04 Oct Failure to Comply

I breathed a sigh of relief once the phone was back in its holster. I got the job. Not just any job, but one of the most sought after positions within an hours drive. I was the newest team member at Colwell Industries, a company that boasted the best for its employees, and they wanted me to start tomorrow.

It was late when the call came through; there was just enough time to tell my parents before I ran off to bed. From the outside, it seemed like any normal factory, but many folks who lived in the area knew how hard it was to get a position here. Half of our family applied for different positions over the years, never to be given an interview. When I got called to schedule one, word spread like wildfire. I was their first known interview in a few months, and their first hire in almost a year. The only reason someone left their position at Colwell Industries was if they moved to another branch, or they passed away.

Waking up early was difficult – it was hard to fall asleep from anticipation, but the smell of fresh coffee drifted up the stairs. I walked into the kitchen to find a small spread laid out for me with a note saying, “Good luck!” on the counter.

It was still dark outside, cold enough to see my breath while fumbling with the car keys. It was a true beater with a heater, an old Honda passed down from cousin to cousin. Being the youngest cousin, it was mine to keep. It was a short drive, only fifteen minutes to the large warehouse, not long enough to unfreeze my bones before getting out once again.

As I walked inside, more cars pulled into the lot and I found myself taking my place in the line as we funneled through the doors and into a large cafeteria. There were multiple fridges along the farthest wall as well as shelves of snacks. In the corner was a small register to pay for the food and drinks. To the right was another small set of shelves with snacks and a large sign that read, “Free! Only take what you need.”

The crowd made its way to the left of the room, funneling through another set of doors into the large warehouse. Some men and women stopped by nearby lockers while others started walking to their own workstations further into the building. I took a step to the side, and looked at a large corkboard that covered the length of the wall. There were a few notes tacked up about being organized, wearing hard hats in designated areas, talking to supervisors if we had a question – rules you’d expect to find in a warehouse. Further down the wall were pictures divided by job titles.

Maintenance had pictures of eight men, with their names listed underneath each face. Each of the other sections were similar, ranging from only a handful of employees to over twenty. Most of the names and faces were familiar – parents from my old high school classmates, and a few classmates themselves. The last section was labelled, “Inspectors,” and had the least number of employees. Only four pictures – three men and one woman smiled back at me. Allen Mahoning was labeled as their team lead, and I recognized the name of my old gym teacher easily.

“I see you found where you’ll be stationed.” A booming voice that I had not missed during my time away at college.

“Oh, no, I was only hired to be on the floor, not to be an inspector or anything.” He ignored me and clamped his hand on my shoulder, leading me through the door at the end of the corkboard.

“The office gals needed to speak with you before you start, so hurry up.”

The woman sitting at the front desk rolled her eyes at him once he turned his back to us, and gave me a small smile. “Here, hun, we just need you to sign these papers real quick, we’ll take your picture, and you’ll be on your way.”

While signing the papers, more women walked into the office and made their way to their own desks; each saying hello on their way through. I heard Coach Mahoning – or rather I should start calling him Allen now – shuffling by the door, huffing when no one acknowledged him. I said goodbye to the receptionist after she took my picture and met with Allen again. He led me through the warehouse, pointing out what was being done in each area. He pointed to the floor every time there was a bright yellow line painted around an area, making sure I knew I couldn’t take a step in these spaces without a hard hat. When we reached the back of the warehouse, Allen stopped in front of another neatly organized corkboard. In the middle was a handmade poster boldly stating, “Every product is perfect here.” A few feet away was a small set of lockers.

“Don’t these bring back memories? At least these ones are too small for you to get shoved into.” He laughed loudly and shoved a hard hat into my hands. “Wear this and let’s get to work.”

He introduced me to the others, but quickly left before giving any instructions. The two men turned and walked towards a station with clipboards in hand. Jessica remained behind, beckoning me to follow her to a computer station.

“Don’t mind him, he was a nepo hire a couple years ago. You get used to it.” She shrugged as she handed me a tablet. “But don’t worry, this is probably one of the easiest positions you could have lucked into. Allen normally hides in his office. Jason and Kyle always take the order forms to confirm shipment details, but between you and me, they just put the papers in boxes without looking.” I raised my eyebrow at this, but she just smiled and continued. “You and me will be taking the tablets and confirming barcodes and labels on the products. Usually we just check one here and there because, ‘everything’s perfect,’” She nodded towards the handmade sign, sarcasm in her voice, “But there have been days we don’t even look. Feel free to use your phone when Allen’s not around.”

We walked between rows stacked to the brim with product, stopping every few feet so I could be shown how to scan and check different items. Each section had tattered signs reminding workers to not overload the shelves. When we turned a corner, a large scissor lift sat in front of us, covered in dust. We stopped at the machine and Jessica tried turning it on, only to find it wouldn’t work. She pulled out her phone and sent a quick message to someone named Zeke – from maintenance, she said.

