Secrets of the Deli

This was short story I wrote for my fellow co-workers. We all work at a deli, and thought that writing about something would be fun. The product came out a little weird.

The store was crowded, every bustling to grab product off the shelf and move to the checkout lines. There was a chance for a great deal of cold weather that had frightened people around this town, deep into the South. No one was really used to it, no one but Robert Flynn, the newest member to the town that only fit a couple hundred. Only he had dealt with cold like the weatherman talked about, fearing for snow. But as the day went on, Robert watched as people fought and violently grabbed for supplies, such as water, milk, fruit, and other simple things that wouldn’t require much propane or electric for the stoves. It was a mad house.

The store manager, a middle aged woman named Cassandra McDonald, hurried along to the front end to help with the increase of customers. With her bright, blonde hair brought back into a ponytail, Cassie, as the managers called her, was ready to work hard. Even Tom Saunders, the deli manager, had come in on his day off to help the department with the sudden rush of worried townspeople. Anthony Hunter, an experiences meat cutter in the back room, was hacking away with great strength and speed to get the product out.

Robert, who had just been hired for the deli, was slicing away and dealing with an awfully picky woman. She had been at the counter for over six minutes waiting in a long line that stretched from the counter to the next department several yards away. But the whole crew has been working hard and as quickly as they could. Once the dainty eater got to the front of the line, orders were being shout and tempers flared. As professionally as he could, Mr. Flynn tried calming her down and tried to make sure all of her cold cuts were sliced the way she wanted them to be.

“You have to cut it a little thicker than that!” The lady yelled. The american cheese sat on top of a scale that read just over three quarters of a pound. For her, the slices were too thin and she went on to explaining how they would stick together and she’d be wasting money. Robert apologized, moved the already cut cheese aside and started fresh, making sure to cut each slice about double the thickness. “That is freaking better,” she said, huffing in frustration.

Hour after hour, the line had died down to one or two people left over thinking their cart’s fullness and coming back to grab one or two more cold cuts. The cold afternoon was setting in and it was about time to head home for Robert. He had been working since the early morning and after skipping a break and barely being able to eat on his meal break, he was done for the day.

“You’re clear to go,” Mr. Saunders said. “Great work today.”

“Thank you, Tom. See you tomorrow.” With that, Robert Flynn was on his way out the door to the car. Getting a compliment felt good, especially from his boss.

Robert is twenty-seven and has worked in a deli before. He knows things can get hectic and liked the idea of going back to a job where he felt he could get comfortable--especially after making a move from over three states away. Robert has short brown hair, brown eyes, and build for anything the store has to throw at him. On the other hand, Tom Saunders, the manager at the deli is thirty-four, has been there for some time. His compliment meant a lot to a newbie like Robert.

It was four fifty-one when Robert walked in the door of his small apartment, locating a few miles down the road and up a small hill from the store he works at. The boring brown door gave way to a rather simple living room, that was recently painted white, was occupied by only the blue fabric couch and chair sitting across from a thirty-two inch television. Through the hallway was the kitchen, bathroom, and a small white walled room for himself. He had removed his keys, wallet, and a few coins from his pockets before realizing his ipod wasn’t with him. Hurrying back to the car, Robert couldn’t find it there either. The only place he could have left it was the store and he really wanted to have it for tomorrow, if he got snowed in, for working out around the house.

Off he went heading back to the store. Because of the crowd this morning, Cassie, the store manager, decided to close early. No one was coming in since they had been so busy and nearly everything was off the shelves. Pulling up, Robert could still see a few lights on and that meant that the janitor had still come in, despite the threat of snow, to clean up and get ready for tomorrow.

“Hello? Anyone here?” Robert slowly opened the front door that had the automatic power turned off. They were heavy doors but he managed to push one open and let himself in. No one responded to him. “Anyone?”

The lights that were on flickered and gave this eerie feeling to the entire store. He didn’t understand how the janitor didn’t lock the doors and way the lights flickered but more importantly how no one heard him. Quietly, Robert went for the back of the store where the deli was, next to the meat department and not far from the bakery. A few lights were on in each department and as he had gotten closer, more sounds were being heard. Not just sounds but voices.

“This is going to taste good for supper. I call it the Jean Thompson bread,” said a voice in the deli where Robert caught someone sprinkling these strange, red flakes over loaves of bread. He had recognized the name as a friendly customer that they had today, a woman who was in her fifties, very friendly, and scared of the snow. “It might be weird at first but it’ll sell,” said the same voice.

