The Mesmerized (25 page)

Lightly bouncing on the balls of her feet,
Minji kept her fists up near her face, waiting.

“You got him down, Minji,” Alec said, edging
around her. “Back off.”

“He was trying to kill Ava,” Minji
snapped.

Alec cast a questioning look at Simone.

“He grabbed Ava and tried to strangle her,”
Simone said.

“She’s the devil,” Arthur spat out, along
with blood and a piece of a tooth. “She’s doing this. She’s evil!
We have to kill her!”

Minji spotted a syringe lying among the
chairs. It was most likely the one Arthur had tried to sedate Ava
with. Snatching it up, she charged Arthur, knocking Alec to one
side. Arthur wailed when he saw what she was about to do and lifted
his arm in defense. Minji plunged the needle into his forearm and
shoved the plunger downward.

“No one hurts my kids,” she hissed as Arthur
gaped up at her. “No one!”

Swiveling about, she saw Simone’s startled
expression, Alec’s awe, and Bailey’s tear-stained face. But the
most disconcerting, but rewarding of all, she saw Ava smiling.

“Moommy,” she said.

The handicap lift for the shuttle bus hummed
and creaked as the wheelchair ferrying Jake raised steadily upward
while Minji anxiously observed from a few feet away. With Jesse now
being mesmerized, she didn’t know how they’d take care of her
husband. Hopefully it wouldn’t be too long until Jake and the other
mesmerized awakened. Though the plan to close the door between
worlds appeared easy, she was still apprehensive even though she
trusted that Alec knew what he was doing. It was Alec who’d
disconnected the I.V. from Jake’s arm and secured him to the
wheelchair. Despite being disabled, Alec was adept at getting
around, though slower than he would have been before his war
injury.

Jesse was already strapped to a seat inside
the shuttle bus. Though he struggled to break free from the
restraints, his head craned north, he was silent. Even when Minji
was near him, he didn’t shake out of his state to attempt to talk,
or gaze at her. Though Jake’s attention remained squarely on Minji,
the entity was no longer struggling to speak through him. Minji
wasn’t sure why the two men were acting differently, but she was
beginning to formulate a theory.

Simone brushed past Minji, her arms full
with a box of supplies. “This is the last one,” she said, her dark
eyes unreadable above her facemask.

Since Minji had beaten Arthur to a pulp and
forcibly sedated him, no one had even mentioned bringing him along.
There had been a short discussion about taking the other sedated
mesmerized with them, but without Jesse being aware, it seemed
futile. Minji placated her guilt with the thought that maybe they’d
accomplish their mission soon so all the mesmerized would
awaken.

No one protested bringing Jake along, but
Minji knew Alec had agreed to keep her on their mission. She wasn’t
sure why Simone hadn’t protested. Maybe it was because Simone had
put her foot down about Jesse coming with them amid expressing
hopes he’d awaken. Simone hadn’t even asked where they were going,
but had thrown herself in the preparations to leave.

The whine of the lift finished. Alec dragged
Jake through the handicap entrance into the shuttle and started to
secure the wheelchair to the floor. Minji lifted her own burden, a
bundle of blankets and pillows, and followed Simone. Bailey was in
a child’s seat Simone had found in a nearby car and Ava was tied
with the child leash to the interior of the shuttle.

Minji helped Simone arrange their supplies
in the rear of the bus then returned to the seat where Bailey was
dozing. They’d had to be creative in fastening the child seat to
the bench, but Minji was confident that it was secure. Ava stood in
the aisle and watched with wide, glassy eyes, not speaking.

After some discussion it was decided that
Alec would drive out of Las Vegas before Minji would take over
since she wasn’t accustomed to driving a vehicle as large as the
shuttle bus. As a precaution, she sat in the seat directly behind
Alec so she could quickly intercede if another attack were to
happen. Sitting next to Bailey, Minji tugged Ava onto her lap.
Ava’s head swiveled about in order to keep her gaze on Minji.

Simone collapsed into the chair across the
aisle, closed her eyes, and rested her head against the back of the
seat. Everything about Simone screamed sophistication, even when
she was grungy and exhausted. She’d changed into her clothes from
the day before, though her feet now sported sneakers she’d
scrounged out of a lost and found box.

