Dead Clouds

Chapter 11 (3/3): Truth or Lie? Tkese's Offer (1/2)

The overwhelming odor of the nearby landfill finally broke through Radius's thoughts. His senses quickly sharpened to his new surroundings. He stood before a campus of warehouses and heard the chorus of conveyor belts, optical sorters, and machinery buzzing around him. Even so, he detected no sign of human activity. It was approaching the evening, but he should have espied at least one employee.

Air punched his lungs as soon as he inspected his surroundings more acutely. Motionless bodies scattered across the campus. Radius identified them as workers from their orange reflective vests. Some bodies faced the ground, others were slumped against the warehouse walls, while others dug their noses into the rectangular control panels of bulldozers and front loaders.

"I suppose I wasn't the only one invested in secrecy," said Radius.

His eyes darted between the different warehouses that lined up the sides of the dirt covered road. Prior research on Nube City's waste management practices informed him that the warehouses had at least two floors and that the entire facility was over sixty-thousand square feet. Reservations crept into the back of his head. There was no conceivable way for him to scour the entire facility and find Tkese before the end of the day. His endeavor was pointless.

Radius growled between gritted teeth, "Tkese, if this was some juvenile trick...."

An image of Gold stared deeply into his eyes.

Speechless, Radius sprinted to the side of a warehouse on his left and studied the missing persons poster plastered on the side of the building. It was the same poster he saw Katy distributing around the city earlier in the week. His mind rushed to conclusions, then screeched to a halt as he glanced at the ground.

A line of Gold's missing persons posters were taped to the asphalt. They created a trail that wrapped around the back of the warehouse. A quiet breath slipped between Radius's lips.

"Mind games," said the genius, "An embarrassing attempt to psych me out."

Following the makeshift path, Radius approached the overhead door of a warehouse hidden behind the initial row of warehouses. Around the outside of the warehouse were slumped employees. There were also large tubes and pipes of various colors and sizes connected to machinery that grumbled with activity. Taped to the top of the overhead door was one of Gold's posters. Its lower half flapped wildly in the wind.

Once inside, the teen marveled at the mechanic maze that stood before him. Silver and yellow steel beams and pipes zig-zagged in the air. Conveyor belts zipped with activity carrying loads of cardboard, glass, paper labels, plastic, cans, and metal to different destinations. Colorful bales of recyclable material formed giant blocks against the warehouse walls. Massive optical sorters churned with power as they sucked up metal, drywall, and cardboard.

"The sorting facility," said Radius, "This is where the city's waste becomes a resource for other innovative purposes."

He stepped around a poster beside his foot and continued to follow the path made out of his partner's smiling face. Radius took note of his placement on the facility's bottom level. A second level stood several feet above him with bright yellow rails serving as protective barriers. Above the second level was an extremely high ceiling, which caused Radius to feel a minor case of top shelf vertigo.

His stomach churned. Observing the labyrinthine layout of the sorting facility caused him to feel like a lab rat. The only exit he noticed was the entrance, which was no longer visible behind him. Any thoughts of regret were immediately banished. Radius stubbornly stuck to his decision.

"This is where the trail ends," mumbled Radius. He crouched and picked up the final poster. Green smoke clouds swirled around the warehouse as soon as he was upright. "And this is where the theatrics begin," he finished.