by Sean Patten
“We’re just going to get into there for long enough to find out what we can,” I said. “I bet there are people there with information.”
“If you say so,” he said. “But looking this over, shit, I’m starting to get what you mean about avoiding crowds.”
He was right and I knew it. I was being irrational. Right now Steve and I should be getting ready to hunker down for the night, getting some sleep to get an early start on the day ahead. But instead here we were, right on the cusp of a riot about to break out.
“You don’t have to do this, Steve,” I said. “You don’t—”
“Not a chance,” he said. “We’re sticking together. And if I was in your shoes, I’d be doing the same thing.”
I allowed myself a half-grin.
“Thanks, bro,” I said.
“No problem,” he said. “Besides, not like I can wait at the hotel for you to call me and let me know you’re done.”
He was right about that. Coordinating plans was something else that would be extremely difficult without phones or texts, or hell, even the postal service.
Something else to think about at a time that wasn’t right then.
“Okay,” I said. “You ready to do this?”
“Ready as I’m going to be,” he replied.
“Then let’s move.”
Chapter 23
We stood on the edge of the crowd, the people ahead packed so tightly that I wondered how they had room to breathe. At this distance the noise was so loud that it Steve and I had to nearly yell to speak to one another.
“Holy shit!” he said. “How the hell are we going to even get through this?”
It was a damn good question. It was surprising that the crowd was as well-behaved at it was. There were fewer people at the Strip and they’d descended into near-anarchy the moments the lights went down. I wondered if there was some group here, some authority figure, keeping the peace.
“I don’t even get what’s happening,” said Steve. “Are they in line for something?”
Right at that moment, a nearby person who stood at the back edge of the crowd turned back towards us. It was an older woman, short with close-cropped dyed red hair. She regarded us with worried eyes and spoke.
“Excuse me,” she said. “Do you boys know anything about the flights?”
“Not a thing,” I said. “That’s why we’re here.”
“Where’s the flight you’re waiting on coming in from?” asked Steve.
“Oh no,” she said. “I’m not waiting on a flight coming in—I’m waiting for one that’s leaving.”
“Come again?” asked Steve.
The woman reached into her front pocket and withdrew what was clearly a plane ticket and a passport.
“My husband and I are catching a red-eye to Toronto that was supposed to leave two hours ago,” she said. “And then all this happened with the power and the phone lines and everything, so we figured that we’d come here in person and find out what we could.”
“You’re here to…catch a flight out?” I asked, still having a hard time with what I was hearing.
“That’s right,” she said. “I’d assumed that the flight would be late, of course, but it’s absolutely crazy that they’re not telling us a thing about when they’re going to have things back on track.”
Someone else spoke up, a college-aged guy in a hoodie and a ball cap.
“Hey,” he said. “You guys talking about when the flights are starting again?”
The woman gave an affirmative nod.
“We sure are,” she said. “Which one are you on?”
“The eleven forty-five to Houston,” he said. “But it’s total bullshit—my phone’s still broken and I can’t find a single fucking employee.”
His eyes went wide for a moment as he realized he’d just dropped an F-bomb in front of an older woman.
“Sorry,” he said. “Just frustrated is all.”
“It’s okay,” she said. “Everyone here’s a little high-stress right now. But don’t worry about it—I’m sure they’ll have everything back up and running before too long.”
At that moment an older man stepped out from the crowd and moved to the woman’s side. He glanced at me, Steve and the college kid with skeptical eyes before placing his hand on the woman’s back and leading her away from us.
Steve pulled me aside.
“Holy shit,” he said. “Are these people really here because they think the flights are going to start again?”
I didn’t want to believe that the crowd assembled was in such a collective state of denial or ignorance, but it was looking to be the case.
“They’re going to figure it out the hard way,” I said. “And when they do…”
The realization hit me that part of the reason for the crowd being so well-behaved was likely that they didn’t realize the extent of what had happened. They were treating this situation like the aftermath of a hurricane or some such, like the mass-outages were just a temporary inconvenience before life went back to normal.
“Come on,” said Steve. “Let’s see if there’s another way around.”
“Yeah,” I said. “Good call.”
Dread built in me with each second that passed. I wondered what would happen at the moment everyone realized that this was for keeps, that the planes weren’t coming or going, that the lights were never coming back on.
We needed to be far away from this place when that happened, no doubt about it.
The two of us sidled along the back edge of the crowd, looking for some kind of opening to get in further. But it was thick with people no matter where we were.
I had nightmare visions of the stampede that happened at the Medley taking place here, bodies being crushed underfoot as panic took hold of the crowd.
“Look at that,” said Steve, pointing perpendicular to the main crowd.
I glanced in the direction he was pointing. It was a smaller crowd of people, all gathered around someone or something off to the side.
“Let’s check it out,” I said.
As we moved I reached into my back pocket, checking once again that the one possession I cared about was still there. I moved it to my front pocket, imagining that the crowd was no doubt full of thieves picking pockets left and right.
