THEM-2 Part 3

Omnivictus
!Them!

Chapter Three – Bowling Green, Kentucky, USA

Billy was drunk on duty again. He’d met two of his friends down at the creek around noon to talk about hunting and fishing and more so about illegal hunting, which they specialized in, and found himself knocking down more beer than he had intended.
Too late now, he thought. By the time his four to midnight shift started, he was already higher than a kite. His shift supervisor had already warned him on several occasions about showing up with alcohol on his breath. But, he desperately needed the work. He and his wife were behind payments on their new mobile home and the title loan company was within inches of taking his pickup.
Billy was never taught how to properly operate a lift truck but he figured if it had wheels he could handle it. Heck, he could handle anything that drove and a fork lift was a piece of cake.
He was down at the far end of the warehouse, mouth full of spearmint breath refreshers, and hoping the beer buzz would wear off before the supervisor cornered him. He already had several close calls, nearly dropping a pallet of material and sideswiping one of the huge racks, but as he turned a corner to head towards the shipping office he ran smack dab into several pallets sitting on the floor.
"Who in Sam hell put them here!" Billy swore. This was a travel lane and no incoming items were supposed to be placed there. He got down from the lift truck to assess the damage. Looking around, he could see no one in his general vicinity.
Billy bent over to see what was on the pallet. There was one box, about four feet long and fifteen inches high, and several others a little larger. There was no damage to the bigger boxes, but the tines of the lift arm had punctured the smaller box. He spotted fluid on the side of the box and wiped his fingers across it.
"Damn box don’t belong here anyway." Billy glanced at the Antarctic shipping label. "Damn thing’s frozen, belongs in a butcher shop, not an underwear factory."
He pulled the damaged container over to the lift truck and balanced it on the tines. Looking all around again, he headed for the rear exit of the warehouse. Just beyond the parking lot there was a stream that flowed gently down towards the highway. Billy carefully parked the lift truck, grabbed the broken box and flung it over the embankment into the icy water.
One more mistake taken care of, he grinned as he gunned the machine back towards the warehouse.