“Two hours?” Angela said. “It looks like these people have been sitting here a lot longer than two hours.”
“Ted from maintenance and Brenda from housekeeping are having some trouble with the washers and driers. Something to do with the generator we have set up in the laundry room. It should all be fixed soon enough.”
“No,” Amanda said.
Marie cocked her head to one side. “What was that, dear?”
“No. I’m not taking my clothes off, and I’m not sleeping over there.” She pointed at the line of mattresses.
Michael stood next to his sister. “Me neither. We won’t do it.”
The woman’s jaw clenched and her eyes narrowed slightly. “You don’t have a choice.” She looked up at Angela. “Are your children always this unruly?”
“They’re not my children. We met in a shopping mall after their mother was murdered.”
Marie Hodgkin stepped back, reaching for a hand held communicator at her side at the same time. “Please send down two additional guards to 3-C. We have a brother and sister without parents, and a woman child abductor.”
“Now just a second.” Angela went towards the woman. “This has gone far enough. I’m with these kids, and I’m not a criminal.”
The next few moments were a blur. Something hit Angela in the mouth and she saw stars. She was falling to her knees and Amanda was screaming. The children’s hands were at her arms, slowing her fall to the ground. Blood was dripping onto the asphalt directly beneath her face. She hit me. That little bitch smacked me in the face with her walkie-fucking-talkie.
Watch that language!
Angela heard Amanda screaming at the top of her lungs. She could see Michael’s feet kicking out at someone from the corner of her eye. The children were picked up and dragged away by more men wearing oxygen masks. Angela was unable to do a thing to stop it; her arms were too busy keeping the rest of her body from sinking down onto the ground in the puddle of her own blood. She tried pushing back up onto her knees and the vicious little Marie approached with a black weapon in her hand. She pressed something cold into her ribs and Angela felt a jolt run through her entire body.
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.
Chapter 20
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.”