A second large piece of plywood crashed to the floor, the sound echoed through the small building like a gunshot. Cracks spidered out across the laminated glass. Some sections bowed inward, ready to collapse.

Outside hundreds of thrall stand waiting. Some sway like reeds near a pond. Others stand, no movement at all, sleeping.

The humans within the Burger Place gasp. Overwhelmed by the numbers.

“Why are you not helping these people!” Rebecca screamed. Erik jumped. She stood beside him. “The thrall are coming in here, obviously. The window, hell the building will not stand this abuse,” she continued.

“Why are you haunting me?” Erik snapped, voice rising with panic.

He turned and found himself face to face with Marcus.

“You’re a crazy spook,” Marcus spat. But instead of swinging, he just turned and walked away.

Erik swallowed hard, closed his eyes and tried to reset.

He opened his eyes.

Something thumped hard against the laminated glass. The cracks creaked angrily and spread.

Erik turned toward the glass to see a full-grown, thrall man rolling down the glass. He landed upon the outstretched arms of other thrall, who quickly dropped him to the ground.

The thrall pushed forward. The laminated window groaned.

Erik watched the mob outside as they shoved each other in an organized effort to push the glass from its frame. A Collector, larger than the other thrall, stood in the center of the mob. The thrall crowded around it. Erik watched as the steroid-laden monster snatched a thrall up and toss it into the building.

The entire building shuttered.

“We need to get out of here,” Erik said to Sean, Andrew stood beside him. The other two men, Marcus and a wiry, tattooed man stood in the kitchen with him.

“Is it only the five of us?” Erik asked.

“Six with the one you have been talking too,” growled Marcus.

“Right six with Rebecca,” Erik knew she was a figment, a made-up adviser, but he also knew that everyone else already had a reason to not like him so why not embrace it.

“Rebecca says she was a Guide and there was an escape tunnel.

“He talks like she right here. There is no one here!” Marcus screams.

“Black shirt scum,” Erik lost it. He step forward and shoved the former MARS prison guard. Marcus fell backward into the wiry man, who shoved him back. Fists fly. Erik ducked the first. Struck with the second and tumbled over the card table. He got to his feet as fast as his middle-aged body would. He prepared to be overwhelmed. The men in the restaurant seemed ready to turn him into paste.

The glass from the window shattered, pieces sprayed everywhere.

Erik stood. He ran to the back of the restaurant.

The thrall seemed to be cheering but the chatter was largely unintelligible. The group has near seconds to find the escape hatch and leave.

Erik searched the walls. He searched fallen racks of long expired food for clues.

Erik listened as the thrall stumbled over each other. The human men cursed and paced, trying to plan their escape.

A large metal door, that used to be the exit, sat to Erik’s left but it wasn’t budging. He had tried it a bit earlier. The others slammed into the door but it didn’t move.

“Why doesn’t the door open?”

The answer came to him in seconds.

“It’s a Harrowed door!” He said loudly.

“They blocked the door so no thrall could come in. This means that the escape hatch is the same thing. It’s hidden behind a wall.”

“Help me throw all this crap in the way of the thrall coming in,” he commanded.

Sean was first to help, then his brother. They began to build a metal pile of shelves, stoves and anything that could be moved. Erik didn’t even want to know what the thrall were doing but he could hear them closing in.

He ran his hands along the plaster outside wall then a metal wall. The metal was cold— “Insulated… it’s in the cooler. There has to be a door here, somewhere.”

Shots rang out. The sound overwhelmed all the other sounds and he winced for a moment. He opened his eyes and saw it. A rectangular ledge that didn’t belong. He swiped down and it busted open to reveal a long, slender handle. He pulled and the thick door opened. Inside was dark, smelled like mold but he saw an entrance. Inside the entrance was a faint light.

“In here, let’s go… now!”

Sean and Andrew were first followed by Marcus. Erik waited for the wiry man but once he saw the first thrall he pulled the door shut. A metal post stood beside the door. He set it carefully within welded straps to secure the door.

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