The Mesmerized (15 page)

“Okay. But where do we go? I don’t have any
ideas. Do you?” Jesse shifted his gaze back and forth between the
two women.

“Out of the desert before the power
completely fails and we’re left without water and electricity.
Maybe the coast,” Simone suggested.

“West, south, or east?” Jesse clasped his
hands together and leaned forward, elbows on his knees. “Because I
have no idea where to go.”

“Texas,” Minji decided. “We go to East
Texas. There’s freshwater lakes and plenty of resources there.”

Simone closed her eyes, then sighed. “Once
we find somewhere safe, I plan to go get my family. If I have to
tie them together and herd them like cattle, I will.”

“We could all do that,” Minji suggested.
“See if our families are trapped in their houses.”

“I wouldn’t suggest an extended road trip,”
Jesse interjected. “At some point, everyone that’s mesmerized is
going to die. The dead will be everywhere.”

“Don’t say that,” Arthur said sharply. He’d
finished his call and now stood in front of the open doors to the
hallway. “You can’t say that! Someone will figure it out. Someone
will save us!”

Minji breathed in the sweet scent of
Bailey’s hair that mingled with the acrid smell seeping into the
room from outside. What they were discussing was too impossibly
horrible to even consider as reality, but Minji recognized that
they needed to be honest about their situation.

“This is probably it, Arthur,” Simone said
after a long pause. “The end of the world.”

“No! You can’t say that! You can’t!” Arthur
lunged forward to glower into Simone’s eyes, but she stood her
ground. “Scientists are working on it! The president said so!
People are going to find a way to stop it!”

Minji stroked Ava’s cheek lovingly. Would
her little girl ever wake up? And did Minji want her to? The days
ahead were no longer hopeful, but terrifying. Minji wondered if she
had the fortitude to endure the end of the world.

“Someone will figure it out! Someone has
to!” Arthur clutched his head with shaking hands. “Someone has to
save us...someone has to help us!

“Heeeeeeeeeelp...”

It took Minji a second to realize the
hoarse, rattling voice was emanating from Ava. The eerie blank
stare remained firmly on her face as her lips parted and her tongue
flexed in her mouth. Then, once again, Ava uttered a single
word.

“Help...”

Virginia

6:45 PM

Rachel finished tying her youngest son to
his bed, relieved that the Benadryl had taken effect and that he
was placidly asleep. Tears streaming along the curve of her round
cheeks, she tested the knots to make sure the ties were
close-fitting enough.

“Mom?”

On the bed on the opposite side of the room,
her teenage son stared at her through his thick eyelashes, drowsy
and muddled. The sleeping pill she had laced his soda with was
taking effect.

“It’s okay, Junior. Go to sleep.”

Juan Carlos appeared in the doorway to the
bedroom, hands thrust into his trouser pockets. His thick, curly
hair was unusually messy and his beard had tufts sticking out where
he kept nervously tugging on it. “Angela is asleep and I made the
knots as tight as I could.” His Puerto Rican accent was thicker
than normal and his dark eyes clearly projected his dismay. “Are
you sure we should do this?”

“You saw what’s happening on the news.”
Tugging on the knot one more time, she looked at the pile of Juan
Carlos’s ties that were puddled on the bedspread. There were just
enough for her and her husband.

It was late afternoon and the light
filtering through the curtains was gray and morose. A storm was
moving along the East Coast and would reach landfall by evening.
They’d moved to Virginia from New York City for her job. It had
been a difficult decision to uproot their family from their
neighborhood and extended families. Juan Carlos had deep ties to
the Puerto Rican community and she’d been very active in the Jewish
faith. Now they were alone in a new town and far away from the
bustle of the big city. For once, she had no regrets about their
move. Rachel couldn’t even imagine the tumult encompassing the city
right now. Juan Carlos had been faithfully watching the news, but
she couldn’t bring herself to do so. It was already stressful
enough dealing with making sure her children were safe. She didn’t
need the additional worry about friends, old neighbors, and her
relatives.

“What if it doesn’t pass?” Juan Carlos
asked, sitting on the edge of his eldest son’s bed. His namesake
was now snoring lightly.

“We won’t know it,” she answered. She’d
caught glimpse of the transfixed people on the television screen
walking off overpasses, into bodies of water, stumbling about with
grievous wounds. All the videos were taken from afar, giving them a
surrealistic quality, but they had all told the exact same
story.

