Episode 8: Garbage Man
The streets of Kelna lay empty and cold. With Christmas been and gone the snow had started to melt ever so slightly. But there was still in the air at night which is why most people decided to stay indoors when night came. Except for those who didn't have a roof over their head. Every since the planet was destroyed almost 20% of the people of Kelna were made homeless.
Even though the city had come a long way there were still some people who had no warm bed for the night.
The city did try to help best they could but they couldn't do everything. So the homeless people tried their hardest to make a life for themselves. In a cold alley two homeless men were digging through a trash can.
"I got one." The older man, Joe, exclaimed as he pulled out an empty milk bottle. You could easily sell these milk bottles so long as they weren't to damaged and thankfully this one wasn't.
"Don't drop it Joe remember every nickel counts!" His younger companion, Zane, scolded.
"Relax Zane, I never break them." Joe glared.
"Oh come on, you break them all the time." Zane smiled warmly at his friend. Joe carefully placed the bottle in his dirty trench coat pocket.
"I guess I do drop them a lot, don't I? Let's move on, this gold mines empty." Joe smiled. They walked out the ally and into the next one. They were completely unaware of a large black truck slowly stalking them. In another ally Joe and Zane opened a dumpster and started routing through it. Suddenly bright red lights flooded the ally, almost blinding the two men.
"What the heck is that?" Zane gasped as they shielded their eyes. The blood red lights were coming from the black truck's large headlights. The truck then started to race up to them. The two men panicked and ran down the ally until they came to a dead end.
"No! Please stop!" Joe begged. Two mechanical arms suddenly shot out of the side of the truck and grabbed the two homeless men. The milk bottle fell out of Joe's pocket and shattered...
Down at the city dump Querl and the others, minus Kiara who Querl still won't let join the team, were there scavenging parts. It's really amazing what people throw away. They came here once a month. Out of various pieces of scrap metal Querl and Abel had managed to create all kinds of this for both the base and the garage. Plus it was way cheaper then buying the parts.
It also helps the homeless people too.
Where Querl and the other's looked for parts was were almost every homeless person in Kelna slept. Every time they left Querl gave the people who helped them some money for the assist so they could get food in their belly's the next day. As Kopi, Tam, Querl and Abel searched Sorun rode around on his skateboard, not bothering to help.
"Yuk! I don't see why we have to do this." Tam complained as he accidentally grabbed a rotten tomato and it squished in his hand.
"Because it's cheaper, it helps the community and it helps the homeless." Abel explained for the fifth time that day. Sorun suddenly jumped over them and nearly hit Kopi in the head.
"Why isn't Sorun helping? It's just not fair!" Kopi growled.
"Kopi, would you rather have Sorun happy or Sorun bored?" Querl asked as Sorun rode passed them, laughing loudly.
"Good point." Kopi said. Once they were done, much to Tam's relief, they began to load everything into a small van.
"Thanks for the help Luke." Abel smiled at the homeless man who had helped them. Luke was a 45 year old Durlan who had been helping Querl and his team for some time now. He was once a professor at a university but when the planet was destroyed he lost his job and everything went downhill from there.
"Happy to help young Abel, I hope the items you found will be useful." Luke replied with a friendly smile.
"Most definitely." Abel smiled. Suddenly Luke pulled out a small sack.
"Here are some things were collected for you: Querl, for you we give an un-damaged circuit board and for Sorun a near mint condition comic book. Last time you were here you said you were collecting them." Luke said and handed out the two items.
"Thanks Luke." Sorun grinned. Kopi walked up to them with several folded blankets while Querl handed out the money.
"Here are some blankets and warm clothes, they're a little worn but they should help at night." Kopi explained. The homeless people then took the blankets off Kopi. Luke just smiled at her.
"One man's trash is another man's treasure Kopi. There is a theory that we are all recycled. The Big Bang Theory suggests that all matter has been exploding and imploding and exploding again since the very beginning of time. Our very molecules are beginning recycled." The homeless professor explained.
"Hey, aren't there meant to be more of you guys here?" Tam said.
"A lot of the guys gone missing lately, plus it's weird, they don't take their stuff." One of the homeless men replied.
"Indeed, there has been talk of a terrifying figure who takes us away in the dead of night. They call him the Garbage Man." Luke explained. After a moment of silence the team burst out laughing.
