by North, Geoff
This is what it feels like to get tazed.
Angela was about to tell her stepfather she didn’t like the sensation but blackness claimed her first.
***
The first thing Angela realized when she woke up was that the children were with her again. The second thing she noticed was that they were naked. Angela’s nose and upper lip throbbed. She reached up to touch her face and saw she was naked as well.
“I’m sorry I brought us here,” she croaked. “We should’ve kept going west. We should’ve left this fucking city altogether and let these crazies deal with each other.” She waited for her stepfather to scold her for dropping an f-bomb. He didn’t. Perhaps he was finally beginning to agree with her.
Their immediate humiliation came to an end. Corey appeared with their clothes, neatly stacked in his arms. “I’m really sorry you had to strip down like that.” The oxygen mask, Angela noted thankfully, was gone. He handed the clothes to them. “I can appreciate Marie’s concern with keeping everyone clean and healthy, but she goes too far sometimes.” He leaned in and whispered. “To tell you the truth, I think she’s not all right in the head.”
Angela had already put on her bra and panties. Michael and Amanda moved even quicker. They were fully dressed in the hoodies and track pants lifted from the North Kilpatrick Shopping Center. “I noticed... Where’s my dress?”
Corey grinned uncomfortably and handed her a plastic bag that Angela hadn’t noticed hanging halfway up his forearm. “Marie didn’t care much for the amount of leg showing when you showed up here. The dress had to go.”
Inside the bag was a man’s white dress shirt and a pair of blue jeans. Angela put them on without protest. The dress—what was left of it—wouldn’t be missed. The shirt went down to her knees, and she tucked the bottom into the too-tight jeans. At least they were women’s jeans, she thought. “You can thank your boss for her hospitality, but we want to leave.”
“Uuh... that won’t be so easy.”
Angela glared at him and the children moaned. She poked a finger into Corey’s chest. “The city may have been destroyed, but it’s still a free country. You can’t... that goddamn Marie can’t hold us here against our will.”
Corey stepped back and held his hands up in a surrendering gesture. “You’re not being held against your will. You can go whenever you want. The trouble is a big storm’s moving in from the east. Our lookouts that way have spotted some pretty wicked-looking shit... purple lightning, twisters. Weather’s gone to hell since the bombs dropped. We couldn’t let you wander out until it’s passed.”
“We’ll take our chances.”
Amanda was tugging on Angela’s shirt cuff. “I’m scared of tornadoes. I saw a movie once where cows were flying in the air. Can’t we stay here for the night?”
Angela looked around for the first time since recovering consciousness. They were in a different part of the underground parkade. Children were sleeping comfortably in a line of mattresses set up along one wall. They were covered in heavy comforters and their heads were nestled into soft white pillows. Tables were organized under the fluorescent lighting around one of the immense concrete pillars and people were seated there, eating a vast assortment of food presented in large metal serving trays. A young woman appeared from the stairwell carrying another steaming tray. Angela’s mouth watered when she smelled the mashed potatoes and gravy.
Michael was pulling at her other sleeve. “Maybe Amanda’s right. Maybe we should stay the night at least. I’m starving, and it would be nice to sleep in a bed for a change instead of a car or on the ground.”
Angela was starting to give in. She felt her fat lip where Marie had struck her. It wasn’t swollen as bad as before. She started towards the food, and the children followed. Angela was sick of eating squished chocolate bars and drinking flat pop. It would be good to eat real food again. “One night. That’s all. We leave first thing in the morning.”
Amanda looked up at her. “Right after breakfast?”
“We’ll see.” One night. We will stay one night and then we’ll be on our way in the morning.
Just one or two free meals, hey, darling? That’s how you operate, isn’t it? Slowly sponging off the hospitality of others. You did it to me and your mother for years.
I was beginning to wonder where you’d gone.
I’m never that far away. Someone’s got to teach you right from wrong. Too bad you’re such a lousy student.
An elderly couple made room at one of the tables for the three to sit down. Michael and Amanda scooped impossibly large quantities onto their plates and managed to finish it all. Angela was starving, but she took her time, checking out all the other guests seated at the table. A big woman half her age was seated at the end of the table opposite Angela. They stared at each other, silently assessing, chewing their food and drinking their water. Finally the woman placed her fork down and spoke directly to her.
“You need a camera?”
“Pardon me?” Angela asked.
“A camera. Do you need a goddamn camera to take a picture? You never seen a black woman eat before?”
“I… I didn’t mean to be rude. You were staring at me, and I don’t care what color your skin is.”
“Then look at your food instead of me, bitch.”
Angela pushed the half-finished meal away. “I’m not that hungry anymore.” She left the table and headed back towards the shadows where the children were still sleeping on their cozy looking mattresses.
“That wasn’t very nice of her,” Amanda said. The twins had left the table with her. “She had no right to say that.”
Angela sighed and sat on the one empty bed at the end of the line. “I don’t think people give a hoot about rights anymore, sweetie. We’d better start getting used to the way things are going to be.”
