//------------------------------// // Prologue: A Day in the Life of Vladimir Korzhakov (v2) // Story: Well, this is new... // by CommunistTaco //------------------------------// Note: This is not the original version of this chapter. If you wish to view the original you can find it here: http://pastebin.com/LSSbZDqN I suppose I should introduce myself. My name is Vladimir Korzhakov but you can just call me Vlad. I was born in 1993 in Novgorod, Russia and moved to the United States in 1997 at age 4. My life in Russia was anything but great. My family suffered under the harsh political system and devastated economy. As a result of the economy plummeting even further in the late 90s, my parents decided that moving to the United States was our best option. We could of moved somewhere in Western Europe but the only other language my parents could speak besides Russian was English and they had no interest in moving to the UK wanting to experience warmer weather for a change. So in the summer of '97 my parents bought us one-way tickets to Charlotte, North Carolina. After searching through the papers my father landed a job at a local coffee shop. He quickly worked his way up becoming the morning shift manager and essentially second in command behind the owner. His pay was anything but amazing, but it was enough to pay the bills and get us 3 warm meals a day. My parents enlisted me in the local elementary school at age 5. I was the quiet, antisocial kid who had perfect grades and no friends whatsoever. I was bullied constantly for my accent as well as my 'nerdiness' as some of the kids phrased it. My accent began to fade over the years but it didn't stop the bullying. Even after my parents completed the long process of obtaining American citizenship for all of us, I still felt like a foreigner in almost every way. My parents, bless their souls, died in a plane crash in 2004 when returning to Russia for a visit. The cause of the crash was apparently because the plane had not been properly checked for maintenance problems. This resulted in a hydraulic line being cut and the pilots losing most of their controls. They attempted to land at a local municipal airport but the plane crashed in a forest just two miles short leaving no survivors. After my parents' deaths I was moved to an orphanage in Nashville, Tennessee. I continued to be bullied at the orphanage until one day a kid insulted my parents. I lost control and punched him as hard as I could in the face. He ended up in the hospital with a broken nose, jaw and collar bone. Some witness vouched for me and the police dismissed it as a case of self-defense. No-one ever bothered me from that day forward. For the remainder of my life as a minor I went to some of the worst schools in Nashville. The high school I attended was the worst by far. Constant violence as well as poor funding gave me little opportunity to receive a proper education. The teachers were either temps who got constantly replaced or were just not motivated. I had the highest scores on the state testing in my school every year of my high school life. In fact I was only one of 87 students who graduated in our grade of around 300 or so kids. I was never adopted so I stayed at the orphanage until I graduated high school. Despite being in an orphan I was able to land myself in the local community college. None of the major universities would take me once they saw what high school I went to despite my GPA. I studied in civil engineering as well as a bit of mechanical engineering on the side and graduated in 2 years with an associate's degree. I landed a job in a small engineering firm in Denver, Colorado last year. I like Colorado because it has wide variety of weather and temperatures giving me a little of everything. That and very little humidity which always a positive. My Russian family members are either dead from the harsh conditions in the Soviet era or are too far away to care about me so I have no real family to fall back on. For the last nine months, I've worked that mindless job and I'm barely squeaking by. I have a run down apartment in the east side of Denver and I usually pass my time by watching crappy 21st century reality TV. I've had a hard life from the very start and I don't see it getting any easier. Even now as a more sociable post-graduate I still have no-one I can really call 'friend'. Sure I have co-workers and the guys down at the bar, but I can't really call them anything more than acquaintances. That's my story, not much to it. Until today... *BEEP*BEEP*BEEP*BEEP* "Ugh is it time again?" I say as I slap the dismiss button on my alarm clock. I hate my alarm clock because it is loud and obnoxious especially when first waking. Yet I must will myself to get up and crawl out of bed. Today is Monday, the worst day of the week by far. I slowly walk my way over to my dresser and dress in a simple button-up shirt and jeans. It may be simple, but it's appropriate for my less-than-formal job. I make my way over to the kitchen where I grab the box of Cheerio's and pour myself a bowl. I sit down on the couch and turn on the TV to watch the news. The weather report was on and the lady was droning on like usual. "Great, thunderstorms all afternoon," I say as I chomp down the remainder of my cereal. The news changes to sports. I never really had a thing for sports, especially American football which was the current topic. I switched off the TV and kept eating my breakfast. Cheerios are bland as fuck but they're all I can afford on my budget. I look up at the clock and realize it's time to head to