-Beep beep beep be-' my hand hits the snooze button on top of the alarm clock on my nightstand next to my bed. Another annoying beeping noise starts from my dresser on the other side of my room and I groan, placing my pillow over my head for having to get up at six o'clock in the morning.
Kodiak gets off of my legs and moves to my upper body and lays down, giving me a hard time breathing and forcing me to get up. I push him off, he is easier to move then the small, fifty pound Pitbull mix, of me and get off the bed while rubbing tiredness out of my eyes. This is one thing I hate about my job: having to get up early and get ready for work.
My uniform lays nice and neat on top of my tall dresser where I left it after doing my laundry two days before. Putting it on to look professional like any normal officer and glancing in the mirror to make sure nothing was out of place, I comb out the knots in my hair and put it in an almost perfect bun. I give myself a once over before heading down stairs to start breakfast for the only human in the house, me.
The dogs follow me to the kitchen, waiting to be feed their cup and half in the morning. I pick up both of their water dishes and clean them out as they were a bit dirty, filled them up, and put them back to their original places. Next I grabbed both of their food bowls and put a cup and a half in each. They eat the same amount for Vivian being around half Kodiaks size.
"Kodiak, sit. Wait," I commanded Kodi to which he listened with pent up energy, ready to dig into his food. Once he sits his but fully down on the ground, not some half ass sit he sometimes likes to do, I place down the bowl on the stand next to the water bowl. "Okay." He goes to town on the food and ignores me like I wasn't there.
Vivian waits by her water bowl for her food like the good girl she is and her tail is wagging like crazy. "Vivian, sit. Wait," I commanded the same way with Kodiak and she once her butt touched the ground, I place the bowl next to her water bowl. "Okay." She bolts to the food and chows down. For her small size, she can much quicker than Kodiak.
After dealing with the dogs for their morning food, I go to the freezer and pull out the frozen pancakes for my breakfast. Opening the bag and pulling out three pancakes, I place them on a plate and put the plate into the microwave. I press the three minute button to start the process of heating up the pancakes and head to the garage to grab an energy drink for the day; it will help me wake up faster and keep my energy up for the morning.
Watching the news for anything exciting to entertain me until it's time to leave, I sip on my delicious V8 energy drink. I hate coffee, the taste is terrible, the smell is horrible; this is why I drink the V8's instead, they taste much better and hold about the same caffeine as a cup of coffee. While sitting on the couch, the dogs, Vivian finished first but waited for her partner in crime to finish, trot into the living room before heading to the front door.
Getting off the couch and walking to the door, I let the pouches out to go use the outdoors as their bathroom and stand on the porch. My eyes scan over the landscape of the trees surrounding our houses but found their way to the black GMC Topkick truck parked in the same place as yesterday. It still gave off this weird feeling and caused my stomach to turn; it felt as if it was watching me, even to this very second and from how far away I'm from it.
"Kodiak, Vivian, inside!" I shouted for my dogs to come back in after being outside for about fifteen minutes. They come barreling towards the house and once making it inside, they slip on the linoleum and fall completely to their asses. Both are very intelligent, most of the time when they aren't playing around and not paying any attention to their surroundings. "Kennels!" Both of them stop and hung their head low as if they were in trouble.
They couldn't be trusted outside of their kennels; they have torn up a couch cushion because of my mistake of leaving them out of the kennels. It was good to crate train them just in case I have to take them with me to somewhere far and no one can take care of them while I'm gone.
Both go to their respected kennels; Vivian's kennel is a wired where she has a three-sixty view around her, Kodiak's kennel is a plastic dog kennel with the metal grate door in the front. I close both of the doors (Vivi has gotten herself out of the kennel by licking at the latch so it has a carabineer to keep her from escaping), grabbed everything that is needed for a day's work, and head out the door.
Hopping in my patrol vehicle instead of my other Ford right next to it, I start the forest green Ford truck and headed towards the Lennox's dwelling. There was movement inside, alerting me the Lennox's are waking and moving about. I slip out of my vehicle and headed towards their front door, Will needs a warm welcome from me before I have to go to work today.
The door opens before I could even knock and a pair of small arms wrap around my legs. "Aunty!" Anna cheers before letting go of my legs, grabbing my wrist, and dragging (this girl is strong for her age) me inside the house. I close the door behind me as not to let the cool air escape outside as she continues to drag me into the living room.
"Mommy! Daddy! Aunt Brey is here!" she shouted to the only other two people in the house. Well the only two people thought to be here; my eyes caught sight of a burly man standing in the kitchen, talking with Will and Sarah.
He stood about the same height as Will with an inch on him. His biceps are perfectly ripped with his muscles showing not too much, not too little at the same time and his black tight-fitted shirt hugged just right for his six, maybe eight, pack to show. His hair is buzzed and the color of his shirt with not a single gray hair to be seen. A scar ran from his left eye brow and across the bridge of his nose and ended at the slope of his nose. The only word to describe this burly man was handsome.
