Realm of Kong: The Culling

by Dane G. Kroll

  Enra continued to knock around the Mighty Men. The mechs were taking only cosmetic damage from the smoke monster. The Mighty Men were durable. They were built to take a crushing blow from a kaiju.

  The combatants were at a standstill.

  “Keep fighting!” yelled Malick. “Make this thing bleed.”

  The Mighty Men were so caught up in their fight they did not notice the glowing eyes in the distance. Quickly, the eyes grew larger as they got closer.

  Then Malick was sent crashing to the ground. Her warning system was too late to detect the coming impact.

  The glowing eyes were attaching to another kaiju. It ran through the Mighty Men like a freight train. The mechs were all sent hurtling away, only to be stopped by an immovable object.

  Malick watched as the kaiju passed her. Its head was that of a wolf with a bony shell on the forehead and spine. It charged on four legs right through the Mighty Men like they were nothing. Its tail whipped around back and forth behind it. Then it disappeared into the smoke again, heading for the facility.

  “There is another kaiju in the vicinity!” said Malick over the communicator. “I repeat. There is a second kaiju in the area and it is heading your way.”

  Weathers and Noah had ventured out of the interrogation room. Noah’s first reaction was to head for the exit. He knew they needed to get out of the building. The structure shook violently every few minutes. Weathers assured him that the building would not go down. It was reinforced and built into the mountain. If the building was going down they would have bigger problems than the chasers.

  Instead of escape, Weathers took Noah directly to the cells. There were still scientists down there that needed their help. Noah was forced to agree. She still held on to the remote control of his proximity collar.

  It annoyed Noah how the fear of severe electric shock to his system kept him in the line of danger. He would have helped Weathers, but she used her trump card without hesitation. Even in all the madness she was still angry at Noah for not agreeing with her aspirations.

  The lights going on and off created a strobe light effect in the hallway. It disoriented the two hopeful heroes. Weathers got them through the security check points. The guards were missing from their posts.

  It became obvious why. Sounds of yelling and screaming could be heard from down the hall where the cells were. The guards were trying to keep the situation under control with their prisoners. The locks were already opened.

  Noah recognized the voice of the bald chaser. He was yelling louder than ever. His words were a jumbled mess. He was a man possessed, cherishing this moment of chaos.

  “We’re too late,” said Noah. “We have to get out of here.”

  “Not without the others,” said Weathers. She ran forward to the cells. The scientists were still in their cells. They were all afraid. When Weathers got to the door she saw them cowering in the corner of the cell.

  “Follow me,” Weathers said. “I’m going to get you out of here.”

  Weathers waited at the door while the line of scientists exited. She counted them all to help keep track of them.

  The two guards noticed what she was doing. One of them turned his attention to her.

  “What do you think you are doing?” he asked Weathers.

  “We cannot stay here,” said Weathers. “The chasers are too dangerous.”

  “Those are prisoners of the facility. They cannot simply be released.”

  “Then I will watch over them,” said Weathers. “They are now in my custody. Tell that to your commanders. I am getting them out of here. Keep control of the chasers. That is an order.”

  “FINALLY!” yelled out the bald chaser.

  Then the wall to the outside of the building exploded. The building lurched against the impact. Cracks spread out across the structure. It groaned as it settled against the gaping hole that was just made in the building.

  Before the lights went out and dust flew into the air, Weathers caught a glimpse of a giant wolf standing outside the building.

  The guards were crushed underneath falling debris. Weathers and Noah fell to the ground. The scientists ran faster than ever away from the attack and deeper into the building.

  The smoke started to billow into the detention center. It reached across the floor like tentacles. The wolf was gone leaving a giant exit for the prisoners.

  There was nothing holding back the chasers now. They stepped out of their cell. Every step was awkward. Many of them were still recovering from the impact.

  Then a new figure exited from the cell. The man walked with a kick in his step. Noah could see the man turn to face him and Weathers.

  “Noah,” said the shadowy figure. “I thought youuuu were looooong gone.”

  Noah sat up the best he could. His back ached in pain from the fall. The voice was familiar, but he could not make out who it was.

  As the man stepped closer his features became visible. Reddish brown hair covered his entire body. He had pointed ears, and his nose came out to a little black button. He wore the familiar prison jumpsuit that all the other chasers wore.

  “It feels sooooo good to be out of that cell finally,” said the man-fox standing before Noah and Weathers. “And I missed my warm fuuuuur.”

  The man-fox rub his pawed hand through his fur across the top of his head.

  Then Noah realized how he knew the monster standing in front of him. It was the bald chaser. He had transformed. Shed skin now hung from his body like torn loin cloths.

  “Enra, go find the soldier. Garou will heeeelp you. I have a lottttt to thank him for.”

  The Mighty Men heard a second crash, but never saw it. Garou moved through the smoke undetected. Their futile fight against Enra continued. Every strike from the Mighty Men did not affect the smoke monster, and Enra could not break the Mighty Men.

  Then a third crash echoed through the facility.

  In the satellite command center, Honsou and the others watched the monitors of the action outside. Three buildings now were reporting structural damage.

