Dawn of the Kaiju

by Eric S. Brown

  Dawn of the Kaiju

  Eric S Brown

  Dawn of the Kaiju

  Specialist Kerry doubted he would make it out of the cave alive. That sure didn’t stop him from trying though. Sweat slicked his skin and his breath came in ragged gasps. He could hear the cries and shrieks of the creatures behind him as he ran. Kerry knew it was stupid, but he risked a glance over his shoulder anyway. His heart froze in his chest as he met the gaze of a Kaiju. It came racing along the cave’s ceiling towards him. The sparks that flew every time the thing yanked its claws free of the cave and plunged them in again, pulling itself forward as fast as he could run, matched the glow of its blazing yellow eyes. The chainmail-like scales that covered the Kaiju’s body shimmered as they reflected the light given off by the small lamp attached to the front of his combat helmet. The white knuckled grip with which he clutched the automatic shotgun he carried grew even tighter.

  No one had suspected that there might be Kaiju still alive within the cave when his squad had been sent in. According to all the data that the eggheads had, the Kaiju were supposedly a thing of the past, extinct and forgotten by the world of man outside of legends and Japanese cartoons.

  The plan had been simple. Go in, find a fossilized Kaiju corpse, extract DNA material from if possible, and bring it topside to be shipped off for study.

  The caves of mount Jien were the center of numerous Kaiju legends dating back to before the birth of civilization in the Eastern world. If Kerry remembered what he told at the pre-op briefing correctly, Dr. Johnson had selected Mount Jien because of those legends and it seemed as good a place as any place to begin the United States search for the creatures. Dr. Johnson and his supporters among the powers that be wanted to use the genetic material they hoped to find there, not only to prove the existence of Kaiju, but also to bring the creatures back in the modern world as weaponized instruments of destruction.

  Kerry had been forced to sign a stack of non-disclosure papers regarding the security of the project. He had ran “black ops” before but never anything like this one. Despite the project’s level of secrecy, the whole thing sounded like a cakewalk to him at the time. Had he known then what he knew now, he would have never signed on.

  Seeing rays of sunlight piercing the darkness of the cave up ahead of him, Kerry poured on the speed with everything his body had left to give. Beta squad was waiting outside the cave with two evac birds ready to fly out the genetic material the moment it was delivered to them. Every attempt Kerry had made at reaching them over the comm link inside his helmet had failed. The rock of the cave itself combined with the low-level radiation that permeated Mount Jien had caused a lot of interference with the squads’ comms as he and Alpha squad had descended into the mountain. In the last quarter of an hour, that interference had grown worse, cutting off his link to the topside team entirely.

  Kerry sprinted through the mouth of the cave, emerging into a clearing that separated the bottom of Mount Jien from the jungle surrounding it. The full strength of the midday sun stung his eyes. They blinked rapidly trying to adjust to it.

  “Incoming!” he screamed at the top of his lungs. He whirled around, hoping Beta squad had his back, to face the Kaiju scrambling along the roof of the cave towards him. Jerking up his weapon, he let loose, firing a three round burst at the Kaiju. The first round struck just in front of the Kaiju’s position, whining, as it ricocheted off rock. His second and third rounds found their target. The Kaiju cried out as its left arm was blown clean away from where it connected to the thing’s shoulder and the Kaiju dropped with a loud thud to the cave floor. The creature’s orange blood glowed where it splashed in the shadows of the cave. Scurrying to its feet, the Kaiju flashed rows of gleaming metal like teeth at him, before it sprang forward once more.

  The Kaiju raised its remaining arm to take a swipe at Kerry with the long claws that tipped the ends of its fingers. Kerry met it with another three round burst at near point blank range. The impact of the rounds sent the Kaiju staggering backwards as they ripped its chest apart.

  Inside the cave, Kerry could see the yellow glows of several more sets of Kaiju eyes racing towards him. He held down his weapon’s trigger, trying to hose the creatures, but was rewarded only with the thuck-thuck-thuck sound of the automatic shotgun’s hammer striking an empty chamber.

