by Hunt, Jack
Several floors below she heard some of the guests enter the stairwell. “I saw her go this way. I want my money back,” she heard them say. Erika ran faster, her thighs burning with each floor she ascended. When she finally reached the top, she hurried to the double doors at the end of the hallway and banged on them, looking over her shoulder. She expected to see the angry guests but the door opened and she pushed her way in past Maria, a woman she employed to watch over Bailey. Within seconds, Bailey came trotting over. She was a large German shepherd, only four years of age. Erika had grown up wanting one for as long as she could remember but her parents always said no. Too messy. Too big. Too loud. Too much work. So as soon as they put her in charge of the hotel in Vegas, she went about getting one from the local animal rescue. There wasn’t much information, only that the last owner had tied her to a lamppost and walked away. It was hard to believe there were such heartless people in the world.
“Hey girl,” she said crouching down and wrapping her arms around her thick dark black and brown hair. Bailey nuzzled her and smelled her feet. “Yeah, I know. I’ve been…” She looked around and noticed that Maria had set up candles all over the apartment, and a few crank-handle lanterns.
“Ms. Lyons. Are you okay?”
“Yeah. I guess. I just need to get out of these clothes, take a shower and…”
Before she had taken a few steps inside there were several bangs on the front door. Bailey growled and then started barking. The sound of angry guests could be heard on the other side. “Ms. Lyons. Open up. We know you’re in there. We want a refund. This is unacceptable.”
Maria looked at Erika and she motioned with her head to take Bailey into another room. Erika wasn’t fearful of facing angry people, her parents had schooled her in the art of facing the uncomfortable. From an early age she was looked after by someone else, and when she reached the age of fourteen, she was sent off to boarding school, a decision that she wouldn’t have made had she had a choice in it. After she graduated from a hotel and hospitality program, and studied advertising the following year, her mother was quick to integrate her into the family business. Unlike others who had to work their way to the top, she began there. It was all about appearances. Her mother wouldn’t have her daughter handling menial duties. They pushed her to the front of her comfort level and initially had her handling the promotion of the hotels as well as management of one of the hotels in Vegas. She was told if she could prove herself with one hotel, they would give her more responsibility. Oh, responsibility? Like that was what she wanted out of life. Please. They had it ass backwards. She wanted freedom, adventure, and as strange as it sounded, uncertainty. It felt like everything had been planned out for her life and she was just along for the ride. Perhaps that’s why she was drawn to Tyler’s profile. It wasn’t just that he was a good-looking guy but he came across as a kindred spirit. Pity, she thought.
“Ms. Lyons. Open up!”
Erika hurried over to her shoe closet and slipped into a pair of flats. She snatched up a long coat to cover the dust that had turned her black dress gray. She darted into a bathroom and turned on a tap. It spluttered a few times, and some water came out. Good. At least the water was working for now. A quick splash of water on her face, then she ran her fingers through her hair and grimaced. God, she looked awful.
Another bang, followed by another.
It would have to do. She took a deep breath and tried to channel her mother’s attitude as she ambled up to the door and swung it open. Outside there were roughly ten people, men and women, mostly husbands sent by their wives to deal with the situation. It was always the same.
“We are sweltering hot in our rooms. There is no air conditioning. No lighting and…” One after another they voiced their complaints until it just became a crescendo of noise.
“Okay. Okay!” she bellowed. “Now I’ve been out. I am not unaware of the situation but maybe you are. Do you know that we aren’t the only ones who have been affected? The entire city is darkness, planes have dropped out of the sky, and people are lying dead, and trapped beneath rubble. Have you considered that? You should consider yourself grateful you’re alive.”
