Night Shift

It took me forever but finally, I did it. I finally found a job. Now I can pay the rent for my apartment and maybe if I saved correctly I could get a car. But for now, all I have to do is wait until they give me the date for my first shift. I’ll be working for a company called Nexus Industries. They also said that I’ll be working in the security booth making sure that only the employees get inside the company. So overall I should have a pretty easy job. All the number plates will be saved onto the command module. It has all the employee number plates saved onto it. If you have the number plate you can get in. If ya don’t then you can’t enter. When I get enough money I’m gonna buy myself a typewriter. I’ve always wanted to be a screenwriter now this job can make it come true. When I get enough money and one of my scripts gets accepted buh bye Maine and welcome to Florida! First night on the job. They told me that I had the night shift. Since I didn’t have a car I had to catch the bus to my job. Once I got there a man was at the security booth door waiting for me

“H-hey h-here’s the k-keys,” The man stuttered.

“Thank you,” I said politely.

The man gave me a grin and ran over to his car which was parked on the other side of the road. He seemed to be in a rush to get out. Almost like

he was scared to be working his job. I brushed off the thought. For now, all I had to think about was getting my job done. Since I would be working until 6:00 am I brought some coffee. I set the coffee on the bench and sat on the office chair. I could see that there was a note taped to the command module. Hello new kid! Uhh, welcome to your new job! At uhh Nexus Industries. Just make sure that only our employees get inside. There are always people who want to have a peek at the ol’ place. Heh heh. Just make sure that only our employees get in and no one else. If you do let non-employees in then you’ll be sacked for $500,00.09! Stay safe

- The boss.

I better do my job correctly then. I don’t want to get sacked. That would be terrible. I wonder if they only said that to make me scared of them. Surely who would do such a thing? I took a sip of my coffee and put it back on the desk. So far this job was easy peasy lemon squeezy. Just as I thought no one would enter the place and ask for entrance a blue AMG hammer pulled up I exited the warmth of the booth and talked to the man inside for a while.

“Hey, how ya doin’?” I asked.

“Great. Would you mind letting me in? I’m already late,” The man begged.

“Okey doke,” I said.

I hopped into the booth and checked the module for the man’s number plate. His plate was

FDR 069. It was right on the front page. Fred Frink

IT manager. He was on the list so that meant he could enter the premises

“You are free to go in. Have a nice day,” I said.

The man grunted and rolled up his window. I entered the command module and opened the gate to let him through. This is a surprisingly easy job. I thought. I sat down in the chair and waited for another person to arrive. As I waited I heard the sound of something clattering outside of the booth. I exited the booth and took out my flashlight. I clicked it on and the dark outside was soon illuminated by light. What the hell was that noise? I thought. I looked up at the massive building that was behind the gates. I wonder what they’re doing up there. I thought.

Barry Johnson was a lab assistant working at Nexus Industries. He got the job from his father who worked there before him. Apparently, Nexus had been around for a long time. Barry didn’t know much about the company though. All his time of growing up he had not once heard about Nexus. They must work for the government Barry thought when he heard of the job. Nexus Industries didn’t work for the government. They were an independent company. Barry was in the lab running some diagnostics when he overheard a conversation. It was between the head executive and one of the lab assistants. They were arguing about whether or not to stop the tests. For a long time, Barry had wanted to stop the tests. They were meddling in something that we humans hadn’t yet managed to comprehend. They were dabbling in the dark arts. They were they wanted to get into alternate realities. They wanted to know if there were more dimensions and more planets like us. Nexus industries. was created for one reason. To find out if there are alternate earths. They were close to finding an alternate earth. When they found the earth (referring to the alternate earth) radioactive clouds started to form around 1 of the 23 offices in the building. Everyone inside the room was changed they complained of hearing voices in their heads. One person was affected so badly that they shot themselves in the head to make it stop. Nexus has tried everything to find out why this is happening. They don’t care about the well-being of the scientists they only care about finding out how where when and why it’s showing up. Let me backtrack a little. Nexus wanted to find new worlds so we could dump our rubbish everywhere. Only that’s not what they want now. They want to become the conquers of every goddamn reality. Once a humble company with good intentions is now a wicked selfish company with bad intentions. Barry entered the testing area. He would destroy the portal. He would stop the Nexus industries. He would make them start over. Barry would do whatever it takes to bring down Nexus industries. He had planned this operation for months. He had managed to sneak in a grenade. Barry approached the enclosure and pulled out the grenade.

