The Wild Within

Chapter 5 Ophelia/Luke

Ophelia

It was going to be a long day; I thought to myself as I walked into the orientation room of the warehouse. Warehouse work was pretty much the only thing I could do, though. I just needed some way to make some cash to save up and get the hell out of here. Six months tops, I promised myself. I’d save every penny, eat nothing but ramen and water once a day, and sleep in my car if I had to. I could do this. I had to do this. I usually don’t let myself get this bad off, but I had hit some troubled times and ended up in jail for theft. Now I was out; I needed to get away from this crap town.

“Okay, guys,”  the trainer said. “I know we started out with a lot more people, but we usually lose about this many by the time the week is over. Only the strong survive, right?”

“Or the desperate,” I said.

“Yeah, that’s more likely, I  guess,” he said. “But hey, you guys have been a really great group, and I’m sure I’ll be seeing you guys at the company picnic at the end of the month.”

“Right,” we said.

“So, since you guys are going to be starting your overnights soon,” the trainer continued. “I thought it would be good to have you guys observe some of our first shift workers. So everyone who is break pack stands here, shipping over there, and full pack over there.”

I went to stand in the full pack line with the one guy who wasn’t going to shipping. The other females all stood in the break pack line and eyed me curiously.

“Yo, boss,” the guy said next to me. “I’m on first shifts now, not graveyards.”

“Oh, that’s right,” he said. “Either way, you can still get the rundown on what’s what. Ophelia, the break pack line is over there.”

“Yeah, I know,” I replied. “But I’m full pack.”

“Oh,” he said and looked down at his sheet. “Sorry, I just assumed. We don’t get a lot of females in that department. It’s a lot of heavy lifting. Are you sure that’s the place for you?”

“I’m good,” I said with a shrug. “I could probably lift more than you on a bad day.”

“I think you’re going to fit right in with crew on the overnights,” the trainer said with a smirk. “Alright, let’s go.”

We followed the trainer out of the room and through the warehouse. He pointed things out to us as we went and dropped each group off at their departments. Full pack was in the back of the building. Huge aisles of boxes upon boxes were stacked up to the ceiling. Forklifts zipped in and out of them while people were milling about in the smaller aisles, pulling boxes onto a conveyer belt and scanning them.

“Hey Josh, I got a couple of new recruits for you to show around,” the trainer said to a tall, young man with messy brown hair. “Dale here is going to be joining your first shift, and Ophelia will be on overnights.”

“I thought they were both overnights?” Josh said. “I don’t need a first shift person.”

“I talked to someone about it on the first day,” Dale said offendedly. “If I can’t work first, then I can’t work at all.”

“Well then, why the hell did you apply for overnight?” Josh asked. “You should probably go since you can’t even figure out the difference between first and overnight. I do not need you on my block, killing my productivity.”

“Uh, Josh?” The trainer said. “That’s Stan’s nephew; he was probably the one who okayed it.”

Josh looked from the trainer to Dale and back. He closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. Dale stood there smirking at his nepotism.

“Then who will I have for my overnight?” He asked.

“You’ll have to swap someone or do rotations,” the trainer said. “Didn’t they tell you?”

“Clearly not,” I spoke up.

“Well, at least you won’t have a smart mouth on your shift,” the trainer grumbled. “Good luck Josh, have a good shift.”

“Yeah, thanks,” he sighed before turning to us.

“Welcome, guys,” he said unenthusiastically. “Let’s start with a tour and I’ll walk you through what we do on shift. Now since you’ll be on different shifts, there are some slight differences. Ophelia, you’ll meet with Roland on your overnight shift.”

“Gotcha,” I said. “How many other people are on the overnight?”

“It’s a skeleton crew,” he answered. “First and second shifts have eight; overnights get four.”

“Cool,” I said. The fewer the people, the better.

After we finished the tour, Josh had us try out the job a couple of times so we’d know what to expect. Dale complained a few times about how heavy the boxes were, how dirty and dusty it was, and the look on his face when Josh told him part of the job was to clean; I knew the boy probably never used a broom before.  Josh was less than thrilled to be having Dale on his shift.

“Good job Ophelia,” Josh said. “Good luck on your overnights.”

“I think you’re gonna need the luck,” I said, eyeing Dale.

