The Mesmerized Read online

  “Definitely outside.” Simone eyed the swinging chandeliers near the check-in counter set behind the gilded fountain with its ornate globe. “And it’s definitely not a good sound.”

  Minji bolted past the fountain toward the front doors, dragging the stretcher behind her. Simone helped, but Arthur abandoned them and sprinted to the entrance.

  “Oh, my God!” Arthur came to a stop and stared in horror at the world beyond the glass doors.

  “What is it?” Minji called, bringing the stretcher to a halt. It banged into her hip painfully. How much worse could things get? She was terribly afraid to find out. “Is it safe to go out?”

  “I...I...” Turning several shades lighter than normal, Arthur retreated from the exit. “This is bad. Very, very bad.”

  Minji and Simone cautiously pulled the stretcher to within a few feet of the doorway and peered outside. A churning gray fog obscured the view beyond the arrival area. Minji watched the thick haze creeping over the still running vehicles toward the entrance. It took several seconds for Minji to comprehend that the roiling gray cloudy fingers reaching for the front of the resort were something other than fog.

  “Oh, my God! We need to take cover!”

  Minji pushed the stretcher away from her, sending it rolling across the lobby away from the entrance. Grabbing Ava’s arm and scrambling around the fountain, she ducked behind it.

  Simone appeared to grasp what was about to happen and attempted to follow, but slipped on the slick floor in her high heels and landed with a thud on her hip. “Shit!”

  “Arthur, get down!” Minji screamed.

  Simone scuttled behind the fountain, her expression one of terror. Arthur was released from his paralysis and hurried to join them.

  The cloud of debris hit the building with a deafening crash. Fragments of buildings, cars, and people pelted the glass entrance. The glass fractured into a sparkling spider web, but miraculously held. The angry gray cloud boiled against the splintered glass like a living beast desperate to break through the doors and smother them.

  “What is that?” Arthur gasped.

  “A building came down,” Simone answered while trying to console Bailey. The baby was sobbing again, much to Minji’s distress.

  Arthur stared fearfully at the dark cloud that consumed the sunlight and hid the world from view. “How do you know?”

  “Didn’t you see the 9-11 news footage?” Minji asked incredulously. “That looks just like the debris cloud when the towers went down.”

  Wiping his mouth with his trembling fingers, Arthur sluggishly nodded. “The helicopters?”

  Simone wagged her head in the negative. “No, a plane came down on the Luxor. The building must have collapsed.”

  “You saw it?” Arthur couldn’t tear his gaze from the cracking glass.

  Simone continued to try to shush Bailey by patting her back while she spoke. “I had just left the airport. My driver was taking me to my conference when the car ended up in a pileup. Lucky for me, it was slow moving traffic. I was the only one to get out of the cars. Everyone else stayed inside, not moving, just staring. I tried to rouse my driver, but it didn’t work. Then I saw the plane hit the Luxor. It was like a knife into butter. When the plane exploded I ran. I kept running until I saw the rescue vehicles outside.”

  The mammoth glass pyramid must have collapsed for there to be such an enormous debris cloud.

  “I think I heard it when the first attack happened.” Minji distinctly remembered a loud boom that had rocked the casino.

  “It wasn’t the only plane to go down. I saw more falling out of the sky when I was running, but those appeared to be further out of the city.” Simone dipped her hands in the water and attempted to wash the grit and blood off them.

  “So it is terrorists,” Arthur declared.

  Simone shrugged. “Who knows? All I know is that everyone but the three of us – and the baby – is acting like a...” She flicked her fingers, the droplets striking the smooth surface of the water. Her high brow furrowed beneath her side-swept bangs. “Acting like…”

  “Zombies,” Arthur offered.

  “They’re not attacking people. They’re not eating us,” Minji said defensively, hugging Ava lovingly.

  “Yet.”

  Simone rolled her eyes at Arthur’s comment.

  “They’re still alive. Jake has a pulse. So does Ava. It’s like they’re sleepwalking or something.”

  Arthur shrugged. “The terrorists must have put something in the air. Maybe in that plane that crashed.”