“HEY, WHAT’RE YOU DOIN’ ’ERE?!” Someone called out.

Oh no. No no no. This wasn’t part of the plan.

Then the tip tap of shoes filled the corridor. The only person in this

whole industry who had tip-tap shoes was the boss.

“Well, well well. If it isn’t Barry Johnson. Lab assistant, ” The boss said. “You know we have cameras everywhere to see what you are doing?” Asked the boss. He was getting closer and closer and closer to Barry.

“If you paid more attention to the briefing that we gave you on the first day of your employment. You would’ve blown up the portal by now. But you pulled out the grenade a little too early,” The boss said.

The sound of a gun’s safety being turned off could be heard. Then a sharp pain in Barry’s back. Followed by pain in Barry’s head.

As Barry lay on the floor he gasped his last words.

“Y-you bastard,” He gasped

“Thanks for the heads up, “The boss said.

I was just about to go to sleep when another car pulled up. I jumped out of my seat and rushed out of the booth in a way that made me look like a

crazed madman.

“Would you mind letting me in? I have some important work to do, Asked the man

I looked at the man’s number plate. QWE675. The man’s car was a blue and black Mustang. The people working here have quite fancy cars. I thought. I entered the booth and powered up the command module. QWE675. I scanned the first page. No sign of QWE675. ZI flipped over to the second page. There it was in the second row near the bottom. Brett Davis Janitor. How does a Janitor afford a car like that? I thought. Oh well better let him in.

“Excuse me if you don’t mind me asking how much money do you get?” I asked.

“8000,” The man replied.

I muttered something under my breath and opened the gate to let the man in. I was about to enter my booth again when a BOOM! rung out. The whole Nexus industry’s place rumbled. Whoa, what the hell was that? I thought. Then a voice sounded on the command module.

“Security breach Security breach. No one is allowed in or out of the building,” The voice said. What was happening? The thought was interrupted by a car arriving. It was a small Toyota. I anxiously waited for the car to arrive, a million thoughts rushing through my head. I exited the booth and approached the car with, “Hello?” I asked

“QWERTDFG$%# ¢@*<%@ ! $ # % @$#!@#@#%&@#%@#! ! #H&E&L&P%M $R,” The thing said.

I looked at the number plate. Three were none to be found. I stepped back into the booth and slammed the door shut. Then, just like that the car was gone. Then I heard a thump. It was on the top of the roof. THUMP. THUMP. THUMP Then the sound of metal tearing. It was trying to get in. I hid under the desk and waited until the coast was clear. The screech of metal got louder. It was soon followed by the sound of metal falling to the ground. A strange creature entered the room. I only saw its feet. Something was happening. Something bad was happening. The thing stopped moving. Then the sound of bones breaking. Soon my vision was filled with the face of a terrifying entity. It was a perfectly round face with mangled broken teeth inside. Then just like that, the thing was gone like it was never there. I got out of my hiding spot and picked up the phone in the booth. Just static the phone was dead.

What the hell was going on in this place? I thought. BEEP! BEEP! My skin nearly jumped off my bones. I creeped out of the booth and checked the car’s number plate. ADSF231. I went back into the booth and checked the module for the number plate. Jeffy Creed. Docking Manager. I pressed the button to open the gate. The car slowly drove through the gate. I was just about to close the gate when I heard the phone ring. I picked up the phone and put fg the speaker up to my ear.

“Report to Nexus. Enter Nexus. Enter Nexus. Nexus is calling for you,” computer voice said.

It repeated the message several times before the phone hung up. Was I supposed to go inside the building? Maybe upper management was giving me a raise? I’d have to go in and find out. I opened the Booth door and walked through the open gate. John was a senior scientist at Nexus. He never wanted the job but he was running out of money so like any other person he took the job. What he was doing at Nexus bothered him. What he was doing was wrong. Opening up portals to other worlds. That was wrong. John had heard that Nexus was once a humble company with good intentions. Lately though ever since TROY NEXUS was evicted from Nexus everything started to fall apart. Now Nexus had a more evil intention. Find other worlds and take their resources. Mine other worlds until they had nothing left to offer. John entered the testing room and got onto the computer. He checked the stability of the portal. Nothing seemed to be wrong with the portal. Suddenly the portal stability to 59%g 50%. This couldn’t be good. John went to escape through the glass door but it was locked shut. Someone had locked him in. He rattled the door handle in the hope that someone would save him but no one came. John would have to press the containment breach button. It would lock the whole building down no one could get in no one could get out. I entered the building when the door behind me locked. Then a sound blared over the alarm.

