Kaiju Rampage

by Eric S. Brown

  The soldier who had brought in the boy stood watching it all. He didn’t look in too good of shape himself. Part of his face was badly burnt, and his eye on that side was swollen shut.

  Nori had to look away from the nurse, boy, and soldier. She couldn’t bear it all. Everywhere she looked, though, it was more of the same. Some of the wounded weren’t screaming or even moving. She wondered if some of them had died waiting for help to get to them or had just been deemed too far gone by the overworked staff to waste time on, given how many others needed them.

  Ruri grabbed her by the wrist. “Nori, take me home. This place is scary. I don’t want to be here.”

  Nori felt tears welling up in her eyes as Ruri’s grasp on her wrist went limp, and Ruri’s fingers slipped off of her. Ruri had finally slipped fully into unconsciousness. Nori took Ruri by her shoulders and started to shake her but thought better of it. She wasn’t a doctor and didn’t know if that would be a good or bad thing to do. For all she knew, Ruri had a skull fracture and not just a concussion.

  A male orderly in a red-stained medical smock appeared at the end of the corridor leading into the ER up ahead of where Nori stood beside Ruri waiting on help.

  “The Kaiju!” the orderly shrieked. “They’re in the building!”

  The panic was instant. People began trying to get their loved ones to their feet and moving. Others grabbed the stretchers of the wounded lucky enough to have stretchers to rest on and started trying to roll them. The traffic jam and chaos in the corridor were hellish.

  Nori wondered if she had fallen asleep, and this time, the Hell unfolding around her was really a nightmare as a kaiju came bounding around the bend of the corridor where the orderly stood and plowed into the man. It knocked him up against the wall and held him there with three clawed hands as its teeth gnawed into his throat.

  The soldier who had brought in the boy with one hand jerked up his rifle, firing at the kaiju. The first burst from his weapon struck a fat woman who was trying to run. One bullet pierced her stomach, another her sternum, and the final one entered her body at the bottom of her throat. She collapsed to the floor as the panic in the corridor truly exploded. All traces of civilized behavior in the people around Nori were gone as they punched, kicked, and cursed each other, knocking over stretchers and spilling wounded loved ones onto the floor in the process.

  The second burst from the soldier’s rifle hit the kaiju. The bullets shredded the monster’s side. Bulging purple snakes of its intestines poked through the wounds on its side, but the kaiju only seemed to grow angrier. It whirled to come charging through the crowd at the soldier as two more kaiju entered the corridor behind where Nori stood. The two monsters snarled as they worked their way through the panicked and trapped crowd, clawing and snapping at anyone unlucky enough to be near them.

  Nori knew she had to do something fast. She couldn’t just leave Ruri, though. She would never be able to live with herself if she did, no matter how annoying Ruri could be at times. They were friends, and friends didn’t leave friends to be eaten by monsters.

  Her head whipping about, Nori desperately looked for a means to get Ruri out of the corridor. She spotted a side door not far from where the two of them were. Nori grunted as she strained to lift her friend’s unconscious form from the stretcher Ruri laid on. Ruri’s body half-slid, half-fell from the stretcher into Nori’s arms as she continued to struggle to support her weight.

  Grunting and hurting with each step, Nori dragged Ruri towards the side door. Nori had no idea where it led or if she would even be able to open it. It was their only hope, though. The two kaiju working their way through the crowd behind them were getting closer, and the soldier ahead of them was dead now. The body of the kaiju he had shot lay on top of his corpse, half its head blown away from the final shot the soldier had been able to fire as its claws plunged into his heart.

  As Nori reached the side door, a man came rushing up to it. He shoved her roughly aside, causing her to lose her hold on Ruri. Ruri thudded to the floor. It took everything Nori had just to stay on her feet, but she pulled it off, catching herself against the wall she had been shoved into. The man was yanking angrily on the side door. Apparently, it was either locked or barred somehow. His eyes grew wide as he let go of the side door and rocked in its frame. Someone or something was trying to get through it from the other side.

