Rickey

  Rickey had been working on his park and recreation management degree for three years; the entire length of his employment at the National Park at Mammoth Caves, KY. He told everyone he had a bachelor’s in management, but he actually never finished college. How would they know the difference? He told everyone he had a black belt in Taekwondo as well, but he really only got to green belt.

  Ever since his first job as a pizza delivery person, he felt supervision undervalued his worth. They were all idiots and jerks in his humble opinion. His ideas would revolutionize efficiency in the workplace, but they never listened. When he finally got his chance to shine as a shift manager at CiCi’s, his store manager wanted to see him fail. Rickey did everything in his power to be a great manager, but his boss had set him up for failure…gave him the worst employees; the most disrespectful…kids. And then the manager laughed in his face when he came to him and said he wanted a different shift.

  He quit that job without regrets.

  He worked at Walmart for several years and believed he was one of the best night shift workers they had. The day his supervisor called him in to let him go, because someone on his shift had called him a racist, he wanted to…well, do bad things.

  The Army recruiter screwed him out of joining, even though he volunteered to serve his country. He would’ve lost weight in basic training, but no. The recruiter said he was a high-risk recruit and had to lose 40 pounds before enlisting and get his run time down to at least 16 minutes for the two-mile run. Rickey could do push-ups and sit-ups, but he was the only one he knew that had to meet a weight and run requirement. They were being unfair.

  The police academy did the same thing. One day they called and his dad told them that Rickey no longer wanted to be on the force. He couldn’t believe the nerve of his own father to bushwack him like that. He didn’t talk to his father for years after that stunt.

  Going from one job to the next, he finally came across something he knew he would be really good at; something he was called to do. When he applied for the National Park service, he was offered an entry level position. Even though he had much more experience than the other candidates who applied, he accepted the position.

  It didn’t take him long to learn the ropes in his new role. He absorbed the interesting information and history about Mammoth Cave. He knew he would prove he could do the job at the next level by learning the required information.

  Rickey’s reputation of “not working well with others” hindered him in other jobs, but that was obviously other people’s problem. As an Interpreter he wouldn’t have that problem. It was a perfect fit.

  Yeah, he had to deal with people, but, in limited doses, and he was quite capable of grinning and bearing it through each tour. Occasionally a tourist would ask a stupid question, but he expected that and was always prepared to answer expertly…shutting the idiots up.

  The morning of the event, he had been scheduled for two tours, and after they were finished he would have a meeting with his supervisor to discuss his performance evaluation. She had dared to rate him at a three out of a possible five and only gave him a 1% bonus with one free day off. He talked to Melissa, one of the other tour guides, and she said she had received a 2.5% bonus with a full week off! Rickey always thought Melissa was nice, but she didn’t deserve that much more than him.

  Well, Rickey would be letting his supervisor know what he thought about the unfairness soon enough. At least, that is what he thought before the earth shook and the lights flickered in the cave.

  As practiced at nauseum, he went through his emergency preparations speech and ordered the tourists to evacuate. Then about a billion bats vacated their roosts screwing up the orderly evacuation. Rickey remained calm even despite the millions of bugs also escaping. Of course, one knucklehead had to press the issue.

  “Will we be getting our money back?” the man in the ridiculous fedora asked.

  Seriously, who wears fedoras anymore? Rickey thought.

  “Sir, if you would be so kind as to save your questions for after the evacuation process, that would be great. Now, if you would all please turn around, and we will begin our ascent back to the mouth of the cave.”

  His practiced calm should’ve worked on everyone, but a few still didn’t follow his lucid instructions. He raised his voice a little with his next statement. “Ladies and gentlemen! If you please! This is not a drill, and for our safety, we must turn around and return to the mouth of the cave.”

  Upon finishing the sentence, he was sucked backward into a void as if an invisible vaudeville hook had grabbed him and pulled him off stage.

  “What? Where did he?” a woman panicked.

  “Run!!!” the man in the fedora explained, now taking the situation seriously.

  Rickey woke up very confused and blind.

  “Whaaa? I can’t see!” he started to freak out a bit rubbing frantically at his eyes. When he opened them, he only saw swirling phosphenes dancing across his vision.

  “Hello??” he yelled. His echo responded in the distance.

  He felt sick and in a ton of pain. Not just sick. Extremely nauseous.

  He vomited.

  After his stomach contents expelled from his mouth in a projectile spray, he felt a little better except for his sore muscles and limbs. He had never been a drinker, but a couple of times he pushed his limit waking up the next morning with a bad hangover. This felt about ten times worse than that.

  A white blur flashed across his vision and then vanished. It looked like a bright, white bird, but it flew way too fast. Rickey scrambled away from the flash.

  “Hello?? Anyone there??” Rickey couldn’t even see his hand in front of his face, but that white flash had come and gone in a hurry. Shivering, he realized he had to get out of the cave before he died.

  He felt his belt for his standard issue Maglite, but it wasn’t there.

  The white blur flashed once more a little slower and clearer than before, but still too fast to make out the details of the mysterious being of white light.

  “P-p-p-please don’t hurt me!”

  That sounded pitiful, but he was scared for his life. He had never heard of anything living down in the depths of the cave before besides bats. But who knows, maybe something evolved and was now wanting to reclaim the cave for itself.

  He was letting his imagination have a field day.

  Keep it together, Rickey! He thought encouraging himself.

  He suddenly remembered his training. “If you are ever caught in a complete blackout,” his trainer had said, “remain calm and take deep breaths. Access and use any light source including glow sticks.”

  “Glow sticks!” he exclaimed remembering he should have a few in his cargo pockets.

  Thankfully, when he reached into his pocket he found two unbroken sticks.

  “Thank you, Lord!” he cried as he broke the first one releasing the magnificent orange glow. Amazingly, the amount of light cast by the tiny device was adequate to see a good five feet in front of him.

  The blur past in his vision, but this time it looked more like words, and instead of flying off into the distance, it stayed in his vision as if trying to find a place to perch.

  He focused on the phrase now becoming clearer.

  Rickey rubbed his eyes again, but the words were still there. As if whatever had put the words into his view realized he saw them, the words vanished and were replaced by a notification. It looked like something from the video games of his past, but way cooler.

  Bewildered, Rickey read the lines again.

  Lineage? Experience? Am I dreaming?

  “Yes? I guess?” he said in an inquisitive tone.

  The words faded from view replaced by another sentence:

  “Whatever,” Rickey said. “I’ll play this silly little game until I get rescued and put in a mental institution.”

  Rickey wasn’t a fan of the negative trait of ‘friendless’, but the rest of the perks would be very useful...especially right now. Night vision would save his life. Before deciding, he wanted to see what else the system offered.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  “Why does everything sound so negative?” Rickey asked the gods that were sending these messages. “Screw it. What’s the next one?”

  “I’m not defiant. Whoever is sending these system messages is starting to piss me off!” Rickey yelled at the cave. “Jerks!”

  Despite the negative undertone of these messages, he liked the underdog the best so far. Exhaustion would suck, though, especially if he passed out and a second wave was coming.

  Was I really that bad with people? Rickey thought. He had friends and even had a girlfriend until recently. Nobody ever made him feel like he was a bad person. This system; however, had his Charisma low in every option. He easily interpreted the negative connotations of all the lineages.

  On the other hand, none of this was real. Might as well pick the most balanced and keep this dream going.