by Charles Mead
James did the same but still thought it ridiculous that this was a good idea. He held out his arm and looked at the screen and scanned from left to right. There was nothing. “All clear.”
Chris walked straight ahead into the terminal building. He did not look back to see whether James was following or not.
The terminal itself was empty, although it had power—all the information screens were still working and the lights were on. As they headed down the escalator towards the large immigration hall, James and Chris scanned for any other people.
There was nothing.
“HELLO!” shouted Chris.
“What are you doing?”
“You got any other ideas on how to find out if anyone else is in the airport right now?” replied Chris.
“Well, we can just walk around and not try to attract attention to ourselves.”
“What? That’s exactly what you do want, isn’t it?”
“What if time has been stopped? Think about it. We’re near Area 51 and nobody knows for sure what happens there,” said James.
“So what if we are near Area 51? Vegas has always been close to Area 51. It hasn’t moved because it doesn’t like being close to Area 51.”
“Not funny, Chris. What I am talking about is if this is part of some experiment, or even if it isn’t, do we really want to run around this apparently empty international airport screaming our voices off?”
“Okay, I won’t do it again, but we need to work out what is going on here, and before that timer on the wall in the plane gets to zero, I suspect.”
“What do you think happens at zero?”
“No idea, but I don’t think it’ll be good, so we have got to move quickly.”
They walked straight through the immigration hall and towards baggage claim, which was also empty. The baggage claim belts were snaking around with no luggage on them.
Chris jumped on one of the belts.
“We haven’t got time for this stupidity,” moaned James.
“Oh yes we have. These belts go outside so we might as well check again outside. Plus, I have always wanted to know what the other side of the baggage claim operation looks like.”
“Well, I am not going with you.”
“Fine, stay here alone and wait for me to come back then. Or maybe I will disappear too,” said Chris.
James got on the belt.
The belt carried them outside to where some vehicles were waiting with cages stacked with luggage. There was nobody else around.
Chris shrugged his shoulders and got back on the belt to go back inside. James did a quick check before doing the same.
“Let’s head back upstairs. I have an idea.”
“Hang on, before you do let me just check something.”
James looked at the information screens in the baggage claim area. They all showed the same exact time, to the second.
“These screens all show the same time. They’re not moving.”
“It doesn’t conclusively prove that time has been stopped. It could just be a software malfunction.”
“Maybe, but what about the clouds not moving. Is that ‘software malfunction’ in the real-life Matrix?” asked James.
“Hilarious, as always. Do you want to hear my idea or not?”
“Go for it.”
“There are cameras all over this place, there appear to be no blind spots. If we can find the security room and get access to it, we might be able to review the security footage prior to our arrival and get some clues as to what the hell is going on here.”
“That’s actually an okay idea,” said James reluctantly. “And you think it is upstairs?”
“Just a guess. Security for passengers leaving Vegas has to be up there because that is the same level as the gates.”
CHAPTER EIGHT
They headed back up the escalator. Their plane stood there lifeless beyond the large terminal windows and the sky looked as empty as before.
“Which way do you think?” asked James.
“Our gate is E7 so I think that puts us about in the middle of the terminal. There must be security in the middle, I would think. In any case, they must have a terminal map somewhere here.”
They walked through the empty terminal, both looking for any signs of life. The security checkpoint machines were almost directly in front of them. No sign of an office.
“Looks like you were wrong on this one, Chris,” said James.
“Let’s look at the terminal map. I think there will be more than one security checkpoint, given the size of this terminal.”
“You’re an expert on terminal security now?”
“Yes, that’s what I just said, so follow my expertise over to that terminal map where we will see there is a second checkpoint at one end or the other of this terminal.”
They walked over to the terminal map, which, after a brief look, showed there was indeed another security checkpoint. Chris laughed out loud when he noticed this. “See? You need to trust my expertise.” He pointed at the map with his index finger and zoomed in with his phone camera before focusing it on James.
“You win this round, Chris.”
They used the walkways to save time to get to the security checkpoint. Much like the first, it was completely empty. Chris quickly noticed an office door in the corner with “Staff Only” written on it, and headed for it. He pushed on the door.
“Well, this is getting us nowhere, and that timer is still ticking down to whatever!” said James.
