• I love my job. I love my job. I love—a box of cereal fell to the ground scattering everything and opening a box of Pops to have it spill everywhere. s**t! I hate my job.

    I walked to the back room and grabbed a broom and a dust pan. The loud yelling of Slipknot rang through my ears from my ear phones. Glad the boss isn’t here. Or else she’d be up my a** about listening to music on the job. She hated when I did it. But she wasn’t in to work today. I didn’t know why. Not very many people showed up. Maybe it was the bad storm coming in. Who gives a flying rat’s a** anyhow? Not like I wanted to go home to a house full of screaming kids my foster parents took care of. I hated it at home too. Man I wish I could be actually free from all this s**t. I started sweeping and adjusted my earphones. They were the old ones. The ones that went over your head. I couldn’t afford the new Eardots. All my friends had them. I didn’t care. I liked using CDs. And I could still find them if I went to Yard Sales. They didn’t cell CD's anymore. When stealing songs off the internet for your Ipod or Eardots became popular is when they got rid of them. I was mad. I never owned an Ipod and I could care less to own one. I looked up when I heard the door to the back room open. It was Karrie. One of the employees.

    “Ryder, there’s a spill on the main floor.”

    I sighed and nodded. I grabbed a mop and a bucket and headed out. I switched my CD and started listening to Korn. I found the spill and started mopping it up. People rushed past me and everyone was at the check out counters. I just rolled my eyes. Idiot people. So what? A storms coming, big deal. I slopped the mop bucket around and didn’t really squeeze the mop. I started mopping and bobbed my head a little. As I turned to clean out my mop and start again I heard a slight scream and a body meeting the floor. I turned slowly and almost laughed as a girl had slipped and was lying on the floor looking dazed.

    “Oops,” I muttered trying to keep a cool expression. She sat up, her eyes looking a little dazed. I noticed she was dressed like a secretary or a working mom. I raised an eyebrow. She had curly red hair and green eyes. She looked up at me with a pissed off expression. She looked like a b***h. One of those ‘my daddy can sue your daddy’ kind of girl. I pulled off my headphones.

    “Yeah right,” she said starting to stand up. I just ignored her. I tried to get a look down her shirt but it didn’t work out. When she stood she was just a little shorter then me. “Sorry.” I said with a shrug. Get over it women. We all have problems. She glared at me. She looked like she was holding back a lot of words as her green eyes just stared at me. She was pretty hot, but this chick needed to get a life. Her daddy wasn’t always going to give her everything all her life.

    “Jackass,” she muttered as she pushed my shoulder hard to go around me. I raised an eyebrow surprised at her boldness and her cursing. I turned slightly as she stomped away, her hands in fist. I laughed then and shook my head. I mopped the rest of the floor and went back to the back room. I put everything away then found a couch that had plastic on it in the corner in the storage room and layed down. I sighed and yawned. No one would find me here. The boss wasn’t here and no one cared. I shut my eyes and turned my music up louder to play over and over again.

    ************************************************************************************


    I jumped as I heard the metal doors banging shut. I stood up throwing my ear phones off and CD player on the couch. I could see right into the break room at the window and watched as the bullet proof metal doors clanked shut over the window. Damn! I heard thunder rumbling that echoed on the roof. Man! Their shutting down! I ran out of the storage room and into the store. I could see out to the sliding doors and saw it was all boarded up. A smile curled at my lips and I looked all around and saw no one here. But me. They forgot I was here. They must have been in a rush to get out and shut it down without checking anything. That’s what the protocol usually was. I was left here. Alone. In Wal-Mart.

    I grinned. “Awesome.”

    Trinity:

    “Hello?” I called my voice hoarse. “Oh man,” I muttered near tears. “Helloooo?” I called again walking out. “Anybody here?” I ran out to the main floor and looked at all the empty registers. Drink coolers were open and almost everything all gone. Everyone had got what they wanted and left. I heard the thunder loud and clear above my head. It rattled the ceiling. “Hello? Please! Is someone here?”

    “Yeah, yeah, shut it,”

    I jumped and spun around on my heels and stared wide eyed at the boy who had been rude when I slipped. His eyes got wide as he pulled his hand down from his head that he was scratching. My mouth opened but then it closed. Finally, I got out what I wanted.

    “Please god, tell me you’re not the only one?”

    He raised an eyebrow then smirked. He turned a little to the right then to the left, and then looked back at me with his hands out.

