Kaiju Rampage

by Eric S. Brown

  Nori watched the soldiers take a step back from where she lay as the rock kaiju showed itself. Its hulking form rounded the corner. The monster had no mouth with which to roar, so it slammed its hands together in thunderous clap as it saw the soldiers. To their credit, none of them ran. They stood their ground and turned their fire onto the monster. Bullets pinged off its thick body, doing nothing more than chipping it where they struck. Nori could hear the CO of the group of soldiers calling for someone to fetch an RPG. Keeping herself as close to the ground as she could, Nori crawled towards the soldiers’ ranks as bullets continued to whistle through the air above her.

  The rock kaiju broke a large chunk of brick from the building next to it and hurled it into the soldiers. Two of them died as it crashed into them, breaking bones, and knocking them from their feet. The other soldiers kept firing. Their weapons were utterly ineffective against the monster, but the only other option available to them was retreat, and it was clear they were not going to do that.

  Nori reached the soldiers. A dark-eyed young man took her hand, helping her to her feet.

  “Get behind us,” he ordered. “And stay there.”

  Nori wanted to hug the young man, but she did as she was told, hurrying out of his way. As soon as she was by him, he raised his rifle to his shoulder once more and took aim at the rock kaiju again. His rifle chattered, spent shells flying from its side to bounce at his feet.

  A soldier came running up to where the current group was making its stand. In his hands, he carried a large weapon that Nori recognized as an RPG. She had watched enough to TV and movies know what it was. Nori hoped it would be enough to stop the rock kaiju.

  Nori watched the man hastily take aim at the rock kaiju and fire the RPG he carried. It streaked from his weapon directly into the rock kaiju’s chest where it exploded in a flash of heat and light. The rock kaiju blew apart from its center. Shards of the rocks that had once been its chest spun through away from its body. Two of the soldiers in front of Nori went down as the pieces of rock were flung from the blast to stab into them. A sliver of rock ripped into and through the first soldier’s leg. He cried out as he desperately tried to yank the spear-like piece of rock shrapnel out of him. The other soldier who was hit died instantly. The rock that struck him smashed into his forehead just below the edge of his helmet, caving his skull inward. It hit with enough force that his eyes burst from their sockets in explosions of red.

  “More kaiju approaching from the north!” one of the remaining soldiers shouted.

  The burly soldier Nori knew must be the group’s CO started waving a hand in the air. “Pack it up! We’ve got to fall back! Double time!”

  Two soldiers Nori hadn’t noticed before, who appeared to be working as a team, hefted a large gun that Nori thought was called a SAW from behind a pile of rubble. The bigger of the two men carried the weapon while the other looked to be carrying additional ammo for it.

  “What about her?” the dark-eyed, young soldier asked the CO as he pointed in Nori’s direction. “We can’t just leave her!”

  Nori stared at the group’s CO as he appeared to be thinking over the young soldier’s question.

  “Sorry, lady,” the CO told her after a moment. “Glad we could help you out here, but we have orders, and they don’t include letting civilians tag along with us.”

  “I’m not leaving her,” the young soldier told his CO.

  “Private Ranmura, get your butt in gear. We need to move. Now!”

  “No, sir. I’m staying here,” Ranmura said again.

  Nori looked at Ranmura and then at the CO. Both of them were on edge. The CO’s finger rested lightly on the trigger of his weapon, and Nori could tell from how he stood that it would be easy for him to cut the private down where he stood.

  “Fine,” the CO snapped. “If we live through this, though…”

  “I know what will happen, sir,” Ranmura assured his CO.

  The CO shifted his attention to the other soldiers. “What are you waiting for? Move the frag out!”

  Nori stood with Private Ranmura watching the others bug out.

  “Thank you,” Nori told Ranmura. “I don’t even know your name.”

  “You can call me Mura. Most folks do,” he said, smiling at her.

  “Why did you—?”

  “Why did I stay?” Mura shrugged. “I had a sister. She was in the Navy. The monsters tearing this city apart killed her on their way here. She was aboard the flagship of the DESRON Samurai II when it was destroyed.”