“Don’t give up so easily. Most problems can be solved if you are prepared to look at things a different way.”
“You mean like the problem I have of getting a Bentley?”
“No. Not even close. That’s not a problem, that’s just something you want. Anyway, I thought you had decided the way to afford it was to con your subscriber base,” replied Chris as he checked the door frame for any weaknesses. Perhaps it could be kicked in.
“Well, it is a problem to me as I don’t have it,” said James.
“Whatever. We need to focus on what is happening right now, that is the far more pressing matter at hand. Look at this door. It’s keycard entry and I am not sure we can kick it in, so we need a keycard from somewhere.”
“And with nobody around, you think we are just going to find one lying around here?”
Chris started rummaging in nearby cabinets over the desks. “Well we’d better look, and fast. You check those desks by the scanning screens over there and I will check these. See if the drawers will open. Is there one on the floor? Look everywhere!”
James went over to the next security lane, even though he thought it a waste of time. He didn’t like being told what to do by Chris so he would cut that out of his vlog. When he was out of earshot he started to talk to his camera about how he had decided the best way to work out what was going on would be to find the security room and try and gain access to it. The next step, he told the camera, was to find a security card to gain access, and even though Chris thought it was a futile effort, James told the camera that he had encouraged Chris to do it anyway.
“How’s it going over there?” asked Chris.
“Oh... uh…” James looked at the desk, which apart from paperwork appeared empty. He moved some items around. “Nothing but paperwork here so far,” he shouted back. He tried the drawers and one opened. He noticed two white cards in one corner labelled “contractor”. James realised he had put his camera down so went through the routine again to be sure he got the content he needed. He would show his audience that he had saved the day.
“I’ve found something here, Chris,” he called as he waved the two white cards in front of the camera.
“Great, I’ve still got nothing, so let’s see if either of those two will work on this door.”
James ran back to the door. Such great footage, he thought. He handed both to Chris, who gave him a confused look as to why he was so out of breath from what must have been a run of less than twenty metres.
Chris t
ried the first card and the keycard light flashed red. He threw it over his shoulder and tried the second one. The light flashed green and they heard the door unlocking. Chris took a breath and slowly pushed down on the handle and opened the door.
CHAPTER NINE
The large room was empty. There were two rows of three desks all facing twelve large monitors on the wall, and in the middle, one extremely large monitor. Each screen displayed a different view of either inside or outside the terminal, all of which were fixed, and the large monitor appeared to be cycling through different cameras every few seconds.
James sat down at one of the desks, and after Chris had carefully closed the door he joined him at the next desk.
“Look at the time on the screen, Chris. It’s the same as in the bag claim.”
“Yeah, I noticed,” replied Chris as he looked at the keypad in front of him. “We’ve got to see how we can rewind any of this.”
Chris double-clicked on the screen and it came to life with a grid of what appeared to be different cameras and a shorthand label. He noticed some were labelled SCTY1, SCTY2, right up to 10. He double-clicked “SCTY2”, which brought up the camera view on the large screen.
“Ah ha. Looks like we just click on here and what we want to see is put on the large screen in the middle,” said Chris.
James was disappointed he did not find this first, so he came closer to Chris and pointed his camera at the screen. He scanned the list of options of different cameras, determined not to be outdone and look bad in front of his subscribers. “Try that one labelled OUT-E7,” he said.
Chris double-clicked it and up on the large screen came an inside view of the airport looking out over their plane parked at the gate.
“All seems quiet out there,” said Chris.
“We need to find the last hour or so of footage off this one camera view. Is there anything else to click on?”
Chris scanned the view. “I can’t see anything else.”
James thought for a moment. “Try right-clicking anywhere on the image.”
Chris did so and a grey box appeared with a drop-down menu. One of the items in the menu was listed as “Logs”.
“Impressive. How did you know that?” asked Chris.
“Just a guess,” said James. He would edit his video later to show that he had given it a lot of thought. “Click on Logs.”
Chris did so and a list of timestamped files listed out on-screen, the most recent being at the very bottom. Chris clicked on it. The video started to play on the large screen.
“Okay, so this looks like about thirty minutes before we were scheduled to arrive, assuming the time is right,” said Chris.