  “The second kaiju is directly attacking the buildings,” said the soldier controlling the monitors.

  “Have any of them gone down?” Ishikawa asked.

  “No,” said the soldier. “They are still intact for the most part. There is just a giant hole in them now. The smoke is getting inside.”

  Then there was a fourth crash.

  “It’s broken into the main building,” announced the soldier.

  “Can we do anything against it?” Honsou questioned. “The Mighty Men are useless.”

  “They are not useless,” said Ishikawa. “This is something we have never seen before. There is no plan of attack against it yet.”

  “What about Babel 4? Is it operational again?” asked another soldier in the room.

  “I doubt it will do anything different,” said Honsou. “Anything we throw at this smoke goes right through it. It’s smoke!”

  “There is still the second one,” said Ishikawa.

  “If we can find it,” said Honsou.

  “We have to try,” said Ishikawa. “Get some pilots to Babel 4. The smoke is already in the main building. There will be pilots there. We can’t risk letting anybody out here. Get word out. Babel 4 has different weapons than the Mighty Men. We need to throw everything we have at this thing.”

  “You heard her,” said Honsou to the others in the room. “We are not going to take this sitting down.”

  “It’s coming this way!” panicked the monitor. “Brace for impact!”

  Garou flashed past cameras on its charge to the soldiers’ quarters. Everybody in the room could hear the footsteps pound against the ground. The building rattled.

  Then they heard a collision, but it was not with the building. They remained intact. All eyes went to the monitors.

  For a brief instant the smoke cleared with a gust of wind. Garou was clear on screen and it had been knocked to the ground. On another monitor was the reason. Tengi had go
t in its way.

  The giant crane perched between Garou and the facility. The wolf snarled and barked at Tengi. It readied itself for another charge. The smoke began to return to the area.

  Garou rushed toward Tengi. It kept its head down and its thick skull pointed forward. Tengi took a direct hit in the body. She then swiped across Garou’s side with her blade like wing tips. Garou cried out in pain as Tengi groaned from her hit. The two parted again. Garou left a trail of blood as it paced back from its kaiju enemy.

  “Tengi has given us a window,” said Ishikawa.

  “Get some pilots to Babel 4, now,” ordered Honsou.

  The Mighty Men received new orders. Over the intercom came the voice of General Novile.

  “Get off the field,” ordered the general. “I repeat get off the field. Get out of range of the smoke. You are doing no good out there.”

  “Sir,” Malick began to argue. “We can still do this. Let us fight.”

  “Do not argue with me. Get the Mighty Men off the field.”

  “You heard him,” said Captain Malick to her squad. “Take to the skies.”

  The five Mighty Men abandoned their struggle against Enra. Their jets carried them up, but Enra was not easy to escape.

  The smoke began to rise with them. It stretched to the sky unwilling to let the Mighty Men go. The mechs rattled against the force that Enra was putting on them. The smoke caked against the indestructible shells of the Mighty Men.

  “It’s not letting us go,” said Shammah.

  “Then keep going up,” commanded Malick.

  The roar of Enra could be felt in every mech. Its face appeared above them as the smoke held its grip on the Mighty Men.

  More pressure held down the five mechs. It felt as if the pilots were flying through sludge.

  “Concentrate!” ordered Malick. “Get to the upper atmosphere. Do not lose focus. Convert all power to your jets. This beast will not stop us!”

  The Mighty Men did not give up. They did as they were told and focused all of their power on escape. They reached higher into the sky. Frost started to appear on the mechs. And for the first time since going into battle they saw the stars.

  Enra began to disperse all around them. The monster could not hold its form at their altitude. The five mechs were free from the attack.

  It was quiet where they stopped. Enra drifted down once the Mighty Men were out of range. They could look down on the world from where they floated. There was a black smudge on the ground where the facility was. It was the end of the world in one little corner of it all.

  “I need a status report from all of you,” ordered Malick. She was not going to let a lull get to them. They needed to stay on top of the situation. “We need to be ready to dive back down when the orders come in.”

  “We can’t do anything against the smoke.”

  “I do not care,” said Malick. “We will bury that smoke in the mountain if we have to. There is still another kaiju in the area. I want reports now. If that facility goes down then we are going down with it.”

  Chapter 31

  Deep below the main building, Dr. Macy was huddled in his laboratory. He had been there the entire day finally free to experiment on whatever he wanted. Mellora’s body was out for all to see. He had no further worries about his superiors.

  When the proximity alarms started going off, Macy merely shrugged. He had no intentions of leaving his work. Then the sound of battle carried into the lab through the walls. Macy grew more concerned. He did not want to lose any of his new data.

  The attack from Garou put Macy in more of a panic. The building shook ruining one test Macy was conducting. Macy cursed at the heavens and then got to work on securing his things.

  There is an attack going on outside.

  “I can hear that,” said Macy. “The best minds and the best defenses at this facility and I still have to worry about giant monsters destroying it all. This is unacceptable.”

  As Macy shuffled around his lab he was too busy to notice the smoke that started to drift inside. His door had not yet been fixed. It could close but could not be properly sealed.

