[Ah] Week 99 - Buck Pearson

[Bacon]

A Day in the Life of a Security Officer

Word count = 1292

Once again the alarm screeched as the big man rolled out of bed and collided with the floor making an audible thud. He groaned and reached up for the alarm clock clumsily knocking it onto the floor beside him. He reached with his other hand, taking hold of the clock, and switched it off. The man then climbed up to his feet, and staggered into his bathroom turning the shower on, and letting the hot water hit his skin, slowly waking him up.

Having finished with his shower, he made his way to the kitchen and made himself some food before heading out of his apartment building and down to the busy street. He looked up at the neighboring apartment where work crews had already started the clean up process, and were prepping for reconstruction of the damaged portions of the building. As Buck made his way at a leisurely pace towards the bus depot, he wondered what sort of action the night would bring. I thought I was seeing a little child last night, he thought to himself, I wonder what kind of crazy stuff awaits me this time? He made it to the buss, and then to his company head quarters.

The man picked up his assignment and realized he wouldn’t be at the museum tonight. He would be on a special armed assignment, guarding a ship that was docked in one of Tokyo’s harbors. The security officer already had his uniform, nightstick, and flashlight from home. But for this assignment he had to go to the company’s armory and retrieve a side arm for the night. After doing that, he met a coworker named Chris that was going with him to the pier.

Chris was much like Buck in the fact that he was retired from the US Military, and was now a private contractor with the same security company.

The two men got into a company car, and headed to the pier, which was designated pier nine. There was a full time employee of the company that ran the harbor, in a guard tower between their pier and pier ten. Buck and Chris had a single gate to man at the entrance to pier nine. As the two men were getting situated by the gate Buck asked the other “so uh, which branch did you serve in back with the states.”

“The tree branch,” replied Chris.

“What do mean?” Buck asked with confusion in his voice.

“I don’t really like to talk about it,” Chris stated flatly. “Nothing against you, I just would rather not talk about it.”

“Oh that’s cool man, forget I asked. By the way, which do you prefer, sitting by the gate, or making rounds?” asked Buck.

“I can do either one, but I’d prefer to sit and watch the gate. Wouldn’t you?” said Chris.

“I actually prefer to walk around, I sort of fidget when I sit still,” said the big man.

“Well that settles it then,” stated Chris. “I’ll watch here, and you can make rounds all night.”

The large man nodded as he walked off into the darkness. He clicked on his flashlight as he went out of the range of the lights that were mounted over the gate, and by the guard tower. He walked down the pier in a zig zag pattern, making his way between shipping crates as he looked into the spaces between them and around them. He also shinned his light up around the ship they were supposed to be guarding, and kept an ear out of any sort of water craft that might approach it. We have it pretty secure the way it is. No one can take the ship away without releasing it from the pier which I’d notice, and no one can take anything off of it without using the pier and going through Chris’s gate. So it’s all pretty safe as long as I make sure the place is cleared and secured back here, we’ll be fine. The officer thought to himself.

Buck came around a container and thought he saw the blurry image of a kid running behind another container. He instantly swung his flashlight’s beam in the direction of the other container and briefly saw a face stick out, then dart back behind it. “Oh not a f***ing’gain!!” the big man shouted into the darkness.

Man I’m loosing it! That damn kid again! It can’t be! Am I really loosing it? But I wasn’t exposed to anything in the Rangers, at least I don’t think so. Maybe I’ve got the genetics for schizophrenia? I don’t know.

Just then the kid shot out from behind it at a sprint, throwing a rock at the security officer, before sliding baseball style behind another container. As the rock hit the man in the face, it broke him from his chain of thought, as he realized the rock was very real. However, this sent the man into another train of thought.

That kid must be real. But how did he get into the museum, and how did he get here? And also how does he seem to go through ceilings and walls and such? Is this part of some sort of weird initiation, training, thing?

“Hey kid! Just who are you anyway?!” bellowed the security guard.

“My name is Warugaki Kodomo!” shouted back the kid from behind his current container. “And just how can you see me?”

“What?” asked the security guard in a bewildered tone? “You’re standing right there.”

