First Night on the Job
This is an entry for prompt #15 for The Writing Prompt Group. Our assignment: Write a story in which at least one character faces something they fear. This story is based on actual events from my life.
It's your first day as a security officer. You're excited, but not particularly happy about it being a night shift and the fact that your first job will be at an old abandanded plant. Your a big fellow, being a Texas raised equine, so when you saw the security job posting in the paper, you jumped all over it. Your fresh out of highschool and raring to get out in the world. being a security officer wasn't exactly how you figured your start would be, but everybody has to start somewhere.
As you approach the abandoned mill in your car, you can see that there is not much lighting. In fact, the only lit part of the plant is the guardhouse at the entrance to the plant. It is nine o'clock in the evening and the sun has been gone for quite some time. You exit your vehicle and walk towards the door to the guardhouse. As you reach for the door knob, you look in the direction of the plant. The silhouettes of buildings and equipment are all you can see in the distance. It's quite a sight; the structures of the plant seem to go up a few hundred feet.
You turn the knob and push the squeeky door open to meet the day guard on the other side. A very tall husky sort of wolfess stands there with her stuff already in hand. She stands there for a moment, then puts her hand on her hip. "Have fun," she says before giving you a flirtatious wink. She then walks to her car and drives off into the night. You couldn't help but to look at her swaying tail and butt in that tight uniform of hers. There's just something about a woman in uniform. Mmm...
As you set your things down and sign in for work, you have to make your first patrol. Making sure that you're ready, you look down at your belt. It's equipped with an LED flashlight, a pair of hand cuffs, and some pepper spray. You open the door from the old guard shack and close it behind you as it creaks shut. Then you make the long walk from the guardhouse to the plant, flashlight in hand. It's windy. The clouds cover up what's left of the crescent moon. Walking through the plant you can hear the wind howl as it blows through the mechanical structures. The sheet metal has been deteriorated from the side of some of the buildings and you can hear it slamming against itself as the wind knocks it about. You reach the furthermost point away from the entrance to the plant, which is the wood yard. The wood has been gone from its resting area for decades, so only the rusty cranes above remain, towering above you at a hundred and twenty feet tall.
You turn around, but an eriee sound stops you in your tracks. Some kind of feral wolf or coyote howls in close proximity. You turn around, with your flashlight in hand, and point it at the direction of the sound. An open field is all you see. You sweep your flashlight left and right, pointing it at the tree line. You're just about to turn and walk away when you see a pair of eyes, shining from the light, looking right at you. All the hairs on the back of your brown equine neck stand straight up. For a moment, you stand there frozen in fear, uncertain of what creature lurks about at the edge of the woods. Then, two more sets of eyes appear at the edge of the treeline.
You take off...The nearest building is only a few hundred feet away. You run up the three flight of stairs to the second floor and peer out into the open field with your flashlight, scanning left and right. They've started across the field. With no weapon to fend them off with, you take your whistle and blow it as loud as you can. This startles the creatures and they turn back towards the woods.
You sigh in relief as you make your rounds around the rest of the plant. You find a steel wood pick and decide to hold on to it until you've made your rounds. You walk through the electrical rooms and down through some damp tunnels. This place is bigger than you thought.
You're on your last location, checking out the hydraulic oil room. It's a very tall room with huge metal tanks that tower about 40 feet from the ground. Various pipes run along, all seeming to connect to each other. Underneath the grated walkway is an oil pit, running along the length of the walkway. The oil level seems pretty high; about twelve inches from the walkway. You start to walk towards the door to the next room, not realizing that one of the grates has been removed from the walkway, but just in time, you see it before plunging into the cold crude oil.
"Phew...that would have sucked...falling into an oil pit on the first..." Just then, something in the oil moved! You let out a scream as you scramble back, falling to the ground as you trip backwards. You shine your light into the pit; all you see is the wake on the oil. You stand to your feet and by doing so, causes whatever was in there to move again. You can barely make out what exactly it is that has fallen prey to this pit of oil...It's a hawk. It's so saturated with oil that it's almost unrecognizable. As you take a closer look, you can see a pigeon in the pit as well, but it's not moving. The hawk must have fallen in after the pigeon, thinking it was an easy meal.
Being the animal lover that you are, you decide to help the fellow out. You see some thick welder's gloves laying on the ground, so you put them on. The hawk is right next to the removed grating. As you reach into the oil, the hawk doesn't move; he's tired. You pick the bird of prey up and out of the oil. That's when the bird goes berserk. The hawk turtles his neck around, biting anything it can to try and free itself, but it is to no avail; the gloves are thick.
You make your way up to the offices and find an old box to put the saturated bird into, then you head back up to the gaurdhouse, with the box, to call the local wildlife services. They answer, but cannot come to pick up the bird until 10am. You hang up the phone then sit back in your chair to relax for while. It's eleven o'clock at night and you have another two hours before your next patrol, so you take it easy until then.
The following hours until nine in the morning went by fairly quickly and were uneventful. At exactly nine o'clock the wolfess shows up in that tight uniform again, but this time, a few buttons of her shirt have been left undone, revealing some very nice cleavage. The dark grey wolfess saunters towards the guardhouse with that sexy stride of hers and opens the door. You meet her at the door with your stuff in hand as she steps inside.
"Have fun..." you say as you walk towards the door, "Oh...by the way. There's a very pissed off bird in that box there. I wouldn't open it if I were you. The game warden will be by at ten to pick it up," You say as you give her a smile and a wink before you walk outside.
"Bird? What the f..." is all you hear as you close the door behind you and walk to your car. It's been quite an eventful first night on the job and it's time to get some sleep, because tonight...it will start all over again...