The Mesmerized

by Rhiannon Frater

  Chapter 5

  “Ava!” she automatically shouted, startling Bailey, who instantly burst into tears. “Ava!”

  Of course there wasn’t an answer.

  The distant stomping of the crowd sent slivers of ice through her blood.

  What if Ava was with the others? She was so small she’d be easily trampled.

  Hopscotching over bodies, Minji reached the planter where she had left Ava. Both the leash and the little girl were gone. Ava was mesmerized like all the rest, so when the crowd had started their trek, she must have strained on the leash until the knot had worked itself free. Minji had to find her.

  Shifting Bailey onto her hip, the young mother traced her steps back to the atrium. She assumed Ava had followed the horde, which would direct her either down the escalators or along the second floor railing. Minji didn’t even want to think about Ava pressed up against the wrought iron, being crushed to death. Minji was already doing her best to avoid looking at the children among the dead and trampled. It was the only way to keep from losing her wits.

  Rushing to the top of the escalators, the distraught mother searched for red curls among those lying at the bottom of the stairs. There was no sign of her little girl in her pink and black outfit. A quick look toward Jake revealed he was partially hidden beneath a cluster of bodies.

  Torn between checking on her husband and searching for her daughter, Minji once again fought against a flood of tears born out of feelings of helplessness. With a firm shake of her head, she refused to give in to dismay. She wasn’t helpless. She just had to focus and prioritize.

  First she’d find Ava, then check on Jake.

  Whirling away from the escalator, she hurried alongside the railing on the second floor. Minji’s thick leather boots squeaked and left a trail of moisture in her wake as she skirted around the atrium. Everywhere she turned her gaze, she was met with the gruesome remains of the first victims. The smell was so rank, it made it difficult to take a breath without gagging. Almost as terrible were the wounded. Despite grievous injuries, they dragged themselves along the floor after the horde.

  What was driving them? What had possessed their minds and bodies?

  She struggled to focus despite all the frightening, paranoid thoughts cluttering her brain, the dial on her panic gauge edging ever closer to the red zone. She had to find Ava.

  Ahead was the Double Helix Wine and Whiskey Bar, a circular cafe where she and Jake had enjoyed a few drinks earlier in the week. It was a luminous space under a fake domed skylight latticed with metal grillwork beneath a painted sky. Highly polished wood and granite tables were surrounded by chairs with buttery soft leather upholstery. The area was enclosed with a barrier of waist-high frosted glass panels adorned with gold lettering that read Double Helix. The congregation of the mesmerized would have been forced around the bar like a stream around a boulder.

  As she drew closer, Minji saw some of the transfixed people wandering about inside the bar. Upturned tables and chairs were obstacles they had difficulty maneuvering around. Broken glass sparkled in a lake of wine and whiskey slowly spreading on the floor. It was very evident by the behavior of those trapped inside the bar that whatever had captured their minds stole their ability to reason as they crashed into each other and the furniture seeking a way to join the rest of the horde.

  It was then Minji saw a small redhead stumbling through the wreckage.

  “Ava!”

  Hugging Bailey closer, Minji plunged into the bar. With her free arm, she pushed the other victims toward the exit, hoping they’d leave. The floor was very slippery and glass crunched under her boot heels.

  Ava was at the far end of the café, battering her small frame against the curved bar. Most likely she had been caught in the midst of the horde, and when they parted around the bar, she must have gotten stuck among the tables. Her Mulan backpack was askew and the leash dangled loose, the end trailing through the liquid on the floor.

  Reaching her daughter, she gripped one of Ava’s shoulders and rotated her about. A whimper escaped Minji’s lips when she saw the little girl’s bloodied nose and inexpressive eyes. Ava immediately swiveled around and slammed into the bar again. Minji dragged her daughter about and pinned her in place against the bar with a knee planted against the girl’s thighs. It was difficult to juggle Bailey on her hip and tend to Ava, but she was relieved that she’d found Ava so quickly. Grabbing some napkins from the bar, she dabbed at Ava’s bruised nose, wiping away the blood, gently squeezing it to staunch the flow. It didn’t feel broken. Ava continually tried to turn around throughout the process, but Minji wouldn’t let her.

