De-Partment

Welcome to the Parts Department of the great city of Smoke."These words greet Tuxxel on his first day at the warehouse, a building so massive the ceiling can't be seen, yet what follows is anything but welcoming. An Exterminator in the city of Smoke, he finds himself leading a life of violence and subservience. Picked on and abused by his supervisor, he has little choice but to do the dirty work Smoke demands of him. As the days pass and he learns of his city's horrific treatment of its citizens, he finds it more and more difficult to listen to the orders given to him. He must do what feels right. But disobedience has its consequences. De-Partment is a dystopian novella about the struggle to maintain one's sense of self, set in a world both recognizable and entirely foreign. Included here, "The Capsule", a never-before published short story that fuses poetry with prose to create a unique literary experience.