Kaiju World

by R. F. Blackstone

  She nods then smiles slightly, reassuringly at Mako before jogging towards one of the openings. Mako looks up at Dutch. "What?"

  "Did you release it?"

  Mako blinks, startled by the question. "What?"

  "Did. You. Release. It?" Dutch says each word slowly and deliberately.

  The woman shakes her head and laughs. "Why would I do that?"

  "Desperate times..."

  She snorts then turns away so Dutch cannot see her eyes begin to tear up. "I'd have to be a lunatic to let that thing loose. The power it has is...is..."

  "Uncontrollable," Dutch finishes her sentence with a sigh. He's heard it all before and is tired with his employers always underestimating the asset. He scratches his beard, not because of any itch but for the time it gives him before opening his mouth. "We got one."

  The news brightens her day and Mako cannot help but smile. "Bring it in! Who did you get?"

  Dutch holds up a hand silencing the woman, his face is unreadable as he says, "Anno...But first things first." His tone has become serious with a hint of danger to it.

  The bearded leader of A.R. Team continues speaking, cutting off Mako before she can talk. "What are the contingencies for an escaped Kaiju?"

  "You," is all she says.

  He laughs, "Figures.” Dutch isn’t surprised by her answer, it seems that since Asset Recruitment was created, Pryke intended for them to always be the contingency. He sighs and his eyes notice something peculiar. “Professor did the Cat Five do this?" Dutch is pointing at the scorch marks. "What are his abilities? Can we--"

  "--Dutch!" Roxie's voice echoes with terror

  As Mako begins to run towards the gigantic opening in the almost ruined building, Dutch grabs her arm and spins her. "Cut the bullshit! What’s the plan?"

  Professor Mako Ikari shakes off the hand with a slight sneer as she says, "You're on a need to know basis, Dutch. And I'm sorry to say this, but you don't need to know."

  His eyes bore into her and his voice is flat as he slowly speaks. "My people risk their lives for you. For Pryke. For this place. You can damn well tell me what is going on...Understand?"

  Even though Mako knows that this man is more dangerous than any of the Kaijus on the island there is a part of her that does not want to tell him, not because she is afraid of what he will say but just in case he wants to be a part of it.

  "Dutch!" Roxie shouts again.

  "Enjoy the rest of your life," Dutch says as he starts walking away. "Which is going to last about five minutes."

  She gets his meaning instantly and is convinced that he would leave her with the rampaging monsters. "Project Robinson!"

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  "What the blazes is going on?" Gideon Pryke looks around, his hands clamped to his ears as the klaxons blare. The sound would be deafening if not for the thundering and faint sounds of explosions from outside. All around him the Security team act cool as ice. Each man and woman are busy, not frantically, packing up the Security Control Room; powering down the computers after backing up all of the data. Checking weapons which are a mixture of standard military rifles, automatic weapons and handguns while the rest are the retro-fitted laser weapons used by A.R. Team. "Excuse me!"

  "Pryke? You still here?" James McTiernan looks surprised to see the owner of Kaiju World still standing in the small office. "Hasn't anyone escorted you out yet?"

  "Actually, now that you mention it," Pryke says with that off-hand tone that irritates people so easily. "They did thirty minutes ago. What you're looking at is an astral projection, perfect isn’t it?"

  "Handley! Winder!" McTiernan barks, ignoring Pryke's attempt at humour. He looks at JR Handley and Chris Winder who take four steps to get to the office and salute; each man is tall and their bearing screams commandos. "Take Mister Pryke to the Evac point and while you're at it, pick up his guests," McTiernan says.

  "Yessir," Winder says.

  “Sir," Handley snaps off another salute then turns to Pryke. "After--"

  He never gets to finish his sentence as a bright beam of light cuts through the roof of the room. It slices through his head and it takes a second before the fountain of blood spurts from the seams of the dead man.

  The room shakes and the body slides apart, the insides have been cauterized by the beams.

  "Look out!" screams Simpson as four more beams slice and dice their way through the control room. Panels explode in bright flashes of sparks and fires engulf men and women. The young man's cries are muffled then silenced as his body is burnt to a crisp instantly.

