The Mesmerized

“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.