Leech Wave

When Monkey stood in the center of the warehouse, it seemed like the building went on forever. He knew there were just a few rows of racks before the truck bay doors that led outside, but he preferred to stay in the racks, taking cases down for outgoing orders and organizing incoming shipments. There, in the middle of the warehouse, Monkey couldn’t see the corners of the building, and imagined the dusty cement floor extended forever, filled with well-organized racks.

The rumble of a truck engine interrupted Monkey’s daydream of magical cases that filled an infinite warehouse. He sighed and set his pick list down on the cart of cases. He knew everyone was doing the same: dragging their feet, dreading the impending unload. They all knew how important it was to be done with these unloads quickly. The trucks attracted the leeches, and everyone remembered what had happened the last time a truck was fully swarmed. Monkey gave Ulysses a pat on the shoulder. Ulysses took no notice, just sat, rocking, as he always did, muttering to himself. His voice rose with clarity, “The state of this place! The god-damned state of this place!” It was the only thing anyone ever understood him say.

The Lord of the Warehouse stood next to Monkey and watched the truck begin to back in. “We’ve but an hour to unload this truck today, based on the levels. Hour and a half at best. We must work quickly lest disaster overwhelm us again. I fear we might not be capable of handling another disaster of the same magnitude as the Day of the Great Swarm.”

“Indeed, m’lord. You speak true. Yes, yes. Work quickly we must.”

The response came from Weasel, who had managed to sneak up behind Monkey. Weasel always surprised Monkey. It seemed everything about Weasel was surprising. For a big man, he was surprisingly quick and quiet. For as menacing as he looked, he was surprisingly quaint and agreeable. And Monkey would often see him prancing across the uppermost levels of the racks with abandon, searching for discontinued items, the treasures of the warehouse.

As the four of them, Ulysses included, watched the truck back in, the squelching sound of mud trying to suck the boots off feet grew louder. “An hour maximum today, good sirs. The leeches are loud. They are thirsty,” said the Lord.

“O-ho! I do believe forty-five minutes is a time we could accomplish, m’lord, should the rest of you keep pace with me!” Bear looked at Monkey, Weasel, and Ulysses as he spoke. “You all better be in tip top shape today. You heard the lord. The leeches are loud.”

Monkey started to think how presumptuous and arrogant Bear had been since the Day of the Great Swarm and how he wished he would stop treating Ulysses as if he hadn’t gotten the worst of that day, but the truck docked and there was no time to think, just to unload cases. Reach, pick, pallet. The four of them working in their circular pattern. One behind the other. Each intensely and entirely focused on the cardboard cases that stood between them and another Swarm.

As they worked, steadily making their way through the wall of cardboard, the squelching sound of the leeches grew louder. Monkey could picture them climbing slowly up the tires of the truck, making their way on to the bottom of the container, the mass of worm-like bodies working as one to slowly raise themselves up. Monkey heard a small crunch and splat as he grabbed his next couple cases and turned to see Bear, whom he was following, had stepped on the first leach to make it into the container. Behind him, Weasel announced, “Very good. Very good. We’re at the almost-there-line now. Only ten more minutes, I’d say.”

Behind Weasel, the Lord responded, “And we’d best hurry. We don’t want to get trapped back here. Bear! Grab your safety pack, sir!”

As Monkey carried his burden toward the end of the container, three more leeches flopped over the side, making their slow way into the truck. Monkey crushed two beneath his feet and Weasel stepped on the third just after him. As he crossed the small gap between the end of the truck and the warehouse, Monkey glanced down at the rising leach level. They were near to flowing into the truck and the warehouse. He dropped his cases on the pallet and jumped back into the container. Behind him, Bear aimed his safety pack down at the gap between the container and the warehouse. For a moment, the roar of fire drowned out the squelching of the leeches.

“Five more minutes I’ve bought you fools!” Bear roared. He always seemed to get a bit drunk off the use of the safety pack.

“Yes, yes. And five more minutes is all we’ll need, Bear.” Weasel shouted over his shoulder as he grabbed a pair of cases. “The back wall is in sight!”

