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165 but graced the windows that were not boarded over. A few tiny pieces of broken glass along the sidewalk sparkled and were the obvious reason for the alarm in the middle of the night. They ignored the handicapped parking sign. It still felt awkward to Eddie. Tanya put her hand over his.“ It’ s okay. We will move if anyone needs the space,” she laughed. Eddie shook his head and scrutinized the building. The long straight building had a wide, covered walkway. The creamy yellow color of the building did nothing to hide the starkness of the structure. Thick, square cut stone, columns supported the huge facade that should have the names of businesses adorning its face.“ What do you think?” Eddie asked.“ The architect played with too many Lego ' s. It looks like a factory with huge windows so the workers have a wonderful view of this beautifully, stark parking lot.”
“ What do you really think?” he started to laugh.“ Fear Factory!” he joked.“ That’ s it, Eddie!” Tanya agreed“ We can paint it gray and fill in between those columns with cinder-block. That way if the neighborhood gets started, it’ s easy to restore the plaza. We can erect two massive, steel doors at the ends and three forty-foot tall fake smoke stacks on top,” opening the car door and walking toward the building Eddie said,“ It gives us twelve more feet in depth and keeps the vandals from breaking any more windows,” he envisioned, as Tanya took his hand.“ I want to see the inside,” she asserted. The alarm box was easy to locate. Eddie stuck the round key in place and switched off the alarm. He opened the door and found the light panel and flipped all the breakers on. The expanse of open space was intimidating.“ How big is this?” she asked.“ It’ s the size of a football field, end zones included. I can’ t fill this entire place,” he said, a little overwhelmed.“ Of course you can. How many ideas did they come up with at the meeting? You said some were too elaborate,”“ Some were not scary, just weird,” he said and paused.“ You want me to do this?”“ I think you can do this Eddie. I was thinking all the way here. Frank certainly believes in you. This could be the big break you said you were never given,” she said.“ This is a really big step.”
Tanya pulled a small notebook from her purse and handed it to Eddie.“ Carry this with you at all times. When you have an idea write it down no matter how silly it seems. Look you were joking around and came up with Fear Factory. How perfect. How easy is it to make this place look very industrial.”“ I’ ve always had a pretty wild imagination,” he admitted.“ The wilder the better in this case. Start with what you already did, but fix all the things you thought should be better with more capital at hand.”“ I guess I need to call Frank and tell him.”“ Don’ t forget to tell him what you want to do first and why,” she said, pointing at the notebook. Eddie started taking notes. There was a ladder on the back wall that ran to the roof. The steel door had a combination padlock. He tried the address again and the lock opened. He climbed onto the flat roof. Tanya followed. The roof’ s surface was punctuated with ten air conditioning units and a few vent pipes. Eddie pointed at the vacant streets.“ There is the planned community.” Tanya reluctantly joined him at the edge of the building. The low wall around the perimeter was only thigh high on Tanya.
The grass grew wild and patchy, but you could see the tops of fire hydrants and where driveways had been planned. There were sections of sidewalk that started and ended abruptly. Streetlights looked like gallows. Eddie could picture a noose hanging from each, He could see bodies hanging over the empty streets as a warning. The view from atop this lone building stretched for miles, and there was nothing human about the sight. The distant tree line obscured the freeway a few miles away. The breeze had picked up and all the sounds were being carried away. Tanya started to feel like they were the only two people left on the planet.“ This is starting to feel creepy,” she said, heading for the ladder.“ Want to know what I saw?” he asked following her. Slowly, Eddie began to drag one foot, it scraped the gravel surface of the roof. She turned and looked at him.“ Put it in your notebook,” she almost screamed at him, knowing he was about to really creep her out. The hair was already standing up on the back of her neck. Eddie took out the notebook and wrote“ gallows”.