I swear. I swear violently. A few seconds difference and I’d be dead with my roommate. If he hadn’t stopped to help his former tormentor he’d still be alive. If…if…if. It doesn’t matter. I have to keep moving.
“Run!” I scream at the students who made it out with me. “Run!”
And then I heed my own advice. Unlike everyone else in the streets trying to get away from the giant snake monster, I have a destination in mind. I don’t know what I hope to accomplish. My thoughts flash to Isabella. Then Lusitania. Their home becomes my goal. I have to get to them and make sure that they are okay. Lusitania might even know what’s going on. Maybe we can figure something out? Like how to make our kaiju appear here?
That brings me up short. I haven’t even tried. Can I make Taisaur appear? I feel like an idiot for not considering it earlier.
I pull out my phone and spin around. Somebody shouts at me that this isn’t the time to take a fucking photograph. Smart, whoever they are. But I have to try this.
The Kaiju Wars Online app appears on the phone. I push it. This time I’m cognizant of the menu in a way I never have been before. It’s a little like having your parents tell you that there is no Santa Clause. All the little pieces that you didn’t notice or never put together before suddenly come together. I’ve never actually pushed a button playing this game. I’ve never used real controls. Hell, I’m not even sure I can properly envision the game screen. It was like I was there. Around and a part of Taisaur, not just remotely controlling him. Dimly, I recall tasting the saltiness from Halira’s crystals.
I pull up the ATTACK option and the game tries to initiate, just like normal. I can’t let it suck me in this time though, and that’s exactly what it tries to do. I have a glimpse of some distant, alien city and know that, no, I cannot bring Taisaur here.
The rest of my dorm is crushed beneath bladed coils and the snake lunges forward, crashing into the football stadium. The stands fold beneath it like aluminum foil. People are screaming all around me. There’s bodies strewn across the street. Some are bleeding, twitching, moaning. Survivors of the attack. But mostly they’re dead.
A distant rushing sound reaches my ears, different from any kaiju roar. I catch sight of a squadron of saucers flying low through the storm, their course clearly set to take them over the giant cobra. If they’re doing what the aliens do every time I attack their cities with Taisaur…I turn around and sprint as fast as I can in the opposite direction of the snake. The jets pass overhead. An instant later I feel the shockwave of their passing. They’re going faster than the speed of sound.
Then I hear the explosions as the missiles they dropped on the monster find their mark. The kaiju bellows. I don’t look back. I know those missiles are about as effective against it as the aliens’ weapons are against Taisaur. All they’re doing is pissing it off. And that means I want as much distance between me and the monster as possible.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
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I don’t know how long the kaiju was there or how many missiles they hit it with. By the time I made it to Isabella and Lusitania’s shared house it was gone and the storm with it. I hadn’t actually expected to make it. The whole time I was running, rain and the occasional bit of debris pelting me, I kept envisioning Brett’s shocked face. Any moment I expected to be swatted away just as abruptly. His death might have been comical for its sheer abruptness if it weren’t also so terrible.
The whole time I was moving, my side aching so bad it was hard to breath, I could hear the thing roaring and feel the impact of the missiles striking it or its tail smashing down. Those sounds kept me moving when I otherwise would have staggered to a halt to catch my breath. And now I’m here and all signs of the monster are gone, except for the destruction.
The feeling is a lot like having a heavy load suddenly taken away. Disorienting. I’m so buoyant I think I might vomit. The university is gone, there’s no doubt in my mind about that. And several square miles around it are nothing but wreckage. Somehow this neighborhood is just outside the radius of destruction. I’ve never been particularly religious like Mom, but I give a quick prayer of thanks for that.
I’ve already had to question my sanity once today. I’m still not entirely sure what’s real and what isn’t after what I just experienced. I need to be here, to know that Isabella is safe and that Lusitania really has been playing the game.
Only, can I still call it a game? If that kaiju is real, then it stands to reason that so is everything else. I’m a murderer. I killed and destroyed en masse for fun. The deep breaths I take now have nothing to do with my tempter.
I’m in a nightmare, I realize. A real-life nightmare. I’m going to be sick. Because if all of the people who just died all around me are real, then so are all the aliens I’ve killed with Taisaur. I’ve been slaughtering people in droves. Doing this exact thing over and over and over. I’ve probably killed more people than anyone else in human history.
My gorge rises. I double over. How many had I killed? I’d never kept track. They were just computer-generated NPCs. Non-player characters. Miniature AI’s operating within the scope of a limited field of programming. They were there specifically to hinder me, to get in my way, and to be crushed and overcome.
I want nothing more than to lay down on Isabella and Lusitania’s lawn right here and pass out. This would all be some horrible dream and I’d wake up with sanity restored to the world.
With my luck I’d choke on my own vomit.
It’s that thought that keeps me from giving in to the urge to collapse. I didn’t survive that shit to give up and die now. Whether or not I deserve to live is another matter entirely, but I really can’t think on that right now. That way lies madness.