“This is a containment breach. No one is allowed in or out. The portal is unstable and is about to blow. Your family will be notified about your death. Do not attempt to leave the premises you will be shot and you will die, The voice over the loudspeaker said. I was already 8 stories up. Then an explosion. Bricks flew everywhere. I braced and curled up in a little ball hoping that nothing would hit me. When the dust settled groups of employees emerged out of offices. They were looking at a large glass room. There was a portal in the middle of the room. “What’s happening?” I mumbled

Then I could see something emerge out of the portal. A little crab. Followed by more little crabs. Then chaos. The crabs were no longer little crabs they turned into abominations. The skin on the crabs slowly started to peel. Revealing organs and blood veins. A head burst out of one. a human head. Then the crabs started to break down the glass. Cries were heard amongst the scientists. The things smacked the glass again. Cracks started to appear in the glass. I stepped back. It seemed other scientists were doing the same. The rest of the scientists were starstruck. Then the crabs smacked the glass again. More cracks formed in the glass. I took another step back. I looked behind me. A door was right behind me. I opened the door it revealed something that seemed like a panic room. The things smacked there heads against the glass again. Finally the glass gave

in. I entered the small panic room several scientists also followed me in. The panic room was basically a small cube with one large window. I had taken note of it as soon as I had entered the room. I slammed the door shut. The sounds of people screaming and flesh being ripped could be heard. These things were hostile. They weren’t friendly. No duh, I voice in my head said. Then the sounds stopped. Were the thingd gone? “What’s happening?” I asked. “The portal lost stability, “What does that mean?” I asked.

“It means that the portal to other worlds broke and let in the creatures of the void, Someone replied.

“How come I’ve never been told this?” I said.

“Where were you positioned?” The same person as before asked.

“Security booth,” I replied unsure of where this conversation was going.

“They don’t tell you when you’re a bottom rank, “ He said

“They don’t trust you,” The man continued.

After about 10 minutes of explaining. I got the idea of what Nexus was doing. Nexus was pure evil. They don’t care about the wellbeing of there employees. They only cared about their dangerous and often preposterous experiments. The man who I’d been talking too was named Davey he had a wife and 2 children so he was determined to get back home safely. The other peoples names were Sarah John and Fritzgerald. They didn’t explain where they’d come from or if they had any children. Davey passed me a small document.

“This will further explain what I’ve been telling you, Davey said Smack on thje middle of the document was CLASSIFIED.

APRIL THE 8TH 1980

Upper management has given us permission to enable ‘Operation Overload’. They have given us all tools needed to do this. Some of our scientists have refused to take part in this operation. They’ve been terminated. Previous tests from the 70s proved that something like this can be done.

December the 10th 1980

All tests so far have failed. Some having large consequences. 9:40 will remain a tragedy in the history of Nexus. 12 scientists were killed that day.

- A.D

Davey was about to say something when we heard a large clatter from the room in front of us. Was rescue here? Then the sounds of flesh being born off were heard bloodcurdling screams filled the air. While the rest of us were too busy mourning the deaths Sarah approached one of the large windows. The window was covered with a curtain. Just a small peek, she thought. She lifted the curtain and saw something horrible. Horribly mangled bodies were littered on the ground like leaves on an autumn day. All of there intestines ripped out. Grey noodles were being puuled out of someone. Peoples eyes were ripped out the muscle from the eyes wriggling around like a snail’s antennas would. The things outside were eating the decaying corpses. Sarah tried not to scream she tried to contain it but eventually she couldn’t hold it in any longer. Everything was put in slow-motion. When Sarah screamed she alerted the things. Now they were approaching the room we were in. We were doomed. They smashed there heads on the glass shards of glass spraying everywhere. The glass started to give way. We were dead meat...