“We never use this thing, but it looks better if it’s at least running. Once it’s fixed, feel free to drive this around every now and then to keep it working.” The rest of the morning was spent walking around the back part of the warehouse, finding Jason and Kyle and learning their jobs, and messaging a few friends about my first few hours.

By the time the lunch bell sounded, I was ready for something to do. I joined the group as they funneled themselves into the lunchroom. Some turned to refrigerators I missed earlier, finding the lunches they brought with them. I turned with the line that led towards the single register, and was surprised with how quickly the line moved. Reaching for the pop fridge door, I realized I had forgotten to grab my wallet this morning.

I sighed, stepped out of line and wandered over to the shelves with free snacks. I first grabbed a water and a flavor packet, something I could refill later if needed. Then it was a pack of beef jerky, a bag of chips, and a bag of animal crackers. There were also multiple bags of candy that looked tempting. I started to grab a bag, but my hand stopped halfway there. Something in me told me to stop, to not take what I wanted, only what I needed. It was my first day, I didn’t want to make a bad impression.

I turned back to the cafeteria, and found a table with some old classmates. They gave me a surprised look when I sat down, “What are you doing here? I didn’t think you’d be coming back from that big college town of yours!” Darryl yelled from the other end of the table, and the others nodded.

“You know I had to put my hat in the ring here! No one’s been hired here in a while, I had to break that streak.” The group nodded and started talking about some town gossip I’ve missed out on in the past four years. Who passed away, who had kids now, who got arrested – all the small town need-to-knows.

When half an hour passed by, folks started getting up to throw their trash away. First, the table by the door to the warehouse, then the one beside it, and it continued table by table until it was our turn. There was never an announcement letting each table go. I found myself walking near Darryl and asked him about it.

“Yeah, it freaked us out at first too. When we asked our seniors about it, they just told us they were following the rules, and pointed to that poster up there.” He pointed to a sign high on the wall that said something about remaining orderly and the risk of termination if you don’t obey. I lifted my eyebrows at this, but he continued, “Folks here are crazy superstitious, man. My team lead’s dad used to work here. One day he got a call at lunch that something went wrong at home, that someone was on the way to the hospital. He jumped the line, cutting in front of everyone to throw his stuff away before yelling to his boss about an emergency and leaving. Well, next thing he knows,” Darryl clicked his teeth while motioning across his throat, “He got ‘terminated’ in a car accident.”

I started to question him further, but was stopped by a blonde woman in office attire. She wasn’t the one that helped me this morning, but I remembered saying hello to her. She asked that I come back to the offices with her, where she had a stack of papers set aside for me. She explained that part of the inspector’s job was to walk around and check on safety measures around the warehouse. To make sure everyone was doing everything correctly, and that there were no concerns. Recently they noticed a lot of their signage was wearing down, so they made new, laminated, signs. She asked that I take the stack of papers I saw before, and replace all signage within this next week. I agreed and took the stack from her hands.

As I turned to head back into the warehouse, I ran into another familiar face – Darryl’s younger brother, Daniel. He was walking with someone from the HR department, someone I recognized from my interview last week. I waited for the two to say goodbye, and called out to Daniel. He looked surprised to see me there, but stopped over for a quick chat. He told me how he had just graduated from high school, and Darryl mentioned an open position at the warehouse that he decided to apply for. I could tell from his smile that he had been hired on the spot, and he confirmed this by telling me he officially starts tomorrow.

“Darryl really talks up this place, but has he told you about their superstitions here?” I shrugged, mentioning that I heard a little. “After he found out about my interview, he has not stopped talking about all the rules here. I told him that I might need to shake things up now that I’m around. Don’t tell him, but a couple friends and I already have a few pranks planned to try and get under his skin.”

“You’re always trying to pull something, aren’t you?” I chuckled, knowing the brothers had a long line of pranks under their belts. “Just make sure it doesn’t affect anyone or their work and my lips will remain sealed.”

A grin broke across Daniel’s face, and he agreed readily. We soon said our goodbyes, and I was off to the inspection station. I had just turned the corner, when I tripped over my own feet. The signs flew everywhere as I tried to regain my balance. As I fell down, my outstretched arm hit the corkboard, and my hand gripped onto the large handmade poster I saw earlier. A loud ripping sound accompanied my fall, and I saw Jessica running to my side quickly.

“I don’t think I have a sign to replace that one,” I tried joking as we picked up the scattered papers. She gave me a small laugh.

“I think we’ll be fine without it. I don’t think we need the constant reminder of how easy our jobs are.”

Once the papers were picked up, we decided to divide them into stacks for each section of the warehouse. Jessica said she’s been in the position for over two years now, but she struggled with this task, forgetting just how many signs were around the building. We decided to start with the easy to reach posters since the scissor lift was still down, and by the time we found a spare ladder, it would be almost time to leave for the day. We split up and I started by switching papers that had quotas and instructions for how to use the different equipment. As I walked through the warehouse, I was amazed at just how large the building was. The ceilings were vaulted, and the machinery seemed to not even reach halfway up the walls. The shelving in the back, though, nearly touched the ceiling when it was packed with products. There were handfuls of wires and extension cords hanging from the ceiling, ready to be used.

