by Tate, Harley
The lights of a cluster of buildings still glittered ahead in the distance like a mirage rising out of the desert. Parts of Vegas still had power. Were the smaller streets safer than the freeway?
She flipped on the high beams and slowed. Thanks to the position of the semi, there was no way to sneak through. The cab wedged against a sedan, pinning it against the overpass supports on the right, while the trailer busted through the Jersey barrier on the left. “I have to exit.”
“We’ll be lost.”
She pointed at the cluster of lit buildings. “Some of the power is still on.” She glanced at Keith. “Maybe the streets won’t be so bad.”
“All the power in the world won’t help us navigate.”
Lainey turned toward the back. Electricity wouldn’t help, but the satellite in the van would. “Owen! Owen, wake up.”
A groan rose up from the back as Owen struggled to wake. “What is it?”
“We have to get off the highway. Can you navigate?”
The cat meowed as Owen nudged him off his lap to dig out his tablet. “Should be able to. Give me a minute.”
Lainey took the exit, slowing as she wound past parked semis lining up on the shoulder. She stopped at the first cross-street. All the lights were dark.
“Go straight.” Owen’s voice carried from the back as he worked his way up to the front of the van. He eased Bear out the way and kneeled at the console, using it as a table for his tablet. “We’ll cut through the residential part of town. Avoid the Strip.”
She advanced through the intersection with caution, eyes focused on the road. Apartment buildings rose up on either side of the street with not a single light glowing in any window.
It didn’t make any sense. She tilted her head. “Why is the power out here , but not up there? We’re miles from Los Angeles or the site of any other bomb. Shouldn’t it still be working throughout the city?”
Keith nodded. “I would think so. The Hoover Dam’s got to generate more than enough electricity to fuel the city.”
Owen answered a moment later. “According to this article, ninety-five percent of the dam’s power is shipped to other areas in the country. Vegas gets its power from the national grid, just like the rest of the country.”
“So because some cities have collapsed, that means the whole country is in the dark?”
“Pretty much.”
“Then why didn’t the power go out in LA when the eastern half of the country was hit?”
Owen typed on his tablet and scrolled articles before he found the answer. “Looks like there was enough power generation from natural gas and coal plants not affected by the blackout to reroute the power to the western half. But as soon as the bombs deployed, major portions of the grid collapsed.”
“You mean there’s too much damage?”
“Exactly. Without enough working plants to direct the energy through the grid, it all fails.”
Lainey exhaled. “So no matter where we go, we’ll be in the dark.”
“I’m afraid so.”
Keith pointed up ahead. “Then why is the power on there?”
Lainey could still glimpse the tops of the towers rising above the town. “Could part of the grid still be operational?”
Owen searched again. “Looks like it’s called the City Center. A hundred percent off-the-grid development. It generates its own electricity on-site using natural gas.”
“That’s a good sign, right? It means the city hasn’t devolved into total chaos. Part of it is still operational.”
No one responded and Lainey kept driving, heading deeper into residential Las Vegas as apartments gave way to squat, one-story bungalows and wide streets. They skirted the edge of a fenced-off strip of desert, van headlights lighting up graffitied barriers and No Trespassing signs.
Owen directed Lainey north, and as they crossed another barren street, her nose twitched. “Is that smoke?” She closed the vent and turned off the air-conditioning to not suck it into the vehicle.
“Maybe people are using fireplaces for heat.”
“I don’t think that’s it.” Lainey pointed up ahead. Even in the dark, she could make out the plume of smoke rising above a building a block away. As they neared, the charred remains of the front entrance greeted them. “What does that say?”
Keith leaned over to read. “McCarran Rent-A-Car Center.” He leaned back. “We’re right by the airport.”
“We should check it out.” Jerry’s sleepy voice cut through the unease building in Lainey’s chest. “They’ll have a gas station just for the rental places. Might have a manual override.”
“Not a bad idea.”
Lainey turned to Keith in alarm, but he reached out and gave Lainey’s knee a squeeze. “First sign of trouble, we leave.”
She swallowed down a wave of bile and turned into the rental facility, following the signs for rental car return.
“Kill the lights.”
Lainey clicked the lights off and eased the van to a stop about a hundred yards inside the rust-colored wall ringing the property. “What now?”
“We should split up,” Jerry suggested. “Someone stay here with the van, someone search the place on foot.”
Owen twisted around. “Shouldn’t we just drive around, see if we can find the station?”
“Not if we want to sneak in unnoticed. We can’t be the only people with the same idea.”
“It’s been a week. Anyone who was stranded at the airport is long gone by now.”
“Jerry’s right. We can’t be too careful.” Keith reached for the door handle. “I can go.”
“You can not.” Lainey shook her head. “You’re barely mobile. That leg won’t last if you have to run.”
“I can’t keep sending you out to do the hard work.”
“You can and you will.” Lainey tugged on the door handle and pushed the van door open.
“I’ll go, too,” Jerry volunteered. He patted the huge revolver lodged into his belt. “Gives me a chance to pretend I’m a cowboy.”
Lainey wished she could laugh, but nothing seemed funny anymore. She eased out of the van and turned back to Keith. “We’ll be back as soon as possible.”
