by Russ Watts
Without warning, blood spurted from Chris’ mouth and splattered the store room’s cold floor. He gasped for air, clutching at his throat as he collapsed.
“Chris?” Maria darted across the room as Chris’ eyes rolled back in his head. She caught him as he fell, and felt his body convulse as more blood erupted from his mouth. His jaw was locked rigid, and his whole body was shaking as it tried to fight off the infection. His heart began to beat fast, too fast, and his nervous system began shutting down.
“Help me,” shouted Maria as the store began shaking, and Chris began dying. The walls of the room trembled just as Chris went still. His theories and explanations evaporated as quickly as the life in his lungs. “Help me,” Maria said again, wishing her Tony was at her side. As she watched Chris die, she couldn’t help but think that she would also soon be joining her husband.
CHAPTER 12
Chris’ body was covered over with one of the rescue blankets. Everyone was in shock. Even James had retreated into his shell. They had tried to help Chris, and Maria had spent several minutes attempting to resuscitate him, but in the end, there was nothing they could do. Maria explained it was likely the infection from the monster that had done it. He was weak from loss of blood, and Chris’ body just didn’t have the necessary antibodies required to fight the foreign infection that was in his body. She thought he would pull through, but ultimately he was doomed as soon as he was cut.
The shaking had continued for a few minutes as Chris died, but soon stopped. Akecheta had taken Vic out to the front of the store to check if the monster was attacking again, but they had seen nothing except for its hind legs disappearing as it burrowed underground. They were tempted to go out and look at the massive hole it left in the ground, to see if it had gone far, but something told them it was still there. If it had continued to bury its way further away from them, the shaking would surely have continued for some time. Suspecting it was just waiting for them, they returned to the rear room with nothing to offer other than the news that it was still out there somewhere. They had time, but nothing else. Another dead body, and nowhere to turn; it was another reminder that they were constantly in danger of losing their grasp on life whilst under the shadow of the beast.
“I can’t just sit here doing nothing,” said Mackenzie to Laurel. “Sitting in this room with Chris over there is like hanging out in a morgue.”
“I know,” she replied quietly. “It’s like we’re just waiting to die. I can’t stand it. I almost want to go walk out there and get it over with. It’s only the thought of Amy that makes me believe I can keep fighting.”
Mackenzie hoped Amy was safe and sound, but he was troubled. Chris and Akecheta had indicated that the monsters that roamed underground, living their secret lives away from man, had been awoken recently, perhaps from the army’s recent nuclear testing. If that was the case, then their subterranean tunnels might not be confined to the Mojave Desert. What if they were connected further afield? What if they ran all the way to the coast, to LA or to San Diego? He agreed with his wife that Amy was very much at the forefront of his thoughts. He had to know if there was anything left to go to if they got out of here.
“The radio.” Mackenzie squeezed Laurel’s hand. “It was working, right? Before? We need to know. We need to do something. I’m not going to sit around here waiting for rescue that isn’t coming, waiting to die.”
Together, Mackenzie and Laurel approached the radio that had been knocked off its little table by Michele. Every step made Mackenzie wince with pain, but his leg was tightly bandaged up and it was only a few short steps across the room. He picked up the radio, and then set it down on the table carefully, turning it back on. To begin with, there was nothing but static and hissing.
“Michele, can you get it working again?” Laurel bent down and brushed the hair from Michele’s sad eyes.
Michele looked at Alyce who was softly brushing Beer’s coat, and then at Laurel. “It’s cold. I’m cold. Aren’t you?”
“Yes, it’s cold, Michele.” Laurel and Mackenzie looked at each other. There wasn’t much they could do to help Michele, and Laurel could feel that the woman wasn’t all that cold. Her hands were warm. “We can go outside soon and warm up, but first we need to get the radio working. Someone might know what’s going on. Someone might be coming for us. You want that don’t you? You want Alyce to get home, don’t you?”
