A Prompt Anthology

The Weekend Shift

"If I could stop it, I wouldn't be here." Cohren laughed and was met with an eye rolling from his co-worker.
"When you're the only one laughing at the joke, you should take that as a sign that it wasn't that funny."
"Oh shush." Helsis didn't get the chance to give her comeback as the console in front of her began beeping insistently, needing her full attention. Cohren became agitated. He had wanted the conversation to keep going so he could ask the question he had been waiting all week to ask. This was the first shift they had been on together in a while, and there had been rumours circling from that passed weekend that only she could answer. Two minutes... three minutes... five minutes... finally he caught her stretch in her chair, finished with her task. "So.... Is it true?"
"Is what true?"
"You know, the thing from the weekend. You were here so you must have seen it."
"Can we just get on with the job pl-"
"Oh come on, throw us a bone." Helsis moved her green fringe out of her eyes and turned to look at Cohren. He was excited and hopeful and she knew, unlike other people who had been asking her, he was genuinely curious.
"Yes, it's true."
"No! Really? Tell us the story!"
"It isn't that-"
"No, don't do that. You always do that Helsis and it's always an interesting story. Today's shift is so boring and even if you have to embellish it, I want to know what happened." The consoles began to beep again, drowning out the commercial playing on the radio.
"Alright, here's what happened."

"I was handing out the coffees-"
"Yes!" Cohren pulled his chair closer and settled in.
"When we began hearing static over the speakers."
"Followed by beeping at regular intervals."
"Yeah... we thought that maybe it was a coded message. It was all hands on deck as we tried to decode it. We thought it may have been to do with-"
"Part of the school holiday program preparations of course! Was it a message?" Helsis crossed her arms over her chest. Cohren recoiled a little as she gave him a look that told him he was over stepping his boundaries. "Sorry. Please, continue."
"It actually turned out to be a radio broadcast interrupting our own. Someone switched bandwidths and it was done on purpose."
"That was stupid."
"Not as stupid as the reason behind it." She scratched at her temple absently. "A strange start to a strange day. Claude managed to work out the audio thing pretty quickly and fixed it. There was silence at first before the usual music returned." They both glanced up at the speakers, listening for the familiar jingle that brought such annoyance to them on each shift.

"What happened next?" Cohren broke the almost hypnotic trance they had been in, startling Helsis.
"Uh- nothing for a few minutes. Everything seemed pretty normal until we heard movement below us."
"Creepy."
"All four of us jumped off the platform and I immediately peered through the grates."
"Why you?"
"I was the closest and to answer your next question, I didn't see anything. I could smell something though."
"What?" She took a moment to consider it. This wasn't the first time someone had asked her but it was hard to narrow down.
"The best way I can think to describe the smell is that of metallic grass."
"Metallic... grass?"
"You can ask the others, they would agree with me."
"No no, I believe you I just can't picture it. Anyway, movement below you..."
"Right. The movement continued away from us but we stayed vigilant. Claude and Aya were the first back on the platform. As they stepped up the speakers buzzed and fell silent again."
"Like so many insects crying out and then suddenly being silenced."
"Was that a reference? You know they go over my head." She gave her co-worker an annoyed look as he sheepishly replied that it wasn't much of a reference. Helsis shook her head at him and turned her attention back to her console.
"Wait! No! Keep telling the story!"

Cohren had to wait for her, taking the time to deal with some of his currently neglected tasks. This wasn't the first time she had done this to him when recounting a story. Her silent treatments were usually caused by him and the only way past them was to ride them out.
"I decided to check the monitors, make sure nothing was wrong in other sections of the station." He pulled his chair back beside her eagerly.
"Was everything alright?"
"At first glance, yes."
"Is that when it happened?"
"If you already know-"
"No! Please, keep going. I've only heard rumours, I want to hear the story from someone who was actually there."
"Claude came up behind me and pointed to one of the exhibits. Something was wrong-"
"And knowing you, you were cursing yourself for not spotting it first." An exasperated sigh escaped her and Cohren was quick to start apologising again.
"The exhibit..." Helsis paused, moving closer. She let the tension of anticipation build up. Cohren began squirming in his seat, the stretching moment too much to bear.
"Just say it!"
"... was empty." She feigned a gasp at the reveal. "We sent out an alert and Aya took me with her to check it out. What we found-"
"Will shock you!"
"Uhh...?
"Just trying to add to the mood. Don't worry about it."
"Okay... From the outside it looked fine but when we entered the enclosure there was a pile of rubbish and discarded electronic pieces but no consoles."
"What about the Keepers? Wouldn't they have been in there?"
"We discovered later that no one was ever scheduled to go into it. Aya began poking around and found a tunnel, a few devices that looked to be of the recording kind and a small clump of fur or hair."
"Espionage!" The phone at Cohren's station interrupted his exclamation. "Really? Now? Ugh." He pushed himself away from Helsis and dealt with the call.

An hour passed and Helsis had forgotten the conversation, distracted by her work, until Cohren came over carrying a tray of food.
"Lunchtime."
"Already?" As if having said the magic word, her stomach grumbled loudly. "Guess it's break time." They moved off to the table set up for employee lunches.
"You can finally finish your story."
"Oh yeah... Happen to remember where I left off?"
"You and Aya found a tunnel."
"And then a ruckus pulled us back out of the exhibit investigation as a giraffe of all things galloped past with a pair of hooting hooligans running after. They were yelling something about the unethical treatment of animals in space."
"Hang on, do they not know how the zoo works?" Helsis began laughing as she tried to get through the next part of the tale.
"They- they thought that we really housed them up here."
"How'd they think we got them up here? And how did they get a giraffe up here?!" Cohren's stunned expression sent Helsis spiralling into another laughing fit.
"It wasn't a real giraffe, Cohren. They constructed it in the empty enclosure and it being let loose is what we heard under the platform. The- the giraffe alternated between whipping people with its tail and eating parts of their clothing."
"Unbelievable."
"The hooligans were captured and taken into the other exhibits. When they found out the animals weren't real- you should have seen their faces."
"I can't believe I chose that weekend to take off. All the cool stuff happens when I'm not here."
"That's not true."
"What about the Blackout Blunder?"
"Technology fails on occasion-"
"By pirates mistaking the zoo for one of their lost vaults?"
"It was a one-off."
"Except it happened twice this year by two separate pirate crews."
"I mean-"
"And then there were the Circus Rebels trying to-"
"Alright, alright I see your point."
"I think from now on I'm working every weekend." Cohren stood up so fast he knocked his chair over, ignoring it as he made a triumphant stance to show how serious he was about his claim.
"Guess I'd better move to the full weekday roster then. Nothing ever happens when you're rostered on after all."
"Oi!"