Just Another Day at Work 2

story continues from part one

Part Two

Inside the shipping crate and within her animal carrier, Julia was doing her best not to panic. But considering how she was blind, wrapped up and helpless, managing to avoid panicking was a very difficult task indeed.

Knowing that it was useless to struggle, she didn't even try, though her every instinct was telling her to do so. "Okay, calm down. Calm down." She thought. "You can figure this out. You can get out of here okay. The most important thing right now is to keep your cool and not panic."

There was a rumbling noise around her and the crate began to move. "Can't panic now, can't panic now."

If she had seen what was going on, Julia just might have panicked. Using a large crane, the two thugs were lifting the crate and moving it so that it would be inside a large cargo truck that was due to arrive at the airport early in the morning for the first available flight to the Caribbean.

With a loud whump, the crate landed in place among the others like it. The crane withdrew, leaving Julia trapped and anonymous among the other dozen crates. Inside, she tried to breathe a sigh of relief, only to remember that her mouth was taped up.

"Well, maybe it'll stay like this." She thought. "After all, someone's bound to discover me." For a long time nothing else happened. Though with no watch or other methods of telling time available, Julia was at a complete loss at how long she had been in this predicament.

"Well... maybe I can try to figure out what Jessica is going to do." She thought. "Now, she's taking my place on the set, I know that much. But what is she going to do? Hmm... she probably wants to get close to Mr. Murphy to do something, but I can't think of how she could hurt him. If you're wrapped up as a mummy you can't strangle somebody, and you certainly can't attack them. What is she planning to do?"

She couldn't imagine Jessica being a suicide bomber. That just wasn't her type. Maybe she was sneaking in a camera to document the harsh procedures that the company put their cast members through? Nah, that wasn't it. The studio always treated its employees very well. Still... that one seemed to be the most logical. Jessica was probably hoping to catch something. But exactly what still remained unseen.

Julia thought about it for a little longer. When she concluded that Jessica was most likely trying to get something, the crate she was in began to vibrate. In the distance she could hear a motor starting up.

"Oh shit."

Then there was the unnerving sense of rapid movement as whatever she was on began to move rapidly. Doing some quick thinking, Julia determined that she was on a car or truck of some kind. They were driving somewhere with her. "Think." She thought. "Think. Have I seen anything around the studio recently that could be attributed to this?"

There was the maintenance for stage 32... the construction of a large tower set in stage 87... then there was the packing of materials for an overseas.

Oh no.

Whatever was carrying her began to speed up. "Okay then." Julia thought. "I guess now is the perfect time to panic." And with that, she screamed as loud as she could and wiggled about helplessly in her carrier.

***

When Mr. Murphy opened his eyes and glanced at his alarm clock, he was annoyed to see that it was only three in the morning. "Awake already? Dangit." Moaning, he turned over in bed and tried to get back to sleep. But no matter how hard he tried, sleep would not come.

Finally, after an hour of twisting and turning, he figured it would be best to take a walk and inspect the sets to make sure they were all set for the day's filming. This was going to be a big one no doubt.

Pulling on his bathrobe and walking out into the cool night air, Mr. Murphy mentally went over the day's shots. There was the transportation scene, the scene of the thugs heading into the jungle with Julia, and then they had to shoot the finale. All was fine and good, except for the fact that he had no idea what to do for the finale. Yes, there was a treatment in the script for it, but it just didn't work. They needed to come up with something stronger, something more exciting.

But for the life of him, he couldn't think of anything. Perhaps some coffee would help jog his mind. Or maybe Julia had come up with something.

***

When Julia's throat was hoarse from screaming, she finally stopped, worn out from wiggling and squirming in a blind panic. Her breathing was very fast and quick through her nose. She struggled to breathe, her lungs craving air.

"Okay, calm down. Breathe slowly, slowly, slowly." She thought, her rational mind taking control again. "Slow, deep, breaths. Slow.deep.breaths." Finally, her breathing slowed enough so that she was breathing normally.

Feeling worn out from her session of panicking, Julia could do little but lie in her crate and wait to see what would happen. If she was going overseas, would she last on the flight over? Would she have enough air to breathe? What was going to happen to the shoot when it turned out that she was missing?

So many questions and no answers to them. She had no idea what to do. There was nothing she could do, really. All she could do was lie in her crate and see what fate had in store for her.

The transport truck had reached the airport. Even at this early hour, there was still plenty of activity going on with trucks, cars and people streaming into and out of the airport. The truck headed towards the large delivery section, where a team of unloaders were waiting for them.

