Chapter 5 - Containment Failure

Jack had a decent job. It wasn’t high-paying or glamorous or even all that interesting, but it helped him stay afloat and maintain some order in his life. It also gave him the necessary income to afford a few luxuries such as his frequent visits to Pops, or the occasional nudie magazine, or even a few hours at the dog track. He wasn’t much of a gambler, but he was fascinated with the crowds that came and went on any particular race night. Some people looked like they were just visiting for the first time while others seemed to be living in the clubhouse restroom. He went to the track and he placed a few bets, watched a few of the races, but mostly he watched the people. Women screamed sometimes when they lost or jumped up and down when they won. Men with slicked back hair-do’s smiled out of the corner of their mouths and nodded if they came up big. The bartender eyeballed everyone with an equal amount of suspicion. The bettors boxes were abuzz with the flow of money and the main gallery was full of shit-eating grins.
One day at work, Jack’s supervisor approached him and informed him that the holiday rush was going to require everyone’s help and handed him a recently revised copy of the schedule. Jack was assigned to take on five more shifts per week for the next couple of months. The supervisor also informed him that an official copy of the schedule would be posted in its usual place and a second copy would be mailed to his address. He reminded Jack that as usual, it was his duty to check and recheck the almighty schedule at his convenience. Jack grimaced at the prospect of long hours, but relished the thought of extra pay. As long as his back and knees held out, he’d be sitting pretty just in time for New Year’s.
On that particular day, the shipments from a pharmaceutical company were being quarantined due to some kind of containment failure. Apparently, a few sorters were overcome by fumes leaking silently from one of the shipments. The area was shutdown, and an emergency crew was sent in to determine the details of the problem. Jack’s sorting area was the one that was shutdown, but he had not seen anyone pass out while sorting packages. He did see the emergency workers go in with their hazardous material suits on and was surprised that they were able to reopen the sorting area within the hour. He later found out that Crazy Larry was the one and only employee that had passed out from the fumes. Jack also found out that there were only a dozen large boxes that were determined to be the ones possibly affected by faulty interior containers. Jack had some doubts about the real number, and whether they actually cleaned up the mess properly. This job definitely helped fuel his sense of paranoia.