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

The weight of his upper body lifted off her.

She opened her eyes and saw Shane sitting up above her, looking at the sky. She looked up and saw the ship rocking against the backdrop of stars. But something was off. Most of the sky was completely starless.

The music on deck paused between songs.

The next song, a booming hypnotic beat, was accompanied by a bright white strobe that flashed like rapid fire lighting. Through the blinking light, something large and black slipped through the air off the starboard side of the ship, trailing water.

Shane’s eyes widened.

His chest expanded.

He opened his mouth to scream, despite the proven fact that no one would hear him.

And then, he was gone.

Half of him, at least.

The black blur had moved over the ship’s rear deck, drenching it with salt water, and when it passed, the top half of Shane went with it. His legs flopped to the side, pouring blood onto the deck where it mixed with the sea water.

Lori leapt to her feet, looking up as the rest of something massive lowered into view. Lit by the strobe, she saw a huge, horrible head. Its lips curled up in a snarl, revealing long, curved teeth the size of whale ribs.

Then she saw its eyes. They were brown, and almost looked human, but they were larger than her Mini Cooper Coupe. But the worst thing about the eyes was they were looking right at her.

A flicker of light drew her eyes to the thing’s massive neck. An oblong patch of skin blinked orange, like a fluorescent light fighting to turn on. Then, it glowed brightly and roiled with swirling yellow-orange. A second patch lit up, then a third, each lighting up faster than the rest. Finally, the water beneath the back of the ship glowed orange.

A scream rose up from the top deck of the ship, loud enough for her to hear over the music and engines. The party-goers had finally noticed the monster looming above them.

And now, it noticed them, too. The eyes looked up, toward the top deck. A massive, five-fingered hand slid out of the night and slapped the top of the ship, crushing its radio antenna and satellite dish. No calls for help would make it out. When the hand came back, it held the pummeled bodies of at least twenty people. Lori could see some of the still living shouting, though she couldn’t hear them. Then they were gone, dropped into the monster’s upturned, wide open maw.

Before the creature retuned its attention to the ship, and the waiting feast of humanity, Lori did the only thing she could think of—she dove into the water and swam for shore, nearly a mile away.

As her energy waned, Lori turned over and swam on her back, keeping the pace even. She couldn’t see the monster or the ship anymore, but she could hear distant screams and cracking wood. It was killing them all.

And while Lori felt bad for her co-workers, she couldn’t help but offer up a mental, “thank-you,” to the giant that had saved her life. She took a moment to look for the shore, and found it just a few hundred yards away. I’m going to make it, she thought, but then she realized what the following day would bring. She was the only survivor of a disaster she couldn’t even begin to describe. There would be an investigation. The police would do a background check on everyone who attended, including Shane and Lori. They’d find out about the under-the-table payments she organized. They’d find out about the escorts she hired after making sure they were “full service”. She might even go to jail! A powerful feeling of guilt washed over her, but then hope followed it. She could easily drive to the office and destroy or delete all the incriminating records. Even better, she could put Shane’s name on them. It’s not like he was around to deny it. As she plotted out her course of action, her head struck something solid. She stopped and spun around, expecting to find an anchored boat or marker buoy. Instead, she found a wall of black.

The shoreline was gone.

She spun around. Darkness surrounded her.

She looked up and saw the stars, but they were slowly winking out, one by one. Then she saw a dark shape silhouetted against the lighter night sky—long, pointed streaks, like teeth.

She was inside the monster’s mouth!

The jaws closed over her just before she screamed. Then, as if she was stuck in a giant toilet, the water spun and flowed down. She shouted and grappled and reached for something to hold onto, but then the water pulled her down. Mercifully, she drowned before passing through the fifty-foot-long esophagus. Her body fell into the giant’s acid filled stomach where the rest of the booze cruise’s three hundred and forty-nine souls, and much of the ship, were already being turned into a slurry of human flesh, wood pulp and metal.