As the day drew to a close, I found a few departments started shutting down early, leaving an eerie silence behind. The last stop I made was by the bathrooms, where I replaced a sign telling workers to not ignore when the restrooms were taped off for cleaning, and if they failed to comply, they risked termination.

I was reminded of the story Darryl told me earlier, but I refused to believe that disobeying the rules would cause a death. It had to have been a traffic accident, or clouded judgment while rushing to the hospital. A complete coincidence, but the story stuck in the back of my mind. I finished putting up the bathroom signs, and walked back to our inspection station. I made sure the remaining signs were stacked together, ready to be hung up in the next few days. Jessica joined me again, and we made sure the tablets were put away and plugged in. The longer we worked, the quieter it became, until finally we were ready to leave. As we walked towards the cafeteria, we pointed out signs that we could easily replace tomorrow.

When we got to the big corkboard, we were surprised to see someone had taken a marker to the large hard hat sign. It was simple, instead of reading, “Make sure to wear your hard hats in designated areas,” An arrow was added to make the sign read, “Make sure to not wear your hard hats in designated areas.” I couldn’t help but wonder if this was the beginning of Daniel and his friends’ pranks against Darryl.

“I guess that should be the first thing we replace tomorrow.” Jessica agreed as we left.

* * * * * *

Walking into work the next day felt like deja vu – the same cars came in and parked as if everyone was assigned their own spot. I joined the lines of workers making their way inside the building. When we funneled out onto the warehouse floor, I stopped by the big corkboard and took down the defaced poster. It may have been a prank, but I didn’t want anyone getting in trouble for it.

One of the women from the office peaked her head out and gave me a tight smile. She beckoned me over and apologized for stealing me away again. There were just a few more papers to sign, and they found a few more posters that also needed to be hung up today. I agreed, taking in the new posters before leaving again.

She wished me well as I reached for the door, and when I walked back into the warehouse, I was welcomed by a loud crash from the other end of the building and an ear-piercing scream. My body reacted before I could think twice, running towards the noise. I passed groups of others running back to the cafeteria, only a few ran towards the inventory department, where the commotion was.

As I got closer, a man I hadn’t met before grabbed my arm and rushed me to the side. He had a phone in his hand and was begging for an ambulance. He led me through a couple areas and into one of the maintenance sections, where a ladder was now laying on the floor with another man flat on his back beside it. I asked another worker what had happened.

They said that when the crash happened, this man was high on the ladder. The crash startled him, they saw him try to steady himself, but all he could grab was one of the extension cords dangling from the ceiling.

“Did he slip? Those cords have a safety stop if pulled too hard.” I kneeled by the man, noticing a pool of blood under his head. I looked around, hoping to find his safety helmet laying nearby, praying the blood was coming from somewhere else.

“No, the safety didn’t work and he went straight down.” They noticed me looking around. “He wasn’t wearing a hat either. I told him he needed to put it on, but he said he’d find his hard hat once he was back down. He’s been here over fifteen years, and I don’t think he’s ever forgotten it before.”

They remained by the man’s side as I rushed to grab some rags – anything to try and help the bleeding. His breathing was shallow, but still strong. The man on the phone took the towels from me, and rushed to the man’s side. As I watched them, there was a loud metal creaking coming from the beck of the warehouse. I told the others to stay where they were, to wait for help, and I ran towards the crowd that was slowly forming around the wreckage.

I pushed through the bodies, yelling for the workers to head back to the cafeteria. I had yet to see the extent of the accident, but this many people could only cause more problems. At the front of the crowd, I was met by Jessica, tears streaming down her face. Behind her, a whole shelving unit had collapsed, broken products and wooden splinters sprawled across the floor.

“I don’t know if anyone’s in there.” I nodded to her, but the sound of metal caught my attention again. I grabbed her wrist and pulled her from the mess, yelling at the others to run. Some seemed reluctant, but the louder the sound got, the easier it was to pull them away from the scene.

We were able to get everyone we saw to run towards the cafeteria. We also found Jason and Kyle along the way, and sent one out to wait for the emergency workers while asking the other to help us with the man from the ladder. It wasn’t a good idea to move him, but we didn’t have another choice if the other shelves were threatening to collapse as well. The other workers found a large piece of wood and we carefully transferred the man onto it as we heard a loud crack and more products crashed to the ground. We picked him up, careful to not jostle the man too much, and we quickly made our way to the cafeteria doors.

A handful of paramedics arrived shortly after and took the man from us. More paramedics and firefighters poured in after they left, and some policemen walked in as well, talking to each employee to see if they could find out what exactly happened. I saw Allen, the first time today, as he led the emergency workers back into the warehouse. The crowd slowly left after getting questioned – the team leads stood in a corner discussing what to do next.

