Free Hoarder by Armando D. Muñoz Page B

out of the cage quickly.
    “I’d hate humans, too.”
    Dani went in search of the next cage. She heard the unobserved animal escape its confines behind her, and she was relieved to know it had claimed its liberation.
    Will spotted another cat trapped in a cage high above his head. This cage was on the top shelf of the teetering bookcase, right below the television. With his height, he figured he was the one responsible for the high level rescues. How the television, with its warring families, or the cage, with its restless feline, could remain where they were while everything else had fallen off of the shelves was a mystery to him. Perhaps they had extra adhesive holding them up, as in an extra layer of rat and cat turds.
    Will stepped up onto the pile of garbage bags against the base of the leaning bookcase. He failed to consider that those bags were the only things keeping the bookcase from collapsing. Will didn’t see the subtle shifts in the one hundred eighty-five pounds of stained oak towering over him.
    Will didn’t need to hoist Ian to reach the door and open this cage. He let the cage door fall open and turned away as the cat leaped out to the hoard below. Hearing a scraping sound beside him, Will looked up as dust drifted down into his eyes. He could hear but not see a studio audience laughing above him.
    The cage had shifted from the feline’s speedy exit, cracking the ancient crap that had kept the metal pen glued in place (Will had been correct on that count). With the seal broken, the cage let gravity have its way, and it slid off of the high shelf.
    Ian, Keith, and Dani all heard the noise and spun toward it, eager to avoid the next potential avalanche.
    Will flinched back while trying to keep his feet solid on the slope of slippery garbage sacks. The sliding cage caught on a hanging black power cord. The cord pulled taut and gave a jerk to the antique television on top. The cobwebs that had held it in place for years burst into dust. The studio audience pitched off of the top ledge.
    Will looked up, and he registered that the audience on the screen coming down at him were actually jeering, probably at him to move out…
    The television screen, which was flesh blistering hot due to its constant use, smashed into Will’s upturned face. The jeering stopped the moment the screen shattered with a resounding pop. He heard a crunch of bones all too loudly, since they were inside his head, likely his nose or teeth, if he was lucky.
    Will pitched to the left and the broken television rolled off of his head, stripping him of his camera cap.  The smoking television landed shattered screen up in the garbage. Will’s camera cap landed upright atop a cardboard box, unharmed.
    Will stood hunched over with his head hanging navel level, yet miraculously he stood. As he slowly pulled himself up, the falling cage hit him in the right shoulder. The cage bounced off but did not spill him. He wavered with his back to his friends.
    “Will!” Dani cried.
    Will’s friends worked toward him, from the sides and behind. Keith and Dani slipped their handheld cameras into their front pockets as they made their way, wanting their hands free to help him. Dani worried that the teetering bookcase might collapse next and flatten Will. If they moved fast enough, they could catch it if it fell.
    Ian saw a burst of sparks from the shattered TV tube, and he hoped that none of them hit the brittle newspaper stacks. They were lucky the television had landed screen up. This room could light up like flash paper in an incinerator. Getting out of a fast moving conflagration in here would be a challenge to the quickest of them. Ian thought it would be wise to unplug the shattered television, but the end of the power cord disappeared into the deep hoard. It could take minutes, maybe hours to clear the hoard away and find the hidden plug.
    Will remained with his head down, his back to his friends.
    “Will, are you okay?” Keith asked with little