บท 6: Follow My Lead If You Want To Live
Claire had a completely ordinary day at work. She took prescriptions, counted pills, answered the phone, manned the counter, and ate lunch with a few of her coworkers like usual.
The early shift techs and pharmacist all ate at the same time once the later shift techs arrived. There were a few hours of overlap in the day because the pharmacy was open from 7 AM-7 PM.
There were five people on the early shift including Claire. Ray Jorgensen, the pharmacist, was in his late thirties and had a wife and three kids. The techs included Amy Carlin (a divorced woman in her fifties with a grown son), a newlywed named Rachel Burnham who texted her husband pretty much her entire lunch break, and a guy in his mid-twenties named Kyle Harrison.
Out of everyone here, Claire probably got along with Amy best. She was close to what her mom's age would have been if she lived, which may have contributed to why she felt so comfortable with her.
Ray and Kyle could be pretty funny though and Rachel liked to bake and frequently brought treats for everyone. She didn't explicitly dislike any of her coworkers, though she had to admit it was annoying during the overlap hours when everybody was so crowded together.
The later shift also had one pharmacist and four techs so there were ten people squished into the pharmacy area of a chain drugstore for hours at a time toward the end of her shift. She had slight claustrophobia too so it wasn't the most pleasant.
Claire was used to it though. She had worked here for the past two years and saw no reason to look for a different job.
As soon as her shift ended, she bid everyone farewell and headed home. She wanted to go jogging before dinner and exhaust herself so she could curl up on the couch and watch TV for the rest of the day with Daisy. For some reason that was more satisfying the more tired you were.
Besides, she did have a terrible sweet tooth so daily exercise was a must. She changed out of her scrubs and headed to one of her favorite parks in the area, cranking up the motivational exercise playlist she created a while back.
The music was loud enough that she didn't notice either of the hitmen slowly approaching her with guns as they tried to get clear shots once she was on the more secluded part of the trail. Or the man who fought the two of them off.
Claire was completely oblivious to what was going on behind her until a third hitman joined the fray. The man who was fighting them leapt off of the hitman he had pinned and slammed against her so they both hit the ground, barely avoiding getting shot.
"What the—?!" she screeched.
A total stranger's hand was on her head pressing her face into the dirt. Before she could say anything else, he wrapped her in his arms and barrel rolled the two of them away as another shot rang out.
They were actually getting shot at! She was about to die! Panic bubbled up in her chest. She had never experienced anything this terrifying in her entire life and now it was about to end? She couldn't die now; she hadn't even been kissed yet!
"Follow my lead and stay quiet if you want to live," the man hissed.
Claire clapped a hand over her mouth immediately to try and stop her hysteria. She didn't understand what was happening but she definitely wanted to live!
Her impromptu rescuer maneuvered so she was behind him and he had clear shots at the two attackers who were still conscious. He did a bunch of aerial fighting moves she had only seen in spy movies while still managing to keep her covered until both of the assailants were down.
She stared at their prone forms in horror. "Are they dead?!"
He walked over and peered at them; picking up and dropping their arms after checking for a pulse. "Yes. We should get them out of here; their bodies will be too easy to find in this area. Do you have a car? I have space blankets I can use to prevent blood from getting all over it."
Claire was completely horrified at the prospect of putting actual human bodies in her car. "No way! You're crazy; I'm not going to get arrested for you!"
He stared at her blankly. "It was them or us. I know how to avoid getting arrested. Trust me, as long as you do everything I say we will both get out of this scot free."
She didn't know what to think. He had just saved her life but she didn't want to be an accomplice to murder after the fact. Though technically it was self-defense…
She took a deep breath. He said to follow his lead earlier if she wanted to live and he had followed through. She supposed she could trust him one more time and then try to forget this whole thing ever happened.
"Okay. Tell me what I need to do."
===
They had to wait until the middle of the night to pull it off when there was less security. There was no way Claire would be able to handle going to work the next day since she was both in shock and low on sleep so she emailed Ray letting him know she was up with food poisoning to get out of it.
She had followed all of the mystery man's instructions to the letter once the bodies were in the car. He vanished once it was safely parked in her garage and said he would be back.
He was as good as his word. The drive into Boston was silent aside from him occasionally giving her directions. This whole thing still felt like a hazy nightmare but she did as she was told.
Claire watched him tie rocks to the bodies before pushing them off the edge of a wharf into the ocean. She numbly recalled something from a TV show she watched once; weighing bodies down helped keep them from popping back up again. Even if it wasn't successful forever, by the time it did pop up again any truly helpful evidence would be long gone.
She would never be able to watch another crime show again after this. And she had really liked them too.
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