  “You…!” Nori screamed at the man, but if he heard her, he showed no sign of it. The corridor was filled with the screams of the dying around them and the howls of the two lesser kaiju.

  The door flew from its hinges slamming into the man. The impact crunched his nose as he was knocked from his feet. He landed hard on his butt, a dazed expression on his face, his nostrils leaking streams of red.

  One of the lesser kaiju stood in the doorway. The kaiju’s eyes glowed, a fierce, bright shade of yellow like a demon’s might. It bowed its head as it came through to launch itself at the man. Its body was shaped like a man’s but covered in matted, filthy fur that stunk of death and urine. The man screamed as he tried to roll away from the kaiju. It landed on top of him, tearing at him with the long, talon-like nails of its fingers.

  Nori felt warm liquid running down her legs inside her pants and realized her bladder had released itself from the sharpness of her fear as the man’s blood splattered over her. She couldn’t reach Ruri where her friend lay on the floor without getting closer to the kaiju than she already was. Her body was heaving with sobs as she left Ruri where she lay and ran like hell. The man the kaiju had been attacking was dead. His body limp and most of his face, shoulders, and throat were little more than masses of mangled meat. The kaiju sprang from his corpse to chase after her as Nori pushed herself into the panicked crowd. She fought a path through those around like a demon, fists, nails, and elbows clearing her way and keeping those behind from grabbing her. The emotional pain of being forced to abandon Ruri filled her with a fury like she had never experienced before and gave her strength she didn’t know she had.

  She lost the kaiju as plowed into the crowd behind her. There were plenty of people to keep it occupied, she thought darkly, ashamed of herself. Nori spotted another side door and fought her way to it. It was locked too. She growled in anger, whirling about to catch a glimpse of the kaiju lifting an elderly woman’s head into the air above the crowd as if showing off its latest prize.

  A man with a fire axe took a swing at the kaiju. He buried the axe’s head into the creature’s side. The kaiju squealed in pain, bending over. The man jerked the axe’s blade free and readied himself for another swing. The kaiju caught the axe by its handle as the man swung it. At the same time, its other hand shot forward, plunging into and through the man’s guts. Blood bubbled onto the man’s lips as the kaiju yanked purple strands of intestines from the man’s abdomen, flinging them onto the corridor floor in curling piles. The man was long dead by the time the kaiju finally released his body to let it tumble over. Nori knew she had to keep moving. More of the kaiju had entered the crowd now, and the number of living people in the corridor was being thinned with each passing second.

  Ahead of her, something pinged. Her heart leapt as she realized it was an elevator opening. She changed her course, hurrying past another kaiju that had a young woman pinned to the floor with its clawed hands and was snapping at her cheeks with its razor-like teeth. The kaiju was too preoccupied to notice her. She thanked God for that as she hurled herself into the elevator. There were two people in it. One was dead. Long, red slash marks stretched across his back, and he lay in a blood of still warm blood. The other was a woman, huddled in the elevator’s corner, sobbing, with her head buried in her hands. Nori glanced into the corridor to see a new kaiju running towards the elevator. The thing had no eyes. Instead, it had a second mouth where its eyes should have been and sickening gray flesh that looked to be crawling with some kind of tiny eels or snakes. Its fingers rammed through the crack in the closing elevator doors, trying to hold them open. Nori dug into her p
ockets and produced the can of mace her father always demanded that she carry. She emptied it into the creature’s upper mouth. The two-mouthed kaiju recoiled, gagging, and let go of the doors. The elevator lurched and began to descend.

  “Where?” Nori snapped at the sobbing woman. “Where is this thing going?”

  The woman didn’t reply. She didn’t even look at Nori. She just kept crying.

  Nori ignored her. She needed a weapon. Dropping to her knees beside the dead orderly, she patted down his body and started digging through his pockets in the hope of finding something, anything she could use. A wallet, a cell, some chapstick, and a set of car keys were all the man had on him. As she finished her frantic search, the elevator pinged and its doors opened. Nori looked out to see that she had arrived at the hospital below the street-level parking area. The garage’s lights were still on, and there was no sign of kaiju that she could see.