Parking, the driver got out of the vehicle and walked over to the team. "Okay, you guys here for the 8:00 AM takeoff?"

"Yes sir."

"What's the codeword?"

"Terror beyond imagination."

"Okay, all the crates are in the back. Need me to move the truck?"

"No sir. We've got the crane. We'll be able to get everything out all right." Nodding, the driver went off to get a drink. His young passenger hopped out of the car to watch the unloading.

It didn't take long to unload all the crates within the truck. There were many of them, but the large crane made it easy to get all of them off. "Okay, ten... eleven... twelve. All right guys that's it! Let's move these into the waiting area!"

"Hang on boss! We've got another truck coming in. Apparently, they forgot a few things."

"All right, lets go get em. Leave the crates here." The unloading team quickly turned and headed off towards the loading area next door.

Inside her crate, Julia had managed to hear everything that was going on outside and had realized that she was indeed being shipped off to a production taking place somewhere overseas. She had tried yelling and bumping into the crate, but there had been no response from anyone outside. Close to tears, Julia wondered what on earth was going to happen to her. Desperate, she prayed for something to happen, for someone to notice her and get her out.

Amazingly, her prayers were answered, for she heard a loud clicking noise, followed by the sound of a lid coming off the crate. Startled, she rolled in her carrier, trying to make as much noise as possible. Something heavy landed next to her carrier and she heard the door being unlocked, followed by a hand grabbing her shoulder and dragging her out of the carrier.

Still blind and helplessly wrapped, Julia could only lie there and hope that whoever was taking her wasn't a thief intent on selling her on the black market. With a great effort she was dragged out of the carrier, then out of the crate. She could only guess what was going on, but to Julia it felt like she was being carried in someone's arms to a waiting car. Sure enough, she felt herself being slid into a seat and buckled down with the seatbelt.

Hands came down on her head, and she felt the wrappings enclosing her face being torn away. They came off quickly, leaving her able to see again.

"Sorry it took so long Mrs. Green." Looking over, Julia saw her rescuer.

"John!"

The young janitor grinned and shrugged. "Yeah, it's me. Sorry it took so long to get you out of there, but I had to wait until the coast was clear."

"John, if I could, I'd give you and a hug and a kiss. You just saved me from going who knows where!"

"The Caribbean to be specific."

"The Caribbean? Good grief, Jessica really wanted to get me out of the way."

"Wait a minute, who's Jessica?"

"Just drive and head back to the studio. I'll explain everything on the way." Nodding, John quickly backed the transport truck out of the driveway, then took off for the road leading to the studio.

***

With the sun coming up on the horizon, Mr. Murphy was there to greet it as he drank his coffee and reviewed the latest revision to the script. This latest treatment of the finale was better, but still not good enough. It needed something more, a little more action and drama.

Dangit, what was he going to do? The scriptwriter was doing the best he could, but Mr. Murphy needed more. Sighing, he glanced at his watch. Time to go and wake Julia up. With any luck that wonderfully imaginative mind of hers would have an idea for the finale.

Reaching her trailer, Mr. Murphy knocked on the door. "Julia? You ready for another happy day of filming?" The door opened to reveal one of the crewmembers who had just arrived the day before.

"Oh, hello Mr. Murphy! Julia's set, except she thought of a new change for the script."

"Really?" Murphy's face beamed. "Is it about the finale by any chance?"

"Well, not really. She got the idea of... well, its better if you took a look for you yourself." Murphy peeked inside the trailer. Julia's mummified body lay on the makeup chair, the same as the previous day. However, her entire head was now mummified, leaving not a trace of skin showing.

"She thought that it would be more effective if she was completely covered in bandages, head included."

"Well... uh... hey wait a minute, why do her wrappings look different?"

"We touched them up a bit overnight. She decided to have some new wrappings to make things interesting."

"Hmm... well, okay. Bring her over to the soundstage. You going to need any help?"

"No, I've got it. She'll be on the stage in a few minutes."

"Okay. We've got a lot of shooting to do today, and I sure hope she's up to the task."

***

The truck was going down the road as fast as was legally allowed, but Julia was urging John to go faster and faster.

"I'm going the best I can Mrs. Green. If we get caught for speeding, things are just going to take a lot longer. And besides, it would be really difficult for me to explain why there's a mummified woman in the truck."

"I know, it's just that... well, I'm nervous you know? I have a really bad feeling that something is going to happen and we need to stop it. By the way, I never asked, how did you know I was in the crate?"