“Think it’s the government? Mind
control?”

Rachel shrugged as she gathered her
husband’s business ties off the bed and pressed one last kiss to
her youngest child’s forehead. “Have good dreams, Miguel.”

Juan Carlos hugged and kissed his oldest
son, whispering to him in Spanish. The parents then swapped places,
spending a last few precious moments with their children. In
silence they walked across the hall to their daughter’s room and
repeated the ritual. They didn’t speak again until they reached
their bedroom.

“If this is it, Rachel, I want you to know
that I have no regrets in my life. None. Things have not always
been easy, but it’s all been worth it.”

With a sob, Rachel slid into her husband’s
arms. “I have no regrets either. It’s been a beauti—”

The void opened and consumed her mind,
stealing away her final words and moments.

Pivoting about, Rachel faced west, then
started to walk.

Las Vegas

6:46 PM

“Did you hear that?” Minji gasped. Squatting
before her daughter, she brushed her fingers along Ava’s cheek. The
little girl’s eyes were still empty, but Minji was convinced the
little girl had said one word: help. “She’s waking up! Maybe
whatever is affecting them wears off!”

When there wasn’t a response, Minji shot a
worried look over her shoulder. Dread seized her in a vice-grip.
Another attack had rendered her companions mute and blind. Eyes
rolled upward, a low hiss wheezed out of their mouths. If another
attack was occurring, why wasn’t she affected? Now that she was
aware, she registered the drop in the temperature and the very
faint sensation of spider web silk lightly touching her skin, but
her mind and senses remained acute and unaffected.

“Heeeeeeeeee...”

The dismay burdening her heart and mind grew
heavier when the same terrible sound issued from Ava’s delicate
pink lips again.

Clutching Bailey against her chest with one
arm, Minji studied her companions with dread that this time the
three people wouldn’t emerge from their mesmerized state. If they
didn’t, she would be alone.

“Heeeeeeeeee...”

Tears pricked at Minji’s eyes, but she
refused to shed them. She had foolishly believed arriving at the
medical center would improve her family’s situation, but it was
increasingly apparent that the event was inescapable. How far was
it extending its reach in this latest attack? Minji didn’t even
want to speculate.

“Heeeeeeeeeeelp.”

Awash in goose bumps, her heart
accelerating, and her breath coming in ragged little breaths, Minji
noted a difference in the eerie plea. The word hadn’t just come
from her daughter, but also the three people standing before her in
the throes of the attack.

“Heeeeeeeeeeelp.”

This time, she heard another voice.

One she recognized.

Sliding along the wall, she made her way to
the closest open doorway. Peering inside, she saw her husband
strapped to the stretcher in the examination room. Throat
straining, lips contorting, he wailed, “Heeeeeeeeeeelp” in unison
with Ava and the others.

“Oh, God, what’s happening?” she murmured,
resting heavily against the open door.

“Heeeeeeeeeeelp.”

A new voice joined the others. High-pitched,
fragile, and sweet.

Tilting her head to see her baby’s face,
Minji flinched at the sight of Bailey’s empty eyes. The baby’s lips
moved in unison with Ava’s and Jake’s. “No, Bailey, no!”

The tears broke free and she sobbed in
anguish. Hope dissipated into the ether as she accepted that Ava
and Jake weren’t on the verge of waking up or calling out for help,
and that Bailey was like her companions and not fully immune. Her
entire family was in the grip of something incomprehensible.

Stumbling against a chair set to one side of
the door, Minji dropped onto it and let go of Ava’s hand. The
little girl remained at her side. Bailey didn’t move in her arms.
Both girls stared up at her, their mouths struggling to form the
word again.

“Heeeeeeeeeeelp.”

For the first time since the initial attack,
Minji was afraid of the mesmerized, not just the event. The cry for
help was not coming from the mesmerized themselves, but from
whatever was controlling them. Though she’d been interpreting their
eyes as empty and devoid of life, maybe what she was truly seeing
was some other form of life that was observing her. The mental
attempts to believe that the event was possibly caused by humans
were futile. In truth, she had never truly accepted the idea of the
event being manmade. The vision she’d experienced during the first
attacks hadn’t allowed her to fully fool herself. Whatever was
enrapturing humanity was something
other
. But what was
it?