  “Ava, I don’t know if you can hear me or understand me, but I’m going to get you out of here.”

  Her voice sounded obscenely loud without the normal hubbub of the shoppers.

  Securing the backpack around Ava’s shoulders and gripping the end of the leash, she heaved Ava onto her other hip. Ava didn’t resist, but Minji could sense the tension in her slim body when the little girl twisted her face in the direction the horde had taken earlier.

  The young mother staggered through the bar, evading the transfixed customers. She was almost to the door when she saw an older man with white hair and watery blue eyes watching her trek. Unlike the others, he was not bungling about trying to rejoin the horde. He merely stared, his gaze flicking from Minji’s face to those of her daughters.

  “Hello?” Minji asked hopefully.

  The man continued to study the trio.

  “Excuse me, but are you immune, too?” Minji hesitated in her stride, hoping that maybe she had found someone else that was unaffected. Maybe he could assist her with rescuing Jake. “Can you help me?”

  Ever so slightly, the man cocked his head. There was something eerie about the glint in his unblinking eyes.

  Cautiously, Minji said, “Sir? Are you okay?”

  Very slowly, the man tilted his head in the other direction, his blue eyes never leaving her face. His mouth opened and closed, reminding her of a gasping fish out of water.

  The chilling touch of invisible tendrils slithered over Minji’s flesh, then the man swiveled toward the exit along with all the others in the bar. As one, they started forward. Minji immediately scampered out ahead of them, mindful not to slip on the floor. She skittered to a stop near one of the other shops and watched those inside the bar make their way out and start after the others.

  Among them was the man who had been observing her and the girls.

  Minji was certain he had been watching her, but now he was just another of the mesmerized. What did it mean? Had he almost awakened from whatever controlled everyone else?

  “The mesmerized,” Minji whispered, naming the victims of the horrific event unfolding around her.

  Casting one last wary glance around, Minji lugged her children toward the escalators, all the while praying that her husband was still alive.

  Chapter 6

  Minji was almost to the escalators when she gave up on carrying both girls after nearly losing her footing several times on the slick floor. It didn’t help that her wet socks caused her feet to slip around inside her boots. Setting Ava on her feet, she wrapped the end of the leash around her own wrist a few times while Ava twisted about and faced the direction of the mesmerized horde. Minji firmly took her oldest daughter’s hand and started toward the top of the descending escalator. Though Ava continued to crane her neck to gaze up the hallway, she followed, much to Minji’s relief.

  The escalator continued to glide downward, but the steps were coated in blood and other fluids. Minji scooted Ava onto a step, then took the following one. A heap of bodies waited at the landing. Minji did her best to turn Bailey away from the view though it was difficult to protect the baby from the ghastly scene encompassing the shopping area. When they reached the base of the stairway, Minji was forced to shove the bodies of a young boy and two older women out of her way with one foot. It wasn’t easy, but she managed to clear a small path. Gingerly, Min
ji sidled past the bodies, and Ava scuttled along behind her.

  Sorrowfully, Minji realized she would have to secure her daughters so she could climb over the bodies surrounding the waterfall in order to reach her husband.

  “Oh, shit,” she murmured, guilt and angst eating at her.

  How could she keep Ava from following the other mesmerized and Bailey from crawling after her? The baby had an iron grip on her dreads and was obviously awfully frightened. For a brief second, Minji wanted to sit on the floor and cry. There was so much death and the task before her was intimidating. After taking a moment to evaluate the area, she dragged Ava to a large vase with a huge fake tree spouting out of the top.

  “Bailey, I know you’re not going to like this, but Mommy needs to get Daddy.”

  Minji set the baby on the floor and speedily wrapped the leash around the base of the pot. Bailey crawled to her mother’s side and tried to climb into her arms. Tears stinging her eyes, Minji kissed Bailey’s cheek, and then finished knotting the cord. She’d tied it at the middle of the leash so there was leeway on both ends. She set the baby next to the vase and tied one end of the leash around her chubby tummy. Guilt weighed heavily on her as she made it snug enough so Bailey couldn’t slip free.