"I was heading to your trailer last night to say goodnight when I saw two guys carrying you out. When they put you in an animal carrier and into that crate, I knew they were up to no good."

"Well, I just want to thank you again John. If you hadn't done that, I'd probably be on that flight to the Caribbean right now. Now, when do you think you can get me out of these wrappings?"

"Not for a while. Right now all I have is my pocketknife, and I know that'll take a long time to cut through all those bandages." As the truck turned a corner, both Julia and John let out a long groan. An enormous traffic jam was clogging the road leading back to the studio.

"Oh no!" Julia said. "Now it'll take forever to get back to the studio!"

"Hang on, let me see if I can get us out of this." John said, quickly steering the truck into one lane after another. But he was too slow. Before they knew it, the truck was hopelessly stuck along with the other cars. They were stuck in one of the worst traffic jams Julia had ever seen.

"Well." John said. "I guess I can try to cut you out." Reaching into his shirt pocket, he pulled out his pocketknife and pulled out the blade.

"Can you do my arms?" Julia asked. "They're getting a bit sore."

"Yeah. Just hold still for a minute." Positioning the knife carefully, John started to cut through the wrappings. It was surprisingly hard work, with the bandages being extra thick, and John's blade being dull from lack of use.

He kept cutting for several minutes, occasionally glancing up to see if the traffic had moved at all. It didn't. Julia managed to stay still as John cut. "You're pretty good with that knife." She said.

"Oh, thanks. I have lots of practice with blades."

"Nothing illegal I hope."

He grinned. "Oh, nothing like that. I just like blades that's all. Using them sure helps out at times like this one."

"I'll vouch for that." With one final cut, Julia's left arm was freed from its restraints. Julia could now move it, through the arm itself was wrapped and covered in bandages. Leaning over far, John tried to work on the right arm.

"Dang, this is tricky." He said. "Who did the wrapping on this? Whoever it was, it was good."

"Well, some of my makeup artists did all the wrapping, but I helped them out."

"Really? How so?"

"Oh, I had a few plans and wrapping details that I found."

"Really?" John said. "I don't recall hearing about famous people having detailed instructions on how to wrap up a living human."

"Well, I'm not like any ordinary actress am I?"

John grinned. "Yeah, I guess you could say that. Hang on a minute, this should be done any second now."

"Tell me John, why did you join the movie business?"

"Oh, mostly for the chance to be in movies, to be around famous people, to interact with them. You know, the usual."

Julia lay her arm across his back. "You ever thought you would get this close?" She asked. John was silent for a moment. He had only just realized that he was leaning across Julia Green's wrapped lap, and she was stroking his back.

"Well... uh... no. But." He blushed slightly. "I did hope that one day, yes."

With a final slice, the last bandage holding Julia's right arm down came loose. John started to get up, only to find that the newly freed arm (wrapped as well) came down on his back too. "Well, I think you just might find your wish coming true." Julia cooed.

Julia started to lean down to kiss the young janitor, but was stopped by the sudden movement of traffic.

"Oh." John said, quickly sitting back up. "Looks like we can get moving again."

"Then I guess the cuddles will have to wait until later."

"Yeah, I guess so." With that, Julia leaned over and kissed John on the cheek.

"But that will have to do for now." John's face blushed and for a moment he looked dreamy, not quite there. Then he smiled.

"Well then, let's get back to the studio!" And with that, the truck took off into traffic and headed for the studio.

***

It took the two of them ten minutes to reach the studio gates and get through. After parking the truck, John leaned over to start cutting Julia out of her wrappings.

"No, we don't have time." She said. "We have to reach the soundstage before it's too late. I don't know what Jessica's planning, but it's going to happen soon when filming starts."

"When does that happen?" Julia glanced at the truck's clock.

"About three minutes. Let's go!" John hopped out of the truck, ran to the other side, opened the door and pulled a still mummified Julia into his arms. She wrapped her arms around his neck and held on tight.

"Gosh, I never thought I'd find myself doing this." John said. "Okay, hold on tight." With that, he started running through the back alleys to soundstage 24.

***

"Okay everyone, we shoot in two!" Mr. Murphy announced through his megaphone. "Everyone who is not needed on set, please move to the observation room." He glanced over at one of the makeup artists. "How is Mrs. Green doing?"

"She'll be ready in a moment." Scully said as she added the final touches to the completely mummified woman sitting in the chair.

"Okay, but try to be quick. We have a lot of sets to shoot today, and..."

"Sir!" Murphy turned to see a stagehand running up to him. "Sir, we're missing some of the prop rifles."

