Chapter 14 Part 1 – 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. All the other drivers are missing. Barry learns that the white warriors are ex-drivers that turn against Margery and work for God’s angels. Back at the Denver warehouse, Barry finds that he is now a senior driver and he and Vern are responsible for everything including training all the new drivers Margery has starting that evening.

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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Thirty minutes into my drive, there’s a late afternoon storm overhead, which is pretty common in early June. The sky’s nearly black and rumbling. Intermittent bolts of lightening appear to strike the surrounding foothills. So far the road’s dry, but I’m figuring a blinding downpour of rain will start any second. Given the choice, I’d have stayed home. Since that’s not an option, I’m contemplating taking the next exit. Get off the road until the storm passes.

I check the side-view mirror and see three vehicles barreling up from behind. Oh . . . shit! They’re in a hurry to escape two funnel clouds reaching down from the sky. Then I realize two of the vehicles are OTG vans.

As I reach for my own emergency button, I hope the new drivers had taken me seriously during their training, when I had warned them to do the same if anything bizarre happened.

The tails of the tornadoes whip at the other vehicles as they close in. When the two vans disappear in the swirl, I slam down on the brake and the emergency button all at the same time. There’s still no answer from Margery, but the last thing I want is for either funnel cloud to suck me up while I’m still in the van. All I can think to do is get lower than the highway. I skid to a stop in the median, check the side-view mirror and hit the button again. One of the funnel clouds sprouts a swirling hand that pointed my direction like it’s out for my blood. It’s too late for Margery to save the van, still, I hit the button again and call out, “Margery!”

“Honey, get out of the van! Get in the ditch!”

“No shit.”

“Barry, can you hear me? Get out! Now!”

I force open the driver’s side door, but the whipping wind cracks the metal and rips it off the hinges. I struggle to climb to the passenger seat against the force of the airstream circulating through the cab. I manage to kick open the passenger-side door and dive out over the guardrail.

The embankment is steep, forcing me into a somersault down the rocky hill. My hands flail, grabbing at anything to stop my momentum. All I manage is a body roll over boulders and logs that bruises every part of my body and shatters my hand and yanks off my shoe. When my forehead smacks against a something hard, all goes black and my body goes limp.

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