Okay, she laid it on a little thick but after the night she had, she was in no mood for crap, and hospitality had dropped to the bottom of her priorities. Still, she expected them to take a step back, perhaps apologize, or grumble and walk away but they didn’t. They stood fast. In fact, one of them jabbed his finger at her with a scowl on his face. He was a foreigner from Ireland who by the smell of his breath had been hitting the whiskey pretty hard. “Now listen here, you prissy little cow. How dare you tell us we should be grateful to be alive when you’re living in the lap of luxury? Where are our candles? We haven’t been offered any. Huh? Where are our flashlights? All we’ve been told is to go back to our rooms and be patient. Well I can speak for all of us when I say, our patience has run out. We expect a refund immediately, not a credit, not a we’ll do that once the machines are up and running. Now. Cash. Got it?”
“Sir, I don’t have cash.”
He scoffed and turned and looked at the others. “I’m sure you’ve got plenty inside there. What do you say, guys?”
“Yeah. Cough it up now!” They all began jeering and pressing forward.
“Step back or I’ll be forced to call security.”
“Security my ass. I saw your security leave within the first half an hour. Obviously you aren’t paying them enough. Now get out of the way. I’ll find my refund myself,” he said pushing her back.
“This is my apartment. Now get out!”
But they weren’t listening. Anger had taken root. The product of too much to drink. Several of the guys from the group followed after the Irish asshole who pushed his way inside and was now pressing into the main room to search for cash.
“Maria!” Erika yelled. She didn’t want her getting caught up in it, neither did she want them encountering Bailey. A door opened and Maria came out with Bailey on a leash. The second the dog caught sight of the intruders she started barking furiously.
“That dog bites me and I sue you!” the man yelled.
What should have been a cordial exchange with her guests had turned into a breach of privacy, and threats. She went over to the phone to call down to the front desk but one of the men yanked the phone out of the wall and tossed it across the room.
Forced back to control her dog, all she could do was watch as they rooted through her belongings searching for anything of value. “Get out. I will call the cops!”
“Go ahead. I might do it myself.”
“Get out of here.”
They refused to listen to reason.
That was when the door eased open and Tyler emerged holding a pistol. “You heard the lady. Time to leave. Now!” His voice didn’t get the attention he thought he would, so he fired a shot straight into the ceiling. “Out. Now!” he bellowed holding the gun on them.
12
Strange. She looked pissed. Tyler thought she would have appreciated the support. After the knot of guests left her apartment, she slammed the door and got right up in his face. “Are you out of your goddamn mind?”
He grinned. “Obviously,” he said before continuing. “Listen, you were a stone’s throw away from things getting ugly. Had we not shown up who knows what would have happened.”
“I had it under control.”
Nate walked by her. “Oh yeah, you had it under control,” he said sarcastically, snatching up a grape out of a fruit bowl and tossing it into his mouth.
Erika looked on. “Excuse me, do you mind?”
“Very much,” he said before slumping down into the sofa. He patted either side of him. “Wow, now this is luxury. Quite a pad you got here. You want to give us the tour?”
“No. I want you both to leave. Now!” she said walking over to the door and placing a hand on it.
Right then Maria came out of the room she’d taken Bailey into. Bailey came bounding out and charged towards Tyler. H
e didn’t flinch as the dog began sniffing him then wagging her tail. Tyler stooped and ran his hand around the back of the dog’s ears and started scratching. “Hey there,” he said.
Erika looked on completely stunned.
“Weird. In all the time I’ve had her, Bailey has always barked at males. I figured it was because of her last owner but…” she trailed off as she came over.
“Ah, dogs like me. They know when a person is a threat.”
“Yeah same here,” Nate said peering over the back of the sofa. As soon as Bailey spotted him, she started barking furiously. “Or not.” He slipped back out of sight.
“It’s okay,” Tyler said calming the dog almost immediately. He looked up at Erika and she had this stunned look on her face.
“Why are you here?”
“To explain,” he said rising to his feet. “Look, I know this has been one hell of an evening. I probably would have been freaked out if I’d seen someone with all this crap in their bag but there is a good explanation for it all. I wasn’t going to harm you, Erika. I just wanted to get you home.”
