iRunStories / Season 1, Episode 5
Overtime
RIDGEWOOD PLAZA SECURITY OVERNIGHT HANDBOOK Read completely before your first shift Tyler Martinez set down the laminated handbook and looked around the security office. Twelve monitors showed grainy footage of empty corridors, abandoned storefronts, a food court where chairs were still arranged around tables like ghosts were sitting in them. Ridgewood Plaza had been closed for three years. Something about asbestos, his supervisor had said. Or bankruptcy. Or both. The details were vague. What wasn't vague was the pay: $25 an hour to walk around an empty building and make sure nobody broke in. "Easiest money you'll ever make," Doug had told him during orientation. Doug was sixty, with the tired eyes of a man who'd seen too much and decided to stop looking. "Just follow the handbook. Don't deviate from the rules." "The rules seem... specific." Doug had laughed, but there was no humor in it. "They seem crazy. I know. First night I thought it was a joke. It's not." He'd handed Tyler a flashlight, a radio, and a laminated copy of THE RULES. "Read 'em. Memorize 'em. Follow 'em. You'll be fine." Now, alone in the security office at 11 PM, Tyler read them again. --- RIDGEWOOD PLAZA OVERNIGHT SECURITY RULES 1. Your shift is 11 PM to 7 AM. Do not leave before 7 AM. Do...