We approached the smaller crowd and reached the edge. Here, I could see over the heads of the people in front of us. At the other edge of the crowd was a pair of uniformed cops, their palms up at the crowd, hard expressions on their faces.
“What’s going on?” someone shouted. “We’ve been here for three hours and no one’s told us a damn thing!”
A few “yeahs” erupted out of the crowd and the hubbub grew louder.
“I wonder if these cops are planning on robbing everyone,” said Steve to me quietly, his tone sardonic.
“Shh,” I said. “Let’s see if they actually have anything to say.”
“When are the next planes leaving?” said someone else. “And where the hell are all the employees?”
Another person spoke up.
“I’d better be able to get a damn refund if they’re just going to be keeping us in the dark like this!”
Nice choice of words, I thought.
All I could do was shake my head at the disconnect between the severity of the situation and how people were reacting to it. Civilization was on the brink of collapse and all they could think about were their frequent flier miles.
“Folks,” said one of the cops in a booming, authoritative voice. “We’re keeping you all in the know as much as we can. Right now, with the power and phones out, we’re on very limited information. But we’ll let you know as soon as we know anything.”
The other cop spoke up.
“The best thing any of us can do right now is to stay calm. Keep a cool head, and don’t create any more confusion than there already is.”
I glanced down at the service pistols at the cops’ hips, wondering if they’d soon be turned on the crowd.
>
“Christ,” said Steve. “It’s the same here. No one knows anything.”
An attractive young woman with cropped black hair stepped over to us and spoke, having apparently been listening to our conversation.
“I know what’s going on,” she said with a knowing grin.
There wasn’t the slightest doubt in my mind that she didn’t, but I was too preoccupied to tell her that I wasn’t interested in hearing it.
“What’s that?” asked Steve, matching her smile with one of his own.
Oh no, I thought. Is he actually going to flirt with this girl? Now?
“Okay,” she said. “I’ve been looking into the solar flare thing that’s been going on, and what I’ve been able to figure out is that it’s a total government conspiracy.”
“A conspiracy?” asked Steve, speaking up over to the noise of the crowd.
“That’s right,” she said. “See, Earth has been under the surveillance of aliens for years—decades, maybe centuries.”
Oh, Jesus. Here we go, I thought.
“And in all the movies about aliens attacking they come to Earth like a military, right? Landing giant ships and shooting laser beams and all that. But think about it—why would aliens who have the technology to travel through the stars do that?”
“Go on,” said Steve, still clearly interested, even as his expression suggested he was fast realizing that he was speaking with a crackpot.
“No,” she said. “What they’d do is something global, like cutting the power. Then, once everyone was confused and there was total panic, all they’d have to do is move in and take us over. It’s totally obvious why, too—they want our resources, and probably the women so they can make half-human, half-alien hybrids.”
“That’s, uh, quite a theory,” said Steve.
“Not a theory,” she said, not missing a beat. “And think about it—those cops know everything. Every government employee has been training for this event. And what’s worse is they’re in on it. I bet the aliens told them that if they cooperated, kept all the people in the dark, that they’d reward them with power or something. It’s all so goddamn obvious.”
I glanced over at Steve. I knew my brother was an impossible flirt, but this seemed like a little much, even for him.
“Uh, that’s cool. Really cool,” he said. “But right now me and my brother have to talk about some stuff.”
He angled his body to step over to me, away from the girl. But right in mid-movement, someone else piped up. A heavy-set, middle-aged man with a neatly trimmed goatee joined our conversation.
“Aliens?” he asked. “Are you fucking kidding me?”
“Hey,” the girl said. “If you don’t want to believe what’s going on right under your nose, don’t take it out on me.”
“It’s not aliens,” he said. “It’s the goddamn Russians.”
The girl rolled her eyes as the man went on.
“We’ve let the electrical grid of this country go to shit,” he said, “and the Russians have been paying real, real close attention. They’ve known for years just how easy it would be to knock out the grid and move in with all the troops. I bet right now we’ve got thousands of Russians landing on the coasts, moving right towards the middle of the country.”
“Please,” said the girl. “That’s some delusional Cold War crap.”
The man sighed despairingly, as if speaking to an ignorant child.
“I see the Russian propaganda’s gotten into your pretty little head too,” he said. “They want you to think the Cold War’s over, want us to think that they’ve gotten weak.”
The man shook his head for emphasis before he continued on. “Nope,” he said. “Russia’s just as strong as ever. And I wouldn’t be surprised in the least if they had the Red Chinese on their side too. Trust me—this cold war’s about to get really hot.”
“It’s not the Russians,” another voice declared. “I’d put money on it being standard-issue terrorists. Probably blew up a dirty bomb or something right in the middle of the electrical grid.”
“Wait,” said the girl. “If it’s the Russians, then how do you explain the lights I’ve been seeing in the sky? They haven’t been moving like normal planes.”
