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

All of a sudden, the marching band’s horns stopped. Tension flowed from Reed’s shoulders. The drums continued to beat out a rhythm, but he didn’t mind that nearly as much as the rest. But then, the drums faded, too, except for a single bass drum that kept time with a boom—boom, boom-boom-boom.

The repetitive beat helped Reed center his thoughts even more. If only the whole parade could be like this. It made all the shouting people and distant chaos bearable. He closed his eyes for a moment, focusing on the drum.

Boom—boom, boom-boom-boom.

Boom—boom, boom-boom-BOOM!

He jumped in his seat with a shout of surprise. He sat up, looking ahead at the bass drum player, but even he was looking around in confusion.

“Sounded like an explosion,” Schwartz said, then he looked angry. “Might have been what Josie was calling about.” He took out his phone and started dialing.

BOOM!

The sound came from behind the parade. Reed twisted around. The neighborhood just outside of town was a craphole full of old houses he would have liked to tear down. Beyond it, at the crest of the hill was a neighborhood he had built through a development company no one in town knew was owned by him. At least most of the neighborhood at the bottom of the hill was blocked by trees. He looked for an explosion, thinking someone’s propane tank must have exploded, but saw nothing. Just trees.

BOOM!

The trees shook.

Then one broke and fell away.

Screams rose in the distance.

Cars were stopped at the edge of the neighborhood as they waited for the parade to pass, but the owners were getting out and running.

What the hell was happening?

BOOM! A foot, or a hand, or...something…dropped down from within the trees and crushed the car at the edge of town.

Reed was only partially aware that the parade and gathered crowd were slowly starting to move away while he remained transfixed. As a result, he saw every detail.

The trees parted and a massive black face, full of malice, pushed through. A pair of eyes that looked almost human, locked onto him. A squeak rose in his throat as the monster pushed through the trees, revealing long, powerful arms and an armored back. The squeak rose in volume, becoming an ear splitting scream.

The shrill cry acted as a catalyst. The monster exploded out of the trees and charged down Main Street.

“Go!” Reed shouted to the driver.

The creature leaned over, biting some people in half as they fled, devouring others whole and crushing many more under its limbs, as it ran on all fours. A long tail whipped back and forth, destroying buildings like they were made from Lego blocks.

“What are you waiting for?” Reed screamed. As he spun around, the first thing he noticed was that the sidewalk had emptied. The second was that Schwartz was gone. And the third was that his driver had taken off on foot. The road was littered with fleeing people, discarded instruments, cars and mobile farm stands.

He stood to leap out of the convertible and flee on foot, but his feet never reached the ground. A sudden numbness spread through his legs, then a pain so intense that he knew the limbs were no longer attached. He screamed, but the sound was muffled, like that time his brothers locked him in the front closet. He couldn’t see, either. He felt humid air on his face and smelled something horrible, but the details were lost on his shocked mind.

Then he moved.

He was pushed.

An undulating motion flipped him over.

Then, he fell.

He was only half conscious when he landed. Blood loss and fear had claimed much of his mind. But the jolt of landing mixed with the sharp scent of bile snapped him back to consciousness.

A voice cried out, “Hello? Is someone there?”

It was a woman. He didn’t recognize the voice. But it grew sharp a moment later. “It’s burning!”

He opened his mouth to reply, but then he felt it too, a sharp, hot sting covering the lower portion of his body. He put his hands down and felt a sludgy goo between his fingers. A moment later, his hands began to burn too.

The woman sloshed and whimpered and then—light.

A small beam of light cut through the dark. The woman had a flashlight. She scanned back and forth, aiming up, revealing moving walls of white and pink. Then she brought it down and Reed wished she hadn’t. Bodies—human and animal in various stages of decomposition—were everywhere, heaped up in a pool of white, viscous fluid.

He shouted in fear and the flashlight cut toward him.

“Mayor Reed?” the woman said. “Where—where are we?”

He wasn’t entirely sure, but he was beginning to suspect. A sound above them drew the woman’s attention and the flashlight beam up. The light arrived just in time to reveal the ceiling of their wet cage opening up. Then, a headless horse fell through.

The large animal slammed on top of Reed, crushing him beneath the murky liquid, which found its way into his lungs and gut, mercifully drowning him before slowly digesting him.

The woman survived for another three hours.





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