I don’t know how to start this off. I don’t talk to people too much and my social skills seriously need some work. My name is Drake, I’m 20, and I work at a boring general store. I need to find out if it’s a general store or a gas station. We have a garage on the side of the property that’s used for vehicle repairs, oil changes, tire replacements, etc. It’s hardly used but it’s there just in case. We have two gas pumps out front, it’s always a gamble if pump two even works half the time. The shitty pump either works well or not at all, I don’t know what’s wrong with it as nothing ever happens to damage it.
Let’s see, I’m paid ten dollars an hour and work about half the day. I live in a small apartment building just down the road and have nothing else better to do aside from sleep and browse the internet when I’m at home. We don’t have much in this small place I’d barely call a town. We have two grocery stores, a gas station, a laundry mat, a school, and a college, and that’s about it. There are a few residential areas and such but that’s it. The only thing putting us on the map is a large ass highway that brings in our customers, at least the very few we do get.
I can still recall the day I came in for my interview. I entered the front door as the bell attached to the door rang. The aisles seemed like they were endless seemingly holding every type of food product or everyday item you would need. This was certainly a general store indeed. Some of the lights were flickering and buzzing, the lightbulbs were dim and seemed to be old. I would’ve been annoyed by the buzzing of the lights but I soon got used to it. Anyway, there wasn’t a staff member in sight. Nobody stocking the aisles, cleaning the floors, or running the cash register. There were maybe 3 cameras at most looking over the store. I highly doubted that they did much since there wasn’t a red light blinking on them which I usually indicate as a camera working.
I eventually made my way to the back of the store finding a door to the manager’s office. At the very moment I thought the store was closed the door to the manager’s office smashed into my face making my nosebleed. Out stepped a man in his late 30s, balding, and sweaty. He was white, wore glasses, and had a slight limp in his walk.
“You the new kid?” He asked me as I lifted my hand up handing him a resume. It wasn’t much, merely a sheet of paper with my name and home address on it, I had a few weeks of retail experience that barely filled a few lines of the sheet. He would huff as if merely reading a few lines of ink wore him out.
“So, what position am I being interviewed for?” I couldn’t recall what it was since I applied for everything but management.
“You’ll work the cash register, you start tomorrow.” He chuckled a bit as if the mere idea of an interview was the funniest joke ever told.
I went home confused as to what happened. I didn’t know that getting the job was that easy. I always had to sit through some 10-15 minute mind-numbing interview. Wow, I just rambled on, haven’t I?
I’ve been working here for a few weeks now and there’s almost always something going on. On Monday, Wednesday, and Friday I work nights. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, I work mornings. I have two co-workers, one is a mute girl and the other is an older man who sleeps all shift. The man is the janitor here, he’s black, has white thin hair, and bushy eyebrows, and is asleep whenever you see him. Mostly in the back of the break room and sometimes in the supply closet. He might be in his 50s or 60s. For an old man he certainly can sleep in any position, I once found him sleeping in the mop bucket with the water soaking his ass. He might be on drugs. His name is Bill and he’s pretty chill otherwise when he’s awake.
My other co-worker is a female named Anna. She’s between 23-25, sort of a mix between white and Asian. She never talks, mainly keeps to herself, and watches the same History channel on low volume on this old CRT TV. The picture is sort of grainy but pretty clear. She’ll only respond to yes or no questions when in the mood, she will shake or nod her head in response. Any other time and she’ll ignore you. I’ve never seen her experience any type of emotion, only the occasional sigh as if she had been holding her breath for hours on end.
For the most part, my co-workers are barely alive, my manager never comes out of his office, the cameras are sort of helpful, and I run the store on the surface. I work in the front as a cashier, but do most of the cleaning, stocking, and unloading of trucks. Anna will sometimes show up in the back to help unload the trucks. It’s kind of odd though, I take a break for 10 minutes and everything is already unloaded. These are a few pallets of stock weighing 500 pounds each at the bare minimum. We don’t have electronic carts so we’re manually moving these things. I don’t know where her unexplainable strength comes from, but it makes things easy.
I clocked in today and sat back in my chair up front. The sun had already set and there were no customers. Should be a nice calm night then, getting paid to sit on my ass. Bill isn’t here tonight and Anna is reading a book in the break room, that doesn’t happen often. Two hours have gone by and it’s getting quite foggy outside, like something out of a Scooby Doo episode. I pass the time looking through newspapers both old and new. The TV is on but the volume is muted, I’m leaving it on so the corner of my eye has something to track. It took a few minutes for me to notice the handprints appearing on the glass soon vanishing as they came.
Didn’t get to me before there was pounding on the door that grew louder and louder. I got up and walked over to the entrance seeing that it was locked. Ah, shit. I can’t believe I locked the door, there’s nobody coming to the store much so this isn’t too much of a problem.
“Is this how you treat your customers?” A tall man with broad shoulders and considerable weight brushed past me with a cigarette in his mouth. I almost threw up as I got the equivalent of a car exhaust blown in my face. I caught the flash of a gun sticking out the back of his jeans. I returned to my seat waiting for him to come to the counter. What an asshole, no need to push me off to the side since the door was locked. The clinking of glass bottles containing beer got louder as he made his way to the front. I got the scanner out and scanned the 3 boxes of beer.
“I think I deserve a bit of a discount, don’t you think you little punk?” The man reached behind his back, not for his wallet though. I heard a click which I assumed was the cock of a gun. The cameras around the store all moved in his direction, I don’t think he noticed. It was only a moment before his fat hand locked onto my shirt. I felt cold steel press against my neck.
“Sure…sir…how much?” I struggled to get out as I slowly choked up from the neck of my shirt twisting against my throat.
“I think I’m entitled to a 100 percent off deal, and then some.” he motioned to the register. I should have never opened the door. My dread ended as soon as I saw Steve enter the room.
The grown man dropped me as he yelled in pain. I could see blood coming out of his leg, growling could be heard over the counter. Steve is…he’s a cannibal man who lives in the basement of the store. The best I can describe him is a half-naked man in tattered clothing with his limbs twisted to move on all fours. He eats our bad company as he needs to feed every so often. Mike came rushing out pulling him back, the man’s body was dragged along, as the tight grip of Steve’s mouth locked onto the guy’s leg.
“Clean this mess up will you?” Mike said as he brought Steve around the corner and back down into the basement.
I got back up and locked the front door. This is just a pain in the ass, I hate when this happens. The cleanup takes so long as I have to clip out the footage from the cameras and throw away the victim’s clothing, bones, any other body matter, and the blood along with fingerprints on the ground and counter. Yep, this is just another boring day working at this general store. At this rate, I won’t be able to save up enough money for college. Not like there’s any other job that’s any better nearby. I wonder what I have to deal with tomorrow.