Chapter 610: Danny
“Where’s Marie?”
Anna looked over her shoulder, and Dan met his daughter’s glance only briefly. She narrowed her odd colored eyes, one greenish hazel, the other blue, “I don’t know, Dad. I think she took Jana to the bathroom. I heard her whining about it earlier.”
Dan put his hands on his hips and blew out, puckering as he did so. “Why is it that this family can never stay in the same area for more than five seconds?”
Anna wrinkled her nose, and turned around; she brushed her ebony bangs off her forehead only to have them fall back in front of her eyes. This morning she’d brought up the subject of bleaching her hair again. Platinum blonde was the “in-look” for the teenagers this year, and although Marie didn’t seem to mind Anna trying it out, Dan absolutely did not want his daughter spoiling her beautiful black hair. Her little sister, Jana, was inexplicably as blond as a Nordic princess and quite proud of it. When Jana breezily bragged about her own pretty hair, Anna had gone at the little girl’s throat, reaching across the table to throttle her while their brother, Alex laughed.
When he and Marie separated the girls, Dan sighed, “Tell me again why we had to have a blond daughter?” He looked pointedly at his wife’s dark locks.
Marie took the joke in stride and half grinned. “You have all the blondes in your family. Don’t you start that again Daniel Hinote.”
With a smile, Dan leaned in for a little kiss. The children groaned in disgust.
Family vacation time meant for as many trips around the city as they could. They’d been to the zoo and Peach Promenade yesterday, and in lieu of a much needed rest, they’d reserved tickets at the museum to see the highly anticipated “Gateway to the Gods” exhibit. Room after room of rarely seen and valuable artifacts from seven different ancient cultures, idols, sacrificial stones, headdresses, golden scepters, jewel encrusted bowls, bracelets, necklaces, and mummies. It was a virtual embarrassment of archeological riches. Absolutely NONE of it sounded interesting to Dan but unfortunately all three of the children took after their mother and were therefore obscenely excited about nerd things.
It took them two hours to go through two rooms, pushing through a throng of casual viewers, and reading and absorbing the informative label on each and every last trinket, knife, stone and idol. Dan couldn’t believe there were ten more rooms to go. At this rate they would have to spend the night in this damn building.
“Hey, Dad, should I go look for them?”
Dan frowned and walked to the large floor to ceiling windows lining one of the walls. He looked out, they were on the third story of the building and a long line of people snaked onto the sidewalk and past the parking lot. “No, honey, we’ll just wait here. My brain needs a breather.”
Anna laughed. “Ah, Dad, don’t be such a goon.”
Dan grinned and pinched his daughter’s cheek; she swatted at his hand and blushed. When she smiled it struck a pain in his chest, her laugh and her smiles always did. It always struck him as so odd that his eldest daughter’s joys brought so many depressed emotions to the surface. “You look like your mother.” Her hair was cropped short against her cheeks, but he could imagine how it would look waist-length and shining, and if her blue eye matched the green of the other.
Anna rolled her eyes. “Which is WHY I want to bleach my hair, Dad! I’ve seen pictures of her at my age and it CREEPS me out.”
“Tough.”
“Argh!” Anna growled. “I’m sixteen! It’s not like I’m a little…”
Dan held his hand up to silence Anna and he frowned as he looked out the window. The line of people snaking outside of the museum had scattered, people running in all directions like dandelion seeds in the wind. Sweat slicked his skin, his heart began hammering and he pressed his palms against the glass as he watched the crowd stampeding through the parking lot. “Anna!”
“Dad?” She was looking out the window now, at the cars leaving the parking lot crashing head-on into the cars entering.
“Get your brother.”
“Dad…”
“Get your brother and stay right here, I’m going to get Marie and Jana before everyone up here begins panicking.”
“Dad…”
“Do it!”
Dan turned,
and he began pushing through the crowd, trying to get to the doorway. “Marie!