I force my legs to carry me the remaining distance to the door and knock. I’m only waiting a few seconds before the door is thrown open and I’m looking at Lusitania. She’s wearing enormous sweatpants and a holey t-shirt, no makeup, and her pale blonde hair is sticking out in every direction. Despite myself, I gape. I’ve never seen her this un-put-together before. Always—always—Lusitania has her mask carefully in place so that she never seems anything less than the consummate politician’s daughter.
The effect does nothing to make her less beautiful. The crazy gleam in her on the other hand is more than a little disconcerting. I half suspect that I’m about to get stabbed. Except that next thing I know, we’re in each other’s arms.
I don’t know why. We’ve never been close. Hell, we’ve never even cared for the other’s presence. I think she’s a stuck-up daddy’s girl psychopath and she thinks I’m some arrogant vagabond asshole. We’re not even real cousins. We’re family by coincidence and legal technicality only. And yet right now, I’m glad she’s there. Not because she’s my technical step-cousin. Because she understands what just happened. It’s not just my world that’s been upended. It’s hers too. And somehow the fact that neither of us are in this madness completely alone is relief enough that I almost weep.
There’s a noise from inside the house. We snap to our senses and come apart as if electrocuted. Grateful as we might be to not be alone in this, that’s not enough to erase the better part of a lifetime’s worth of resentment and disdain.
I look past Lusitania and find Isabella. She’s wearing yoga pants and a tent-sized t-shirt and she’s never looked sexier. I’m moving, limbs forgetting their fatigue from the sprint over here, and then I’m holding her in my arms. She starts to say something, then stops and sinks into my embrace. She fits into my arms perfectly. This, us, we really could be something together.
I pull back slightly and she mirrors me, meeting my eyes. I lean forward, intending to kiss her, when her fist connects with the side of my head. I have no idea how she managed to get so much power into her strike at such close range or at such an awkward angle, but it breaks my hold on her and sends me staggering back. I taste bloo
d in my mouth and have to blink away stars so that I can see.
Behind me, Lusitania is laughing.
“What the hell?” I ask, wiping away the blood that’s spilled out over my lip. She’s cut it. And maybe loosened a tooth. The girl knows how to throw a punch.
She stands with her hands on her hips, glaring at me with so much fire in her eyes it’s a wonder I don’t explode. And despite everything the only thought that goes through my head is, damn she’s beautiful.
“You don’t call me and then you come in here and try to kiss me?” she says. “¡Pendejo! ¡Beso me culo!”
Lusitania stops laughing. “Wait, Aaron was the asshole mystery date who didn’t call you after?”
Apparently my not calling was a graver sin than I’d realized. I shake my head. The university’s just been demolished by a two-thousand-foot-long snake and this is the bigger deal?
“I’m sorry I didn’t call,” I say. “I had…I had an opportunity to make some money and help out my mother.”
She raises an eyebrow. “And you couldn’t give me so much as a text message because…?”
“Uh….” Why the hell hadn’t that occurred to me? “Because I’m a dumbass?”
Lusitania lets out a very unladylike snort.
My answer seems to please Isabella though. She gives a quick nod. “I’m glad you’re okay.”
Lusitania glides over to us. The only thing about her that’s changed is her bearing, but it makes a huge difference. She might as well be in a gown instead of sweatpants. The mask is back and so is the ice queen.
“Dumbassery aside, your sudden opportunity wouldn’t happen to have anything to do with Kaiju Wars Online, would it?” she asks, tone so measured and polite that I almost miss the first word. It seems so foreign coming from her mouth with her mask up that my brain almost fails to process it.
I nod and Isabella looks back and forth between us, before her gaze settles on me, and that fire’s back in her eyes. “You’re playing that monster game too?”
“How do you know about it?” I ask, unable to hide my surprise.
“Because I told her, of course,” Lusitania says. Her tone never wavers, but I can hear the unspoken dumbass she’s mentally tacking on. Probably alongside some other choice insults.
At my evident confusion she continues. “I told her about the game as soon as I got it. We’re roommates. It’s hard to hide things like hours of gameplay from each other, so I asked her to cover for me. Especially when the games’ mysterious ‘backers’ started approaching me for special missions.”
That actually makes sense. I start to consider how to work something out with Brett before remembering that he’s dead. And that our dormitory is completely smashed. I can’t think on that now, so I nod. “That makes sense.”
Isabella raises an eyebrow. “How have you been playing?”
I shrug. “I’ve been sneaking onto my dormitory roof and playing through my phone.” I look over to Lusitania. “Did you ever notice that there’s apparently nothing on screen when we play?”
She shakes her head. “But Isabella figured it out. We decided it must be some advanced augmented reality technology, that that’s what the chip and game are testing as much as anything else.”
“Augmented reality?”
“You know, like the stuff where you hold up your phone and it puts things that aren’t really there on the screen?” Isabella asks. “There was that one game that came out a few years ago, everyone was looking for the little monsters or whatever with their phone cameras. Ring any bells?”
I nod, remembering the stories if not the game itself. Several people had walked into oncoming traffic on accident. I glance down at my right hand and the microchip that’s inside of it. That explanation makes a sort of sense. Knowing what I know now, I don’t believe it for an instant, but knowing that that had been a real possibility before would have been reassuring.