“Who are you?” Minji asked aloud, her gaze
flicking between her husband and daughters. “What are you?”

“Heeeeeeeeeeelp,” the three chorused.

“Please stop!” Her shouted words rang out in
the increasingly icy air. “Please stop!”

Bailey let out a hiccupping cry and pushed
her face into Minji’s neck. She was free of the attack and needed
her mother. That fact instantly grounded Minji and helped her
regain her focus.

“It’s okay, Bailey, I’m here.” Wiping away
tears from her cheeks with the back of her hand, Minji composed
herself. Her relief that the baby had awakened was diluted with the
panic that burned in her gut. Concentrating solely on Bailey, she
rocked her child while murmuring reassurances to her.

“Minji?” Simone’s voice cried out. A second
later, the woman stepped into the room, caught sight of Minji, and
staggered backward while pressing a hand to her chest. “How?”

Ava and Jake were silent, having returned to
simply staring.

“How?” Minji repeated.

“You disappeared before my eyes,” Simone
gasped. “Vanished.”

With the sad shake of her head, Minji said,
“No. You were caught in it again. Like before. Even Bailey was
affected this time.”

Dark eyes sliding toward the hall, Simone
said, “Shit.”

“It happened before, but you didn’t believe
me.”

“I do now.” Simone swallowed hard. “Jesse is
still in it.”

A second later, Arthur stepped into the
doorway dabbing at a bloody nose. He didn’t say a word as he walked
across the room and sat heavily in a chair. Eyes fastened to the
tips of his shoes, he visibly shuddered.

“I don’t think Jesse’s going to wake up,”
Simone continued.

Cradling Bailey, Minji glanced into the
hallway. Jesse was transfixed, blood oozing from his left
nostril.

“Jesse?” she called out, but knew he
wouldn’t answer.

A couple of seconds ticked by, then he
gradually turned his face toward her. Blinking, he staggered
forward and grunted, “Oh, shit.”

“Jesse, you're awake!” Minji cried out in
surprise and relief.

Shocked, Simone scooted around Minji and
Bailey and hurried to help Jesse as he slumped against the wall.
“Jesse, we thought you were gone!”

“I think I was...” A hard shake of his head
seemed to help him focus. “I...was one of them, wasn’t I?”

“We all were,” Simone answered, but her eyes
shifted toward Minji.

“Did you see it?” Jesse rubbed his eyes.
“All those colors...that sound...”

“Before you woke up?” Simone nodded. “Yes, I
did.”

“I saw it earlier. When I went blind in the
first attacks.” Minji leaned her shoulder against the doorjamb. She
felt weak, tired, and helpless.

“So we’re not really immune,” Jesse said.
Draping an arm around Simone’s shoulders, he hobbled past Minji and
into the room. It was an obvious struggle for him to coordinate his
gait.

“Except for her,” Simone said, her eyes
again darting toward Minji.

“Why her?” Arthur’s voice was shrill.

Jesse slumped into the chair Minji had
vacated. “I don’t know.”

“Why are you special?” Arthur demanded, his
hands clenching his cellphone, his eyes riveted to the screen. The
faint sound of a voice dictating how to leave a message whispered
through the room. “My kids are probably dead right now, or they're
one of them! But you’re immune. Why?”

Minji lifted a shoulder, shifting Bailey
onto the opposite hip to give her aching body a rest. “I have no
idea.”

“Is it because you’re Chinese? Are the
Chinese doing this?”

“I’m part Korean, dickwad.” Minji scowled
angrily at the man, her earlier compassion eroding in the face of
his ignorance and belligerence.

“So the North Koreans are doing this? What
are you? A sleeper agent?” Arthur killed the call he’d been trying
to make, shot to his feet and took a sharp step toward her. “Answer
me!”

“I’m a tattoo artist from Austin, Texas. I
was born and raised in Texas, dipshit. I’m just as American as
you!” Minji handed Bailey to Simone and matched Arthur’s
intimidating pose. She was shorter than he was, but she wasn’t
about to back down. “I have no fuckin’ idea why I’m immune, so back
off! You’ve been at total asshole since this started and I’m sick
of it! You need me, because if you go under again, I’m the one who
can take care of you. You don’t want to end up outside with the
others, do you?”