Wren Ch 2
#2 of Wren
Chapter 2: Lance
"Sherman!" Yelled a large and brutish man.
He sat behind a large desk that was nearly covered in papers and folders. On the edge of the desk was a glossy picture of him shaking the hand of a smaller man. His ominous eyes glared at pieces of paper in intense anger as he rolled up the sleeves of his button down shirt and constantly fidgeted with his tie. He almost tried to grab the top of his head in anger, but he stops himself in order to not damage his hair. He quickly looked at a hand mirror, fixed his hair a little, and then looked back at the papers.
"Sherman!" He yelled again. "Where the heck are you?!"
Eventually, the door to his office opened and a thin man wearing a tan button down shirt with a brown tie slowly walks in. He nearly shook in fear as he saw his boss in his mindless tirade. He shyly interrupted by saying.
"Um...you called Mr. Baxter." This man was Lance Sherman. He was the agent and advisor of Bradley Baxter, a very successful businessman.
Mr. Baxter put his hands on his hips and scorned Lance.
"Well, what took ya?" He said.
"Well, I was talking to..."
"Never mind that. Look at this." Mr. Baxter interrupted while throwing a vanilla folder at Lance's chest.
Lance grunted from the impact and then opened the folder.
"Ya see what's in there?" Asked Mr. Baxter.
Lance flipped through the papers and said.
"It's...it's the gross of your competition."
"Exactly!" Yelled Mr. Baxter. He threw some pieces of paper on the floor in anger. "They're making more money than me! The rats!"
"Um...not to disagree with you sir, but...it's only a couple thousand dollars. Your stores make billions a year and..." Lance stopped once he saw the angry look he received from Mr. Baxter.
"Only a couple thousand? Only a couple thousand?!" He screamed. "Sure it's only a couple thousand now, but soon it will be a couple million, then a couple billion, then I'll be out of business!"
Lance stood in the middle of the office terrified. Mr. Baxter then walked to the window behind his desk and glared outside.
"I made this company what it is today." He said. "I brought it up from the ground and made it an empire, my empire."
He turned around and looked back at Lance.
"And I'm not about to let it all fall just because some wanna be company is selling a few extra Twinkies!"
Lance trembled, but finally uttered a suggestion.
"Um...okay sir. I'll talk to the advertising committee and alert the..."
"No." Mr. Baxter rudely interrupted. "I got a better idea."
Lance became confused as a spark of excitement twinkled in Mr. Baxter's eyes.
"We're going to expand." He said.
Lance was still confused.
"But sir," He said. "Where else can we go? The stores are spread citywide."
"Exactly. They're spread 'citywide'."
"Sooo, what do you mean?"
A devious smile appeared on Mr. Baxter's face.
"We're expanding into the Forrest." He said.
Lance's eyes widened.
"But sir." He said. "There is so much that would get affected. The trees, the animals...uh...the people."
"Oh, who cares about the trees and the stupid animals."?
"But...the people."
The worry in Lance's voice made Mr. Baxter laugh.
"The people?" He said after he finished his short chuckle. "The people are leaving that dirty place and coming to the city like moths to a flame...but, your right."
Lance's worry slipped away and he said.
"I...I am?"
"Yes, you are." Said Mr. Baxter. Then he began to grin and say. "Those 'people' are leaving, but not fast enough. And that's where you come in."
Lance looked puzzled, then Mr. Baxter continued.
"That town is filled with people living in the past, but then...then you come in like the prophet. A shining representative of our great city. And then, the people will finally wake up and leave that place. Then...it will be all mine."
"You want me to go down there?" Lance said nearly begging. "But sir...I never went camping or anything like that in my life."
Mr. Baxter gave Lance a little shove that nearly knocked him over.
"Oh, man up Lance. There's nothing down there but clueless animals, and people for that matter."
"Can we send someone else?" Begged Lance.
"Your the only one who knows this company as good as I do." Replied Mr. Baxter. "Your going. End of discussion."
Mr. Baxter sat back down at his desk and looked over his papers. Lance was about to utter another complaint, but Mr. Baxter quickly gave him a disparaging look. Lance then walked out the door looking down and feeling dreadful.
It was late at night when Lance drove out to Cherrywood. His excessive packing caused him to leave a little later than he wanted. The night was cold and windy as Lance left the city and drove deep into the forest with his old car. The road grew bumpier and bumpier and the wind blew leaves and twigs on the windows of the car. Lance became irritated. He mumbled hateful words under his breath, but tried his best to maneuvers the car through the road.
"Why me?" He said with anger. "Why do I have to do the dirty work? I've sacrificed so much to this company too and yet I'm still treated like this. The assistant of Mr. Baxter? Huh, yea right. I'm more like the maid of Mr. Baxter."
Lance sighed as he tried to calm down. Then, little raindrops began to fall on the window. Soon the little drops grew louder and faster until it was pouring rain. Then, loud claps of thunder and bright lighting strikes started to form. A storm had come. Lance turned on his windshield wipers, but it was little help. The road in front of him was barely visible. He tried turning the wipers up and making them faster, but the rain was still able to blur Lance's vision. After driving for a while, Lance suddenly jolted up and down as the car ran over something. He heard his tire pop outside and instantly knew what happened. He ran over a pothole. Lance was now infuriated. He then stopped the car and tried to remember where his spare tire was. He didn't know exactly where it was, but he had a little hunch that it was in the trunk. He put on his jacket and hesitated before opening the door. He took a good look of the strong storm through the window. He was a little worried, but he opened the door and ran outside. The raindrops pummeled his head and the wind nearly blew him over. Eventually he got to the trunk of the car. Luckily, he found the spare tire. He gave a sigh of relief and started to pick it up. Once he rolled the tire to the driver's side, he quickly noticed that he had left the door open. Lance became even more terrified when he saw his folder fly out of his car from the strong wind.
"Oh no, oh no, oh no!" Said Lance.
He knew that he couldn't loose those papers in that folder, so he began to run for them. He started jumping up and following the folder as it soared in the wind. The folder had Lance running around in circles for a while until it began floating towards the edge of the bridge. Without thinking, Lance continued to run for it. The folder was so close to the edge, but eventually, Lance jumped for it and grabbed it down. He instantly calmed down and turned to his car. But then, he realized he was right on the edge of the bridge. He panicked and began loosing his balance. He waved his arms frantically and then tried to reach for a bar to grab on, but he missed. Lance fell off the edge and was falling head first to the ground. Once Lance was sure of his fate, something suddenly grabbed his leg and held him in the air. Then it began to fly away from the ground and into the air. Lance became puzzled as he dangled upside down being carried away by a creature unknown. He finally got the strength to look up at his savor. The rain falling on his face blurred his vision. Then, a strike of lighting lit up the sky and, for a split second, Lance saw that it was a bird-like creature. The idea of such a creature existing confused Lance. Soon, he began to feel dizzy. He dropped his head back down and slowly closed his eyes. As he faded away, he could faintly hear a female say.
"Are you okay?"
But it was no use. Lance had fainted and drifted off into sub consciousness.