“You better hope so.” Cassie was pointing a finger at whoever it was talking about bread. Her hand was stained with red dye, maybe the same coloring they used on the flakes.

Robert didn’t want to pop up and spook anyone. He carefully moved to the side and was about to knock on a wall when he saw something that had flipped his stomach inside-out. It was Jean Thompson, laying on the deli’s prep table, sprawled out with her shirt raised and red coloring all over her. Only he knew that it wasn’t food dye she covered herself in. The skin around her navel had been cut open by a sharp knife, one sitting next to her body. Her fingers were chopped off and with a quick look towards the slicers, Robert knew they put her hands through the blades.

The red flakes weren’t food.

It was skin that they were using for season.

The janitor was walking up to the deli, whistling. Robert panicked and ducked behind a small counter that covered him well enough to not be caught so easily by musical, distracted cleaner. He watched as the older man walked to the slicers and started to clean the blood off of them. The scene had made Robert sick, so sick that he felt bile slowly creeping up his throat.

“Hey, George, did you notice the door was open?” Tom Saunders popped into the deli and wasn’t alone. A younger man who was more muscular than he was came up alongside of the manager. The pair of guys stared at the front door that Robert had come through.

“No, I didn’t notice. What do you think it means?” George Wilson, the muscle man, said to Tom.

“Someone’s car is in the parking lot,” said David Williams, a stock boy. The other two looked at him and then looked at each other.

“Someone who shouldn’t be here is in the store,” said Tom. “David, find out who owns the car. George, search the store. I’m going to tell the others.” That is when Tom went right into the deli’s kitchen room and started telling everyone that some customer must have come back.

The trio started to worry a little and stuffed Jean’s body into a closet, wiped down and sanitized the table, and looked as if they were just cleaning up from the busy day rush. Cassie was the first to leave, taking along with her a box filled with different chunks of meat and skin. The voice of the bakery was some woman Robert had never had the time to introduce himself too, but she hurried to the bakery with the loaves of bread covered over with plastic. Tom continued to clean up the sinks and tables, spraying a special cleaner on top of the counters soaked in blood.

“This is insane,” Robert whispered to himself. He watched the group move out of the deli and to different departments, covering the entire sales floor to mess with human flesh and find him, the owner of the car outside.

Finally, after about a twenty minute wait, Robert got up and moved. Cautiously, he crouched at the entrance to his department and looked around the corners for anyone who may be heading his way. He found no one. Leaping into the aisle diagonal to him, Robert felt a little safer but he realized that if he didn’t move he’d be worse off. Continuing down the aisle, he ran into Cassie who looked awfully embarrassed to be found in such a state. Her hair was frizzy and messy, her hands were cold and shaking, slightly stained from the blood.

“Oh, Robert,” she said, letting go a small smile. “What brings you back to the store?”

“I, uh, forgot my ipod. I needed it for tomorrow and was giving it away to a friend in a couple of days. Didn’t want to have it lost or damaged.” It was the truth but a shaky sounding one at that. Cassie displayed no expression that alerted him of not believing the story. “It is in the back room of the deli, so I was heading there.”

“But Robert,” she said, “the deli is the other way. You were heading forward when you ran into me.” Her smile left and he knew he had been caught. “David. George,” she was yelling out names of the people he had saw and knew were in on whatever sick business they had.

Before Robert could run for his life, a hard object knocked him on the back of his head and he went down. The world went black. David and George grabbed his ankles and dragged him into the meat room where a chair was in the middle of the floor. They threw Robert in the chair and strapped him down. When he came too, he panicked and tried to kick but the straps were just too strong for him.

“Let me go!” Robert pleaded.

“Sorry, we can’t.” Cassie put her blonde hair back into a tight ponytail and got out a white, meat cutter’s apron. “You know too much. We know you saw us in the back of the deli, I saw you on the security camera kneeling behind the outer counter. That must be your car outside, as well.”

“What are you going to do to me?”

“First, we’re going to shut you up. Like all of the others, you talk a lot.” Tom came through the doors that led to the back cooler. He was also wearing a white apron that was covered in blood. In the crack of the door before it closed, Robert could see three other bodies that all looked like customers from today.

David came in next, carrying Jean Thompson’s body. “Here she is.” He threw down the lifeless body of the woman before kneeling on top of her. He brought her arm up to his mouth and bite down on her skin. The sight made Robert puke on himself. “Not bad,” David commented.

“You all are sick people!” Robert yelled, struggling to breath and yell past the bile still clogging his throat. He coughed violently to get the remains out.