The lift retracted into the shuttle and the
handicap door thumped shut. Using the backs of the chairs for
support, Alec returned to the driver’s seat. His cane lay on the
floor next to it in easy reach. Without a word, he started the
engine and drove away from the medical center.

Minji brushed her lips against Ava’s hair,
feeling grit coating the curls. She wiped off her mouth, resenting
that such a small pleasure was robbed by circumstances. One hand
resting against the swell of Ava’s tummy, she concentrated on the
gentle movement of her child’s breathing. Soon the more babyish
aspects of her daughter, like the rounded stomach and chubby cheeks
would give away to a taller, leaner adolescent. Minji made a point
of enjoying every little moment with her girls. The love she had
for them always helped chase away all the negativity in her life.
But now, holding Ava and the
other
within her, she fretted
at the thought of losing her daughters.

The journey away from the boulevard was
harrowing. The roads were an obstacle course of crashed vehicles.
Alec avoided the wrecks, rubble, and other debris, but sometimes he
was forced to drive over the dead to escape the downtown area. Each
time the shuttle bounced over corpses, Minji fought the urge to
chide him for not respecting the dead. From the expression on
Simone’s face, she appeared to be thinking the same thing.

Knuckles white from the pressure he was
exerting on the steering wheel, Alec drove the shuttle bus through
the apocalyptic landscape with gritty determination. At one point
he eased the shuttle bus through a space so narrow, when Minji
glanced out the window there was barely an inch between the side of
the bus and the crashed fire truck.

“You do
not
want to know how much
room is between the bus and the building on this side,” Simone
said, while looking out her window.

The shuttle bus slipped through without a
scratch.

The true scope of the disaster was
staggering. The city’s infrastructure had taken a hard hit. Utility
poles were knocked over in many areas, sparks raining on the cars
that had toppled them. Electrical cables sparked in the streets,
adding yet another impediment to their journey out of the city. It
was now clear to Minji why the cable, phones, internet and
electricity had stopped working.

Alec drove past many burning apartment
complexes and homes. The downed power lines were obviously the
source of so many fires. Again, Minji felt a twinge of guilt about
leaving Jesse’s patients and Arthur behind, but it was too late to
turn back now. It was best to stop the event and save everyone.

The worst aspect of their journey through
Las Vegas was the bodies. The corpses of the victims littered the
landscape. Some appeared badly burned though they were far from the
areas on fire, and Minji wondered if they were the same scorched
victims she’d seen on the boulevard. It was daunting to accept the
death toll.

As the shuttle bus wove its way through the
ruined city, there wasn’t a sign of the mass migration of the
mesmerized. It was possible the last of their number had left the
city limits the night before. How long it would take for the little
group to catch up with the horde was unknown.

It wasn’t until the shuttle bus reached the
suburbs and Alec found a path onto the highway that Minji was able
to relax her stiff muscles. A few times she’d been worried that
they’d have to abandon the bus and walk out of the city carrying
the children, Jake, and Jesse. The shuttle bus slowed to a stop and
Alec shifted into PARK.

“Finally,” she murmured.

Simone straightened in her seat. “So, is
anyone going to tell me where we are going?”

“We can’t—” Alec started.

“A top secret facility where they opened a
doorway to another world and let something in,” Minji answered
swiftly.

Simone’s eyebrows shot upward. “Say
what?”

“Minji...” Alec growled.

“She’s in this, too, Alec.”

“We haven’t discussed this, Minji!”

“No, we haven’t,” she admitted. “But we need
Simone.”

“We’ll find a safe place for her to hole up
with Jake, Jesse, and the girls.”

“Alec, you know it’s not going to let me
leave the girls behind. Why else would it knock everyone out so it
could follow me earlier? It’s not going to just let me leave
without Ava and Bailey. We need Simone to watch over the girls once
we get there.”

“Minji, do you actually think it’ll just let
her wait outside with the girls while we go in and deal with
it?”

