Chapter 1. Overtime

It was quite a bit past dark as Sarah wrote equations on the white board, listening to the rain hit the office windows and run down to the metal sill. The marker fumes had become a stench to her nose as she continued to work much longer than she ever expected when she took the job. Her glasses felt like they were becoming heavier with each passing minute and it was getting hard to keep her eyes focused on her notes. Sarah was a highly intelligent overachiever with a love of science who had earned twin doctorates in record time and was quickly working on her third. When she was working through graduate school to get her doctorate in particle physics to add to the doctorates in theoretical physics and quantum mechanics she had already earned, she had dreams of working with great minds to make great discoveries that would revolutionize how humankind understood the universe. Once she was hired for the research assistant position in another university she thought she had it made. After two years, she was rather disenchanted with the work. Her feelings were fueled by the fact her boss was such a jackass.
“You’re still here, Sarah? I’d have thought you would be home hours ago.” Her colleague Phil startled her from the half dazed stupor that was slowing her work and making her writing more cryptic.
“Huh?...Oh, hi Phil. Yeah, I have to get this stuff done for Berglund by Friday so he can make his presentation at the conference,” said Sarah, stumbling over her words
“Yeah, loads of credit there,” Phil said sarcastically.
Sarah sputtered her lips. “Pfpfpft, that’s why Ernest quit last month,. He had his work stolen one too many times. Just because Berglund is head of the department he thinks he can use the work we do for his publications without putting any name on it but his own. Sometimes I’d just like to…” she said as she jousted her knee upwards.
Phil laughed. “You and me both. I don’t know how he gets away with that. And he always makes it seem like an innocent mistake. ‘Sorry Ernie, it must have been an oversight by the publisher that your name didn’t get printed,’” he imitated with a whiny voice.
Sarah was quite alert now, the conversation having awakened her. “Well, I’m going to finish this last little bit and then head home. The rest can wait until tomorrow.” Phil smiled. “I had no choice to stay. I had an experiment running over in the chem lab that took 5 hours, and I couldn’t just shut it off to go home or it would be ruined and I’d have to do it all over again tomorrow. I hope Katie ’s not too annoyed when I get home.”
“She’s too much of a sweetheart to not forgive you, Phil,” replied Sarah. “You’re one of the lucky ones to have found such a perfect mate. I hope to be as lucky someday.” “True,” said Phil, smiling again as he looked dreamily to the side. “She is. And keep your hopes up…I’m sure you will find the right one. The thing is to not try, and love will find you.” Sarah rolled her eyes. “I’ve not tried as hard as I’ve tried, and it hasn’t worked out yet. I wanted to get married, but not to my work!” “I know the feeling,” said Phil. “Well, I have to get going. Have a good night.”
“You too, Phil. See you tomorrow,” said Sarah, turning back to the board, followed by an exasperated sigh. After a couple more equations were figured out Sarah made comments in her notes to mark where she left off, grabbed her keys, turned off the lights in her office, locked the door and headed across the research lab to the security checkpoint before the main elevator lobby.
The temperature dropped a few degrees as she reached the security checkpoint as the two uniformed MPs met her like a wall stopping her dead in her tracks they both were dressed in full combat fatigues armed with small mni-machineguns and the first on she met already had dropped behind her without so much as a hello or greeting. For a fraction of a second this infuriated her until she heard the click of the gun’s safety being switched off and felt him take a step forward. She quickly reassessed the reasons for stopping as she walked through the hallway as machine that scanned her for any company equipment that was not assigned to her research unit. She met the second MP although shorter saluted her like a higher-ranking officer then escorted her to the elevator bays opening the one to the garage level and guiding her inside.
She turned to get a better look at the solder only to be met by the elevator doors closing in her face and a rising sensation as the elevator ascended to the parking garages.
They both had heads shaved and wore masks over their faces the message was clear, “Don’t fuck with us and we don’t fuck with you. Fuck around and steal from the company nobody will remember you were here and we will just make you a part of the facility guest. Be a good researcher and you go home and come to work again tomorrow.”
She had noticed the one that had saluted her was smaller than normal and it had gently guided her into the elevator closing the door and sending her up the shaft headed to her car or the soldiers it was a step up better than the normal quick shove and hearing, “Up your shaft.” Followed by a lot of laughter or, “Feel that shaft bitch.” The latter she had come to understand was a complement as to say he would consider her sexy enough for his liking.
However, she was far from just a run of the mill dog or simple bitch and refused to subjugate herself to the alpha human as she was the huntress and they were her own weak-minded prey. For now she was free from them. (ding) The elevator doors slid open as she bolted into the first level of the four parking garage levels moist air assailed her senses as she walked to her dark midnight blue station wagon she walked around it looking underneath and inside it before disarming the alarm with an electronic key opening the driver’s door getting into the driver’s seat.
Upon starting the old Ford, the steady strong purr of the big block 357 resonated through the old steel-bodied Torino Station Wagon. It was old, fast, turbocharged, and paid for she shifted it into reverse, gunning it a bit, and it swung into the exit lane as she slipped it into drive and eased into the gas seeing the garage exit ramp ahead gave her the feeling of being liberated overtook her as she exited onto the main access road to the research base and hit the gas she thought to herself that at least the rain had let up to a light drizzle.