"Dangit, we need those rifles!"

"I know sir, we're trying to find them."

"Well, try to hurry. We can't waste any more time!"

***

John and Julia finally reached soundstage 24. There were two guards outside the entrances, meaning that it was going to be impossible to get in without being noticed. "Can't we just walk up?" John asked.

"We can't. It's a closed set. Today we're shooting the big climax of the movie and you know how we want to keep these endings a secret. Absolutely nobody gets in who is not needed to film it."

"Can't we just walk up and show them you? If they saw you they'd let you in."

"Well, I guess it's worth a try. We have to hurry, otherwise they'll start filming and we won't be able to get in." Panting heavily, John took a moment to catch his breath, then he quickly walked across the street to the soundstage.

The guards noticed him and moved to greet him. "Hi there." John said. "I'm bringing Mrs. Green onto the set. She's a bit late I'm afraid."

The guards looked suspicious. "We saw her go in already." One of them said. "About half an hour ago."

"I know, but that one's an imposter." John said. "It's a long story, but this is the real Mrs. Green." Julia looked at the guards.

"I'd show you my ID card, but I'm afraid my imposter has stolen it."

"Gosh Bill, she sure looks and sounds like the real Mrs. Green. You want to take her in?"

"Yeah. All right you two, come with me." Bill walked over to the door and opened it, John and the mummified actress following closely behind. The three went to an elevator and went up to the third floor, where Julia's movie was being shot. As they stepped out, the couldn't see the set, due to the curtains that had been put up.

"Move over there John." Julia said. "I need to see what's going on." John obliged, carrying Julia over. Moving one arm, Julia moved the curtains aside and looked through.

They were filming one of the trap scenes, where Julia's mummified form was lying on the ground in plain sight for the hero to get her, unaware that it's really a trap by the thugs to catch him too. Jessica was already lying on the ground, her feet facing the camera and the director.

That was when Julia saw it. Jessica's hands were wrapped at her side, just like Julia's had been. However, there as an outline under the wrappings where Jessica's hand was. Julia looked closer and to her horror, realized that it was a pistol.

Jessica was going to try and kill the director.

Looking back on the incident, Julia never really figured out how she had somehow gotten out of John's careful hold, onto her wrapped feet, and hopped over to the filming area so fast. But somehow she did, hopping over as fast as she possibly could.

"No!" She shouted. "It's a trap!"

Jessica heard Julia's voice and acted. The weak wrappings around her arms disintegrated as she pulled her arms apart, revealing the pistol. She ripped away the paper thin wrappings over her face and took aim, pointing the gun directly at the director.

She was just about to fire when Julia leapt on top of her. The pistol went off and missed, going into the wall.

Julia punched Jessica's arm until the pistol fell from her grasp. "Agh!" Jessica shouted, grabbing at Julia. The two mummified women rolled across the floor, each fighting and grabbing at each other. They went so far off the stage that they popped a trap door and fell right through.

They fell through to the second floor, where a snow scene was being filmed for an arctic thriller. They fell onto some of the cables dangling from the ceiling, caught for a moment, then fell onto the powdered snow.

A crew was filming the scene, but Julia and Jessica were unaware of them as they punched and grappled with each other. "How dare you try to kill Mr. Murphy!" Julia gasped.

"He fired me!" Jessica countered. "He hired you only because you have bigger breasts!"

The two mummified women rolled through the fake snowstorm and punched right through a thin wall, landing right in the middle of a UFO bridge. They rolled right through, toppling a table, knocking two crew members over, and pulling out a power cable, causing sparks to fly through the air.

They were still fighting, still punching at each other when they reached the elevator that led to the first floor. Unable to stop themselves in time, they went in and found themselves descending . Jessica got a good grip on Julia's throat and squeezed. "You ruined my revenge!" She growled. "I'll make sure you never work in Hollywood again!"

Julia gasped, trying to get some air. She tried to kick her attacker, only to find that her legs were still wrapped up, and useless as fighting tools.

The elevator opened with a cheery ding, and Julia punched Jessica in the nose, making her let go. Grabbing her, Julia tumbled out of the elevator and landed on some fake plants.

Jessica and Julia tumbled through the fake foliage, apparently part of a jungle set. They bumped and landed on a Styrofoam rock. Taking her chance, Julia grabbed some trailing bandages, grabbed Jessica's arms and quickly wound them together.

"Gotcha!" She said in triumph. "Now we'll see who..."

