Kaiju Rift

by Ian Woodhead

  Callum ran up the next flight of steps and found both Custer and Malc staring out of a window. He joined them and felt his own guts roll over. One of the Goliaths was heading straight for them and down on the ground, near the overturned cars, was a column of foot-soldiers. Thirty heads were looking straight at them!

  Callum pushed past both of them. “It changes nothing.” He ran up the next two flights of steps and pushed open the door which led onto the floor where his wife and daughter lived. Callum knew exactly which door it was. He stopped outside a red painted door, checked the shotgun then pushed the door open.

  Across a thick-pile maroon carpet, he saw a single chair beside the window. Thick purple root-like tendrils hung down from the chair, trailed across the carpet, and vanished into the next room. There were two torsos attached to those roots. The heads turned simultaneously, gave him a lop-sided smile, and winked.

  “No, oh God. This can’t be fucking happening!” The gun fell out of Callum’s hand. It fell onto the carpet. One of the closer tendrils unwrapped itself from the main group and slithered towards the weapon.

  “No you don’t!” shouted Custer. He pushed passed Callum and fired at the single tendril. The reaction from the two human-like structures was instant and deadly. The stomach cavity of the creature which had taken on the rough appearance of Callum’s daughter cracked open. Skin and muscle folded back like petals and a tight knot of pale cream tendrils flew out of the hole, straight for Custer. Before he could react, they all fastened around his head and pulled the man closer to the pair of creatures. The other creature, the one who was supposed to look like Callum’s ex-wife, had already prepared for Custer’s arrival by peeling back its face to reveal three sets of serrated, hooked, bone-like implements.

  “Hello there, Callum McGuire. It’s so good of you to join us.”

  Another figure had appeared from out of the darkness. Callum tore his gaze away from the vile-looking monstrosities which were supposed to look like the only people he had ever truly loved and glared at the new arrival. It looked like a cross between a human and a foot-soldier, only much larger. The creature was easily seven feet high and built like an Olympic body-builder. It saw him go from the gun that he’d already dropped and chuckled.

  “I didn’t even have to disarm you. Thing is, Callum, as much as I’d so love to digest you and your annoying band of rebels, my other friend thinks that you can be of some use.” It lowered its head and moved out of the kitchen. “I’m one of the Goliaths by the way. Well, part of me, anyway. This body is just something I’ve thrown together in order to have a nice little chat with you. Do you like it?”

  “Fuck off.”

  It laughed again. “Oh my, you really do have an attitude! I like that, I really do. Now, this is what I am going to offer you.” He looked at Malc and grinned. “Not that you have much of a choice. Callum, I want you to join us, become part of The Cluster. If you do so without a struggle, then I will allow your friends to live, even the one who’s having so much difficulty in breathing. We’ll even allow all the meat which you stole from us to live. We do know where they are, by the way. They’ll die if you don’t accept this proposal. I ask you, Callum. Do you really want all their deaths on your conscience?”

  Callum reached into his inside pocket. He took out one more infuser and ran over to the thing holding Custer. He glared at the huge creature in the corner. “How about you eat this!” Callum smashed the glass against one of the creature’s bony plates. The liquid spread out from the source, sizzling and steaming as it ate into the soft flesh. He rubbed his hand into some of the liquid then ran over to the other creature and wiped his palm across its face. He spun around and saw Malc had already pulled the other man out of the room. Callum ran out, pausing to scoop up the shotgun. “What now?”

  Malc pointed up. “It sounds like an entire army is charging up those stairs. There’s no other route to take.”

  He nodded, grabbed Custer’s other arm, and helped him up the next flight of stairs. Callum reached the next landing first. He peered through the small rectangular door window and saw more of the things waiting for them. “We have to get to the roof.”

  They reached the top and pushed through the last door. Cold air buffeted Callum’s face. He and Malc pulled Custer away from the door then slammed it shut before bolting it.

  “Oh Jesus,” said Malc. “We really are in the shit now.”