Michele blinked rapidly and Laurel thought she was about to swoon. “Yes. Help. For Alyce.” Michele looked at the radio plainly, as if it were of no more significance than a fly on the wall. “Ninety three. About ninety three,” she said. Michele dropped an arm and began to stroke Alyce’s hair. “For Alyce. Help for Alyce.”
“Thank you.” Laurel turned back to her husband.
“You got it?”
Mackenzie began tuning it in and sure enough, just above ninety three on FM, he found a station. The voice was faint, and still crackled with static, but by turning the volume up to its maximum level, the voice was clear enough to hear.
“Will it go any louder?” asked Maria. “I want to know if Baker is okay.” She prayed it had escaped attention from the dinosaur outside. What Akecheta had said scared her. What if there was more than one? What if there were two, or three, or more? Maria shivered. She looked sadly at the blanket that hid Chris’ body. Another victim, another friend to bury; her thoughts were turning to home now, to Baker, of what might lie beyond her store should she ever get out. She began to accept that perhaps there were giant monsters marauding through her home town. Unlikely though it was, she wanted to know.
As the voice on the radio became clearer, more of the others joined Mackenzie around the little radio. Soon, he had a gathering around him, as if he were leading a prayer circle. He doubted their prayers would be much use.
“The sound isn’t great, but it’s a special news report. I think they’re reporting from a chopper,” Mackenzie told them. “I think someone is over San Francisco. Listen up.”
“…that I can see is unbelievable. Damage on this scale has not been seen before in the once beautiful city of San Francisco. Below me is what was once the beautiful Union Square. The city of course was full of tourists as well as locals. On a typical summer’s day, there would be thousands and thousands of people out here. The scene I see now is utter carnage and devastation. The streets are full of collapsed buildings and there is little movement below. The plaza is gone, literally hidden beneath a mountain of rubble. Theatres, shops, hotels, all destroyed in a matter of seconds. The Westfield center is unrecognizable. Macys, Bloomingdales, Gap, Prada, souvenir shops, cafes, offices: all gone. Quite how the city can ever recover from this is unthinkable right now. How many people down there must be injured or killed? What we are seeing is something we hoped would never happen, Trent.”
“Stacey, any estimate on how many injured or killed yet?”
“None so far, Trent. The mayor’s office is liaising with the sheriff’s and the state police, but to be honest many, many officers are feared dead. Co-ordinating any kind of search and rescue is going to take some time. It is believed the mayor, David O’Clare, and his staff were in the mayor’s chambers at the time of the earthquake. That building is now nothing more than a burning pile of rubble. I spoke to a contact at the White House who said, unofficially, that they estimate the number of dead at around two to three hundred thousand. It’s not unrealistic to say at this point that close to half a million could have lost their lives this morning. I’ve heard reports that those numbers are way over the top whereas someone in the police department at LA I spoke to think it is only the tip of the iceberg. Remember that the epicenter of the earthquake, now believed to be a 9.1, was in Redwood City, just south of San Francisco, so the effects were felt a long way. Los Angeles reported minor tremors and a few injuries so far, but of course the worst situation is in San Francisco where I am now. We can expect aftershocks and tremors for some time, some of which may be quite heavy. Many experts are predicting
this quake has followed the San Andreas Fault line, where of course so many Americans live.”
“Stacey, have you heard any reports of, um, large creatures roaming the area? Anything unusual at all?”
“Say again, Trent, I don’t think I heard you right. It can be a little difficult up here in the air.”
“We’ve had some reports of wild creatures cropping up. A couple of school children in Fresno told me they’d seen, and I quote, ‘a big freaking dinosaur,’ walking down the street before it disappeared underneath a tower block that subsequently collapsed.”
“Trent, I did hear a couple of stories, but officially the word is that there is nothing out there. A lot of people get scared by these events, it stirs up a lot of emotions and traumatized people can often see things that aren’t there. I wouldn’t put too much stock in those reports.”
