JANUARY 15th, 1976
Cindy Savage was always a light sleeper. Her husband James owned a dog when the two met. A beautiful dog, it was a cocker spaniel with a fine coat. Once they got married, the dog started getting put out at night so as to allow Cindy a good night sleep. Despite the fact that the dog was no longer in the house, he still found ways of waking Cindy up. At this moment, the dog was barking loudly and almost without stopping.
Cindy opened one eye and looked at the window. Pitch black. She was almost afraid to roll over and look at the clock. If it was after four in the morning then this was all the sleep she was going to get for the evening, her only hope was that it was around midnight. At least then she might be able to get another couple of hours in before she'd have to get up and go to work.
She eyed the clock by the bedside. After staring at the clock's face for a moment she was able to discern that it was a little before two. She let out a sigh. Two in the Goddamn morning and that dog won't shut up.
With some effort, she sat up in the bed. She looked over at her husband who snoozed beside her. As if reacting to her glaring, he snorted and rolled over, pulling a large wad of the sheets with him. She loved her husband dearly and had since the first moment she meet him all those years ago. Despite her love, she thought the same thing at that moment she thought every time she awoke in the middle of the night: worthless.
She continued her mental tirade as she walked into the kitchen. "What if someone were trying to break in? He always talks about that dog as some kind of home defense thing. Well, either that dog's got to go or he's gonna have to start waking up when it's barking." Without breaking stride, she went to kitchen sink and poured herself a glass of water. She sipped the cool water from the glass and attempted to clear her mind. She knew that she'd never say anything to her husband about the dog. She never did. It just made her feel better to rant about it in her head for a bit.
She turned around and headed back for the bedroom. She was attempting to clear her mind and so hadn't noticed that the dog was still barking. In the past, the dog's barking would only come and go as the local wildlife attempted to run past him to get to the Savage's trash. Living out in the country as they did, there were always raccoons or skunks that were trying to eat the remains of their dinner. However, once the animal had discovered the dog's presence, it usually scampered off back into the wilderness surrounding the small house. This time whatever the dog was barking at was not leaving. It was, in fact, coming closer.
Cindy Savage, having just been roused from only a few hours of half-hearted sleep, was not aware of anything out of the ordinary with the dog's behavior.
She walked into her bedroom still carrying the glass of water. She was taking part in the next of her nightly rituals, counting down how many hours of sleep she could still get if she fell asleep right now. Just about the time that she was discovering that she didn't care much for the answer, a bright light came pouring into the bedroom, filling the room. The light came in so quick and was so blinding that in her sleep-deprived state, Cindy dropped her glass in order to shield her eyes from the light.
As if in a fog, she barely heard the glass shatter as the cup hit the floor. She wondered what kind of car would have such intense headlights when she looked over at her husband. As usual, he was sleeping through this.
"James."
He didn't stir.
"James."
Squinting fiercely against the light, she walked over to him and grabbed one of his arms. She squeezed it gently in an effort to rouse him from his sleep. She found herself unsuccessful. She gave his arm a slight shake. Still nothing. She grabbed both of his shoulders and began to vigorously shake him as if attempting to resuscitate him.
A loud buzzing noise made her turn her head. The noise was unlike anything that a car or truck would make. It seemed to be a loud throbbing that made the front of her head ache while at the same time, there was a whirring noise that seemed to hover just at her ability to hear it.
"James!" This time she was yelling but it didn't matter. She couldn't even hear herself so she had no hope that he could hear.
Shadows grew longer despite the blinding light. The inky blackness seemed to not only grow in size but in shade as well, becoming darker. Cindy stood in shock and mounting fear at the rising shadows. They had begun to move and undulate as if they had a mind of their own. Suddenly, descernable shapes began to appear, human-like in their appearance. The shadows began to encircle Cindy, she opened her mouth to scream but nothing came out. She scratched at her throat wildly.
"Do not be afraid." The voice came out clipped and distorted as if someone had recorded the separate words, strung them together and played them back.
A shadowy hand reached out for Cindy.
Cindy promptly wet herself.
MAY 5th, 2001
Adam Savage didn't care much for children nor was he particularly fond of movies. So he wasn't quite sure how he started to work at Kids' Vids!, the city's only all-children video store. What he was sure of was that after being given a pay raise and health insurance, he wasn't going to be quitting any time soon. Adam had made peace with his job. It's not as if he hated children and he knew the difference between Disney and Dreamworks although he would be slow to admit that to any of his beer-drinking sports-obsessed friends.
If there was any person who was less suited to work at a children's video store than Adam it was Bob Roberts, Adam's supervisor. Adam often wondered if Bob ever felt anything other than suspicion and resentment towards the children who came into Kids' Vids!. If there ever was a time when he felt positively it was long ago stomped out of him by the hundreds of children who descended like a plague of locusts each and every day.
Adam was working the register while Bob hid out in the office in the back, pretending to go over the order forms for some new releases. Adam wasn't too busy despite the fact that he probably should be. One of the kids had spilled some of a chocolate milkshake that he'd brought in, a game of tag had broken out and the running flailing children had knocked several videos to the floor, and a child was hiding in the back of the store in the midst of a panic attack. Adam had discovered very shortly into his time at the video store that the difference between those who made it and those who didn't was whether or not they ran themselves ragged at every crisis that appeared. Those people hardly lasted a week. The thing that Adam had learned, as had many others, with children there is always another crisis looming in the future.
