“Lacy?”

She doesn’t even hear her name being called. There is so much going on that the voice is just another noise blending in with nearby chatter and the whispers of worry from the other passengers.

“Lacy?” it calls again, louder.

Then she turns her attention away from the intoxicating visuals of the trauma tents, floodlights and blue and red emergency beacons and stares up at the tall, black man across from her. They are in parallel lines leading up to a checkpoint on the airport taxiway. There are officials in hazmat gear, assessing passengers for signs of illness. The man looks familiar, but amid the confusion and chaos, she can’t place his name or where she knows him from.

Then she turns her attention away from the intoxicating visuals of the trauma tents, floodlights and blue and red emergency beacons and stares up at the tall, white man across from her.

“It’s me,” he says. “Reggie.”

Reggie…Reggie…

Yes, she knows him from…

“Reginald Tess,” he says again, from high school. He smiles.

Lacy remembers that smile. Instantly, she’s propelled backward in time to a classroom, where Reggie has just flashed the toothy grin after a smart-assed comment, prompting her to roar with laughter. “Oh my God, Reggie…” She almost leaves her line to go and hug him but thinks better of it. What if she is sick? Maybe Reggie is.

“Good to see you,” he says, and then the smile fades. “Just wish it was under different circumstances.”

“Yes, I know.” He hasn’t lost his good looks. Still lean, but well-built. He is dressed in the airline’s uniform. “I can’t believe it’s been so long. You work for the airline?”

Reggie smirks and raises the uniform’s cap, which had been tucked under his arm. “Yep…pilot.”

“Jesus, how about that? You were the pilot of my flight!” The amazement quickly subsides, replaced by the fear that had been consuming her before he’d spoken. “You have any idea what’s going on?”

“No. Once we landed, we were just directed to this unused runway,” he says, pointing back toward the plane. “Then we were told to wait until emergency personnel arrived before unloading. It’s emergency protocol. Highly unusual.” He gestures past her. “But it appears that highly unusual is the norm.”

Lacy turns and sees more planes parked on the taxiway. Similar lines of passengers are being herded toward additional checkpoints. Legions of personnel, donned in hazmat gear, roam the grounds and Lacy can find no arriving or departing flights in the evening sky.

“Where’s Mo? He with you?” asks Reggie.

She’d already been thinking about her husband, wondering if he was here, waiting inside the airport for her flight to arrive. Waiting for her to exit the plane and throw her arms around him. “He was supposed to be here to pick me up. I’m guessing he’s ins-”

Commotion erupts ahead in Reggie’s line. A woman is shouting that her child isn’t sick as personnel separate the two. Then a man – apparently with the woman – strikes one of the officials. Someone tackles him and a scuffle ensues. Reggie runs toward the brawl. Lacy remembered him being someone who didn’t back down from confrontation and he’d obviously maintained that trait. Before he reaches the mound of swinging limbs, he stops. Then retreats a step. The crowd before him recoils in unison and people begin screaming.

There is a burst of white light and suddenly, all at once, the spotlights die, and the taxiway falls into blinding darkness. Lacy glances toward the terminal, but its windows are cool, black sheets of glass, featuring only glints of reflected moonlight. No power. The screaming and shouting continue, and passengers begin scrambling away from the checkpoint, toward the terminal. Lacy is almost knocked to the ground by a man dashing past her, before someone catches her by the arm. She looks up and locks eyes with Reggie. Despite the gloom, his eyes seem to blaze with worry, a look she’s never seen him display.

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“Let’s go,” he yells.

They lock arms and storm off in a direction opposite of the masses. Reggie takes them to a baggage car and tries to start it, but it’s dead. A gunshot erupts. Then another, further fueling the pandemonium.

Continuing through the apron, past two mammoth, silent planes, they reach a door and Reggie leads them inside. The interior is pitch black. Distant cries and hollering fill the air. Reggie grips Lacy tighter as they wind through the blackness, feeling their way along a long hallway. The sound of running feet grow closer, accompanied by people coughing. Someone vomits.

Lacy sees a tiny light ahead as they leave the hallway and enter a large, open space which she guesses is the Baggage Claim area. She realizes that the light is coming from outside and points. “What is that?” she asks Reggie.

Instead of answering, he spins her toward him, grabbing both of her arms in his. “Listen to me.” His gaze is intense. Beyond the window, the light grows brighter, generating stark shadows inside. A giant, previously hidden, steps from these shadows and approaches. It is a figure of myth, yet it is here. Mo is with it. Lacy can’t take her eyes off the thing, but then is shaken by Reggie. His eyes wide, he says “Remember this, Lacy. Remember: the train takes them to the ferry and the ferry to the craft.”

Outside, the light intensifies and though it’s some thirty yards away, Lacy can feel something pulling at her. It’s as if the light is calling her. It begins pulsing.

Reggie is shouting, trying to raise his voice above the hordes of screaming people now scrambling inside the terminal. “Say it, Lacy!”

Behind Reggie, Mo approaches. The giant stands back, waiting. The area surrounding the creature is different than the terminal interior; like another background, superimposed over everything.

“Say it, Lacy! Now!” yells Reggie.

She does, although she has no idea what it’s supposed to mean. “The train takes them to the ferry and the ferry to the craft.”

Reggie lets go and races toward the automatic doors, which have been manually thrust open by the mob. Lacy takes Mo’s outstretched hands and he pulls her up. “Mo,” she says. At once she is confused by his attire. The clothing is strange; nothing she’s aware of him having owned. He appears to be wearing a costume of sorts, like he’s dressed as a character from Blade Runner. She’s aware that he doesn’t smell very good. He turns her toward the giant, who is standing with Reggie.

“It’s alright,” says Mo. “They’re one of us. The good guys.”

Terrified and faint, her mind fumbling to process this bizarre data presented to her, Lacy faces the window again, searching the fleeing crowd outside and finds Reggie. He’s running straight for the pulsing sphere of light. She spins and sees Reggie next to the giant – another Reggie.

Her eyes find Mo, the Mo guiding her to the swelling landscape surrounding the giant. It begins to fill her field of vision, enveloping her, taking her away from the terminal. One last time, she looks back. Reggie is outside, almost at the glowing sphere. Another person, a man, is running toward the terminal. Lacy easily picks him out as he is the only person running toward the terminal. As the light brightens to a crescendo, Lacy is aware that this other man is Mo, who’d come to pick her up from her flight.

Lacy tries to break free and run to him. But this imposter has her in an iron grip, dragging her away until the terminal begins to fade from sight. Terminal Reggie reaches her Mo in the parking area just as dazzling explosion consumes the airport grounds.

The scene dissolves, like a dream upon waking. They now stand on a dirt road surrounded by dry, dead vegetation. The day is becoming night and the wind rattles the crisp leaves. Lacy is dizzy. She collapses to the ground and as her vision swoons to blackness, she stares at this new Mo…and the other Reggie…and the giant.