Just then his attention was interrupted by the sounds of yelling voices coming from the direction of the gate. Buck turned and ran towards his coworker’s position. He came around a container and into the open space before the gate, just as a gang of thugs burst through it overwhelming the other guard. They were mere meters apart and one of them was heading straight towards the big man at a full sprint. There was no time to draw his sidearm. There was only time to react to his attacker’s stiff right hook. The veteran turned his left hip back twisting his torso and leaning back at the waist as his left hand shot up catching the attacker’s forearm. He pushed his attacker’s punch away, and then pulled the man’s arm past the front of his torso quickly grasping the mans wrist with his own right hand, and sliding his left hand back up the man’s arm to his elbow. While performing that maneuver, the big man turned his right hip in towards the man raising his right foot and bringing it down hard against the side of the attacker’s right knee while shoving hard with the palm of his left hand, and pulling back with his right. The veteran heard and felt the satisfying crack of his opponent’s bones at both of the joints that he was attacking. As the man started to slump, he suddenly let go with his right hand and brought it back across his own chest arching out his elbow, and slamming it into the now crippled attacker’s face.

The finishing maneuver left the big man’s right foot braced foreword and his entire torso twisted to the left and his head facing left. Another thug suddenly, and viscously kicked the veteran in his right knee causing a loud popping/cracking sound. The big man went down as another thug sweep kicked him in the back of the head. The big man saw stars from the blow as he went sprawling forewords, face down onto the ground. Other thugs circled around kicking him in the ribs and kidneys. His world started to fade out into darkness as he faintly heard the sound of sirens, and the shouting voices of the thugs.

 

[Bacon]

Introducing the Spirit World!

Word count 1288

The eyes of the man opened slowly as the she watched over him. It really is amazing that he lived after all that. I wonder what he feels like right now?

The man looked around confusion in his mind for a moment or two. Where am I again? I had a few flashes there, I remember a few images. Oh, that’s right. I got beaten down on the pier. The man grinned a bit, But I did get that first guy good. Looks like I’m in the hospital now. He observed the IV needles in his arms and the bandages on his body. He saw the nurse watching him and asked, “How bad am I beat up?”

“Well, this is the ICU” she replied. “We had to do surgery to stop your internal hemorrhaging. You have seven broken ribs, and you’re scheduled to have knee replacement surgery as soon as we get you stable enough for it. Your knee, due to your previous injury, plus the current break, can’t be helped. It needs to be replaced”

“Wow, that’s bad,” the man said as he grimaced in pain as he started to wake up further. He went back into unconsciousness as the nurse upped his morphine drip.

The man’s eyes opened again as he saw the little boy from before standing next to his bed. The boy was saying something but he couldn’t quite make it out cause he was whispering, and the man was still very groggy. Slowly the voice became more audible as he woke up, and he realized the boy was begging him not to die.

“Please don’t die mister,” the boy said “You’re the first one that’s been able to see me. Other people just can’t. I wish they could. I’ve been so lonely with no one to talk too.”

“Hey boy,” the man said groggily. “What are you talking about others not seeing you.”

“Oh you’re awake, that makes me happy mister. You see most people can’t see me because I’m dead. My whole family is dead,” said the boy.

What the hell? Thought buck, Am I really seeing a ghost? Well a poltergeist actually since he throws things at me. If ghosts are real, what about demons and angles? Could they also exist?

“Hey boy, what did you say your name was again?” he asked

“Warugaki Kodomo,” the boy replied.

“Well Kodomo, supposing you are telling me the truth, have you ever seen a demon or an angel?” the man asked.

“I’ve seen something you might call a demon,” the boy said as he looked down, and sadness covered his face. “It ate my family. Once there were four of us. We all died in a traffic accident, not far from that museum. We stayed together for a while, until that thing came and attacked us. We all ran but I was the only one that got away. I’ve been so lonely since then.”

“Do you mean a person can die twice?” Buck asked

“I never thought of it that way before,” answered the kid. “But I suppose so.”

“What’s with that chain on your chest? And did you shorten it since the last time I saw you?” Asked the big man.

“I don’t know what it is exactly,” replied the child. “But it does shorten every so often, and it hurts really badly whenever it does.”

Hey if I really can see ghosts, and these ghosts are real, The man thought to himself. Could that mean that she… His face lost all expression as he thought of his deceased girl friend. No way, it’s been far too long for that. But then again I’m new to this whole ghost thing. I don’t know what keeps them here. That is assuming there is a heaven and a hell. But if those places exist, like I think they do, what keeps a spirit here on earth. And could she still be haunting our home place?

Just then a lady seemingly fell out of the wall screaming and sobbing at the same time. “M-m-m-y b-o-o-o-d-d-y,” she sobbed. “I just saw my own body, wait where did it go, and where did this wall come from!?” She then looked down at her chest and screamed again, “What the heck is this chain doing here?” She reached down grasping the chain and it suddenly went taut, jerking her back through the wall.