  "Pryke, move!" McTiernan shouts, grabbing the petrified man's arm. The room is filled with a roaring tearing as the wall is crushed before collapsing; toppling into the darkness revealing the gigantic clawed covered hand of Ishiro.

  "Move!" the two men pull Pryke to his feet and shove him into the hallway as the hand reaches into the room, its mass forcing the wall into a bigger opening. The entire place is shaking and trembling like a Point 8 earthquake has hit them, which would be better. At least then they could run and hide.

  Behind them they can hear the crushing and smashing of the consoles and the trapped people being splattered against the walls. Pryke has gone into shock and is moving only because he is being dragged. Without McTiernan and Winder moving him, the man would have laid down and let the inevitable happen.

  A beam of light slices the hallway and the three men can hear the growling of the monster. "Get word to everyone," McTiernan's voice is relatively calm, he’s in combat mode. "We need to get out of here now! Anyone straggles; they can deal with the big guy."

  Winder nods before screaming. The hole in his torso spurts dark red blood from the open wound that has been punched into him. McTiernan looks at the hunk of metal that lies at the man's feet and doesn't need to say anything. He knows that Chris Winder is dead.

  There is an electrical scream and all of the lights go out. Only flames and sparks illuminate the hallway and for a moment McTiernan is disorientated.

  "Where...where are we going?" Pryke mumbles.

  "The fuck out of here."

  "But.."

  "Shut up and move!" McTiernan orders with a hard shove that keeps his soon to be ex-boss moving. If the man gets left behind then he'll end up like the rest of his team; Nathan Pedde - dead. Drue Bernardi - dead. Robert Tillsley - dead. Donna Mixon, he saw her face get torn off by one of the claws. All of them are dead and gone. He has no idea who is left and if the other areas of the building have been attacked. It doesn't matter since Kaiju World is officially closed two weeks before it opened. That makes him laugh and his voice bounces off the tiled walls.

  "What's so funny?" Pryke asks. The silence and movement have woken the man up and now it seems business as usual. "You think this is funny?"

  James McTiernan tries to hold it in but he is becoming hysterical. "In fact, Sir, it is. This entire situation is so FUBARed that the only response that makes sense is to laugh...Unless you have an idea--" The fireball cuts him off briefly as they watch a section of hall melt away.

  "This is going to cost me everything," Pryke mutters before slipping in a puddle of blood mixed with coolant.

  "Boo-fucking-hoo," Crichton mutters as he and Teresa clamber through a hole in the wall. Both are bloody, covered in scratches, cuts and bruises, and are looking fed up with the place. "At least you are still alive."

  McTiernan frowns slightly. "How the hell did you get here?"

  "We were on our way--"

  Ishiro's roar fills the hallway and the floor under them cracks. Teresa Hernandez glances down at it then at the walls and roof which are all cracking in large patterns of spider webbing. "We better keep moving," she whispers while slowly backing into another hallway.

  McTiernan watches the cracks sliding across the walls and the hairs on the back of his neck stand straight up. "Don't move," he orders as a low rumbling fills the area. It's getting rapidly louder and louder until everyone's ears are filled with the roaring.

 
; "What is that?" Pryke howls.

  His words are followed by a shriek that makes them spin. Teresa is bleeding from her mouth and coughs up more dark blood. She is holding onto the tip of a talon that twitches. Her eyes go blank as her body is ripped in two.

  "Holy hell!" Crichton screams as he takes off, running for his life as the hallway around him crumbles into flames. He ducks and weaves trying to avoid the beams of light cutting everything in its path. The man huffs and puffs as this is the most exercise he has ever gotten in his entire life.

  "It's tracking us," McTiernan says softly as he realizes what Ishiro is doing. How can a Kaiju track us? he thinks as they give chase to the fleeing investor. There is no possible way, a part of him refuses to believe it, but the proof is crystal clear. He can hear the sharp intake of breath from Pryke as the top of Crichton's head is sliced off by a beam of light. The man stumbles slightly and slowly reaches up and touches his head. His fingers probe the exposed, slightly pink soft flesh that is his brain. He giggles childishly then flops to his knees as blood slides down the sides of his head.

