The Mesmerized (5 page)

The mob funneled along the main floor
corridor in a multi-cultural sea of men, women, and children. Some
stumbled into pillars, walls, storefronts, benches, and other
obstacles, but the advancing multitude was unyielding. It was
terrible to watch people crushed and trampled to death without
uttering a cry. Even those with apparent injuries staggered along
with their comrades in the unrelenting wave of human flesh. There
weren’t any cries of pain or fear, just the constant stamp of feet
and the thud of bodies striking the floor.

Minji closed her eyes, nestled Bailey, and
waited for the dreadful parade to pass on its trek toward the
casino. The lobby of The Palazzo was located off the casino, so was
the horde heading toward the outside? How long would it take for
all those inside the building to reach their destination? Where
were they even going?

Bailey continued to sniffle, but her tears
were gradually drying. Minji leaned against the pedestal of the
obelisk located toward the rear of the fountain. Her boots and
socks were soaked through, but she didn’t dare try to balance on
the lip of the pool to get out of the water. Though she was in an
area flush against the balcony, she couldn’t afford to slip and
fall into the pool and hurt the baby or herself. Plus, the sheer
height of the location was making her woozy and unsure of her
balance.

The strange procession with its eerie
staccato beat of footsteps wore on her nerves, but it was the lack
of human voices that was even more unsettling. It made her feel
completely alone in the world.

Closing her eyes, she snuggled into Bailey’s
warmth. “It’s going to be okay,” she vowed. “I’ll find a way,
Bailey. I swear it.”

Though it was most likely a fruitless
action, Minji fished her cellphone out of the messenger bag looped
over her torso and dialed her mother’s number. It took several
seconds to realize she had no bars. With an exhalation of
surrender, she tucked the phone away.

The wave of people progressively diminished
until the only ones remaining in the atrium were injured
stragglers. Minji confirmed the balcony was clear before carefully
setting Bailey on the other side of the banister. The little girl
immediately started to cry, but Minji didn’t want to risk climbing
over the rail while holding the baby. Boots weighed down by the
water, she hoisted herself onto the balcony, landed with a squishy
splat, and swept Bailey off the floor.

“See, sweetie, I’m here.”

Bailey grabbed a handful of Minji’s dreads
with a small whimper.

Advancing through the archway, Minji let out
a gasp. Purses, shopping bags, cellphones, shoes, and other
personal items were strewn across the floor already stained with
blood, vomit, and other bodily fluids. The blood splattered bodies
from the earlier attack remained where they’d fallen and Minji was
now certain that they were dead. The reek of excrement, vomit, and
urine made her eyes burn. Gagging, she maneuvered around the
cadavers and puddles of blood toward the store where she had left
Ava. With a mixture of relief and despair, she spotted Bailey’s
diaper bag among the discarded items. Jake must have dropped it
during the earlier attack. Hoisting it over one shoulder, she
continued on.

A few steps revealed her worst fear.

Ava was gone.

“Ava!” she automatically shouted, startling
Bailey, who instantly burst into tears. “Ava!”

Of course there wasn’t an answer.

The distant stomping of the crowd sent
slivers of ice through her blood.

What if Ava was with the others? She was so
small she’d be easily trampled.

Hopscotching over bodies, Minji reached the
planter where she had left Ava. Both the leash and the little girl
were gone. Ava was mesmerized like all the rest, so when the crowd
had started their trek, she must have strained on the leash until
the knot had worked itself free. Minji had to find her.

Shifting Bailey onto her hip, the young
mother traced her steps back to the atrium. She assumed Ava had
followed the horde, which would direct her either down the
escalators or along the second floor railing. Minji didn’t even
want to think about Ava pressed up against the wrought iron, being
crushed to death. Minji was already doing her best to avoid looking
at the children among the dead and trampled. It was the only way to
keep from losing her wits.

Rushing to the top of the escalators, the
distraught mother searched for red curls among those lying at the
bottom of the stairs. There was no sign of her little girl in her
pink and black outfit. A quick look toward Jake revealed he was
partially hidden beneath a cluster of bodies.