On the other side of the wall, in the next room, a nurse was hanging back up the paddles having just resuscitated the lady. Her heart monitor was beeping again having just flat lined moments earlier. Suddenly the monitor flat lined again letting out an alarm sound as the lady once again was expelled from her body. She went stumbling backwards through the wall again. This time maintaining her footing, “Oh not again,” the woman moaned. This time she wasn’t as surprised by the ordeal but fear and confusion was still very apparent in her expression.

Buck observed her wondering what was going on when something happened. The chain attacked to her chest went limp and dangled. The woman looked really worried now as she pulled on the chain and the end of it came through the wall. She gasped as she picked the end up. “Oh no, it’s, it’s not attacked to me anymore.”

The kid next to the big man’s bed looked at her and said, “Well lady, you just died.”

She looked around suddenly for the voice saying “Is that you? Wait, what? Hey who said that?”

“Me,” replied the kid.

“You don’t look like death,” she stated.

“I’m not. I’m just dead like you,” he said. “Go back through the wall and see for yourself”

Buck just laid there unable to fully process what was going on as the lady put her hand into the wall and it went right through. She let out a gasp and a sob. Then took a deep breath and walked through the wall. She let out a scream so loud that Buck and the kid could hear if from their room on the other side of the wall.

Buck looked over at Warugaki asking, “Hey what just happened?”

The boy shrugged his shoulders saying, “She just realized she’s dead. That chain she had used to be tied to her body. As soon as it went limp I knew she was dead.”

The big man turned his head back starting at the ceiling while thinking, What a day. I better not be dreaming this cause it’s getting so weird and yet so real. If it isn’t real, and these aren’t really ghosts, then for sure I’m loosing it. He looked over at the kid once more asking, “Is this a dream, or is this real? And why am I asking you anyway if your part of a dream?”

The kid replied, “Oh no this is real. I wish it wasn’t, but I’ve been dead for two and a half years now. And I wouldn’t be following you around if you weren’t the only one that can see me, and hear me.”

“Well as long as we’re going to be companions, I don’t see how I have much choice in that matter anyway, could you at least stop throwing rocks at me?” The man asked groggily as another dose of medication kicked in. He hadn’t even noticed the nurse come back in and adjust his IV drip. Now the boy and the room started to get fuzzy and slowly fade out. He heard the boy speak, but the words sounded really long and drawn out and distant, like someone was distorting an audio tape.

“I’ll be here when you wake back up mister,” the boy was saying.

 

[Bacon]

Homecoming

Word count = 1566

Two companions got out of a taxi and entered the building. As they neared the elevator the big man looked down at the small child. His chain is only a few links now, the man thought. He said it’s been shortening since his death which was two and a half years before he told me about it, which was three months ago in the ICU. So it’s been shortening for two years and nine months. I wonder what happens when it’s gone. Does it move out into his body and dissolve him? That would explain why I don’t see a lot of other ghosts. Maybe they only have so long before they pass on, or maybe just die. I wish I wonder if we should try to prevent the shortening of his chain somehow, or if maybe it’s like a timer until he gets to pass on into some sort of afterlife. I don’t know anything about ghosts so I should probably just leave it alone.

By now they had ridden the elevator up to the man’s floor and were entering his apartment. The apartment had been uninhabited for three months and it smelled horrible. After letting the kid in and turning on the TV for him, the man immediately set about cleaning his home. He started in the kitchen with the sink and counters. There were dirty dishes with three months worth of mold on them and mildew in almost every corner of the kitchen. He ended up throwing away everything in the refrigerator and scrubbing it out with bleach water. Man I’m glad my insurance through work covered my stay and treatments at the hospital, and this new knee is working out pretty good. I love not having the constant pain of my old war injury. But this cleaning sucks so bad it almost makes it not worth the new knee. And the whole beat down thing was pretty negative too. He chuckled out loud at his last thought as he began to scrub out his microwave.

Upon finishing with the kitchen he went and cleaned his bedroom and sprayed lots of air freshener around. His dirty laundry that had been festering in his cloths hamper got tossed in the trash. After finishing with his bedroom the man was exhausted. He had just worked for four hours and was out of shape from his hospital stay. The rehab exercises were okay but it was no substitute for his routine at the gym. The big man crashed on his bed dreading going back to work the following night.

The following evening the man woke up and did his morning routine before heading out to the kitchen and living room area. He found the kid still watching television. He went to the fridge and sighed as he realized he had thrown everything away the day before. He went back and grabbed a duffel bag. He started packed some manga and other items into it to keep his young friend busy while at work. He got his belt with the light and nightstick on it and his hat and headed out the door. The kid followed closely behind as they went downstairs and out to the bus station.

