Night Shift
By Scott Wilson
Word Count:412

“Be careful out there. The sky looks like we will have one heck of a storm, and the roads are already wet and dangerous. So drive with care...you got it?” Angelo said to his son, Nicolas.

Nicolas hugged his father, picked up his car keys then headed towards the front door. He turned at the doorway and smiled at his old man.

“You know me pa. I’m always careful. Besides, we still need a hundred dollars to make the rent this week.”

Nicolas ran to his taxi in the driveway and slid behind the steering wheel, started the car and began his twelve-hour night shift. With the pouring rain, Nicolas knew that it would be busier than normal, people tended to like the convenience of a more private means of transport than the train or bus on nights like these. He headed towards the city where the taxi ranks would be teaming and bustling with office workers eager to get out of the rain and home to their loved ones or family.
By two in the morning, Nicolas had made almost enough to cover the rent and was thinking about knocking early after the next fare when he pulled into the Edward Street cab rank. After ten minutes, Nicolas was the first cab on the rank.

“Where to?” he said to the group of three men as they got into his taxi.

“Uuugh,” moaned one of the men.

Nicolas turned around to see what was wrong with the man.

“Oh crap,” he mumbled. “You zombies got your vouchers? Last time I picked up a group of you zombies I drove two hours out to the reserve and they didn’t have their Government Subsidy Vouchers and it ended up costing me sixty dollars in gas and I lost four hours of my shift.”

“Uuugh,” moaned the zombie again and held out a fistful of brains.

“Look, you just get out of the taxi and I won’t report you. I just need to make another twenty dollars; I can’t lose the rest of my shift filling out paperwork with the police about this.”

The zombies moaned and groaned as they left the cab, but Nicolas knew he would still lose an hour cleaning up the mess in the back of the cab before he could take another fare anywhere.

THE END