Torn between checking on her husband and
searching for her daughter, Minji once again fought against a flood
of tears born out of feelings of helplessness. With a firm shake of
her head, she refused to give in to dismay. She wasn’t helpless.
She just had to focus and prioritize.

First she’d find Ava, then check on
Jake.

Whirling away from the escalator, she
hurried alongside the railing on the second floor. Minji’s thick
leather boots squeaked and left a trail of moisture in her wake as
she skirted around the atrium. Everywhere she turned her gaze, she
was met with the gruesome remains of the first victims. The smell
was so rank, it made it difficult to take a breath without gagging.
Almost as terrible were the wounded. Despite grievous injuries,
they dragged themselves along the floor after the horde.

What was driving them? What had possessed
their minds and bodies?

She struggled to focus despite all the
frightening, paranoid thoughts cluttering her brain, the dial on
her panic gauge edging ever closer to the red zone. She had to find
Ava.

Ahead was the Double Helix Wine and Whiskey
Bar, a circular cafe where she and Jake had enjoyed a few drinks
earlier in the week. It was a luminous space under a fake domed
skylight latticed with metal grillwork beneath a painted sky.
Highly polished wood and granite tables were surrounded by chairs
with buttery soft leather upholstery. The area was enclosed with a
barrier of waist-high frosted glass panels adorned with gold
lettering that read Double Helix. The congregation of the
mesmerized would have been forced around the bar like a stream
around a boulder.

As she drew closer, Minji saw some of the
transfixed people wandering about inside the bar. Upturned tables
and chairs were obstacles they had difficulty maneuvering around.
Broken glass sparkled in a lake of wine and whiskey slowly
spreading on the floor. It was very evident by the behavior of
those trapped inside the bar that whatever had captured their minds
stole their ability to reason as they crashed into each other and
the furniture seeking a way to join the rest of the horde.

It was then Minji saw a small redhead
stumbling through the wreckage.

“Ava!”

Hugging Bailey closer, Minji plunged into
the bar. With her free arm, she pushed the other victims toward the
exit, hoping they’d leave. The floor was very slippery and glass
crunched under her boot heels.

Ava was at the far end of the café,
battering her small frame against the curved bar. Most likely she
had been caught in the midst of the horde, and when they parted
around the bar, she must have gotten stuck among the tables. Her
Mulan backpack was askew and the leash dangled loose, the end
trailing through the liquid on the floor.

Reaching her daughter, she gripped one of
Ava’s shoulders and rotated her about. A whimper escaped Minji’s
lips when she saw the little girl’s bloodied nose and inexpressive
eyes. Ava immediately swiveled around and slammed into the bar
again. Minji dragged her daughter about and pinned her in place
against the bar with a knee planted against the girl’s thighs. It
was difficult to juggle Bailey on her hip and tend to Ava, but she
was relieved that she’d found Ava so quickly. Grabbing some napkins
from the bar, she dabbed at Ava’s bruised nose, wiping away the
blood, gently squeezing it to staunch the flow. It didn’t feel
broken. Ava continually tried to turn around throughout the
process, but Minji wouldn’t let her.

“Ava, I don’t know if you can hear me or
understand me, but I’m going to get you out of here.”

Her voice sounded obscenely loud without the
normal hubbub of the shoppers.

Securing the backpack around Ava’s shoulders
and gripping the end of the leash, she heaved Ava onto her other
hip. Ava didn’t resist, but Minji could sense the tension in her
slim body when the little girl twisted her face in the direction
the horde had taken earlier.

The young mother staggered through the bar,
evading the transfixed customers. She was almost to the door when
she saw an older man with white hair and watery blue eyes watching
her trek. Unlike the others, he was not bungling about trying to
rejoin the horde. He merely stared, his gaze flicking from Minji’s
face to those of her daughters.

“Hello?” Minji asked hopefully.

The man continued to study the trio.

“Excuse me, but are you immune, too?” Minji
hesitated in her stride, hoping that maybe she had found someone
else that was unaffected. Maybe he could assist her with rescuing
Jake. “Can you help me?”

Ever so slightly, the man cocked his head.
There was something eerie about the glint in his unblinking
eyes.