  "What have I done?" Pryke asks no-one in particular. There is something in his voice that makes McTiernan pause. They are both leaping across the collapsed fragments of the floor while not getting caught by the beams or the probing claws.

  "Keep quiet and move," McTiernan says as they turn towards the stairwell. A person like Gideon Pryke would go for the elevator even though it is certain death, but in this situation, everything could easily become a death-trap. But they need to get out of the building and hopefully meet up with any other survivors...even one would be a miracle.

  "The common curse of mankind," Pryke says. "Folly and ignorance be thine in great revenue!" he finishes and stumbles on a dead body. His panicked yelp causes the hall to groan.

  "Shut up!"

  Pryke chuckles. "I beg your pardon m'lord. But mayhap you could enlighten me as to where we are--"

  The Security Chief rubs his knuckles as he stands over the fallen Pryke. The billionaire is rubbing his chin, the bruise already beginning to form from the punch. "Cut the bullshit," McTiernan snarls. "I need you focused and here. One...What the...?"

  A low humming surrounds them, it is deep, almost like thunder but there is an electrical buzz to it that puts the ex-military man on edge. Quickly he grabs Pryke and yanks him to his feet. "We need to move, now." He's getting tired of repeating the same order time and time again but it seems that Pryke has given up. As the two men stumble along, the humming grows louder until it is all that they can hear.

  Pryke cries out as they are engulfed by a pale blue light. He pushes himself off one of the cracked walls and launches down the hallway. McTiernan looks down and almost screams himself; he can see the skin on his hand slowly fade away. It doesn't melt or vanish, but just fades as if someone had slid down the fader. Then his muscles also disappear before the veins and nerves follow, then all that remains are his bones. This isn't happening, McTiernan tells himself as he hears a deep loud snorting and snuffling behind him.

  Slowly the large man turns as his hand grabs the small walkie-talkie on his shoulder. His thumb presses the talk button as he stares into two of the large unblinking eyes of Ishiro. The communicator screeches with static and the man says, "This is James McTiernan, to anyone listening, Control is down! We need immediate help. If you see Ishiro do not--"

  The roar cuts him off and McTiernan can feel his body being covered in warm sticky saliva. It’s an unholy smell that invades every part of his sinuses, the smell of decaying meat that has been stuck in the teeth for god knows how long. He gags and McTiernan knows that he needs to vomit, that is all that is going through his mind. He glances down at his belt and the holster.

  All he has is a small handgun that he is more than positive won’t do shit to the massive monster leering at him. If he’s lucky then the bullets will do only one thing, enrage Ishiro even more and make it kill hm quicker. Fat chance of that happening, he thinks.

  In the distance he can hear the cries of Gideon Pryke and James McTiernan knows that they are all totally doomed. Nobody is coming to save them, the evacuation has failed and all the people on the island are dead, dying or soon to be dead, causing him to sob and raise the weapon.

  It's his favourite, a Beretta M9 with laser dot sight and an extended clip. He's used it since the day he became a Commanding Officer and has never been without it. Mako and her people did offer to retro-fit it so that it would be more useful against the Kaijus, but he had refused. Dumbass, he thinks as he raises the weapon.

  Ishiro roars as the tiny 9mm bullets bounce disgracefully off the thick hide. To the monster they are nothing but nuisances, but one grazes the soft tissue under the eye and the screech of pain makes James McTiernan smile.

  McTiernan sighs before shouting, "Fuck you!"

  #

  The world is on fire.

  Maikeru Island burns as the Kaijus run rampant across the small land mass; they barrel into the security towers and checkpoints without even noticing the tall structures that bend and easily impale the massive monstrosities while exploding into balls of fire and thick dark smoke billows into the sky.

  Energy beams, blasts of fire and bolts of electricity dance across the trees causing the foliage to catch and burst into flames, giving the island a red orange glow of destruction.

