Misery County

Prologue - Part 1

The oppressive heat of the night washed over Eric as he stepped out of his service vehicle. An identical car was parked just ahead of him, "Holmesbrook Security" painted on its side. A man stood leaning against it, his face barely illuminated by the lit cigarette in his mouth.

"My man, it's good to see you," the figure called out as he flicked his cigarette onto the ground.

"Aaron, it's been a while," Eric responded. "How was your time off? How'd it all go with your mom?"

"She didn't make it, man." Aaron stamped out his cigarette. "The cancer was too far along."

"Shit, I'm sorry, buddy. Are you all right? Didn't they let you take some time off to recover?"

"I didn't want any. It's better that I'm at work. Keeps my mind occupied, you know."

"Yeah, for sure, for sure. So what's the deal with this place? All they told me was to back you up. I didn't get anything more." Eric pulled his equipment belt out of the car, slung it around himself, and buckled it.

"One of the alarms went off."

"I'd guess a break-in, but if experience is anything to go by, it was probably just kids fooling around."

"Not this time. The alarm that went off was from deep inside the building."

"I don't understand. So an alarm went off from inside, but none of the alarms at the doors or windows were tripped?"

"You got it," Aaron said, already pulling open the gate to the grounds of the warehouse.

"So, what, someone broke in through the skylights?"

"I don't know. Could be anything."

"If these are some pros, doesn't this sound like something for the police rather than us?"

Aaron laughed. "If I didn't know you any better, I'd say you were scared. Surely this isn't more frightening than kicking doors down in Basra or wherever the hell it was you were stationed."

"Yeah, I guess it's not," Eric said vacantly, following Aaron to the front entrance of the warehouse.

"Door doesn't look tampered with. Let's see if I've got the right key here."

Eric looked up at the sky while Aaron fiddled with his giant keyring. "Full moon tonight," he mused.

"Yeah, quite the romantic atmosphere, isn't it?" Aaron replied as he stuck a key into the door.

A satisfying click told them that they got the right one. The door opened inward, revealing a dark, still interior.

"This warehouse is huge. It'll take us a while to look through it all," Eric said, sauntering in.

"We can halve the time if we split up. Hey, do you see any light switches on your side?"

Eric was already looking, but with little luck. "No, nothing here. I'll bet the main lights are controlled centrally from some office."

"And I'll bet that even if we find the right office, it'll be locked."

"No office keys on that big keyring of yours?"

"My man, if you think this keyring is big now, try to imagine how it would look if I had every key to every internal door to every building the company provides security for."

"It sounds like you're just envious that they don't burden me with such trivialities."

"And look how useless your ass is because of that, not being able to check a building without someone else holding your hand."

"First of all, they hired me to do patrols, not check up on buildings. Secondly, I believe it is you who had to wait for me before going in, so whose ass is truly useless now?"

"Yeah, all right, you got me, big guy," Aaron laughed. "I'm going to go around the offices here and see if I can find a light switch. Maybe we'll get lucky and some of these doors will be left unlocked."

"Right then. I'll take this side of the warehouse. If you run into anyone, scream like a girl, and I'll be over as quickly as I can."

The two men parted ways, flashlights in hand, cutting through the dark.

Eric trawled through the aisles of the warehouse. It looked like the last shift had prepared everything for the next. The pallets in the front rows were loaded with stock and unwrapped. He toyed with the idea of taking one of the chocolates off of a pallet and treating himself to a free snack. Although he doubted the company would miss a single chocolate, in the end, much to the chagrin of his gluttonous side, his sense of professionalism won over and he let it be.

His internal struggle was interrupted by a sound, a scurry. Where did it come from? Eric looked over around the side of the aisle. It looked like the entrance to a chiller. Could that be where the alarm that was tripped was? It certainly sounded like there was someone there. He shone his flashlight up and down the aisle to make sure he didn't miss anything there. It was all quiet. Bracing himself, he went to the giant sliding door. The handle turned without much pressure as he grabbed onto it and gave it a pull, and the door began to slide open.

The beam from the flashlight darted from aisle to aisle inside the chiller. There was no movement as far as Eric could tell, at least not while the light was shining, but the atmosphere was eerie nonetheless. What's taking Aaron so long with the lights? Eric didn't like this. He regretted splitting up with Aaron. They should have stayed together.

Another sound. It sounded like something had been knocked over. Eric pulled out his pistol and aimed into the chiller. That was definitely where the sound was coming from.

"Aaron, over here!" he shouted out over his shoulder.

He waited for a while, but heard neither a response nor the sound of his colleague coming to join him.

"Aaron, I think I've got something!" he tried again.

No response. He must have been too far away or in an entirely different part of the warehouse. It was certainly big enough for sound not to carry all the way through, even in this absolute silence.

Eric cursed the security company's lack of preparedness. Aaron had a radio on him, but Eric didn't. The only radio Eric had was the one built into his car. It was all he would need, they had told him. Clearly no one thought about the rare occasions when there wouldn't be enough security officers on duty and he'd need to fill in on the response team.

There was only one course of action to take. Taking in a deep breath, Eric steadied his hands – one holding his flashlight and the other holding his gun – and entered the chiller.