I saw Darryl sitting at a table off to the side, and decided to check in on him. He looked shocked to see me, and he tripped over his words, barely loud enough for me to hear. “I told my brother not to mess with the signs, but he wouldn’t listen.” Darryl showed his phone screen to me and I saw a text from Daniel stating that he pulled a prank before he left for home. “I’m positive he or one of his old school buddies wrote on the poster. If John was wearing his helmet, he wouldn’t be as bad off as he is.”

“It’s an unfortunate situation today, but are we sure that a prank like this could cause all this damage? It just seems unlikely.”

“Didn’t you notice that no one was wearing their hard hats this morning? I’ve never forgotten to put my hard hat on in three years, but I could not find mine today. It was just plain gone. I couldn’t find it until we were running back to the cafeteria and it was right where I always leave it. And you know what was different? That damn sign was gone by then.”

I tried to calm him down, but he was adamant that the superstitions were true. I ended up nodding along to his words and keeping quiet. I might not fully believe what he was saying, but I didn’t want to cause a bigger argument.

“Did you tell the cops about the signs?” Darryl gave me a sideways look and shook his head.

“They’re outsiders, they wouldn’t understand how things work here. I’m not going to have the whole county thinking I’m crazy. I’m half regretting telling you everything, man.”

We watched the policemen roam around to the few remaining workers, when finally a group emerged from the warehouse doors. A fireman had his arm wrapped around someone I recognized from a neighboring department, Sam. Allen followed behind them, wiping his forehead, his face a bright shade of red. I excused myself and moved closer to their table, hoping to overhear what they would say. It seemed others had the same idea, moving closer to listen, but no one shooed us away. Sam looked at the loose crowd and looked sheepish.

“I was just following orders, I promise!” One of the paramedics kneeled in front of her to check her out. “We finished packing the pallets for the one Christmas order, and I was told there was space on some shelves to store them. There was a list of where to put each pallet left on my station.” She reached into her pocket, wincing as she moved, and pulled out a crumpled paper with the list. “I was shocked that everything fit, but when I went to park the forklift, that’s when everything started to fall. I came in early to take care of this, so there was no one else there yet. I just can’t imagine it if I waited. If anything was done differently, I might not be here.”

She started breathing heavily and leaned forward to put her head between her knees. The paramedics still wanted to take her to the hospital quickly, so they left shortly after and one of the policemen went with her to get a more detailed statement. I found the others from the inspection department standing off to the side and walked up to them.

“We have the signs on every shelving unit to not overload the shelves. There are weight limits and everything posted. The pallets Sam mentioned aren’t even supposed to be on those units.” Jason grumbled, running his hand through his beard, and the other men nodded.

“I did take those signs down before we left last night.” Jessica chimed in. “I was going to replace them this morning with the new ones they gave us. I was on my way back there when everything happened, but I would still have thought everyone knew the weight restrictions.”

“We still can’t blame Sam. She was just listening to the note that was left for her.” A note, rules for her to follow – I looked up to see if Darryl was listening in, but he was nowhere to be seen.

The others continued talking, trying to figure out who could have left the note to sabotage her. I could feel my heart pounding in my chest, but I kept trying to convince myself that I was overthinking things. Someone from the office walked into the cafeteria and called for Allen.

“We’ve received multiple calls already about orders being wrong, and broken products. They want to talk to a warehouse supervisor immediately.” She rushed back towards the offices, Allen struggling to keep up with her. A couple of the remaining team leads came up to our group and asked if we could stay to help them clear some of the mess and help get things close to normal again. We agreed, knowing we would have to do plenty of safety checks before we could get the other workers back to work.

The progress was slow, but we continued working. Allen joined us after a couple hours, grumbling about the number of calls he had to take care of. “Every product is perfect, my ass. Things happen in business, and all these folks are acting like we kicked them for small errors.” He continued to rant, talking about each issue mentioned by the customers and how everyone was wanting some big discounts and free overnight shipping.

I listened to him, but my mind kept wandering back to Darryl and his superstitions. It was hard to believe, but it felt like so much went wrong in such a short time frame – I didn’t want to rule out a supernatural explanation. When I had a spare moment, I sent a message to Daniel to let him know what had happened and what Darryl had said. He thanked me for the warning, but joked about the coincidence. I asked that he not pull any more pranks on the job, and he responded defensively, saying that he wasn’t causing any harm. I didn’t respond to his last message – it was unlikely that his prank had any part in the accident, but I couldn’t escape thoughts of Darryl.

