“There’s a corpse wedged into the wheel well.”
“Yeah, I saw that. Also, they had a map with the first and second facility marked on it.”
Minji tapped her fingertips lightly against her hip bones. “Do you think they were trying to enter the first facility and were stopped by the mesmerized?”
Rotating the card with his fingers, Alec pursed his lips thoughtfully. “Why would the mesmerized stop them? They’ve been peaceful up to this point. What did they do to upset your kidnapped baby?”
“I don’t think it’s the baby that did this,” Minji answered.
Alec chuckled without any trace of mirth. “Okay, lay it on me.”
“I think it’s the mother. I don’t think the door closed all the way because the mother was attempting to rescue her child when the scientists tried to close it. Like someone stopping a door with a toe, I suspect that’s what’s happening.”
“She shoved a toe in the door, huh?”
Minji shrugged. “I think so.”
“And this mother has an influence on what’s going on?”
“These creatures are obviously telepathic in some way. I suspect she’s projecting her will through that crack between our worlds and has something to do with this.”
Laughing without mirth, Alec tilted his head back to gaze up at the heavens. “Of course! So…how do you know this?”
The reaction pissed off Minji and she folded her arms across her breasts and glowered. “Because the entity looking through Ava’s eyes said 'Mommy' when the attack was going on.”
Mimicking her pose, Alec muttered, “Just fucking great.”
Now that Minji had spoken her thoughts aloud, she perceived how it made sense. The mesmerized had shown different signs of awareness throughout the last day. What if the baby’s influence was limited, but the mother’s wasn’t? What if it was the mother who was dragging humanity to the doorway of her world?
“But that doesn’t answer why this hypothetical mother would attack these soldiers, does it, Minji?”
“Maybe they were perceived as a threat. Like the white lab coats resulted in the death of everyone wearing white. Were there Army soldiers at the facility?”
Alec swore under his breath. “They all died, too.”
“So maybe their uniforms identified them as an enemy.”
“That’s a distinct possibility based on what we’ve already seen.”
Alec gestured at the gore laden area further up the highway. “They were driving through the mesmerized. They were probably desperate to escape when things went south at the facility. Hell, they were desperate enough to try to signal us for a rescue. Or at least I’m assuming that’s why they crawled onto the hood.”
“They probably thought they could push through the crowd.” Minji shuddered remembering her own struggle with the mesmerized at the waterfall. It felt like a million years ago.
“Possibly. We’ll never know now.”
“So if they tried to go to the facility, how’d they know about it?”
“Any soldier with immunity would have immediately reported in for orders.”
“Which means more may be on their way.”
“Yeah. And they’ll be in danger if they’re still in uniform. Shit. There’s no way to warn them.”
“So where did they get these?” Minji attempted to rub some of the blood staining the white plastic, but gave up when she realized it was also on her hands.
“That I don’t have an answer for.” Alec appeared just as baffled as she was at the unexpected situation. “Maybe they were assigned to the second facility and got those off of the affected scientists. But it’s hard to say.”
The mesmerized continued onward, crossing the road a hundred yards away from the bloody scene.