She slowed a bit as the guard at the outer gate had seen her coming and had already opened the gate as she hit a button on the steering wheel and gunned the gas she flew past the guard shack with the air horns blaring Dixie. The guard at the gate control slid the gate closed behind her as she slid onto the main highway already busting through eighty flying home.
“Damn I want that fine ass car.” He muttered as he entered the guard shack instantly lowering his voice as saw his commander on the phone again he was talking to the short MP at the base in a language that was outside his training to comprehend. On the other hand, it sounded like gibberish to him and their conversation over the phone seemed to be quite heated as the little guy had told him she had a rough day and cut her some slack. Then asked if he had a good nap before she woke him up and then the argument was in full swing, the daily verbal exchange about safety, security, private guards and rent a cops ending with the normal fuck you hang up from the little prick guest. It ended quite abruptly with a loud, “Well Fuck You!” As he almost threw the phone into the cradle as he wrote down what had just happened in his daily activity report as another gate violation and failure to yield for inspection.
He stormed out to smoke a cigar and calm down looking like a older version of general Patton.
The other simply wrote that he had saw her coming and by his observation she was in a hurry so he let her pass to avoid gate damage as she had plowed through the gate before in that tank of a car with no damage to her car she kept going made it all the way home. Sarah put it in the shop for a low tire and the boys went to town like evil little elves addicted to speed and pleasing their best client. They loved her Ford and they loved the use of the speed wagon it had made money for them and the shop at many rallies, races and shows they had displayed it as their headliner.
The Shopkeeper watched her turn into her driveway and Sarah exited her car as she normally did he thought of his own daughter and then remembered the work waiting in the shop. He returned to his den writing a short note to confer about this weekend’s race and using her car.
When she got home, Sarah could hardly believe the late hour. She heated up some leftover Casserole from the weekend before to make a modest dinner before bed. It was so big she had been eating it all week, but it was good enough that she was not sick of it yet. It had saved her from having to take much time to cook anything after working so late each day.
After dinner she felt quite exhausted from the day, yet too tired to go to bed yet. She poured a cold glass of ginger ale and flopped onto the couch with another exasperated sigh. The research work was not physically demanding other than requiring her to be on her feet most of the day, but the long hours and mental strain were exhausting.
Sarah stared wearily at the wall above the gas fireplace. She lit it when she got home to help take away the chill she felt from the rainy night, and now the dancing flames felt very comfortable. As she sat there she let her head fall back over the top of the couch cushion, closing her eyes to listen to the rain outside and the soft sound of the fire inside, and to simply relax. Her mind was still a blur of activity because of all the work she’d been doing recently but she was finally starting to feel herself wind down.
As she lounged, in the darkness inside her eyelids she saw faint flashes of light. They were nothing that caught her attention, they were so dim. The flashes were occasional, every several seconds and not forming any sort of pattern. After a couple minutes passed the flashes got slightly brighter, enough to make her take notice. Sarah dismissed the light as the flickering of the fireplace, passing cars, or lightning in the rain clouds, yet she didn’t notice there was no sound to accompany such explanations.
Without warning a very bright flash of light filled her dark eyelids as if a camera flash went off inches from her face. Her eyes flew open as she looked up, and in the same instant thought to herself, “This is going to be a loud one!” She never did like sudden loud thunder. Nothing.
The lightning she was sure struck right outside her house made no noise at all. Sarah sat there perplexed, wondering what happened. She got up and went over to the window to look out at the dark sky. The pitch black sky had no flashes, no lightning, and she saw no light except for the nearby streetlight that made the raindrops glow like countless tiny meteors. She saw nobody outside who could have made so much light. For several minutes she watched the night sky trying to figure out what could have made such a flash.
After several more moments passed her curiosity was replaced by the exhaustion of the day, and Sarah remembered the comfortable sofa. Before returning to it she went to her bedroom, traded the day’s clothes for her fuzzy bathrobe, and went back to the living room with her alarm clock. She could have gone to bed but was feeling especially comfortable on the couch earlier, and she didn’t want to risk falling asleep there without an alarm for the next morning. Sarah set the alarm, took a few more sips of her ginger ale, and laid down on the couch while pulling the thick blanket off the back of the couch. Even if she wouldn’t admit it to herself, she knew that’s where she’d be sleeping that night.
While she laid there with her eyes closed, Sarah kept seeing flashes in the dark. They varied from the faint dim flashes of earlier to bright flashes like the latest one. Every time she would open her eyes the lights quit and nothing was there to cause them. Even in the darkness of the room or when she pulled the blanket up over her face to be in complete darkness, she could not see any flashes. As soon as she closed her eyes again, they would continue.
“What in the world is this?” she thought. Aside from needing to wear glasses she never had eye problems before. “It must be all the work and long hours I’ve been putting in lately. Stress, it must be stress.” She did her best to ignore the flashing light in her eyes and eventually she fell asleep.

the first chapter second will roll quickly