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The void opened and consumed her mind, stealing away her final words and moments.
Pivoting about, Rachel faced west, then started to walk.
Chapter 19
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.
