"Alone" Synopsis by Moose42
Posted: Sat Oct 03, 2009 7:36 pm
Hey guys this is a new story that came to me one night that I was working late at the office. Enjoy.
So far the title is just "Alone". I may think of something better later, or maybe one of you might have some suggestions.
P.S. Yes I am still working on MH:MB.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So when I post an update I am going to post it on my Blog. It will make it easier to read. Since it is setup as one chapter, one page.
http://alonekingofone.wordpress.com
Post comments either here or on the blog. Here would probably be better.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Alone
I never thought I would miss the incessant noise of humanity. The crying children, the droning newscasters, the pitchmen pushing cleaning products and the lowly grocery store checkout clerks.
I have been alone for so long that I don’t really know if this is real. Am I mad? Am I living inside some insane asylum with doctors who shake their heads and scribble in notebooks when they walk by my cell?
No I fear that my reality inflicts more anguish upon my soul than any mere insanity could possibly bring. If ignorance is bliss knowing the truth is torture.
I do not know if anyone will read these scribbles or if this writing is but for naught. If I am destined to suffer alone, maybe these pages will help keep me sane.
The animals are all who keep me company now. Maybe it isn’t so bad? Maybe it is my destiny that I am to wander alone and leave all of humanity behind.
My name is Martin Miller. Someday if someone intelligent picks up these pages perhaps they will make sense of what I failed to do.
***
Before the event I was your average middleclass working stiff. I had a wife and two kids, a job working on computers, a mortgage, bills and responsibility. You could say I was running on the treadmill of life like the rest of us suckers.
I was sitting in my cubicle catching up on a mountain of email messages when my boss, Jessica Simpson popped in. Yes she had the same name as that ditzy celebrity and we made plenty of jokes about it but she really wasn’t that bad of a boss. “Hey Marty, I need a favor. Can you help me out?”
I sighed and swiveled my chair around to face her. “Umm that kinda depends on the type of favor doesn’t it.”
“I need a new server setup and running by start of business tomorrow for the engineering department.”
I looked at my watch; It was already past four o’clock. I closed my eyes and rubbed my forehead. “Is there any reason you couldn’t have told me this hours ago?” I didn’t even try to hide the annoyance in my voice.
She put her hands on her hips, “I’m sorry Marty, but I didn’t hear about this request until ten minutes ago.” She paused, “Look I’ll make it up to you.”
I looked up at her, “Ok how?”
“I’ll buy you dinner.” I raised an eyebrow, Jessica was quite pretty but I was happily married, why would she… “Not like that! Gosh Miller, I’ll get you a gift card to a nice restaurant so you can take Helen out on a date.”
“I’ll do it on one condition.”
“Oh what’s that?”
“You watch my kids while my wife and I are out on the town.”
I could tell she wasn’t pleased but my stupid contact with the company specified no overtime unless authorized by the contractor, who had already closed their doors for the evening, so if she wanted this done I would be doing the work off the clock, in violation of all kinds of company policies.
“Fine it’s a deal.” She said as she extended her hand. Whoa she must have really been desperate.
I walked into the server room and placed the disc into the drive of one of the rack mounted servers. Man it was cold in here, the auxiliary air conditioners kept the room at a brisk sixty four degrees.
I started the server operating system installation; the first part of it would take at least twenty minutes so I had enough time to take a leisurely bathroom break. I walked the halls of Geotech and found my goal. After doing my business I walked back to the server room. It was kind of strange I noticed when I got back to my desk that I hadn’t passed anyone leaving the office. It was Thursday so few people would have taken off early. Was there a holiday on Monday I had forgotten about?
I picked up the license key that I had forgotten to grab when I happened to look out the window. I had a wonderful view of the company parking lot, it was still full. I glanced at my watch 4:29 pm. Usually at about this time there would be a mad dash for the parked cars, as the office drones rushed home to watch their favorite shows about dancing, housewives or other such rubbish.
I waited for the workers to get in their cars and leave but none did. What the hell was going on? Did the CEO John Giovanni call for some emergency meeting and I had just happened to miss the email? I sat back down and unlocked my workstation with my exceedingly long corporate mandated password.
