by Sean Patten
As if to illustrate my point, the chatter of a pair of rifles firing in bursts sounded out from a distance, followed by some sporadic return fire from pistols.
“Okay, fine,” said the guard. “We keep this between us. But what the hell’s on your mind?”
I couldn’t think of any way to put it other than being direct, delivering the blow without softening it.
“The CME,” I said. “This is it.”
The guard appeared confused.
“The what?” asked Steve.
“The solar flare,” I said, putting it in terms that were inaccurate but that Steve would understand. “It hit us, and it hit us hard.”
Steve laughed.
“Are you kidding, bro?” he asked. “We’re in the middle of a goddamn casino heist and you’re still on your conspiracy shit?”
“It’s not a conspiracy!” I said. “Look around you! The power’s out! And you heard the guards—they were just as confused about it as we were.”
“Maybe that was some trick,” said Steve. “Make us lower our guard or something.”
“Doesn’t make sense,” I said. “No reason for them to want us to think that something happened out of their control.”
The guard chimed in.
“They don’t let me see all the behind-the-scenes shit here,” he said. “But this place is state of the art. No way some team of robbers would be able to hack into the power system here.”
“Fine,” said Steve. “Then maybe it’s a power outage that hit at the same time the robbery started.”
“Doubt it,” I said. “A place like this is built for something like that. There’d be backup generators on top of backup generators.”
“Yeah,” said the guard, realizing the truth of what I was saying. “There’s enough backup power in this place to power the Medley and five other casinos. Like a mini power plant they’ve got down there. And they should’ve come on with no more than a five-second delay, at the most.”
He sat back against the prep table, the situation seeming to dawn on him.
“Nothing’s right about this,” he said. “There should be cops flooding in the place by now, but it’s still like fucking Fallujah out there.”
“And the phones,” I said. “Not a single one works. And we can’t see outside from here, but I bet you anything that if we did there’d be the same situation at every other casino on the Strip.”
Steve said nothing, taking it all in.
“And even my radio’s not working,” said the guard, tapping the device on his shoulder.
After a few moments, Steve spoke.
“Okay,” he said. “So what if it is the flare or CME or whatever it is. What does that mean? That the whole city’s electrical grid is fried?”
I opened my mouth to speak, but stopped myself. He was right, that the entire Vegas grid could be down—permanently. But I knew the truth of the matter was that it might actually be worse than that. If the EMP hit in the way I’d feared it could, the power of the entire country could be down.
Or of the entire planet.
But there was no point making things worse. As far as I knew, it was localized to Vegas.
“Might be the case,” I said. “But right now we need to get the hell out of this casino.”
“And then to where?” asked Steve.
“You remember how the Strip looked when we got here?” I asked. “How many people were there? Imagine the scene there now if the power’s out.”
“Jesus,” the guard breathed, clearing having a picture in his mind of the scene.
“And you want to go back into that?” asked Steve. “What if it’s safer here?”
“Outside doesn’t have a gun battle going on,” I said. “And we could only hole up in here for so long.”
“What about getting to the rooms upstairs?” asked the guard. “We could barricade ourselves in, wait until the cavalry showed up.”
If they show up, I thought.
“No good,” I said. “First of all, every way to get up there either involves taking an elevator—”
“Which won’t work,” said Steve.
“Right,” I said. “Or accessing areas locked electronically. And even if we did manage to get up there, we’ve still got the matter of supplies and all that to worry about.”
“Not to mention,” said the guard, beginning to agree with me. “What happens when every other person in the city gets the same idea that we have.”
“Exactly,” I said. “Right now the biggest danger to us isn’t those robbers out there, it’s the panicking masses.”
Steve appeared to be processing what I’d told him.
“Fine,” he said. “Say we get out of here, then what?”
“We get out of the city,” I said. “As far away as we can. Someplace without so many people.”
Steve let his body fall back against the side of the prep table.
“Damn,” he said. “What a mess. And then we’ve got these people to worry about. What’re we going to do? Guide them out of the city? Make them our responsibility?”
“We can figure that out once we’re clear,” I said.
The guard nodded.
“I’m with you guys,” he said. “I don’t know about you both, but I’m ex-military.”
“Same,” said Steve.
I said nothing.
“I’m not a killing machine or anything,” the guard said. “But I can handle myself with a gun.”
“Three of us leading nine people,” I said. “We play it smart and we might be able to make it out of the city alive.”
Right as I finished speaking, I caught a glimpse of something out of the corner of my eye. It was someone down at the far end of the prep table.
Someone with frizzy hair.
As soon as I realized what had happened, the woman’s slim figure climbed up onto the prep table as she made her proclamation.
“Everyone!” she said. “I heard every word they said! It’s the goddamn apocalypse!”
The three of us exchanged knowing looks. I could tell that each of us had the same word on our minds.
Fuck.
Chapter 15
Even through the darkness I could make out the wild-eyed expression on the woman’s face.