  “I’m sorry,” Nori whispered. “I lost my best friend to these things.”

  Even before she finished saying the words, Nori’s emotions overpowered her, and she started sobbing.

  “I think by this point, everyone in this city has lost someone,” Mura told her, though he made no move to comfort her. “Nothing we can do for them now except to try to stay alive ourselves.”

  Nori fought to get control of herself, wiping the tears from her eyes.

  “Take this.” Mura drew his sidearm and tossed it to her. “You know how to use it?”

  Nori shook her head. Mura stepped closer to her, taking the pistol back. He showed her how to ready the weapon and how to work its safety. “Barrel at the kaiju, not me. Got it?”

  Nori tried to smile as she answered. “I think I can handle that.”

  “The streets are teeming with kaiju,” Mura said. “We can’t stay out in the open like this too long, or we’ll likely find ourselves in a fight we can’t win.”

  “So where to?” Nori asked.

  “I’m not from around here,” Mura chuckled. “I was actually hoping you might know somewhere we could hole up.”

  Nori’s forehead creased in thought. “It’s a big city.”

  “Surely you have to know somewhere,” Mura urged as he continued to keep his eyes and ears alert for signs of more kaiju closing in on their position.

  Nori shrugged. “Not really. Not anywhere that would be safe from the kaiju.”

  “Okay then,” Mura sighed. “I guess we go hunting. Try to keep up.”

  Mura took off, sprinting along the street. Nori ran after him, trying to match his pace.

  With the power out in most of the city, the streets were dark other than the scattered fires of burning buildings and the flaming wreckage of crushed vehicles. They ran for a solid ten minutes before Mura skidded to a halt and held up his hand as a signal for her to do the same. His stop was so abrupt that she nearly collided with him, despite his warning.

  The two of them stood on the corner of a street as Mura pointed to the road ahead of them. “That building there, it’s as good as any we’re going to find in this mess.”

  It was just like many of the other apartment buildings they had passed during their run. She wondered what made Mura pick it. Had he given up on finding anywhere safer?

  “Why that one?” she asked.

  “I don’t know about you, but I am getting pretty tired of running. Besides, the longer we’re exposed on the street, the more chance we have a kaiju or an entire pack of them spotting us.”

  Nori couldn’t argue with Mura’s reasoning. She was half-dead on her feet and she knew it. Her body couldn’t take much more before it gave out on her.

  “I’ll lead. You cover me,” Mura ordered and then started across the street.

  They made it to the building’s entrance without trouble. Nori didn’t dare let herself hope that this area was clear of kaiju though as Mura tried the door. It nearly fell from its hinges when he touched it. Its frame was cracked and all, but one of the door’s hinges was broken.

  “Something forced its way in,” Mura explained. He must have seen the concern in her eyes.

  “Should we find somewhere else?” Nori whispered.

  Mura shook his head. “Whatever did this couldn’t be too strong or the door would be in pieces, not just messed up like this. Besides, it might not even be in the building anymore.”

  “I wouldn’t count on that,�
�� Nori warned.

  “I’m not.” Mura grinned and shook his rifle at her as he said, “I am counting on this to handle it.”

  Together, they stepped into the darkness of the building’s lobby.

  “Hold up,” Mura ordered, “And cover us.”

  The private shrugged his backpack from his shoulders, setting it on the lobby floor as he dug through its contents. He produced a pair of goggles. “Only got one pair of these so you stay close. Got that?”

  “Yes, sir,” Nori answered as Mura slid on the goggles.

  She didn’t need to be told that they were night vision goggles, and Mura must have known that because he took her by the hand and led them on without further explanation.

  With the power off, the elevator was out. Nori was glad of that. She wasn’t ever planning on setting foot on an elevator again for the rest of her life. Mura led them to a door that opened into a stairwell.

  “Where do these stairs go?” Nori asked.

  “They go up,” Mura chuckled.

  Nori stared at him as if he were an idiot.

  “You don’t watch a lot of American movies, do you?”