“Don’t make me come looking.”
She nodded and shut the door. With Jerry beside her, they inched their way deeper into the rental car facility, bypassing a fleet of commercial trucks and the main building with empty rental car desks and headed straight for the maintenance area. With the sky clear and the moon bright, Lainey’s eyes adjusted quickly.
It didn’t take long to find the gas station. Every pump was smashed, hoses ripped clean out of their sockets. Lainey palmed her hips in frustration. “Who would do this?”
“Someone more frustrated than smart.” Jerry picked up a broken hose. “Even if there’s gas still in the underground tank, there’s no way to access it now.”
Lainey turned, ready to give up on the rental car facility and find another means to fill the tank, and came face-to-face with a stranger.
“Please, do you have any food? Water?” The man held out both arms, but in the moonlight, Lainey couldn’t be sure his hands were empty. She clicked on the flashlight.
Middle-aged, with a portly belly and a pair of dirt-stained jeans, he looked like a cast member of The Hangover when they woke up the next day. A tear cut across his dress shirt and a bruise turned his eye a sickly combination of yellow and green.
“I’m sorry, we can’t help.” Jerry spoke form behind Lainey’s right shoulder.
“Please, you don’t understand. I’ve been stuck here for a week. No one will help me.”
Lainey swallowed. “Where are you from?”
“New Jersey. I was here for a friend’s wedding and I stayed an extra day.” He hit the side of his head with his palm. “So stupid.” He hit himself again. “So stupid.”
Lainey took a step back. The man might have been telling the truth, but the past week had taken a toll. She kept the flashlight trained on his face.
“We’re just passing through.”
“Take me with you!” He staggered forward.
“Don’t come any closer,” Jerry cautioned.
“Please!” The man stepped forward. “I need your help! You have to help me!”
Jerry stepped up to stand in front of Lainey. He pulled the gun out from his belt. “I said stop.”
The man’s pleading turned into a blubbering wail. “I told him you wouldn’t help! I told him you were just like all the others!” He sank to his knees.
Lainey tugged on Jerry’s arm. “We’ve got to go.” If someone put the man up to accosting them, it meant they weren’t alone. She clicked off the flashlight.
“I was right!” The man cried and laughed and threw his arms up, getting louder and louder the more he fell apart. “I’m always right!”
Together, Lainey and Jerry ran for the van, ducking past unused rental cars as they headed for the main entrance. In an instant, their path illuminated. A pair of headlights blasted high beams behind them.
“This way!” Jerry darted between two sedans and Lainey followed, using the vehicles to shield their movements. An engine revved to life.
Lainey pushed her body, gasping for air as she ran faster than she had in years. They reached the van as the sound of a vehicle approached from behind them. Lainey threw open the driver’s door and fell into the seat, cranking the engine before she even shut the door.
Chapter Ten
KEITH
McCarran Rent-A-Car Center
Las Vegas, NV
Saturday, 1:00 a.m. PST
Keith clicked his seatbelt into place as Lainey punched the gas. The van’s rear bumper scraped against the ground as Lainey backed out of the entrance to the rental car facility. Headlights lit up the side mirror. The lights grew larger by the second. Whoever was chasing them was coming on fast.
She slammed the brakes and threw the car into drive before cranking the wheel. “Which way?” Panic laced her words as she pressed the accelerator, not waiting for a response.
“There’s a sign for the 215.” Keith fumbled with the map, flipping to the Nevada pages as Lainey flew past the on-ramp.
“We can’t risk the highway. What if we get stuck?”
Headlights flared again in the side mirrors and Lainey bent to take a look. “They’re still coming!”
Owen called out from the back. “I can’t connect! Give me a minute!”
“We don’t have a minute!” Lainey kept driving until the road dead-ended at a cross street. Across a blank and barren stretch of desert, the shining lights of the illuminated City Center shone bright against the night. Lainey whipped the van to the left, tracking the edge of the empty field and the van’s headlights lit up an airplane parked at the edge of the chain-link fence.
The airport. Of course. Keith thought back to the last time he’d flown into Vegas. There had been one of those fifty-dollar specials from Los Angeles and he’d come for the weekend with Daphne. The thought of her name still sent a pang of regret through him, but he pushed it down. “If you turn right as soon as you can, you’ll head straight for the Strip.”
“Is that what I want?” Lainey cast a frantic glance in his direction.
The headlights behind them gained, growing larger in the passenger-side mirror. The sign for South Las Vegas Boulevard hung from the dead street light as they neared the intersection. Now or never.
Keith nodded. “Turn. If the lights are still on, there might still be cops near the casinos.”
Lainey did as he suggested, cranking the steering wheel and turning so fast one tire came off the ground. Bear whimpered. Keith stuck out his hand to calm the animal. The cat hissed in the back.
“The City Center will be on the left. If we can’t find anywhere else, it at least has power.” Owen cradled the tablet in his lap as he swayed with the van. “I don’t know where else to go.”
Lainey focused on driving, darting past abandoned cars and blasting through dark intersections. The looming towers of the first casino rose up out of the desert on the left, but Lainey didn’t slow.
