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

Repeat.

But there was something beneath it all. An emotion, more than a thought. Hate. A seething caldron of loathing that fueled her hunger. She didn’t know why. Couldn’t remember—anything. There was only hate and hunger. So she embraced both, consuming and destroying in equal parts.

When she could no longer find prey, she moved into the woods where she caught a fleeing man, but she hadn’t seen more than small animals since. Then came the man and woman. She caught their scent and the hunt began again. Tracking them was made difficult because of the smoke, but the air soon cleared and she closed the distance.

Nearly upon them, a fit of rage tore through her body. Pain raced through her nervous system. She could feel her insides growing, her bones shifting, her skin stretching and tearing in an effort to keep up. All that pain and hate was vented on a tree that nearly crushed her prey.

But it missed.

And they fled.

After the growth spurt, the hunger returned with its own brand of stomach-gnawing pain. With a roar, she gave chase.

The power of her own body intoxicated her. The ground flattened beneath her clawed hands and feet. Trees fell away from her and compressed beneath her grasp. Pavement crumbled to dust beneath her heavy, black feet. Despite being able to stand upright, she ran on all fours with cat-like hind legs and long, powerful forelimbs to match. Her long tail, tipped with three trident-like spines, spun as she ran, providing balance, though the razor-pronged tips worked just as well for skewering prey.

As she charged up the paved hill, she stomped her feet down harder than she needed to, pleased with how the hard surface crumbled beneath her. But when she reached the top and saw the man and woman running toward the building she had only just escaped from, she let out a roar of anger.

She remembered little about the building. Just pain and helplessness.

And food.

A lot of food.

When she left, it was because she couldn’t find anything else to hunt, kill and consume. But now there were two more meals waiting inside. From experience, she knew they would be simple to catch inside the straight hallways and nearly empty rooms.

But her hunger commanded her to attack now. End the hunt. Eat!

She charged across the clearing in front of the three-story tall, dull gray building. She paid little attention to the burning husk of the helicopter—it wasn’t food—and even less attention to the corpses oozing up between her digits as she stomped forward. She was locked on target, aiming to take the man and woman together. One in each hand, two quick bites to remove the heads and their fight, and then she would eat until the blood cooled. Then she would discard the husks with the rest and start the hunt anew.

But the man and woman were fast. They entered the building through the front double doors and slammed them shut just before she reached her prey. She lunged, claws extended, but she found only the metal door. Her momentum carried her forward and she instinctively flipped over so that her shielded back would take the brunt of the impact. The segmented carapace covering her back stretched down to where her tail began, each section hosting two curved, boney plates jutting out at angles on either side.

The doors and front wall of the building exploded inward, leaving a ten foot hole. She rolled away from the building, snapped back to her feet and looked through the opening. Swirling dust filled the hall, but her sharp eyesight pierced through, and she saw the man and woman running down the hall.

Nowhere to go now, she felt more than thought.

She pushed into the hall and found her back scraping against the ceiling. When she’d left the building she could maneuver the hallways with ease. Now she had to push her way through, leaving a trail of rectangular ceiling panels in her wake.

She roared again, frustrated that the constricting hallway slowed her pursuit. The sound shook the walls, burst lights and knocked ceiling panels down. It also knocked the man and woman to the ground.

The ceiling shattered as she lunged forward, sensing the kill. But her prey got back up and ran, this time to the side, leaving the hallway through an open door. She remembered the building’s rooms. They would be stuck. They would be… She slammed her head through the open door—gone.

A stairwell leading down. A door two flights down opened and closed.