Free Anything Can Be Dangerous by Matt Hults

same principles as an average fast-food business. Maybe we
can use that somehow?”
    Wendy pondered the problem, chewing
her lower lip.
    “ We seem to be integral to
servicing the customers,” Ron thought aloud. “Which would make us
employees, I guess… But we can’t just quit and walk
out…”
    Suddenly Wendy’s face brightened. “You
could fire me!” she said.
    “ What?”
    She stepped around the desk to stand
before him. “Listen, the workers—those ghosts, or corpses, or
whatever they are—they all listen to you! They came to you to get
hired. They act like you run the place! If what you’re saying is
true, that makes you the manager. I’m just another employee to
them. If you fired me, I’d have to leave!”
    Ron mulled it over for a moment,
seeing her reasoning, but finally shook his head no.
    “ I can’t let you risk
yourself like that,” he said. “I have a feeling that in this place
you don’t get fired; you get terminated.”
    Her expression of optimism dissolved
into a shudder.
    “ We have to try something
simple,” he said. Then, after a second of contemplation, he grabbed
her hand. “Follow me!”
    Ron raced out of the office, towing
Wendy along with him, heading for the storeroom—
    But slid to a halt after only a few
feet, stopped by the sight of one of the skeletonized workers in
the hall, blocking their path. It leaned against the wall, glaring
at them like a back-alley thug.
    Ron forced a commanding tone. “Afraid
that wall will fall over if you don’t hold it up?”
    The thing straightened. Its sneer
vanished from its shrink-wrapped head, replaced by a definite look
of unease.
    “ Get your bony ass back to
work!” Ron boomed.
    To his surprise, the figure spun away
and hot-tailed it back to the kitchen.
    He looked to Wendy. “Let’s
move!”
    They hurried to the storeroom, to
where three waste barrels sat to the right of the chained doors.
Each overflowed with stuffed trash bags.
    He hefted a bag in each hand and
turned to the doors. He took a deep breath.
    “ This place is a goddamn
disgrace!” he said, voicing his words to the entire room. “Do I
have to do everything around here?”
    He looked to Wendy. “I’m taking the
trash out.”
    He knew it was a long-shot, an
outright absurdity given the fact new supplies seemed to arrive out
of thin air whenever needed, but when he looked back to the door,
the padlock fell open.
    Wendy gasped.
    Ron pulled the chains away, dropping
them to the floor. When he depressed the push-bar, he heard the
beautiful sound of the latching mechanism release.
    He faced Wendy. “Stay here,” he
said.
    She grabbed the sleeve of his shirt.
“No—”
    “ I’ll make sure it’s safe
first,” he rushed on. “Obey the rules, remember?”
    She held his stare, her eyes wide with
fright, but her grip slid away from his arm and she nodded her
understanding.
    He pushed the door open.
    Outside, darkness surrounded the
restaurant. Ron hadn’t worn his watch and couldn’t recall seeing
any clocks in the building, but he had the distinct feeling that
the black air outside wasn’t a result of the passage of time. There
was a substance to the abysmal depths that went beyond his full
understanding, a presence that seemed to loom in at all sides, and
after only several steps out the door, his exposed flesh had gone
as cold as the plastic skin of a body bag.
    He walked forward, forcing himself to
ignore it.
    Fifty feet away, a single lamppost
stood in the gloom. It spotlighted a grime-splashed dumpster in a
yellow cone of light, looking like two props on a vast empty
stage.
    He saw no stars overhead. No
silhouettes of the trees that bordered the parking lot.
    Thirty-some feet from the restaurant,
he looked to the left, to where he should’ve been able to spot the
concrete of the expansive four-lane highway, but again saw only the
all-encompassing darkness.
    He quickened his pace, finally
stepping into the lamp’s circle of light. He glanced up to see