The following days were much the same for our department. Once everything was cleared, new shelves were put in. We inspected everything, making sure every nut and bolt and nook and cranny were accounted for. This gave us time to put up more of the laminated signs. The office had made even more for us to put around, not wanting to risk another incident. Slowly more workers were allowed to come back to work, and within a week, the company was running at full capacity once again. But there was a weight of caution in the air. Our group department took turns walking the floor every half hour with a clipboard in hand, ready to note any issues. After the customer complaints, the rest of us took extra caution when checking invoices and the products. We started finding issues more frequently – things that normally couldn’t break if you tried were found in broken heaps. Wrong products popped up in boxes, and we found spelling mistakes on products that have never happened before. When the other teams were told of these errors, they only shrugged, saying that nothing changed on their end.

We still had some signs that we hung up each day, but we were glad to know that the remaining ones were mostly superficial posters to try and lighten the atmosphere, although we could argue it was needed at this time.

By the large corkboard at the front of the warehouse, the office ladies asked us to hang up a whiteboard as well. They kept markers with it, and updated the board each morning with updates about Sam and John’s conditions. Sam got off easy, just twisting her ankle. John on the other hand, had more complications. He had yet to wake up, but the doctors were expecting things to get better, hopefully in the next few weeks. Folks would take turns writing messages on the board. There were many well wishes, calls to do something nice each day and to watch out for each other. Occasionally, someone would write a message about no mistakes that day. Those days seemed to be easiest.

I saw Darryl occasionally, but he seemed to avoid my gaze. He would start long conversations with the others at lunch, making it hard for me to find a moment to talk with him. Every now and then, I would see him look to a table across the room, where his brother sat with his friends, and a frown would take over his face.

Daniel brought a distinct energy to the warehouse – we could hear him laughing from across the building at all hours and he used his youth as an excuse for any errors. After I had texted him about the accident, he even started to pull a few pranks on me as well. Those ones seemed to be more childish – with fake spiders and snakes being left where I would find them.

It was my turn once again to make my rounds on the warehouse floor when I ran into Daniel behind a stack of raw materials. He had a pallet jack with him, but he was leaning on it with his eyes closed.

“Working hard or hardly working?” I call out to him, causing his head to jerk up. He looked around with wide eyes and sighed when he saw me.

“You scared the crap out of me, dude. I thought you were one of the team leads – I do not need a lecture right now.”

“Long night?” He had bags under his eyes and he seemed to almost sway on his feet.

“Yeah. Big tournament last night. Didn’t get to bed until 2AM.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a vape pen, taking a quick drag. I looked away from him, checking if anyone else was around. “Don’t give me that look. It’s not ‘smoking,’ technically.”

“I didn’t say anything.” I shrugged and quickly took my leave. I was two aisles over when I heard Allen’s loud voice.

It sounded like Daniel had been careless and got caught. I could hear snippets of their argument. Daniel claimed he wasn’t smoking, and Allen yelled that he had never changed – that a vape was against the rules in school and they were against the rules now. There was a loud, “Hey,” and the arguing got louder.

“You can’t just take my shit from me, I’m a grown ass adult.”

“If you’re as grown as you think you are, you wouldn’t be using this thing. You can get this from my office before you leave today.” I looked to the end of the aisle and watched the two men storm towards the offices. I could see Daniel reaching for Allen’s arm, attempting to retrieve his vape pen.

“Then I’ll make this really easy on you – I’m leaving for the day.” I could hear Allen try to say something, but Daniel cut in again. “I’m not feeling well. I’ll be back in on Monday.”

I couldn’t believe what I heard. Yes, Daniel was young and dumb, but talking to a higher up like that was risky. I knew he held somewhat of a grudge against Allen from his coaching days, but this could have risked an amazing job opportunity for him. I didn’t hear either of them any more, so I continued onto the next aisle. I was shocked to see Darryl standing there with a clipboard in hand.

“You hear all that?” Darryl only nodded, hanging the clipboard back up and walking away again.

I took a look at what he was working on. There were the usual materials listed with quantities; page after page of information. When I got to the final sheet, I noticed something on the clipboard itself. I tried to take a closer look, but it was hard to read. It looked like someone took a pencil to the dark board. I tilted the clipboard in my hands until the light hit the graphite in just the right way to expose what was written: “Daniel won’t get fired.”

I looked down the aisle again, trying to see if Darryl was still around, but he was gone again. He was using his superstitions to help his brother, even after all of his pranks. I put the clipboard back, and finished my round without any more interruptions. In the last hour of work, Allen came back to our department. He was still in his office most of the time, fielding calls from customers, but things had calmed down for him in the last couple days. He had a stack of papers in his hands.

“I know you heard what happened earlier with Daniel.” I nodded. “I had the office gals print off some new smoking signs. These ones include vape pens and e-cigarettes and whatever else the kids are using now-a-days. Don’t want anyone finding any loopholes and risking our safety just so they can get a quick fix.”

“Did Daniel get in trouble?”

