now’ job.
The two worked out later that they had made a basic mistake about their surroundings. The usual rule of thumb about Old American buildings was, If it’s stayed up this long, it ain’t falling down any time soon. It was a good rule. Everything the ancients made either fell apart right away, or it damned well lasted forever. Everybody knew that.
\The problem was, most of the breakable stuff had gotten messed around with first by people, critters, or monsters. Fine. But there weren’t any people or big critters in Deadlime, and the monsters weren’t interested in the buildings. That benign neglect might have kept the city in a peaceful, half-mouldered state, but it was still neglect. It didn’t help either that the fight below kept shaking up the walls and the roofs of the surrounding buildings, not to mention the foundations.
Anyway, that’s why neither man figured out in time that the roof they were currently on was staying together mostly out of habit.