  Mako Ikari readjusts the straps holding her in and then double checks the controls. They are already moving fast and she needs to make sure that nothing happens to dislodge her. If she falls then the kill switch kicks in and everything powers down. This is good for safety but terrible in a combat situation--

  "Shit," she mutters. As a beam of energy passes one of the railguns, the air crackles around it and for a second the professor worries that it has been destroyed. Over the radio she can hear people in Control crying for help as Ishiro continues destroying the facility. Mako smiles as she lines up the shot and gently presses the trigger on the right joystick.

  There is no hum or whine as the two railguns, one mounted on either side, rapidly unleash their ammo. Higuchi, the Category 2, squeals before its head explodes in a fine mist of orange blood, the bone and brain matter rains down, following the collapsing body.

  "Great work!" Mako whoops and looks down, below her she can see the rolling thick hide of Anno. It doesn't acknowledge her presence, the Kaiju isn't supposed to. Once the harness and control dome are mounted onto the beast, all control is given to the pilot, or as Mako calls it Kaiju-Rider.

  Where the hell is Pryke? she thinks, looking at a digital overlay that shows the compound and the tiny red dots of the remaining personnel. Everyone has a tracker on them, in case of any emergency but naturally, Pryke has removed his.

  Anno leaps off a cliff and lands heavily, the trees shaking then falling as Mako pushes the Category 1 harder and harder with the left joystick. Her eyes scan the readouts of the Kaiju's health, ammunition levels and the status of the weapons. Everything is reading normal, and she sighs in relief.

  "Mako?" Dutch's voice comes in through the headset she is wearing.

  "Yeah?"

  "What's your ETA?"

  "No idea," she says honestly. "I'm still getting used to the controls and Anno isn't being helpful."

  Dutch's tone is deadpan as he says, "What were you expecting? The sudden ability to talk with it?" Her silence says it all and he laughs. "This isn't some anime series or bad SyFy Channel movie."

  "I know that," she says as she presses the button to launch flares. They fly into the sky and distract the bigger Kaijus that are converging on Ishiro's location. "It would just be nice though."

  "Nice doesn't exist in reality," Dutch says in a matter of fact tone. "All you can do is hope to survive. And honestly, you'll need all of that hope. We're about twenty minutes...Keep moving!"

  Mako knows he's yelling at the rest of his team, but the order pushes her. "I'm sorry," she says to the Kaiju and flicks a switch.

  The beasts screams then roars as
a mixture of adrenaline, cocaine, steroids and ephedrine is pumped into its veins and directly into the bus sized heart. Mako feels the sphere of flesh speed up and she now has to fight for control, the joysticks barely registering any movement other than the weapons. "Dammit," she mutters.

  "Problem?"

  "Just fighting with Anno," she yelps as a large scaly spike covered foot slips on the dome.

  "Well it's your project," Dutch says. "Shouldn't you have all the bugs ironed out?"

  In a perfect world it would be so, but Mako Ikari has only been able to divert limited funds from her main budget to get Project Robinson to where it is now. That has been the biggest hurdle for the side project, trying to convince Pryke that eventually Kaiju World would fall and that Project Robinson is the only way to recoup the losses.

  Her idea was simple, outfit the Kaijus with controls so that a person would be able to pilot it. Mako’s reasoning was that the future of the world was bleak and that it would go out with a whimper, not a bang. Project Robinson would guarantee that whoever ran the Kaijus would control the bang. The only problem was that Pryke didn’t fully believe in the project.

  Looking at the dome, everything around Mako is only prototypes and the neural control system is at least twelve versions too primitive. But as Dutch said to her, "Desperate times."

  "Where are you?"

  She checks her digital map. "About five minutes away...Oh my!"

  Anno has stopped and Mako is able to see the extent of the destruction and damage caused by Ishiro. The Japanese temple-looking building has been totally demolished and is nothing more than smoking rubble. Atop it stands Ishiro itself who is battling the smaller monsters. The beams of light shoot out of its back in rapid pulses as the glow from its two good eyes covers everything in the eerie x-ray.

  "What is it?"

  "I can see...the remains..."

  "Are you sure?" Dutch's voice is full of concern. "Tell me what you see?"

  "It's all gone...fire...smoke...the Kaijus are battling. Tearing at each other for...territory!"