My First Job

I’m not sure if what I’m about to tell you, you will believe, but I no longer care what others think of me. I’m no longer a young man, nearing the end of my life, and I feel that this needs to be known. I spent most of my life as a security guard at a warehouse on the outer edge of a small town in the middle of a National park.

I’m not going to tell you exactly where, the town people don’t need the publicity, many who are my friends, still today. I never went to college and barely made it out of High School, so I didn’t have much of a choice when it came to finding a good-paying job in the small town I grew up in. One of my High School friends, Mitch were working the graveyard shift as a security guard at a local junkyard.

There not much going on in the small town late at night and I being a night owl would join him a couple of nights a week. This went on for about a year, and once a month his Supervisor would show up to make sure he was doing his job. He turned out to be a nice guy, and after about six months he asked me if I had had ever thought of becoming a guard.

I told him that I had never thought about it much, and joked about me carrying a gun. He smiled and handed me a card, and said that if I want to learn how to use a weapon properly to call the number on the card.

An armed guard earned 30% more than one not. Any job sounded good to me at that time. My friend thought it was a great idea, that his boss had taken an interest in me, and I being a night owl was a perfect fit for a security guard job. At the time I was only doing odd jobs, and not many of them, so a full-time job was a great opportunity, but I was not sure that there were that many security guard jobs in my small town.

It took me a couple of weeks to call the number, but I was glad that I did. I was able to pay the cost of the lessons by doing odd jobs at the instructor's ranch, and in no time was able to save up to buy my own Glock. I learned fast and had gotten proficient with many of the pistols and a couple of rifles the instructor owned.

Not long after I got my concealed carry license, my friend's boss told me of a job opening in a small town in a National park. It would mean that I would have to move there but it was full-time work, and from what he told me it was an easy first job to get my foot in the door with the security company. Not wanting to give up the opportunity, I put in an application.

After a week, I received a confirmation letter, telling me that they had arranged temporary housing not far from the warehouse. I was proud of myself for being chosen, out of what I was sure would have been hundreds of applications, but later I learned there had been no others.

I was still a young man, having just turned 21, and though they just wanted to start me off on an easy job. I later understood they were grooming me for the position.

When I arrived at the bed and breakfast, I was really surprised to find that it was not just a bed in a room. They had five small efficiency apartments buildings behind their farmhouse. There was only one other guess, the old man that was to train me, and I was to replace at the warehouse. I’ll only give you his first name, it was Joseph, but he insisted I call him Joe.

He was a nice old guy, but like some old people his mind would wander as he talked, it was definitely time for him to retire. I never found out just how old he was, but he had told me he had been a security guard at the warehouse for over 50 years. I wondered if I was really looking at my own future. I could not fathom wanting to work at the same place for that long, but Joe seemed happy with the way his life had been.

He was retiring and moving in with his daughter in Florida, and told me he was looking forward to going to the beach, and going fishing any time he wanted. I thought that after 50 years it was well deserved. I never learned how long he had lived at the bed and breakfast, but I had the feeling it had been a few years.

The family that ran the place were nice people with southern charm, which reminded me of watching Mayberry on television. There were chickens, a couple of pigs, and a cow. There were even a few fruit trees around the house.

It did seem strange to me that Joe and I were the only guests, but that would be a good thing with my need to sleep during the day, so when the first night of work came I was ready.

Joe had told me all about the company and what was stored at the warehouse. Its name was Paper Works Unlimited, or PWU, and was an entity of the US Government, unknown to the public. I had never heard of them before, but that doesn’t mean anything. He told me that they storied research paperwork on science projects, that were thought too important to have a digital trail.

The warehouse was large, with two floors, one ground level, and one basement. The basement level was a little bigger than a football field. There were 15-foot high shelves packed with boxes of files and films. I wondered why the security of the whole place was just one guard at night. There were no cameras or motion detectors in or around the building. My duty was to walk throw the building once every two hours. The rest of the time was spent in a small office with a TV and a radio. No one cared what I did as long as I made the rounds when I was scheduled.

To make sure I did there was a clock box on both floors that need to be unlocked on time, with a big key I hooked to a belt loop on my pants. It was the only thing I had to pass to the day shift guard. There was a weekly logbook to report any unusual activity, that was sent to the main office each week.

I asked Joe what would happen if I didn’t use the key, and he said he had no idea, he had never missed doing it. My first night had been uneventful and mostly boring, to say the least. There was Wi-Fi and Joe had given me the password for my phone, so the next night I thought to bring my laptop. Joe thought I was crazy, and one only needed the TV and a newspaper.