“Well I’m home and you can go now. I’ll be fine. Thanks for your concern.”
“You sure about that?” he asked thumbing over his shoulder.
“I’ll phone down to the front desk. Security has to be around here somewhere. They wouldn’t leave their post.”
“Yeah, they might,” he said walking over to the nearest window and looking out. All across the city, there were fires raging. Smoke billowed up spreading like a ghost.
Nate sat up and leaned over to grab the phone. “You mind?”
Erika made a face but waved for him to go ahead. He tapped in a few numbers and then reached for another grape.
“You got a dial tone?”
“Yeah,” he said. “Seems Tyler here was right.”
Tyler could see Erika in the window turn and look at him. “All that stuff in your bag. It’s survival gear, isn’t it? Did your work give you that? I mean you’re a tour guide, right? It was only after, I thought that perhaps maybe they’d given you that and you’d been in a rush to get from work to the restaurant.”
Tyler saw his way out. He could have lied in that moment. Being a tour guide he frequently took tourists to the Grand Canyon, the Joshua Tree National Park and even to Area 51. Long hours out in the desert meant he had to be mindful and carry some of the bare essentials for survival but that wasn’t where the bag came from.
He cast a glance over his shoulder. “It’s not from my work. It’s a long story but I don’t go anywhere without it. It’s force of habit more than choice though. If I had my way, I would toss the damn thing but… now I’m beginning to see the value of it. He said it would go down like this.”
“He?”
Tyler turned and walked past her. “My father.”
“Is he from Vegas?”
“No, farther north. Whitefish, Montana. Look, I would love to explain in detail but we are burning time here and things aren’t getting much better out there. Downed planes, a blackout, cell phones not working, stalled cars. I’m all for calling bullshit on my uncle and father but even I have to admit this has the makings of an EMP.”
She frowned. “A what?”
“An electromagnetic pulse.”
She shook her head. He didn’t expect her or anyone to really know what it was. It wasn’t like they taught you this in high school, or college. “It’s a burst of electromagnetic radiation that usually follows a nuclear detonation. In simple terms it screws with electrical and electronic systems. There are a lot of factors involved that determine the effects, some of which rely on the altitude of detonation, energy yield, gamma ray output, distance, its interaction with the earth’s magnetic field and the shielding used by people. It basically has the power to fry computers, phones and newer vehicles that use computer circuitry.”
Erika crossed her arms and walked over to the window. “But I didn’t hear an explosion.”
“You might not. Again, it depends where, when and how high or low it occurred, and to be frank, there is the possibility that it’s not even that. It could be something else, but without some connection to what is happening across the country, it’s hard to know. But what I can tell you is the results will be the same no matter what caused it.”
“Which are?”
“Panic. Chaos. Desperation. Murder.”
She snorted. “I might have seen some desperation and panic out there but murder? Come on. Aren’t you taking things a little too far?”
“That’s what I said to my father when I was younger.”
Her brow furrowed as if she was trying to understand. It was too much to unload on her, or anyone. The things he went through with his father should have put him in therapy for years but he hadn’t gone that route. What was the point? He didn’t want to remember it and that’s exactly what a therapist would have made him do. Tyler looked over at Nate who was talking on the phone. “Look. Right now, I don’t want to believe this has happened but it has and what we do in the next twenty-four hours will determine whether we live or die.”
Erika scoffed. “I will admit planes dropping out of the sky is bad but what are you expecting me to do?”
Right then Nate got off the phone. “Well, I’m all set. Ready to leave whenever you are.”
“Leave?” Erika asked, her eyes darting between the two of them.
Tyler was about to explain but he didn’t need to, Nate did it for him. He rose from the sofa and scooped up a handful of grapes, tossing a couple in his mouth. “We’re heading north.”
“I didn’t say I was heading north,” Tyler said. “I said, I’m going to speak with my Uncle Lou, and then decide after that.”