When the last case had been brought safely into the warehouse, the Lord directed them, “Ensure all leaches have been removed from the delivery. I shall notify the driver our task is accomplished.” Without further ado, Bear, Weasel, and Monkey began closely inspecting the five-hundred or so cases they had received from the truck, removing the couple leeches they found and taking note of the count of each sku for the inventory. The Lord hopped back into the container and ran to the end wall. He knocked the standard pattern for finished unload and sprinted back toward the warehouse. The truck engine roared to life and the wheels started turning. The gap between the truck and the warehouse widened bit by bit and the Lord leapt from the edge of the truck back into the warehouse. Several meters from the bay door, the warehouse men saw the truck driver open the roof hatch on his truck and make the walk to the back of the container to slide the door down. Inside, the workers knew any remaining leaches would be torched by the safety packs fixed inside the container.

As the group of them picked the last leeches from the stacks of cases, The Lord congratulated them. “A job well done, fine sirs. A job well done indeed. Bear, an excellent job with the safety pack.”

At the compliment of his safety pack skills, Bear puffed his chest out a bit. “Yes, yes indeed!” Weasel chimed in. “An accomplished wielder of the safety pack you are, Bear.” Monkey grimaced slightly. Weasel was just being kind, he knew, but he still felt Bear’s ego wasn’t in need of any stoking. He said nothing, though, just nodded his affirmation, and continued checking the pallets of cases for any remaining leeches. After the Great Swarm, these leech checks had become much more intense. They all knew how quickly one leech could turn into many.

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Three days later the sound of another truck engine called the attention of the warehouse workers. The shout of The Lord followed shortly after, “Ready yourselves, sirs, this container’s to be filled!” Monkey, Bear, and Weasel joined The Lord and Ulysses at the bay door, watching the truck’s slow approach. “24 pallets to fill this truck is the report we’ve had from the communications radio.”

A hand reached out to wave hello and Monkey noted aloud, “That hand’s waving out the passenger window there. It’s nice to see a trucker with some company every once in a while.”

“Indeed, indeed,” responded Weasel, “but that means those two have had a long journey.”

“Or they’re in for a long one.” The Lord followed, a dark look crossing his face. “I don’t envy them those trips. There’s danger aplenty for those folk. Even beyond the leeches.”

Bear scoffed, “But they don’t see the leeches the way we do. There’s nothing compares to that.”

Monkey glanced at Bear. None of them knew anything about the dangers of the open road these days save what they learned through the communications radio. As if to prove Bear’s point, though, the leeches started to appear. The wave of them seemed to come from the air itself, the squelching noise of them growing to match and then drown out the sound of the truck. Bear pointed at the tree-line where the wave of leeches was slowly making its way toward the truck. “Bloody shits!” He exclaimed, “That might be the biggest wave we’ve ever seen! Those truckers best hurry.”

And he was right, they could all see. The wave was moving quicker than the truck, which was still a good 20 meters from the bay. “And we best hurry as well,” The Lord chimed in, “only 25 minutes, tops, for us to complete this and get those truckers on their way safely.”

“A mess…a mess…” muttered Ulysses.

At that moment, the sound of the leeches overwhelmed the sound of the engine entirely. Monkey felt a shiver down his spine.

“What is…what is happening out there?” The Lord pointed over at the truck, “Why have they stopped? What is going on?!” A tone of urgency filled The Lord’s voice. He waved frantically at the truckers to hurry.

“Fuck,” Weasel whispered. The leeches were mere meters from the truck when the passenger door opened and one of the truckers started climbing out, indicating frantically into the truck for the driver to follow them. The first leeches reached the truck when the passenger leapt to the ground and started to run toward them.

The Lord of the Warehouse grabbed two safety packs and handed one to Bear. “We must go help her!” The two strapped their packs on and jumped down from the bay door. Weasel, Monkey, and Ulysses watched them run toward the passenger, safety packs readied.

“What can we do, Weasel?” Monkey pulled at Weasel’s sleeve.

As The Lord and Bear closed the distance, the passenger stepped on a leech and slipped. Prone, the passenger started crawling toward The Lord and Bear, who started blasting the flame of their safety packs at the wave. But they couldn’t aim over the passenger without burning them, too. The leeches covered their feet, their legs, hips and stomach, and, in a moment, they were covered completely, and The Lord and Bear were sprinting back to the bay door.

