The ape screeched, not liking her answer. A bigger problem was Trey recognizing the hard, stubborn expression setting on his wife’s face. He had seen it many times before when Catalina was becoming determined, feisty, and about as dangerous as a hangry animal. Buddy didn’t know what he was in for, and it was probably worse than a kick to the balls.
“I swear to God if you come over here…” She didn’t finish her threat as she wrapped the straps of her bag around her hand and forearm, gripping it into place, as though she intended to use the item as a weapon, like Thor’s hammer.
Trey’s hunger for a fight dissipated. This wasn’t how any of this was supposed to go, and he didn’t want Cat getting hurt. Their roles had shifted, and he didn’t like it. “Come on, babe. A few bananas in your bag isn’t worth getting hurt over. We can find some more food later.”
She glared at him. There was an equal chance she’d knock him out with her bag before turning it on the chimp. “Excuse me? Why don’t you tellhimthat?It’s my food.”
Trey turned to the animal, putting up his hands in a calming motion. “Look, Buddy, trying to get a few bananas from my wife’s purse isn’t worth dying over.” He turned to his wife. “Is that better?”
“Thank you,” she said, nodding her approval.
Too bad Buddy didn’t understand, as he started running toward them. Both Trey and Catalina yelled at the top of their lungs. He was ready to blindly kick an animal in the balls, and she swung her bag back as if preparing to cannonball it into the ape’s jaw.
Suddenly, the chimp stopped short. Buddy made a couple of screeches before racing across the carpet tufts. He made it to a wall, clambered up the surface, and grabbed hold of the edge of a hole for an electrical socket that was missing its faceplate. After pulling himself inside, he turned to flip them off with both hands before disappearing into the wall.
“Well, we showed him,” Trey said, surprised the plan worked and they managed to intimidate an ape.
“You really think we scared him?” Cat didn’t sound convinced.
He slipped his shirt back on as she unwrapped the straps from her arm and set the bag on her shoulder. “Sure, maybe it was all talk and no—”
A thundering rumble interrupted their conversation as they turned around, unsure of what doom they were about to face. Out of all of them, it was becoming clearer Buddy was the smartest one because he got out of there before the earthquake hit. Trey didn’t even know that Cancun had earthquakes.
“Trey?” She returned to gripping his shirt. He wasn’t sure if they should run or maybe risk angering Buddy again and making for the hole in the wall. Before any decision could be made, though, a fleet of giant shoes descended upon the area. While the voices were loud, they echoed in the space above them and overlapped, making it hard to understand what was being said.
Catalina tugged on his arm. “We need to get back to the booth! Come on!”
She was about to leap to the closest carpet tuft beyond the chair, but he grabbed her and yanked her back just before she would have been rolled over and smashed by a monster wheel. “Watch out!” He carefully poked his head out from under the chair, inspecting the object as much as he could. It appeared to be a furniture dolly. The wheel was as high as a building. Knowing it almost took Cat out caused a cold sweat to break across his neck. “You can’t just go out there. You’ll get crushed.” At the moment, under the chair was the safest spot to be because there were too many things to dodge out in the open.
“I thought we were trying to get help. We’re not going to get it here. If anyone is going to find us, maybe they’ll find us in the booth,” his wife insisted.
“Only if they’re looking for us. If not, how are they even going to know we’re there?”
His wife was getting more frantic as she jerked away from him. “I don’t know. If someone knows that we—”
“How would anyone know that? Just thinkabout it. Did anyone see us come into the room?” Catalina was smart, but all of this was too dangerous, and he had to protect her over everything. His heart wouldn’t let him risk something happening to her.
“I don’t know. All I know is that it’s the best shot we—”
There was a giant slam, making them jump. Followed byShit!echoing around them.
“Will you be careful with that? That thing is worth more than your whole paycheck. If you crack the MASS laser—”
“I didn’t crack it,” the deep male voice grumbled. “I already took that part out. I was just taking the booth apart, and the side slipped from my hands. That's all.”
Sure enough, the booth, the same one Cat was eager to get back to, was being dismantled. There was still the original platform flooring, but a side wall had tipped over and was lying on top of it. Trey pushed down a hard swallow. Buddy and dolly wheels aside, this was the first time a real shiver of dread went through him at the thought of what could have been. If they had still been inside the booth, they would have ended up as nothing more than an unnoticeable tiny smear, both their lives wiped out without anyone being the wiser.
The same thought must have passed through his wife’s mind because she stood frozen in place with a hand rubbing across her clavicles, a habit she resorted to when attempting to remain calm. They stood there, doing nothing more than watching thechaos move around them, seeing bits and pieces of a larger picture of activity, most of it consisting of feet and hands shifting in and out of their view. Running out, attempting to catch anyone’s attention, appeared to not only be useless because of the noise but also a death wish. From what he could tell, everything was being either broken down or packed up. At one point an open cardboard box spilled over, and hands rushed to shovel the contents back in. A power strip surge protector was pulled from the wall and left haphazardly beside one of the dolly wheels.
“What are we going to do?” Catalina asked. It was unclear if this was a serious question he was supposed to provide a real answer to or if she was merely talking to herself out loud. He hated that her voice had become broken, sounding as though she was barely holding it together.
While he wanted to be the positive go-getter with a plan and reassure his wife everything was fine and they’d figure it out, he didn’t have anything to give her. The only response he managed was a shrug of his shoulders because he didn’t know what to do. She rubbed the spot on her chest harder, more frantic.
“No,” she said. “I don’t—We need to do something. They need to help us. We need to go with that equipment.”
“What? Why?”
“If all this stuff has a shot of returning us to normal size, then we need to go to where the equipment is. Staying here isn’t going to fix us.”