  “You coming?” Nori asked the sobbing woman. Again, the lady didn’t respond to her at all. Nori left the woman sitting in the elevator and darted out into the parking area. There were cars everywhere and not much else. Nori wished she knew how to hotwire one, but she didn’t.

  Following the directional signs on the walls of the parking area, she made her way to its exit. The smell of smoke washed over her before she was within a dozen yards of it. At first, she thought the hospital itself was on fire, but it wasn’t. The smoke was coming from the wreckage of an overturned and burning ambulance outside. The flames danced wildly in the darkness of the night. The hospital had to be running on generator power because the rest of the city was black as midnight. It had been late afternoon when she had brought Ruri here. Had so much time really passed?

  The thought of her friend caused her to stumble as she walked out of the parking area onto the street outside the hospital. She had left Ruri to die. Nori fell to her knees, looking up at the stars above, and prayed for forgiveness with tears streaming down her cheeks.

  The distant sound of gunfire interrupted her prayers. Where there was gunfire, there were soldiers, Nori told herself. The gunfire was coming from somewhere south of where she was. Nori got to her feet, rubbing at the bruised and scraped skin of her bare knees. She was exhausted and her skin slicked with sweat and blood that wasn’t her own. Still, if she wanted to live, she needed to get the soldiers. They could help her, keep her safe.

  Without looking back at the hospital, Nori sprinted away into the night.

  ****

  Director Daisuke was standing at the window behind his desk when Karza burst into his office with General Akio following closely on her heels. Karza had clearly been expecting more Black Company mercs to deal with, but there were none. Director Daisuke was alone.

  “You could have just knocked,” he said without turning to face them.

  Karza started towards him wearing a feral snarl on her lips.

  “Karza!” General Akio snapped.

  Karza gave him a glare that chilled him to the bone, but she stopped where she stood.

  “Director, you know why we’re here,” General Akio said.

  Nodding as he turned, Director Daisuke moved to his desk.

  “I do,” he said calmly. “Your forces had failed to protect Tokyo from the kaiju and now, I suppose, it’s to me to do so.”

  “That’s one way to put it,” Karza growled. “If you had been open with us and helped us from the beginning, this city might have stood a chance.”

  Director Daisuke shrugged. “The city is still standing, is it not? There is time left to stop the kaiju before all is lost.”

  “So then you do have a weapon capable of battling the kaiju?” General Akio demanded. “I thought you said you discontinued your father’s work when you took over this corporation.”

  “I did,” Director Daisuke smirked. “His work was obsolete. Archaic even, you might say, by today’s standards. The future of Japan’s defense does not rest in genetics and creating monsters to fight monsters. That only adds to the problem at hand.”

  “Get to the point,” Karza spat.

  “Project Kaiju, how can I say this? It evolved under my leadership of this corporation. We scraped my father’s work and started fresh, this time with robotics and cybernetics.”

  “People are dying out there, Director,” General Akio urged him. “We don’t have time for this.”

  “Relax, General. Project Kaiju has already been activated. Even now, as we speak, it is powering up on the outskirts of Tokyo. My team there assures me that it will be ready to strike within the hour.”

  General Akio stared at Director Daisuke, urging the man to continue. What he really wanted to do was take hold of Daisuke and break every bone in the spoiled, rich bastard’s body with his bare hands.

  “That’s fantastic.” The sarcasm was thick in Karza’s voice as she spoke. “But what in the devil is this Project Kaiju?”

  “Why, Ms. Karza, it is the ultimate in Kaiju defense technology. And it’s called Rei. Let me show you.” Director Daisuke smiled widely, showing too-white teeth. He leaned over to push a button on the top of his desk. A twelve-foot panel slid aside on the side wall of the office to reveal an equally large screen. It came to life with the image of what looked to be a robot.

