>>6056839The deeper Mike looks, the more he sees that it's all shadows. The interior dome light of the truck cap helps for the first 20 feet. The Merchant rechecks the undercarriage and walls, placing a magnetic flashlight on the wall. And tgis makes the depths of the building a bit more visable.
Outside it is still dark, and you hear the shuffling feet and groaning through the steel walls. The thud and pounding at the walls starts, and continues, like rainfall, for the next few hours.
You can hear some of the others talking
>you think they starved?>they were just dumb or unlucky. It's inexplicable.>you're mocking them now? >there is no excuse for stupidity or for bad luck. If they had either they had to try.>end of the world>no, no it isnt. Its a colossal experiment. These things can't think, can't work, can't plan and can't run. They're not dangerous unless you choose to give up. The world gave up. They all chose to exit into the crowd. That's why we're here and they're on the floor and milling around. The Merchant has gone over to the roller door and double checked the chain, and padlocks it in place. At eye level on a door slat are small oval windows, about four inches tall, and a foot wide. He returns to the truck and returns with a spear and starts skewing the ghouls outside.
The crowd outside swarms the harder as he cajoles and speaks to them, jabbing with a practiced motion.
Meanwhile the cardboard boxes and interior conflict escapes him completely. He speaks to no one, and asks for o help, though he might be in want of it.
Soon, he stops, and you can almost hear him muttering to himself. He goes and fetches a battery powered angle grinder, and goes to a side wall and cuts an inverted triangle through the steel, and here he lays the spear tip and cajoles to the ghouls again and as the approach, he begins spearing once again.
The truck cab light has gone off, and in the dark the merchant mounts another light to shine trough the hole, and continues his work, methodically.