“Stacey, I’m going to have to cut you off, but we’ll come back to this developing story with you shortly. I’m getting updates all the time and pieces of paper shoved under my nose so fast that it’s hard to know where to focus this special news report, but I wanted to cross now to one of our reporters in San Diego. Karl Whitelaw has been with us for several years and is someone for whom I have the utmost respect, which is why this report is just so shocking. He sent us this recording just a few minutes ago, and we’re going to relay it to you just as he sent it to us. Please note there is some strong language in this report.”
“Trent, this is Karl Whitelaw here in downtown San Diego. The quake that woke us all up this morning was nothing to what I have just witnessed. Let me put this into some context for you. The residents of this city have been sent into complete turmoil. I’ve seen tears of sadness, of frustration, of anger, and right now I…I don’t know how to describe to you what is going on. A short while ago, I was covering the quake in the downtown area, getting interviews from a variety of people, when there was another quake. This one was short-lived, but notable for one thing. It wasn’t a quake. I repeat, Trent, this was not a quake. Not in the sense that we recognize them at least. When the ground started shaking, I took shelter in a coffee shop. People were scared. People are genuinely terrified for their lives, Trent. The tension in the air is palpable. What has transpired here can only be described as fantastical. When I left the refuge of the coffee shop, I became aware of people running from the zoo, masses of them all streaming away from the zoo. There were screams and people crying. I tried to ask a young man what they were all running from. I feared there must have been some sort of explosion or perhaps a building had collapsed. The man I spoke to said there was a giant, a sort of goliath that had come up from the ground. Before I could press him, he left, and joined the throng of people all heading away from the zoo. I began to pick up on more of the same. I asked a cross-section of people and they all reported the same thing. A huge beast had crawled from the ground and began to devour people. Let me repeat that, Trent. A beast, a monster of unknown origins, had crawled up from the ground and begun to devour people. There was a…hold on, I’m getting…wait.”
A loud booming sound blocked out what was being said, an explosion that interrupted the reporter’s commentary, until the noise subsided and they could hear him again.
“…incredible, just incredible. Trent, a huge explosion just rocked the whole area. I think a major gas line went up. There are people all around me, and we just don’t know what’s going on. A woman…”
A female voice cut across the reporter’s.
“Did you see it? Did you see it? Oh God, oh God, what is it?”
The voice faded away to be replaced by heavy breathing and crackling. Just when Mackenzie thought the signal had been lost, the reporter’s voice came back.
“Trent, Trent, if you can hear me, I’m running, I’m running away from it. I see it now. I can see it. Oh my God, it’s so fucking big. It’s dwarfing all the buildings and must be nearly a hundred feet high. It’s hard for me to tell you what I’m seeing. This is nothing like I’ve ever seen before. This is certainly no animal from the zoo. It came up from the ground, right up from underneath us. Trent, it has massive claws that can rip through anything. When it emerged from underneath us, it immediately began attacking people. I saw it, oh my God, I… It just grabbed two, three people and ate them. It’s so large it just tossed them straight down its throat. Trent, I…”
A horn blared out, drowning out what the reporter was saying and was followed by breaking glass. Occasionally, shouts and screams could be heard in the background and the quick frantic breathing of the reporter. Eventually, there was a muffled booming sound, and then the report continued.
“…picked up a courier van and tossed it aside like you and I would toss a paper cup. I have to get out of the street. I’m trying to corral people down this alley here. There are a few of us trying to find shelter, but how do you hide from a goliath like this? It’s killed so many, Trent, so many. There’s blood everywhere. It’s pouring down the sidewalk, splashed across the buildings, dripping from the monster’s jaws. All this blood, this Goliath, I don’t think I’m… It’s charging through downtown now. It’s so close, that…quiet. Jesus. Fuck. Just be…”
Voices intermingled with the reporter’s then. So many of them spoke all at once that it was impossible to understand what was being said. Mackenzie picked up only one thing: fear. Finally, the reporter came back through.
“…and it…oh no, Trent, you’ve got to…it’s right on top of us now. It just walked through that building as if it wasn’t even there. This thing has deep red eyes, so dark and malevolent that it’s as if it comes from another world, another time. This is not natural, Trent, it’s evil, an abomination, a magnificent bloody Goliath. Oh Jesus. Oh fuck, it’s…it’s…”
A short sharp crack interrupted the reporter, and then they heard screaming. It was undoubtedly the reporter’s voice. He pleaded to be saved, for someone from the station to get him, and then the report stopped.
