Wasted World | Episode 2

what everyone else was doing, and how she was feeling, and Angela was feeling very tired.
She forced herself to stay awake. She had seen and experienced too many terrible things over the last week to risk dozing off in such an unnatural and strange environment. Angela watched the old couple shuffle off to their mattress set between two others occupied by snoring teenagers. The woman removed her teeth and plopped them into a glass of water sitting on the floor. The man massaged her narrow shoulders and the couple continued whispering for a time. Angela’s eyelids grew heavy as the elderly couple slipped beneath their sheets. She kissed her husband’s cheek, and the two became silent and still. Dead almost. Like all those others above us.
Angela’s eyes had closed completely when the yelling started.
“I’m not taking my fucking clothes off!”
For a moment Angela thought she’d fallen asleep and entered a nightmare. She knew that voice, and when it started shouting again, she knew she was fully awake.
“We came down here because the assholes up top said you’d feed us and give us a place to sleep. If I’d known you sick fuckers expected us to strip down once we were down here...”
“Keep your voice down, sir. Don’t force me to use this.”
Angela watched and listened as Marie explained the Sandman rules to the fat mall security guard. Her eyes were drawn to that awful name scrawled in red marker on the tag attached to his fat sweaty chest.
ROY
There was a smaller man with a greasy ponytail standing beside him. He looked more like a child next to the bald-headed maniac. The small man held a hand up to Marie. “You don’t have to do that. He gave you his guns already. Please, just give us a bit of food and we’ll go back the way we came.”
Angela felt beneath the blanket until she found Amanda’s shoulder. She shook the girl until she groaned. “I don’t wanna get up... I wanna sleep some more.”
Angela placed her fingers over the girl’s lips, silencing her before she could protest any more. Amanda’s sleepy eyes opened, and Angela mouthed the words be quiet. The girl slowly wriggled herself up into a sitting position and saw the new arrivals. Angela clamped her hand fully over her mouth before she could scream. She leaned close to her ear and whispered. “Wake your brother up as quietly as you can. We’re leaving.”
Angela watched as Roy and his companion gave into Marie’s demands. The big man started with his shirt, undoing the buttons and glaring at the small woman standing before him with familiar murderous intent. It was a look Angela had hoped she would never have to see again. Things got much worse when he dropped his pants and stripped out of his underwear.
I should’ve died in my office after the bomb hit... I wish I’d died in my office.
“He hasn’t seen us yet,” Michael whispered.
Angela tore her eyes from the horrible scene and concentrated on the twins. “You go first, Michael. Crawl off to the right and keep up against the wall where the shadows are. Amanda, you go next. I’ll be right behind you.”
It’s like fate brought the two of you back together again so soon, isn’t it, girl? See what you get for breaking the law? Ol’ Roy there might not have much authority, but he does have the right to blow your brains all over the parkade floor for stealing those clothes.
Angela ignored her stepfather and crawled after the children. What were the chances of that bastard finding them down here? It’s a coincidence, she told herself, nothing more. He doesn’t know we’re here, and I’m not going to let him find us.
Michael led them further down into the third level. They crept on their hands and knees around another immense column and rose to their feet when they were certain they wouldn’t be spotted. Angela could still hear Roy swearing and complaining. Marie’s voice was rising as well. Gunfire erupted seconds later and Angela saw the yellow flashes against a far wall behind them.
“Run!”
They could hear more shouting between shots, the sleeping children had started to cry. Parents were yelling, and Angela was certain the whispering old couple were now screaming at the top of their lungs. Michael was stopping at every vehicle trying to open doors.
“We don’t got time to check for food,” his sister said.
“I’m not looking for food, I’m looking for keys.”
Angela pulled him along. “The cars don’t work anymore, remember?”
“That lady said some of them still started, the ones parked farther under. If we can find keys in one, you can drive us out of here.”
It had been decades since Angela had driven a car, and she hadn’t been very good at it back then. Re-learning now, driving in a claustrophobic underground concrete parkade through a hail of bullets didn’t seem like such a bright idea as it had just hours earlier.
Now you’re beginning to use that head. Finally realizing what you can and what you can’t do... and you can’t do a whole hell of a lot, isn’t that right, girl?
Thanks, Dad. I needed that.
Angela pushed Amanda between two parked vehicles. “Help your brother check these cars. Find one with keys and I’ll try and get it started.”
Stupid. Stubborn. Distrustful.
The gunfire and screaming continued. Angela tested door handles along with the children and lucked out on her third try. It was a dark four-door sedan. It looked very powerful, and very expensive. There was a pleasant chime as the passenger door opened up and Angela slid into the leather seat.
Someone was already sitting in the driver’s seat. “This is my ride, bitch.”
The big woman that had sat across from Angela as they’d eaten was staring at her once again. They were much closer now, only