  “Some,” Nori shrugged.

  Mura sighed. “Not the good ones then.”

  He took point as the two of them headed up the stairs.

  ****

  General Akio and Karza had returned to the building they were using as their base of operations in Tokyo. The chaos in the city streets had died down a great deal on their return trip, just as a good portion of Tokyo’s population had already died at the claws of the kaiju army invading it.

  Wasting no time, General Akio had the staff of his war room locate Director Daisuke’s massive robot, Rei. It had fully powered now and was moving into the city. It wasn’t the only thing moving in the city, though. The kaiju leading the attack on Tokyo had finally chosen to show themselves. There were two kaiju that stood over two hundred and fifty feet tall, respectively. One of them resembled something out the lore of the American author, H.P. Lovecraft. It was green, and the flesh of its body shifted about as if it was composed of nothing more than mist. Its mouth was covered by tentacles that writhed about wildly in the air. That was where the resemblance ended, though. Instead of having two legs, it had four. They were placed close together below its body, so close that each pair of them almost looked like a giant single leg. It also had four arms that were impossibly long. Each of them ended in a diamond-shaped, pointed head of a snake. The other kaiju was just as fearsome. It had no flesh to speak of. Its body was covered in a hardened exoskeleton. And two giant mandibles protruded from its face. Antenna waved about on the top of its head. The thing reminded General Akio of the American horror film The Fly, except this time, the film’s protagonist had been merged with a giant ant and not a housefly. Both of these kaiju were walking ahead of the third and largest of the beasts, almost as if they were its personal guards.

  The third kaiju stood close to four hundred feet tall. Great wings were unfolded behind its back, though it chose to walk and not fly into the city. Its head was covered in horns, and its eyes burned a bright blue. The scales covering its body were a slick color of black. The thing moved with an uncanny grace. General Akio knew instinctively that it was the leader of all the kaiju attacking the city.

  “Daisuke’s robot is on an intercept course for those kaiju,” Karza informed him as General Akio took a seat in his chair at the center of the war room.

  “Let’s hope Daisuke’s engineers knew what they were doing when they built it.”

  Karza flashed him a feral grin. “Looks like the show is about to start.”

  The robot, Rei, emerged from a street of buildings to step into the trio of kaiju’s path. The great beasts paused as if they were unsure what to make of it. The tentacle-faced kaiju tilted its head as if intently studying the robot as Rei’s arms came up. Missile launchers rose from the topsides of Rei’s hands and then the battle began…

  Three huge missiles flew from each of Rei’s wrist launchers. All of them were aimed at the ant kaiju. Its head vanished from its shoulders in a flash of fire and heat. The kaiju’s headless body stumbled backwards before it toppled over into a nearby building, shattering glass and bending structural support girders. As the kaiju’s corpse slid to the street, the building came down on top of it.

  The four-legged kaiju hurled itself forward at the robot, the snake heads that passed as its hands striking with lightning speed at Rei. Sparks flew each time on of the heads’ fangs made contact with the robot’s armor. They struck, over and over, so fast it was like watching a professional boxer go at a punching bag. Rei staggered under the blows but appeared unhurt. The robot caught one of the kaiju’s arms as it lashed out towards it. Rei used both hands to snap the snake head arm. The white of bone protruded through the flows of mist-like green that covered the monster’s true body beneath it. Rei paid for the pain it inflicted on the kaiju as one of the monster’s other snake head hands collided with Rei’s jaw, bending the robot’s metal inward at the spot where it made contact. The kaiju pressed its sudden advantage, its other two snake heads whipping into Rei with enough force to bring the giant robot to its knees.

  Rei looked up at the kaiju towering over it. The robot’s eyes glowed yellow for a split second before beams of pure energy exploded from them. They raked over the kaiju’s body from its waist to its throat, cutting the monster into two along its center. Green pus rained over Rei as the two halves of the kaiju fell apart. The globs of green pus stuck to Rei. General Akio could see smoke rising from them as if the pus were acidic and burning away at Rei’s armor. The robot had no choice but to ignore the pus adhered to it as it got to its feet to face the leader of the kaiju.