  It was in that moment that Kerry realized he was making his stand against the Kaiju alone. Support fire from Beta squad had never joined his own. He spun around to scream at the Major who was the mission’s CO, but the Major wasn’t there or rather at least not all there. Bits and pieces of the men of Beta squad lay scattered all around the clearing. One of the mission’s helicopters was gone, the other not much more than a burning pile of wreckage amid the trees. It looked as if it attempted to take off only to be brought down. Several shot up Kaiju bodies lay in the clearing as well.

  Kerry’s reeling mind never got the chance to process the scene before him fully. A wounded, but very much still alive Kaiju bounded on to him, taking him to the ground. He struggled against the creature as it brought its head down and its metal like teeth closed on his forehead. The last sound Kerry heard was that of his own skull crunching inward.

  ****

  Dr. Johnson sat in front of General McCurry’s desk, nervously drumming the fingers of his left hand on the arm of his chair. He had only been waiting on the General for a few minutes, but they had passed as if they were eons. When the door to the office finally opened and the General came in to take his seat across the desk from Johnson, Johnson nearly leapt out of his chair.

  “Take it easy, doctor,” McCurry ordered him. “It’s not as if I am going to have you taken outside and shot, though there are certainly those above me who would approve of such action considering how things are playing out.”

  “Thank you, General,” Johnson managed weakly, after clearing his throat.

  “Have you had a chance to see the news today?” McCurry asked.

  Johnson shook his head.

  “Japan is a war zone. Their entire military structure has been mobilized and put into action. Even so, they’re losing ground every hour. Most of their cities are nothing more than rubble now and refugees are fleeing the country by the boatloads.”

  Johnson stared at McCurry not sure how to respond.

  McCurry opened a folder he had carried into the office with him and handed a photo from it to Johnson who accepted it with a trembling hand.

  “That’s a satellite shot of Mount Jien from half an hour an ago,” McCurry told him.

  “God in heaven, help us,” Johnson muttered as he looked at the photo. The words “ant hill” was a good way of describing what Mount Jien had become. Thousands of small Kaiju forms moved over the mountain and around its base. They looked to be tearing the mountain apart.

  “Just what are those creatures doing, doctor?” McCurry asked, “And more importantly, just how many of them are there?”

  Johnson swallowed hard, still staring at the photo. “They… they appear to be taking the mountain apart, General,” Johnson answered. “And as to your other question, I honestly have no idea. We didn’t expect to find any living Kaiju inside the mountain, General, and you know that.”

  “You’re going to have to do better than that, Dr. Johnson. Japan is one of our allies and we have just unleashed Hell on Earth upon them.”

  General McCurry took the photo back and placed it on top of his desk where they both could see it. “I’ll ask again, doctor, why are they taking the mountain apart?”

  “Best guess?” Dr. Johnson croaked.

  McCurry nodded.

  “There’s a Mother Kaiju below it and the creatures are trying to free it.”

  “Wanna explain to me what a Mother Ka
iju is?”

  “It’s a term those of us in the field use to refer to a giant Kaiju. Take one of the Kaijus you see in that photo and imagine it standing hundreds of feet tall, with the same claws, scales, and speed.”

  McCurry’s eyes bugged out for a moment, but he recovered his composure quickly. “Let me get this straight. You’re telling me something like one of those giants from all those old school Japanese monster movies might be real and those little devils are trying to release it?”

  “Yes, General McCurry, I am afraid I am.”

  “And this Mother Kaiju is going to go on a rampage like all the little ones when it gets free?”

  “You can count on that, General,” Johnson nodded. “I’ve never encountered a Kaiju legend or myth where the creatures were anything less than full out engines of destruction.”

  “The Japanese government and our own are considering nuking Mount Jien as we speak. Would that be an effective means of stopping them, Dr. Johnson?”