It was a queen-sized mattress with plenty of room for the three of them. Michael lay next to his sister and shared the blankets. Angela was on the other side of the Amanda. She smiled at the girl as her eyes grew heavy. Within minutes the twins were fast asleep. Angela tucked the top comforter up over their chests and fluffed her own pillow up against the concrete wall behind. She sat back against it and watched the people living on the third underground level of the Sandman hotel go about their business. The old couple they’d sat next to for supper were still at the table, huddled closely together and whispering. Others were joining the children put to bed earlier. Angela guessed the time to be somewhere between 9 and 11 pm, but she couldn’t be certain. She didn’t have a watch, and there were no clocks on the barren grey walls. It could’ve been 12 noon for all she knew. Her head still felt a bit fuzzy since the Hodgkin woman smacked her in the mouth. She could only go by 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 twelve inches of console separating them. She could give Roy a run for his money, Angela thought. “You’re... you’re going to steal it?”
She hammered the padded steering wheel with a big fist. “Is that what you think? The big black girl found herself a nice Audi and she’s going to hotwire the fucking thing and drive away before the cracker-ass mother-fucker owner can say shit?”
Oh dear.
“I... we, that is... we’re just trying to get the hell out of here.”
Michael and Amanda opened the rear doors and sat inside, thumping the doors shut and fastening their seatbelts. Amanda kicked at the back of the driver’s seat. “Will this thing start?”
The woman looked over her shoulder and grinned at the children. “Hell yeah, girl.” She pressed the keyless ignition, and the car rumbled to life. “Quality German engineering will never let you down.” She leaned over towards Angela. “I am the mother-fucking owner of this car. How’s that for a shocker?”
The tires squealed as she pulled the shifter into drive. Angela fumbled for her own seatbelt as the car tore forward. “They’re killing each other above. I don’t care if you own, lease, or rent the damned thing. Just be careful.”
“This is my baby. Don’t you worry, I’ll be careful.”
Angela saw two things when the Audi pulled around the pillar they’d snuck around moments earlier. Marie Hodgkins was lying on the concrete floor in a pool of blood. There were three holes in her chest and stomach. Her final shift as manager and commandant at the Sandman had come to a grisly end. The second thing Angela saw—and prayed she would forget—was Roy the mall security guard standing bare naked over the dead body with a full erection. The little man with the greasy ponytail was hastily pulling his pants up behind him.
“God-damn,” the Audi owner yelled as she slammed on the brakes. “Now that is definitely not a sight for sore eyes.”
“Don’t stop!” Michael pleaded. “He killed our Mom, and he’s gonna kill us, too!”
The woman didn’t need any more convincing. Roy was pointing a rifle at the windshield. “You kids get your heads down and keep ‘em down till we’re out of here.” The car shot forward again and Roy started firing. The first bullet went through the middle of the windshield and punched into the back seats between Michael and Amanda. A second bullet ricocheted off the car hood. Roy didn’t get a chance to fire a third shot. The big woman swerved at the last second, and the rearview mirror on her side struck Roy in the stomach with enough force to tear it clean off the door. Angela looked back and saw him fall to his knees.
Not enough to kill him. A golf club in the back wasn’t enough, and a big German car couldn’t get the job done either. Can’t anything kill that bastard?
“Fucker smucked my car up. Big-ass, small-dick mother fucker.” She continued teaching the Fulger twins colorful words and introduced Angela to a few new ones as she drove up and out of the parkade. Corey—or whatever oxygen-masked clad guard on duty it was—lowered his weapon and stood back. The Audi roared off into the night.
The woman held her hand out to Angela. “My name’s Caitlan. Sorry we got off to such a rough start. I’ve run into a lot of assholes since the world went to shit.”
Angela shook her hand. “I’m Angela. The two back there are Amanda and Michael. And don’t apologize. I’ve met a few undesirables along the way as well.”
Caitlan chuckled. “Undesirables... That’s another way of putting it.”
“You’re going the wrong way,” Michael said.
She looked at him in the rear view mirror. “What way am I supposed to be going?”
Amanda answered. “West. We were going west.”
“What difference does it make? West, east, north, south. It’s all the same.”
Purple lightning forked through the sky ahead of them. The thunder that followed a moment later shook the car. Caitlan slowed down and turned around in the middle of the highway.
“This lane’s one way only,” Michael said. “You should cross over into the other one at the next exit.”
“I don’t think we’ll be running into much traffic tonight.” Caitlin weaved between an abandoned bus and trashed half-ton. She pressed down on the accelerator when the way was clear and the four sped off into the dark, driving west ahead of the storm.
***
“Come on, you have to help me out.”
“Give me a fucking break, would you? I just got run over by a car.”
“No, you were sideswiped by the mirror,” Louie said. They’d wasted enough time just getting Roy to stand up. It seemed to take an eternity for him to get back into his underwear. He had helped the giant up through two levels of parkade, but it wasn’t fast enough for Louie’s liking. He had seen the dark mist creeping along the floor towards the hotel manager’s corpse.
How did they escape from the tenth level of the DSC? There aren’t many better sealed off places anywhere on earth.
There was still time, Louie figured. The ticks could travel quickly, but they were microscopic. Louie and his new-found friend could keep ahead of them if they maintained a steady pace.
But it wasn’t just the ticks Louie was worried about. He had seen what they were capable of doing when they’d infested Richard Sheffield’s dead body. Louie had seen it again when the grey swarm crawled over Marie Hodgkin’s corpse as well. Roy hadn’t noticed—he was too busy with his aches and pains to notice the woman’s body when it started to swell. Roy didn’t see her fat fingers start to twitch.