The sun and a life

It’s dark outside, and I lie in my bed, looking up at the ceiling with only the gentle light of the digital clock lighting up the room and, enough for me to lift myself into a sitting position.

“It’s 8pm” I mutter to myself quietly, rubbing my eyes as I begin to rouse fully from my sleep. Without thinking, I stand and begin to apply deodorant and dress myself in my work clothing, a suit with a black shirt and tie and an armband with my security armband. I head into the next room and pour myself some cereal and a coffee for break-… Can this even be called breakfast? Whatever. I finish it and leave.

If it’s not obvious yet, I am security guard. I work at a fairly large warehouse, one of 5, 2 in the day, 3 in the evening. I pull in just as my co-worker does. We both greet each other in a familiar fashion, but we both know we’d rather be elsewhere. I’d rather be on my 1 day of weekend and the only reason I’m still here is that the pay is amazing

2 of us patrols the outer fence whilst the other stands at the entrance to the building, checking worker IDs as they clock in and out of shifts whilst watching cameras around the site. It’s mundane, it’s boring and honestly, I don’t know what’s so valuable in the building that they’d need so much security for half a hectare of land and buildings. Either way, I’m glad I’m not on check-in and cameras for the first part of the evening. Though eventually I make my hour patrolling and then an hour on the cameras, before patrolling again with one of the newer guys. At least I clock-out in an hour as the sky’s darkness lessens.

“Did you see the match last night?” Jared was his name, only been here for about a month but I find him a little too talkative, but it’s easy to pass the time when talking or waxing lyrical. “Well, on replay, not last night, I was here.” “Oh yeah…” He paused awkwardly. “Still, the last goal was practically from the middle of the field. I bet-”

We pause and hear the fence rattling. It’s not a flimsy fence, it’s a strong one so It’s not the wind, it’s a calm but overcast night and the only lights were the floodlights and after a few moments of hesitation, our torches up and down the fenceline.

“Stop right there!” Jared yells, and I turn to see a large figure dashing towards the both of us and Jared is taken aback; obviously this is the first time someone has come at him on the job.

I move in front of him and mentally prepare myself to grab for man’s arms and neck in a basic judo throw. Jared steps back, still taken aback. Even through the darkness I felt for the collar of his shirt and hooked my leg around him, tripping him backwards and I fell atop him.

I can’t say I felt anything off at the time, but when Jared came to help restrain this man, it was only when Jared’s torch was cast over me and I heard a gasp. I quickly registered that first, the man I just fell upon had blood covered all over him and also, finally, that I had a knife lodged in my upper chest.

The rest is a blur, a mixture of lights, sounds of radio chatter and eventually, as I am wheeled out of an ambulance and towards intensive care, I think I see the sun for the first time in a long, long time, it’s beautiful, even and I fear it will be last time I see it.