YOU ARE A VALUABLE MEMBER OF OUR TEAM- Part 5

Our hero returns to SS 2 days later. His time off from the campaign and the fake job of service manager was the first real time off he's taken in half a decade. He ate, slept, and took hour long bathroom breaks. He had forgotten what it felt like to have nothing on the agenda. That time was over, he had work to do. He approaches the service office, eager to check in with A and track the results of the campaign. He stopped as he entered the door without knocking, the service manager had returned.

H "You came back?"

S "I was just about to say the same thing to you. Saw your customer service clip on the news and felt I should stop in."

H "Yeah it got a little our of hand, but aside from that the cash drawers have balanced and stock is being liquidated at a pretty solid pace."

S "Seems like you had anything over control, I question some of these manual overtime entries but its less fraud than I was expecting considering the circumstances and your history."

H "So I guess I'll take off then, thanks for the letting me mind the store..." (our hero begins to leave)

S "Hey did you take anything out of petty cash for yourself? I planned on paying you for your time."

H "Don't worry about it. I'm good."

Our hero walks away from the service office, for once he did not have a mission. He didn't check in with A but assumed the campaign had a life of its own. He thought about what his next move would be. Maybe he should stay in the city and try to do something while the economy was in the tank and opportunities were available. Maybe he should just get in his car and drive until he couldn't afford it anymore. Maybe he should update his resume and restart the whole corporate job thing.

He takes off his SS work shirt as he walked toward the exit. He hadn't done that since high school, so excited to leave and full of pent up energy from the day cooped up in the store. He would get so excited leaving, maybe he talked to a pretty girl in the check out line, maybe he slipped some racist comment into a customer conversation without anyone catching on, maybe he memorized a credit card number to try when he got home... the type of quasi-opportunities that would fill you with hope for the next hour or so.

A and B spot him as he heads out the door.

B "You out?"

H "It's all yours boys!"

A wanted to fill him in on what had happened since the fight. The cops had been by a couple times, and without anyone pressing charges his former project manager went home; only to see the events of the day had been broadcasted to hundreds of thousands. Upon seeing the video the campaign audience had put two and two together to make five and then spread word to a point where the agency had to distance itself from the project manager as a means of client-preservation.

Former project manager was now not only former in the sense that our hero no longer worked for him, but former in the sense that he was no longer in the position that he defined his life with. People were not returning his calls. He had lied to his wife about the past couple of days but he didn't have the funds to keep up the ruse for long. His nemesis wasn't even in a financial or corporate position for it to be worth retaliation. Looking at himself and his unredeemable reputation and career, he saw no way out. He wasn't like our hero, he couldn't hit the reset button on his life. He had bills to pay and a family to support. He had a boat for God's sake, no one is giving a handout to a guy with a boat. He had a gun for some reason, he thought briefly about using it on himself, maybe somehow making a video of it as a response to the one that had ruined him. But he didn't think he could figure out how to upload the footage after the fact... maybe if he live streamed it...

While working out the details of this terrible idea in his mind, he had driven to SS without realizing it. He wasn't looking for our hero, but instinct took him here. Maybe it was because this is where he used to get his painkillers. Maybe he came here because he found people watching and the sounds of commerce soothing. He pulled in the parking lot without any type of plan. Until he saw our hero.

"It's all your's boys!" Our hero felt a sunbeam as he emerged from the store. Even in the middle of summer, the adjustment from overactive store air-conditioning to natural temperature was a pleasant one. Walking to his car, our hero smiled for the first time in a while... it was a good day.

A Crossover SUV hit our hero and continued to travel with the torso over the hood. It picked up speed and ran directly into a cement column that was supporting the entrance lobby. In slow-motion the former project manager saw our hero's head lurch back from the impact and burst like a watermelon against the sharp edge of the column.

An airbag goes off. The former project manager is not injured but does not seem to realize what happened. He takes a minute to exhale, for what seems like the first time since college... maybe high school. After that brief moment of clarity his car door opens and he is dragged out forcefully. He is smiling for some reason, not related to the death of our hero but just to it finally looking like a good day.

He is thrown to the ground, even in the middle of summer, the adjustment from overactive car air-conditioning to natural temperature was a pleasant one. Former project manager felt like he was in a pleasant dream despite the chaos that was going on around him.

"Oh wow, you are one of our hero's friends"

Somehow both lazily and efficiently, the former project manager pulls out his handgun and shoots A in the head.

B runs over and kicks the former manager in the head making him blackout immediately.