Marie!” Damn museum, damn exhibits, didn’t his damn family know how dangerous
any public place was in a city like this at a time like this? He didn’t care
how many terrorist cells had been destroyed last month,
he didn’t care how confidently the administration was in declaring that it was
finally safe for
Dan saw Marie at the other end of the opposite room, she had Jana’s hand in her own. Both of them waved and smiled. “Marie get over here!” But as soon as Dan said it, the security grate slammed down, startling the people near the doorway who scrambled to get out of its path, creating a pile of confusion at each side. Tears flooded Dan’s eyes and he called for his wife again. The last he saw of her, she had Jana in her arms and she looked so helplessly frightened. In the next moment a second door slammed down, a thick, gray, bulletproof sheath of metal. Suicide doors, they were called, designed to protect one area of a building from multiple suicide bombs.
“No! No!”
Full scale
panic began in the room, screams, sobs and a rush towards the doors. Dan ran to
Anna and Alex who were in the middle of the room. He clutched them tightly to
his chest.
“Was it a bomb?” Alex asked,
strangely calm, the boy had inherited the same solemn genes as his mother.
“No, I haven’t heard any blasts. It could just be a misunderstanding.”
“Jana’s still in the bathroom!” Anna gasped. “Dad!”
“The suicide doors have gone down in every room, at the worst they’re trapped in the next room just like us. Okay?”
“Stay calm!” A museum attendant said in a loud, firm voice over the cries and screams. “Stay calm! Stay away from the suicide doors, cluster in the middle of the room. Everything is going to be fine. We are safe as long as the doors are down!”
The words did wonders to calm the crowd, and the room fell hushed as everyone slowly made their way to the center of the room. Dan held onto Alex and Anna’s hands and sat down with them. “See, everyone’s going to be okay. They’re safe in the next room.” He imagined Marie, forever calm and methodical, holding onto their frightened daughter, and more than likely calming the rest of the crowd with her firm, simple little voice. False alarms and near disasters had become so commonplace in big cities, and in big venues, he imagined that at the end of everything, this will turn out to be nothing.
“Attention! Attention!”
Everyone lifted their heads at the sound of the voice floating from the intercom speakers. Finally, someone in charge would inform them about the misunderstanding. Dan looked at Anna, smiled and nodded. The girl’s eyes were wide like a cartoon characters, her mouth slightly open. “Dad, this is going to be bad….”
Dan frowned.
“Attention! Attention! Listen!”
Everyone seemed to hold their breath.
“Listen to us! Listen! You lovers of cavemen and mud-people! You lovers of Jews and of Papists! You Godless, liberal, fag-hugging masses! You came here to experience primitive life and to worship a past that God has…”
“Dad..”
Dan closed his eyes and pulled the children around him. Obviously this was yet another homegrown cell, the threat from foreign terrorists had fallen in recent months to the white supremacists, Native American Radicals and the Children of Africa, all three groups vying for the most press coverage and the most fear.
“…burn in hell!”
The intercom buzzed out leaving a rippled of frightened murmuring and gasps. Dan swallowed hard, waiting for the bomb blast that would likely follow the terrorist manifesto, but no blast came. Gradually, everyone tired of waiting for the blast and began to stand up, men pacing, women hugging children. “Maybe they’re holding us for ransom?” A man said, a hopeful tone to his voice. Perhaps he was thinking of getting out alive, hitting the inevitable morning show circuit and writing the next survivor memoir to hit the best-sellers.
“Dad keep holding onto me,” Anna whispered.
Dan frowned. “What?”
“Ew, something stinks!” Alex griped, pinching his nose. “Yuck.”
Dan patted Alex’s head, “Yeah, a whole bunch of sweaty, scared people in one room is gonna be pretty rank kiddo.”
Alex’s cheeks reddened, and his forehead, and his neck, “Dad…I feel sick.”
“Well, buddy, if you’re gonna barf you might as well do it now.”
And when Alex did puke, Dan’s heart almost stopped. “ALEX!” Instead of bile and bits of food, the vomit splattered deep crimson and thick over the floor. The sight of the blood startled those standing nearby and scattered them like frightened, screaming rabbits. “Alex!”
Alex looked up, his blue-green eyes rimmed with red and he whimpered, a thick line of bloody spit hanging from his chin. “Dad, what’s happening?”
“No!” Anna cried and she leaped forward, pulling Alex to her body in a smothering hug. “You’re going to be okay!” Alex’s arms wrapped around Anna, squeezing helplessly, his fat fingers spread.
