“Okay!” Jadine said loudly, jumping into the middle of their spat. “Here’s the plan. When we leave the room, I’m going to check the office. If they went in through the window, we need to find a way to keep them in there. One of us will sneak back to the kitchen where he or she will fire up the ovens all the way and leave the doors open to draw more heat out. The other two will find a way to block the broken door. Then we escape out the back and hope they all fry. Or melt.”
“We can always snuff out the pilot lights and blow them up,” Trevin suggested.
“That might work,” Jadine said, turning the idea over in her head.
“Or it will create a whole army,” Stacy said.
“Good point. We’ll keep thinking,” Jadine said. “Either way we need to move fast.”
Stacy latched onto Jadine’s arm.
“I don’t want to split up,” she said. “I can’t do it alone.”
“Calm down,” Jadine said, struggling to remain calm herself. The thought of all they needed to do had her heart thundering her chest, pushing her body toward the panic zone. “Let’s not get worked up over something that might not happen.”
“We better get moving,” Trevin said. “I can hear more clowns in the vent.”
“The more the merrier,” Jadine said. “Let’s move.”
Some things were better done quickly, like ripping off a band-aid. Losing the barrier between them and the hallway was on Jadine’s list for a band-aid approach. Steeling herself for what was to come, she threw the bolt and the lock and wrenched the door open. Cautiously, she ushered her friends into the corridor and pulled the door closed behind them.
The emergency lighting gave a dull glow to the exit sign above the glass exterior door, a guiding beacon to the way out. Beyond it, snow continued to fall, building hills of white that emitted a soft enticing glow of their own. Unfortunately, Jadine couldn’t in good conscience, take them out of the building without doing all she could to destroy the clown army taking refuge in her store. Besides, the only key to that door was on the keychain behind the register counter, to be used by the cashiers to lock the door after nightfall and unlock it again at daybreak. To use that exit, they would have to make their way to the register platform anyway. They might as well put her meager plan into action.
The blue and red flashing lights from the police car, splashed color along the wall at the mouth of the corridor but did little to illuminate their path. It did, however, create blocks of shadows that Jadine discerned to be Trevin and Stacy. To her left, the doorless openings into each bathroom yawned black as night. If a clown stood at either entrance, he would be imperceptible.
For a moment Jadine stood frozen in her tracks. Overwhelmed by the knowledge that all but two doors leading outside were made entirely of breakable glass and she still had no idea where the enemy lurked, she faltered, paralyzed by fear. The thumping of her heart against her ribs felt like a frightened bird slamming against a cage door, desperate to be free or die in the attempt. She sucked in a deep, quivering breath, driving the cold air deep into her lungs. The icy air cleared her head; she forced her eyes from the exit and her feet forward. The others fell in behind her.
Together, the three crept to the office door, each step taking them deeper into the freezing temperatures. To Jadine’s relief, the door remained intact. She resisted the urge to press her face to the glass, afraid another face would be pressed to the other side looking back at her. As she reached out for the doorknob, Trevin caught her hand.
“I locked it,” he said, his mouth tickling the hair over her ear. Resisting the urge to swipe at it, she gave a curt nod and moved on.
At the corner, they paused once again. Here the lights from the police car were brighter, bathing the store in blue then red. The pulsing brought a thumping to Jadine’s brain. She could see the car parked at an angle at the front of the store, the headlights casting light across the parking lot and part way into the store. The high walls and various displays set up near the doors blocked most of it. The tables and chairs of the eat-in area caught most of it, with some bouncing off the office window. Jadine raised an arm to shield her eyes. After the darkness, the light was almost unbearable.
Motioning for the others to stay behind, Jadine peered around the corner. The small dining area where customers often clustered to eat their newly attained burgers and fries or fresh baked pastries, now resembled a war zone. Tables and chairs were strewn across the floor, most drenched in blood from the two brave officers who’d had the bad luck to answer their call for help. Jadine felt a pang of guilt. She squelched it down before it gave rise to the wave of helplessness building in the recesses of her mind. It appeared that, after ripping the officers to shreds and feasting on their carcasses, the clowns had chosen to migrate elsewhere.