Project Hyperion (A Kaiju Thriller) (Kaiju #4)

Police responded quickly. They closed 6th Street and set up barricades on Market and Chestnut, thinking people would be safe at that distance. They were wrong.

Sergeant Gina Martinez stepped out of her cruiser at the barricade to an unholy sight. A giant dome of intense light throwing forked spears of lightning. Thunder boomed despite the clear sky full of stars above her head. She stepped up to the edge of the park, her mouth agape at the sight. The spectacle washed out the strobing colors from her cruiser’s light bar as well as from the forty others arrayed around her on the street and up on the sidewalk.

What the hell is that? she wondered.

“Clayton,” she called to a plainclothes detective who was near her. “What is this thing? Terrorist attack?”

“Beats the hell outta me. We got an alarm on the bell. Thought it was a B&E or something. We’re trying to keep people out of the way of those lightnin’ bolts, but other than that, what the frig are we supposed to do? Fire Chief is on the way and the Mayor’s got the Guard coming, too. I guess we just wait and see.”

Just then, a huge bolt of lightning struck close to their position and incinerated a tall maple tree.

“Shit! That was close.” Gina ducked instinctively, but by the time she had crouched, the lightning was already done with the tree. Had it hit her...

“I think it’s getting bigger.” Clayton sounded nervous.

“That’s what she said,” Gina replied, her whispered voice on autopilot. She’d spent the previous night with her girlfriends. They sat around her apartment binging on nachos, drinking margaritas and watching The Office until every other sentence was “That’s what she said.”

“I’m serious. Look. The top of the dome is above the roof and the edge is touching the credit union now.”

“Damnit, you’re right.” Gina’s hand went instinctively to the handle of her holstered Glock, before she realized how useless her weapon would be against a glistening whitish-yellow dome of lightning. Still, she kept her hand on the grip. It prolonged her life.

Four shapes bolted out of the center of the crackling energy. Gina saw them move. She dropped and rolled to the left just as one of them tore into Clayton, sending his legs in one direction and the rest of him in the other. All Gina saw was a smooth, white color and the movement of muscles, as if whatever she was seeing had no skin and was covered in skim milk.

The other shapes tore into the rest of the cruisers. Blood sprayed away from every impacted police officer. Gina could barely track them, but she drew her weapon anyway and focused on one of the creatures. She might not have had a chance to stop it, but it paused suddenly and seemed to sniff the air. What she saw was terrifying. The beast’s eyes swiveled toward her and then it was in motion again, coming right for her. She couldn’t see it that well, but she remembered that eye and fired five times, where she thought it would be. The thing crashed to the asphalt right in front of her, pulling a scream from her lungs.

A mistake.

The other three creatures stopped and focused their swiveling eyes on her.

What the hell are you? she had time to think.

Then one of the creatures opened its mouth and roared. The sound was so loud it vibrated her body. Sheer terror took hold of her, and her thoughts simply shut down. The gun fell from her hand and she lost all control of her bodily functions as she collapsed on the corpse of the creature in front of her. Her body shook uncontrollably. When her body was pulled by the ankle, back toward the curved, pulsating wall of light, her fear-locked mind never noticed.