A sharp series of pops echoed outside.
“Were those—” Lainey left the question hanging as Bear rushed toward the front seats. He climbed over Owen and the console and into Keith’s lap. Keith eased the dog down, spitting out wads of golden fluff as he tried to calm him. “It’s okay. You’re okay.”
Another series of sharp cracks pocked the silence.
Lainey almost jumped. “Those were definitely gunshots.”
“Just keep driving.”
She glanced in the mirror. “They’re still chasing us, but I think they’ve dropped off.” She turned to him, eyes wide. “What if it’s not them shooting?”
“I don’t think it is. Look.” Jerry pointed toward the windshield and Keith turned to face the front. What used to be the Mandalay Bay was now a three-pronged cinder of soot and ash. Cars littered the front entrance and the once-perfect palm trees now stood like blackened toothpicks around the empty man-made waterfall.
“As long as we keep driving, we’ll be fine.” Keith tried to sound optimistic, but his words rang hollow. Up ahead, more and more cars clogged the road, most with smashed windows or blackened paint from fires already burned out. Luxor and Excalibur suffered worse damage than Mandalay Bay, the pyramid nothing more than rubble.
“This looks like a war zone.” Lainey slowed to inch around an accident spanning most of the intersection, with everything from a Honda hatchback to a black Suburban with huge rims smashed, broken, and left to rot.
“Think about how much crime must go on here on an ordinary day. Drug deals, theft, prostitution.” Jerry spoke loud enough to be heard from the backseat. “As soon as the grid collapsed, the criminal element probably went into overdrive.”
Owen agreed. “All that casino money and a nationwide crisis. A riot probably broke out that day.”
Lainey slammed on the brakes and Keith threw his arm out to keep from hitting the dash. Bear whimpered.
“What the—”
Lainey pointed at the road where a body sprawled across the pavement, head smashed in. Keith swallowed. Another series of gunshots sounded to the right of the van, way too close for comfort. “Keep driving. We can’t be that far from the City Center.”
The lights of the only electrified part of Las Vegas beckoned and Lainey maneuvered around the dead man and kept heading north. Her whole body trembled. Keith wished he could calm her nerves.
As they passed the Tropicana, something hit the side of the van. Lainey shrieked and yanked the wheel. The van shimmied.
“We’re almost there.” Keith maintained an even pitch despite the rising panic in his chest.
They crossed beneath a pedestrian bridge and entered another major intersection. The lights of the City Center glowed even brighter. They were so close.
A figure stumbled into the road. Lainey laid on the horn. The person turned.
“Gun!” Keith reached for the wheel, reacting on instinct, and tugged. The van careened to the right as a shot rang out. A bullet pierced the back window, sending little bits of tempered glass flying into the rear of the van.
Cold night air flew into the van along with the smell of old fire and something more noxious. Jerry fell against the wall of the van, gun drawn. He stuck it out the window and fired a shot into the night. Silence. Keith exhaled and let the wheel go.
At least whoever shot at them didn’t pursue. Headlights flashed in the mirrors. The vehicle from the rental car place was still back there. Why hadn’t it closed in? What was it waiting for?
“Guys?” Lainey slowed the van. Something huge and pale green blocked most of the road. “What is that?”
“It’s the Statute of Liberty. The New York-New York replica, anyway.” Keith leaned closer. Where Lady Liberty’s face used to be, now only an empty crater remained. He shuddered. “Keep going.”
Lainey sped up, leaving the ruined rollercoaster of the casino behind. As they crossed
beneath another pedestrian overpass, she slowed again. Dumpsters blocked the entire left-hand side of the road leading up to the City Center.
Jerry twisted away from the broken window. “This looks intentional. Like a blockade.”
“See if there’s a way around.”
As Lainey eased the van into the intersection, a single open lane emerged on the far right-hand side. Lainey turned toward the illuminated area when a booming voice spoke over a loudspeaker. “Attention. You are violating the mandatory curfew. Pull over immediately.”
She turned to Keith. “Are they talking to us?”
“Pull over! Present yourselves for inspection.”
Lainey slowed the van, stopping twenty feet before another pedestrian crossing. A pair of men with long guns stood on the path, backlit by the brilliance of the building lights.
“I think so.” Keith leaned over to look in the rearview. “Whoever was following us stopped. They didn’t turn this way.”
“One guess why.” Jerry eased back into the van. “I think we should do what they say.”
“We don’t know who they are. For all we know, it’s just the two of them.” As Lainey spoke, a Las Vegas police cruiser with flashing lights whipped onto the road. “Or not.”
“Just park the van,” offered Owen. “We can talk to the cops. Explain the situation.”
Keith glanced in the mirror. “There’s no one behind us. If you gunned it, we might be able to get away.”
“Exit the vehicle!” the booming voice spoke again.
Lainey shifted into reverse. Keith tensed.
A second cop car flew past the first, slamming to a stop perpendicular to the van and blocking their exit. Lainey glanced at Keith. “Why do I get the feeling this isn’t going to end well?”
Keith had no words of encouragement left. He thought the exact same thing.
Chapter Eleven
LAINEY
