XVI.
“Brian, what just happened?” Ms. Fullford cried. Obviously there had been an explosion and now the place was on fire.

Brian himself was in no condition for this. He was shit-faced drunk, and the smoke wasn’t helping him any either. After a minute or two, he managed to open the stall door. He heard Ms. Fullford cough on the smoke.

Ms. Fullford realized that her son was completely drunk, and she would likely have to help him out of the building. Thoughts raced across her mind. What caused the explosion? The only thing that seemed possible was that someone had set off a bomb. Ms. Fullford wasn’t one to worry about terrorism, and she certainly never thought it would happen to her. She took Brian’s hand and walked to the door of the women’s room. She pulled the door open, and a blast of heat struck her. She could barely see through all the smoke. She felt something squishy under her feet. She looked down, and realized it was part of the bouncer’s brain. At that she felt ill, but was determined not to throw up.

Brian was in a daze, but even he could feel the heat of the fire. He also felt the mess below his feet, but he didn’t realize what it was. Suddenly, Brian doubled over, and threw up. Ms. Fullford waited for him to finish, and took Brian’s hand again and led him into the gambling area.

The view was a bit clearer here, and Ms. Fullford saw that most of the second floor of the casino had collapsed. Shattered glass lay everywhere. The entire floor had caved in onto the first floor below, except for the women’s restroom. The rubble was smoking and smoldering. Ms. Fullford could see blood in some places. She looked to the bar, and saw that the smoke had not yet reached there. She pulled Brian’s arm, and went in that direction.

Brian wondered if maybe he shouldn’t have drunk so much alcohol in such a short time, but that was 20/20 hindsight. He was confused, but he was able to make out the bar, and he saw the fire and the collapsed second story. Just as Brian and his mother got to the bar, a massive crash shook him.

Man, Ms. Fullford thought, this whole place is coming down. Part of the pyramid had collapsed on the restroom. They had gotten out just in time. Thoughts continued to plague her. She was now sure that a bomb had gone off. Was this a lone nutcase? Or al-Qaeda? She didn’t know, and she was scared. She did suspect for a moment that Brian somehow knew about the bomb, and that was why he led her there, but she dismissed that as too paranoid. The best explanation was that it was a coincidence, and a lucky one at that. Because of Brian’s drunkenness, both of them might get out of here alive. Ms. Fullford led Brian past the bar and to the stairs, where she saw, to her horror, that the stairwell had collapsed.

Brian looked around. His vision was blurred, and he wondered how he would get out of here. He knew his mother was leading him. Brian now smelled alcohol, as the force of the explosion had shattered all the liquor bottles at the bar. He hadn’t been drunk since high school, and now was not a good time to have his senses blurred. He then realized that Ulysses had called him on his cell phone. Of course, he remembered, Ulysses had told him to go to the women’s restroom, and that his life depended on it. And once again, Ulysses had been right.

Ms. Fullford was scared now. The stairs had collapsed. She had no way of getting out of the bar. The smoke drifted to where she was, and she too smelled the booze that covered the entire bar. Then she realized something truly horrifying: The fire would soon reach the alcohol.

Brian could take it no longer. He passed out, from both the intoxication and the smoke. Ms. Fullford panicked. As if to add insult to injury, the entire bar flashed in a blaze. The alcohol had caught fire, and Ms. Fullford realized that she might die here with her son. Brian had never amounted to much, aside from a failed Naval Academy midshipman, but she still loved him with all her heart. Was this how it would end? In a ritzy casino in Las Vegas? And worse yet, their deaths would be by fire. At least Brian would feel nothing. But Ms. Fullford couldn’t pass out.

She was just closing her eyes to shed a tear when she heard the voices of the first firefighters.

Ms. Fullford cried out, and the firefighters said something, and reached the collapsed stairwell. Ms. Fullford had never been so relieved in her life. The firemen saw her.

“Ma’am, are you all right?” There were two firefighters. One was a tall, skinny guy; the other was a huge black man.

“I’m fine. My son’s passed out. He’s drunk as can be. Can you get him out of here first? And be quick, this whole place is burning up.”

“Throw him to me.” Ms. Fullford took Brian, and rolled him off the second story. The black fireman caught him. The other fireman then caught Ms. Fullford when she leaped from the bar. The firemen took them both out of the casino, and led them to an ambulance.

Ms. Fullford was astounded when she stepped outside. She was surprised to find that it was just after eleven at night. It was still 2006. Paramedics treated Brian at the scene, and it was found that he had no serious injuries, though he did have a BAC of .21.

After several hours of police interviews and treatment, Ms. Fullford and Brian were driven back home in a police cruiser, Ms. Fullford’s car having been destroyed in the blast. When they got home at four in the morning, Ms. Fullford put her son to bed, and then went to her bed, where she quickly feel asleep. Lord knows she needed the rest.

As he had expected, Brian woke up with the worst hangover he could imagine. He got up, and got some coffee going to alleviate it. Ms. Fullford was watching TV.

“What time is it?” Brian asked. Ms. Fullford looked at her watch.

“It’s three-thirty in the afternoon.” She replied.

“It’s 2007, I assume.”

“Indeed it is. Happy New Year. I hope the rest of the year goes better than our New Year’s Eve.”

“What happened? I remember we went through hell at the casino. There was an explosion, then I passed out in the bar.”

“According to the news, a panel truck carrying a ton of plastic explosives went off at the Luxor. The police have a suspect, but they haven’t caught the guy yet.”

“How many are dead?”

“Over two hundred bodies have been found, and they are expecting the final death toll to be at least a thousand people. It’s almost as bad as 9/11.”

“Who bombed the casino?”

“The suspect was identified as having ties to al-Qaeda.”

“Figures.” Brian watched the news for half an hour, and then got on the computer. The coffee helped the hangover a bit, but the headache was still hellish.

“Please enter your name and password to log into the Chatterbox forums.”

Name: Fiver

Password:

“Welcome to the Chatterbox forums, Fiver. We hope you enjoy your stay.”

Brian logged on, and went to General Chit-Chat. As he expected, there were several threads about the Luxor bombing. Brian then went to the forums’ main page. On a whim, he clicked link to the Post Here to be Banned forum. This forum, Brian remembered, was the one where if a poster made even one post in there, that poster would be banned from Chatterbox, no questions asked.

Subject: his heart was going like mad and yes I said yes I will Yes.
Time: 0800 01/01/2007

“I wear a red yes and how he kissed me under the Moorish wall and I thought well as well him as another and then I asked him with my eyes to ask again yes and then he asked me would I yes to say yes my mountain flower and first I put my arms around him yes and drew him down to me so he could feel my breasts all perfume yes and his heart was going like mad and yes I said yes I will Yes.

Trieste-Zurich-Paris
1914-1921

Ulysses – BANNED USER”