Orientation (Book one in the Thelma Berns: My Internship in Hell series)

Monday Afternoon

We'd arrived at the first floor, but rather than go out the door, Kirk continued down the dark set of steps. I hesitated for a second. I didn't know this guy from Adam. What if he was luring me to the basement to kill me? But that was ridiculous. Kirk was security. And my boss had instructed him to bring me here. That had to be safe, right?

We reached the bottom of the stairs. A weak light with a motion sensor blinked on, illuminating a large metal door with a tiny chicken-wire reinforced window. He produced a ring of keys from his pocket and unlocked the door. I licked my lips.

"Um, is this how everyone goes to the dock?" I asked.

"Sure," he said. "If they have a key."

"Who has a key?"

"Security guards. Maintenance. A few of the teamsters, though I wish they didn't have keys. They kind of scare me."

He opened the door and a musty odor whooshed out. A series of lights came on illuminating a long hallway.

"It's this way," he said. He held the door for me and we went into the hall. Every few feet there were small metal boxes on the floor.

"What're those?" I asked.

"Traps. For the vermin," he said.

I made sure I walked down the center of the hall.

The hall dead-ended and we turned to the left. In the distance there was a rumbling sound. We came to another door and Kirk unlocked it. When he opened the door, the rumble was so loud I could hardly hear Kirk speak.

"Come on," he said. "This is the dock."

We emerged into the bottom of a cinderblock stairwell. We went up the stairs and I got my first glimpse of the dock. It looked like pure chaos. Forklifts were running all over the place, both loaded and unloaded. Boxes, crates, barrels and any other packaging you could think of was everywhere.

"How do the forklifts get around all of this stuff?" I shouted to him over the din.

Kirk shrugged. "I guess they just know what to do," he said. He looked around and then spotted someone. He waved and, grabbing me by the arm, began picking his way through the freight while avoiding the forklifts.

"This is Renny. He's the supervisor on the dock," Kirk shouted into my ear. Renny nodded in greeting.

"Hi," I shouted. "I'm Thelma."

Renny nodded again.

"I'm just going to show her a door and watch a strip and stack. Is that okay?" Kirk asked.

Renny, being a man of few words, nodded again. Then he saluted as he walked away.

I followed Kirk around forklifts and pallets to an open doorway that looked like a garage. A trailer was backed up to the garage door and two guys were unloading the truck and stacking the boxes in what might have been organized piles towards the center of the dock.

"Each of these doors is numbered. This is door number four. Even numbered doors are for stripping a trailer. Odd numbers are for stacking. That's when they load the trailer back up." We watched as a forklift came and grabbed one of the piles that had just been unloaded. "Pretty impressive, huh?"

"Yeah," I said. Though it wasn't all that impressive. It just looked like a bunch of random junk lying around with garage doors and trailers.

"Any questions?" he asked.

"Where's the bathroom?" I asked.

Kirk frowned. "You don't want to do that here," he said.

"Really? Don't these guys go to the bathroom?"