Anne pulled the hollow man off the crewmate, but it was too late. His skull had been bashed in with such force, it appeared as though he were the victim of a horse trampling.
"He's dead," she said curtly. "Back to the store!"
Anne took one look back to William to see that he was making along well and then hurried back to the store herself.
Against the myriad of stomping boots, Anne heard more creaking as doors were opening across the hamlet. She didn't let up in her stride, taking note of the noises but not letting it draw her attention. She passed the crewmates who had gone ahead of her. She needed to get to the store first.
On approaching the store, Anne noticed a few crewmates who had stayed behind, as well as Alexandre and Victoria. All were on alert from the activity they had heard and stood watch with weapons drawn.
"Barricade!" Anne yelled when she saw them. "We need to barricade the store, we're under attack."
Anne's words, urgency, and the crewmates just behind her flying towards them lit a fire under the crew's feet, and they ran into the store. Alexandre and Victoria seized the table holding the chessboard and the chairs from the deck, scattering the board and pieces across the dirt.
Anne jumped up to the deck, sliding across the wooden boards as she stopped in front of the entrance. She took a moment to breathe as she entered the store, once more taking stock of the thousand items and sorting them for their usefulness in her mind.
The crew brought boxes from the storage room, dense and filled with food or other items, into the central part of the store and began stacking them haphazardly.
"Bring them to the front, cover the windows. Make sure there are no gaps. Put the barrels in front to secure them in place." The crew, with a sound mind directing the action, put more focus into their work. "And someone bring me rope."
Just as someone brought her rope to work with, the crewmates who had joined her at the bell tower were making their way into the store again. She put the new men to work at once, forming a line from the storeroom to the side windows to bring the boxes forward.
Anne put the rope over her shoulder and closed one of the store's double doors, sealing the locking latch at the top and bottom of the door. William and the injured crewmate had yet to return, so she left the other door open.
Anne exited the store and peered down the road leading to the bell tower. William and the injured crewmate were slowly coming to the store, but behind them, the awakened townsfolk were gaining ground. Further to that, down each road leading to the store came more of the hollow people.
"Hurry," she yelled to them, though she knew they understood the urgency all too well.
The injured crewmate looked over his shoulder at the people gaining on them, but it didn't seem to give him renewed purpose. Instead, in his eyes, even at that distance, Anne could tell he had resigned himself to his fate. William pushed harder, taking on more of the weight, but his strength alone wasn't enough to make it in time.
The injured crewmate pushed William away before he pulled out his pistol. "Go," he muttered. There was an absolute strength in his soft declaration. William faltered but for a moment, then thanked the man for his bravery, and ran at full speed to the store.
The crewmate fired his pistol into the crowd as he did his best to back away, drawing the attention of the hollow people towards him instead of William and the general store. He tumbled over a nearby fence, lumbered to his feet, and pulled out a cutlass. He sliced wildly at the men and women approaching, a valiant effort against the storm, but they overwhelmed him. The hollow citizens tore the crewmate apart.
William reached the store, and pulled Anne back inside, not sparing a look back to the crewmate who had sacrificed himself to buy them time. Anne snapped back to the moment, resolving, no doubt as William had, not to waste those precious moments given them.
They closed the other door and latched it shut, but Anne knew it wouldn't be enough against the incredible strength that these entranced people were capable of.
"Bring the heaviest barrels over here in front of the doors."
The crew brought over three barrels so heavy they had to roll them across the floor rather than carry them. They placed all three directly in front of the two doors, flush against them.
Anne took the rope from over her shoulder and wrapped it around the three barrels, pulling them tightly together. After the rope was secure, she tied both ends around the handles of the doors in a reef knot. The crew brought three more barrels and worked in pairs to place the new ones on top of the first, completely covering the door. With more rope, the six were secured into place as a unit and would be nearly impossible to topple.
Nearly impossible for normal humans.
"It's not enough," Anne muttered. "Is there more rope?"
"More?" one of the crewmates replied as he looked at the massive wooden fortification they had made.
"There is some left, though le patron is holding onto it at the moment," Alexandre said, though he trailed off as he seemed to realize something in his statement, and his gaze travelled to the doorway to the storage room.
Anne followed his gaze, and understood the problem at once. She drew her cutlass, the ringing of the foreign steel mimicking the cry of the bell in a
