Chapter 13 – Call for Obstruction

So far, Barry has signed his soul into servitude to Satan on Earth. He is a courier, transporting some unknown cargo between Denver and Trinidad, Colorado. He desperately wants out of his contract, but his boss Margery, a demon, will do anything to get the drivers to do what she wants. So Barry has decided to be the good employee, hoping for an opportunity to snoop around and find a way out of his contract.

Before he drives his second day of work, he chats on instant messenger with his friend Nina, but he doesn’t have time to find out what she really wants. Barry and Vern reach the Trinidad warehouse and find that all the other drivers are missing. While they eat their lunch, Vern tells Barry that the white warriors are ex-drivers that turn against Margery and work for God’s angels.

The Courier Series is about Barry White, a twenty-something computer geek with an overbearing mother, no prospects of finding a girlfriend, and an unemployment record that’s made him pessimistic he’ll ever be happy.

In Call for Obstruction, Barry has just lost his fourth jobs in the past year due to corporate downsizing. Desperate for employment, he jumps at the first position he’s offered over the phone, driver for OTG Courier Services. Shortly after meeting his new boss, a tiny yet fiery old lady named Margery, she coerces him into signing a questionable employment contract he soon regrets.

The Courier was originally written as a twitter novel @TheCourierNovel in 2009, and the same year it won the Annual Textnovel Writing Contest. Later parts of the story are still tweeting.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

W. J. Howard lives near Denver and writes horror, fantasy and sci-fi with a bit of comedy mixed in. Wendy is also the Co-op Manager for Visionary Press Cooperative, leading an innovative way to publish.

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Back at the Denver warehouse, three semi-trucks loaded with red OTG vans block the back parking lot entrance. I guess Satan doesn’t waste any time getting back up and running.

Also in the parking lot are a couple dozen cars and trucks belonging to the missing drivers. Assuming their owners never return, I wonder what will happen to their vehicles. And what about their families? Will Margery bother to notify next of kin that their loved ones have been taken by flying white warriors that work for angels?

I pull up in front of the office and park in a handicap spot, right beside another van I assume is Vern’s. I had left the warehouse before Vern, but he passed me in Pueblo. The guy drives like a maniac.

As I enter the office, Margery’s demon voice screams, “Just get the damn vans off the trucks. Now!”

Three guys run toward me so fast I have to jump out of their way. They fight to be first out the door like they’re in the middle of a Three Stooges routine.

Margery smiles when she sees me. “Honey, I got ten new guys starting in fifteen minutes. I need you and Vern to train them.”

“What are your talking about? It’s only me and Vern tonight?”

“Oh, excuse me,” she says with a snarl. “I had no idea you’ve taken over as scheduling boss for old Margery.”

“I just thought . . . I mean I’m not qualified to train drivers?”

Margery holds her cigarette as if she’s ready to throw a dart.

“No, no.” I lift my palms up and back away to escape the evil attack her cigarette might send my way.

Vern laughs in the background. “C’mon, kid, aren’t you an OTG expert now that you’ve been on a couple runs?”

“Shut up, Vern. We don’t have time for your crap and I need you in tip top shape the rest of the night.” Margery turns to me. “Go load the vans, honey?”

“I thought we don’t do that?”

“You’ve been promoted,” Vern says. “Like me, you now get to be an expert in everything around here.”

“But you said I shouldn’t go in the back of the vans.”

“Along with the drivers, seems we lost most of the guys who load the vans,” Margery says. “They went out for lunch and never came back.”

“Does this happen often, because I would have thought that Satan runs a more organized chaos?”

“Hasn’t happened for the past twenty-somethin’ years,” Vern says. “Not since the last time we got close.”

“Close to what?” I ask.

“Shut up, Vern.”

“Why? They left him behind. He might as well know.”

I sigh. What are they hiding from me now. Do I really want to know?

“He’s only been around two days,” Margery says.

“You demons are too paranoid,” Vern says. “Even you said he’s got potential.”

Margery’s eyes glaze to black and she holds up her cigarette again. “Vern, you go help load in the warehouse instead.” She turns to me. “I see two vans off the truck. Go move ‘em to the loading dock.”

Vern and I scurry away in opposite directions. I realize I don’t know where the loading dock is, but I’ve no intention of going back to ask for directions.

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