Ava slipped from Simone’s grip, landed on her feet, and pivoted toward Minji, pulling the air filter from her mouth. Pink lips straining, Ava appeared to be attempting to speak. Minji stumbled toward her daughter, hope gripping her heart until she realized that Ava’s eyes were doll-like: empty and glassy. Replacing the face mask over Ava’s mouth, Minji realized the other mesmerized had come to a halt. Eerily, their lips flexed and twisted in perfect synchronization.
Arthur and Simone remained paralyzed, their eyelids fluttering. It reminded her vividly of the tourist woman and her male companion in his tennis whites in the seconds before they started to hemorrhage. Fearful her two acquaintances were about to suffer the fate of so many others and bleed to death in seconds, Minji drew Ava away from Simone.
In terrible anticipation, Minji waited.
A low whistling emanated from Simone’s throat, and then she blinked several times.
“Heeeeee...” Arthur exhaled, sounding like he was trying to form a word. Then he stumbled forward, one hand rising to his face. “Ugh, that sucked.”
Simone winced, shaking her head while pressing her fingertips to her temples. “That was quite painful.”
Minji had been so convinced she was about to witness their deaths it was jarring to see them shaking off the effects of their paralysis. Both had been immune to the earlier attacks, so why had this one affected them differently? Could she be certain that she hadn’t been caught in the grip of this newest attack when she’d gone blind briefly? Had that moment stretched longer than she believed?
“You were frozen again,” Minji said, her words roughened with fear.
“I don’t think so,” Simone said after a few seconds of awkward silence.
Both Arthur and Simone regarded Minji with disbelief stamped on their faces.
“I didn’t go blind or blank out,” Arthur said defensively.
“It just hurt like a bitch,” Simone added.
“No, you both stopped moving and your eyes rolled up.” Minji cautiously touched the back of Simone’s hand. “Your skin is really cold.”
Pressing her palm to her cheek, Simone frowned, uncertainty settling into the lines around her mouth.
Arthur shook his head. “I know I wasn’t affected.”
“But you were,” Minji insisted.
The mesmerized staggered into motion, resuming their march, but Ava didn’t stir at Minji’s side, or attempt to join the others. She continued to stare at Minji, her mouth contorting into odd shapes.
Meanwhile, Simone took a sharp step out of the way of several seriously wounded mesmerized, grievous burns and gashes inflicted on their bodies. The group appeared to have come from further down the Las Vegas Strip. Arthur scuttled around to hop onto the hood of a car. From the scared look on his face, it was evident he expected the mesmerized to turn into cannibals and attempt to eat him. Visibly trembling, the man watched the gruesome parade pass by.
Minji kept Ava at her side. She wasn’t afraid
of the mesmerized, but she felt helpless in the face of their suffering. With firm pushes of one hand, she redirected the affected away from the stretcher. In her peripheral vision, Jake strained to gaze at her, his lips stretching and twisting beneath the face mask as though he were struggling to speak.
One man hobbled past her on what appeared to be a broken ankle. His face and hair were charred, his skin cracking and oozing. After walking several paces, he stopped, then twisted about in his tracks to look at Minji. Eyes wide but empty, his mouth opened and closed, once again reminding her of a gasping fish.
“Why is he doing that?” Arthur nervously scrambled off the hood he was perched on and attempted to hide behind a cluster of palm trees on the boulevard median.
“Heeeee...” the man said hoarsely.
Minji cautiously approached the man. “I think he’s asking for help.”
“They’re making the same noise,” Simone said, gesturing to Ava and Jake.
“And they’re looking at you, Minji. Why are they looking at you?” Arthur aimed an accusing glare at her.
“I don’t know, okay? I have no idea.” Minji was very unnerved by how the man’s eyes tracked her movements. A rapid glance at Jake and Ava revealed they were also observing her with those strangely blank stares. “Do you want help?”
“Heeee...” the three chorused.
Simone roughly shoved the man on his way. “Move it.”
“Simone!”