We squeeze through a hole cut in the chain-link fence and crunch across a gravel yard, using the moonlight to avoid the crates and pipes scattered among the weeds. The factory complex is enormous, with cavernous white metal buildings two or three stories high in some places. On one roof three rusting silos tower another 40 feet into the midnight sky.
My guides are Noah Vale and Dirtbag, two veteran "urban explorers." They've brought me to this abandoned bathroom fixture plant two hours east of Dallas to introduce me to their secretive pastime: prowling around forgotten, half-ruined buildings, construction sites, even storm sewers.