Energia Tower

Chapter 6: Them

Gil exited the elevator to complete his daily task the next day. He watched Vince walk away in the opposite direction of the gloomy factory; they were assigned different shifts again that day by the prison guards. That day, Gil's task consisted of manually slotting in the handles of numerous energy blasters. The dissembled energy blasters were on a slow moving conveyor, all Gil needed to accomplish was sliding in the handle. That task was probably easier than removing war robot heads, however he knew that it would become agonizing after eight hours.

During the first fifteen minute break, Gil tirelessly walked to a table with several cold plastic water bottles rested on it. He grabbed a bottle and gulped down the water like a fish that had been removed from a pond. Six more hours of chaos was going to be difficult.

He remembered telling Vince that they would work more hours to get out of Energia Tower earlier. He only worked two hours of the numerous hours he'd have to work in order to escape Energia Tower.

He looked throughout the enormous factory to see if he recognized one of the numerous prisoners around him. He didn't see Vince anywhere, nor Bug and nor Leo. Leo's disappearance was like that of a ghost; he started to foolishly wonder if Leo even existed.

He threw the empty plastic water bowl in the trashcan and saw the chubby man, Jorge in his peripheral.

"Hey, Jorge right?" Gil asked, trying to remove his boredom.

"Yeah, and you're Gillian Zain... You're not dangerous are you?" freaked Jorge.

"Only when I'm hungry," smirked Gil. "I'm kidding."

"Oh great," Jorge said nervously.

"So..." Gil began while scratching his head. "I remember hearing that you were sent back to Energia Tower for selling illegal merchandise again? Why did you start selling it again if it meant you could be sent to Energia Tower again?"

Jorge erupted into a loud laughter, some of the other prisoners glanced over to see the strange spectacle.

Uh... okay," Gil thought.

"Well Gil, the reason why I kept selling that stuff is because they were calling my name! I can't ignore something that's calling my name! Know what I mean?" explained Jorge.

"Eh, not really," said Gil.

"I was getting loads of lux coins! I've been poor my whole life, selling drugs -eh I mean illegal merchandise changed my life! I was drowning in cash, hell I even considered buying a gold toilet just because I could!" said Jorge enthusiastally.

"You had enough to buy a gold toilet!? No way!" exclaimed Gil.

"Eh, that may have been an exaggeration but you get the point. I decided to take the risk; it was going pretty good until I sold to an undercover cop. Now I've got a thousand points... I'll be in this place for a long time this time around. Despite that, I don't regret anything."

"Man, sorry to hear that. That's more points than Vince. We talked about working a bunch of overtime to get out earlier. Will you be joining us?" asked Gil.

"I remember hearing you guys talk about that at lunch yesterday. I'll pass. These shifts suck already, working overtime might make someone burnout. Besides, I'm too chubby to work overtime," said Jorge.

Gil suddenly realized that the air around the room almost felt like it shifted. The New air felt disgusting and horrifying. He checked his surroundings and saw the infamous convicted murderer Dust standing with Bug, Russ, Tim and four other men only about thirty feet away. Dust's ominous appearance made it obvious that he probably should not be approached, yet he felt a burning desire to do so. Ever since he met Leo, he felt a deep discomfort about the secret knowledge that Leo seemed to possess. He remembered Leo talking about them. Whoever they were, Gil was extremely worried that he was one of them too. He had no memory of that being likely, but it was possible that Leo and Dust were both one of them too. If that was the case, Dust may give him all of the answers he needed... perhaps depending on what Dust would tell him, would determine if he'd aim the knife at his own heart or not.