Will gazes over to his over-excited daughter and sees me standing next to her. "Brey, come here. I have someone I want you to meet, he's one of the new guys," Will coaxed me over. Even with the man being the handsome devil, I'm always careful around meeting new people and trusting them is something that doesn't happen easily.
Though, I still listen to Will and walk into their kitchen where breakfast is being made; Sarah is an amazing cook. Another thing that caught my eye about the man was his eyes, they are absolutely gorgeous; they are a bright, cobalt that seemed to glow, even in the day light. "Doesn't look like a new guy, he must be training for the dam-ng Olympics by the sight of him," I caught myself from saying a bad word in front of the kid.
Mystery man tilted his head in confusion and glanced at Will with an expression saying 'What?'. Will breaks out laughing and leans on the counter for support. "Brey, god. Anyway, this is Ir-Ian Ian Hide and yes he is a new guy. He's new to the division I am in, he has others that are his buddies who also joined him," he explained after having his laughing fit over something not that funny.
"Dang, if you got guys like him, you'll be winning any battle or war," I joked with my eyes holding a playful tint to them. Ian still was gazing at Will with confusion written all over his face and he cleared his throat to get Will's attention.
"Oh sorry. Ian, this is Aubrey. She is our only neighbor and the first house on the road. Just don't mess with her, she knows how to use a gun and has amazing aim," Will introduced and pointed out my gun skills. As a game warden, you work will guns all the time and are face to face with them so you need to know which caliber is which.
"Nice to meet you Aubrey," Ian greeted with a tight, forced smile.
"You can call Brey, everyone does. Right back at cha," I threw back with a more realistic smile, even though it was fake. My mother raised me to be polite to new people and if they are a dick to you, turn it on them. Treat people how you want to be treated; it goes for them to.
"Okay since introductions are done, what are you doing here Brey?" Will questioned and crossed his arms over his chest.
"I can't give my neighbor a welcome home after being gone for over a year and silent for a couple of those months," I fake gasped and placed my hand on the middle of chest. A hurt expression passed over my face and a sniff was added for a more realistic expression.
He rolls his eyes and whacks me over the head before wrapping his arms around me. "Yeah, yeah, you can and yes, I missed you too." This is why I considered him a brother; he is very caring to me and has helped me through thick and thin.
Once he let me go, I spoke up again. "What's with the truck?" He explained why he has a new truck, the old dodge is still parked in the back, and we talked until it was time for me to leave. Duty calls and it is very fucking demanding in this line of work. This is why being sick is a terrible thing to be.
When passing the GMC truck, it continued to give me a weird feeling in my stomach and I didn't like it at all. It felt like it was alive, watching my every step or movement when it could see me. Even from my house, it still gives me the smallest feeling of being watched and out here, there's not another house for miles.
Instead of staying and asking the truck to have a tea party with me, I left to do my job and get paid for what I love to do. Being a game warden may be demanding twenty-four seven but I wouldn't leave until age catches up; it's too much fun and you do meet nice people out here. Even if you gets calls in the middle of the night to do a search and rescue mission.
While out patrolling my area for any violators, I get a call from my sergeant to come the office. It was going to be a forty-five minute drive to get there and she suspects me to drop everything just to come at her calling. She didn't give any details or why she needs me to be there ASAP and that made me suspicious.
It was a boring ride to the office and once making it there, about five other game warden patrol vehicles are parked here. I recognized Zeke's truck parked off to the side, away from the others, and I backed my rear next to his. It's easier to pull out of the spot and get going inside of having to back up, making sure not to hit anything or anyone, and then leave.
Heading inside the building and towards where the sound of people talking, I entered the conference room. Decker, Sandoval, Buckley, Roberts, Wilson, and Tipps, she is our sergeant, are sat at the big table in the room, talking with each other to pass the time. I take the seat next to Decker and pull out my phone to play a game while waiting. Talking with people I don't usual speak with regularly is not my forte.
Within thirty minutes, six other wardens (Carter, Rose, Thorne, Steele (he's another friend of mine), Holland, and Hardy) showed up and took the spots around us. What caught my mind was all these wardens are in around the same area; it's not like they were randomly picked to be here. Decker is to the northwest of me, Hardy is to the northeast of me, Roberts is to the south of me, and Thorne is to the west of me.
Tipps stands up, claps her hands to get our attention, and walked over to the end of the table. "Everyone, eyes up here and close your pie holes. The reason I brought you here-er more like called but anyway, the reason why is because I have been told to tell you guys to stay out of section ninety-three. I can't tell you why because they didn't tell me why, just stay out there."
"The other reason is you have to sign these papers to say you will never go there and is you do there will be dire consequences. I'm sorry for calling you guys down here, especially those who had to drive over an hour here just to sign these papers. I couldn't just send them in first place because I have to be here to talk about the entire thing," Tipps explained while not sounding at all enthusiastic about the entire situation. It wasn't fun for us either, we had to drive down here just to sign some papers and get told not to entire a section that is part of our job.