At work the security officer found that he was supposed to work at the museum tonight. He took the kid there with him. The man did his usual routine of accepting the keys to the building and locking the entrance after the last employee left. He then did his rounds like he normally would, except he left the child on the third floor with the critters there for a while. Being a ghost, the child could come down whenever he got board weather the doors were locked or not.

Buck sat at the front desk with his feet up relaxing when he noticed a dark figure at the front door. He got up and walked towards the glass doors as he started to make out the figure. It was a rather scary looking man standing on the center railing right in front of the doors. He was wearing a black robe and what appeared to be brass knuckles as well as a samurai sword on his back. He had a scar from above his left eye down his face past his mouth and wore a patch over his left eye. His disheveled reddish hair and one red eye peering into the building gave him a startling appearance.

Buck opened the door asking, "Can I help you sir?”

The man was silent as he hopped down and walked towards the entrance. "I can’t let you in here sir,” the guard said. The man just kept walking. As he approached the guard yelled "Hey you! Tough guy! I’m talking to you!”

The redheaded man chucked and drew his sword swinging it down towards the guard. The veteran quickly and skillfully stepped inside of the redhead’s swing putting his right forearm against the other man’s arm stopping the swing. The guard then suddenly lunged forwards punching at the other man’s throat with his right fist. The result was the cracking sound of buck’s knuckles breaking against the other man’s throat. Drawing back his fist in disbelief, the guard just stood there starring at his wounded hand and throbbing wrist. The other man placed his left hand on the guard’s chest shoving him through the air and crashing through the glass doors to the museum. He advanced raising his sword over his head glaring down at the guard. "Apparently you can see me,” the redheaded man stated. "Suppose you tell me if you’ve seen a small boy around here, and maybe I won’t finish you off.”

"I don’t know what you’re talking about,” the guard said. I obviously can’t defeat this guy and keep Warugaki safe. At this point it’s better if I just deny that he’s around.

"What!” shouted the read head? "What do you mean I can’t kill him?”

With a confused expression on his face, the guard looked at his attacker. "Well it seems it is too important to the plot to kill you right now,” the man stated. What!? what sort of plot is he talking about? Is there some sort of spirit world plot that involves me? Is someone using the kid to get to me and use me?

The redhead suddenly leaped up and shot through the ceiling. "Oh no, the kid.” Buck said out loud. He rushed up stairs and came crashing out of the stairwell onto the third floor just in time to see the redhead grabbing his friend by the shirt collar and hitting his forehead with the base of the hilt of his sword. The child’s body disintegrated into thin air. The big man felt rage begin to course through his entire body and he began to shake as he charged at a full sprint towards the redhead. The redhead stopped the charge by placing the palm of his left had up catching the charging man’s chest and stopping his momentum.

"You killed him!” shouted the guard. "I don’t care how tough you are! I must kill you!”

The redhead looked confused for a minute and then said, "Relax, he was already dead”

"And I suppose that makes it okay to kill him twice?!” exclaimed the big man.

"No, you don’t understand. I was helping him and that’s more than I should be telling you anyway,” stated the redhead. With that he vanished away as the guard stumbled forwards with no hand against his chest to support him anymore.

The guard made his way back downstairs confused and shaken by what he had just happened. It all happened so fast he wasn’t sure what to make of it all and the throbbing pain in his right hand made it hard to think. Once at the front desk again he called the police, and the company he worked for to report a break in. He explained his injury to his boss and someone was sent to replace him, after the police report was taken, so that he could go to the emergency room and have his hand looked at. He finally made it home well after his bedtime with his right hand and forearm in a cast. He rummaged through one of his cabinets for a bottle of scotch and poured himself a double shot before going to bed. As he drifted off to sleep he wondered, what a weird place Tokyo is. Who would have thought I’d start seeing ghosts. And what’s with that ruffian? Was he some sort of ghost hunter? Maybe he really was helping my young friend like he said. Maybe he was helping him pass on rather than killing him. I doubt it though. He was probably someone like me that sees ghosts, and instead of helping them, he hunts them and kills them. He probably thinks they have to die or something to finally find rest. Hell I don’t know much about ghosts myself. For all I know killing them might be the right thing to do cause that chain might do it naturally. Maybe killing them speeds up the process and helps them in the long run. I don’t know, and this plot thing he spoke of, I wonder what that could be. If I ever see him again, he’s going to have some explaining to do.