A sense of shock and fear permeates throughout Alex, but he can't waste time processing these emotions.
Although the floor of HMS is made of nonflammable tiles, that doesn't stop the fire from rapidly spreading. Of course, it doesn't spread nearly as fast as the fire that burned down Fry's pawn shop.
What's likely happening is that the gasoline is still being pumped under the doors. As it reaches further inside, so does the fire. At the moment, it isn't a problem. The fire can be easily avoided, and it's unable to truly spread to the walls and ceiling. However, this doesn't make the situation any less dire.
If the crimson flames continue to spread, they'll eventually reach more flammable surfaces, such as magazine stands and snack shelves. This will only increase the heat, fumes, and smoke within the building. They'll slowly accumulate together and turn HMS into one massive oven.
Not only that, but there's currently no way to stop the flow of flammable gasoline. If it continues to flow at this rate, the entire floor will be coated in flames, leaving no safe spaces within HMS. At that point, no one and no thing will be able to survive, besides perhaps the creature.
This is something Alex realizes very quickly, and Jack's thinking is not far behind.
As hastily as he can, Alex scrambles to his feet and backs several yards away from the searing flames, Jack following closely beside him.
"Jack," Alex barks out with all laxness lost from his tone, "where are the exits besides this one?"
Jack opens and closes his mouth a few times before responding, still slightly in shock from the sudden situation. "T-there's an emergency exit in the storage room, and there's another at the back of this room." He gestures towards a bare metal door in the back corner of the store. Plastered onto it are the words, "EMERGENCY EXIT ONLY."
The moment Jack finishes identifying the emergency exits, Alex swiftly makes his way towards the one Jack gestured to. He pushes on the push bar, but the door doesn't move.
Thought so. Alex grimaces. It wouldn't make sense for the creature to seal only one of the exits. It has probably sealed all of them, relishing in the fact that they'll slowly be suffocated by smoke and scorched by flames.
As Alex tests the door a few more times and tries to come up with an escape plan, he sees Jack, illuminated by flames, run out of the room from the corner of his eye. After a few moments, Jack comes back with a relieved expression and excitedly rushes to Alex, carefully avoiding the puddle of fire that's doubled in size over the last minute.
"The door in the stor- cough, cough," Jack gags on smoke, by now, a fair bit is filling the room, "the door in the storeroom is unlocked!"
The door is unlocked!? Alex feels both surprise and disbelief at Alex's words. Doesn't the creature want to kill us by turning this place into an oven? Why would it leave a door unlocked? Did it miss it? No, it had plenty of time to circle the building and find all the exits. Then why?
Thinking back to his experiences at Fry's pawnshop, Alex suddenly has a revelation. What if it wants us to walk through the door? The creature loves setting traps and watching people desperately try to escape. It would perfectly fit its MO to set a trap right outside the door, so when we inevitably run out in a panic, we'll trigger the trap.
While Alex thinks, the fire spreads fast. The flaming puddle of gasoline spreads and grows and soon makes contact with a small rack of magazines in front of the register. The crimson flames rapidly engulf the magazines, surging high thanks to the added fuel. Soot black smoke billows and heat radiates off the stand, making the building's environment even more unbearable.
He turns to look Jack in the eye. "What's outside that door? Is there anything dangerous?"
This question won't be able to determine if there really is a trap. But Alex should be able to roughly guess its nature if he knows what it's made of. Of course, this is assuming the creature hasn't dragged something over and is only using what it finds on site.
Jack thinks for a moment, then responds. "There's a big propane tank. The kind that looks like a really big pill or a submarine. We use it to fill smaller propane tanks for customers."
In an instant, realization flashes through Alex. That bastard, isn't it afraid of being noticed?
If Alex's thoughts are right, then the creature plans to blow up the propane tank the second he exits the door. He'll be caught in the blast and either die or be grievously maimed. However, that would draw an insane amount of attention.