“I wanted to fire him, to tell you the truth. Breaking rules, causing a scene, and he’s gone for the rest of today and tomorrow.” I wasn’t surprised to hear this; Allen was always a hard teacher, and coach, to please. He demanded every bit of respect, and hated to be defied. “But something in me wanted to give him a second chance. He’s barely an adult, and it can be hard to jump right into factory work. Bah, I’m just getting soft, aren’t I?”

“I don’t think I’d say that.” He let out a belly laugh and shoved the papers into my hand.

“Put these up before you leave tonight. I made sure they printed extras – you better make sure they’re all up before I come in tomorrow.” He clapped me hard on the back before walking back to his office. I hated to admit it, but he did have a soft moment for Daniel. It was hard to not question if Darryl’s note had any part in the decision, but I still would have expected Allen to at least give a write up for the confrontation.

The next few days flew by. Friday was a slow day at work. Daniel didn’t come to work, and it looked like he convinced his friends to join him in playing hooky. There were also quite a few folks out of work for the start of hunting season. With so many workers missing, it was impossible for us to reach any of our goals for the day. The higher ups told us at lunchtime to make sure we covered the minimum production needed for Monday’s shipment, and they would let the rest of us leave as well. The inspectors were standing around a majority of the time, so I volunteered to help other departments to kill the time – after lunch, I worked with a cleaning crew. They had me use a scissor lift to clean higher areas as they swept and mopped areas that were already closed for the evening.

The cleaning crew ended their shift by cleaning the bathrooms. I wasn’t much help to them for this job, but I stuck around to grab, ‘Wet Floor,’ signs and any other supplies they may need. They finished quickly and I walked with them to the storage room to put away their carts. The warehouse was still at this point, I believed we were the only ones left minus the office workers. I asked the crew if we needed to do anything else.

“Normally we take down the bathroom signs before we leave, but since no one else is here and it’s getting late, we’ll leave the signs until Monday.” They thanked me for my help as we left the building, and finally it was time for a relaxing weekend.

* * * * * *

Monday came around before I knew it – I parked in my normal spot and rushed inside. It had gotten even colder over the weekend, and I could see that my coworkers had also bundled up with their heavy coats this morning. The cafeteria was cool, but still warmer than the outside. I could see folks start to peel their outer layers and leave on jackets and sweatshirts. I walked past the others and into the warehouse and couldn’t help but hear a quiet hissing sound. I smelled the air, worried that it could have been a gas leak, but I couldn’t detect anything different.

Others started to trickle into the warehouse. A few stopped at the sound, but the more people that came in, the more hidden the noise got. I waited by the cafeteria door, wanting to see if Daniel actually came back to work today. I said hello to each group of folks that walked in, asking some about their weekends and checking in with others about work data. Right before I was about to give up, I saw Darryl and Daniel walk in together. Darryl looked upset, but Daniel had a giant grin on his face.

“Thanks for the ride, just don’t forget to take me home.” Daniel patted his brother on the back. He noticed me watching them and yelled out to me, “My battery died on me, can you believe it?”

Darryl rolled his eyes and walked away from us, towards the restrooms. As he left, I saw a note taped to him back.

“You didn’t.” Daniel looked at me, his eyes bright, and I could see that he was holding back laughter. I knew I’d have to try and get hold of that note before anyone would be able to read it. I sighed, and changed the subject, “I heard you fighting with Allen last week. Did you get a write-up?”

“Nope. I got off scot-free. I’ll take a hit when I want to, he can’t stop me. I’ll just be more careful.” He patted his pocket and his smile fell. He felt his pocket again, before checking each of his other pockets. He went through his pants, his jacket, his coat, and even a small pocket on his shirt – after each one, he got more frantic, cursing under his breath. “I need to see if I can borrow one from someone, I’ll talk to you later.”

He rushed towards his work area. I waited until he was out of sight before heading towards the bathrooms – I was hoping that Darryl would still be in that area. As I got closer, I heard the hissing noise again, although now it was starting to sound more like running water. I stepped into the men’s room to find yet another mess.

Darryl was hunched down in front of a sink, his hands working on the exposed pipe that was currently spewing water across the room. The floor had a thin layer of water covering it; only a single drain in the middle of the room was stopping the water from flooding onto the main floor. Once closer to Darryl, I was able to read the sign that had been taped to his back, “Kick Me.”

I cursed under my breath, because of the note, the situation, everything. I wanted to jump in to help, but my body seemed to have a mind of its own. I was only able to force myself to soften the blow as my foot hit Darryl’s leg. As he stumbled, I quickly grabbed the note off his back and apologized profusely. I thought he was going to kill me, but his anger quickly seemed to settle on a different target – the culprit of yet another prank.

I put the note on the wall before leaving the bathroom to call for more help. Allen was the first person I saw, still on his way to his office. He used his phone to call for help from the maintenance and cleaning teams. I hoped that this would be a quick fix, but we soon found out that the pipe was broken just behind the water shut off valve. When Allen came into the room, he kicked the wall, angry at the situation. I looked to Darryl to see his reaction, and he used his eyes to motion to the paper I had stuck on the same wall. I took it down before the others came in, and shoved it into my pocket.

