Alex Weller’s Reviews > Night Shift > Status Update

The narrator (Artie) and Cory have performed their descent onto Venus, only to find nothing. On the way back to Earth, they learn that space-exploration funds have been halved. Cory isn't very enthused, while Artie feels relieved. However, the return to Earth isn't very triumphant, as a crash-landing from a malfunction kills Cory and paralyzes Artie. Holy shit!

The man begins his story. He was an astronaut, sent by NASA with his friend Cory to orbit Venus in hopes of finding something. This mission was led by the deep space program, whose previous missions have all been unsuccessful, some resulting in death. Only Cory ever went outside the ship, but if he attracted anything out there, it was never picked up by the equipment. So the entity came from space? Yikes!

Finished "Night Surf"! After waking up from a nightmare about the guy they burned, feeling humiliated that humanity was wiped out by the flu, Bernie reveals to Susie that Needles has A6. If having A2 doesn't make you immune to A6, it looks like our characters may not be long for this world. Overall, great story, and probably the most chilling one yet.

Just started reading the third story, "Night Surf". In the aftermath of an apocalypse caused by a disease called Captain Trips, a group of young adults goof around on a deserted beach, believing they might be some of the last people left on Earth, after burning an infected man in an attempt to please the "dark forces". But one of the guys reveals to the narrator that HE has Captain Trips. Uh oh!

Finished "Graveyard Shift"! The rest of the crew is wondering what's taking Hall and Warwick so long, so Brochu suggests somebody go down there. Wisconsky refuses, and a coworker named Brogan selects a group of people to go with him. After the lights are collected, the group makes their way down there. Boy, are they gonna be in for a surprise. Overall, good story, though a little confusing at times.

Hall, Wisconsky, and Warwick go down to the sub-cellar, though Wisconsky runs away once they reach the end of the mill. Hall forces Warwick to continue on, where they find skeletal remains and giant blind, mutated rats with no legs. When they find the rat queen, Hall forces Warwick off the ledge to be eaten by the queen. Hall tries to run back to the stairs but gets eaten by rats and bats himself. Holy shit!

Hall and Wisconsky show Warwick the entrance to the sub-basement. Warwick doesn't care about the rats until Hall says he's gonna go to the town commissioner to have the place shut down. Warwick fires Hall, then changes his mind and decides to send him and Wisconsky down there to check out the rat issue. Hall agrees, but has Warwick go with them to represent the management. Okay. Let's see where this goes.

It's the third shift now. During a smoke break, Hall notices not many rats have been seen that night. Suddenly, a massive bat flies past them. Wisconsky's scream is heard by Warwick, but Hall dismisses it as having barked his shin. He then shows Wisconsky a wooden square in the floor that he found, leading to another level below the basement. Is that where all the rats went? This doesn't sound good.

It's the second cleaning shift, and Hall and Wisconsky are on hosing duty. One of the cleaning crew members, Carmichael, gets bitten by a large rat hiding in a heap of garbage and demands compensation. After the rats are evicted from the heap by Hall's hose, another crew member, Cy Ippeston, decides he's had enough of the rats and decides to quit. Warwick doesn't seem to care much about the giant rats. Weird.

It's the end of the first cleaning shift. The workers, usually rowdy after a hard day at work, are all silent as they leave the mill, possibly from seeing huge rats down there. Wisconsky drives Hall home, where Hall wonders what it is about Warwick that influenced him to take the cleaning job. When Hall goes to bed after a shower, he dreams about rats. Can't say I blame him, after an experience like that.