Nexus Industries had a containment team just in case things got out of hand. This was one of those times. Xavier was a veteran containment team member. Probably because he saved the company during the events of 9:40. He was just a fellow employee when it happened. When all of that carnage and bloodshed happened. After the events that occurred in 9:40 Nexus devised a plan. They needed a team who would take care of the messes. That was how the Containment team came to be. Xavier was sure, so sure that something like 9:40 wouldn’t happen again. But here he was. Saving the company once more. Xavier never really agreed with what Nexus was doing. But being a member of Containment was the only job he ever knew. He once worked in the army but he got booted for being too much to handle He found himself on the streets in search of a job. He was 30 years old when he got the job at Nexus. Once Xavier and the team arrived at Nexus they inspected the building everything seemed normal. Then we heard the sounds of screaming. They pierced his eardrums.

“Alright men, let’s go,” He commanded.

He went up to the rusty gate and pulled out a long ring of keys. These keys opened every door and window in the entire Nexus building. He searched quickly for the gate key and when he found it he slid it into the lock that locked the gate. CLUNK. The gate opened. We entered the building, guns drawn safety on. We slowly climbed up the rickety stairs. We stopped regularly to look and hear for noises. This way we knew if an enemy was coming. Once we were shure that no one was coming something jumped down and landed on Sully-John.

“Arghh! Get it off me! It’s tearing my face off,” Cried Sully.

I grabbed my gun and aimed and fired at the creature. It ricocheted off the thing and hit Even in the eye. God. Two men down already, he thought grimly.

Then just like that, the thing disappeared. By the time it was finished with Sully, he was already dead. His eyes were ripped out and laid on the floor beside him. His jaw was completely ripped off and was god knows where his vocal cords were ripped out and half his lungs were pulled out. As for Even he was dead as well. The bullet pierced his brain. Whatever these things were they were very different from last time.

“Mem, drop your guns. They’re useless,” I said. Everyone dropped their weapons. They made a clatter. We exited the room but the door wouldn’t budge. Wha-? , He thought.

“Alright boys, listen closely. Stick to the shadows and only run when we’re spotted. We need to make it up to the top of the building. Pick up any survivors along the way. Once we make it up to the top we’ll call in a heli and that will land us somewhere safe,” said Xavier.

The boys nodded and we stuck to the shadows slowly walking up the rest of the steps.

I was done for. We were done for. Soon the crabs would smash through the glass and rip us all apart.

“Hey! There’s a room down here that we could hide in!” Exclaimed Davey. No time to argue. It was do or die. We all ran over to the room opened the steel door and locked it. It was only when we realised that the room we ve are in is a mourge. Inside the Morgue it was mega cold. If we’d been in there too long we might have frozen to death.

They’d made it to the docking area. They opened the docking door and looked around in the dark until putting on night vision goggles. There was nothing, no one down there. Just dead bodies. We shut the door and kept moving up the steps. Occasionally stopping to look for rooms. We got up to the main building where all the tests were held place. “Holy hell!” Exclaimed Xavier. They were everywhere. As we lay in wait in the morgue we herd the sound of feet pounding on the tiles outside. The footsteps stopped then a whisper.

“Hello? Is anyone here?”

Davey slowly opened the door and we could see 3 heavily armed men. Were they here to save us?

“Yeh! We’re over ’ere!” I exclaimed quietly.

“You guys need to come with us. But you have to be mega quiet. We’re taking you to the heli pad we’ll call in a chopper it will come and airlift us off to a safe place,” The man said.

We all nodded and emerged from our cold hiding spot. Sarah’s shoes were high heels and they made a slightly loud noise as they hit the ground so she had to ditch them. She made a disappointed face while she was taking them off. Whilst we were walking to one of the exits leading up to the helipad Sarch tripped over and her foot landed on glass. I came over to her and clamped my hand over her mouth, to contain the scream. When I was

sure that the scream was over I took my hand away from Sarah’s face. As we weaved through the carcasses the smell was horrible and they smelt like rotten eggs. My face grew green and I felt the coffee coming back. I swallowed it back down. I didn’t want to wake the things up. Then we reached the ladder for the helipad. We climbed the ladder when I heard something drop to the ground. It was Sarah’s shoe. Turns out she kept them in her purse the whole time hoping that when she escaped she could wear them again. The shoe fell down in slow mortion. CLATTER. An uproar of shrieks was heard and we all climbed the ladder no longer taking it slow. We reached the top of the building. Xavier pulled out his radio and radioed in a helicopter. Almost immediately the helicopter arrived. But it didn’t land. It just hovered in the sky. Then it activated its weaponry. They weren’t here to save us. They were here to make sure that no one knew what happened. No one would expose Nexus’s secrets.

THE END