The maintenance team claimed they had never had this happen before, so it took them more time to get the water shut off to get everything fixed. When the cleaning crew was finally able to start their work, one of the workers stopped me before I could head back to my area. She thanked me for grabbing a, “Wet Floor,” sign and bringing over one of their carts already – I accepted her thanks, not wanting to get someone in trouble by admitting that last week’s crew had left everything behind.

The rest of the morning was peaceful in comparison. We scanned products, checked orders, and walked our routes around the warehouse. There were a few hiccups here and there – we even had to shut down a machine for maintenance that would put our workday behind, but we couldn’t risk the machine running while broken. The higher ups decided to send everyone but maintenance for an early lunch, in hopes to offset our numbers.

I sat at my normal table after buying a sandwich and a couple drinks. The cafeteria seemed quiet today. Folks were still talking to each other, but there was an enthusiasm missing from the crowd. I looked around and realized just how many people were missing. The maintenance crew would be coming in late, of course, but Daniel and his friends were missing as well as quite a few others. I didn’t mind the peace, it gave me a chance to lay my head on the table and grab a quick power nap.

It felt like only a minute passed before I felt someone grab my shoulder. It was already time to go back to work. I groaned and stretched before following my table back towards the factory doors. I was almost to my department when I heard Daniel yell my name. I turned to find him running up to me – he had a smile on his face, but he had bags under his dark eyes.

“I heard you kicked Darryl this morning.” He nudged me with his elbow.

“I just couldn’t help myself.” I shrugged, trying to play along. He still thought this was all a prank, and something told me he couldn’t find out the truth. He laughed, and I tried to chuckle along.

“I just wish you would’ve waited a bit longer. I wanted to get a kick in too before he found out.” He kicked the floor before continuing. “You know, maybe I can try again in a week or two. Give him enough time to forget about today.”

“I don’t know, dude, I thought he was going to kill me when I kicked him.”

“Nah, he wouldn’t do that.” He looked around, checking if there were others around us. “Hey, I did want to ask – Would you have a vape on you?”

“No, you know I don’t do that stuff.” He cursed under his breath and started complaining that no one has had one today. He said that half of his friends forgot theirs today and the other half were running low and refused to share. There were a couple folks that heard about his argument with Allen last week and refused to give theirs up in case he’d get it confiscated. He said there were even a couple people he talked to who told him they quit, but he saw them outside in the smoking area during lunch. I told him that I was sorry to hear about it, but maybe this was a sign that he should think about quitting. He rolled his eyes at me, claiming I sounded just like his brother. I shrugged, not knowing what else to say, and we parted ways to our respective departments.

Over the course of the next few days, I kept an eye out for Daniel. Each morning he came in like normal, but by lunch time he seemed to be an irritable mess. He started getting into more arguments with coworkers. Instead of hearing his laughter at all hours, I would hear him blaring obnoxious music. There were others that were having issues with the company cracking down on smoking as well, but Daniel seemed to be the loudest of the bunch.

I would overhear Allen talking with other team leads on occasion about Daniel and how he was acting. They had high hopes each morning, but they couldn’t ignore his worsening attitude – they scheduled a meeting for Friday morning to give him an official write-up. A few of the team leads agreed to meet together, knowing how easily Daniel could weasel his way out of sticky situations. I was sure it would have been a different kind of meeting if not for Darryl’s note on that one clipboard.

I arrived early to work on Friday to find Daniel writing on the whiteboard by the cafeteria about a pizza party for lunch that day. I rolled my eyes at him, but I was a little glad to see he was pulling a prank again, and an innocent one at that. As Daniel walked further into the warehouse, I saw Allen call him over to the offices. I could see him tense before he shuffled into an office.

I tried not to focus on the meeting happening inside. I knew Daniel needed to be talked to about his attitude and actions recently, it was just troubling not knowing how he would react. Darryl walked into the warehouse shortly after and looked at the whiteboard. He looked at me and then scanned the area around us.

“Daniel?”

“Daniel.”

“This one will surely cost the company, won’t it?” He laughed – the first time in a long while. “I’ve been telling him he needs to grow up, but I think I can let this prank go. Where is he, anyways?”

“Meeting with some team leads.” His expression dropped and he sucked his teeth. “Don’t worry too much; you made sure he won’t get fired.”

He started to stammer an explanation, but I stopped him. I told him that I understood – he was just trying to protect his family. We started walking further into the warehouse, pausing near the offices to see if we could hear anything. There were some raised voices, but we were unable to make out what was being said. Other workers started making their way to their stations, a few stopping by the whiteboard and whispering if it was true or not. Darryl and I parted ways, agreeing to meet up later.