He said the only reason he had a cell phone was the company insisted he has it. I told him that the inner net was much like television but was interactive. He just laughed and shocked his head, then as an afterthought told me that under no circumstances was I to tell anyone where the warehouse was and that he was sure someone was watching any outgoing communications.

At that time I was not sure if what he said was true or not, so thought it was best not to. The second night on the mid-night walk was the first strange thing that happen. As I pass a row of shelves I turned my flashlight and thought I saw a person. After further inspection discovered it was a stack of boxes someone had taken off the shelf and not put back.

Joe told me that the day shift would do this once in a while just to mess with him, and to see if he was paying attention, as we put the boxes back. It still made the hair on the back of my neck stand up, wondering why I had not seen them on the 6 or 8 o’clock walks. Maybe they were there and I had miss them, but I don’t think so.

That week I drove my old Chevy truck and had Joe ride with me, he was happy to just ride for a change. During that week he filled me in on what he knew of the area, the best places to eat in the small town when I didn’t feel like cooking, where the lakes with the biggest fish were, and what part of the woods I should stay out of.

I thought this strange that in a National park there were areas that one should not go. I asked him why and he told me that there were things in the dark one should never meet. Later that night I went inner net surfing and was surprised to discover that the area had a high number of unexplained disappearances. I wondered if it had anything to do with the warehouse.

It just didn’t seem right that a warehouse full of top-secret research papers was not guarded better. Especially in an area with a lot of disappearances, but what did I know, it was just an easy job, and I had my Glock if anything happened. I got to meet the daytime guard and the man who received the boxes and put them where they should go.

They both had no interest in speaking much with me. I thought it was because they were both locals and I was not. They were two others that worked the weekend, one was a Park Ranger named Jeff. The other was some kind of survivalist, who never spook, just grunted in answer to anything I said to him. Jeff told me later not to take it personally, and that he didn’t trust anyone.

All of them had worked there for years and were all in their sixties, which I thought was a little unusual. It seemed to me that I was the first of the replacements that were going to happen, and they know it was just a matter of time before they too were put on retirement. At the end of the training week, I had no problem doing the little that was required, and Joe said I would do fine.

When it was time for Joe to head to his daughter’s home, I was sad to see him go. As we said good-byes he handed me an envelope and told me to read it later. I took it back to my room and set it on the coffee table, took a shower went to bed.

When I got up, I checked my bank card and saw my first paycheck had been deposited in my account. I decided to celebrate by going out to eat dinner, not giving Joe’s envelope much thought. Joe had told me of a small place just outside of town named Sally’s, that had a great steak, and served beer and wine with meals. It was a nice place and had a few customers, who seemed to be enjoying their meals.

I found a table that was for two and sat down, a moment later I was met by one of the most stunning women that I have ever seen. All I could do was sit there and stare at her. She stood there a minute then asked me if I was okay. I nodded my head and asked her to bring whatever was on tap, please. I was never one to believe in things like love at first sight but that was what happen to me that day.

I learned later that night her name was Lynn and was the owner of Sally’s daughter. She had already known who I was, telling me it really was a small town. Meeting her was one of the more pleasant things that working at the warehouse bring to my life. When I reached my truck, I pulled out my E-cigarette only to find the cartridge was empty.

I stopped at the trading post. Much to my surprise, they didn’t carry any, so had to buy a couple of packs of smokes till I was able to order some cartridges online. That would mean that at work, and at the bed and breakfast I would have to go outside to smoke. This was no big deal it being early summer, and the lows were only in the upper 50s, so not too cold out.

When I got back to my room the first thing I did was get online and order some more cartridges, once done I saw Joe’s letter on the coffee table. I picked it up and open it. There was only one page inside, and I was surprised by what was written on it.

1- Don’t look into any of the red eyes

2- Show no fear and never run

3- Remember they lie most of the time

4- Never follow them into the woods

5- What looks dead may not be dead

I found this really creepy, to say the least, why would Joe give me this? Was he trying to tell me there was more to the warehouse than just boxes of files, maybe that it was hunted by ghosts or demons?

After a few minutes, I got back on the inner net and looked up each line, and really found little information. There were some about red-eye crypto creatures that had been reported, Dog-men to Big Foot, and of course, there were things about the Undead. I just could not understand why Joe would of given that list to me. The rest of the night my thought kept going from meeting Lynn to just what Joe was trying to tell me.