“They said power’s out over the whole planet!” she said. “We’ve gotta get out of the city—now!”
“Goddammit,” said the guard under his breath.
I moved over to the group, watching the first traces of panic form on their faces. They began to speak among themselves, their voices rising with concern.
Shit. Now there wasn’t just the matter of keeping them calm—there was also the issue of keeping them quiet. No way to know how much attention the woman’s table-top announcement drew. Any moment now the doors could be kicked down by fleeing mobs of people, or worse.
“Everyone!” said Steve. “Don’t get yourself into a damned panic! There’s no way to know if this thing is planet-wide. Hell, or if it’s even state-wide!”
“What about my family!” said a man in the group. “They’re in Kansas City!”
Fear told hold of him as he realized that he might be stranded, no way to contact them. That same fear, that of not being able to get ahold of loved ones, passed through the small group like a contagion. Panic—the panic that would make them irrational and dangerous—began to take hold.
“We all want to see our families,” I said. “But getting out of control isn’t going to do us any good! We have to stay calm if we want to get out of this alive!”
I hated raising my voice in that situation, but there was no way else to handle it.
“We’re going to die,” said another woman. “We’re going to die in this casino.”
Shit. I was losing them.
The guard stood up, and the eyes of the group settled on him. I could tell that in the short time he’d been with them, whatever he’d done had been enough to earn a small measure of their trust.
“They’re right,�
�� he said. “The worst thing we can do right now is panic. If we can stay calm, keep our wits about us, we might be able to get out of here alive.”
The group said nothing, and I could feel the tension in the air dissipate by the moment. I allowed myself to feel a moment of relief at the guard talking down the crowd from the edge.
“Now,” he said. “There’s a side entrance out of the casino that we can get to from here. It’ll lead us to the side street, away from the crowd.”
He touched his hand to a large ring of keys on his hip.
“I can get us out of there. But what I need you all to do is to stay calm. And if you can do that for me, for us”—he gestured to Steve and me—“then I’ve got no doubt we can get out of here safe and s—”
Two gunshots fired in quick succession cut through the air, stopping the guard mid-sentence. He glanced down at his belly at two red circles that expanded by the moment.
Oh, no.
The guard dropped to his knees, the color in his face already draining. His hand went to the wounds, as if he could stem the flow of blood with his palm alone.
“He’s been shot!” one of the women screamed.
“Oh, Jesus,” said Steve.
I turned to him.
“Try to calm them down,” I said. “I’ll see to him.”
“What a mess,” said Steve as he broke off from me and hurried over to the group.
I glanced over the serving window of the kitchen and spotted two figures making their way towards us.
We’d been found.
Once at the guard, I dropped down and looked over the wounds. They were about as grave as could be. Once was around the area of the liver, the other right in the guts. Even if I could get him to a hospital now, the odds of him living were slim.
And it wasn’t like hospitals were an option at the moment.
They guard’s glassy eyes latched onto mine, his face a ghostly white.
“It’s bad,” he said. “I know.”
“You’re going to be fine,” I said, beginning to slip my arm around his shoulders. “We’re going to get you out of here and—”
He reached up, the motion causing a pained expression to take hold of his face. His hand fell onto my arm, stopping me.
“No,” he said. “They’re coming. You need to get them out of here. And there’s no time to argue.”
He coughed, blood sputtering down his chin. A jangling noise sounded as he took the keys off his belt and handed them over.
“This one locks the kitchen door behind you,” he said, holding one key between his fingers. “This one opens the service entrance.”
Another cough, another sputter of blood.
“They’re coming,” he said. “No time to argue. I’ll hold them off for as long as I can. Now go!”
I wanted to do something, to say something. But he was right. We needed to move.
He took out his pistol and flicked off the safety.
“Just go, please.”
I looked into his eyes, their life fading by the moment.
“Thank you,” I said, taking the keys.
“Go.”
I wrapped my fingers around the cool metal, then put my hand on his shoulder and squeezed it firmly.
Nothing more to be done. I got up and glanced behind me to see the two robbers slowly approach, each of them taking a separate door to the kitchen.
We had a minute, tops.
“We ready to move?” I asked.
“Yeah,” said Steve. “Think so.”
“Where is he?” asked a woman in the group. “Is he going to be okay?”
“He’s...staying behind to make sure we get out okay,” I said.
It was a hell of a truth-fudging, but the best I could do if it meant preventing the outbreak of full-blown panic.
“We’re going out the back,” I said. “We have to get out of here, now.”
I started towards the large, steel door leading out of the kitchen as Steve got the group to their feet. After a quick once-over, I determined that they were shaken as hell, but well enough to move.
Not like we had a choice.
Pulling open the large handle for the door, I flicked on my flashlight and pointed it down the hallway to make sure we were alone. Once the coast was confirmed clear, I began gesturing for the group to hurry out.
