Winnie Is Not Okay

2.3

"I hate my job."

It had been a good day. She had not gone into work today, wanting a chill day. Instead she had visited Alice and Steven, gone into town with them to check out a new café and do some necessary shopping, as it was late spring now so one might as well start getting new summer clothes.

They had gone back home and played Steven's new game they had gotten for him and when he'd gotten bored Alice had told her all about the new misfortunes around her estranged husband. Now, back home, she had routinely gotten a glass of wine and a glass of water and sat out on the terrace to read.

Wrapped in a blanket with a mosquito-repelling candle by her side and the heat radiating lamp turned on she had gotten out a recently published paper on alien sightings and their explanations in the recent decades - rationalising the dumb belief that aliens had actually visited Earth, haha.

Then there was a large fireball in the sky.

And as the rest of Cardiff watched the sky, Winnie got up, turned off the lamp and got ready to go. As she was naked again, freshly out of pyjamas, Jack's message came in. She got into jeans and a simple blouse, put a black trenchcoat over top and some black Chelsea boots on her feet, and when she came out the front door the black Range Rover came to a halt in front of her.

"You know, we always pick you up last", Owen said, having rolled down the window.

She crossed the street with an eye roll and got in the car. Gwen was sitting there and smiled at her, before scooting into the centre seat and making space for her.

"A meteorite?", Winnie greeted.

"We hope", Jack replied and got back to business, "Simply locate and clean up operation. Find that meteorite before anyone else gets their hand on it. Good to see you, by the way."

Winnie smiled, "If it's just a meteorite, what's the big deal? Anyone can-", she let herself be interrupted by the equipment sliding out in front of her, Tosh immediately getting to the monitors and keyboards, "Anyone can clean up a meteorite. What's it got to do with us?"

"We'll see when we get there."

She rolled her eyes and got to work, muttering into herself, "I hate this job."

"Tosh, you found it yet?", Owen was driving today.

"You got enough kit?", Gwen asked sarcastically.

Tosh rolled her eyes, "Basic tracking surveillance. Got the crash site", she sent it over to the GPS for Owen, then she continued explaining to Gwen, "With this we can tap into CCTV networks, national databases."

"Military's already caught on", Winnie reported her findings.

"Is this CrimInt?", Gwen looked onto Tosh's screen, shocked, "This is police computer system. You shouldn't have this."

"Hell yeah, we should", Winnie smirked.

Jack turned around from the passenger seat, "Might wanna stop saying you and start saying we."

"Crash site is one hundred metres ahead", Tosh said after a while as they were driving down a dirt track.

"Shit", Owen muttered when they arrived by a barricade from the army, "The amateurs got here first."

Winnie pushed the equipment away and looked up, "Told you."

"All right, usual formation", Jack ordered when the group casually walked past the police and the army, carrying their equipment casually.

"What's the usual formation?", Gwen sort of stumbled after them.

"It varies", Owen replied, not getting out of the confident strut the group had picked up.