Fluorescence: The Complete Tetralogy (31 page)

“Where is everyone? I’d pictured Vegas as a really busy place,” said Alice, peering down the empty street. “There’s no one here.”

“The city that never sleeps, right?” I added.

“That’s New York City, genius,” Kareena sneered, propping her hand on her hip. “This is Sin City.”

“Oh, right. Well, excuse me.”

A creepy crawly sensation swept over me. My stomach
tightened and Alice squeezed my arm. I sucked a quick breath
through my teeth just before the earth disappeared from beneath my feet again.

We touched down on solid ground a second later and I shielded my eyes with the back of my hand. A million lights
glistened. I eased my eyes open and looked around. Vivid
colors. LEDs. Giant overhead speakers blasting music. Animated
screens bombarding us with advertisements. Sights and sounds came from every corner.

I took a deep breath and smelled nothing. Surreal, eerie emptiness. Like a dream.

A glowing green sign hung above the entrance of the strip.

Fremont Street.

The wide, covered, street-like strip mall of windows and storefronts went on for as far as I could see on both sides.
Even the curved ceiling brandished an enormous fitted screen
that made it into a massive moving advertisement. Casinos and bars everywhere. An oversized block of red and yellow lights electrified the word
Mermaids!
. Something I didn’t even attempt to fathom.

“Hey!” Kareena stumbled forward and let out an angry huff, swerving around as if someone had shoved her from behind. “Who the…”

“What happened?” I asked.

“I don’t know. It felt like someone pushed me.”

I held my breath.

Smoky, faded silhouettes began to materialize. Hundreds
of them. Surrounding us. Moving. Pushing past each other. I dodged the nearest one I saw and quickly jerked Alice out of the way of another.

The silhouettes manifested into definable human shapes
but remained a little boxy and blurred, like video streamed at low bandwidth. Identifiable if you looked hard enough, but distorted from a distance.

“Well, that answers your question about the people,” I said. “Come on, Alice. Kareena. Let’s be careful not to bump into anyone. Seeing how you got slammed by someone earlier, it’s safe to assume they can feel us even if they can’t see us. Watch where you’re going, okay?” I clutched Alice’s arm tightly and we walked through the street, avoiding the crowd and dodging street performers and vendors who were scurrying around like frenzied ants.

A buzzing noise sounded overhead and we cut glances toward the ceiling. Someone zoomed by, dangling from an indoor zip line. Then a massive LED screen flashed just off to our side above an entryway. The ad featured a blond in a bikini pretending to strip behind a huge censor box. A gentlemen’s club.

“Ew.” Alice huddled closer. “I hope we don’t have to go in there.”

“I doubt it,” I reassured her, looking into her eyes. Her pupils were so big and anxious, they nearly blocked out the blue. “Why would we need to?” I hooked an arm around her
back and cupped her shoulder. “I doubt the Saviors have a sense of humor.” I tried to laugh, but it came out as an awkward chuckle. “Anyway. Don’t worry about that right now.”

“What are we supposed to do here?” she asked, fixating on a giant cowboy-shaped sign in the distance. “This place
is soooo crowded and… loud.” She slumped over and cupped
her face in her hands. “Ohhhh, my ears hurt.”

Kareena stared off into the distance, her eyes wide and her focus darting from side to side.

“Kareena?” I reached to touch her arm and she jolted. “Do you see something?”

She whispered her response so quietly that I was forced to read her lips: “Yes.”

“Well?”

A high-pitched whine reverberated in her throat. “There are so many of them. Oh my God.” She turned and looked me in the eye. “There are so many infected people here.”

Infected
people?

She meant people with white light inside them—sleepers,
she called them—people who had dormant Savior DNA. Like the boy at school Alice had shocked a while back. And Peter. These people had a passive form—
uncolored
fluorescence—as Kareena described it to us.

“So, Alice is supposed to start these people?” I asked. “How many are there, really?” I gasped. “Hey, Alice!” I yanked her out of the way of another street performer she hadn’t even noticed dancing toward her—a woman dressed as Marilyn Monroe. Quite a pretty one at that. So many beautiful girls strutting around.