“Right, but you said if he plans on going to Montana, you’ll go with him. So you’re going my way. I’m going with you.”
Erika cast a glance at Maria and then stepped forward. Perhaps it was her interaction with the unruly guests, the view from her window or the mention of an EMP, but her concern for the situation was evident in her voice and questions. “I thought you lived here in Vegas?” she asked Nate.
“I do. My mother is…” He glanced at Tyler. “North. Spokane, Washington. I’m going to travel with Tyler if he leaves. You should come too,” Nate said. “Probably safer out there than in the big city.” He paused and both of them studied her reaction. She swallowed and looked at the ground.
“No. I can’t leave. I have responsibilities. Who would run this hotel?”
“I hardly think it matters now,” Nate said. “You heard what he said.”
“I heard what he said, but I heard a lot of things from him tonight, and not all of it was true.” She glanced at Tyler and walked over to Maria and told her that she was free to go for the night. Maria gave a nod, collected her coat and told Erika if she needed anything to let her know. The door clunked shut behind her. “Anyway, this is where I live. I have no reason to go north except…”
Tyler frowned. “Except?”
“Ah, it doesn’t matter,” she said crossing the room and picking up the landline phone. She pressed a number and waited a second. Tyler looked at Nate who was now leaning back in a chair, tossing the remainder of grapes into his mouth. “Luanne. What’s the update?”
There was a pause. He couldn’t hear the reply.
“Just tell them they will be compensated but until the system is back up, they will have to wait. Nothing we can do about it.” More silence then Erika nodded a few times. “Yeah, that’s fine. I appreciate that.” With that said she hung up.
“Things okay?” Tyler asked.
Erika didn’t reply. Instead she walked over to the window and looked out into the night. The city was unlike anything they’d seen before. It was usually lit up like a Christmas tree at night but now the only illumination came from a smattering of buildings that had generators, people on the street using their phones as flashlights, and fires blazing out of control.
Tyler walked over and stood beside her.
Silence stretched between them for a good minute before he said, “My father used to say that there would come a day when society would break down. Most people would be unprepared. Most would expect the lights to come on, stores to continue to sell goods, and the government would ensure everyone was safe, and that was the reason people would die. Not being prepared. Not being mindful of what could happen. Reliance on the system would be society’s downfall.” Tyler leaned against the window ledge. “People won’t start to unravel right away and that’s the problem. What you did tonight, helping I mean, it’s good but it only goes so far. At some point you have to start thinking about your own safety. It’s just as important, if not more important.” He breathed in deeply, then exhaled. “Tomorrow could be different. Yeah, things could be better. This could all just be one big mistake and the lights could come on, and cars begin working again, and the nation might rally together but what if that isn’t the case? I just want you to think about that. I’m heading over to my Uncle Lou’s. He owns a surplus store about a twenty-five minute car ride from here on the north side just off Lake Mead Boulevard. It’s called Lou’s World of Surplus. It’s sandwiched between Bighorn Casino and the Santa Fe Medical Center. If you change your mind you can find us there until morning.”
She nodded but didn’t look at him.
Tyler turned and made a gesture towards Nate and they headed for the door.
“Tyler.”
“Yeah?”
“Close the door on the way out please,” she said.
For a second he thought she was about to change her mind. She didn’t. He nodded and they exited the room. Immediately outside, Nate patted him on the back. “Some you win, some you lose. Don’t worry, bud, there are plenty of fish in the sea. Anyway, she probably did you a favor. It’s very rare that a woman like that ends up with a guy like…” he trailed off looking Tyler up and down. Tyler noticed, so he clarified as they descended the stairwell. “No offense. I’m just pointing out the obvious. She’s from another world. One in which only those with money understand. And by the looks of it, she’s got a lot of it. Not that it’s going to be much use if these lights don’t come back on.” He chuckled. “Which I might add was a nice touch.”