PREMATURE CELEBRATION

Jake was excited when he got home. He had been with Continental Drilling for 15 years now. He had been on the same rig for 12 out of those 15 years. He had been drilling for 9 years. Now the time had come for him to move up the ladder to the highest position on the rig. His rig manager was let go and informally he had been told that the job was as good as his. Jake went home that evening and told his wife and family. They all knew that this was something he has been looking forward to for many years and now supposedly it has come.
That night was a fun filled night of drinking and celebrating. The party went on into the wee hours of the morning. Jake did have to work so for the most part he was pretty good through the night. He knew he would be tired at work the next morning but that would be a lot easier to deal with than being hung over. The last of the guests left at around three thirty in the morning. That didn’t matter because there was no way Jake was going to be able to sleep any way. He was very excited. He knew the next couple of days would be weird. There would be relief rig managers getting stuff tidied up and sorted before Jake would be able to settle into his new job. He knew that formally the job had not been offered to him but he was also pretty sure he knew how this chain of command thing went and it looked pretty good that he would be at the top of this chain.
Jake arrived at the rig the next morning to carry on with his drilling job until the announcement of his job was made. He was pretty happy that he didn’t get hammered the night before. Being tired was hard enough.
It was a busy day on the rig so Jake had actually forgot about what was going on for a while and that was probably the best thing because what would happen next would entirely turn jakes life around along with his family, friends and a lot of coworkers.
It was around nine in the morning and so far things had been pretty crazy on the rig. Things were freezing up and it seemed like just nothing was going right. Jake was in the dog house doing his books when he watched a new facing walk in. The man was huge. He looked to be about 50. He was about 6ft6 and looked like he weighed about 350 pounds and he was wearing continental coveralls. The fellow introduced himself as Tyler hatch the new rig manager. At that moment Jake felt something pop in his head. This was his job and this big goof just walked into the dog house and pretty much slapped Jake in the face by telling him what he just did.
There was no hesitation and there was no stopping him now. He knew how hard he worked to get to where he was and he wasn’t going to have it taken away now. On top of that it was going to be total embarrassment once his family and friends start to find out about this. The first thing Jake saw was a 36 inch pipe wrench and before he could even think about it the rig manager was lying dead on the floor in the dog house with the blood already running under the floor. It didn’t even seem to fizz on him. Jake was now on a mission and he wasn’t going to stop until either he was dead or the mission was complete.
Next place Jake went was to his truck. From behind the seat he pulled out the case that was holding his Ruger 270. Calmly, trying to not attract attention Jake made his way back to the dog house, out on to the floor and started climbing the ladder to the monkey boards where he would take his last stand. Once up there Jake had a look around and it was quite obvious that no one had a clue yet as to what was going on. It was frightening how Jake took the gun out of the case. It was like he was making popcorn or something. He did it without even thinking about what he was about to do or what the ramifications would be. The clip on the gun held 7 shots so he filled that up and put the rest of the box on the ledge next to him. In total he had enough shells to inflict a lot of damage to the personnel left on location.
The first person he noticed was the consultant walking around in his shack. Jake lifted the gun and put the cross hairs on the main man from the oil company. This was actually a strategic move. By taking this man out it left no one around a phone which in turn gave Jake more time to get done what he felt needed to be done. He pulled the trigger and immediately saw the consultant fall to the floor. Through the sights Jake could see the lifeless body lying on the floor. Jake was quite convinced that the shot was a kill shot. Jake looked around and it was immediately obvious that everyone on location heard the shot and figured out what was going on.
People were running and trying to hide. Everyone was trying to get out of the line of fire. Jake seen a couple rough necks run in to the engine room. He quickly noticed the two, one hundred pound bottles of propane beside the motor house. The next shot landed dead center in the middle of one of the bottles instantly killing the two roughnecks that were inside the motor house. Jake was pretty high on himself. He had 4 people dead and only had to use two shots.
The next couple of hours were pretty slow. No one was showing their face. The couple bits of movement that Jake thought he saw were quickly discounted as nothing. Jake knew that this thing would be coming to an end now. He was no dummy. He knew he would not be leaving this board alive.
Jake kept watching the road and now he finally saw what he had been looking for in the last couple of hours. Jake saw flashers approaching. He wasted no time in lifting the gun and shooting the driver of the first cruiser that was coming down the road. Now he had another death added to his score but now he had gone big time. He killed a cop and there was going to be absolutely zero sympathy for him now but he wasn’t looking for sympathy because if he was then he would have taken the non promotion like a kid and cowered home with it.
At his last count he saw at least 100 cops all with guns pointed at him. The end was very near and he knew it but he didn’t care anymore. He knew it was time for one more kick at the kitty. He was going to try and get off one more shot but then he knew it would be over. He put his sights on one of the police cars and pulled the trigger. For a split second he heard his shot hit the cop car but he knew he didn’t hit any one else and then the gunfire began. All hundred cops started shooting and most of the bullets were coming through the wind boards with about 50 percent landing in his body. Jake was dyeing quickly. The bullets that were still hitting him were just a technicality. After about the third one that hit him he knew he was dead.
Jake only had only one thought before he died. At least the fact that he never got the promotion that he thought he would get wouldn’t even come into play. He would go out as one of the biggest stories of the year and nobody would ever wrong him again