“Come on!” I said.
They packed through the door and into the hallway. Once they were in, Steve stopped in front of me before leaving with them.
“Is he…” he said, pointing with his thumb behind him, back towards the injured guard.
I shook my head and Steve winced. He got the message.
Once Steve was through, I followed him through the door, pulling it shut just in time to see the two robbers burst into the kitchen, guns raised.
As I jammed the key into the lock and twisted it, I heard several rapid pops of gunfire.
Then nothing.
“Is he coming?” asked a younger girl in the group.
“No,” I said. “And we can’t waste this.”
The group knew right away what I meant. I pointed the flashlight ahead as I moved in front of the crowd, Steve taking position beside me.
“He went out like a hero,” said Steve.
“No kidding,” I said.
Now it was on us. Steve and I hadn’t asked for the responsibility to lead these people out, but it was rapidly becoming clear that no other member of the group was offering to step up.
We continued on, the beam of my flashlight flicking here and there and illuminating small portions of the pitch-black hallway. There were no windows, no sources of light at all.
“Stay close to one another,” I said quietly.
As we traveled deeper into the darkness I found myself picturing horror images of the beam of the flashlight landing on some member of the robbery crew who’d tracked us back here. Having the guard and his gun would’ve gone a long way towards making me feel better, but I had to accept that he was gone and move forward. There was no time for regrets.
The group talked quietly among themselves, and Steve took the opportunity to lean in close to me and speak.
“What do you want to do with them when we get out?” he asked. “Don’t know how crazy I am about being the shepherd for this flock.”
“Hell, I’m not sure what the next step is for just you and me,” I said. “Guess we’ve got to take this one thing at a time.”
“Yeah,” he said. “Get out of here and figure it out. Like we agreed.”
It was good to have Steve at my side. So far he’d been keeping a cool head, taking initiative when he needed to. If I’d have been told in advance that this mess was going to happen, part of me would’ve wondered if Steve might’ve been one more member of the frantic masses. But he wasn’t. In fact, he was an asset.
We reached a T-shaped intersection in the hallway, one path leading to the left, the other to the right. I hurried my pace as we approached, hoping that there’d be some indication of which path to take. But as I approached, my stomach sank as I saw nothing but a black square on the wall where directional arrow would’ve been.
“Are you kidding me?” asked Steve as he placed his hand on the smooth black panel. “The directions were screens, too?”
Anxious murmuring broke out behind us at his words.
“Calm it down, Steve,” I said quietly. “You’re right, but we need to figure something out.”
Before I could say or do anything else, however, a noise sounded from the far end of the hallway. My blood ran cold when I realized what it was.
The robbers had followed us.
“That’s them!” said one of the men in the group.
There must’ve been another key in the kitchen, or they’d found one on different guard. Whichever it was, we had to move, fast.
Left or right. Left or right. No way to know for sure.
Left. Good a guess as any.
“Come on!” I said. “Move!”
We hurried along, picking up our pace. The footfalls of boots on concrete echoed behind us. It wouldn’t be long before they were right on top of our group.
I picked up my pace, going from a fast walk to a trot. And as I did, the light from my flashlight began to flicker.
“Oh, no,” I said. “Don’t do this to me. Not now.”
And then it went out. The group was totally surrounded by impenetrable darkness.
“Stop!” I said sharply.
The group complied. I could sense the stress in the air.
“Okay!” said Steve. “Here’s what we’re going to do: take one another’s hands. Like we’re on a middle-school field trip.”
It was a good idea—the best way to make sure we stayed together. The group took a few moments to form up, me at the lead, my hand in Steve’s.
We continued along, my ears focused on the distant sound of the robbers moving down the hallway. If the path I’d taken led to a dead end or a locked door…I didn’t even want to think about what would happen.
“Come on, guys,” said Steve. “Doing good. Almost there.”
A lie. Maybe. He had no way to know if we were even heading in the right direction. But it beat telling the others that there was a good chance we were stepping towards our deaths.
My heart raced. I guessed that we had no more than a minute or two before the crooks were on top of us.
Finally, my shoulder slammed into the cool, hard metal of a door. But without the light, I couldn’t see whether or not it was the right one.
“Anyone got a lighter?” I asked.
“Yeah!” said someone towards the back of the group.
“Pass it up!” said Steve. “Carefully!”
I focused on my breathing, taking in slow and full draws of air as I listened to the group coordinate to pass the lighter up. The robbers’ footsteps grew louder.
“Here!” said Steve, pressing the lighter into my hands.
I took it and fumbled around until my thumb was on the gear. Then, I held it up and flicked it, knowing that I was about to find out whether or not I’d led the group to a dead end.
Two words jumped out of the darkness.
“SERVICE EXIT”
They were about the sweetest thing I’d ever seen. But we weren’t safe yet. Holding the lighter in one hand, I took the keys out of my pocket and fumbled for the one indicated by the guard.