Kaiju Rising: Age of Monsters

by James Swallow

  Without waiting to see how the fight would play out, she half-ran, half-stumbled down the pier with Dillon’s weight upon her. A small pilot boat was still tethered to the end of the jetty, and she tipped her friend into the gunwale. In a few moments, Hannah had cast off and set the engine running. The boat’s prop engaged and it lurched away from the pier and into the swell of the Thames, too slow for comfort. She pulled on the wheel as they moved into open water, trying to steer between the shapes of road vehicles that had been hurled into the river during some other clash between the invaders.

  Then Hannah’s heart sank as she glimpsed the broken spine of a buckled bridge up ahead. The roadway of Waterloo Bridge had fallen into the river and blocked off the route west. She could see spars of smashed concrete protruding from the water and knew that any attempt to pass through them would doubtless see the pilot boat’s hull torn open. Hannah cursed, her shout joining the thunder of battle sounding out around her.

  Nearby, Gaonaga and Taligon continued to fight back and forth along the northern bank, trading lightning-fast blows and jets of ethereal energy that laid waste to everything around them. For a moment, she thought that the crimson-skinned Kaiju would fall to the relentless fire-shock attacks of its scaled opponent, but then Gaonaga charged, head lowered like an enraged stag, and it gored Taligon with the sickle-sharp crest growing from its brow. Taligon went down in a cloud of dust and she heard the deep growling rasp as Gaonaga’s chest rose and fell in panting gasps.

  Then, slowly and deliberately, the red beast turned toward the river and waded out toward the boat. Hannah shrank back against the helm as Gaonaga moved steadily toward the little craft. It seemed to take care not to swamp the boat, lowering itself until its enormous saurian head was almost as the same level.

  It looked directly at her, eyes narrowing with something that could only be intelligence. She began to wonder – had this one been protecting them? Gaonaga’s great green eyes were not those of a wild beast or a calculating predator. This alien life form belied a mind that could understand, perhaps even reason…if only she knew how to communicate with it.

  Back on the bank, the other Kaiju was stirring, trying to pick itself up and return to the fray. Gaonaga’s fanged maw creased in something like a sneer, and before she could react, Hannah found herself clinging to the pilot boat’s deck as the crimson beast scooped the craft out of the Thames with one cupped manus. Gently, Gaonaga strode forward and reached out over the fallen bridge before safely putting the boat back in the water on the far side of the obstruction. Beyond, there was only open river, and a clear path back toward the edge of the city.

  Blinking in amazement, Hannah watched the Kaiju turn away and stalk back toward the far embankment, flexing its claws and gathering itself to fight again.

  She felt a pang of sorrow for the great Kaiju. Was that all these beasts knew? Only the endless battle? Clash after clash, tooth and claw, fire and destruction, all forced upon them by the puppet masters her uncle had spoken of?

  The sickly sensation in her belly returned, and Hannah flinched. As the beasts began their battle anew, she pushed the boat’s throttle up to full and sailed away.

  ~

  A pathfinder unit from the Royal Marines found them somewhere west of Putney when the boat’s fuel ran dry, but Hannah didn’t recall much about that. Along the way, the pain that had slowly been growing inside her had pushed her beyond the edges of her endurance.

  Hannah awoke in a military hospital where an Army captain in doctor’s whites and a major she guessed was from the intelligence corps were waiting to interview her. The doctor told her that two days had passed, that the RAF were going in with a massed force of Tornadoes and Typhoons to bomb the city and force the battling Kaiju eastward. They would press them out past the Thames Flood Barrier and into the estuary beyond. Off the coast, a task force of Royal Navy warships were waiting, and their intention was to trap the beasts in a kill-box and destroy them.

  She told them that wouldn’t work. When the major asked how she could be so certain, Hannah didn’t have an answer for him. She just knew it.

  The major talked to her about her uncle’s notes in great detail. They had already gone to the upper levels of the military, even to the emergency council at the United Nations. The work of Professor Frederick Brook had filled vital gaps in the world’s understanding of how and where the Kaiju phenomenon had originated, and there was talk of a real chance to fight back.

  Hannah asked about Dillon. Injured but healing, they told her. He would survive. But when she asked to see him…that was when Hannah realized she was more prisoner than patient.