“Everyone says the same damn thing,” said Cassie as she looked like she had no care in the world. She brought a cleaver to Robert’s throat and pressed the sharp edge against his living, soft flesh. “You’re the last one for tonight. Boys, let’s get this done and over with so we can all go home.”

Robert had been struggling with the straps around his feet and they had become loose. Loose enough to bring his right foot out of and kick the store manager away from him. The cleaver fell and the woman fell on her back. The two guys lunged forward and tried restraining Robert, but he was able to slip through their grip and run out of the meat room. Within minutes, over the PA system, the alert to the rest of the members of the sick, cannibalistic group had been warned that Robert Flynn, the newest employee, was on the loose and knew their secret.

He had to hide. He absolutely had to hide. Robert went towards one of the back rooms where they had a loading dock for a single truck and a few coolers. Above the coolers had been a walking space up where he thought of hiding immediately after leaving the meat room.

Robert climbed the ladder to the small area above the freezers and crouched down closer to the ground. David and George ran into the freezers to grab ice picks. When they came out, they looked around the loading area.

“Come out, Robert. Let’s get this done and over with.” George, the muscle man, was waving a pick in the air, maybe waving on for reinforcements. No one came into the back and before long David had given up. He convinced George to leave and come back if they found anything on the cameras. “We’ll be back if you’re in here.”

Retreating to the furthest part of the crawl space, Robert touched something warm and wet. He brought out his tiny pocket flashlight and shined it on whatever it was in front of him. A body. A bloodied up, chopped open body. He couldn’t recognize who it was, maybe didn’t even care. Again, Robert threw up. Everything was twisting his stomach and he was scared at how it was that he came upon this small town that had been filled with cannibals. Because he knew that the Saunders and McDonalds were a big part of this town and that most of the people had been related. Their families were big and chances are most of them ate other people. The thought almost brought up more bile.

“This can’t be happening,” Robert said to himself. He searched the dead body that was in front of him. After he started running from the meat room, he noticed his pockets were lighter. They had taken almost everything from him that could compromise their operation, like a cell phone. Fortunate for him, the body had one on him. Once you’re caught and dead, a cell phone becomes pretty useless and that is why this sorry fellow must still have his, Robert thought.

It was just his luck that the phone turned on and had plenty of service up here. The smell was growing on Robert but he wanted to get out. The cameras around the store would catch him if he moved out of the room. He made the phone call to the police, hoping to not get more cannibals. A woman picked up and hastily, Robert explained what was going on. She told him they’d send officers right away and to wait in a safe spot. While he was deathly nervous, Robert remained in the tight, smelly space above the coolers in the back of the store. He heard the others looking for him, shouting out his name and turning everything upside-down trying to find him.

When the sirens burst into ear range, Cassie was the first to yell out. She was in the back room just under Robert and decided to hide. The ladder next to her looked better and better each second. She’d hide in the crawl space until the cops left and she wouldn’t be held accountable. It was dark above the coolers and even though she thought she was alone, she wasn’t. Robert pushed her off the landing. Cassie fell on her back and laid there, on the floor, unconscious.

Within minutes the cops were in the store and trying to find everyone. They caught David, George the muscle man, the bakery girl, Anthony the meat cutter, Tom the deli manager, and Angela the front end shift leader. Cassie was taken away by ambulance with an officer following in pursuit.

“Are you okay?” asked one of the older officers who had helped Robert down out of the crawl space. He was tired looking and bloodied from wrestling the others to the ground. For a while he had studied Robert and searched for a reaction through his eyes.

“Yeah, I guess so.” Robert wasn’t okay. Not in the least. “I’m really going to be careful around the people I work with in my next job. That’s for sure.”

“You should,” the officer said. Robert had cold chills race up his spine. The tone that the older officer used was just as cold as the air inside the coolers, eerie and spooky. Before leaving the back area, the lights went out. “Always be careful.”

Robert woke up later in the cooler. His body was cold and stiff, almost frost bitten all over. The door opened and as he tried to move further away from the person approaching him, he couldn’t move a muscle. It was Cassie on crutches along with George and the police officer who had helped him.

“At last we can get this done,” said Cassie. George picked Robert up, the man who was too frozen to scream. The store manager laughed, menacingly.

They were all in on it. Every last one of them. He had never been safe.

Author's Note

This was more like practice then it was a serious project of mine. As the description says, it was a small thing for my co-workers who support my writing. They liked it, and we all joked about it afterwards.

Reviews

[ke]

This was spooky a few errors but nobody's perfect. Slow build up but I was definitely spooked in the end, when I discovered that the police were in on it as well. Good job, I have a feeling that it is not your best work though.