Free Collapse by Richard Stephenson

sitting on a goldmine. The first stage in his plan was to barricade both of the front entrances. Thanks to Luther, he only had to complete half of the task. The north entrance had an SUV crammed inside it with a stack of cars behind it. The north corner of the store suffered the most structural damage; the roof of the north entrance collapsed around the SUV and blocked off the entrance from the Home and Garden center. The kind old woman that greeted consumers would have to join her counterpart on the south entrance should the store open again.
     
    The south entrance proved a challenge. It was as pristine as it had been the week before. The first order of business was to use hand-trucks to move four pallets into the entrance behind the locked doors - two behind the outer doors and two behind the inner doors. Not satisfied with the barricade, Chester ordered that the sally port leading into the store be filled with shopping carts chained together. Chester was certain that it would take a dump truck at full speed to breach the security that he had employed.
     
    The next order of business was the loading docks. The sliding doors used to receive the eighteen-wheelers loaded with merchandise were closed and padlocked. Then Chester took a page out of medieval history and had his employees dump vegetable oil mixed with lighter fluid in front of the sliding bay doors. Should angry mobs tear down the doors and make it in, they would be set on fire. His employees joked with each other that all they would do was slip and fall because no one was actually going to set another human being on fire. Their loyalty to their minimum wage jobs had a limit.
     
    The remaining way in and out of the store was the pedestrian entrance to the loading docks. The General Manager and his employees needed a way in and out of the store. The Assistant Manager of the demolished Home and Garden center informed Chester that pallets of dirt and fertilizer were in the north end of the warehouse. Forty-pound bags were stacked chest high in front of the door. Chester picked four very enthusiastic teenagers to stand sentry behind the door. The first two carried high-powered BB rifles to fire at any potential mobs, hoping to scare them off. The other two boys carried a fully loaded pistol and shotgun each, should any angry Orlandites make it inside. The other employees knew that they would not set anybody on fire, they were however, quite frightened that these four boys would play G.I. Joe with much zeal.
     
    The new residents of the retail giant managed to construct a comfortable little fortress. They built a makeshift commune in the middle of the store. They used sleeping bags, comforters, mattress pads, and pillows to make beds. The perishable foods would soon be a total loss, so Chester did not object to them consuming as much as they could before it spoiled. They had a feast of the best steaks and shrimp. Ice cream and beer made for many a happy employee. They were living like kings.
     
    General Manger Chester Stephens was quite proud of himself. Yes sir, he was damned proud. He knew that his move to Bentonville was on the horizon. All that was left to do was wait it out for the Calvary to swoop in and rescue them.
     
    The Calvary never came.
     
    The only people who showed up were ninety percent of the remaining employees of the Kissimmee Wal-Mart Supercenter. Chester welcomed them in, the more the merrier. They were a welcome addition to his army of blue-vested soldiers.
     
    This was the first of Chester’s many mistakes.
     
    The two hundred and forty-seven employees felt they should be able to take whatever they wanted from the store. Chester didn’t mind them eating and drinking, but he did ask them to document everything they consumed. His concern, other than keeping people alive, was being able to provide accurate, detailed records should corporate request them. At first, the employees were more than happy to keep track of what they used. That