Everyone gets up from their seats and grabs their respected papers with their name on them. I take out the pen that is always in my shirt pocket and sign on the dotted line 'Aubrey Lambert' before handing it back to Tipps. Decker follows closely behind me and we head out of the room towards our vehicles, now we get to drive back.
"Okay, that was forty-five minutes of my life that I will never get back," I groaned while trudging back to our trucks. Zeke smacks my arm with the back of his hand.
"Hey, at least you didn't get some of your area took out," Zeke argued. Wait a minute…
"That means you have less of an area to patrol, you asshole," I argued back while returning the smack on his arm. We split ways, I hop into my truck while he jumped into his and we both start our trucks. We waited for everyone else to leave for a clearer parking lot for him to back out of. I wave at him before pulling out of the spot and onto the main road.
While driving, my phone begins to ring and I pushed the button on the steering wheel to answer the call without taking my eyes off the road. "Yellow?" I called out to whoever is on the other side of the line.
"Um, Brey?" It was Anna and she sounded like she was crying. This worried me, what happened to cause to cry? In the first place, why is she calling me instead of her parents?
"Yes, honey? What is it?" I queried with worry laced in my voice. I care about her as if she was my own blood and would protect from any danger.
"Mo-mommy and daddy are gone, they had to leave really quickly and now I'm home alone. Please come and get me Aunty, I don't like to be alone." I relieved it wasn't too serious and released sigh.
"I will be there in a few; it'll take me about twenty-five minutes to get there. Okay?" I responded with an estimated time. She replied with an 'okay' before hanging up. I sped up a little bit to get there sooner, I felt bad for her being alone in the middle of nowhere. At least she knew she could call me for anything.
The twenty-five minutes passed quickly and I arrived a couple of minutes late. When pulling up into their drive way, my eyes caught sight a silver Pontiac Solstice parked in front of the house and a sense of dread and worry filled my body. The vehicle parked there confused me though, it was a beautiful, high-end car parked in front of an older house in the middle literally nowhere.
Hopping out of the car with my hand on my gun just in case it's an intruder, I quietly walk up to the door and knocked on it. I listen carefully for any struggling noise inside but nothing of that sort could be heard. The door opens to a man in his twenties standing there with Anna hugging his leg. She jumps up, letting go of his leg, and wrapping her arms around my left leg. "Aunty!"
"Hello there," I greeted the man before looking down at Anna to see if she had any injuries on her; nothing. "Anna, why is this man in the house?" I questioned quiet even he is literally standing right in front of me.
She gazes happily up at me with a big smile on her face; no signs of crying were left on her face from when she called me. "This is Jazzy! He is one of Hidey's friends. He's here to watch over me while Mommy and Daddy are gone," she answered. I turn my gaze to the person in front of me and gave him a warm smile.
"Well, my name is Jazz. Wha abou' yours?" he questioned with an accent. I took a second to get a good look at him; he wore a silver T-shirt with normal pair of jeans. He stood about 5'7; he is much shorter than me by four inches. His body didn't adorn any tattoos by the looks of it nor did it have any scars from battling. He wore a pair of silver sunglasses, keeping me from seeing his eyes or any emotions they might hold.
"My name is Aubrey, it was nice meeting you but I have to get back to work," I introduced myself before giving Anna a hug and leaving the property to get back to my fun day of work.
The rest of the day was boring; checking fishing licenses as the fishers are getting their boats and fishing poles out for the spring. That was mostly what I did; no one was really breaking the law today while I was in the area which left me to a boring, uneventful day. One thing I have learned while out on the job, never, ever say the q word or you're going to have a chaos filled day.
So instead of saying the q word and regretting the moment it leaves your mouth, I head home after the clock hits five. The same Pontiac was still parked in the same spot but this time with the black GMC next to it. This meant Anna's parents are home after leaving their daughter home alone and with a random person but it wasn't any of my business in the first place.
My other friend, Dominick Steele who is another game warden, decides to show up out of the blue so we could hang out for a couple of hours. We don't usually get to talk to each while on the job as we are busy and most of the time, our free days aren't on the same day.
"So Dom, your birthday is coming up and you will be turning thirty-eight. You're getting closer and closer to your fifty mile marker of your life. What would you like?" That earned me a nuggie and he messed up my hair, most likely giving me a rat's nest to comb out later.
"Shut it, you're over half way there Miss twenty-nine years old," he teased back. We are both old and hitting fifty is not going to be fun; though five years after that we can retire and have great benefits. This is another reason why I love this job. I flip him the bird for the fun of it and he tackled me to the ground with him straddling my hips.
"Get the fuck off of me before you regret it," I playfully threatened. He sat back with his finger on his chin as if he was thinking about my command.
"Nah, I do love this position," he huskily said. He is a fucking kinky bastard but we both know it's for fun between us. We have never had sex with each other but I have helped him with his sex life time to time when he needs help.
After awhile, he got off and we sat down on the couch to watch T.V until it's time for him to leave. That was the plan till a call came for the both of us. It was an emergency of a missing sixty-eight year old woman that left for a walk in the woods and has yet to come back.
We roll to the rescue once again.