When lunch time rolled around, I could feel the nervous excitement from those around me. No one knew for sure if there would actually be a pizza party, and with how many employees were here, if there would be enough for everyone. We funnelled our way into the room, and we were amazed with what we were met with. The room was lined with stacks of pizza boxes. An army of two liters sat in the far corner as well, and multiple large sheet cakes sat at the regular check out counter.

I looked around to find Daniel – if he didn’t believe the superstitions before, I wondered if he would after today. When I found him standing towards the back of the line, there was shock on his face. His friends were laughing, and I could hear one of them claiming that Daniel pulled a prank on them when he told them the party wasn’t real. I could see him try to play it off, but I could tell he was thinking hard about the situation. Once everyone was settled in to eat, one of the higher ups stood in front of us to make a speech.

“I bet you all were surprised today, weren’t you? Well honestly, so was I! But when I saw that note written on the whiteboard out there, I told myself, you know what, that is exactly what we need today. We got some good news today – John is awake and recovering swimmingly. He will be on leave until further notice, but we are all wishing him and his family the best and we are doing what we can for his family.” We cheered at the news, glad to know things were looking up again. I was surprised, though, that he would admit this party wasn’t originally planned. “Now please help yourselves to seconds, and don’t forget dessert. We’re going to give you guys an extra fifteen minutes for lunch, so enjoy yourselves.”

It felt like no matter how much pizza was eaten, more and more boxes kept appearing. I had to stop myself, knowing that we still had a handful of hours left before we could head home. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Allen walk over to Daniel and his table. I tried to ignore them, to just enjoy the long lunch, but there was a loud slam on the table as Daniel and his group got up and stormed away from their table. They left their plates and trash at the table, so I hoped they would be coming back soon. Allen spotted me staring and walked over to me.

“There was an issue with something from their department and it needs to be shipped out before lunch ends. Would you be willing to go with them and make sure it’s good to go?” I agreed, not questioning why he wasn’t doing it himself. He could have been working through his lunch today or he could just be dodging the extra work. Either way, it was not worth a fight.

I made my way to Daniel’s department, and was able to get the new products quickly. I took the items back to the shipping area, got it packed, and put it on the pallet of boxes leaving just as the delivery truck pulled up to the door. Not wanting to make anyone else leave their lunch early, I stayed to help move the orders onto the truck. It didn’t take us long, and the driver was soon on his way again.

As I made my way back to the cafeteria, I found Daniel and his friends surrounding the whiteboard. They were all mumbling to each other, arguing underneath their breaths. I heard them mention higher ups, the customers, and a lot of specific names, but it sounded like they all agreed on Allen.

I cleared my throat, causing most of them to jump. Daniel stood with his back to me, writing something on the whiteboard. I reached out, pulling on his arm to stop him from writing. Over his shoulder I saw the words, “Will Die,” but his body blocked the beginning of the phrase.

“What are you doing? Why would you write about someone dying on there?” He scoffed at me and looked at his friends who started chuckling.

“What? Are you superstitious like my brother? Believe that everything here comes true?” He asked the questions in a mocking tone, getting louder with each one. I tried to deny his claim, hoping to calm him down. “Yeah right, I don’t believe any of your bullcrap. I’m pulling a prank on Allen this time. He needs to get scared a little, to be put in his place.”

“Listen, I don’t know what to believe, but I’d rather we keep things positive in the workplace.” I reached for him again, yanking the marker from his hand. I put a little too much force when reaching for Daniel, causing him to stumble and hit the whiteboard. “Take this outside of company time if you need to.”

He stepped close to me, glaring down at me, and reached for the marker. I backed away, but felt someone behind me blocking my path. His friends grabbed my arms and tried to hold me there so Daniel could get the marker back. I tried to wrestle away from them, barely able to free my arm. I threw the marker away from the group, but another one of Daniel’s friends retrieved it quickly and handed it back to him.

My body started to feel weak, I couldn’t stop myself from leaning on the ones that were holding me. I could start to smell something metallic – I looked around to see who could have been bleeding since there wasn’t a physical fight.

I heard the cafeteria door open, and saw Darryl step out to find our group. He looked at the whiteboard, and I could see the color drain from his face. I tried looking at the whiteboard, but Daniel’s body still blocked my view. The smell seemed to be getting stronger, and I started to wonder if I was the one bleeding, but I was still being held in place and couldn’t check myself. My eyes started to hurt, and I was struggling to keep them open. The two brothers continued fighting, getting louder with each second. I tried to tell them to stop, to not make a scene, or else the whole company would overhear.

My knees buckled from under me, and the guys that were holding me there barely stopped me from falling down. Once they stabilized, they carefully laid me onto the cold cement floor. I forced my eyes open again. Daniel and Darryl were still arguing, but they were in each others’ faces now. If they didn’t stop soon, one would start throwing punches. I turned my attention to the whiteboard, needing to know what Daniel had deemed a prank.

I could see that the writing had been smudged when Daniel had hit the board. In his large, shaky writing, the message left behind read, “All Will Die.”