I checked my email, nothing new since 4:05pm. Hmm, this was strange. I turned back to the window and waited for my boss to start up her BMW two-seater convertible. Mrs. Simpson made way too much money for the job she did. She didn’t show up. Something in the back of my brain started to tingle. Bah I suppressed it, there had to be an emergency meeting?
I walked past my boss’s office; her purse was sitting on the expensive mahogany desk, she never left without it. I made my way down to the meeting room and opened the door expecting it to be packed wall to wall with bored office workers. The lights were off.
I started wandering the halls of the office looking for anybody. It was 4:47pm usually there would be someone working late, the marketing department typically had some deadline or another that caused their people to burn the midnight oil. Plenty of computers were still on, many of them unlocked in direct violation of the companies’ IT security policy. I expected to run into someone on the janitorial staff but the little Hispanic gal who vacuumed and replenished the toilet paper was nowhere to be found.
My mind was racing by the time I got back to my desk, what the hell was going on around here? Time to call home I picked up my office phone and punched in the numbers. The phone rang four times. My voice answered, “Hello this is the Miller residence, were either not home right now or we’re screening our calls, leave a message and if we like you we just might call you back. BEEEP!”
“Hey Helen pickup the phone! Something weird is happening at work. I know you’re there! Pickup the phone!” I could feel the anxiety in my voice. Why was no one answering? Where were my wife and kids? I called her cell phone and was greeted by her generic voicemail message. I told her to call me as soon as she got my message.
I grabbed my jacket and threw it on over my shoulders. We were in the first real cold snap of the year. I hit the door and a blast of cold air slapped me in the face. I walked past row after row of parked cars. 5:03pm none of these cars should be here! Everyone should be stuck in traffic by now.
I located my beat-up old Ford Ranger pickup with the cracked windshield, and faded blue paint, that I had been meaning to replace and hopped in. I started the ignition and pulled out onto blue lakes boulevard. A massive traffic snarl appeared ahead of me. Five o’clock traffic, hurray! I pulled up next to a Toyota hippie car that was stopped at a red light. When the traffic signal turned green I waited for the line of cars to start lurching forward, they didn’t. It was then that I realized that the hybrid car next to me was unoccupied.
So far the title is just "Alone". I may think of something better later, or maybe one of you might have some suggestions.
P.S. Yes I am still working on MH:MB.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So when I post an update I am going to post it on my Blog. It will make it easier to read. Since it is setup as one chapter, one page.
http://alonekingofone.wordpress.com
Post comments either here or on the blog. Here would probably be better.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Alone
I never thought I would miss the incessant noise of humanity. The crying children, the droning newscasters, the pitchmen pushing cleaning products and the lowly grocery store checkout clerks.
I have been alone for so long that I don’t really know if this is real. Am I mad? Am I living inside some insane asylum with doctors who shake their heads and scribble in notebooks when they walk by my cell?
No I fear that my reality inflicts more anguish upon my soul than any mere insanity could possibly bring. If ignorance is bliss knowing the truth is torture.
I do not know if anyone will read these scribbles or if this writing is but for naught. If I am destined to suffer alone, maybe these pages will help keep me sane.
The animals are all who keep me company now. Maybe it isn’t so bad? Maybe it is my destiny that I am to wander alone and leave all of humanity behind.
My name is Martin Miller. Someday if someone intelligent picks up these pages perhaps they will make sense of what I failed to do.
***
Before the event I was your average middleclass working stiff. I had a wife and two kids, a job working on computers, a mortgage, bills and responsibility. You could say I was running on the treadmill of life like the rest of us suckers.
I was sitting in my cubicle catching up on a mountain of email messages when my boss, Jessica Simpson popped in. Yes she had the same name as that ditzy celebrity and we made plenty of jokes about it but she really wasn’t that bad of a boss. “Hey Marty, I need a favor. Can you help me out?”
I sighed and swiveled my chair around to face her. “Umm that kinda depends on the type of favor doesn’t it.”
“I need a new server setup and running by start of business tomorrow for the engineering department.”
I looked at my watch; It was already past four o’clock. I closed my eyes and rubbed my forehead. “Is there any reason you couldn’t have told me this hours ago?” I didn’t even try to hide the annoyance in my voice.
