DEAD HORIZON — CHAPTER 22: THE LAST NORMAL HOURS
Maggie POV
The bus smelled like old fries and Axe body spray. Mr. Carson had a clipboard and the kind of voice that made you want to be anywhere else. “Single file, people. Single file,” he said for the fourth time.
Maggie Wilson stepped off last. She was texting.
Maggie [9:02 AM]: already regretting this trip
The Natural History Museum rose in front of her. Big columns. Big steps. Big dinosaur statue that every freshman took a picture with. The sun was out. Too bright. The morning felt normal. Aggressively normal.
A group of sixth graders pushed past her. One had a Minecraft backpack. One had a neon cast. One was already crying.
“Ms. Lee?” the crying one said. “I don’t feel good.”
“You’ll be fine, Kevin. Go with your group,” Ms. Lee said without looking up from her phone.
Maggie rolled her eyes and followed the herd inside.
The lobby was cold. AC blasting. Gift shop to the left. T-Rex skeleton to the right. A staff member in a khaki vest clapped her hands. “Welcome to the Natural History Museum! Seniors to the left, juniors right, everyone else—”
“Can we see the mummies?” someone yelled from the back.
“Can we leave?” someone else yelled.
Maggie snorted and checked her phone. No reply.
Maggie [9:07 AM]: ARTHUR ANSWER ME
She found Kevin by the water fountain. His Minecraft backpack was on backwards and he was holding his stomach.
“You good?” she asked.
He shook his head. “I lost my group.”
“Yeah, me too,” Maggie said. “Wanna be lost together?”
He looked up, snot on his face. “Okay.”
Two more kids appeared. A girl with a braid. A boy with glasses held together by tape.
“Ms. Lee said stay here,” Braid Girl said. “But Kevin left.”
“I had to pee,” Kevin said.
“You didn’t,” Glasses Boy said.
Maggie sighed. “Alright. Team Lost. Follow me.”
She didn’t like kids. Not really. They were sticky and loud. But Kevin looked like he was about to cry again, and Glasses Boy’s tape was peeling, and Braid Girl kept looking at the big dinosaur like it might eat her.
“C’mon,” Maggie said. “First stop: dinosaurs. If we get eaten, at least it’s cool.”
Kevin smiled. Just a little.
Her phone buzzed. Dad.
Dad [9:21 AM]: I'll be there at 3. Don't make me search the whole museum.
She typed back:
Maggie [9:22 AM]: I'll be the easiest person to find.
Maggie [9:22 AM]: I'll be the one suffering through dinosaur facts.
No reply from Arthur.
Maggie [9:23 AM]: Stop ignoring me
Maggie [9:23 AM]: You better pick me up after this
She shoved the phone in her pocket.
“Who’s Arthur?” Braid Girl asked.
“My idiot best friend,” Maggie said. “He’s probably in the bathroom. Again. He takes forever.”
“Is he your boyfriend?” Glasses Boy asked.
“No,” Maggie said. Fast. Too fast. “He’s my best friend. Unfortunately.”
Kevin giggled. Maggie didn’t look at them. She looked at the T-Rex.
The tour guide, Jenna, liked fossils. A lot. “And this,” she said, pointing at a rock, “is a coprolite.”
“What’s that?” Kevin asked.
“Fossilized dinosaur poop,” Jenna said.
Kevin gasped. “Cool.”
They moved to the Space Exhibit. Glow-in-the-dark planets. A model of Mars. A sign that said YOU WEIGH 14 LBS ON THE MOON! Braid Girl stood on the scale. “I’m four pounds!”
“Don’t get a big head,” Maggie said.
Arthur would’ve spent the entire exhibit making fake alien conspiracy theories.
The thought came and went. Maggie blinked.
Glasses Boy was reading every plaque. “Did you know the sun is 400 times bigger than the moon but also 400 times farther away? That’s why eclipses work.”
“Did you know nobody asked,” Maggie said. But she ruffled his hair.
It was normal. Loud. Boring. Normal.
Maggie saw it first because she was bored. Outside, through the big glass doors, an ambulance was parked. No sirens. Two cops next to it talked to a staff guy. The staff guy kept shaking his head. One of the cops kept pointing down the street.
Ms. Lee walked past with her phone to her ear. “No,” she said. “No, I can’t— I have 30 kids here.” Pause. “Where? Where?” She hung up. Her face was white.
“Ms. Lee?” Jenna said. “We ready for the Ancient Egypt—”
“Give me a minute,” Ms. Lee said. She didn’t look at Jenna. She looked at her phone again.
Maggie frowned. Kevin tugged her sleeve. “Can we see the mummies now?”
“Yeah,” Maggie said. She wasn’t looking at Kevin. She was looking at Ms. Lee.
Another ambulance went by. This one had sirens. Far away. Then another. Nobody else noticed. Glasses Boy was talking about the moon. Braid Girl was taking selfies with a sarcophagus.