"You almost had me going there, the Garbage Man." Tam laughed as they got into the van before driving off...
"That was majorly creepy." Sorun said as he read the comic Luke had given him.
"You think any of it's true?" Kopi asked. "Hey what ever it is if the professor's worried we should take it seriously." Abel spoke up as he and Querl worked on the circuit board.
"Seriously huh? Guess that leaves Sorun and Tam out." Kopi said.
"Hey!" Both boys exclaimed.
"Oh great, I left my tool box at the professor's camp." Querl growled.
"I'll go get it." Kopi said and Abel quickly followed her.
"Wait up! I'm going too!"...
Soon Kopi and Abel arrived at the campsite. But it was a far cry from when they left it last. The place looked like it had been hit by a tornado.
"What the heck?" Kopi muttered.
"Professor?! Are you Ok?!" Abel called out into the now dark junkyard. But there was no answer. The two quickly dug out their flashlights and began to search. Soon Abel found some kind of sticky substance on the ground. After a quick examination he knew what it was.
"High grade hydraulic fluid." He muttered.
"Whoa, that's one big tyre." Kopi said as she examined some tyre tracks in the dirt. They were almost as big as Tam! After a quick phone call Querl, Sorun and Tam were at the junkyard.
"Any idea what happened here?" Querl asked as he examined the tyre tracks.
"All I know is that something attacked them. It was really big and really dangerous." Abel replied.
"Hope they're ok." Sorun muttered.
"Abel, can you run an scan for police reports?" Querl asked.
"Already did and there's no report of any missing homeless. Nobody's noticed, or cares." The youngest replied.
"Meanwhile somebody's snatching our buds!" Tam growled. Querl frowned as he stood up.
"We need to hit the streets. Let's jet!"...
The gang spent the rest of the day talking to homeless people on the streets to see if they knew anything about the 'Garbage Man'. After they were done talking to people they all met up back at the base. It was night time now
"Have you got anything Abel?" Querl asked as Abel typed something in the main computer.
"Pretty much everyone we talked to knew someone who had disappeared. And according to my calculations all the actions by the docks." Abel explained.
"Then that's our next stop."...
Down by the docks all was set. Sorun wore a worn out brown trench coat and hat while standing next to a barrel with fire in it while the others waited in the van not to far away.
"Can anyone tell me why I'm always the bait? Especially when we're hunting sharks." Sorun whined into his earpiece.
"What a baby. Almost wish he'd get grabbed." Kopi growled from the driver's seat. Querl sighed.
"Nothing's happening, let's call it a night guys." He said. Abel nodded.
"Come back to the van Sorun, we're out of here." He said. Suddenly the black truck sped around the corner.
"Uh guys?! The shark is here and he's humming the theme from Jaws!" Sorun cried in panic.
"Hit it!" Querl exclaimed and Kopi flooded the gas pedal. Sorun jumped into the back just before the truck ran him over. But the truck didn't stop there, instead it started chasing them and ramming into the back of them.
"It's a garbage truck! A stinking garbage truck!" Tam shouted in rage.
"Garbage Man drives a garbage truck; what's the matter with that Tam?" Sorun asked as the trucks clawed arms started to attack the roof. Suddenly the truck pushed passed them and sped away.
"He's making a run for it!" Abel exclaimed.
"No he's not." Tam glared and took the wheel from Kopi before chasing after the truck. Suddenly a panel from the back of the truck opened and shot out red hot fire at the van, causing Sorun and Tam to scream like little girls. Querl quickly put up a force field round the van to protect it and soon the flames stopped.
Sorun and Tam chuckled nervously as the others gave them 'are you kidding me' looks.
Suddenly the truck shot out some kind of greasy substance and that caused the van to swerve around.
"Hold on!" Tam called out as he tried to steady the van. He slammed one the brakes but it just made the swaying worse.
"If any of you forgot what we had for dinner I'm about to remind you." Sorun gagged.
"Everybody hold on to something." Abel said before slamming a button. A grappling hook shot out of the back of the van and lodged itself into the wall of a building. The van stop right before it went into the sea. The truck suddenly shot passed them an into the sea. They got out of the van and waited at the edge of the docks for the driver of the truck.