The view displayed an empty gate but other planes were at other gates and some planes were taxiing by the camera every few minutes. Planes were also taking off in the far background.
“So far, ordinary airport footage,” said Chris.
“Stop it there,” said James when he spotted their Virgin Atlantic plane taxi towards the gate slowly and make a turn to face the airport terminal.
“Nothing much else is happening yet.”
“Can you work out how to slow it down a bit more?”
“Yes, this might be it,” said Chris as he clicked another icon.
The image moved forward, jerking from frame to frame as the plane followed the automatic docking sequence. The plane stopped at the gate and the jetway attached as ground vehicles arrived to take the luggage and replenish food and drink for the journey back to London.
James and Chris both focused intensely on the screen. There had to be a clue in the footage somewhere.
After the footage moved forward a few more frames, all the people in the picture disappeared, along with all the other planes and ground vehicles.
“You see that?” asked Chris.
“Yes, play those last few frames back again.”
Chris did so.
“Another time,” said James.
Chris did so again.
“One more time.”
“What are you looking for?” asked Chris.
“There’s got to be a clue in there somewhere. People don’t just vanish.”
“I know, but I can’t see anything else in there. Maybe you’re right and time has stopped.”
“This one time I don’t want to be right, Chris.”
“Maybe the footage has just been overwritten with other footage from another day?”
“A day that included no other planes apart from our own?” asked James incredulously.
“Well it’s a possible explanation, isn’t it?”
“Yes, but for that to be true there has to be someone or other that have overwritten the footage. Even if that has happened, it doesn’t explain how we are the only two people in an international airport.”
“Okay, fair point,” said Chris. “I have an idea.” He inspected the screen and pressed a button, and the view zoomed right in to the front of the plane to see its name as soon as it turned into the gate. He saw the name Ladybird on the side. Chris played the footage forward until the people disappeared and again zoomed in on the name. Again he saw Ladybird.
“Well, at least this confirms it is the same plane,” said James.
“Yeah, but where do we go from here? I thought we would get some answers from here.”
“See if you can get the camera inside the terminal closest to our gate.”
Chris went through a few options before finding the correct one and selecting the same time as the previous footage. There were lots of people inside the terminal and a group of men in black suits and ties very close to the gate. They were joined by another man. Then everyone else in the terminal disappeared followed slightly later by the men in black and the other man.
“I think I recognise that guy that joins those men,” said James.
“Really? Where from?”
“He was on our flight and in our cabin,” said James.
“Okay, this is getting weirder now.”
“Can you zoom in again and play it back like you did before with the other camera?”
Chris did so.
The man was indeed the man James thought was in their cabin on the same flight. “That’s the guy we need to find to get some answers,” said James.
“Maybe, but given everyone has disappeared, where do we look?”
Before James could answer there were noises coming from outside the security room.
CHAPTER TEN
“What the hell was that?” said Chris.
“Check the monitors.”
Chris cycled through options and found the camera options for directly outside the security room. He cycled through all available options but they showed nobody outside; there was no movement.
“Well, if there’s nothing out there that we can see, we should check it out.”
“Why? We’re pretty safe in here, aren’t we? We can stay a bit longer and look through more footage,” said Chris.
“You were talking about finding clues earlier on. We heard a noise, we can’t see anything, we should investigate. Perhaps it is another person. They could help us.”
“What about those men in black who disappeared a fraction later than everyone else? There is clearly more to them,” said Chris.
“They disappeared as well.”
“Sure, but one of them was in our cabin. That can’t be coincidence that he was on our flight, comes out of the plane to talk with the rest of those guys and then they disappear just after everyone else.”
“I agree, but we have no idea where they are, along with everyone else. Let’s just go outside and see if there is anyone out there. If not, we come back here and start looking through this footage again.”
“Okay, let’s take a quick look outside,” said Chris.
James and Chris left the security area and started walking down the long terminal concourse. They scanned and pointed their phone cameras left to right, looking for anyone at all. There was nobody.
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��This is a waste of time,” said Chris finally. “There’s nobody here. It’s just you and me.”
“Looks like it. I still wonder what that noise was, though.”
“Perhaps we can play some of the camera footage back and find out. Maybe it was a power surge or something,” said Chris.
They turned around and started heading back down the terminal concourse towards the security room.