Stay focused.

“There are dozens,” Kareena replied, shaking her head. “Like… a hundred or more. I don’t know. I just see white lights everywhere. Bouncing around the street. Going in and out of buildings. They’re everywhere. And I mean freaking
everywhere.
”

“So, I assume they want Alice to deal with
all
of them?”

“I’m guessing yes.” Kareena shrugged. “Why else would we have been dropped right in the middle of a place with so many sleepers?”

I heaved a sigh. “Fine! Come on. Let’s get this over with
so we can get home. Kareena, can you tell her who she needs
to touch?”

“I’m on it. Just give me a sec. Crap. There are a lot of them.”

We set out walking.

“Him.” Kareena pointed at blurry man with bright yellow shirt. “The one wearing the ugly shirt.”

Alice clammed up.

“Alice, touch him.” I nudged her. “Please? It won’t hurt you.”

“It’s not me I’m worried about,” she muttered. “We have no idea what we’re doing to these people.”

The man pushed by and passed us.

“I’m more concerned with what the Saviors will do to
us
if we don’t go through with this.” I tugged her arm gently. “Alice. Just do it. Go on!” I followed him and pulled her alongside me.

Finally, she reached out a shaky hand and squeezed her eyes shut. Her fingers brushed against his and he slowed on
contact, his movement seemingly missing frames as his walk turned sluggish and jerky, like a sloppy flipbook animation.

Then, as if he had just been rendered into HD, his outline
sharpened and he became crystal clear. Now we could easily
differentiate him from all the other infected and non-infected
who remained out of focus.

“So that worked?” I asked, watching Alice nervously clutch
her hand close to her chest.

“Yeah.” Kareena nodded. “It’s definitely active. The light is a lot brighter inside him now.”

“Then let’s keep moving,” I said. “The sooner we get this done, the sooner we can go home. Don’t be so frightened, Alice.” I took her hands into mine. “I’m here with you. I won’t let… watch it!” I stepped to the side and pulled her with me, narrowly avoiding a collision with a trio of ‘20s style gangsters marching by. Black and white suits, fake Tommy guns and all. “I won’t let anything happen to you. Okay?”

“I don’t want to be here.” She hunched over. “It’s so bright. Loud. I don’t like being around so many people. It’s like the place is closing in on me and…”

“I don’t want to be here either. But I don’t think we can leave until we finish what they put us here for. Alice, please. You don’t have to feel like you’re alone. You have me, and I’ll protect you any way I can.”

“Oh my God, you guys!” Kareena groaned. “Alice, stop being a little bitch and let’s get this over with.”

I glared at Kareena, a nasty threat on the tip of my tongue,
wrinkling my lips.

She rolled her eyes at me.

“Sorry, Brian. But seriously, who knows how long we’ll be stuck here if we don’t get moving?”

I couldn’t deny her rationale.

“She’s kind of right, Alice. Let’s get through this so we can go home. Together.”

Kareena gagged.

“Quit it,” I snapped, shooting her another dirty look.

“How many people do they need?” Alice asked. “This place is packed.”

“I don’t know. But we can’t think about that right now. Let’s just do whatever the hell it is they want and hopefully they’ll get us out of here.”

Along the street, contortionists folded themselves up, squeezing into tiny boxes. Girls did tricks with hula hoops. Drag queens paraded around in six-inch glittering heels between Elvis impersonators big and small. Camera flashes
went off left and right. An oversized LED-encrusted Aladdin’s
lamp sparkled in the distance.

Scantily clad women danced on top of a long bar along the side of the street, pushing some type of alcoholic slush drinks. Music thumped from speakers perched overhead. I couldn’t hear myself think anymore.

We made our way through the crowds, single file, as swiftly as we could, dodging people
who hadn’t been infected and honing in on those who had. Couples, singles, groups of
college-age girls and guys. Party-goers. A never-ending stream
of people.

“I don’t like this at all,” Alice said, folding her arms. “I don’t know any of these people. I hate touching strangers.”

“It might be the only choice we have right now,” I replied,
shrugging. “If I could take the responsibility from you I would, but I—”

“Watch out!” Kareena shouted.

