The Call Center

14.

   It was 2am that Saturday that Jay sat in his car, hidden away from the front of Belko Inc. His patience was soon rewarded Kyle showed up, long after closing hours. Just then two other cars drove up, and drivers dressed in all black got out of their vehicles, proceeding toward the building.

Jay quietly jogged toward the back of Kyle's car, carefully tucked away from Kyle's radius. Jay watched Kyle made his downstairs into the building through the back. Jay kept a safe distance behind before reaching the back door. Jay looked in all directions before carefully, quietly opening the downstairs door.

It was pitch black and silent in the basement level of Belko. Jay heard noises coming from behind him and he thought he heard strange breathing.

"Anyone there??" Kyle shouted in a whisper.

Just then, out of the darkness, Jay found himself abdicated by unseen attackers. They threw him into a cage and locked the door. Jay reached around, inside the cage, in total darkness.

"Jay. It's me." Tony spoke out in the dark.

"Tony? What the hells going on?"

"Let's just say things didn't go well with my promotion."

"What happened?! What the he'll is going in here??"

"I didn't make the conversion. I passed everything else. Just by the skin of my teeth I made it to top seller. They wanted me, Jay. They were doing to make me one of them but I didn't convert."

"Who are they?" Jay asked.

"Them. The top sellers. The managers. They're not human. They're something else. A different species all together. An enlightened species that can take human form and even has some telepathic abilities, some have even had telekinesis. They have to convert with the chosen human, and if the human and the species bond, the conversion... if only we had bonded I could have been like them..."

"What do they want?"

"Money. Gold, specifically. They take the money they make from their products and they purchase gold with it. They like worship it or some shit. It keeps them alive. They might even consume it, I don't know. I just know they need it. Oh, and the products, their to distort people's reality, it's makes them submissive over time..."

"But why didn't they pick me? Why did they pick you? It doesn't make any sense."

"I don't know. It seems to me they're picking people who won't be missed. I don't have a family. I don't have shit-"

"But neither do I! I'm basically a ducking adult orphan!"

"I know, I don't know man. But they can like detect shit, you know. Like I heard they can sense if someone's carrying."

"What do you mean"carrying?""

"I'm saying. You were in their radar, bro. They were probably watching you, following you. They must have sensed something to change their mind. They didn't even give you the opportunity to make a conversion."

"She's pregnant. Is that what you're saying? That they sensed Janet was carrying? That's why they didn't pick me?"

"Maybe, bro. Maybe they sensed you would be there for your little person. Maybe they didn't have a use for you. But now I've failed conversion and you've been abducted. They know you know and they got you and neither one of us are making it out tonight. They're going to dead us to the beast."

"The beast?"

"Vanessa says it's a God from their planet, they bathe it in the blood of humans, usually top sellers who didn't pass conversion, and they bathe him in gold. And that's what we're going."

"This is fucking insane. This is a nightmare." Jay shouted.

"You're telling me." Said Tony.

"They're all fucking alien creatures who fuck gold and kill people without families. What in the serious fuck?! And all of them are in on it. The managers. The top sellers. What about Kyle? What about Doug?"

"I believe Kyle is conversed. And Doug? Nah, fuck no. They just like to keep around a few "Joes". They throw them promotions and shit just to give legitimacy to their operation. Dougs too dumb to know what's going on so he gets to stick around sort of thing. Know what I mean?"

Cole, Mark, Vanessa and a few other top sellers all approached the cage that contained Jay and Tony. They all looked the same except for their hands. Their hands were more reptilian, with long fingers that swayed liked thoughtful tentacles.

They began pushing the cage down a dark hallway into a back room which lead even deeper into the basement of Belko. The sounds below grew louder and louder the closer they got and then after a loud crashing sound, Jay and Tony witnessed the entire building shake as if there were an earthquake. Rock and dirt fell on top the cage that the sellers pushed, causing the cage to tip to one side, knocking over the sellers and allowing for Jay and Tony to make for an escape.