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“Oh, my God! We need to take cover!”
Minji pushed the stretcher away from her, sending it rolling across the lobby away from the entrance. Grabbing Ava’s arm and scrambling around the fountain, she ducked behind it.
Simone appeared to grasp what was about to happen and attempted to follow, but slipped on the slick floor in her high heels and landed with a thud on her hip. “Shit!”
“Arthur, get down!” Minji screamed.
Simone scuttled behind the fountain, her expression one of terror. Arthur was released from his paralysis and hurried to join them.
The cloud of debris hit the building with a deafening crash. Fragments of buildings, cars, and people pelted the glass entrance. The glass fractured into a sparkling spider web, but miraculously held. The angry gray cloud boiled against the splintered glass like a living beast desperate to break through the doors and smother them.
“What is that?” Arthur gasped.
“A building came down,” Simone answered while trying to console Bailey. The baby was sobbing again, much to Minji’s distress.
Arthur stared fearfully at the dark cloud that consumed the sunlight and hid the world from view. “How do you know?”
“Didn’t you see the 9-11 news footage?” Minji asked incredulously. “That looks just like the debris cloud when the towers went down.”
Wiping his mouth with his trembling fingers, Arthur sluggishly nodded. “The helicopters?”
Simone wagged her head in the negative. “No, a plane came down on the Luxor. The building must have collapsed.”
“You saw it?” Arthur couldn’t tear his gaze from the cracking glass.
Simone continued to try to shush Bailey by patting her back while she spoke. “I had just left the airport. My driver was taking me to my conference when the car ended up in a pileup. Lucky for me, it was slow moving traffic. I was the only one to get out of the cars. Everyone else stayed inside, not moving, just staring. I tried to rouse my driver, but it didn’t work. Then I saw the plane hit the Luxor. It was like a knife into butter. When the plane exploded I ran. I kept running until I saw the rescue vehicles outside.”
The mammoth glass pyramid must have collapsed for there to be such an enormous debris cloud.
“I think I heard it when the first attack happened.” Minji distinctly remembered a loud boom that had rocked the casino.
“It wasn’t the only plane to go down. I saw more falling out of the sky when I was running, but those appeared to be further out of the city.” Simone dipped her hands in the water and attempted to wash the grit and blood off them.
“So it is terrorists,” Arthur declared.
Simone shrugged. “Who knows? All I know is that everyone but the three of us – and the baby – is acting like a...” She flicked her fingers, the droplets striking the smooth surface of the water. Her high brow furrowed beneath her side-swept bangs. “Acting like…”
“Zombies,” Arthur offered.
“They’re not attacking people. They’re not eating us,” Minji said defensively, hugging Ava lovingly.
“Yet.”
Simone rolled her eyes at Arthur’s comment.
“They’re still alive. Jake has a pulse. So does Ava. It’s like they’re sleepwalking or something.”
Arthur shrugged. “The terrorists must have put something in the air. Maybe in that plane that crashed.”
Simone dismissed this comment with the shake of her head. “I doubt that, Arthur. That plane crashed after the massive pileup. My driver slipped into a trance and it appeared everyone else driving did, too. No one honked, no one slammed on their brakes. They just drove into one another. Then the plane struck the Luxor.”
Bailey quieted, letting out a pitiful sniffle.
Minji lifted her hand so Bailey could grip it. The young mother definitely sympathized with her baby daughter. The sights and sounds of the day were overwhelming to her as an adult. She could only imagine how terrifying it was for Bailey. Gazing at Ava, Minji was torn. Was it better that Ava wasn’t aware of the terrible events unfolding? Yet, how could her transfixed state be something good? When would she awaken? At least she wasn’t attempting to follow the others anymore.
Faint patches of sunlight pierced through the thick, dark cloud as it gradually dissipated while the heavier fragments settled to the ground and the hot desert wind brushed away the lighter particles.
“We should be able to leave soon,” Minji said, though she wasn’t really sure she wanted to venture outside.