  Johnson shrugged. “No one studying Kaiju alive today has ever encountered a living one before, so I can’t say with any real certainty. Mount Jien itself is the source of a very peculiar radiation, so I doubt any radioactivity from the means you suggest dealing with the things would affect them. That said, the initial blast of the exploding bomb or bombs would. The blast would slay those on the surface, but none that remained underground and worse, using such a bomb might help release any Mother Kaiju trapped below the mountain itself.”

  McCurry grunted. “Though Mount Jien remains the center of their activity, for now, there are other places in Japan the smaller Kaiju appear to be digging as well and a good number of the things have simply vanished into the ocean.”

  Dr. Johnson found himself on the edge of tears as he spoke. “There are those who believe the Kaiju once ruled the Earth, General, and that a climate change, much like one that made the dinosaurs extinct, wiped them out. What we’re seeing now though indicates the Kaiju didn’t die off, General. They merely went dormant underground and beneath the oceans. The small Kaiju will sweep across the globe like locusts, destroying everything in their path, as they search for more of their kind to be awakened.”

  “Just how many of these creatures are you saying there are, Dr. Johnson?”

  “Again, General, I can’t even begin to guess, but I would wager far too many,” Johnson slumped in his chair. “It appears the Kaiju Apocalypse has begun and I am responsible for it.”

  ****

  The Bushido’s heavy tracks crunched over the rubble filling the street as the tank rolled backwards in retreat. Commander Yen stood in its cupola blazing away at the advancing horde of Kaiju closing in on it. The anti-personnel machine gun rounds tore a dozen or more of the creatures to shreds as spent shell casing clanged from the chattering weapons to bounce onto the tank’s armored top.

  Its main gun thundered, sending a shell into the center of the Kaiju mass. The proximity of the explosion shook Mien in the driver compartment of the tank.

  “That was the last one!” Kota reported over the comlink shared by the three members of the Bushido’s crew. “The main gun is out!”

  All three had seen the rest of their unit decimated by the Kaiju. Though at most, each Kaiju stood only two feet taller than a full sized man did, the creatures were much stronger. Their clawed hands were capable of opening a tank up if enough of the things worked together to do so.

  The same scene had unfolded time and time again across the length of Japan. Everywhere the army chose to make a stand, they were slaughtered. While the Japanese military held a technological edge over the Kaiju, there were just too many of the monsters.

  Commander Yen longed for air support, but he knew none would be coming. The great, desperate hope had been that the air force could turn the tide and send the Kaiju burrowing their way back into the earth from which they had come. That hope proved to be a forlorn one though.

  One out of every hundred or so Kaiju sprouted wings. These new monsters took to the sky to confront the planes and helicopters that rained death upon their brothers. Their small size and maneuverability made them difficult targets to engage directly for the planes and easily over matched any helicopters the Japanese sent against them.

  “Get us out of here!” Commander Yen ordered.

  “Giving her everything she’s got and then some, sir!” Mien shouted.

  The Bushido came about in the street, turning its rear to the Kaiju, as Yen ducked back inside the vehicle and slammed its top hatch shut above him.

  Clearing the rubble, the Bushido roared forward at its top speed. It wasn’t fast enough.

  The Kaiju came swarming over the tank. Yen heard one of the things straining to open the hatch above him. Other Kaiju ripped away at the tank’s armor on all its side with their claws. Still more combined their efforts to snap free the tracks of its left side. The Bushido lurched to a halt as they did so.

  “Mien!” Commander Yen shouted in warning.

  “She’s dead, sir!” Mien answered. “We aren’t going anywhere without repairs!”

  Kota was in a panic. “What do we do?”

  Commander Yen drew the pistol holstered on his belt. “We die with honor!” he roared before the hatch above him was yanked free and thrown aside. Two scale covered hands plunged into the Bushido to grab hold of him. Their claws sunk into his flesh like meat hooks, dragging him upwards and out of the tank. To his credit, Yen was able to get off a shot at the Kaiju holding him before the hands of a second Kaiju closed around his head and took it from his shoulders in an explosion of blood.