I veered around just in time to sidestep a man stumbling toward me.

“Him, too, by the way.” Kareena pointed. “He’s
totally
smashed, though. Sorry, Alice.”

“Really? Ugh.” Alice growled. “Fine. Whatever.” She went marching after him. He weaved through the crowd, clumsily bumping into others.

Alice crept up from behind and shimmied her way between people. I kept my eyes on her the entire time. Just as
she came within a few feet of him, the man suddenly changed d
irection, veering around so quickly he lost his footing and toppled toward her.

She lifted both hands into an offensive stance and slammed him in the chest with her palms, pushing him away. He fell back in creepy slow-motion, jittery and staggered like all the others she’d started before him. Then his image burst to life in crisp, vivid color.

“That… worked?” Alice shuddered, her hands shaking.

“Sure did,” Kareena confirmed, watching with a smirk as the disorientated man righted himself just in time to be escorted off by a pair of security guards. “Hey, at least now you know you don’t have to get all touchy-feely with them all.”

“Great.” Alice exhaled. “That makes things a
little
easier.”

A few dozen sleepers later, I started to feel pretty useless.
There I was, following two girls around some parallel plane on the Vegas strip, watching
them
do some kind of job, while I dragged behind like baggage. I had healed Alice when she’d hit down, but now I felt like a third wheel. There was nothing for me to do. No way for me to help make this easier.

“Hey!” Kareena stopped cold in her tracks and pointed. “You guys can’t see that, can you?”

I looked, but only saw more of the same—out-of-focus people coming and going in all directions.

“No,” I answered. “Unless you mean people. Lots of them, obviously.”

“Come with me.” She gestured for Alice to follow. I tagged along behind them. “See that chick there? She has, like, black stuff in her and her outline is all dark and jagged. It’s totally not like the others. I mean, I think she definitely needs to be started, but it just looks different.”

Alice jogged over to the woman and brushed her fingers against her forearm.

Nothing happened. No clarity. No color change.

She looked back at me and shook her head.

“Try again?” I mouthed the words. The noise level would
have drowned them out anyway.

She briefly tapped the woman’s hand.

Still, nothing.

“You didn’t start her,” Kareena said, narrowing her eyes at the woman as she came walking past.

“What do I do?” Alice began to panic. “What if we have to get all of them? What if they don’t let us go home? What if—”

“Alice, calm down!” I held up my hands. “You’re sure about that one, Kareena?”

“Totally.” She nodded.

I returned my attention to Alice.

“Just take a breath,” I said. “Let’s try it again.” I walked beside her toward the woman with the strange aura neither of us could see.

As we approached, heat flushed through my fingertips and the hairs on the back of my neck perked up.

“Brian!” Alice’s eyes widened. “You’re glowing!”

I looked down.

My left hand sparkled with hot blue light. A strange
twinging sensation flushed through me and the heat in my arm intensified. The warmth flowed in my veins, pulsing and throbbing deeper and stronger.

I reached a hand out and touched the woman’s shoulder.

She froze in place.

Blue light flickered through her, flashing like an
explosion of tiny fireworks and then dissipating without a trace. She became a blur again.

“That’s it!” Kareena rushed up beside me with a triumphant
grin on her face. “That’s totally freaking it! Try again, Alice! I think it will work this time.”

Alice stretched her fingers out and lifted her arm toward the woman. A quick tap and she recoiled.

“It worked! I felt it.” She shook out her hand. “It shocked
me a little more than usual, but it worked.”

“It did,” Kareena confirmed.

So, the Saviors had a plan for me, after all.

There weren’t many sick ones in Vegas, but there were a good dozen or so, which made me feel useful enough.

Of course, a few stragglers had popped into the strip clubs—where Alice refused to go—so we had no choice but to wait for them to leave before we could finish our job. They all wandered back out eventually, and within a few hours, Alice had been able to start them all.

Hunger pains were making me sick to my stomach. Far past midnight and the three of us remained trapped in the middle of a busy Las Vegas strip. Starting sleepers had taken a lot of energy out of Alice and the fatigue was starting to slow her down.