  The king of the kaiju already towered over Rei in height but its wings flapped, carrying it to rise just above the ground. It gave a roar that shook the entire city. General Akio felt the vibrations from the roar in his command chair. Windows of buildings blew out all over Tokyo, raining glass onto its streets.

  Rei took a running start as it hurled itself at the king of the kaiju. General Akio watched in disbelief as giant-sized J.A.T.O. units popped out of the robot’s back and ignited, adding speed to its charge. The robot slammed into the king of the kaiju like a running back. The force of Rei’s momentum carried them both backwards towards docks of Tokyo’s harbor and the ocean. The king of the kaiju told hold of Rei, the tips of its human-like fingers digging into and through the armor beneath them, to fling the robot away from it. The attack had injured the giant monster, though. Yellow blood seeped from the black scales that covered the king of the kaiju’s chest. Its wings folded up behind its back as it landed in front of Rei.

  Rei was damaged from the impact as well. One of the robot’s arms dangled at its side, barely remaining attached to its body by strands of thick, sparking wires. Again, Rei opted to try its eye weapons as the king of the kaiju stroke calmly towards it.

  The king of the kaiju’s wings unfolded in a blur to swing forward, forming a sort of shield in front of it. Rei’s eye beams flashed burning the wings, but to General Akio, it looked as if most of the energy of the beams were deflected away. As Rei’s beam attack ended, the king of the kaiju parted its still-smoking wings and dove at Rei.

  The robot made no attempt to dodge the great beast. Instead, Rei rose to meet the king of the kaiju as the monster came at him.

  “Dear God in heaven, no,” Karza rasped beside General Akio.

  He knew what she was thinking. He was thinking it, too. The robot’s computer brain must have analyzed the situation and deemed that it couldn’t win the battle it was engaged in. It didn’t take a hardened soldier like General Akio was to see that the robot was going for a suicide move. General Akio didn’t have a clue what kind of power system Rei operated on, but he prayed it wasn’t nuclear. A nuclear explosion on this level he feared would only finish what the kaiju had planned to do the city themselves not stop it. There was no time for General Akio or Karza to do anything
but keep watching and see how things played out.

  Rei didn’t explode, but the robot’s chest did open in its center. A blast of white-hot energy erupted from the opening in a beam that burnt a hole through the center of the king of the kaiju’s body. The king of the kaiju howled in shock and pain, taking hold of Rei’s head with its arms. They constricted about it with crushing strength. Rei’s head, or rather what was left of it, snapped loose from atop the robot’s shoulders. Sparks flew from the wreckage on the top of the robot’s neck as its body collapsed at the king of the kaiju’s feet.

  General Akio held his breath as he watched the king of the kaiju closely. The wound Rei had dealt the monster appeared to be a lethal one but one never knew for sure when it came to kaiju. Rather than merely wait for the king of the kaiju to fall, General Akio took action.

  “Scramble all our remaining fighters!” he yelled at Karza. “Let’s make sure that monster goes down and stays down.”

  “Yes, sir!” Karza barked.

  ****

  Something in Tokyo roared so loudly that both Nori and Mura dropped to their knees, hands clasped over their ears. The very stairs they had been climbing shook underneath them.

  Mura was shaking his head as if to clear it as Nori removed her hands from her ears.

  “What in the heck was that?” she asked.

  “What?” Mura yelled at her. “My ears are still ringing! I can’t hear anything.”

  Nori moved closer to him in the darkness of the stairwell, putting an arm around his shoulders to pull him to her.

  “I said, what the heck was that?”

  Mura heard her this time. “No idea,” he said. “Couldn’t be anything good, though.”

  Mura gently removed her arm from him. “We need to keep moving.”

  Nori nodded, knowing he could see her clearly through the night vision goggles he wore. Her eyes had adjusted to the darkness now, and she could at least make out the outline of things around her from the ambient light of the fires that came in through the windows at each platform between floors of the stairwell.