  Simone dismissed this comment with the shake of her head. “I doubt that, Arthur. That plane crashed after the massive pileup. My driver slipped into a trance and it appeared everyone else driving did, too. No one honked, no one slammed on their brakes. They just drove into one another. Then the plane struck the Luxor.”

  Bailey quieted, letting out a pitiful sniffle.

  Minji lifted her hand so Bailey could grip it. The young mother definitely sympathized with her baby daughter. The sights and sounds of the day were overwhelming to her as an adult. She could only imagine how terrifying it was for Bailey. Gazing at Ava, Minji was torn. Was it better that Ava wasn’t aware of the terrible events unfolding? Yet, how could her transfixed state be something good? When would she awaken? At least she wasn’t attempting to follow the others anymore.

  Faint patches of sunlight pierced through the thick, dark cloud as it gradually dissipated while the heavier fragments settled to the ground and the hot desert wind brushed away the lighter particles.

  “We should be able to leave soon,” Minji said, though she wasn’t really sure she wanted to venture outside.

  “Maybe we should stay here?” Simone glanced toward a body near the check-in counter. “On second thought...”

  “We should get some masks out of the ambulance,” Arthur said. “The...uh...mesmerized people with the gas masks are already gone, so we’ll have to settle for those surgeon ones.”

  “The mesmerized?” Simone tried the word out, and then nodded. “A very good description of them.”

  Rolling her shoulders, Minji tried to relax the knot forming at the base of her neck. The other woman noted her discomfort and gently pulled Ava from Minji’s arms.

  “You’re doing too much, Minji. Arthur, we need to help her out more. Get the diaper bag. I’ll take care of the little girl.”

  “Why should I—”

  “Do it,” Simone said, her voice firm.

  Grudgingly, Arthur took the heavy diaper bag from Minji.

  A sigh of relief escaped her lips. “Thank you.”

  Simone clambered to her feet and hoisted Ava onto her hip. Ava’s head immediately swiveled toward Minji.

  “Is she waking up?” Minji gasped, pulling herself to her feet.

  Ava’s head tilted to follow Minji’s face, but she didn’t speak or give any indication of awareness.

  “Ava, do you want to go to your mommy?” Simone asked.

  The five-year old continued to stare at Minji, but there wasn’t a hint of recognition in her eyes.

  “Try moving over there,” Simone suggested, gesturing with her chin toward an archway.

  Nearby Arthur watched nervously. “I don’t like the way her eyes look. They’re all spooky.”

  “Arthur, you need to be quiet,” Simone commanded.

  Minji took a few steps to one side, removing herself from Ava’s immediate view. Her daughter’s head swiveled to follow. Joy burst to life in her heart and her first smile since the disastrous event flitted across her lips. Ava had to be awakening.

  “Ava, can you hear me? Can you hear Mommy?”

  The redhead faced Minji, but her eyes still weren’t clearly focused on her mother. Again, Minji scuttled to one side. Ava twisted in Simone’s hold to track her mother’s path.

  “What does it mean?” Arthur demanded. “Is she waking up?”

  “Maybe,” Simone said cautiously. “Or maybe it’s not affecting her as much as the other
s. Her mother and sister are immune. Maybe she has a limited immunity.”

  “Then why is he doing it, too?” Arthur asked, indicating the nearby stretcher.

  Minji’s heart stuttered in her chest. “Jake!”

  Her husband had craned his head toward her, but like Ava, he showed no sign of actual recognition. Then, very slowly, his lips parted revealing his white teeth. At the same moment, Ava did the same thing.

  “Put her down! She’s going to bite you!” Arthur shouted, scrambling backward.

  Though Simone threw a nasty look Arthur’s way, she did set Ava down and took a step back, keeping hold on the leash.

  Taking a hesitant step forward, Minji held out her hands toward her husband. “Jake, are you waking up? Can you hear me?”

  In response her husband’s mouth twisted in odd shapes, his jaw jutted outward, and the muscles in his neck flexed.

  “She’s doing that, too!” Arthur screeched.