    “Do you see anyone else? Maybe their hiding in the stuff animal aisle.” He said sarcastically.

    I growled. “Don’t get sarcastic with me!” I yelled. His eye brow raised even more. “Wouldn’t dream of it.” His voice was rough and think, and I hated it with a passion!

    “Ugh!” I screamed. He just looked at me. I leaned against a stack of an on sale cereal and sighed. Just, get control of yourself. I yanked out my cell phone again and tried for the 3rd time to turn it on. It wouldn’t.

    “It’s not going to turn on. It’s the metal.” I glared at him as he just stood there in black jeans, black t shirt and a Wal-Mart vest saying on the back ‘How can I help you?’ I’ll help you, right off a cliff! I can’t believe I’m in this mess. There was a creak of thunder that made me jump. The boy just looked up at the ceiling.

    “Okay, listen,” I said standing up straight and looking at him. His eyes slowly went down to meet mine. I took a deep breath. “I don’t know how long we’re going to be in here because there isn’t a button for this metal to come off on in the inside. And I know we kind of met on bad turns….so lets start over,” I said with a fake smile. His frown was confusing and sort of cute but he nodded.

    “I’m Trinity,” I said putting out my hand in a formal professional way. Like how my dad did with his friends. He just looked at my hand then up to me.

    “What are you 30?”

    My mouth dropped. “No! I’m 17!”

    He laughed and it rang in my ears sweetly. “Wow, well, um, I’m Ryder,” he said and shook my hand laughing still. I actually liked his name. It sounded very old fashion. But I wasn’t about to tell him that!

    I yanked my hand free. “Whatever.” I looked around cupping my elbows. “When will they come back?” I asked quietly.

    He shrugged. “Depends. If the storm sticks for long, then not for a while but if it just lasts a couple days then soon.” See that was what was so different. Storms lasted so much long now then they did 5 years ago. There’s hardly any wind, so when we have storms it doesn’t get blown away like it always does.

    I groaned. “Great! And I’m guessing we don’t have one of those phones that plugs into the wall?”

    Ryder grimaced. “No,”

    I sighed. My throat was sore and I could feel the place getting colder. With no heat and no sun coming in, it was going to get a little cold. As I was thinking, I didn’t notice as Ryder turned and grabbed a box of cereal and started to walk off.

    “Hey!” I called and ran after him to see where he was going. He didn’t stop. “Hey, what are you doing?” I yelled. He turned a quick right down a main walkway and started over toward the sheets and blankets. I frowned.

    “Doing what I want to do?” he said more like a question.

    “But…but…” he stopped in front of many different pillow types and grabbed one and ripped off the plastic with his teeth.

    I gaped at him. “What the hell? Are you going to pay for that?!” he looked at me and my heart sped up slightly. Then he walked around me and out toward the chairs, tables and no other then, a big on sale bed. Quipped with a big white comforter, sheets and a small soft lamb. I gaped again as he jumped flat on the bed stuck the pillow behind his head and kicked off his black sneakers. I walked to the end of the bed my hands on my hips. “But shouldn’t we be doing something?! Something to get us the hell out of here?!” I yelled.

    He frowned at me as he opened his box of cereal and started eating it, staring at me. “You’d look way hotter if you didn’t dress like a 30 year old lawyer,” he said. Anger burned my face and also embarrassment. Do I really look old? But I was supposed too! “Yeah and maybe if you fixed your hair a little better you wouldn’t look like a homeless person!” I growled.

    He smiled. Not a smirk but an actual smile.

    “Touché,” he threw a piece of Pops up in the air and caught it in his mouth. He crunched it loud. I wanted to go over and rip his ears off his head! But, I knew then I wouldn’t be able to go to Harvard with a murder record.

    I took a deep breath. “What are we supposed to do till then?” He looked around and smacked his lips. They had sugar on them and I urge to take it off. I bit my lip.

    “Well, I know what I’m doing. I think I might get that new 2016 Thin Screen over here somehow….” He threw another piece of Pops in the air and it hit him in the nose.

    “You mean…you’re going to use this stuff?” I asked surprised. He nodded like I was stupid.

    “What else do they think we’re going to do being stuck here? Look at the bottle water as we die of thirst? I don’t think so!”

    I nodded. He was right. We had a right to use this stuff. After all we were the ones they left here.

    “Fine then.” I turned and started walking.

    “Hey! Where are you going?” he yelled not moving.

    “To make myself at home!” I called back.