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Degusaurusrex
Supernova
- Joined
- Apr 5, 2019
"I'm telling you, there's no way to have that building successfully finished by the holiday. That's less than a month away, what the hell are they thinking?" Eve paced around her living room with the phone held to one ear, a look of frustration etched onto her face. Ever since that company had decided they wanted to add another location and sell more merchandise to the hefty shoppers of the nearby city, they'd been pushing at codes and restrictions left and right in their determination to have it finished and opened before the holidays. How they expected to have it completed, much less stocked and full of employees by Christmas was beyond her! Even to expect it done by the New Year, when so many people were traveling and taking time off to be with family was absolutely insane, and her patience was wearing thin with their inability to understand that.
"Fine, then I'll march myself down there and tell them to their face that the structure is unstable and they're going to end up sued when someone gets hurt! No, I don't care if they fire me, I—No, I really don't care, I'm not going to be the reason that someone gets hurt because I overlook yet another fuck up of theirs! It was bad enough half the crew quit because they were docking pay and then forcing them to rush through some of the electrical work, I'm over it."
A pause.
"Yeah, I'll let you know how it goes, I'm sure I'm going to get an earful from them, but I don't even care anymore."
She swept around her house like a furious tornado, donning her boots and coat before making sure she had the necessary belongings to go into the world before making the trek to the job site. This meant dealing with the dinner rush on her way into town, something that she loathed on its own, let alone when she was dealing with a pesky customer or potential employer. Why had she stuck to a job checking on paperwork and safety issues, again? Right, because most of the time she could work from home and manage her own hours. That was incredibly useful when you had insomnia as bad as she did. In fact, how many day had it been since she'd slept yet?
"How many days has it been since you slept?"
"I've been up since Friday morning, so two."
"It's Monday."
"..Fuck."
"Demons aren't real. Just take a sleeping pill and get some rest, you're starting to hallucinate again."
Right, it was Monday, she'd just gotten into an argument with one of her friends earlier that day before managing an hour of undisturbed sleep before the phone had woken her. Bloody assholes, they were getting on her last nerve, and she was determined to never, ever work with them again after this job was done, regardless of the dollar signs on her paycheck at the end of it. No amount of money was worth the hassle these people were providing her, between the lost sleep and annoyance, to the logistics of their insanity when it came to what they considered to be safe for the public. But hell, it was going to pay her bills for the next while, so she just had to suck it up a little bit longer and she would be in the clear, not to mention it would be another successful job to further her reputation in the business world. She hadn't busted her ass once leaving home, bought her own home, just to fall short because of some annoying man-child.
The drive into the city was boring as usual, her hands gripping the wheel just a bit too tight as she forced herself to split her attention between the road and calming down so she could work without distraction. Doing her job properly when this sleep deprived could be difficult enough as it was, and the distraction of being irritated with a client would only make it worse if she couldn't cool her head before going face to face with him. Deep breath in, slow exhale out and repeat.
"It's about time you got here, it's almost six!" All of her hard work on the drive in went down the drain when she arrived at the site, staring at the half done building before turning her attention to the man standing in front of her. As per his usual, he hadn't remotely dressed for the situation, still clad in a perfectly pressed business suit while workers toiled on around him covered in dirt and sweat trying to complete the project.
"That's because it's rush hour and I don't exactly live five minutes away. You're aware of this, Mr. White." Eve spoke calmly despite the irritation that she could feel steadily building up, her hands still paused on the coat she'd been prepared to take off while standing inside the building. She abandoned the task and moved further inside, glancing around at the workers who were looking between her and their boss with growing interesting.
Considering that she stood at barely more than five feet and their boss was clearly at least six feet tall, they were intrigued by the way that she had spoken to him on the multiple visits to the site in the past. Today, however, there were far less workers than she had remembered there being last time, which meant he had either lost more of the crew from his outrageous demands, or they were refusing to work today due to the extreme chill outside and the half finished state of the job that was borderline dangerous.
Scratch, that, the exposed wiring she had just seen spark made it definitely dangerous.
"Get that wiring covered up, for god's sake! You can't just leave that out for people to walk by, you're going to get someone killed!"
"We'll be on it shortly, ma'am, we're fixing some crucial supports that are needed to keep the main room standing." The worker passing by received a death glare from the man in the suit as he spoke to Eve, but he only shrugged and went back to chewing on what smelled suspiciously like chewing tobacco. Eve wrinkled her nose, now more interested in what he was saying than the wiring she had deemed dangerous. An unstable support beam, or many, was a far bigger danger than some potential electrocutions. There was the possibility of structure danger, employee injury, not to mention the financial drain on fixing it and any liabilities if someone got injured and decided to sue...
"Right, let's see this. No, not a word, Mr. White." She cut him off as he opened his mouth to protest, holding a hand in the air and starting at the worker who was sauntering off toward the aforementioned task. Whatever babbling the businessman was doing in the background was tuned out as she went down the hall and entered the main room they were working on, eyebrows shooting sky high as she stuttered and stared at the concrete pillars that were most definitely off center and worrisome. Where were the proper construction materials to get this thing standing properly?!
"That thing looks ready to come down any minute! Is it just the lot of you working on it?" There had to be ten people, tops, including the useless man in the suit trailing behind her looking nervously around the room. He clearly hadn't expected her to come in and start ripping apart his operation vocally, and Eve found herself glaring at him furiously before crossing the room to press a hand to the very uneven concrete pillar.
"Honestly, sir! You could probably put the littlest bit of weight on this thing and it would all come..." She trailing off as the concrete trembled under her fingers, abruptly stepping back and looking at the worker that was coming to check on it with a grunt.
"Get this fixed immediately, I don't want anyone other than the actual crew or personnel in here until it's passing safety standards. You're going to get everyone in here ki--" The tremble had turned into something far more ominous now as the worker approached, ready to judge the situation and determine what type of equipment he needed to right the situation. Eve took another step back as she watched the pillar seem to vibrate and shift slightly before the worker jolted back with a shout, turning to wave his arms at the others standing nearby with earplugs and other safety equipment.
"Oh, fuck me."
The pillar was moving far faster than she had anticipated, between the touch from her and the other worker it was rolling and grinding against the floor as it descended, ripping down parts of the above structure that had been meant to add stability as they built the room around it and continued their work. Now all of that was coming crashing down, starting with that first pillar that was grinding and crumbling as the metal beams above it began to crash down, striking one of the workers and pinning him as the rest of them seemed to simply disintegrate and begin their downward spiral.
