Coming out of an empty alley, he looks to the left, and then he looks to the right. Strange how the streets are empty in broad daylight with no signs of life. He's a hundred percent sure he has entered Earth seeing all the buildings and vehicles parked on the streets. Casually making his way down the street, his heavy footfalls clicking against the pavement are silent to human ears but since they're nowhere to be found at the moment, it doesn't even matter. After strolling down three whole blocks, he finally sees two cars approaching a traffic light.

Analyzing the two cars, he decides to hitch a ride with one of them since he was aimlessly wandering anyway. The sleek black sedan looks more of his style so he beams right inside it.

"Don't you dare put me on hold again. I've been transferred twice already. Now, as I've told the other girl, I've been a long-time customer, and this is the first time I've called. You guys have done something to the shampoo. It doesn't smell the same and I'm losing so much hair. Oh, don't tell me it's still the same formula. You can't fool me. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Let me speak to your supervisor. Fine, I'll hold."

D209 frowns and he can feel a headache quickly coming on as he covers his ears. The woman then turns her head from side-to-side to check for oncoming traffic before pressing on the gas pedal for the green light and D209 sees 16,437 prominently stamped on her forehead. The thirty-two-year-old brunette still has 16,437 days left on Earth but D209 wants none of them. He shakes his head and beams into the red pickup truck in the back instead. Upon his apparition, he immediately straightens his black suit and collar in his seat. He simply hates wrinkles.

The driver of the pickup truck is a middle-aged man with a royal blue baseball cap on that is nodding and singing along with the radio about some dog and horse back home. Even though the man isn't exactly on key, he's still more pleasant to be around than the previous lady. So D209 decides to tag along with this fella until he finds a suitable soul to possess because there's no way he's going to possess this man. He can't be walking around in that awful camouflage vest and that royal blue baseball cap. No way Jose! In what world would those two even be a good combination? Camouflage should remain on the battlefield or for hunting purposes with very very few exceptions.

After driving down a few more streets, he noticed a few people were milling around on the streets but everyone had on a mask covering half of their faces. Is this a new trend? He looks at the camouflage man beside him and the man isn't wearing one but he has a mask laying on top of the dashboard too.

Then the man's phone suddenly rings and he takes the call. "Yeah, I'm almost there. I remember what you want. Two carne asada and two chicken, right? It's always the same. Don't worry. The line can't be that long. People don't come out these days with all this Covid crap. I can guarantee you there will be plenty of carne asada left. Alright. I'll see you in a bit."

Covid? What's that? But the mere mention of food immediately takes D209's prime focus and he couldn't wait to see what kind of food the camouflage man is getting. Soon the man parks his car in front of a shabby rundown yellow shack where the entire place can use a fresh coat of paint. D209 looks at the sign above the shabby shack reading, "Paco's Tacos." Whoa! Tacos? Who knew a man who had such poor taste in fashion can have such good taste in food?

The camouflage man switches off the engine and doesn't look too happy grabbing the facemask from the dashboard and putting it on. D209 grins and quickly follows the man out of the car to stand behind the six people already in line.

D209 curiously walks towards the window where people are placing their orders. Four people are working inside the little shack of a restaurant and they're all wearing facemasks too. D209 peeks inside and he sees one woman making tacos furiously while another wraps them just as quickly and dumps them inside paper bags. A man further in the back is grilling meat with smoke sizzling in the air. The aroma and the juicy-looking meat must taste divine in D209's mind. Then a couple of stickers on the window catches his attention, "Best Tacos 2018" and "Best Tacos 2019." And then he looks at the simple menu of a variety of tacos and there's a star next to carne asada that the rest didn't have. Now, this is a must try then. He turns to look at the souls waiting in line and discovers there are now eight of them. Who should he possess for these delicious tacos?

"What do you want?" The man asked from behind the window.

"Uh, I have a list." A young man said as he pulled out his phone. "I need twelve carne asada, eight al pastor, ten chicken, eight carnitas, and six chorizos. And give me six cans of Sprite, six cans of Coke, and four horchatas. That's it."

The man behind the window rings the order up as he repeats the order louder for the women making and packing the tacos.

"That'll be $183. Tap or swipe here." The man spins the screen around and the young man tapped his card above it.

Well, it seems that humans have made some slight advancements. D209 watches as all the tacos are being made and packed in a matter of minutes.

"Sold out carne asada!" The man behind the window shouts and then places a sign on top of the counter.

The people in line behind the young man are clearly displeased as two leave the line right after the announcement while the rest grumbles under their breaths.

"Dammit!" The camouflage man shouts out loud from the back. D209 shakes his head thinking back about the man's conversation in the truck. Poor man. Too bad. You snooze, you lose.

The young man turns and awkwardly mocks a salute as an apology to the people behind him for cleaning the restaurant out of their signature item.

That's it! D209 has decided. He'll have to pick this man to possess so he can try all those tacos, especially the signature carne asada now that he's bought all of them. But to be honest, the young man in front of him isn't any better dressed than the camouflage driver aside from being younger. This young man has on a faded Superman t-shirt and shapeless baggy jeans that are definitely past their prime, and absolutely not the intentionally distressed style that humans for whatever reason actually think it's a good idea to ruin perfectly fine clothes. And on top of this disaster of an outfit, the man has on these super thick black frame glasses that probably weigh a good five pounds sitting on his face. D209 can't see the rest of the young man's face since it's covered by a facemask, but he has no expectations at this point. And are those orange shoes? Maybe he'll just possess this soul long enough to finish all those tacos and then find another soul later.

"Here's your order. Thank you." The man behind the window places four bags and a drink tray on the window counter.

"Thanks." The young man loops two bags through each arm and then grabs the drink tray off the counter, careful not to let any drinks fall over. D209 quickly follows the young man making his way back to the parking lot where there's a blue car waiting for him.

"Hurry, Asher! We need to get back. What took you so long?" The driver of the blue car hollers while he grabs the drink tray from the young man's hand so he can get inside.

Even without the tray, Asher struggles to get in with the four big bags of tacos hanging from his arms. "Dude, the line was insane. But guess what?" Asher asks as he removes his facemask revealing a smug look on his face.

"You look like you scored a girl's number or something but of course I know better than that. You've sworn to a life of celibacy. So what happened?"

"Shut up, man! I got the last of the carne asada."

"As if, you're the one eating them." The driver scoffs and rolls his eyes.

"No, but it's Kaylee's favorite and she would have been disappointed if I couldn't get it."

"You're hopeless. Do you know that? After working nine hours straight, you finally get a two-hour break, and the first thing you do is spend more than half of it getting her food."

"Mike, you know it's not all for Kaylee. It's for the whole team and we have to eat too."

"Uh-huh, as if you wouldn't have just chugged another one of your chalk tasting protein shakes and then immediately go play dead for the whole two hours if she didn't say she was craving for Paco's."

Asher turns away from his friend and looks out the window. He has nothing to say because those are the facts. Nobody knows him better than Mike. So there's no point in denying it.

D209 sits back anticipating the moment he'll get to sink his teeth into those tacos. He doesn't know what a protein shake is but it didn't sound too appealing. Tacos must be superior. And then another thought pops into his mind. There will be more souls to choose from later when he sees this team Asher just mentioned.

Hey, his visit is off to a decent start and there aren't any limbs flying all over the place. That's a win.

Wait. Why are there so many of his fellow grim reapers here? What is this place?