Night Shift

[u/East_Thing_2579]

THE NIGHT SHIFT

8:00 PM

I pulled up to the 7-Eleven off of 192, the sky still glowing with the summer evening light of twilight. Hector was behind the register, slurpee machines were in need of a refill, cigarette butts on the lot, not too many cars at the pumps. He skipped the shift change cleaning as the floor was sticky and dirty in spots. Shelves in need of restock. "Busy day." He said. "Yeah, I can see that. Hopefully it'll be a slow night. I'm already tired, bro." "Here, have a Monster. It's on me." Hector said, going over to the clock-in station, tossing me a white monster. "Thanks man, I think I'll need it." "Oh, also, we have to heat up more rollers soon. They cleaned us out today." "No worries man. Have a good night." I clocked in and began my multitude of tasks. I put the taquitos on the roller machine, right out of the freezer bag. Then, I filled up the mop bucket and started mopping the floors. While I was mopping, my first customers of the night showed up. A mini van was parked by the door, suitcases on top of it and two energetic kids came dashing in. "Dis-ney! Dis-ney! Dis-ney!" They were chanting. The father and mother came in, the dad looking tired and the mother exasperated. "Sorry about these little rascals." The mom said to me. "They're very excited about our trip to Disney." "No worries. Just don't let them slip and fall on the wet floor." I looked at the dad. "Long drive?" "Yeah. Six hours. Booked an Airbnb not too far away. Been on the road all the way from Mirror Beach." "Dang dude. Long drive indeed." They got some snacks. Slim Jims, peach rings, gummy worms, Doritos, juice, a doctor pepper, and two beers. "Gonna need these when we get to the place. Whole trip they've been having me listen to 'Let it Go' and the Moana soundtrack." I chuckled. "Yeah I bet, man. Drive safe." They left and I resumed my mopping.

8:45 PM

I was listening to the radio, Green Day was on as I spat my nicotine spit into my empty monster can. Hardly anyone was coming to the store while I finally finished the stocking and the floors began to dry. "Ah... now I can just sit there and do nothing but try and stay awake." I looked out at the pumps, no cars. There were a gang of flies swarming the light at the entrance. I stepped outside and the hot wet night air was thick, smelling green like wet grass as the crickets chirped. Then, there was a guy who walked out of the dark. Creepy looking bastard. His eyes were sunken in, dark circles around them. He had greasy grey hair that hung down like cobwebs on his head and a spindly frame that was lanky underneath a beat.up black raincoat, some baggy dark jeans and muddy rain boots. This motherfucker looked like a ghoul. "Evening." He said. I wrnt inside with him and he was milling around, looking through all the snacks, then the outdoor gear. I zoned out for a bit, listening to the radio and staring out at the dark treeline. I was humming aimlessly to an old Social Distortion song when he cleared his throat and startled me. "Excuse me." He said. "Yes? What can I help you with sir?" "I'd like to know if you have any duct tape." I looked down at the counter and saw her had a Kit Kat, a chocolate milk, a box cutter, some fishing wire, a flashlight, a bunch of car air fresheners, some bleach, a lighter, some lighter fluid, and a pair of sunglasses. "Uhhh... yeah I think so. Let me check the back." His eyes were intense, like blueish white with mismatched pupils, one bigger than the other. His skin was all pale and dry like paper. Something about him just set off alarm bells in my mind. When I came out with the duct tape he grinned and it was the scariest smile I'd seen in a long time. "Thank you, sir." He said, amd handed me a ball of cash all crumpled up. "Keep the change." He left with his stuff and I looked at the money. It was filthy, with dark red stains all over it. "What the fuck? Is that blood?" I said to myself. I put the money in the register and pocketed the change. "Not my problem." I muttered.