  Mien drew his own sidearm as Commander Yen vanished from sight and Kota snatched up the machine gun he kept in his section of the tank. Both of them managed to fire on the first Kaiju that slid inside the tank with them. Kota screamed as the thing’s orange blood splattered onto his arms and face. It sizzled on his skin, burning like acid, all the way to the bone.

  The Kaiju’s bullet ridden corpse flopped to one side as another stuck its head down into the tank. It flashed rows of razor teeth at Mien in a feral snarl.

  Mien hurriedly turned his pistol, shoving its barrel into his mouth, and he squeezed its trigger.

  ****

  General McCurry sat at the head of the table in the Pentagon’s war room. The room was filled with the head officers of each of the United States’ military branches as well as Dr. Johnson and several other key scientists at work on understanding the Kaiju well enough to better engage them.

  “Japan has fallen,” McCurry informed those gathered. A hush fell over the room as everyone’s attention centered on him.

  “China and Russia are under siege,” he went on. “Australia is holding on by a thread.”

  “What about Europe?” Someone asked.

  “Most of Europe has gone silent,” McCurry frowned.

  “So it’s true then?” Dr. Johnson asked. “The Mother Kaiju have awakened.”

  McCurry nodded. “Yes, we have confirmed reports of three separate Mother Kaiju. Two in what’s left of Japan and a third somewhere off the coast of Australia. Though there haven’t been any major Kaiju incursions onto U.S. soil as yet, you can rest assured they are coming.”

  Calling up a holographic globe in the center of the table, McCurry pointed at several regions of the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. “American naval forces have already engaged the Kaiju along the Atlantic seaboard and off the coast of Hawaii.”

  “Are we going to try to defend Hawaii?” an admiral smoking a cigar in the rear of the room asked.

  McCurry shook his head sadly. “We can’t. We don’t have the resources for it. Everything we have is being deployed along the mainland’s borders in hopes of stopping the Kaiju before they truly enter the U.S. We’re also evacuating all the civilian population that we can inland. I don’t have to tell you that it’s not going well either. People are scared. To them, this looks like the end of the world and at this point, I can’t say it’s not.”

  “Do we have a plan, G
eneral McCurry?” another officer asked.

  “Beyond digging in and trying to hold our ground, no, we don’t. We do have advantages that places like Japan didn’t though. We are aware that the Kaiju have fliers among their ranks and we are now able to put the total known number of smaller Kaiju at five million, give or take a few ten thousand.”

  “Five million?” someone muttered.

  “On the upside,” McCurry quickly added, “The Kaiju’s numbers have stopped growing exponentially as they were at the start of all this madness. They appeared to have leveled off. No matter how large a threat the smaller Kaiju are, the Mother Kaiju should be our primary concern. I am correct in that aren’t I, Dr. Johnson?”

  Johnson tried to melt into his chair as the room’s attention turned to him.

  “Dr. Johnson?” McCurry asked again.

  “Uh, yes…” Johnson answered at last. “That would be the case. The smaller Kaiju can’t breed. It’s the Mother Kaiju, the large ones, that spawn new Kaiju. Thanks to footage we were sent from Japan before the entire country went dark, we’ve been able to confirm our theory on that.”

  “Just how fast can they breed, Dr. Johnson?”

  “A single Mother Kaiju can spawn up to two hundred of the lesser ones within the space of an hour once it enters its gestational period. It looks something like that scene from Gremlins when Spike gets wet and they just shoot off his body inside of eggs.”

  “What about the Mother Kaiju themselves, doctor? How do they reproduce and how quickly?”

  “We don’t have any data on that yet, General, but all of us working on it agree that it must be a much slower process,” Johnson answered, using his pointer finger to push his glasses upwards on his nose. “As thus, it would be to our great advantage to make eliminating the Mother Kaiju we know are out there our priority as quickly as possible.”

  “The fliers were a surprise that the Japs weren’t counting on,” McCurry pointed out. “Do you think there are still other types of lesser Kaiju we haven’t seen yet, Dr. Johnson?”