  The major brought out her uncle’s scanner device, the machine that registered the presence of the alien radiation that was the mark of the Kaijujin and their creations. It began to chatter as he came closer, louder and louder, faster and faster. The prickling sensation came again, and Hannah felt hollowed out and sickly.

  They told her Dillon showed no sign of contamination by exposure to the Kaiju, no trace of the energy signatures – but for Hannah, things were very different. Her blood chilled as the major told her, in clinical, matter-of-fact terms, that she had been tainted. The energy, he said, was concentrated in her.

  “How?” she demanded. “How could those things, these Kaijujin, have any effect on me?”

  The two officers exchanged wary glances.

  “Are you aware you are pregnant?” said the doctor.

  About the Authors/Artists

  JAMES LOVEGROVE was born on Christmas Eve 1965 and is the author of more than 40 books. His novels include The Hope, Days, Untied Kingdom, Provender Gleed, the New York Times bestselling Pantheon series – so far The Age of Ra, The Age of Zeus, The Age of Odin, Age of Aztec, Age of Voodoo, and Age of Shiva, plus a collection of three novellas, Age of Godpunk – and Redlaw and Redlaw: Red Eye, the first two volumes in a trilogy about a policeman charged with protecting humans from vampires and vice versa. He has produced two Sherlock Holmes novels, The Stuff of Nightmares and Gods of War.

  James has sold well over 40 short stories, the majority of them gathered in two collections, Imagined Slights and Diversifications. He has written a four-volume fantasy saga for teenagers, The Clouded World (under the pseudonym Jay Amory), and has produced a dozen short books for readers with reading difficulties, including Wings, Kill Swap, Free Runner, Dead Brigade, and the 5 Lords Of Pain series.

  James has been shortlisted for numerous awards, including the Arthur C. Clarke Award, the John W. Campbell Memorial Award, the Bram Stoker Award, the British Fantasy Society Award and the Manchester Book Award. His short story “Carry The Moon In My Pocket” won the 2011 Seiun Award in Japan for Best Translated Short Story.

  James’s work has been translated into twelve languages. His journalism has appeared in periodicals as diverse as Literary Review, Interzone and BBC MindGames, and he is a regular reviewer of fiction for the Financial Times and contributes features and reviews about comic books to the magazine Comic Heroes.

  He lives with his wife, two sons and cat in Eastbourne, a town famously genteel and favoured by the elderly, but in spite of that he isn’t planning to retire just yet.

  By night, DAVID ANNANDALE brings doom to untold billions as a writer of Warhammer 40,000 fiction for the Black Library, most recently in the novels The Death of Antagonis and the forthcoming Yarrick: Imperial Creed. As the author of the horror novel Gethsemane Hall, he hopes to end sleep for you forever. And in his Jen Blaylock thrillers, he does his best to blow up everything in sight. During the day, he poisons minds as he teaches film, video games and English literature at the University of Manitoba. If you have any fragments of hope still left, you can have them crushed at his website or by following his Twitter account.

  PETER STENSON is the author of the novel Fiend (Crown, 2013). He has stories and essays published or forthcoming in The Sun, The Greensboro Review, Confrontation, Harpur Palate, Post Road, Fugue, Passages North, The Pinch, Blue Mesa Review, and Fourte
en Hills, among others. He has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. He received his MFA in fiction at Colorado State University. He is represented by James McGinniss with McGinniss Associates. Peter is married to a beautiful woman and is the proud parent to a fat dog and even fatter cat.

  KANE GILMOUR is the bestselling author of RAGNAROK and RESURRECT. He is a frequent co-author with Jeremy Robinson in the Jack Sigler/Chess Team series, and he also writes his own thriller novels. In 2014, he hopes to release the first in a trilogy of Kaiju novels, called MONSTER KINGDOM. In addition to his work in novels, Kane is the writer of the sci-fi noir webcomic, Warbirds of Mars. Kane lives with his family in Vermont. When he feels tremors in the ground, he wonders if Kashikoi has awakened.

  Follow him at kanegilmour.com and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/kane.gilmour.author.

