Clutching her head she let out a small groan, “Xen? What happened?” Her speech was a little slow, perhaps a head injury? I couldn't be sure, and I hadn't noticed anything visible when I first checked. “I’m not sure, are you okay?” It was a coincidence that both Nancy and myself had experienced fainting episodes. I originally assumed that mine was from my biking accident, perhaps something more was going on.
“Just a headache, where is everyone?” Her speech was slowly returning to normal. Perhaps there wouldn't be any major health concerns, it didn't really affect me though so I wasn't all that worried. “Well, hopefully some rest will help you feel better. I think I saw someone over in the clothing section, but I haven't seen anyone else.” Now for the fun part, “I also wanted to let you know that I'm sorry for being late, but I do have a good reason.” I mentally grimaced, ‘Hopefully she isn't too upset.’ I hated any situation where I felt like I was in trouble over something.
“Well it looks like you got hit by a car; you know you should probably go to the hospital to get checked over, right?” Although Nancy sounded slightly upset, I guessed she was just worried about me. This had happened before when other coworkers discovered that I frequently got a bloody nose. I had lived with it my whole life so I didn't see the point in wasting money diagnosing something I could easily solve. “And we can excuse your tardiness, just please take care of yourself.”
“I’ll be fine, Ma’am. It was just a minor biking accident. I’m going to go get started on my work now.” I pulled my work phone out of my pocket, loaded up the company app, and clocked in to work as I walked away. I may have started my shift late but the day looked like it would be a slow one. I would count myself lucky, busy days were always annoying.
I glanced towards the general merchandise cart bay as I walked away from the service counter. There looked to be enough carts to last for a little bit so I headed over towards the grocery cart bay. Reaching the front door I found the associate, who should've been at the door to greet customers, to be missing. Walking over to the bay door, a large half garage door that was manually operated, I took my backpack off, unlocked one of the pockets, and removed my safety vest and gloves. I then put the relocked bag on the ground beside the door and moved to cover the door, at least until the associate got to work.
If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.
----------------------------------------
It took about a half hour, with only a handful of customers coming in through the front door. They all appeared to have woken up not long ago, a couple of whom looked confused or in a hurry. I didn't know why, nor did I care. I was only here to cover the position.
The associate assigned to the door rushed in, a few minutes after 8 AM. Clearly panicked and out of breath, “Xen? Oh thank God someone was here.” She was definitely panicking, “There was an accident down the road. I had to call 911. It looked really bad but there wasn't anything else I could do!” Tears were welling at the corners of her eyes.
Trying to calm her down I responded, “Hey, hey. It'll be okay. You did everything you could and that's exactly what they need now. I think I can hear EMS already.” Indeed, the sound of sirens was barely noticeable in the distance.
“Thank you, Xen. I just didn't know what else to do, I was so scared.” She had calmed somewhat but was clearly still upset that she couldn't do more to help.
I put a bit more energy into my voice, maybe if I seemed optimistic about things it would calm her, “It's okay, alright? They're getting the help they need now. I'm going to go check the lot for carts and I'll look out to check on the accident.” Now that I was free I had a job to do, pushing carts for the endless masses. At least this Wednesday looked to be a calm day. It was usually a mixed bag, whether people would go shopping or not in the middle of the week.
As I walked out the front door into the warm Texas sun I saw a decent number of cars on the road, ‘Looks like everyone is trying to get to work now.’ Walking from one end of the store to the other, checking for carts all the while, I enjoyed the perfect September morning. ‘Fall is the best time of the year.’ There were only a couple carts in the whole lot, most likely left over from last night, and I easily returned them to the cart bays.
Glancing at my watch I noted the time to be just after 8:30, only six hours left in my working day. I couldn't wait to get home. I looked at the main road before going inside to get a drink and saw a horrifying sight. The intersection and main road were swamped with cars, a huge traffic jam of everyone trying to either get to work or other less important destinations. I suspected quite a few were going to be headed into my parking lot. Waiting barely five minutes showed at least fifty cars, most definitely more, headed my way and confirmed my fears. ‘I should never have thought my day was going to be slow. This'll be a fucking joy.’