  Ava strained to walk away on one end of the leash while Bailey cried and tried to crawl toward Minji on the other. Wiping tears from her face, Minji took several deep breaths to calm her wildly beating heart and steady her nerves.

  “I’ll be right back, Bailey. Don’t cry, baby. I’ll be right back.”

  Minji stood and turned toward the waterfall. The beautifully decorated atrium was now a place of horrors, but she didn’t focus too long on the bodies. Hands trembling at her sides, she gingerly stepped over the corpses.

  Water splashed beneath her boots. The pile of the deceased at the base of the waterfall caused the torrent to slosh over the rim. Feet slipping slightly, Minji held her arms out at her sides in an attempt to keep balanced.

  Minji stepped over one young man with dirty blond hair who gurgled, bloody foam trickling from between his lips. Feeling helpless, Minji leaned over long enough to give him a pat on the arm. She recognized it was a meaningless gesture. He most likely was dying and didn’t even know she was there, but she couldn’t walk past him without offering some comfort. With slumped shoulders, she pressed on.

  Minji was almost to where Jake was splayed beneath a pyramid of humans when out of the corner of her eye she spotted someone scampering around the remains of those who had been trampled or fallen. Whipping about, she spotted a short, slight man with a receding hairline dressed in jeans and a wine-colored shirt rushing away from the direction of The Palazzo Casino.

  “Wait! Wait!” she cried out, waving her hands.

  The man stuttered to a stop and stared at her in shock.

  “Please, help me,” Minji continued, her voice cracking slightly. Now that help was in sight, she was trembling from the rush of adrenaline. “I need help with my husband and children.”

  “I...I...you’re not one of them,” the stranger said, pointing toward the casino. “I thought I was the only one inside that wasn’t affected.”

  “I’m okay, too. It’s not taking control of me. But my husband fell. He’s under...” she gestured toward the bodies, her voice fading. “Can you please help me?”

  Bailey let out another high pitched wail of distress.

  Jumping in fright, the man backed away a few steps.

  “Those are my daughters. The baby isn’t affected, but my older daughter is. Please, I need to help my husband.”

  Jerking about as he surveyed the area, the man’s expression grew increasingly horrified. “It’s worse here than in the casino.”

  “People fell...my husband fell.”

  Gesturing, yet not really looking at her, the man said, “We have to get outside. It’s not over the entire city. I saw the news report on the television back in the casino. We need to exit through The Venetian and head south. That’s where they said to go on the news.” The man spoke in a rush of breathless words. He looked directly at her then. “Why isn’t it affecting us?”

  “What is it? Did the news say?”

  “No, no!” He shook his head, and then his eyes trailed over her form. Minji instantly felt his judgment as he took in her black and purple dreads and alternative clothing. Shifting his gaze to her daughters, he took several tentative steps away from her. “I need to go!”

  “Please, help me! My husband is hurt!”

  “I’m not a nurse, lady! I need to get out of here!”

  He bolted down the hallway toward the Grand Canal Shoppes in The Venetian side of the resort.

  “Asshole!” Minji screamed after him.

  Her words echoed after his fading footsteps.

  Glancing toward her daughters, she was relieved that both girls were still secure. Bailey’s face was beet red from her temper tantrum. Ava continued to face the direction of the casino, but didn’t appear to be straining on the leash.

  It was gut wrenchingly awful to step over the dead and wounded, and even worse to shove them out of her way with the toes of her boots. Nearing the waterfall, she gulped in the cold, moist air and clenched her hands into fists. Jake’s blood-splattered shoes were visible under the sprawled form of an elderly man. Fear strangled her and froze her in place. If Jake was dead, how would she endure it? How could she live, knowing he was gone?