“We can pull them up, Monkey,” Weasel said.

But once they had gotten halfway back, The Lord suddenly turned back toward the truck. He leapt on to the back door and climbed up to the top of the truck, ran over to the roof hatch, and started banging on it.

“What the hell has gotten into his head!” Bear roared as Weasel and Monkey grabbed under his arms and pulled him up.

“It seems as though he’s gotten it in his head to play the hero,” Weasel mused. As he spoke, the hatch opened, and The Lord helped the truck driver climb onto the roof.

“Well, the bloody hero’s got nowhere to go! The leeches are a foot deep around the truck and rising!” The anger in Bear’s voice hid a hint of injured pride.

The Lord and the truck driver stood at the back edge of the truck, looking down. The Lord aimed his safety pack and let loose a blast of fire, driving the leeches down. A voice that Monkey imagined sounded somewhat pirate-esque, came over the communications radio, “Arrr, get yer damn safety packs and come help us down.”

Bear hesitated just a moment but played it off as waiting as Monkey ran to grab the last safety pack in the warehouse. It was in The Lord’s office, and it was old as all hell, so the warehouse workers did their best to avoid using it. Monkey figured this was a good exception, although, he realized, as he slipped the pack over his shoulders, he had no clue how this pack operated. Nonetheless, he buckled it on and raced to the bay door, dropping down just after Bear. Weasel had grabbed the communications radio and was responding to the trucker, “…indeed, indeed, sir. They are on their way.”

Monkey followed close behind Bear until they were a few meters from the truck. The Lord shouted down to them, “Let them bloody have it on three, gentlemen.” And then he counted on his fingers, one…two…and the roar of fire filled the air. But Monkey’s safety pack was not working. The roar of fire stopped.

“Do you even know how to use that bloody thing?!” Bear was furious, but The Lord’s call refocused his attention.

“Monkey!” The Lord shouted, “You must turn the dial near your left pointer finger, so it points toward the star and then pull the rope start!” Monkey looked at his left pointer finger and saw the knob The Lord was referring to but couldn’t tell which way it was pointing. It seemed that it could point in either of two directions. Monkey turned it one way and hoped. The Lord held up his fingers again, one…the leeches were getting closer to Monkey’s feet…two…and the roar of fire filled the air again.

This time, Monkey felt an intense heat rush past and through his body and face. He opened his eyes and saw the leeches burn in front of him and it almost felt as though the heat was creating a buoyant elation within his body. The three of them paused for a moment. The Lord signaled once more, and Monkey felt the flames infuse him with a sense of life.

The sense was short lived, as, when the flames died down, the group of them saw the leeches were arcing around behind Monkey and Bear, surrounding them with the truck. “Monkey! Bear! Hold them back while we climb down!” The Lord instructed. Monkey and Bear both obeyed without question, qualm, or concern. The flames rushed eagerly from the safety packs, burning the nearest leeches, which were only a meter or so away. They turned slowly, Bear clockwise and Monkey counterclockwise, doing their best to press the leeches back. Despite the fire, though, the leeches didn’t give as much as they should have, and Monkey’s thoughts were turning to panic.

“Start marching,” Bear growled, “we don’t want to run out of gas right now.” They started pressing forward. Their movement was slow, but steady, and Monkey calmed down a bit. They alternated blasts from their safety packs and watched each step carefully. Monkey felt a little bit of pride that he hadn’t let his panic affect him too much. The Lord made it down to the ground and the trucker was just behind him. Monkey looked back briefly to see The Lord take the trucker’s hand and saw, as the man’s feet reached the ground and he turned to follow, his eyes were glassed over in a pale green color.

Monkey refocused his attention on the task in front of him. As they moved, he heard the occasional blast of The Lord’s safety pack as well, keeping the leeches from approaching from behind. Eventually, they made it back to the bay door and Weasel helped pull each of them up. Once they were all safely inside, The Lord slammed the bay door shut and turned to the trucker, looking directly into his eyes. “Why the hell did you do that?”