  Flicking her eyes back and forth between her husband and daughter, it became frighteningly clear that they were perfectly mirroring each other’s movements. In a flash of memory, Minji realized she had seen something similar.

  “A man did this earlier. Like he was trying to talk, but...” Minji faltered.

  “Didn’t know how?” Simone suggested.

  “Look! The air is clearer. I’m getting out of here and far away from any of the others like them. This is getting really crazy now. I can’t deal with this!” Arthur hurled the diaper bag to the floor. “You’re on your own!”

  “Then so are you,” Simone said coldly, her dark eyes narrowing. “No one to watch your back.”

  Arthur hesitated near the doors.

  “If you get hurt, who’s going to help you?” Simone’s heels clicked against the floor as she walked over to the diaper bag. Picking it up, she slung it over her shoulder. “Go. See how far you get on your own. Without a plan. Without help.”

  Arthur whirled about and stormed over to the stretcher. Grabbing the handholds, he glared at Simone. “If I need you, you need me. Don’t forget that.”

  “We all need each other,” Minji reminded both of them. “So far we’re the only ones that aren’t affected by this event. We might be the only people in all of Las Vegas who are not mesmerized. How many are dying right now? How many are dead? We need to find medical help for my husband. We need to find a safe place away from collapsing buildings and fires. I say we go north. Jake pointed out a new emergency medical facility down by the Stratosphere. We should go there.”

  “That’s about two or three miles away. It’s not going to be an easy trek with all that chaos out there,” Simone observed.

  “We don’t have a choice,” Arthur said. “We should go.”

  “It’s in the direction the mesmerized are walking,” Simone reminded him.

  “Then we won’t have to fight the flow of foot traffic.” Minji’s mind was made up. She was tired of being at the mercy of the situation and was determined to be proactive. Her husband and daughter might be on the verge of awakening, but she couldn’t just sit in the lobby and wait. Jake needed medical attention that she didn’t know how to give him.

  “She’s right. If we’re moving with the crowd, it’ll be easier.” Arthur gave Simone a triumphant look.

  “Okay, but did either one of you wonder where the mesmerized are going?” Simone’s arched eyebrow slid upward.

  Losing his bravado, Arthur glanced nervously toward the boulevard. “They’re just walking.”

  “In the same direction,” Simone mused. “In one big crowd. Like they have a purpose.”

  “Is it important to know where they’re going as long as we know our destination?” Minji asked.

  “Who knows?” Simone said. “I guess maybe we’ll find that out.” Taking Ava’s hand, she walked toward the front doors. “Let’s start walking before anything worse happens.”

  Ava twisted her torso so she could keep an eye on her mother. Minji hoped it was a good sign.

  Taking hold of the hand grip at the head of the stretcher, she looked into her husband’s eerily empty blue eyes. For a brief second, she thought she saw awareness in their depths, but she had the distinct feeling that it wasn’t Jake watching her. She shivered inwardly.

  “What is it?” Arthur demanded.

  “Nothing,” Minji lied. “Just a chill.”

  “It’s really cold in here,” Arthur agreed.

  Simone swung open the front doors. “And out here...this day just keeps getting stranger and stranger.”

  As she neared the open doorway and the cool air from outside swirled around Minji’s tattooed flesh, she couldn’t agree more with Simone’s sentiment.

  Chapter 12

  The air was breathable, but thick and cloying. The dark ash drifted on the wind, obscuring the sunlight enough to mimic twilight. The fake lagoon was no longer a tantalizing blue, but dark with bits of helicopter chunks poking out of the depths. Toward the south, smoke churned into the air like the breath of countless dragons. Treasure Island’s face was blackened by the thick plumes rising from the fires burning in the lower floors. It resembled a scene out of a disaster movie.

  Yet everything that was happening was Minji’s new reality. The only hope she had of escaping from it was to find help somehow.