My first night alone at the warehouse was uneventful. When I did my rounds, I would have one earbud in with tunes going because I found the silence a little eerie. On the second night, I once again found file boxes left on the floor and wondered if it was the day shift messing around as Joe had said.

Still, without an E-cigarette cartridge, I went out and stood by my car to smoke a real one. The sky was clear and the stars were bright. There was a little fog in the woods moving around that I thought to give the woods a foreboding appearance.

When I was done and about to head back inside, I thought I have seen something move just inside the tree line, then decided it was just a trick of the light on the moving fog.

There was only one other thing that happen that first week that was strange to me, and that was when I asked Jeff, what he thought about the letter that Joe had given me.

He with a serious look on his face said that it was good advice and that I was a smart young man and should do some research on Skin-walkers. I didn’t tell him that I had already. The other thing I asked him was about the boxes of files on the floor, he smiled and said just put them back, it would be okay.

I took from that, that it was not the day shift that was doing it. I had heard of Poltergeist before but had never known anyone that had experienced one. I thought about the movement I had seen in the fog and wondered if it could have been a Skin-walker, or maybe something more evil like a Wendigo.

That was what my first month working at the warehouse was like. Finding boxes of files on the floor and every time I went out in the dark I’d see movement in the woods, or glowing eyes watching me from the shadows. It was a little unnerving but after two weeks it didn’t bother me all that much.

Near the end of that Summer, I arrived for my shift to find the parking lot full of Park Ranger trucks.

There were 4 or 5 of them talking with Jeff, who had a worried look on his face. When I walked up, he introduced me to Bill the head Ranger, who asked that we go inside to talk.

Once inside, Jeff told me that Bill knew all about the strange things that happen at and around the warehouse. He wanted to know if there had been an uptick in activity the last few nights. I told them no it had been business as usual.

When I asked Bill what was going on, he looked over at Jeff, who nodded his head, then in a low voice almost as if he was embarrassed, told me they had lost 20 Marine Special Survivalists. They had made their camp not more than a mile to the east of the warehouse, 3 days ago and no one had seen or heard from them in the last 48 hours.

I thought that they most likely were lost in the woods, after all, what could happen to Marine Survivalists, they were highly trained badasses, but on the other hand, how could they get lost? Bill left 2 of his men out in the parking lot that night. He thought they may see the warehouse lights and come there if they were lost.

Later Jeff told me that there had been an extensive search, but even after a week they still found no clue as to what happened to the men. The Rangers were told not to talk about it by the Government.

I told him I sure was not going to tell anyone what I knew about it. Who would believe that I worked in a hunted warehouse in the middle of a paranormal National Park anyways?

Two weeks later we got the year's first snow, and I’ll tell you I was not happy about how cold it became at night in the warehouse. The office was warm, but the rest was unheated. I was almost late that night getting to work and had forgotten to bring in my lunch, so had to go out to get it from my car. As I opened the warehouse door I could see something was on the roof of my car.

What happened next will always be burned into my memory, as I stepped from the doorway there was a chilling howl, that I swear made my heart skip a beat. I looked out at the dark woods and saw pairs of red, green, and yellow eyes staring at me from the cold dark. There could have been hundreds as far as I knew.

I was not sure what to do, so I just stood there at the open door being stared at for a good 5 minutes. Then the howl came again, but this time others joined in. when this happen one by one the glowing eyes blinked out and didn’t return. I stood there a minute or 2 more before I was able to walk over to my car and see what was on the roof.

What I found was a little unnerving, laying there was a combat helmet with the insignia of a Major on it.

I had no doubt that it was from the group that had disappeared a few weeks before. Just what it meant I was not sure, were they, whatever they were letting me know it was because of them.

Could the helmet be some kind of warning, or could it even be some kind of peace offering, I just had no clue what to think at that point. I was not sure what I should do. Do I call Ranger Bill or should I call the Marines? After a few minutes of thinking it over decided that it was best not to call anyone. I took the helmet into the office to have a better look at it. I must tell you I was shaking as I sat down and looked it over. I made up my mind not to tell anyone and decided to just hide the helmet in the warehouse somewhere, hoping it was not a declaration of war.

Well, I believe that I have bent your ear enough for now. I just wanted to let you all know what it was like my first Summer as a Security Guard in a warehouse in a paranormal National Park.

tart writing here…