The Mesmerized by Rhiannon Frater Page A

the nearby stretcher.
    Minji’s heart stuttered in her chest.
“Jake!”
    Her husband had craned his head toward her,
but like Ava, he showed no sign of actual recognition. Then, very
slowly, his lips parted revealing his white teeth. At the same
moment, Ava did the same thing.
    “Put her down! She’s going to bite you!”
Arthur shouted, scrambling backward.
    Though Simone threw a nasty look Arthur’s
way, she did set Ava down and took a step back, keeping hold on the
leash.
    Taking a hesitant step forward, Minji held
out her hands toward her husband. “Jake, are you waking up? Can you
hear me?”
    In response her husband’s mouth twisted in
odd shapes, his jaw jutted outward, and the muscles in his neck
flexed.
    “She’s doing that, too!” Arthur
screeched.
    Flicking her eyes back and forth between her
husband and daughter, it became frighteningly clear that they were
perfectly mirroring each other’s movements. In a flash of memory,
Minji realized she had seen something similar.
    “A man did this earlier. Like he was trying
to talk, but...” Minji faltered.
    “Didn’t know how?” Simone suggested.
    “Look! The air is clearer. I’m getting out
of here and far away from any of the others like them. This is
getting really crazy now. I can’t deal with this!” Arthur hurled
the diaper bag to the floor. “You’re on your own!”
    “Then so are you,” Simone said coldly, her
dark eyes narrowing. “No one to watch your back.”
    Arthur hesitated near the doors.
    “If you get hurt, who’s going to help you?”
Simone’s heels clicked against the floor as she walked over to the
diaper bag. Picking it up, she slung it over her shoulder. “Go. See
how far you get on your own. Without a plan. Without help.”
    Arthur whirled about and stormed over to the
stretcher. Grabbing the handholds, he glared at Simone. “If I need
you, you need me. Don’t forget that.”
    “We all need each other,” Minji reminded
both of them. “So far we’re the only ones that aren’t affected by
this event. We might be the only people in all of Las Vegas who are
not mesmerized. How many are dying right now? How many are dead? We
need to find medical help for my husband. We need to find a safe
place away from collapsing buildings and fires. I say we go north.
Jake pointed out a new emergency medical facility down by the
Stratosphere. We should go there.”
    “That’s about two or three miles away. It’s
not going to be an easy trek with all that chaos out there,” Simone
observed.
    “We don’t have a choice,” Arthur said. “We
should go.”
    “It’s in the direction the mesmerized are
walking,” Simone reminded him.
    “Then we won’t have to fight the flow of
foot traffic.” Minji’s mind was made up. She was tired of being at
the mercy of the situation and was determined to be proactive. Her
husband and daughter might be on the verge of awakening, but she
couldn’t just sit in the lobby and wait. Jake needed medical
attention that she didn’t know how to give him.
    “She’s right. If we’re moving with the
crowd, it’ll be easier.” Arthur gave Simone a triumphant look.
    “Okay, but did either one of you wonder
where the mesmerized are going ?” Simone’s arched eyebrow
slid upward.
    Losing his bravado, Arthur glanced nervously
toward the boulevard. “They’re just walking.”
    “In the same direction,” Simone mused. “In
one big crowd. Like they have a purpose.”
    “Is it important to know where they’re going
as long as we know our destination?” Minji asked.
    “Who knows?” Simone said. “I guess maybe
we’ll find that out.” Taking Ava’s hand, she walked toward the
front doors. “Let’s start walking before anything worse
happens.”
    Ava twisted her torso so she could keep an
eye on her mother. Minji hoped it was a good sign.
    Taking hold of the hand grip at the head of
the stretcher, she looked into her husband’s eerily empty blue
eyes. For a brief second, she thought she