  “So what else is new?” Callum walked over to the edge. Malc joined him. “We can’t say we didn’t try, Malc.”

  The older man sighed. “Do you think it does know the location of the others?”

  “Who’s to know.”

  “I’m sorry about before, Callum. About not believing you about the diffusers, I mean. You have to admit though, it did sound a little crazy.”

  Callum nodded. He heard the man’s words but didn’t quite take them in. Something else down in the middle of the town had diverted his attention. “Malc, I think I know how to kill them. Look at that over there, man.”

  “I’m sorry, what?”

  He pointed down at where the town’s old cinema used to stand. The cleared land now had a new structure. It looked just like a giant, organic sandwich box, full of some kind of red liquid. It didn’t take Callum long to realise just where all that stuff had come from, not when he saw over a dozen collectors accompanied by their armed escorts walking towards it.

  The other Goliath was stood over it. A thick tube extended from under its stomach and disappeared into the crimson fluid. “That must be how they feed, how they get their energy. Now, imagine what would happen if we just happened to empty a few infusers into that gunk, Malc? Those two massive fuckers wouldn’t stand a chance!”

  “Man, I don’t wish to piss on your parade here, but how the hell do we do that when we’re stuck up on this roof? Grow wings?”

  Callum ran back to Custer. He crouched beside the man. “How are you doing?”

  Custer did not look great at all. His skin had blistered badly from where those tendrils had grabbed him.

  “I’m not going to make it. There’s something inside me. I can feel it eating my body.” He groaned, turned onto his side, and coughed up a gobbet of jellied blood.

  “Look, just relax, Custer. We’re going to get out of this, all of us.” Callum looked up at Malc. “Look over there. There’s a fire exit on the other side of the roof.” He pulled Custer on to his feet. “Come on, man. Let’s get you back.”

  The man shook his head, pulled Callum’s arm off him, and sat back on the roof. “I’m not going anywhere. I’m done for. The stuff in me is spreading.” He grabbed the barrel of Callum’s gun, pulled it down, and pressed the end against his forehead. “This is what you have to do for me now, Callum. End me, please. I’m begging you.”

  “I can’t do that!”

  “Then let me,” said Custer. “I don’t want to turn into one of those things”

  Something banged against the other side of the door. Callum saw something pressed against the glass. He swallowed hard and tried to keep his wits about him at the sight of his daughter’s distorted face. Callum crouched beside the groaning man. He placed the gun in his arms then reached into his pocket, took out the last infuser, and placed the glass cylinder into the man’s hand. “Try to take some of them with you, Custer, and thank you.”

  Malc grabbed his arm and pulled him away just as the door flew open. Callum heard a single shotgun blast just as he reached the fire exit. He didn’t turn around.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  There could be no doubting it. There was a foot-soldier hiding behind that blue van. Harry pulled the fleshmelta into his shoulder and allowed the scope to attach itself to his eye. As always, that sense of utter revulsion coursed through his body as it suckered itself onto his skin. Harry fought back the urge to pull it away and focused on the task at hand. He moved the weapon a couple of degrees to the left until the vehicle’s window came into view.

  Sure enough, there it was; a si
ngle foot-soldier, cowering on the other side of the van. He could clearly see the top of its head. His finger tightened on the trigger then he paused. Something was not quite right with this scenario. It was acting like a skittering insect. Like it was nervous of something?

  He zoomed in and looked past the foot-soldier and focused on the shop window. Was there movement in there? Harry felt his companions shifting at either side. They were getting uncomfortable.

  “Something about this is not right,” he muttered.

  Both Callum and Gavin groaned.

  “It’s not like we can go anywhere else,” replied Callum. “We’ve checked all the other directions. This is the only way we can go. Look, maybe we’ll be okay?” He turned around and nodded over to a fried chicken shop. Their people were hiding in the basement, ready to be told they can move. Their destination was an old butchers shop on the next street. Dosser had explained that there’s an old metal door in the cellar of that abandoned building that will take them all the way across town. “I mean, they’ll only be exposed for a couple of minutes, max. I reckon it’s worth the risk.”