  It was the smell that got to him first. It overpowered any of the nasty fumes that Macy could produce himself. He gagged and nearly threw up at the smell. No matter where in the room he went he could not escape it.

  Then he finally noticed the smoke covering the floor. It blanketed the garbage that Macy left lying around. He watched as the smoke started to rise to his knees, and then it reached his waist in under a minute.

  Macy’s heart started to race. Claustrophobia grew a tight grip around his thoughts. The smoke rose to Macy’s neck line. He kept his chin above the surface, afraid that breathing in the smoke would be lethal.

  That strategy only lasted for so long. The smoke cleared above his head before leveling off. Macy started coughing and could not stop. The smoke scratched at his throat. A rumbling sounded in the distance.

  Are you afraid? Why don’t you continue working? It’s just a little smoke.

  Macy could not reply. His throat was on fire. He turned and headed for the exit. It was dark in the room, but Macy felt around for the door. He knew his lab was clear from where he stood to the door. He could get out.

  Then Macy ran into something. He had no idea what it was. He ran into cushioned air. When Macy reached out to feel for whatever stopped him it was gone.

  You can’t leave so soon.

  Macy continued his journey to the door, but he was stopped once again. A figure was walking through the smoke. Macy could not focus on who it was. The figure shifted with the smoke. It came in and out of existence.

  Then the figure was right on top of Macy. That was when Macy realized it was the smoke itself. The smoke formed into a body. Its features started to shift and define.

  Then a hand reached out and grabbed Macy by the throat. The figure pulled Macy forward towards its face.

  Do not die yet, Dr. Macy. I have not had the pleasure of killing you.

  Macy heard the voice in his head, but he saw the face in the smoke in front of him. A hazy Mellora stood before him, strangling him with one hand.

  Every strike Garou attempted was countered by Tengi. Her wings batted the kaiju back every time Garou tried to pass. Enra was being kept at bay. Every flap of Tengi’s wings brushed the smoke aside. The situation was becoming a standstill. Enra would regain its ground just as quickly as it lost it. Tengi could not protect the facility from both attacking kaiju. She could only hold them off for a short time.

  The soldiers and commanders watched the fight from their monitors inside the barracks. Enra had yet to get inside. All of the windows and doors had been sealed up by the orders of Ishikawa.

  The command office was slowly becoming packed with more people. It was the sole source of information for the building and nobody wanted to be left in the dark.

  “The smoke has completely covered the entire facility,” reported a soldier. “It’s starting to spread out past the perimeter.”

  “We lost satellite feed,” said another. “We’re going blind.”

  “Hardlines are still working. The distress beacon is still operational.”

  “Then pray that someone comes to help,” said General Novile. “What’s the status on Babel 4?”

  “I’ve got a visual on the pilots. They are on their way. They will be inside in approximately five minutes.”

  “Make it three. We need another weapon on the field.”

  Outside, pilots struggled to advance toward Babel 4. Tengi’s power cleared the way, but it was always only for a short time. Every time Enra closed back in the pilots had to bunker down and wait until Tengi once again cleared a path.

  The pilots had started out with over thirty of them. They were down to twenty-two. They had lost men to Enra when it returned, or they were out in the open when Tengi flapped her wings.

  Their movements had to be timed perfectly. They watched as Tengi raised her wings. The pilots counted the seconds
then Tengi thrusts her wings around to block Garou from another attack. The wind brushed by like a car on the freeway. Then the pilots advanced down the runway. They moved faster than ever before.

  As they ran Enra started to return. The smoke closed in on them. Shelter was up ahead in a storage shed. They could make it inside and wait for Tengi to block another blow from Garou.

  But Babel 4 was just down the way. They had their orders to get to the mech as fast as they could.

  “Keep going!” ordered Captain Serling. “Head straight for Babel 4. We’re running out of time.”

  The soldiers picked up their pace. It was the fastest any of them had ever run. Enra was approaching. They could feel the heat generated from the oncoming smoke. It singed the hairs on the back of their necks.

  Babel 4 was just up ahead. As Enra got closer its face emerged from the smoke. It roared at the fleeing pilots. The smoke smothered one of the pilots in the back of the group. He fell to the ground breathing in the retched air. Then he was brushed away deeper into the belly of the beast.

  Enra began to pick off the pilots one by one. Tengi’s fight against Garou only delayed the smoke. Every few yards the pilots would get a reprieve and gain some footing, but Enra was always quick to return to the chase.

  The first pilot arrived at Babel 4. He pushed the combination to unlock the door on the side of its foot. It was a service hatch that was only big enough for one person at a time.

  “Get inside. Begin operations!” yelled Serling. The Captain got to the entrance of Babel 4 then stood outside the doorway. He ushered in the pilots that made it to him. Enra had taken out ten more of his men on their final run.

  Each pilot that made it through the door, Captain Serling knew their names and he knew the ones that hadn’t made it. Enra circled around Babel 4. Tengi’s range was weaker this far out. Enra could regain its composure much faster.

  There was one pilot left outside. The smoke began to surround him as he made his approach to Babel 4.