Part 4: Git While The Gittin’ is Good
Jadine, Stacy, and Trevin stood stalk still listening to the banging and rattling caused by the clowns behind the barricade. The tables held, but for how long? Time was running. Jadine ran through their options. One, continue with the plan and attempt to seal the clown in the building until they melted away or two, git while the gittin’ was good. If they bailed, the clowns could escape if they breached the barricade, and run rampant through the city. Could she live with that on her conscience?
“Which way?” Trevin asked, gesturing at their choices. Back the way they’d come, forward through the kitchens, or out the back door.
Jadine’s hesitation was brief. They had to finish what they started.
“This way,” she said. Taking the flashlight from Stacy, she led them through the kitchen, relishing the heat coming off the ovens as they passed by. She swung the beam back and forth as the stepped into the main body of store. All she found were shelves and merchandise. A good sign.
“We’ll start with these,” she said stopping in front of the candy shelves. She shoved the boxes off the top shelf then began tossing the boxes from the next one down. “Lighten it as much as possible so we can carry. I’m going to check that door and see if I can close it.”
Another trip through the mound of snow. This time she kicked as much of it away from her as she could, trying to clear a path for the shelving. At the door, she bent down to get a look at what was holding it ajar, fearful it would be another piece of a human being that she would have to touch to remove. To her delight, the doors had simple been pushed apart allowing the snow to build up between them. Stomping and kicking, she cleared the snow and pulled the two glass panes together, locking them into place. As she hurried back to help with the shelves, she stomped the snow along the way, widening the pathway.
Trevin and Stacy had cleared the candy from the unit by the time she joined them. Even then it proved too heavy to for them to pick up and carry, so they walked it to the door. All three at one end then the other. Lift, swing, set it down. Race to the opposite end and lift, swing set it down. Over and over again across the icy, slick floor until they reach their destination. The snow slowed them down, the drift rising higher the closer they came to the door. Jadine’s efforts were commendable, but in the end, the unit was wider than the path she’d carved out. Not wanting to waste time on the unbroken door, they used the shelf itself to plow through the snow, pushing it as the swung the unit from side to side. At the door, they pushed it tight to the frame. Short but wide, it covered the entire door with some overlap.
“Other door,” Jadine urged.
Stacy left Trevin to help Jadine unload the shelf. She scurried away to clear the route to the door. Broken glass littered the tiles under the mound of white. The newspaper stand lay on its side, resting beneath the cooler doors. Stacy snatched it up to use as a make-shift plow. It worked fine until the snow reached the top of the placard then it fell through the gaps in the wire rack and back onto the floor. Feeling stupid, Stacy pushed what she could to the edges before planting the legs of the rack tight against her hip to use it like a shovel. She scooped and tossed until the cut on her arm ached and bleed.
Deciding it would have to be good enough, she tossed the stand aside and hurried back to help with the shelves. Trevin and Jadine had already moved it several feet by the time she reached them. This unit was taller yet lighter, sliding across the floor with ease. At the door, the dropped it on its side, removed three shelves and forced the other two into the gaping hole. Trevin and Stacy returned to the center of the store to begin dismantling another unit.
Across the room, the banging on the barricade had taken on a frantic frenzy. The tables quivered under the onslaught. Jadine wasn’t sure how long it would hold up to the tide of clowns.
“This one, this one!” She shouted calling Trevin and Stacy from the unit they were dismantling. Gesturing to the unit with the hanging pegs, she began tearing the bags and pegs from the board. This unit was lighter with only one shelf at the very top and one at the base.
“Clear the boxes from the top and the bottom.” It no longer mattered it the enemy could hear them. They were already riled up. Now was the time for speed.
“Are you sure this one will work?” Trevin asked clearing the top shelf with one quick swipe.