Setting fire to the pawn shop was already a risky move for the creature. The only reason it wasn't immediately surrounded by firefighters and law enforcement was that it was in a relatively desolate part of the city, and not many people were awake.
However, an explosion would most definitely draw attention, no matter what time and where it is in Rifield.
Whatever, it's clearly insane. Why should I try to understand its thought process? Alex cleverly decides to ignore the problem. "Don't go through that door. It's probably a trap."
Jack nods in response. He was also suspicious about the door, but his suspicions were overpowered by his hope for escape. It was only when Alex asked his question that he snapped out of it and realized it's a trap. "Then what should we do?"
Although Jack is good at rationalizing and finding issues, he's not adept at creating plans or solving those issues. Especially not when he's in a high-stakes environment!
Alex chuckles, although it burns his throat thanks to the smoke, and grins. "What else? We're gonna break the window!"
He isn't going to just walk into the creature's trap! When in doubt, start breaking things!
Before Jack can either affirm or refute him, Alex puts his plan into effect. He walks to the register and picks up the weighty, metal cash till, hefts it over his shoulder, and turns to the ad-plastered window. Then he sprints forward, running toward the window as fast as his injured legs allow. Just before he reaches it, he hurls the cash till off his shoulder and stops, letting the momentum carry it.
The cash till soars through the air for a second and then slams into the glass with a loud noise. To Alex's disappointment, it only bounces off the glass and thuds on the ground, instead of directly shattering the glass. However, a small spiderweb of cracks is left behind by the impact, just bigger than a baseball.
Alex struggles to catch his breath after throwing the cash till. The smoke and fumes have filled the building and his lungs even more, making such things difficult. Not only that, but the fire has spread even more, to the point that Alex was barely able to avoid it while grabbing the cash till. By now, it has taken up half the floor, regulating Alex and Jack to the back half.
While panting, Alex looks at Jack. "What are you, huff, waiting for, huff? Throw that thing!"
Jack doesn't need to be told twice. He swiftly picks the cash till off the ground and similarly hefts it onto his shoulder. Since he's only wearing a t-shirt, the edge digs into his shoulder a bit, but he ignores it. Instead, he backs up as far as the flames will allow and repeats Alex's actions of running and throwing the cash till.
Once again, the cash still bounces off, but thanks to the already present damage, the spiderweb of cracks spreads to the size of a basketball.
Seeing this, Alex, who's caught his breath by now, takes out his knife and hammers the butt of the handle into the center of the cracks. The interconnected cracks spread little by little with each strike, minuscule shards of glass flying out as a result of every impact. Alex can feel himself getting closer to freedom and safety every time he swings his arm.
Eventually, he hits the glass one last time, and the damage reaches a critical mass. The glass shatters into hundreds of fragments. They, along with the posters and ads, all crash to the ground around the window, allowing a brisk breeze to flow into HMS.
Both Alex and Jack back away from the glass, careful to avoid getting cut. Then they cautiously look through the windowsill lined by jagged glass.
The streetlights outside are turned on, providing much-needed light to the streetside and sidewalks. But despite this good view, neither Alex nor Jack sees anything problematic. The creature is not lurking on the street, and there don't seem to be any obvious traps.
Alex turns to look at Jack, his raincoat swaying from the motion. He says in a low, serious voice, "Once we jump out, run like hell until we find somewhere with a big population, like Tetanus Town."
Jack nods. "Alright." Then both he and Alex grab the windowsill, taking care not to cut themselves on the glass, and hop over it.
They both fall side by side out of the window and back into the cool night air of Rifield. Their feet splash into a puddle beneath the window, water splashing onto their clothes. Jack feels elation at having escaped the building, made a death trap, while Alex mentally prepares himself to run.
Wait… A thought crosses Alex's mind. It hasn't rained recently. A sense of dread permeates throughout him, sending chills throughout his body, and he takes a deep sniff.
It's more gasoline!