"Now, let's see who crawls out of this thing." Querl glared. Suddenly the truck's red headlights shined brightly as it began to drive away under the water! It was heading straight for an island not to far off the coast...
Back at the base Abel was working hard to find out about that island. It wasn't long before Abel found something and called everyone down.
"So, turns out that island is one of the best run land fill sites in the United Planets." Abel explained.
"Best run doesn't mean best it just means more profitable." Querl glared.
"Come one Querl what could they be you to out there? They're right in the middle of Kelna harbour." Sorun said.
"If business is as good as Abel says, anything they want to. A few payoffs in the right hands can go a long way. We need to check this place out."...
Soon the gang rode their boat up to the shore of the island.
"Looks normal." Abel whispered.
"It's quiet, maybe too quiet." Querl frowned. After telling Abel to stay on the boat the others made their way to the centre of the island while ducking the usual patrols. They finally reached the edge of a giant crater in the centre of the island and were surprised at what they saw. They saw a bunch of enslaved homeless people sorting through garbage, even some in chains, with guards everywhere holding taser staffs.
When ever one of the slaves hesitated or tried to take a brake they would be zapped.
"This is making me sick." Tam snarled and stood up but Querl grabbed his arm and pulled him back down. Suddenly the guards began to herd the slaves into a group as the black truck drove into the crater. It opened the back and tipped three homeless men out and guards quickly put them in chains.
"That's it!" Sorun growled and pulled out his sais. Tam and Kopi were quick to follow.
"Hold it guys, look!" Querl glared and pointed at the truck. The walls of the black truck suddenly folded away and a man rolled out of the the back, laughing loudly. It was the Garbage Man. He was morbidly obese with drool dripping from his mouth. He was riding in a high-tech contraption such as a mecha-like wheelchair or a submarine as he had no legs and had a few flies buzzing around him.
True to his name, he was also very filthy.
"That is the most disgusting thing I have ever seen." Kopi gagged.
"Just this once, I totally agree with you." Sorun said.
"Greeting filth! Garbage is power." He shouted to the crowd.
"If that's true then this guy must be Superman." Tam joked.
"Before I brought you to this island you were nothing but human garbage but now I have recycled you. Giving you work shifting through the waste that the city stupidly squanders to build my empire." The Garbage Man laughed. Suddenly a man stood up from the crowd. It was Luke.
"I would rather be a free man living on the streets than a slave in your stinking empire!" He shouted.
"GUARDS! SILENCE HIM AND GET THESE UNGRATEFUL BEASTS BACK TO WORK!" The Garbage Man shouted. Luke cried out in pain as one of the guards tasered him in the back.
"That's it! Time to take out the trash!" Tam shouted and the gang charged down into the crater. As Sorun used his sharp sais and he super speed to cut away the chains on the slaves Querl, Kopi and Tam held the guards at bay. The guards quickly ran for the hills as the now free and enraged homeless people formed a lynch mob.
"Professor are you alright?" Kopi asked as she helped Luke to his feet.
"Never better." He replied.
"Looks like your buddies have the guards under control." Sorun smirked.
"Then I take this time to encourage you to kick that Garbage Man's stinking behind." Luke glared. Kopi nodded and the gang charged at man.
"What's this? They're sending mere children against me?!" The Garbage man snarled. The gang tried to attack but the man's claw arms protected him from their blows. Each time the gang attacked him would reverse more and more.
"I WILL RECYCLE EACH ONE OF YOU INTO THE GROUND!" The Garbage Man shouted.
"Hey Garbage Brain! If you fight as bad as you smell we are in trouble!" Sorun laughed.
"SHUT UP!" He screamed and tried to hit the speedster but missed. Suddenly Sorun kicked the Garbage Man hard in the face, causing the fat man to reverse over the edge of a small cliff and into the sea.
"For sure he can't swim." Kopi said.
"We gotta do something." Querl sighed.
"I knew you were going to say that." Tam groaned. All four of them jumped into the sea after the Garbage Man. They found the Garbage Man's wheelchair but the fat man was no where to be found...
After make sure all the guards were dealt with the gang met with Luke on the beach.
"We've voted to stay here since there's food and shelter. The Garbage Man was right about one thing: people do throw away a lot of valuable items." Luke explained to the gang.
"Watch out for him." Kopi warned. Querl nodded in agreement.
"Something that evil always comes back."...