She put her hands on her hips, “I’m sorry Marty, but I didn’t hear about this request until ten minutes ago.” She paused, “Look I’ll make it up to you.”
I looked up at her, “Ok how?”
“I’ll buy you dinner.” I raised an eyebrow, Jessica was quite pretty but I was happily married, why would she… “Not like that! Gosh Miller, I’ll get you a gift card to a nice restaurant so you can take Helen out on a date.”
“I’ll do it on one condition.”
“Oh what’s that?”
“You watch my kids while my wife and I are out on the town.”
I could tell she wasn’t pleased but my stupid contact with the company specified no overtime unless authorized by the contractor, who had already closed their doors for the evening, so if she wanted this done I would be doing the work off the clock, in violation of all kinds of company policies.
“Fine it’s a deal.” She said as she extended her hand. Whoa she must have really been desperate.
I walked into the server room and placed the disc into the drive of one of the rack mounted servers. Man it was cold in here, the auxiliary air conditioners kept the room at a brisk sixty four degrees.
I started the server operating system installation; the first part of it would take at least twenty minutes so I had enough time to take a leisurely bathroom break. I walked the halls of Geotech and found my goal. After doing my business I walked back to the server room. It was kind of strange I noticed when I got back to my desk that I hadn’t passed anyone leaving the office. It was Thursday so few people would have taken off early. Was there a holiday on Monday I had forgotten about?
I picked up the license key that I had forgotten to grab when I happened to look out the window. I had a wonderful view of the company parking lot, it was still full. I glanced at my watch 4:29 pm. Usually at about this time there would be a mad dash for the parked cars, as the office drones rushed home to watch their favorite shows about dancing, housewives or other such rubbish.
I waited for the workers to get in their cars and leave but none did. What the hell was going on? Did the CEO John Giovanni call for some emergency meeting and I had just happened to miss the email? I sat back down and unlocked my workstation with my exceedingly long corporate mandated password.
I checked my email, nothing new since 4:05pm. Hmm, this was strange. I turned back to the window and waited for my boss to start up her BMW two-seater convertible. Mrs. Simpson made way too much money for the job she did. She didn’t show up. Something in the back of my brain started to tingle. Bah I suppressed it, there had to be an emergency meeting?
I walked past my boss’s office; her purse was sitting on the expensive mahogany desk, she never left without it. I made my way down to the meeting room and opened the door expecting it to be packed wall to wall with bored office workers. The lights were off.
I started wandering the halls of the office looking for anybody. It was 4:47pm usually there would be someone working late, the marketing department typically had some deadline or another that caused their people to burn the midnight oil. Plenty of computers were still on, many of them unlocked in direct violation of the companies’ IT security policy. I expected to run into someone on the janitorial staff but the little Hispanic gal who vacuumed and replenished the toilet paper was nowhere to be found.
My mind was racing by the time I got back to my desk, what the hell was going on around here? Time to call home I picked up my office phone and punched in the numbers. The phone rang four times. My voice answered, “Hello this is the Miller residence, were either not home right now or we’re screening our calls, leave a message and if we like you we just might call you back. BEEEP!”
“Hey Helen pickup the phone! Something weird is happening at work. I know you’re there! Pickup the phone!” I could feel the anxiety in my voice. Why was no one answering? Where were my wife and kids? I called her cell phone and was greeted by her generic voicemail message. I told her to call me as soon as she got my message.
I grabbed my jacket and threw it on over my shoulders. We were in the first real cold snap of the year. I hit the door and a blast of cold air slapped me in the face. I walked past row after row of parked cars. 5:03pm none of these cars should be here! Everyone should be stuck in traffic by now.
I located my beat-up old Ford Ranger pickup with the cracked windshield, and faded blue paint, that I had been meaning to replace and hopped in. I started the ignition and pulled out onto blue lakes boulevard. A massive traffic snarl appeared ahead of me. Five o’clock traffic, hurray! I pulled up next to a Toyota hippie car that was stopped at a red light. When the traffic signal turned green I waited for the line of cars to start lurching forward, they didn’t. It was then that I realized that the hybrid car next to me was unoccupied.