  NATANIA BARRON is a word tinkerer with a lifelong love of the fantastic. She has a penchant for the speculative, and has written tales of invisible soul-eating birds, giant cephalopod goddesses, gunslinger girls, and killer kudzu, just to name a few. Her work has appeared in Weird Tales, EscapePod, Steampunk Tales, Crossed Genres, Bull Spec, and various anthologies. Natania’s debut novel, a steampunk/mythpunk fantasy, Pilgrim of the Sky, released in December 2011 from Candlemark & Gleam. She is also the co-editor of BullSpec. In addition, Natania's also a founding editor at GeekMom and a co-author of Geek Mom: Projects, Tips, and Adventures for Moms and Their 21st-Century Families, released October 2012 from Potter Craft.

  When not venturing in imagined worlds, she can be found in North Carolina, where she lives with her family. Her website is http://www.nataniabarron.com and you can follow her babblings on Twitter: http://twitter.com/nataniabarron

  HOWARD ANDREW JONES’ swashbuckling historical fantasies of Dabir and Asim have appeared in a variety of publications over the last decade, and their first novel, The Desert of Souls, was released in February 2011 from St. Martin's Thomas Dunne Books imprint to critical acclaim. The second, The Bones of the Old Ones, was released in December of 2013. Both novels made the Barnes and Noble Year’s Best Fantasy list, and The Bones of the Old Ones received a starred review from Publisher’s Weekly. Jones has written two novels for the Paizo Pathfinder Tales adventure line, Plague of Shadows and Stalking the Beast, and assembled and edited 8 collections of neglected historical fiction writer Harold Lamb’s work for the University of Nebraska Press.

  When not helping run his small family farm or spending time with his wife and children, Howard can be found hunched over his laptop or notebook, mumbling about flashing swords and doom-haunted towers. He has worked variously as a TV cameraman, a book editor, a recycling consultant, and a college writing instructor. He blogs regularly at the Black Gate web site (www.blackgate.com) and maintains a web outpost of his own at www.howardandrewjones.com. He can be found on Facebook as Howard Andrew Jones and on Twitter @howardandrewjon.

  MIKE MACLEAN knows a thing or two about monsters. His screenplay credits include the hit Syfy creature features Sharktopus, Piranhaconda, and Dinocroc vs. Supergator, all produced by the legendary Roger Corman. Mike also penned the Epix original comedy Attack of the 50ft Cheerleader and the forthcoming action thriller Operation Rogue for Sony Pictures. In addition, several magazines and anthologies have published Mike's white-knuckle crime fiction, including The Best American Mystery Stories and Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine.

  A teacher by day, Mike lives in Tempe, Arizona with his lovely wife and daughter and their two lazy dogs. Visit his website http://www.mikemaclean.net/ or nerd-out with him at https://www.facebook.com/mike.maclean.988.

  JONATHAN WOOD is an Englishman in New York. There’s a story in there involving falling in love and flunking out of med school, but in the end it all worked out all right, and, quite frankly, the medical community is far better off without him, so we won’t go into it here. His debut novel, No Hero was described by Publisher’s Weekly as “a funny, dark, rip-roaring adventure with a lot of heart, highly recommended for urban fantasy and light science fiction readers alike.” Barnesandnoble.com listed it has one of the 20 best paranormal fantasies of the past decade, and Charlaine Harris, author of the Sookie Stackhouse novels described it as, “so funny I laughed out loud.” His short fiction has appeared in Weird Tales, Chizine, and Beneath Ceaseless Skies, as well as anthologies such as The Book of Cthulhu 2 and The Best of Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Year One. - See more at: http://jonathanwoodauthor.com/

  JAYM GATES: One probably shouldn't start a professional bio by admitting that their first real writing consisted of grade-school adventures to haunted, monster-infested islands. I suppose it's less odd than admitting that I wrote Ivanhoe fan fiction.

  I would claim that my tastes are better now, but an anthology of zombie erotica might negate that argument. Instead, I'll say my tastes have matured. My themes tend toward the dark and sleek, both in reading and in writing. I love historical flavorings, New Weird worlds, mythical monsters, cyberpunk rebellion, sword and sorcery grit and high-tech imaginings. A bit of everything, blended into something cool and new.

  After a couple of years away from editorial work, I'm ready to jump back in. There's nothing like seeing authors and artists I first published signing contracts for novels and selling short stories to some of the most exciting new markets. Some of the fiction I've acquired for various projects has gone on to be featured in year's best collections and reprinted in other venues.