Dan stood rooted, staring in horror. Nervousness, fear, it boiled in his own gut, twisting his intestines and soaking sweat from under his arms. Now he smelled the odor Alex had noticed, it smelled like dirty gym socks and rotted eggs, thick, overpowering. Within the minute he fell to the ground, his head hammering in pain. And then, he vomited blood as well.
He’d seen this episode of Timeframe. Without an antidote everyone in this room would be dead in minutes. They probably used the ventilation system to spread the mutated biological weapon.
“It’s Bola-ricin!” Someone screamed. “We’re going to die!”
Dan closed his eyes, not believing the intensity of this pain, not believing that he could do nothing to help his family. Helpless he lay as a crowd of panicked adults ran to the windows, smashing at them, trying to get fresh air into the room but soon the gagging and retching could be heard through the room. Marie… Jana…
Dan opened his eyes, “Alex,” he murmured, reaching for his son who amazingly had the strength to sit up. Blood stained his chin and the front of his shirt, but he did not vomit anymore, nor did he seem to be in any immediate pain asides from the shocked fear on his face.
Alex looked at him, tears fell down his cheeks.
“It’s alright, Dad.” Anna whispered into his ear and Dan felt her hands on his temples, rubbing his back, “Just calm down…calm…”
One last pain contorted his gut but when it released, it did not return. Could this be the end of his death throe? Dan assumed shock accounted for this cool relief from his pain but he realized that strength had returned to his limbs and he sat up. He took a deep breath as he did, smelled the foul odor but no more pain. “What the….”
“You’re going to be fine,” Anna whispered.
Dan looked at her and realized that in no way did she seem affected by the fumes. No blood, no redness, just cool and calm. “Anna…”
Anna smiled and then her smile disappeared. “Oh no, oh, Dad, I can’t get through the doors!”
Dan squinted. “What?”
“Mom! Jana! I can’t get to them!”
That was the first time he’d ever heard Anna refer to Marie as “mom” and his heart broke as she ran past the retching people on the ground and to the suicide doors. “Mom! Mom! Jana!” Her howls became sobs and she slammed on the steel with her bare fists. “I have to get this open!”
A woman writhing on the ground next to her flailed and grabbed Anna’s ankle. Startled and angry, Anna tried to shake her off, but she couldn’t pry loose from the woman’s dogged grip. Dan stood up and ran to them, trying to pull her off. And when the woman let go, she sprung to her feet, healthy, wild eyed, her mouth hanging open. “You!” She gasped, turning to Anna. “You!”
Tears soaked Anna’s face and Dan stared at his daughter, unsure of this nightmare. “I can’t get to them!” Anna sniffled.
“You!” The woman cried, and she grabbed Anna’s wrist, “Help them! Help them!” She dragged Anna to a pair of children who lay in pain on the floor, and she yanked Anna’s hands to them, in the manner of a young child force-feeding a ragdoll. Dan could not find the energy to intercede as the woman man-handled his daughter to afflicted person after afflicted person.
Each time, the writhing stopped, and the bleeding and the healed party would jump to their feet in disbelief and joy, joining in a rising frenzy that consisted of dragging Anna to the next gasping child, the next twitching man. It’s as if the crowd had suddenly found the most magical, the most wonderful of toys and they were going to squeeze every last drop of fun from it.
“Daddy!” Anna screamed. “Daddy make them stop!”
“Stop it! You’re hurting her!” Alex howled, following after the crowd.
Dan’s mouth was dry now; he understood full well the reality of this situation. He understood now that he could never have expected the girl to be any different from what her blood had dictated for her, he could never have expected to change her destiny by hiding the truth from her.
After every last person in the room met with Anna’s hands and with relief from pain, Dan fought his way through the crowd and hugged his sobbing daughter to his chest. “I’m sorry….I should have told you… I’m sorry…”
“Make them stop!” Anna hissed.
Dan closed his eyes, and hoped that Marie and Jana had at least died quickly. “Cecile,” he muttered. “Cecile, I’m so sorry. We couldn’t stop it.”
Links to other sites on the Web