At that moment the rock gave way, and the two fell. They fell several feet through the air and landed hard. The impact stunned Julia, who lay moaning on the ground. The impact however, had loosened Jessica's bonds enough for her to free her hands. Looking around, she saw where they were.

The two women had landed in what appeared to be an ancient temple set. It was a round room with holes set in the walls. There were some chains coming out of the walls, complete with iron collars.

Seeing those iron collars, Jessica grabbed one and quickly clasped it around Julia's neck, locking it tightly. "Well now, let's see you get out of this one." She taunted.

Julia responded by grabbing another one of the chains and quickly locking it around Jessica's wrapped ankles. "Okay."

"Hey!" Jessica said. "Get me out of this! Get me..." There was a loud rumbling noise. Then, with a sudden burst, a thick and sloppy grey material poured out of the holes in the walls.

"Concrete!" Julia said. The two quickly looked around for a way out. But there was none. There were no doors into this set, no visible way in. They were trapped.

The concrete was coming out at an incredibly fast rate, so much so that in less then five seconds it had covered the floor with three feet of concrete. The two women quickly pulled themselves up, perilously balanced on their feet while the cement poured and gathered around them. Both desperately tugged at the chains that attached them to the wall. But whoever had constructed them had done his or her job very well. They would not bulge.

They were going to be entombed alive within the concrete.

It continued to rise, quickly engulfing their legs, then their waists. Soon it began to rise up their chests towards their heads.

The two kept pulling at their chains, not willing to admit defeat. Not a minute ago they had been trying to kill each other, but that anger was forgotten, replaced by a common threat that both had to face.

It soon became clear that there was no way out. Jessica fumed in anger. "I should have stuck with the lawsuit!" She said. "I never would have ended up here!"

"Too late." Julia said. The concrete was at their necks now, and rising fast, engulfing Julia's neck collar.

It kept rising, almost their face, almost to their eyes... and then it suddenly stopped. The concrete ceased pouring out of the holes in the wall, as if some level had shut it off.

"Julia!" The two looked upwards to see John looking down at them through a hole. "Hang on, we'll get you out of there!"

***

Ten minutes later, both women were finally unwrapped from the bandages and in towels, shivering from their experience. Neither looked at the other. No words were spoken. That is, until Mr. Murphy came in.

"That was great!" She said. "That was fantastic!" Julia and Jessica looked at him in surprise. "Julia baby, I don't know how you do it! You somehow find out that we need a more exciting climax to our movie, and then you go through all the trouble of adding in the subplot of a fake who is kidnapped to kill the hero, only to be stopped at the last minute by the real woman! It's brilliant I tell you, brilliant!"

Julia and Jessica stared at him, then at each other.

"And what's even better is that the cameras got that all on tape! The jungle, the temple, the quicksand pit, everything! It was beautiful, absolutely beautiful! Jessica honey, I'm glad Julia got you, because the two of you make a great pair! I must say, you're also a good shot, managing to miss the camera by a few inches."

Julia thought about telling the director who Jessica had really been aiming at, but decided against it. If things were working out all right, why make a fuss about it?

"Well Mr. Murphy, do you have you ending now?"

"Well yes, though we might need to reshoot it a bit to get another take or two. Do you think the two of you are up to that?"

Julia looked at Jessica, who appeared baffled that she was actually going to be in the movie. "Well, yes." Jessica said. "That'll be fine."

"And how about you Julia?"

Julia thought about it. "Let me sit here a moment, and then I'll be ready."

***

After being wrapped up yet again, they shot it three more times, and each take turned out better then the last. Both Julia and Jessica were surprised to discover that they were having fun fighting each other, then both being entombed and buried alive in concrete (if only for a few seconds before being rescued by the hero). But in the end, the shots turned out fantastic, pleasing Mr. Murphy to no end.

"This is going to be the wackiest and best western the world has ever seen!" He said. "It has it all! Damsels on the train tracks, jungles, secret temples, mummies and dragons! I'm telling you Julia, this is the greatest thing to happen to us in a long time!"

Julia nodded. "With all due respect Mr. Murphy, I'm really tired. I could use a few hours of rest."

"Well, considering how much you've been doing, I'd say that it's fine." Nodding, Jessica turned to John.

"Come on John. Let's go back to the trailer for a nap." John smiled and walked up to her. "And," she whispered into his ear. "We'll also do some hugging as well." John's eyes lit up.

"Now come on, carry me there." Moving effortlessly, John picked up his mummified girlfriend and began to carry her off the stage.

"What a day." He said.

"Oh, it was nothing." Julia said. "It's Just Another Day at Work 2."

25.09.06