  Simone kindly helped cover Bailey’s mouth with the neckline of the baby’s t-shirt, while Minji shielded Ava’s by doing the same thing. Her daughter’s dark eyes stared up at her, devoid of emotion or any sign of comprehension. On the stretcher Jake strained to keep his gaze pinned on Minji, but his eyes, too, were devoid of his personality. The longer the phenomena continued, the more unsettling it became. Minji was starting to wonder if their persistent stares were really a sign of them gradually awakening. She tried to cling to hope, but it was already sifting through her fingers like vapor.

  Arthur dashed around inside the tents searching for face masks and managed to produce enough for everyone. His jubilant expression rendered his dour face rather pleasant and Minji pondered if the current circumstances had brought out the worst in his personality. Though there had already been many times when she’d wanted to sit and sob at the sheer awfulness of what she was suffering, she’d shoved all those emotions to the back of her mind in order to concentrate on the undertaking of rescuing her family. She was not her usual vibrant self, but a darker variation.

  “See! I know what I’m talking about,” he said with a cocky tilt of his chin.

  Simone took a mask grudgingly. “So you did...in this case.”

  Minji claimed masks for her and the children. To her surprise, Arthur set about putting one on Jake. “Thank you, Arthur.”

  It took a little work to get Bailey to wear the mask and not tear it off, but Simone maintained an eye on the baby for Minji. The face mask wasn’t particularly comfortable, but it made it easier to breathe.

  Once the small group was ready, Simone carried the diaper bag and held Ava’s hand while Arthur pushed the stretcher as Minji guided it. In silence, they trudged down the long drive toward the boulevard, winding around the emergency vehicles and black vans. What were these strange vehicles with no markings? Minji was mystified by their appearance. Stepping toward the nearest one, Minji craned her head, attempting to peer inside, but the windows were tinted so dark it was impossible.

  “I wonder where these are from,” Minji speculated aloud.

  “Black ops,” Arthur suggested.

  “What’s that?” Minji cast a curious look his way.

  “Uh, those secret government agencies. We are in Nevada. They have all sorts of secret bases out here, remember?”

  Simone bestowed the man with skeptical glare while Minji mulled this over.

  “They were here really quickly, weren’t they?” Arthur waved a hand at all the rescue vehicles. “The CDC was here immediately. I think they knew this was going to go down.”

  “How?” Simone asked. “How would they know?”

  “A terrorist threat probably.
Something the NSA picked up. That’s probably why we can’t call out on our cell phones. They’re keeping it all hush-hush.”

  “Or a cell tower went down, which is more likely,” Simone said with a shake of her head.

  Arthur gave her a disdainful look. “There is a whole lot more going on than you know.”

  “Uh huh.” Simone chuckled and kept walking.

  A few more footsteps brought them closer to the vehicle. Hard thumps resounded from within.

  “They’re trying to get out,” Simone observed. “They don’t know how to get out. That’s how my driver was, too. He kept battering himself against the steering wheel. He wanted to join the others, but didn’t know how.”

  Somewhere up the boulevard came a series of sharp popping noises followed by loud whooshes. The situation was growing direr by the minute.

  “We should get them out,” Minji said, feeling the weary burden of responsibility settle on her psyche. How could she keep walking and not help? There were so many in need it was impossible to assist everyone. If she could rescue a few, however, she would try to do so. It was the right thing to do.

  “No way! We keep moving! You did just hear those explosions, right?” Arthur rammed the stretcher into her hip to keep her moving.

  “Hey!”

  “They might be safer in there then out here,” Simone said significantly, her dark eyes resting on a spot beyond them.

  Directing her attention to the boulevard, Minji wondered if Simone was right, and for a split second, considered returning to The Venetian. The mesmerized continued to march to the north. The endless stream wove through the wreckage in a mass of stumbling flesh. Most were injured, some grievously. Despite the wounds inflicted on their bodies by the car collisions, helicopter wreckage, fire, and debris cloud, they continued walking. Some were so severely burned Minji couldn’t tell if they were male or female. Most likely the only reason they were able to even move was because they were mesmerized. The reek of burned flesh sifted through the face mask and Minji found it difficult not to retch.

  “Leave them inside the van,” Simone decided. “It’s more humane.”