  With a hiccupping sob, she leaned over and pushed the old man aside. A young black woman and a red-headed white teenage boy also covered Jake. The boy’s head was bashed in on one side, and he was clearly dead. Minji averted her eyes as she rolled him off Jake. When she thrust the female to one side, the woman groaned. Lethargically, her eyelids fluttered open and she stared past Minji with big dark eyes. Very slowly, she rotated onto her stomach and started to crawl across the bodies of the others.

  “Let me help you,” Minji called after her before realizing the woman was mesmerized. “Oh, fuck.” It would be just her luck that the only other person not affected had been a jerk and had left her to deal with the situation alone.

  Kneeling next to Jake, Minji rested her hand against his neck praying she’d feel a pulse. Her husband rested on his stomach, his arm twisted and obviously broken. Head turned toward the basin, his face was pale and his elegant nose was bloody and a bit battered. Closing her eyes, she frantically searched for the sign of his heart beating. Despite his proximity to the pool of water, he still felt warm.

  “Please, Jake, please...”

  She was rewarded with the faint pulse of his blood pumping through an artery.

  “Oh, thank God!”

  With an exhalation of relief, she ran her fingers over his body seeking out injuries. One leg appeared to be broken and the foot on the opposite one was twisted. There was no way to tell if he had internal injuries, but he didn’t appear to have any wounds to his head other than his bashed nose. Blood bubbled in the nostrils as he breathed, so she hoped that was a good sign.

  “I love you,” she whispered in his ear, kissed his cheek, and then started to remove the baby backpack from his still form. It was difficult to work it loose, but she eventually managed to pry it off. It appeared to possibly be in working order, but she set it aside. She couldn’t get Bailey into it alone.

  Carefully rotating Jake onto his back, she tenderly stroked his face. She had no idea how she’d get him out of the area, but at least he was alive and didn’t appear to be in mortal danger. Of course, she had zero medical knowledge, but she thought his color looked okay considering his injuries.

  “I’m going for help,” Minji said, though she knew Jake probably couldn’t hear her. “I have the girls with me and they’re fine.” Glancing toward the injured young woman scooting her body along the floor after the other mesmerized, Minji rubbed the tears from her eyes. “Don’t wake up, Jake. Not yet. I don’t want to have to find you like that.”

  Bailey’s tantrum was reduced to hiccupping sobs of de
spair. It was time to get back to the baby and Ava. Reluctant to leave Jake, but knowing she had to in order to get assistance, Minji kissed his lips tenderly before rising. If it was true that the event hadn’t affected all of Las Vegas, maybe help was on the way.

  Gritting her teeth to keep from screaming or crying, Minji returned to her daughters. Once Bailey was safely in her arms and Ava staggered at the end of the leash, Minji started in the direction of the main entrance of The Venetian that lay beyond the Grand Canal.

  It took all her willpower not to look back at the still shape of her husband resting at the base of the waterfall.

  Chapter 7

  The journey through The Venetian Casino was more harrowing psychologically than physically. Most of the mesmerized had departed the area, leaving corpses behind to mar the opulence of the casino. The chairs around the tables were toppled and strewn about like trees discarded after a tornado and dark stains of blood covered the lush carpeting. The gilded glory of the frescos and chandeliers seemed more appropriate for a cathedral now that the grand room had been transformed into a place of the dead.

  Minji rushed her daughters through the disarray and toward the lobby of The Venetian. Kicking away chairs that blocked her path, she guided Ava around the carnage while whispering soothing words to Bailey. The baby’s face was firmly planted against her mother’s neck as she chewed on the tips of Minji’s dreads. Though the slot machines boisterously announced their presence, the absence of humanity was incredibly disconcerting. This was Las Vegas, a place that never slept, but it now appeared empty and abandoned by the living.

  Reaching the lobby, Minji half-jogged, half-walked along the palatial hallway toward the exit. The gleaming marble floor with its diamond design reflected the luminous brightness of the recessed lighting giving the elegant beauty a celestial appearance. Corinthian marble pillars gilded with gold ascended toward the high arched ceiling festooned with frescos and murals reminiscent of the artwork of the great Italian artists. The only detractor of such awe-inspiring craftsmanship was the bodies of those stricken in the first few attacks.