  Harry’s reply caught in his throat when he saw the shop door opening wide. Another creature was trying to push its bulk through the gap. Oh on, they have a bio-tank with them!

  “There’s one!” hissed Gavin. “At last, I’m going to get myself a foot-soldier.”

  Harry pulled the scope off his eye and dived to the left, pushing Gavin’s rifle into the wet mud. “Leave it,” he whispered. “It isn’t as it seems.” He picked the gun off the floor, wiped off most of the mud, and handed it back to the boy. “It’s a sacrificial pawn. Look at how it is moving. The foot-soldier does not want to be there. Not too surprising. Who would want to be pushed out into the open?”

  “I don’t get it.”

  “There’s a bio-tank tank behind that van,” he replied. “Shooting the foot-soldier would be the last thing you would ever do.” He watched the creature one in between the cars, getting more confident the longer it stayed alive. “Do you have that knife, Callum?” Seconds later, Callum’s blade appeared in the palm of his hand. Harry gently laid the fleshmelta on the ground.

  “Callum. Believe me, it isn’t worth the risk. If we don’t take out that creature, then we’ll all die. They can home in on large groups of people.”

  The man’s face drained of blood. “Oh hell. So that’s how they do it?”

  Harry nodded. “Indeed. Stay here. I won’t be long.” Harry scurried past the two men. He waited until the foot-soldier had its back to him before running across the road. Only the big van separated him from being broiled alive by the bio-tank. If the foot-soldier turned around, it was bound to raise the alarm. Harry lowered himself and slithered under the van, a moment before the foot-soldier did turn.

  This had to be the most insane thing he had ever done, but Harry knew that he had no other choice. The three of them were supposed to provide covering fire so the two groups could move from their current sanctuary, before they could continue with Callum’s plan. Trouble was, there were too little places inside the energy curtain left which could hold such a large amount of souls.

  Callum and Malc had recounted their encounter with the thing that claimed to represent one of the Goliaths. Harry believed every word, as he had heard rumour of similar encounters from his world. He also believed that the enemy knew where they were hiding, meaning they needed to disperse before they came for them.

  Dosser had taken one group into the sewers while Paul intended to guide the remaining survivors into the town’s school basement. They hoped to stay hidden until they either found some way to remove the energy curtain or wait until it dissipated in its own. At the time that the others were coming up with this fantastic plan, Harry was scouting the area with another two guards. If he had been there, Harry would have explained a few home truths about what the future held for them if they all insisted on staying in large groups.

  He crawled towards the left wheel, aware that the bio-tank was just inches away now. He stopped. More movement from the inside of the shop caught his attention. There were others in there! Harry’s guts knotted up. Oh no; he thought this beast in front of him was the only creature, apart from the other foot-soldier in this area. If he’d known about the presence of another bio-tank, Harry wouldn’t have pursued this course of action. He was getting careless. Harry crawled a bit further.

  The two who had taken charge, Dosser and Malc, would not listen to his arguments. He had told them over and over that the only way to survive was to split up the group into twos and threes. No more than four. There was no energy curtain back on his world, meaning the survivors were able to spread out, making it more difficult for them to be picked off. Staying in two large groups was just asking for trouble. Neither of them would listen. He tried to explain that back before he was born, during the invasion on his world, the people who lived were the ones who were quiet, who only took the minimum of food and stayed away from any old population centre.

  How could those two not understand this? Even groups of four were, in his opinion, too many. The people in this world did not know how to stay quiet, and they certainly had no concept of rationing food supplies. How could they? This land had not seen true war for decades. The people were fat, bloated, slow, and noisy.

  The familiars would trap and mine every single food source they could find. Every shop in this town would be a death trap. It would be difficult to keep just a couple of humans alive. Keeping two groups of thirty each would be next to impossible.