I cocked my head in curiosity. Lights in the sky?
“Obviously spy planes,” the goatee said before turning to the person who’d offered the terrorist suggestion. “And that’s not how a damn dirty bomb works.”
“It’s peak oil!” shouted someone else, getting their two cents in. “Power’s the first thing to go off!”
It wasn’t long before everyone nearby was chiming in, offering their explanation for the situation.
The noise quickly became unbearable, and I turned to Steve to gesture that it was time to put some distance between us and the crowd.
But before I could get a word out, I spotted something in the sky. It was a huge, swiftly moving dark shape, only visible by the stars it blocked out as it rushed through the sky. It grew larger and larger by the moment.
And it was coming right towards the airport.
“Steve,” I said, putting my hand on his shoulder and pointing towards it.
“What?” he asked.
“We need to move. Now.”
I knew now what it was. It was a plane, on a direct course to make a hard, hard landing on the runway.
The chaos that had been on the brink was about to find its catalyst. And we were poised to be right in the middle when it all went to hell.
Chapter 24
Boom.
The plane slammed into the runway, the shrieking sounds of metal on pavement cutting through the air like some kind of hellish scream. Sparks poured from the plane as it screeched against the pavement.
Every pair of eyes there was on the disaster in progress, everyone watching in total shock at what they were watching unfold.
The plane continued on, the bottom dragging against the ground as the whole thing careened towards the terminal.
“Holy shit,” said Steve. “Holy shit, holy shit.”
“Steve,” I said firmly, taking advantage of the lull in the noise of the crowd. “We need to get out of here. Now.”
But he said nothing. He was just as transfixed as the rest of the people there, his eyes locked onto the slow-motion disaster.
“Steve!” I said, raising my voice over the horrible grinding noise.
He stayed locked in place. Over his shoulder the plane went on, moving closer and closer to the terminal with no signs of stopping.
And then it hit.
However loud the plane was before, it was nothing compared to the sound of all those tons of metal slamming into the terminal. Metal crunched and collapsed as the plane drove deeper into the building.
Then, finally, it stopped.
The air was still and quiet, the eeriest sound I could imagine with a crowd that had collectively seen what we’d all witnessed.
I took a deep breath and spoke again.
“Steve,” I said. “If we don’t leave right now, we’re going to—”
“Did…did you see that?” he asked, cutting me off.
“Of course I just saw that,” I said. “We all just saw that. But this crowd’s going to turn into a stampede in a matter of minutes, and unless you—”
“Holy shit,” he said, repeating the words like a chant.
I was ready to grab him by the arm and yank him out of there if I had to. But right at the moment I prepared to put my hands on him, the plane erupted in a terrible, enormous ball of fire.
The jet fuel had ignited, setting off a chain reaction that blasted the plane, along with half of the terminal that it had collided into, to pieces. It was the loudest, most terrible noise I’d ever heard in my life, the light from the explosion almost as bright as the Strip itself.
The crowd continued to watch, saying nothing, doing nothing. My eyes tracked up, locking onto the flaming chunks of steel debris that the explosion has sent arcing through the air.
“Steve!” I shouted. “We have to move, right fucking now!”
I grabbed his shoulders and spun him around on his feet, my eyes locked onto his.
“Y-yeah…,” he said. “We…we need to move.”
He was coming to his senses.
“Now!”
Over his shoulder I watched as the first chucks of debris began their downward arc, slamming into the crowd with thundering crashes that rumbled the ground beneath my feet.
Then the screaming started. Up ahead I watched as the crowd began to shift and churn, thousands of people turning in place and preparing to run. There was nothing on their collective mind but getting away, and as quickly as possible.
“We need to go!” shouted Steve.
“No shit!” I shouted right back.
Finally, he got it.
I turned and ran, weaving through the crowd as fast as I possibly could, only glancing over my shoulder to make sure that Steve hadn’t fallen behind.
And if he had I didn’t know what I would do. Outrunning the masses was like outrunning a tsunami wave—getting caught up in it would mean being pulled under, never to emerge.
More terrible crashes and bangs sounded out as more debris slammed into the ground around us. Screams punctuated the noise, people crying out for loved ones and whatever else.
I did my best to drown it out, to focus on the road ahead that we’d only just come from.
“Steve!” I shouted over my shoulder, my gaze still ahead.
“I’m still here!” he said. “Just keep running!”
A tiny measure of relief took hold. Steve had been out of his senses for a moment, but I could tell by his tone that he now had his head in the game.
I pumped my legs and arms, my lungs beginning to burn. Each footfall brought me further away from the chaos, and I knew there was nothing to do but keep forward.
Out of the corner of my eye I saw the familiar faces of the people with whom we’d been speaking. One by one, they were sucked into the crowd, pulled under as surely as if someone had grabbed their ankles and yanked them down to the ground.