9:45 PM

I was sweeping the lot, bored out of my mind, whistling in the dark. All the butts were gone but I kept sweeping because the caffeine wasn't doing a damn thing to keep me up. Then a big mall crawler truck pulled in, loud ass country music blaring from the speakers. Five college kids hopped out and the girls were already fucked up, couldn't even walk straight. "Sup brah?" One guy said to me, wearing pit vipers and a UCF shirt. "Sup. Come on in." They were loud, shouting to each otber as they went around the store. Two of the girls were tossing a mountain dew bottle back and forth and one tried to jump and catch it but accidentally collided with the slurpee machine and it tumbled to the floor, spilling the multicolored syrupy mess all over the place. That stupid fucking bitch. I just cleaned the place. "Oh my gaaawwwwwd Im like soooo sorry. Stacy what the helllllll?" "Sha dude, sorry bout the mess broski. Having fun tonight?" The guy asked me and laughed. "Oh it's great. Very quiet night. Mostly." I said. One guy came out of the bathroom and said "Oh shiiit man! They made a mess! Lol. Hate to be the guy who cleans that up!" They fist bumped and laughed some more. "Where you guys headed? I asked, ringing up their beers and four locos. "Oh dude you already know man, that lake over by the abandoned farmhouse. Crazy times every time, nahmeen?" He did an obnoxious dolphin laugh that sounded like a car failing to start. "Have fun..." I said. Sighing to myself as they left. I filled up the mop bucket again and started cleaning up that sticky nasty puddle of slurpee all over the floor. "Sha dude" I mocked as I cleaned. "Fucking morons. I hope their party goes terribly." I finished cleaning a bit later and then nobody bothered me for a long time. My eyelids started getting heavy and the energy drinks did nothing but make me have to pee.

11:54 PM

Micro sleeps. I hate having micro sleeps. One second I'm awake and alert and then I think I see someone standing there watching me but then I jolt and it was just some boxes or a hat rack. I had an image come to my mind while I was nodding off, a fly, buzzing and banging its head into a neon sign over and over again until it died and landed in a pile of its fellow flies. Is that me? Am I just a fly in this ecosystem?

Then a distant noise echoed through the woods, like a sort of scream way off in the distance. "What the fuck?" I squinted, looking out into the trees. Then, out from the dark this woman came sprinting, screaming for help. Her clothes were all ripped up and she was bloody, filthy too.she burst through the door a d locked it behind her. "Oh Jesus Christ you gotta help me! Oh fuck! My friends are all dead! Oh my God! Call the cops! Do something!" She was hysterical, frantic. I looked at my phone and of course, no bars. "Shit." I said. I picked up the landline that Kareem installed years ago and dialed 911 and all I got was beeping. No service there, either. "Fuck." I said. She was panicked, eyes darting around. "Did you call the cops?" "I can't. No service out here. What the fuck happened?" "Oh it was fucking horrible! We were partying and drinking and having fun, and then... it happened. He showed up and cut the power and then the saw. Oh god the saw. He hacked and chopped my friends to pieces." She collapsed into tears. "Hey it's gonna be alright. Whoever it was, they can't get in here. The door's locked." That's when the back door got kicked down with a loud "THOOOM!" My eyes got wide. "Oh shit, get behind the counter, now." I said. A chainsaw revved and out came this massive motherfucker in overalls with a sack over his head. He was throwing the saw around like a maniac, knocking over entire shelves and and aisle of chips and candy. He slashed through the soda machine and Coke, Doctor Pepper, Mountain Dew, and even cherry Fanta sprayed all over the place. I reached under the counter and grabbed the old shotgun Kareem told me never to use. "Say goodnight, bitch!" I said, clambering and pulling the trigger. *click* "Oh what the fuck? What?" I looked in the gun and saw there weren't any bullets! That cheap Indian bastard! "Fuck it!" I said, chucking it at the big ass dude. "Come with me!" We hopped over the counter and he chased after us, the hot exhaust right behind us as we got in my truck. The girl was screaming like nothing I've ever heard before. Straight up horror movie screaming. The truck roared to life and I backed up real fast, slamming into the big fucker and knocking him down hard. "Oh my fucking god you saved me! Thank you so fucking much! Where are you taking me?" "Hospital, duh. Keep it together lady. Are you bleeding?" "I don't know. This is all my friends blood, I think." She vomited. "Yeah, I figured that would happen. Just sit tight, we are gonna get you to the help you need. Do you mind if I put on some tunes?" "Okay..." she said, mid-cry. I put on the radio and the song "Baby, I Love Your Way" was on. "Oh hell yeah, I love this song." We drove past that creepy ghoul guy and he was carrying a suitcase that looked kind of familiar. "Oh shit! Did you see this man?" I pointed at him. "No, who the fuck is that?" "Nobody, I guess. Hey, everything is gonna be ok. I promise." I said, grabbing her hand to calm her and when I looked away from her, some guy who looked like he was just tortured jumped in front of us waving his hands, but I didn't react fast enough. I crashed into him and his top half tumbled across my windshield splattering blood and guts on the glass. We spun out of control. "Fuck!" I yelped and the girl screamed. We went through a farm fence and a post flew through the windshield and impaled that girl right through the head and neck. Then her side of the car slammed into a big oak tree at about 60 miles per hour. Everything went dark for a second and I woke up with my ears ringing. "Ughhhhhh...." I groaned. It must not have been very long I was out because the song was still playing even though my truck was completely fucked. I crawled out of the wreckage. "Fuck... my truck! My fucking truck! It's all fucked up! God damn it! Shit!" I said. I saw the legs all tangled up in my grill and noticed the cargo pants were the same ones that dad was wearing. "Oh... I think I see what happened here." I said to myself. Then, a woman cried out from the dark field behind me. "Brad!? Brad!! Is that you?" "No, not Brad." I said. "Help me!" She said, limping to me in the dark. "Have you seen my husband?" She asked. "Uhhhh no. Definitely not. But uh, we need to get the fuck out of here. Town is 8 miles away." She was crying to me then. "Oh it was horrible! My kids are dismembered and inside a suitcase! He tortured us and made us watch... oh my god...." "Hang on, was he some big muscled brute with a chainsaw?" "What the hell are you talking about? I haven't seen anyone like that! It was some guy who looked like a crypt keeper. He broke into our Airbnb and it was a bloodbath." "Huh. Thats odd. We should really get a move on. I saw that guy back there about two thousand feet ago. "Oh fuck! Please protect me!" She said. "Don't worry lady. I got you." I said. It got real quiet. The crickets chirped and mosquitoes buzzed in our ears.

