“I can do it faster, get us enough fuel in the plane,” Gabe said, “To get to Billings. Gene sent a text that’s a safe spot. We get there we’re good and can refuel for Gainesville. Just doing half the tank, that would save us twenty minutes.”
“Twenty minutes is a canister,” Tom added.
“I still have to teach you how to switch them,” Gary said. “We need more. Just to be on the safe side.”
“If the plane takes off,” Owen said. “That still gives us time to get to the airport and find a plane before the eruption.”
“Finding and fueling a plane aren’t the issue,” Gabe stated. “They’re there. I should have refueled one last night just in case. But I was tired and didn’t think. We can get back and do it before the eruption.”
“The eruptions,” Tom replied. “Aren’t scheduled. We don’t know. It could happen right now. We’re relying on a two minute warning from Gene. And Gary is right, we can’t take a chance. Maybe you boys get to the airport, get the plane and we look for air.”
Gary shook his head. “We don’t separate. We can’t. This is also assuming we get to the hotel, find Delaney with ease and she’s ready to run out the door.”
“We can convince her,” Owen said. “I’m positive. I don’t think she’s here to die. She knows another eruption is happening. I think she’ll come.”
“That’s barring,” Tom added, “We don’t run into any delays getting to the hotel.”
“What delays could there be?” Owen asked. “I can see it ahead. We’re almost there.”
The car came to a sudden halt, causing them to jerk when Gabe slammed the brakes.
Gabe looked at Tom in the front passenger seat then into the mirror, making eye contact with Gary. “We’re not making that plane.”
Taking the side streets seemed like a good idea. Even from the airport they could see the wrecked cars on the freeway overpass.
The had moved down the secondary roads without incident until they neared the strip.
Everything didn’t just come to a standstill, it was a disaster. The event happened early in the morning; Owen could only imagine what would have happened if it were later in the day.
They attributed the lack of cars on the back streets to the early hour, but the cars that were on the roads had to have been traveling at high speeds. That was evident by the way the cars were flipped, slammed into each other and the buildings. Windshields were busted not from just the accidents, but from the bodies being ejected.
Grabbing their gear, they left the car, knowing they could get back to it and to the airport with relative ease.
Walking through it all was like walking a war zone.
Visions that Owen would never be able to erase from his mind or memory.
Glass, body parts. As they walked past a corner pawn shop, Owen saw the horrifying sight of remains, two people that were smashed against the exterior wall of the building. Flattened against the brick like swatted flies. They had to have been thrown from a car or struck by one at such a force, that was the only explanation.
Walking down a block that was a mile’s worth of gruesome heartache. Finally, they turned down a small alley behind the open parking lot of the hotel where they hoped to find Delaney.
Even at a distance Gabe saw the wide glass doors of the hotel open and close constantly, it wasn’t until they were at the rotunda and valet area that he saw the reason.
A body lay in the archway, only the feet extended out, stopping the doors from closing and causing the doors to go into an infinite cycle.
It was not the Vegas he expected or knew.
Thankfully not many cars were in the valet, not a lot of bodies either.
Unlike at Salt Lake City, where Gabe never saw beyond the airport, Gabe, his brother and father were being given a reality check.
Gary saw it firsthand, was in the middle of it and merely said, ‘People dropped over and died.’
A basic description less any adjectives or emotional comments. A description that gave little to prepare them for what they faced.
In thinking about it, even if Gary would have shown pictures from his phone, it wouldn’t have prepared him.
There couldn’t have been more of an accurate description than of people just dropping over.
He thought about Delaney walking through it all. Being alone. Then again, knowing what she did for a living, she probably was the least bothered by it all.
On the ground in weird positions, bags to their sides, spilled coffee cups, cigarette smokers, still holding the smoke that had burned down and into the flesh.
Only a few birds were scattered about dead on the ground.
Gabe supposed they were the creatures that were smart and able enough to survive. Flying high and up as fast as they could for safety, taking warning from the birds that dropped.
They were in the desert and the scavenger birds could be heard cawing through the silent city.
Circling above, finding a body to consume.
As they neared the door, a loud squawk rang out, the male body in the automatic doors came more into view as did the large black vulture perched at his head. His beak pecked downward, pulling from the face as the bird looked up as if to say, ‘get away he’s mine!’
When they neared closer and the doors opened, the large predator shot out.
It’s wing span huge
