The ground shook from the explosions erupting all around them, and several sections of the wall had already collapsed beneath the onslaught.
The townsfolk whimpered with every tremor that rolled through the square.
Some argued with the few escorts trying to lead them to safety, dragging heavy luggage behind them and slowing the entire evacuation down.
"Drop that chest!" Tom shouted at a middle-aged man and woman struggling with a large trunk. "You don't need that to survive, goddammit!"
"This is our livelihood! You don't get to decide what we need or don't!" the man snapped back.
"Then die here, you stubborn idiot!"
The man stared at him in shock, as if he could not believe what Tom had just said.
"What?! How can you say that?!"
Tom's expression did not change.
"You have two options," he said, his voice and eyes stone cold. "Either I knock you out right here, leave you behind, and you die… or you drop the luggage and go down the tunnel."
The man shuddered.