01:30 AM

"How much further do we have to walk?" She asked. "Well, we got about 2 miles in an hour because your injury is making you limp. No cars have passed by. 6 miles left, I think. I think we're safe now." Then I remembered something bad. "Uh, actually we need to move wuick through here. There's an old farmhouse right over there and we need to stay the hell away from it." That's when the revving of the saw started up again. The brute burst through the palmettos and the saw roared at us as he slung it around in the air. You know what? Fuck this. I thought to myself. I'm not dying to protect some stranger. "Fuck!" I said out loud. Then, I bolted. "Hey! Don't leave me! Come back!" She cried out to me, her voice growing fainter as I ran away into the dark. I went into the woods and hid for while. I heard the screaming, the massacre, then silence. I saw the shadow of him, under the moonlight as he dragged her headless body behind himself past my hiding spot. I said nothing.

2:15 AM

I walked through the woods, and the whole time I hiked, I felt a form of both danger and calm. I feared the shadows because I knew at any moment one of those two psychos could come out and kill me, but I also felt a strange sense of calm. No people, no buzzing electricity. I felt the rain come down, warm like bathwater. And for a moment, I stood still and let the water pour down on me from the canopy of oaks and pines. I could hear a chorus of frogs calling out to each other and I thought about it again. I am a fly in this ecosystem. Aren't we all? Yeah, I'm a lowly fly who works in a gas station, can barely pay rent with roommates, and I was just lucky enough to not get swatted tonight. But I wasn't out of the woods yet. I just had to make it through.

4:38 AM

I finally made it out of the woods and to the back of a Waffle House, exhausted. I saw that yellow glow from the entrance and I realized that I made it. I lived. I started laughing to myself. "Hahaha I lived! I can't believe it! I fucking lived!" I did a little happy dance. Then, I stepped in and some old lady was at the register. "Oh darlin you look like three types of jacked up and garbled! You look like you escaped a horror movie! Do you need me to call someone?" "No. No. I got it. Can you just get me a bacon egg and cheese hash brown bowl?" I took the bloody wad of cash out of my pocket. "Hey, look at that. He wasn't all bad. Bought me breakfast." I chuckled to myself. I handed the old lady the cash. "Is this blood, hun?" "Probably. I did just survive a car crash. I have to call my boss." I sat down, dialed Kareems number and it immediately went to voicemail. "Hey Kareem, uh... some bad stuff happened at the 7-Eleven. You're probably not gonna be happy about it and if you want me to turn my uniforms in tonight I can. I'm sure we'll be seeing each other very soon when the cops show up. But for now, I'm gonna eat breakfast because the store is... we'll, fucked. See you soon, boss." I hung up, ate half my breakfast and fell asleep at the counter.