work. "Fuck," I exclaim as I throw my cereal bowl in the sink and grab my rain jacket for the return trip home. My work is only a couple blocks down the street from my house so I normally walk there and back. I take the elevator down to the ground floor and rush out the door much to the dismay of the receptionist Susan. "Watch where your going Vlad for god's sake!" she yelled after me. I slowed my pace down to a fast walk. I walked along the morning streets of Denver at a brisk pace. My boss really has a pet peeve for tardiness so being late isn't something I want to deal with. Despite leaving late, I manage to arrive around two minutes before work starts for the day. "Campbell and Sons' Engineering" is a small business that mainly focuses on small residential projects. I happened to land a job there because my college professor knew the owner and recommended me. I was honored at the time, but then I saw how little my salary was. Most of our jobs were fairly simple. A client would contact us regarding some project they wanted done and we'd give them a rough estimate based on their description. If they decided to hire us, we'd contact our architect to draw up a design for the project and then take said design and come up with a blueprint and build schedule. We then passed these along to a contract work team to do the actual construction. I may not "need" to do any of the hands-on work, but I was well versed in all aspects of handiwork and construction as stepping in to help a behind schedule project was sometimes a must. Seriously, for an engineer, I really am working on the lowest possible salary. The boss is either really money grabby or is in a bad financial situation and I'm leaning towards the former. I would file a complaint but this job is all I have. I work there along with Jonathan Campbell, my boss, his son Terence, and my other two co-workers Arnold ("Al") Crelin and Fredrick ("Freddy") Johnson. Jonathan, or Ol' Johnny as we like to call him, is a strict but overall friendly boss. He tries to make his employees feel good about their work even if he underpays them for it. He seemed to cut his son more slack than the other three of us quite to our annoyance. Terence, the boss man's son is a stuck up asshole. He acts all entitled and only listens to his old man if at all. He had no real talent for engineering but acts like the best in the world. He most likely got dragged into this job by his father which might explain the attitude problem. We tend to call him names like 'Terry the Terrible' behind his back. Al Crelin is probably my favorite of my co-workers. He has a friendly personality and seems to appreciate having this job more then the rest of us do. I mostly work on projects with him which makes work slightly more tolerable. His all-too-chipper attitude makes the day fly by, and I had been out to drinks with him on more than one occasion. He wasn't really a friend per-say, just a good acquaintance and a kind of mentor to me. My final co-worker, Freddy Johnson is a quiet and reserved man. He rarely talks and when he does he never really says anything interesting. He has the misfortune of working with Terry. Terry constantly tries to get to him but much to his frustration, Freddy just brushes everything off. He works harder than any man I ever met to overcome Terry's ineptitude despite his apparent distaste for this job. I clock in and the walk over to Al who seems to be waiting for me. "Mornin' Vlad!" Al calls out to me. "Morning," I grumble back. "Boss man has us working on those plans for that old rich lady in Cherry Creek today," Al says looking almost as bored as me. "Well we better get going then eh?" I say back. The work day is a monotonous as one could expect. Just lots of measuring, math, and statistics. And all we get for a break is our 10 minute lunch break. Oh how I wish I could of landed a better job. Al and I managed to finish the plans by closing time much to the pleasure of Mr. Campbell. "Good work boys! We're already ahead of schedule with that project! Now get out of here! You deserve a good night's rest after all that work!" Al and I walk outside to a torrential thunderstorm. I was expecting storms but this is just ridiculous. "See ya tomorrow Al!" I shout against the wind. "See ya!" he shouts back before walking towards his car. I begin my walk home in one of the worst storms I've ever seen. Luckily I brought my rain coat which is keeping me mostly dry. I get about halfway before the storm begins to get even worse. Instead of making the smart decision to step in a nearby shop to wait out the worst part of the storm I foolishly press onward. The wind is really howling now and I can barely keep my footing on the rain soaked concrete. Knowing my luck with the weather my jacket is probably going to blow off in another second or two. Finally I decide that the storm is getting the best of me and I better step inside somewhere. I spot a small coffee shop just across the street from me and decide that would be as good of a place as any. Just as I'm about halfway across the street, I feel my hair stand on end. Now I knew what this meant from reading on lightning safety in college. I quickly began to think of what to do, straining to remember what the correct course of action was. This took up the few precious moments I had to avoid disaster. Time slowed down as I could only watch as my world turned white and the loudest crack of thunder I've ever heard racked my skull. Then everything went black. Blackness for as far as the eye could see. And for the second time in my life, I felt truly alone...