  I'm back to writing a little, too, mostly in development projects and gaming. A few new short stories are floating around, on the lookout for a new home.

  SHANE BERRYHILL’s novel of giant monsters, DRAGON ISLAND, has been praised by the likes of PopMatters and Wired Magazine’s Geek Dad. The first volume of his superhero-in-training series, THE ADVENTURES OF CHANCE FORTUNE, is an official selection of the New York Public Library’s Books for the Teen Age. His reimagining of the Robin Hood legend as a biker gang comic with spaghetti western style--SHERWOOD, TEXAS--releases from 12-Gauge Comics on May 3, 2014 as part of Free Comic Book Day (For a free copy, tell your comics retailer to order Item Code: JAN140051). Learn more about Shane and his work via Facebook, Twitter, andshaneberryhill.com.

  Educated in the tenets of wuxia and giant monsters by the esteemed Son of Svengoolie and a regular dose of Chicagoland's Samurai Sunday, EDWARD M. ERDELAC is the author of the acclaimed weird western series Merkabah Rider and The Van Helsing Papers, as well as Coyote's Trail and Buff Tea. His fiction's appeared in over a dozen anthologies including most recently, Sword And Mythos, Atomic Age Cthulhu, and Monster Earth. He is also a sometime Star Wars contributor, having contributed tales of ion powered prizefighters and ancient dark lords to the annals of A Galaxy Far, Far, Away.

  He lives in the Los Angeles area with his wife and a bona fide slew of kids and cats, and can be found online at http://emerdelac.wordpress.com, or at emerdelac@gmail.com.

  PATRICK M. TRACY lives in Salt Lake City and works as a Network Support Administrator. His most recent publications include stories in the “A Walk in the Abyss” and the fifth volume of The Crimson Pact, an anthology that he created with Paul Genesse. When not writing or fixing someone’s computer, Patrick enjoys archery and playing the bass guitar. He believes that giant monsters are the coolest thing ever. Visit him online at pmtracy.com.

  A toy castle is what sent fantasy author and editor PAUL GENESSE over the edge and into madness. Dragons, castles, and Godzilla gave him reason to live from elementary school through college where he began to learn the craft of writing. He is the author of The Golden Cord, The Dragon Hunters, and The Secret Empire, the first three books in his filled Iron Dragon Series, as well as a dozen short stories. He is also the editor, and co-creator with Patrick M. Tracy, of the five volumes in the demon-themed Crimson Pact shared multiverse anthology series, as well as the monster themed A Walk in the Abyss anthology, which features orcs, sasquatches, and giants. Friend Paul on Facebook, follow him on Twitter, @Paul_Genesse, or find him online at paulgenesse.com.


  BONNIE JO STUFFLEBEAM lives in Texas with her husband and two literarily-named cats: Gimli and Don Quixote. Her fiction and poetry has appeared in magazines such as Clarkesworld, Strange Horizons, Goblin Fruit, and Daily Science Fiction. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Southern Maine's Stonecoast program and reviews short fiction at her blog, Short Story Review. You can visit her on Twitter @BonnieJoStuffle or through her website:www.bonniejostufflebeam.com.

  PETER RAWLIK was once a celebrity book dealer, but gave up that lucrative career to write weird fiction and make some serious money. He vehemently denies rumors that for the last twenty years he has been involved in secret plans to restore giant crocodiles to the coast of Florida. Even if he had been involved in such work, he certainly was never properly compensated.

  His work on Lovecraftian fiction, drawing on resources contained within his personal collection, has garnered much interest from readers, editors, and representatives from certain organizations devoted to the elimination of corrupting moral influences.

  His work has been published by Miskatonic River Press, Black Coat Press, Innsmouth Free Press, Prime Books, and Fedogan and Bremer. His novel Reanimators was published by NightShade Books.

  J.C. KOCH is scared by horror stories but writes them anyway. J.C.’s stories have appeared in Arkham Tales, Necrotic Tissue, and Penumbra. In addition to writing about scary things, J.C. also likes to do scary things like pay attention to politics, keep up with the Kardashians, and play the stock market. With no time to actually do any of those things, though, J.C. tends to stay hidden under the bed, letting more of the terrors of the mind bleed onto the page, both metaphorically and literally. Reach J.C. at Going Bump in the Night (http://www.ginikoch.com/jkbookstore.htm).