As Byron and I continued to load food and drink into our purloined bags, a timid voice spoke up. “Um, you’re going to need to pay for that.”

I turned, surprised to see that a young woman in a “Sky Market” apron was still standing behind the cash register of the airport convenience store. I shared a glance with Byron. Airplanes were crashing around us, weird voices were speaking into our heads, monsters were appearing outside, and this girl was worried about her job?

“You’re kidding, right?” Byron asked.

“You need to pay for that,” she repeated. She was gripping the scanner tightly in both hands, and her eyes wide and white. “I’ll call security.”

“Your phone’s working?” Byron laughed as he spoke, not so much at the girl as in slight shared hysteria.

I could see she was having a panic attack. I pulled out what cash I had and set it down on the counter in front of her. “Here. This is all I’ve got on me.”

She glanced at me, then at the backpacks Byron and I had been filling. “That’s not enough. They’ll take it out of my pay!”

I pulled out a credit card to hand to her. “Why don’t you hang onto this, then? If your machine comes back up, you can go ahead and run it for whatever you need.”

She took it from me with shaking hands and managed a small smile.

Byron had finished filling the bags as I spoke with the cashier, and was dragging them toward the exit. He’d traded one of the backpacks out for a carry-on-sized roller bag, and had balanced another of the backpacks on top of its handle. Probably a good call; the drinks we’d snagged were really heavy.

I caught up with him and he raised an eyebrow at me.

“You sure about that?”

“About what?”

“Just… leaving your credit card.”

“You think this is a hoax?” I didn’t bother to keep the derision out of my voice. We’d both seen two passenger planes crash. Yeah, one of those had been a low-speed crash into a building, and the people on that plane were probably mostly fine, but the ones on the other plane definitely weren’t. Passenger planes just didn’t crash, by and large. Exceptions were rare.

Byron shot me an irritated look. “Don’t be an ass, man. I just helped you rob a convenience store; no, I don’t think it’s a hoax. There’s something real happening for sure, but it might not be happening everywhere. It might not be permanent.”

I shrugged. Honestly, I hoped he was right. I had fraud protection on my credit cards and the company would probably stop the “suspicious spending” before it wiped out our savings. Even if that failed, I didn’t care. I’d give every penny I had if it meant Meghan and the kids were safe.

“Slow down!” Byron yelled. “I’m carrying the drinks. You’re leaving me behind.”

I realized I’d started running. “Sorry.”

I forced myself to walk, even though the chaos made me want to rush. People were crowded up against every window, but nearly as many were hurrying away, trying to get deep into the building. Some people were still frantically poking at phones, trying fruitlessly to get them to work. I passed a crowd kneeling in a circle, apparently praying together. Smaller crowds ringed each airport employee, angry and frightened people looking for answers from any source of authority they could find.

We consulted with pilots at work for some projects. I knew at least some airline employees were trained pretty extensively for a wide variety of emergencies, but I doubted “alien monster apocalypse” was one of them.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

As we approached our gate, I saw something new. The plane that had hit the building had broken the glass for a fairly wide span. In the gap, several people stood, firing blasts of ice and fire from their hands. It was bizarre, like seeing movie special effects in real life. The windshield to the plane was intact, and a flight attendant standing in the vehicle's open door, frowning at the gap between herself and the building.

I spotted Davi, John, and Kurtis. John was staring at his hands with an expression of wonder.

“What’s going on?” I asked.

Kurtis gestured at John. “He went to try to help that woman. She was, uh, past helping, but there were a bunch of other people with scrapes and stuff. That mom over there, the one with the green shirt? She took one of the alien abilities to heal a cut on her kid, and when John heard, he took it too.”

“It is just amazing,” he said, still staring at his hands. “Like a miracle. I can’t believe I could do that! Bruises, scratches… they just disappeared.”

“Have any of the rest of you picked an ability?” I asked.

“I’ve been looking at them,” said Kurtis. “There’s more available than just the recommended list. A lot more. I haven’t found anything that really calls to me, but I’m sure the perfect choice is out there.”

“We don’t have time for perfect; we need to get them figured out fast and get out of here.”

That got their attention.

Davi gave me an uncertain look. “Out of here? Like… outside out of here? With the monsters?”

I nodded.

Kurtis laughed, uncertainly. “You’re joking, right? I haven’t fought in like… a decade. And that was just wrestling my older brother for fun. Mostly his fun.”

“It wouldn’t be just one fight, either.” Davi swept a hand toward the airfields. “Look at that. There are a couple little buildings out there that belong to the airport, but nothing else, probably for miles.”

“I agree that leaving is hella scary, but staying here is certain death,” Byron said. “Look around. All these people - what are they gonna have for dinner? Breakfast?”

“There are restaurants…”

Byron shook his head, impatient. “So? What percent of travelers you think eat in an airport? How much food you think these places have stockpiled? I don’t know the numbers, but there might not even be enough food for everyone to have one meal. Best-case scenario, there’s enough food for a few days, tops.”

“So we wait a few days, then,” Davi said. “I don’t see why we should rush out into the monsters.”

“What’s going to get better in the next few days?” I asked.

“Maybe the government can, um, shut this down? Maybe it’ll stop.”

“Why do you think that?” I tried to keep my words neutral. I wanted her to have a good reason. It would be so much easier…

Davi started to respond, then stopped herself. She sat silent for a second, thinking, then almost deflated. “Just… optimism, I guess. You’re probably right.”

“If we are going to go, sooner is better,” Byron said decisively. “It’d be a shame to wait to flee and then get to the area outside the airport just to find out it had been picked-over already. Fighting all the monsters, just the same as now, but when we get anywhere we find out all the food is gone.”

John had been quiet during our argument, but he spoke up now. “What if we just head back to the main terminal while we decide? We can go through the tunnels they made for the trains we rode here. They’ve got other tunnels where they move luggage, too. Dunno if we can get into those, but they’re there.”

“How do you know that?” Davi asked.

“Uh, read some, uh, articles about the airport’s tunnel system,” John said, his voice defensive. That was odd, but I didn’t feel inclined to dig into it now.

“That’s a good suggestion. There are all those parking lots by the main terminal and car rental places. We’ll still be a ways from Denver proper, but at least there will be some shelter along the way.”

“If we want to go outside at all. It still sounds insane to me,” Kurtis said.

I tried not to show my irritation. “Well, will you come with us through the tunnels at least?”

“How do you know they’re safe?”

I rolled my eyes. “How do you know this concourse is safe?”

Kurtis twitched at that, casting a quick glance over his shoulder.

I met Byron’s eyes. “Let’s get moving and keep an eye out for weapons.”

He nodded and fell in next to me as I started walking away. Like lost ducklings, our co-workers bobbed uncertainly in our wake.