“Oh God,” said Mackenzie quietly. He saw tears fall from Maria’s eyes, and Laurel was shaking.
“As I say, that was Karl Whitelaw, a colleague who we can only hope, and pray, is still safe out there on the streets of San Diego. Quite what he was allegedly seeing is still unknown. We have tried to get confirmation of what is happening downtown, but so far the authorities have been completely silent on the matter. The police have refused any media access, and we understand a cordon has been erected around the city so getting any kind of detail is difficult.”
Akecheta asked Mackenzie to turn the volume down. “What a surprise. The government won’t do a thing until they’re forced to. Maybe when a hundred-foot dinosaur bites the President in the ass, then they’ll believe us.”
“Unbelievable,” said Vic. “San Francisco, San Diego…the whole area is under attack. Don’t you see? This isn’t just us. This is larger than what we thought. They said it would come one day. God’s wrath, the second coming, Armageddon or whatever you want to call it. I thought it was crap—we all did, right? This is unbelievable.”
“I’ve got friends in San Francisco,” said Maria. “God, I hope they’re okay. What are we going to do? We need to tell someone we’re here. If we wait this out, there’s only going to be one outcome.”
“What are we going to say?” Mackenzie put an arm around Laurel. “Forget San Francisco, forget San Diego, and just get the military down to the Kelso Depot? Nobody’s going to be interested in us now. They’ve got thousands of people to look after. You think anyone is going to take notice of a handful of tourists? Even if we did manage to contact someone, nobody is going to listen.”
“Mac, what if Amy…?”
Mackenzie knew exactly what his wife was thinking, but he couldn’t allow her to go there. Not yet. Amy had to be safe. John would’ve taken her home, looked after her. He might not have been around to raise his daughter early on, but since then he had stepped up. There was nothing more important to him, and Mackenzie didn’t doubt he would ensure she was safe.
&n
bsp; “She’ll be okay. I’m sure of it.” Mackenzie cupped Laurel’s face and looked into her blue eyes. “Amy will be fine. We’re going to find a way out of here, get her, and go home. Just you see. This time tomorrow, we’ll be back in Milwaukee, all of us wondering just what the hell we were worried about.”
Laurel smiled but said nothing. She feared that if she opened her mouth it would be like opening Pandora’s Box, releasing a torrent of fear and horror and panic that she could never stop. So Laurel smiled and turned her attention back to the radio. She needed to learn all she could about what was going on out there.
They all listened to the radio some more, about how they should stay indoors, keep people inside where it was safer, and not venture out into the streets. The official advice was to remain in their homes. The news announcer kept repeating it like a mantra, but his words were hollow. It was as if the radio announcer was being ordered to read from an autocue.
“Stay indoors? No shit. They think we want to go out there?” James had popped open another beer and was pacing up and down. He was agitated, frustrated; everyone felt the same, yet all they could do was stay put and listen to the radio, hoping for some useful information. “I’m going to the bathroom.” James marched out of the room, and Mackenzie turned the volume back up.
“Okay, okay, we’ve managed to get a link back to Stacy in the news chopper. Stacey, can you hear me?”
“Yes, Trent, I’ve got you now. What I’ve seen since you last spoke to me is nothing short of a miracle. The Hilton San Francisco was a 27-storey building, and like so many other buildings in the city, has been devastated by today’s events. We have had word that a small contingent of army personnel have made it into the city and started looking for survivors. The Hilton collapsed leaving nothing but a pile of rubble, and it was assumed everyone inside was dead. However, a small child has been pulled out of the wreckage alive. No official word yet on the name of the child, but it is believed the child was found alone so one can only assume the worst for his or her parents. We are trying to get closer to the city center, but you can imagine the difficulty we are having in getting access right now. The city is soon to be taken over by the military, and we understand martial law may be imposed soon.”