  General Akio’s breath caught as he realized the robot on the screen was gigantic. He could see the tiny shapes that must be engineers and techs moving about the workstations and mobile stairs that twisted about the robot’s body. Rei, as Director Daisuke called it, was easily three hundred feet tall. The armor of its body was painted in bright reds and blues that sharply contrasted each other.

  “That, my dear general and Ms. Karza, is Rei,” Director Daisuke purred. “And I can assure you that he will bring to an end the kaiju rampage destroying this city.”

  “And this Rei is fully automated?” Karza asked.

  “Yes,” Director Daisuke replied. “Once Rei finishes powering up, he is programmed to destroy any and all kaiju he encounters. At that point, he will go dormant until a properly trained tech arrives safely deal with any damage he has taken and transport him back to his home facility.”

  “That’s good to know.” Karza grinned and threw herself at Director Daisuke. She moved across the distance between them in a blur, leaping over his desk to come crashing upon him.

  “Karza! Stop!” General Akio yelled, but she wasn’t listening.

  “Wait!” Director Daisuke begged, “I am Tokyo’s savior!”

  That was all he got to say though before one of Karza’s hands closed about his neck. The pointer and middle fingers of her other hand found his eyes and sunk into them. Director Daisuke wailed, struggling against Karza, as her fingers reduced his eyes to pulp in their sockets. Karza released him then, letting him drop to his knees in front of her. The blade of a knife flickered in the office’s lightning as it came out from beneath one of Karza’s sleeves.

  “Don’t do this!” General Akio raged.

  The blade of Karza’s knife slashed open Director Daisuke’s throat in a single swipe. His blood exploded over her as she brought a foot up to his chest with near impossible speed to shove his dying body over the rest of the way to the floor.

  “It’s done,” Karza said coldly as she turned to General Akio.

  General Akio swallowed hard. “So it is,” he said at last.

  “You know he deserved it,” Karza said, wiping the blade of her knife clean on one of the fancy curtains pulled back beside the office’s window. “How many lives could we have saved if we had his toy when all this started?”

  “Now isn’t the time to discuss this.” General Akio held up a hand in a gesture of peace. “Let’s get back to the command center.”

  “Agreed,” Karza nodded and then added, “My only regret is that the bastard didn’t suffer more before he died.”

  General Akio led the two of them out of the office and through the corpse-filled waiting area to the elevator that would take them back to streets below.

  ****

&n
bsp; Nori ran for her life through the streets of Tokyo. Bodies were everywhere. Wrecked cars blocked the roads. Buildings burned. They provided the only light in the other dark night. Storm clouds had rolled in cutting off the light of the stars and moon above. She could hear the hissing and grunts of the two kaiju behind her. One of them rushed after her, slithering on the ground, its body like that of a Black Racer. Yellow eyes blazed on the sides of the monster’s diamond-shaped head. The heavy footfalls of the other crunched the pavement under its feet as it ran. The second kaiju’s body appeared to be made completely of rocks cobbled together in the shape of a man. It shouldn’t be able to move as fast as it did, but somehow, beyond all reason, it was.

  The sound of gunfire called to Nori as she ran. With each aching movement of her legs and rasping breath, she drew closer to it. Her lungs felt as if they were on fire, and her heart thudded against her ribs inside her chest. If she could just reach the gunfire, she’d find help. The hope of doing so was all that kept her moving.

  Nori rounded a corner and found herself staring into the barrels of several raised and ready assault rifles.

  “Get down!” a soldier barked at her.

  Nori threw herself to the pavement, skidding forward, carried by her momentum like a baseball player trying to reach home plate. She left a trail of smeared blood behind her as the palms of her hands and her bare kneecaps took the brunt of her impact.

  The snake kaiju came slithering around the corner. The soldiers met with it a barrage of automatic fire. Bullets ripped and tore at the monster’s flesh, biting deeply into it. This kaiju had no armor. Its scales really were like those of the snake it resembled. It reared up, stretching a towering nine feet into the air, as its body jerked about. Black blood burst from the holes the bullets made as they dug into it. With a final shrieking hiss, it slumped forward to thud onto the pavement and move no more.