“Which aren’t good.” Simone shifted on her feet and blinked tears from her eyes. “There’s a good chance that everyone we love is caught in the event and that they will die.”
“Don’t say that!” Arthur stomped toward Simone. “Don’t you dare say that!”
“It’s the truth,” Minji said sadly.
“My friends in Las Vegas, my family in Arizona, my girlfriend on vacation in Mexico...all of them may be walking to their deaths.” Jesse swallowed hard, his jaw flexing as he struggled to contain his composure. “Those people out on the boulevard are walking into the desert. They will die. Everyone that’s...” Jesse searched for a word.
“Mesmerized,” Minji offered.
“Yes, mesmerized...all of them will die without water within three days if they don’t die from the elemen
ts, wounds, and the wreckage.” Jesse motioned toward the dire panorama outside the building’s glass windows.
The black smoke was thicker now and the mesmerized shuffling through it were in dire need of medical attention. Minji observed how Jesse clenched his hands at his sides. She wondered if he felt even more helpless because he was in the medical profession. Simone was right. They couldn’t help everyone. It was a terrible reality.
“But we’re safe here until someone comes to get us!”
Arthur’s argumentative tone was really beginning to wear on Minji.
“Who’s going to come?” Simone asked Arthur. “Out of all the people living and visiting Las Vegas, how many are immune? Right now I see only us.”
Minji almost protested by pointing out that Arthur and Simone had been affected earlier, but then reconsidered. Emotions were already heightened.
The floor beneath her feet began to tremble and the furniture started to vibrate. Minji immediately lifted Bailey onto her hip and grabbed Ava’s hand. There was a mad scramble across the lobby to the double doors leading deeper into the building. Simone picked up Ava and scurried ahead of Minji into the hallway just as the rumble grew to a gut-wrenching roar and the floor lurched. The lights sputtered and the world outside turned ominous. The sunlight vanished into the churning smoke and debris. Car alarms in the parking garage and along the boulevard blasted. The building was pelted with rubble and the windows let out a dreadful screech as they splintered, but held.
Clustered in the hallway, the people listened to the destruction of yet another part of Las Vegas and watched the ghastly gray cloud engulf the boulevard.
“It’s all coming down,” Arthur wailed.
Minji again fought a valiant battle against despair and hopelessness. She refused to surrender to it. She would save her family somehow.
Then, even as the world seemed ever bleaker, a cellphone chimed.
Chapter 17
Despite the tumult in the outside world, the four adults straightaway fumbled for their phones. Minji’s thoughts instantly centered on her parents somewhere on the road to Austin, Texas. Her heart sank when she realized the opening notes from Chopin were not coming from her phone. Looking up, she saw her expression mirrored in the faces of Jesse and Simone.
Arthur victoriously raised his phone to his ear. “I’m here, I’m here!”
A woman’s voice was barely discernible through the noise from outside and Arthur’s heavy, anxious breathing. Disappointed, Minji leaned against the wall and pushed her smartphone back into the pocket of her shorts.
Bailey sniffled. Maybe the baby was too tired to wail anymore. The building continued to quiver, but as the din of the debris cloud faded it gradually stilled.
“What do you mean you’re driving to your mother’s? You can’t do that! Don’t you realize what’s happening?” Arthur erupted, fury painting his face an ugly red. “You have the kids with you, June! You’re going to get them killed! No! I can’t believe you were stupid enough to get on the highway! Of course there’s a traffic jam! A bunch of other idiots are trying to do the same thing you’re doing! Aren’t you listening to the news! They’re saying to stay in the house and blockade your doors and windows!”
Simone lifted an eyebrow, her dark eyes sliding toward the angrily pacing man. Arthur’s rage flowed out of him in tangible waves. Minji literally felt the heat of his fury lashing out into the air. Bailey let out a whimper before launching into a full fit. Jesse lightly tapped Arthur’s shoulder, then when he had the irate man’s attention, motioned to the baby and made a shushing motion.
“Fuck the baby! My kids are in a car stuck in fuckin’ Atlanta traffic because my stupid ex-wife is a moron!”
The woman’s voice on the other end of the phone continued to speak, though her words were indecipherable.
“Yes, June, I’m immune, but that doesn’t mean you’ll be. Or the kids! Out of all the people in Vegas, so far only four are still in control of our minds. Which means if this thing hits Atlanta, you’re going to end up under its control and you’re probably going to wreck the car and kill yourself and the kids.” Pacing, Arthur was beside himself with anger and frustration. “Stop crying! I’m not the bad guy here! You’re the one being stupid!”
The lights wavered overhead and the low rumble of the collapse continued. Minji comforted Bailey while warily watching both Arthur and the fissured windows in the waiting room. Though Arthur’s face was shadowed by the hand he had pressed to his brow, she caught a glimpse of tears on his face. Turning toward the wall, Arthur rested his forehead against it.
“You don’t understand, June. I don’t want to lose my kids. I don’t want them to die. They’re all I have left,” he said in a much quieter tone. There was a long silence in the hallway as Arthur listened to his ex-wife speak. At last he said, “Then get off the highway and park somewhere safe. Where other vehicles can’t hit you. Make sure the doors are locked and crack the windows open enough to let air in, but don’t leave enough space that the kids can wiggle out. Make sure they have their seatbelts on. Yes, yes...I’ll speak to the kids.”
The tone of Arthur’s voice completely changed when he spoke to his children. Minji noted how much more loving and kind it sounded. His sorrow hunched his shoulders and made him seem smaller, more vulnerable.