The massive tail whipped past, sliding from one side of the barren river to the other, passing just a few feet over head. Flattened trees landed all around Chris, lashing him with thin branches, but he remained mostly unscathed.
I’m safe here, he told himself. As long as I don’t move, I’m safe.
Part of him knew this wasn’t necessarily true, but he was a believer in luck, and this spot, for whatever reason, was lucky. So when the second set of gargantuan footfalls approached, he remained riveted to the stone beneath him.
When the giant emerged, its head turned down, like it was looking straight at him, Chris lost control of his bladder. But still, he didn’t move. The colossal monster made no move for him, and Chris could see by the thing’s wide gait, that he wouldn’t be stepped on.
Just stay still. Don’t draw attention. Don’t fucking move.
The sound of a new roar turned his head skyward. It sounded different from the two Kaiju, whose roars sounded like a mix of tubas and high pitched violins gargling water through a loud-speaker. This new sound was crisp. Modern. The white streak across the sky confirmed it.
A missile.
Just one.
The military didn’t have a strong presence in this part of the world. This missile must have come from far away—the ocean on the other side of the peninsula that was southern Thailand.
Chris tracked its path and then looked ahead. It was going to strike the man-monster. An easy target. Then he realized where it was going to hit.
“No,” he whispered. “God, no!”
Back to his feet, Chris ran for the shore. He tripped and fell into the muddy bank, getting tangled in the roots and slippery grime. He spun around as he fought to free himself, just in time to see it happen.
The missile struck the manly Kaiju’s chest. It disappeared with a whump and a small burst of flame. For a moment, he thought that was the end of it, that the missile had failed to inflict any damage at all. But then he saw the spray of orange liquid jet out of the monster’s chest. Before he could scream, or pray or fully comprehend what he was seeing, the world turned white and disappeared.
31
The worst part about staying in a hospital for two weeks isn’t the food. I’ve probably gained five pounds in chocolate pudding. And this time, it’s not the company. My roommate is Endo, and we’ve been pretty content to not speak to each other much. No, what really irks me is that I’m helpless to stop the global rampage being carried out by three of Gordon’s Kaiju. With nothing else to do but lay in bed, I’ve named them all.
There is Scylla, who first appeared in Sydney and worked its way along Australia’s southern coast. It’s a sharp-toothed monstrosity with a hammerhead. I named the second Kaiju to emerge from the ocean, Karkinos, one of the two monsters who attacked the port of Hong Kong. In many ways, it resembles Nemesis. The spikes. The long tail. But the eyes are all wrong, and the claws on its hands have fused together, forming two large blades, like serrated shears. It’s the third Kaiju, Typhon, that really freaks me out. It stands tall on two legs. Like a man...a man dressed in Nemesis skin: spikes, carapace and all. Not only is it powerful, but in the video footage, it appears to think before acting. Considering strategies. While the others seem to be all instinct, Typhon has a brain. The fourth Kaiju, Drakon, the svelte lizard-like monster, hasn’t been seen since it rescued Gordon in Rockport.
While Nemesis is nowhere in sight, Scylla made its way around Australia’s southern coast and then disappeared. Typhon and Karkinos left a path of destruction along China’s and Vietnam’s coasts before stomping across Thailand’s peninsula and disappearing into the Bay of Bengal. They made a brief stopover in Sri Lanka before showing up in Madagascar, and then again in Cape Town, South Africa. The duo sometimes attack separately. Sometimes together. But they’re clearly travel-buddies.
And like Nemesis, they seem to be fairly unstoppable. The response to their journey has been global, with militaries from different regions joining to fend off the threat. Each time the Kaiju have moved on, it’s been hailed as a victory. A retreat. But I don’t think that’s the case at all. The creatures are simply stopping in for a bite to eat while they head west.
Despite the appearance of five new Kaiju and Gordon’s assault on the FC-P, my superiors refuse to believe that a traitorous general, who is supposed to be dead, is influencing or directing the monsters. I agree that it sounds unlikely, but unlikely is pretty much the new norm. So while they’ve been knee-jerk reacting to the situations as they arise, I’ve been trying to get into Gordon’s mind. Not literally. Endo demonstrated the folly of that idea.
Assuming Gordon is in control, what does he want? Vengeance. Naturally. What else would a man who received a heart transplant from the goddess of vengeance want?
But vengeance on who?