  Harry got himself ready. They also were unable to listen to sound advice. Strange how they were so willing to listen to Callum’s advice though. Everything hinged on the man’s fantastic plan of dumping all the strong-scented fluid into a giant vat which, according to Callum, helped to feed and maintain the Goliaths. Both Dosser and Malc stated that they only needed to keep the two groups separate and protected until Callum’s idea worked.

  It then dawned on Harry that the two old men knew exactly what they were doing. They knew that if they failed here, they were all dead anyway. The men were just buying time until Callum succeeded; either that or just delaying the inevitable

  He still needed to know what else was lurking around here. Another bio-tank would ruin everything. Harry needed to get closer to that shop window. It would only take… He froze. The bio-tank next to him was making some very weird noises. It sounded like it was trying to sniff the air. Harry silently moaned in terror when he realised that’s exactly what it was doing. Just as Callum and Custer were able to smell the presence of so many familiars, it stood to reason that the same should pay to them as well. Oh no! Even now, the huge armoured creature was backing up. It must know he was hiding under the vehicle! If he didn’t take it out right now, he was dead meat.

  The beast roared and charged the moment he rolled out the other side. He had to shift his body sideways to avoid the heavy creature from stomping him flat. Harry slashed out with his left arm, the blade leaving a shallow score along its thick skin.

  It was going to kill him if Harry didn’t do something drastic! He gripped the handle left in his arm and slammed it down, spearing its large foot. He pulled the wet, slimy blade out and slammed it up, in between its legs. The creature made a strange gulping sound before falling over backwards and crashing onto the pavement.

  Harry saw the shop front door starting to open. He still had no idea what was still in that shop. Not that it mattered to him if they caught him out in the open. Unbelievably, the bio-tank was now trying to get up. Considering how much he now hurt, if it did get up, Harry might as well slit his own throat.

  “Not going to happen!” he growled. Harry leapt onto the bio-tank’s heavily armoured chest and thrust the knife into the only soft part he could find, its eye. The creature let out one last sigh before it stopped moving. He pulled out the blade and rolled back under the van, listening to the other familiars approach the large corpse. Harry hoped that the shock of finding their heavy art
illery bleeding out of its eye might encourage them to run back inside that shop.

  Harry got to the other side. The foot-soldier was nowhere to be seen. It must have run off before it did get shot. That helped him to breathe a little easier. He ran across the road and scurried back around the column of cars to discover the other two had deserted him. They had even taken his fleshmelta.

  “Did you kill him?”

  Harry around for his lost weapon, remembering it wasn’t there then threw himself into the mud. It took him a moment to realise that the voice had come from inside one of those vehicles and another moment to realise that nobody was shooting at him. He lifted his head and saw the foot-soldier looking down at him and pointing his own fleshmelta at Harry’s face.

  “You killed him with your knife too. That’s impressive and potentially devastating to morale if the word ever got out.”

  The creature laughed. It sounded so human. Harry had never even conceived that the enemy’s most numerous of familiars possessed intelligence equal to his own. He certainly never thought that he would hear one speak. This new information unsettled him. It just went to show how much about them he didn’t know. “Are you going to kill me?”

  It gave him what Harry believed to be a wink before continuing.

  “This fleshmelta has been well looked after and from your look of panic, I can only assume that you’re its adoptive owner?” It laughed again. “The non-standard weapon harness on your back reinforces my assumption.” The foot-soldier pushed open the car door with its door and leaned closer. “You are not from this world. Imagine that, a free-mind human travelling between worlds. That too could be devastating to the troops’ morale. You’re supposed to be just livestock. Animals with no real feelings. Imagine our surprise when we entered this new world and discovered how much progress you dumb animals have made in just one hundred years.”

  Harry rolled onto his back. He sat up and turned back to face this rather talkative foot-soldier. “If you are not going to turn me into meat soup, could I please have my gun back.”