Angela nodded. She remembered. Well I’m betting there’s more than toilets and sinks down there. Could be that there’s some offices beyond… maybe a security station. Maybe this Roy character is a lot closer than you think.
There was a loud bang from somewhere behind her. Part of one the floor tiles next to the upset golf bag erupted up into the air. Angela heard something whiz by her ear at the same moment. Another bang and the golf bag jumped forward a few inches. I’m being shot at.
She could see him now, a hulking figure moving out from the shadows of stores behind, with two guns gripped in either hand. He fired two more times, each fat hand kicking up from the recoil. “Fucking thief! I told you to stay put. You fucking deaf?”
Angela pointed her gun at him.
Don’t do it. DO NOT kill another man.
But he’s going to kill me, Dad. Don’t I have the right to protect myself?
Thou shalt not kill! What part of that can’t you understand? Put the gun down, girl. You can repent for the life you’ve already taken. God can be merciful. He can forgive one tremendous sin… maybe… but he sure as hell won’t forgive a second.
The man was still advancing. He was pulling on the triggers of his guns, but they were only making clicking sounds. He’d run out of ammunition.
Pull the trigger. Stop him.
Put that goddamned thing down!
She could see the name tag on his sweaty chest. ROY. He had taken the guns and repositioned them in his big hands. He was clutching at the barrels and preparing to bludgeon Angela to death with the handles.
For the love of Jesus… lower the gun, Angie. It’ll all be over soon enough.
Her step-father had rarely been kind to her when he was living. But there had been times when he wasn’t hitting her mother or yelling at Angela. He had even tried being soft-spoken and gentle. It had been during those rare occasions when he hadn’t called her girl. He had called her Angie… and those were the times Angela knew he loved her deep down. She yearned to hear that voice. She listened to it.
Angela lowered the gun and Roy ran the last ten feet towards her. The gun in his right hand rose up over his glistening head. His eyes clamped shut, as if in sudden agony, and the gun dropped from his fingers. He fell to his knees, howling, and Angela saw Michael standing behind him, clutching the grip of a driving wood like a baseball bat.
Amanda lunged out from the clothing racks and grabbed up the gun Roy had dropped. Her eyes met Angela’s and pleaded for the woman to run. Angela dropped the gun she was holding in her sweaty fingers back into the pocket of her dress. Roy was roaring like a bull having its testicles squeezed; he crawled towards Angela on his knees, raking his big hairy arms through the air. His fingers grabbed at her dress and tore the bottom half away. “Not so fast,” he gasped between wails. “You have to pay for those clothes… then I’m going to kill you. I’m gonna bash your fucking head in with my—”
Michael hit him with the 1-wood a second time. The big yellow head made a wet smacking sound into the fat between his shoulder blades as loud as the gunshots. He fell forward onto his face and howled.
Good job, girl. You just turned those children into homicidal maniacs.
They haven’t murdered anyone.
Not yet.
They ran for the window, Amanda holding one of Roy’s guns in both hands, pointed to the floor, her brother still gripping his driver, and Angela between them, clutching the stolen jackets, hoodys, and track pants. Michael went ahead and smashed more of the jagged plate glass out of the frame, hastening their escape faster.
They staggered out into the grey parking lot, its white-painted stripes still half-filled with cars, trucks, and vans that would likely never be driven again. Amanda tugged at the remains of Angela’s dress. “Where’s your car?”
“I… I walked here. I don’t have a car. I don’t even know how to drive.” The three moved between rows of vehicles, testing door handles here and there, not actually considering what they would do if they found one unlocked.
Roy crashed out through the last bit of window glass Michael hadn’t managed to clear. “Get the fuck back here and pay for all that shit!”
They watched from fifty yards away as he stumbled about in circles, crunching glass shards into dust under his black shoes. “He can’t hurt you now,” Angela whispered. She had led them further away and hidden behind a minivan. “We’re safe here. I don’t think he could run all that fast after the hits Michael gave him, anyway.”
Amanda grinned up at her for the first time. “And he’s outta bullets, right?” A shot rang out, and the rear-view mirror on the driver’s side of the minivan exploded, spraying the girl with crystallized glass dust and bits of plastic.
A man doesn’t pack that much fire power and not carry extra ammunition. Angela could hear the condescension in her dead step-father’s voice. She could feel his contempt.
They moved further back, slipping between the rows of cars. “Over here,” Michael insisted. Angela and Amanda followed him to a three-foot high cement barrier and climbed over. They were now in a ditch strewn with garbage and dead grass. “He won’t look for us here. We’re not even in the parking lot anymore.”
Angela could see traffic lights off to the left. A semi-trailer had tipped over, and the backend of a Volkswagen Beetle was sticking out from beneath it. More vehicles were parked up behind the crash, the doors left open on most, the owners long gone. Behind them was a highway; its four lanes lined with abandoned cars and buses. She lifted her head slowly over the barrier and risked a peek back into the mall parking lot. She spotted Roy a few seconds later, wandering among the rows, moving farther and farther away. “I think you’re right. I think we’ll be safe here for a little while.”
Amanda and Michael poked their heads up and watched the big monster weave his way among the vehicles. They watched as he tried door handles; most were locked, but some opened up. He would stick his big sweaty scalp in, and pull it back out again, like a foraging bear. Eventually he worked his way back to the broken windows of the sportswear store. He stood there for five more minutes, staring out over the quiet rows of metal and rubber. He started shooting his gun all around him. Bullets flew into parked cars, blowing out windows, ricocheting off fenders, and flattening tires. Roy re-loaded the gun and did it again. “Don’t think this is over! I’ll find you thieving fuckers! You’ll pay for the stuff you took, and then I’ll fucking tear out your throats with my goddamned bare hands!”
He tucked the empty revolver into the waist of his pants and vanished back into the mall.
Amanda had started to cry. “He’s gonna kill us. He’s gonna hunt us down and kill us… just like he did to Mom.”
Angela hugged the girl. “No he won’t. Roy can’t find us out here.”
Michael was sitting up against the concrete wall. “What are we supposed to do now? Where are we going to go?” He stared out at the ominous bank of black and green clouds moving in from the west.