Bob appeared out of the back and walked towards the front, absentmindedly stepping over the spilt milkshake. He wasn't able to sidestep the running kids in time, however, and so was knocked back a step. Muttering under his breath, he recovered his footing. He maneuvered behind the counter.
"Vultures. They're all vultures." Bob eyed a six year old sneeze into his hand and rub it off on a shelf.
"They're just kids," Adam chuckled. He'd heard Bob's rants before but he always enjoyed them nonetheless.
"They're carrion. They feast on the flesh of the dead."
Adam looks at Bob in disbelief.
"Don't you think you're being a bit melodramatic?"
Bob's eyes squint into tiny slivers. "A couple of months back, as part of a promotion, I dressed up like Tokage. You know, that lizard looking guy from the SPW? I was sitting with a group of four year olds. The little bastards jumped me, climbed up over me. They were ruthless. One of them kicked me in the junk." Bob rubbed his sensitive bits at the remembered pain.
A small child ran up to the counter. Bob stepped back, still remembering the vicious trouncing he recently received at the hands of that childish band. "Here," the small child said as he put the video down on the counter. His voice was high and squeaky but not annoying, which was a relief to Adam. Adam picked up the video and scanned it. Bob continued to peer at the boy with a watchful eye.
"That'll be three-fifty." At Adam's prompting, the child hands over a wad of cash that he pulled from deep within the recesses of his pocket. Adam takes the handful of money from the boy, he removes a five dollar bill and returns the money. Adam rings up the sale while the kid returns the cash to his deep pocket. Adam hands the video and change to the child. "Here you go." The boy grabs the offerings and runs out of the store with it.
Bob watches the boy leave with the same careful gaze. "Vultures."
"Why the Hell do you work at a kid's video store?"
"Eh. I need the dental," Bob admitted in defeat.
"You get dental?" Adam asked in disbelief.
"Yeah," Bob paused before asking, "don't you?"
"Nah. Just basic medical."
Bob, as if aware of his importance to the company, puffed his chest out. "Well keep your eye on the prize and some day you may become assistant manager."
"Can I even dare to dream?" Adam deadpanned. "So what did you come out of the office for?"
"I wanted to know if you could open tomorrow. Louise can't make it."
Bob often asked Adam to fill in for other people, to come in when he wasn't scheduled. Adam always thought it impossible, that this would be the time he says no. Of course, then he would end up giving in and saying 'okay.' Adam knew that he did this and that's why he was determined that this time would be different, that this time he'd stand up to Bob and say 'no.'
"I guess so. I could the money anyway."
Well, Adam thought, maybe next time.
"Thanks. Keeps me from having to commute." In the back of the store the small child in the throes of the panic attack promptly threw up, as if to illustrate his point. "God I hate this place." Bob looks over at Adam. "You can go clean that up. I'll watch the register for you." Adam rolled his eyes as he walked past Bob.
"Thanks so much," Adam said bitterly under his breath.
---
Sunset was always Adam's favorite time of day. He stepped out of the store and into the cool breeze, it had hints of the brisk summer that was coming. Bob was standing next to him, locking up the video store and muttering under his breath something about what should be done to him if he ever were to be unfortunate enough to have children. It was something to do about having his eyes poked out and a hot red poker put some place but Adam wasn't really paying attention to him, he was too busy looking up at the sky.
High above him people in colorful costumes flew through the city skyline. This was the real reason that Adam loved sunset. The nice warm glow that bathed everything was nice but this was the real stuff. Superhero rush hour. For some unknown reason, the heroes of the city always seemed to travel during that golden hour.
"Don't you think?" Bob looked over at Adam expectingly. After Adam didn't respond for a moment, Bob added, "Well?" Adam snapped his head around to look at Bob.
"I'm sorry. I was just..." Adam's words trailed off as his view drifted back skyward.
Bob followed his employee's gaze. He let out a sigh and rolled his eyes. "I'd swear that if I didn't know better, I'd think you were a tourist. Are you sure you're really from here?"
Adam embarrassedly broke his gaze. "I know. I know. I should be jaded by now."
"What's your deal with the supers?"
"I've been obsessed with it ever since I was a kid. You know, I almost got super powers once."
"Come on. Everyone's got an 'I almost got super powers' story."
"No, no. I really did. Back when I was in school, I was in my science class and me and my partner were working on this experiment. Now, our table was right by the window so we saw the thunderstorm rolling but to be honest I didn't think much of it. Sp were just as surprised as everyone else when the lighting struck our lab table. I ducked down but my lab partner, Wally, his name was Wally, he got sprayed with all these chemicals and struck by the lightening bolt."
"Damn."
"I know. I'm thinking 'chemical burn from Hell' and instead the guy gets super powers."
"What'd he get?"
"Super speed."
"That's must've burned you."
"Yeah, I was kind of pissed about it for a while. But at least our track team kicked the ever loving crap out of Chambliss High that year.
Bob took in the story for a moment, "Man, you did get hosed."
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