Second Chapter of "Reversing Entropy"
The sun hadn't even rose, but she couldn't rest for any longer, nor did she want to. Madeleine needed to move; she had been resting for far too long after she fell asleep last night in the front seat of her car. Sleeping in for too long is a huge mistake when you're trying to hide from the sadistic raiders that appear after most disasters, including the bomb. The raiders were likely normal people once; they were people who had jobs and people who would work hard to provide for their families, but something inside of them changed when their world collapsed. No, she felt that their ruthlessness is something found in a specific group of people, something that emerges only after everyone else around them either vanishes or leaves. While the rest of the world fell, the corrupted rose into power, unveiling their true selves from a thin cover of sanity. This breed of person entered into neither shock nor survival mode but instead stayed the same as they had been. After all, it was only a matter of time before their true self became unveiled.