Owning and running Barlow Mechanical Repairs was an ambitious plan. Stick a middle finger to the big companies, stay competitive with Louisville's market. Sure, the cost of owning a small business is taxing on the middle class, but why not try?

Turns out there's a good answer. Preston found out why in his twenties back in 2000. The price of parts is easier for big business to afford. Access to customers is hard to compete for. Advertisement costs, the gas costs, salaries for the crew, inability to give discounts, license renewals, corner cutting, overhead you still can't escape from... Yeah, it was good while it lasted, he quit before it turned into a nightmare.

After business ran into the ground, Preston moved to Riverside with his wife and two daughters, and started subcontracting for mechanical repair, plumbing, electric, and various handyman maintenance services, doing jobs around Riverside, Muldraugh, Rosewood, and West Point. With the population a mere few thousand in small towns, people know him by name and his phone number is on a sticky note of many fridges. The good thing is now he has a boss, three bosses actually, because he works for three different companies, but he keeps giving his private number to people if they're happy with his work and want to reach specifically him. It annoys Preston's bosses to no end, because they have other employees and they have to keep everyone busy. This is some bullshit circumventing of command chain. Yeah, it got him fired from a few places. But it puts food on the table. For Stacey, for Hanna and Julie. What's a little rogue plumbing under the supervisor's nose?

One of Preston's contracts right now is scheduled maintenance of the West Point Mall. When the Event struck and the fog rolled in, he was in the bowels of the HVAC system changing filters and fixing faulty wiring. Crawling out of there, as soon as he saw blood on the windows, he began calling his wife's cell phone. Upon receiving nothing but the busy signal, he started helping people barricade, dismantling and moving whatever could be found nearby. Stacey's speed dial on repeat every ten minutes.

Stacey, Hanna, Julie.

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