Promote the Dead

After my meeting my mind was everywhere else but work. I couldn't wait to get home and talk to the guys about today's events and let them know of course that I was still alive. I found myself staring at the same line of the paperwork I was looking over for the past 15 minutes. My mind was a complete mess.

Then there was a knock at my office door. I looked to see my boss standing in the doorway again. "You have a minute?" He asked. I nodded and followed him to a nearby conference room. Inside were several senior executives who stood up to greet me as I came in the room.

One of them Mr. Andrew Baker ushered me to sit next to him. "Come take a seat Aiden, we would like to have a talk with you."

I was curious what this meeting was about, I've never been called to be talked to like this.

"Relax Aiden," Mr. Baker said. "You haven't done anything wrong. Quite the opposite actually, you have done a whole lot right. We have noticed your performance records and client relations. You have been doing an extraordinary job for our company and we reward people's efforts. Mr. Thomas over here is retiring at the end of the month. Your boss Mr. Richard's will be taking his place as a senior executive which leaves his position open. We asked him who he thought would be best to take his place and he named you."

"Oh sir," I chimed in. "I promise you I am nothing special and many others would be much better suited for this position." I began to worry because I wouldn't live long enough for it to be worth receiving this role. There is no point in promoting a dying man.

"Oh don't humble yourself my boy," Mr. Richard said. "I have never seen success rates and received so many compliments from clients as high as I have seen with you. You have a special touch, you are very talented. I can see no other person better fit to take my place than you." It was very hard to reject them because I couldn't give them the excuse that I am going to die in 31 days or anything. They'd think I lost my mind. I would only be in the position for a few days by the time I took over. I will make them happy for now all while trying to groom someone else to take my place.

"It is an honor that you think so highly of me, I gladly and humbly accept the position." I will have to look at everyone's stats around the office and find a suitable replacement.

"I am glad to hear it, Mr. Richard's will start training you for the position starting tomorrow. Go ahead and take the rest of the day off and celebrate your promotion and come in fresh and ready tomorrow."

"Thank you sir."

While I wasn't thrilled that they gave me the promotion I was happy to be getting off early, I couldn't focus on my work and really needed to talk to the guys. I gathered my things quickly and headed home.

As soon as I got home I signed in to our secure server, which of course alarmed everyone since I was supposed to have died a couple of hours ago. Hiro who was our tech expert and friendly neighborhood hacker tried to block me out thinking someone was trying to hack into our system. But when I pulled up my camera and they saw it was me they were at a loss for words.

"How in the hell are you here right now, is this your ghost haunting us or something?" Claude said. Claude lived in France and worked for a marketing firm. He joined our group about 4 years ago after the death of his daughter. He felt helpless that he could do nothing to save her and decided to seek out others in hopes he wasn't alone.

"Its me alive and in the flesh and man do I have something to tell you and I can't even believe it myself."

"How is it even possible you are here?" Suzune chimed in behind Hiro. Suzune was a home designer and met Hiro 10 years ago and have been married for 6 years. They were ecstatic to find someone else that could see the clocks ticking down and found comfort in each other. They moved to the U.S 3 years ago when Hiro received a job offer for a big IT company in New York. We hang out from time to time when our work schedules allow us some free time. It is good having a friend near by that understands what you are going through. He had already begun my funeral arrangements but I guess now he has to put them on hold.

"That's what we need to discuss. Hiro I need your hacking skills and we have a project."

"Whats going on Aiden?"

"So I was supposed to not be able to get out of the way of cyclist which would cause him to swerve into traffic causing an accident and around 10 of us were supposed to die. But on the very last second someone pulled me from behind, out of the way, and the accident never happened."

"That's not possible, we've tried and never succeeded to save someone before." Said Oscar. Oscar was a police officer in San Diego. He tried to help out kids selling on the streets whose times were short, he wanted them to at least have some good memories before their short lives were over. Trying to save people hits close to home because he has watched too many kids die young.

"I was stunned at first myself believe me. But I noticed all the people who were supposed to die with me had their lives extended even several living to be old and gray. I couldn't believe what I was seeing."

"But how?" Asked Suzune.

"A girl. I tried to follow after her and watched her change the fate of everyone she even just bumped into on accident. But here's the thing, she didn't a clock."

"What?!"

"How is that possible?"

"Are you sure you weren't just seeing things?"

They all kept throwing questions.

"I know what I saw. As much as I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me they weren't, it was unbelievable."

"Well what did she say about it all? does she know about the timers, Did she have answers?" asked Suzune.

"I don't know. I lost track of her and couldn't find her again. That's why I need Hiro, we need to hunt her down."

"Already hacking into the city traffic cams," Hiro said."What streets did this happen by?"

"23rd and Sanctuary."

"Sanctuary, that's not ironic at all."

"For real."

Hiro got to work sifting through the traffic footage. "Hah I found her, man you weren't kidding. There is a wave of clock changes as she moves through a crowd. This is insane."

Everyone started muttering amongst themselves wondering just what was happening.

"Can you find the footage of her saving me?"

"Yah just pulled that clip up, here take a look."

Everyone watched as I was saved and my fate was changed.

"Thats unreal." Said Oscar

"You are one lucky son of a bitch." said Claude.

"OK can you follow the cameras and see where she goes to?"

"On it." Said Hiro.

Hiro switches from camera to camera and finds where I lose track of her. Seems like she went into a book store Cafe. She spent along time in there and he tried to follow her home but she went off the video grid so we lost track of her.

"What was the name of the Cafe she went to? she spent a long time there, maybe she frequents the place and we can ask around."

"Alright let's see, the Cafe is called... Garden Cafe and Readery."

"Send me the address will you, we are gonna have to do some reconnaissance."

"How about we meet up on your lunch break and stop by and ask some questions, if we are lucky she may even be there."

"Hey make sure you keep us up to date on everything." Oscar says.

"We will."

And with that we all signed off. Today was a Rollercoaster of emotions. Hopefully tomorrow I will be able to start getting some answers.