The Protector

Prologue

"Have a great day ma'am," I said as I put an elderly lady's bags in her cart.

"Thank you sweetie," she said peeking over thick glasses. She slowly pushed her cart out of checkout lane five, the lane I was stationed at. It's the only lane that people seemed to find, considering the line still grew larger.

I leaned against the metal support beam and let out a deep, tired breath. "Emily, I need you to stay and cover Jess's shift. She called off sick," said my boss Justin from behind me. Jess was another teenage worker from Lancaster High School that always called off for whatever reason she could find. I always had to cover her shifts when she did too. Justin was a tall and bony guy with broad shoulders. He wore thin, black glasses and had short, stubbly black hair that reminded me of a nerd.

I spun around to look at him. "But this is the fifth time I've covered for her and she works until 1:30. I've already been here since two this afternoon," I protested. I worked at Walmart in Lancaster, but I lived in Baltimore. I was a student at Liberty Union Thurston High School, in my junior year. I had long wavy brown hair and blue eyes.

"You can have a thirty minute break, but you have to take her shift. You get her pay," he said, looking down at me, trying to stuff in a grin. "Your break starts now."

I let out a heavy sigh and ran my fingers through my hair. "Fine, whatever," I mumbled and pushed passed him. I went to the back of the store near the electronics section, that's where the bathrooms and employee locker rooms were. I pushed through the door to the locker room and walked towards the back row of lockers. An eerie, moldy smelly wrapped around me as I walked through the dark, basement like locker room. I went to my locker in the corner and unlocked it, pulling my bag out. I sat on the wooden bench and pulled my phone out of the bag.

Well, I have to work for Jess again and I won't be home until around two.

I texted to my dad, then I sat my phone on the bench, put my bag back in my locker and got my coat out. I closed the door and set a quick alarm on my phone for twenty after ten and laid on one of the cold, wooden benches in between the rows of lockers. I might as well use this time to take a nap, I thought to myself. I wrapped my jacket around my arms as a quick blanket and fell asleep on the bench.

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I woke up to my alarm screeching at me and I shut it off. I slowly sat up and stretched, rubbing the sleep out of my eyes. I stood up and I opened my locker once more. I put my jacket back in the locker and phone back in my bag. Then I pulled out my perfume and spayed a little on myself to smell better than the awful locker room. I returned the perfume to the bag, closed the locker door and walked down the row of lockers. When I reached the first locker, I turned right into the back where the sinks and restrooms were. I splashed some cold water on my face to wake myself up, and then dried off with a paper towel. I tossed the wet paper towel into the trashcan and I fixed my hair then returned to register number five, taking my spot from Justin. Justin smiled as he walked passed me and I took a deep breath as I looked at the growing line by my register. This is going to be a long night, I thought to myself.

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Once my shift had ended, and I got my stuff out of the locker room, I called my dad as I walked out of the doors. It rang three times before he picked up. "Hello?" he answered with a voice full of exhaustion. I could tell I just woke him up or he hasn't fallen asleep.

"Hey dad, you're still up?" I said surprised when he picked up. I stepped out of the entrance and pulled my coat around me tighter as a cold breeze chills me, blowing my hair back.

"Yeah, I was waiting for you to get home," he answered.

"Well go to bed, I'm on my way home. I love you," I said as I walked through the parking lot in search of my red 1997 Chevy Trail Blazer. It couldn't be that hard to find, not many people were at Walmart at two in the morning.

He breathed a deep sigh. "I love you too," he said reluctantly then hung up.

I put the phone in my pocket and shivered as another cold breeze wrapped around me. I finally found my Blazer and got in, putting the key in the ignition right away. I started it and cranked the heat up full blast. As I waited for her to warm up, I dug around my pile of CD's that lay in the back seat on the passenger side and found Nickelback's All the Right Reasons album. I put it in the CD player and skipped to If Everyone Cared.

When the Blazer finally started to warm up, I pulled out of the parking lot and went down the little road up to the main road. I decided that I was thirsty, so I decided to stop at McDonald's to get a large sweet tea. I turned right at the stoplight when it turned green, then right again when I reached the McDonald's entrance. I pulled through the drive thru, order my sweet tea, paid, lock it up and pulled back up to another stoplight, taking a drink and putting it in the cup holder as I waited for the light to turn green for me to go.

Once the light turned green, I went straight, passed another stoplight and turned left at the stoplight, the road straight to Baltimore. I passed the four way stop then continued straight towards town.

When I was almost to the hill, which was just a road carved through a small mountain, with rock walls lining each side, just before Baltimore city limits, I saw headlights line the rocks then they disappeared. I didn't think much of it and I just continued up the hill. Then I saw a car swerving all over the road. I pressed my breaks as I got to the top of the hill, uneasy about the driver in front of me.

The driver continued to swerve then headed right for me. In a wave of panic, I froze and I threw my arms up in the air, screaming as the squealing of tires rang out through the night. I didn't know what I should've done. Grab the wheel and steer away, I forced my brain to think, but my body was frozen in fear.

Through the light of the headlights coming from the reckless driver, I saw a man like figure, rushing towards my Blazer. I closed my eyes and braced myself for impact, unsure of what else to do. I could feel my heart beating hard through my chest.

I felt arms wrap around me, then a hard smack and heard the crushing of metal as our two cars collided. I screamed in terror and slowly put my arms down when everything was silent. It all happened so fast. I touched a trembling hand to my face and the rest of my body. I was alive and not hurt, but who was the person, and how did they get in my car? A bunch of questions started spinning around my pounding head, but I closed my eyes, I could try to piece it all together later. I laid my head back on my seat and took a deep breath as I waited for help to arrive.