“Don’t worry, I’ll make sure he catches some of the overnight rotations,” he said. “Not that that’s helpful for you, sorry.”

“Something tells me he won’t last very long,” I said.

“I hope you’re right,” he sighed. “But seriously, you did an excellent job, and if you want, I can see if you could start your shift tomorrow instead of next week.”

“But what about orientation?” I asked.

“You made it this far, it’s not a problem, and you seem to know what you’re doing a lot better than some.”

“Okay, cool,” I said. “I don’t mind starting tomorrow.”

“Awesome,” he said. “I’ll leave the supervisor a note, and I already told my guy who’s covering overnight that he’s assigned to train you.”

“Sounds good,” I said.

Luke

It’s barely been two days, and already you can feel Jasmine’s influence in the house. She took over cooking for us so we all could go out and do patrol or train. She’s helping Ryan through his depression, and he sort of half-smiled a genuine smile last night. Her overall caring attitude towards us was something none of us expected that we’d need.

“Are you off to work?” Jasmine asked. It was almost ten-thirty, and I had just gotten up from my pre-shift nap. I hated doing overnights.

“Yeah,” I said, stifling a yawn. “Second night, and I’m already over it. Plus, Josh texted me saying I may have to be on them longer since one of the new hires bailed on overnight.”

“That sucks,” she said and continued to clean out the sink.

“It’s late,” I said and opened the fridge to grab some food for a break. “Shouldn’t you be sleeping?”

“I like to go running late at night,” she said. “The moon is full and beautiful tonight. But I wanted to make sure you had everything you needed for work. Do you need a ride?”

“Would Julius be okay with that?” I asked warily. I was still a little confused about the mate thing.

“Don’t you worry about Julius,” she said. “I can handle him just fine.”

“Alright then,” I agreed. “Beats me having to run all the way there.”

“You boys need more than one car to share,” she sighed. “I’ll work on that, Grab your stuff and let’s get going.”

“Yes, ma’am,” I said, and she smiled at me.

Jasmine had a Mercedes that was even fancier than Julius’s Lexus. I never noticed how battered our old truck was until I saw it sitting between the two. I slid into the front seat beside Jasmine and tried not to laugh at how short she was behind the wheel.

“Don’t You say it,” she chuckled at me. “I’m not as tall as you boys.”

We headed off towards the sleepy little town. There wasn’t much around here other than a few shopping centers, the warehouse, a few restaurants, and bars. It was quiet. Even a lot of supernatural Don’t pass through here anymore.

“So Luke,” Jasmine said, her voice curious. “How old are you?”

“Thirty-five,” I replied.

“Where’d you come from?” She asked. Jasmine had spent a lot of time with Ryan since she’s been here, so this was the first one-on-one time we’ve had.

“I’m from the Midwest,” I said. “Michigan, but I was also an army brat, so I moved a lot.”

“I understand that,” she said with a nod. “My dad was marines, so we did that too. What’s your favorite color?”

“Green,” I answered. “Yours?”

“Yellow like the sun,” she said with a smile. “Favorite food?”

“Is this twenty questions?” I chuckled.

“I want to get to know you boys more,” she said. “I never had any kids of my own, and I’ve already missed that train with Julius. I’m not as young as I once was. So I’m making it up with you guys.”

“We’ve really liked having you around,” I said. “Especially for Ryan. I didn’t know he was hiding that kind of pain.”

“Being away from your mate is very harmful to your soul and sanity,” she said sadly. “Thankfully, he hadn’t marked her, so there’s still a chance we can get them together. But it’s going to take some finesse.”

“If anyone knows finesse, it’s you,” I said. “I have never seen Julius submit to anyone as he does with you.”

“Oh, how very right you are, Luke,” she said slyly as she pulled into the parking lot. I wanted to ask her what that meant, but I figured I didn’t want to know the answer on second thought. “Have a good night at work, sweet pea; want me to pick you up in the morning? I’m off work the next two weeks.”

“If it’s no trouble for you, that’d be great,” I said. “But if it’s a problem, I can just shift.”

“It’s no trouble at all,” she said and squeezed my hand gently. “Go on, don’t want to be late.”

“Thanks, oh, and my favorite food is anything pasta,” I said as I opened the door.

“Anything pasta,” she repeated it to herself as if to commit it to memory. “Got it, have a good night.”

“You too,” I said. “See you in the morning.”