Maggie pulled out her phone.
Maggie [10:41 AM]: Arthur?
No reply. She checked the news. Lynwood Traffic Alert: I-5 North slow due to accident. That was it. Weird.
12:15 PM — Gift Shop
They killed time in the gift shop before lunch. Plastic dinosaurs. Overpriced geodes. T-shirts that said I DIG THE MUSEUM.
Kevin held up a rubber T-Rex. “Can I get this?”
“Do you have money?” Maggie asked.
“No.”
“Then no,” she said. She put it back.
Braid Girl was staring at a snow globe. Space exhibit inside. Tiny planets. “It’s pretty,” she said.
“It’s eight dollars for water,” Maggie said.
Behind the register, two staff members were whispering. One kept glancing at the front doors. The other kept checking her phone, then putting it down, then checking it again.
A manager walked in from the back. “Tina,” he said to the register girl. “We’re closing early. Don’t sell anything else.”
“What?” Tina said. “It’s noon. We have three more—”
“Don’t,” the manager said. “Just… start counting the drawer.”
He walked out. Tina looked at the other staff member. Neither of them moved.
Maggie watched.
Kevin tugged her sleeve. “Can we go?”
“Yeah,” Maggie said. “C’mon, Team Lost.”
Lunch — 12:40 PM
Lunch was in the Fossil Food Court. Square, greasy pizza. Kevin ate three slices. “I’m not sick anymore,” he said.
“Told you,” Maggie said.
Braid Girl poked her juice box and missed. Juice went everywhere.
“Nice,” Maggie said. She stole a napkin and cleaned it. “You gonna be an engineer. Can’t even do a juice box.”
“I’m gonna be an astronaut,” Braid Girl said.
“Same thing,” Maggie said.
Mr. Carson walked by. He didn’t tell them to be quiet. He didn’t have his clipboard. He went to the windows, looked out, and put his hand on the glass.
Maggie watched him.
Maggie [2:02 PM]: Arthur answer me
She hit send. A staff guy ran past. Not walking. Running. Another one followed. They didn’t say excuse me.
Then: screaming. Outside. Not close. Not in the museum. Across the street.
Kevin dropped his pizza. “What was that?”
“Nothing,” Maggie said. Fast. “Car alarm.”
It wasn’t.
Maggie [2:09 PM]: There’s screaming outside.
Maggie [2:10 PM]: Arthur???
The doors closed. Not slowly. Not with a thank you for visiting. CLANG. Metal gates rolled down over the glass doors.
Jenna stopped mid-sentence. “—and the Egyptians believed—” Ms. Lee grabbed her arm. Said something. Jenna’s face went white.
“Everyone up,” Mr. Carson said. Loud. Not teacher loud. Scared loud. “Up. Now. Back. Away from the windows.”
“Why?” Braid Girl said. “Is it a drill?”
Nobody answered.
A security guard ran past with a radio. It was screaming static. “—multiple incidents— repeat, all units—” He didn’t stop.
“Ms. Lee?” Glasses Boy said. “What’s happening?”
Ms. Lee looked terrified.
Maggie let go of Kevin’s hand. “Stay here,” she said.
She walked to the window by the Space Exhibit. There was a gap in the gates. Six inches. Enough to see.
She pressed her face to the glass.
Outside.
People running. Not to a bus. Running. One woman had no shoes. One man was holding his arm. Blood. A cop car blew past. Sirens. It didn’t stop. Down the block, a crowd. Not a crowd. A pile. Moving. Wrong. Someone was on the ground. Someone else was on top of them. Not helping.
Security was dragging the last gate shut. A guy in a suit was pounding on it. “Open it! Open it!” The security guard didn’t.
The guy in the suit looked up. Looked right at Maggie.
His eyes were wrong.
The security guard finally got the gate closed. The metal boomed.
The man in the suit stopped pounding.
Slowly… he turned his head.
He grabbed the woman beside him. She shrieked and tried to pull away. He didn’t let go. He shook. Violently. Like he was seizing. Like something was wrong inside him.
People around him started yelling. “Hey! Let her go!”
The man threw his head back. His jaw opened. Too wide.
And bit her.
The woman screamed.
The crowd scattered.
Blood sprayed across the sidewalk.
Someone outside shouted: “OH MY GOD HE BIT HER!”
Maggie stumbled backward.
Kevin started crying and grabbed her sleeve.
Maggie stepped in front of him without thinking. “Stay behind me,” she said.
Then a new sound cut through the screaming outside.
BEEP. BEEP. BEEP.
Red lights flashed above every exit.
A mechanical voice echoed through the museum: “SECURITY LOCKDOWN INITIATED. ALL EXITS SEALED.”
CLUNK. CLUNK. CLUNK.
The emergency doors locked automatically.
Trapping everyone inside.