“Enough! No more discussion without giving
me the details. I need an explanation. Right now.” Simone shifted
in her seat, crossing one leg over the other. Regarding Minji, she
pointed at her and said, “You tell me.”

So Minji did.

By the time she finished, Simone hadn’t
blinked for a few minutes. At last, she closed her eyes, and
whispered, “Dear sweet Jesus.”

Alec didn’t say a word, but made a grunting
noise.

“So you have the key cards to get in and the
directions to close this doorway between worlds, then blow up the
facility? From those rescue people at The Venetian?” Simone was
obviously still processing this information. “But won’t it need,
like, an eye scan or something to let you in?”

“Per instructions given to me when I
awakened, I disabled the security system inside the building from
my post, but we’ll still need the cards to get us in. The system
that works the door is a bit older and separate from the rest of
the building. The card allows one person in at a time,” Alec
answered.

“But what about deliveries? That doesn’t
seem like a good system if it only lets in one person,” Simone
pointed out.

Giving her a surprised, yet pleased look,
Alec said, “Deliveries were made via an underground tunnel from one
of the old test sites. The tunnel is cut off from both the outside
world and the facility with bulkheads built to withstand a nuclear
blast. The only way to open that entrance is from within the
facility.”

“That’s pretty paranoid,” Minji mused. “And
you didn’t have a card to get in even though you worked there?”

Alec shook his head. “I was just a guard. I
watched monitors all day. Everyone with a card was inside at the
time of the event. That was one of the first things I looked for
when I woke up. If one of the people with clearance had been
outside the building, this would already be over. But, alas, that’s
not the case. I was told to find the group from the second facility
to get their access cards.”

“So the government couldn’t remotely shut
the door to the other world, or blow up the facility?” Simone
arched an eyebrow, reminding Minji of Spock.

“No. To prevent enemies from hacking into
the system and committing an act of terrorism, the systems
controlling the bomb and the doorway are self-contained inside the
facility. There’s no way to hack in because they’re not connected
to the outside world.”

“So the thing the scientists brought into
our world is what’s...in...” Simone faltered, staring at Ava.

“It’s in all of them. All the mesmerized.”
Minji glanced over her shoulder at Jake and Jesse. “It can see us
through their eyes.”

“Watching you more than us, right?”

Minji ran her fingers through Ava’s dirty
hair. The
other
within her daughter watched her in silence.
“Yes.”

“But why you?”

Minji chewed on her bottom lip, then
realized it was time to share her thoughts with the others. “It’s
because I’m a mother. And it’s a baby.”

Simone gave her an incredulous look.
“What?”

“It’s a baby. Or a small child. Remember
when all the mesmerized were making those odd noises and moving
their mouths in odd shapes?”

“Yeah...” Simone scooted around in her chair
to peer at the two mesmerized men. “They’re not doing it now.”

“Because I finally understood what it was
trying to tell me. When Arthur was bitching earlier about Bailey
baby talking and you explained that she was vocalizing to learn to
talk, it hit me. When the mesmerized made those noises it always
seemed strangely familiar, then I realized it’s because I’ve seen
it with both my girls. The entity was learning to talk.”

“Minji, are you sure about this?” Alec
asked.

“Yes, Alec. I’m sure. The three mesmerized
at The Venetian this morning called me ‘Mommy.’ Then the entity
using Ava brought me Bailey and said ‘baby’ and ‘Mommy.’ At first I
thought it was describing Bailey and me, but now I’m certain that
the entity is actually a child itself. I think in a limited way it
was trying to tell me it’s a baby like Bailey.”

Simone nodded. “Which might be why it
brought you Bailey.”

“I don’t get it,” Alec said.

“If it’s a child, Alec, and it has
identified the mother/child bond between Minji and her daughters,
it may have felt compelled to reunite the girls with Minji the same
way it wants to be reunited with its mother. You’re just lucky it
didn’t decide you were the bad guy who lured the mother away.”
Simone gave Ava a speculative look. “Because we all know what that
baby is capable of.”

“But a baby is an innocent. Why would it do
all of this?” Alec pointed toward the gruesome remains of a
jetliner strewn across a field.