“The head-shrink who came and saw me in prison reached out to me our date.” I gesture at Isabella, just to make certain there’s no misunderstanding. “He offered me a lot of money to do a special mission and destroy a military base in the game.”
Lusitania scowls. “That’s odd. I got a similar offer, but it was to take out any players that appeared in that city.”
“That makes no sense,” I say. “Why would they make conflicting offers?”
“No,” Isabella says. “What makes no sense is that giant snake monster following the pair of you here.”
Lusitania must have recognized the kaiju and explained where she’d seen it before to Isabella.
“This is beyond insane,” I say. “Did either of you see what happened to it? I was too busy running. I head explosions but…?”
I don’t dare get my hopes up. Sure enough, Lusitania shakes her head. “The thing laid waste to the campus and then up and vanished.”
“Think it ran out of HP?” I ask. And doesn’t that question just sound stupid.
“Assuming it has HP,” Lusitania says. “No. I think it completed its mission and went back, just like we do.”
Great. Just fucking great.
I take a deep breath. “I need to catch a flight out of here. Taking care of Mom needs to be my highest priority.”
“Bullshit,” Lusitania snaps. Her mask is gone and the madness in her eyes is back.
Isabella and I exchange glances.
“Why is that bullshit?” I ask.
“Because, if what we’ve been doing in the game is real, then we’ve made those alien bastards fucking desperate. They’re only going to stop when we make them,” she says. “If you really care about your mother, then stopping this thing from coming back needs to be our highest priority. We need to plan a counter attack.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
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Mom’s apartment complex is exactly how I remember it. It’s so bland and normal that it seems unreal, like something out of a horror movie. The place is just pretending, waiting to throw a monster at me at any moment. Considering my recent experience with monsters, the thought actually makes me shiver. It’s weird, but now that I know kaiju are real, I have to wonder what else out there might be too. Aliens? Probably. The boogieman? I’m skeptical but no longer dismissive.
It’s been almost two full days now since the kaiju attack. The damn thing’s been on the news nonstop. Their calling it Titanocobra. The general consensus is that the Air Force destroyed it. I know better. Not that what I know counts for much.
Things with Isabella and Lusitania fell apart pretty quickly when I refused to hop onboard with Lusitania’s plan. The idea is nauseating. Knowing that everything is real, I have no idea how she can realistically consider going back into the game to attack. Yes, our university just got demolished, but when you consider it, we’re the bad guys. It’s us that have been attacking and destroying their cities and people. I honestly can’t recall how many people and places I’ve killed and destroyed in the short amount of time I’ve been playing.
Facing that kind of devastation, it’s no wonder the aliens counter-attacked. They must think we’re some kind of monsters. Somehow, even if we could explain things to them, I don’t think that the excuse “we thought it was all a game” would go over very well. The only real countermeasure to what’s been done that I can think of is to stop playing.
The decision seems so right and easy at first. I even felt a surge of righteousness when I explained my reasoning to Lusitania. She scoffed, said she was shocked by my naivete, only a hell of a lot harsher and with mush insulting of my junk. We argued, I left, and Isabella stayed with Lusitania to watch her back. They’re better friends than I had thought. And yet by the time I finally made it to the airport I was already itching to pull out my phone and tap the little app that isn’t really there.
It’s as if deciding not to play has made me hyper-aware of the game. I want to play it. More than on
ce on the trip I found myself about to activate the game. Brett had said I’d been acting like an addict. Maybe there was something to his accusation. The game…I always felt so free after playing. It’s a medication, a drug, and just knowing that I’m never going to get it again is enough to make my system start to crash.
It’s a small price to pay if no one else gets killed because of me, human or alien. It still sucks.
I take longer to find Mom’s apartment this time around. Her RV is gone, and the place is so distressingly plane that finding her door is an effort. When I do finally locate and knock on her door, it’s several moments before anyone answers. It opens after almost a full two minutes, right as I’m raising my hand to knock again, to reveal a tall, slightly overweight woman in her mid-thirties.
She’s wearing hospital scrubs and an expression like I’ve just broken her favorite garden gnome. “Yes?”
“You must be the hospice lady,” I say. “I’m Aaron. I’m here to see my mother.”
She looks me pointedly up and down, expression not changing. I haven’t showered since before the kaiju attack nor changed my clothes. I probably look like hell. I certainly feel that way. I can almost smell myself.
“She’s not available right now,” the woman says. “Call tomorrow afternoon and we’ll set a time for you to visit.”
“Who is it?” I hear from back inside the apartment. That’s my mother’s voice. She doesn’t know I’m here.
“It’s no one,” the woman says. Then she closes the door.
I take a step back, then throw myself forward, kicking the door with every ounce of fury that’s suddenly surging through me. The hospice lady hadn’t had time to bolt it and the doorframe shatters, the door itself swinging in hard enough to slam into the wall and stick there, the doorknob having broken into the Sheetrock.
How To Train Your Kaiju Page 15