Extreme Customer Service

Lauren tugged on her backpack and walked through the parking lot, heading the opposite direction of the burnt out office workers. As usual their day was wrapping up just as hers was getting started. It took a special kind of person to work the overnight shift at Swifty Pizza’s corporate call center, but Lauren loved it. She made double what she would on day shift, she got to sleep peacefully while her roommates were in class, and she never had to worry about the evening classes on campus filling too quickly. 

“Hey Marco,” she said with a nod of her head as she passed the security guard. 

“You know you don’t have to wear all black just cause you’re on the night shift, right?” he teased, noting her black yoga pants, tennis shoes, and sweatshirt. 

She laughed and made a joke about being a vampire while the elevator made its way down to the lobby. It purged the hoard of day shifters who were ready to leave the building as quickly as possible, and Lauren rode alone up to her floor. She smiled and exchanged hellos with her fellow night owls on her way to her cubicle where she dropped her backpack and plopped into her prehistoric office chair. 

It let out a groan and slowly sank an inch or so lower. Her purple nails danced over the keyboard as she logged into the softphone system and popped in her wireless earbuds. Swifty Pizza made millions off their cheap, microwave pizzas, but they were still too cheap to actually buy phones. Instead, everyone had to login to the softphone system, which sent calls right to everyone’s phones. 

As Lauren clicked into the system, a small stopwatch appeared in the corner of her screen. Its numbers ticked down from 60, melting away each second. She heard mumbles from other cubicles around her, but before anyone really had a chance to say anything the fluorescent lights above their head began flickering. When the stopwatch clicked to 0 the lights died, leaving everyone in darkness, and a red skull appeared on every screen with a malicious warning of “Only 1 Survives”. Some fragmented bits of light bled from the screens of everyone’s computers, but as they all scurried into corners and under desks they did so invisibly. 

Lauren slid from her chair as she pulled her backpack onto the seat, keeping the seat from letting out another complaint as it lifted back up. The noise would give her away instantly among the sudden silence that had fallen over the entire floor. She curled herself into the smallest form possible, backing into the corner of her desk. She slowly slipped her hand into her backpack, careful not to let the waterproof fabric make any noise, as she reached for the weapon Marco should have searched her bag for when she entered, but Marco never searched bags. 

The almost undetectable sound of footsteps hurrying across the rough office set her heart racing.  She clutched her gun to her chest, finger resting against, but not on, the trigger. The footsteps grew closer and took on an odd rhythm. As they closed in she lifted her legs up, leaving as little of her body on the floor as possible, realizing the rhythm came from them scurrying, sweeping a cube, then scurrying to the next one. A dim pin light skimmed across the carpet and she held her breath. Even as it swept next to her it didn’t hesitate. Her black clothes managed to camoflauge her, making it appear as if the void of darkness was uninterrupted. 

She waited for the steps to dissipate to the next set of cubes before she let her feet lightly rest on the floor again. She swallowed loudly and drew in as quiet of a breath as she could manage. She hadn’t realized she was holding her breath. Suddenly screams rang out from the direction of the kitchen and a deep voice called out, 

“Three down!” 

Lauren took a few quick breaths, trying to clear her mind from its adrenaline haze. Her feet flew over the floor as quietly as possible. She pressed herself against a cubicle wall and slowly peeked out to see if anyone was in the kitchen area. After a few seconds of trepidation she took a handful of long strides, and slid into the open spot under the counter where the tall trash can lived. Somehow she managed to reposition the cheap, grey bin to shield most of her body while being quiet as a mouse.

Not everyone was as cautious. Lauren’s ears perked up at the sound of fabric against the scuffed white walls to her right. She picked her weapon, finger on the trigger, and leaned around the trash can so a sliver of the dark office was visible. She slowed her breath and closed her eyes, focusing solely on the soft sound of shoes hitting the carpet. Whoever it was wasn't alone. 

She listened to them get closer, and waited for the sound of their steps to move from carpet to tile. The tap of their shoes immediately gave away where they were. She took a deep breath and steadied her hands as she aimed at the first shadow. Her trigger pull was marked with a swift exhale. Before her first target let out a grunt from being hit, she was pulling the trigger a second time. 

“Two down!” she called as she sprinted from behind the trash, past her victims, and jumped across the hall into a conference room. She heard a flurry of shots barely slip past her into the wall, so she landed, steadied herself and pivoted to fire in the direction. She pulled herself back into the room and slid down the door into a squat, waiting for a cue of whether or not she’d eliminated the entire threat. 

“Three down,” a female voice called out, annoyed. Lauren smiled and took a minute to catch her breath before darting into the shadows again. 

She loved nerf fight night at work.