Cautiously, Minji said, “Sir? Are you
okay?”

Very slowly, the man tilted his head in the
other direction, his blue eyes never leaving her face. His mouth
opened and closed, reminding her of a gasping fish out of
water.

The chilling touch of invisible tendrils
slithered over Minji’s flesh, then the man swiveled toward the exit
along with all the others in the bar. As one, they started forward.
Minji immediately scampered out ahead of them, mindful not to slip
on the floor. She skittered to a stop near one of the other shops
and watched those inside the bar make their way out and start after
the others.

Among them was the man who had been
observing her and the girls.

Minji was certain he had been watching her,
but now he was just another of the mesmerized. What did it mean?
Had he almost awakened from whatever controlled everyone else?

“The mesmerized,” Minji whispered, naming
the victims of the horrific event unfolding around her.

Casting one last wary glance around, Minji
lugged her children toward the escalators, all the while praying
that her husband was still alive.

Minji was almost to the escalators when she
gave up on carrying both girls after nearly losing her footing
several times on the slick floor. It didn’t help that her wet socks
caused her feet to slip around inside her boots. Setting Ava on her
feet, she wrapped the end of the leash around her own wrist a few
times while Ava twisted about and faced the direction of the
mesmerized horde. Minji firmly took her oldest daughter’s hand and
started toward the top of the descending escalator. Though Ava
continued to crane her neck to gaze up the hallway, she followed,
much to Minji’s relief.

The escalator continued to glide downward,
but the steps were coated in blood and other fluids. Minji scooted
Ava onto a step, then took the following one. A heap of bodies
waited at the landing. Minji did her best to turn Bailey away from
the view though it was difficult to protect the baby from the
ghastly scene encompassing the shopping area. When they reached the
base of the stairway, Minji was forced to shove the bodies of a
young boy and two older women out of her way with one foot. It
wasn’t easy, but she managed to clear a small path. Gingerly, Minji
sidled past the bodies, and Ava scuttled along behind her.

Sorrowfully, Minji realized she would have
to secure her daughters so she could climb over the bodies
surrounding the waterfall in order to reach her husband.

“Oh, shit,” she murmured, guilt and angst
eating at her.

How could she keep Ava from following the
other mesmerized and Bailey from crawling after her? The baby had
an iron grip on her dreads and was obviously awfully frightened.
For a brief second, Minji wanted to sit on the floor and cry. There
was so much death and the task before her was intimidating. After
taking a moment to evaluate the area, she dragged Ava to a large
vase with a huge fake tree spouting out of the top.

“Bailey, I know you’re not going to like
this, but Mommy needs to get Daddy.”

Minji set the baby on the floor and speedily
wrapped the leash around the base of the pot. Bailey crawled to her
mother’s side and tried to climb into her arms. Tears stinging her
eyes, Minji kissed Bailey’s cheek, and then finished knotting the
cord. She’d tied it at the middle of the leash so there was leeway
on both ends. She set the baby next to the vase and tied one end of
the leash around her chubby tummy. Guilt weighed heavily on her as
she made it snug enough so Bailey couldn’t slip free.

Ava strained to walk away on one end of the
leash while Bailey cried and tried to crawl toward Minji on the
other. Wiping tears from her face, Minji took several deep breaths
to calm her wildly beating heart and steady her nerves.

“I’ll be right back, Bailey. Don’t cry,
baby. I’ll be right back.”

Minji stood and turned toward the waterfall.
The beautifully decorated atrium was now a place of horrors, but
she didn’t focus too long on the bodies. Hands trembling at her
sides, she gingerly stepped over the corpses.

Water splashed beneath her boots. The pile
of the deceased at the base of the waterfall caused the torrent to
slosh over the rim. Feet slipping slightly, Minji held her arms out
at her sides in an attempt to keep balanced.

Minji stepped over one young man with dirty
blond hair who gurgled, bloody foam trickling from between his
lips. Feeling helpless, Minji leaned over long enough to give him a
pat on the arm. She recognized it was a meaningless gesture. He
most likely was dying and didn’t even know she was there, but she
couldn’t walk past him without offering some comfort. With slumped
shoulders, she pressed on.