****
The Apache fell from the sky like the hammer of an angry god. Specialist Jerome Klein threw himself flat to avoid the shrapnel sent flying from its impact. He had been a part of the hurriedly withdrawing line of infantry that failed to stop the onrush of the lesser Kaiju. His M-16 had nearly been jarred from his grasp as he struck the sand and then rolled to his feet. He came up not six feet from a monster. The Kaiju roared its fury at him and bounded towards him. Klein leveled his M-16 at the creature and popped a series of three round bursts that gutted the thing. He didn’t stick around to make sure he’d finished it. He whirled about and continued his headlong rush towards the already partially overrun section of the beach the remainder of his unit was running for.
Klein noticed a Kaiju ahead of him. The things were much faster than a man on foot was, when they put their minds to it. The creature was busy chasing another soldier and catching up to her quickly. In an attempt to save her and clear his own path, Klein took a wild shot at its backside, hoping he didn’t hit the female soldier in the process. The Kaiju cried out as the rifle’s round dug holes in the flesh of its back along the length of its spine. Klein gave a cry himself as the creature came to a stop and spun around to face him. He was moving too fast to stop himself and he had already lowered his weapon. There was no time to bring it back up. Colliding with the creature was like smashing into a brick wall. He bounced off it and landed hard on his butt in front of the Kaiju. Jerking his head to the side, he narrowly dodged a blow that would have likely taken his head from his shoulders in a spray of blood had it made contact. The Kaiju hissed and took another swing at him. This time, Klein was able to bring up his rifle. He used it to block the blow. The rifle snapped in half in his hands but it did its job in deflecting the Kaiju’s claws.
Klein’s sidearm cleared its holster as the Kaiju readied itself for a third swing at him. He emptied half the pistol’s mag, point blank into the thing’s nose and cheeks, caving in its face. Rolling out of the path of the Kaiju’s falling body, he picked himself up and kept running.
His legs pumped under him as sweat glistened on his skin. Several drops of the Kaiju’s blood had landed on the barrel of his pistol. The metal of the pistol smoked from where the Kaiju blood burnt into it. He flung the weapon aside not wanting to risk getting any of the acid like stuff on his skin.
Before he even realized it, he had caught up to the rest of the fleeing troops and joined their number. Nobody was so stupid as to try to stand and fight at this point. The best any of them could do was to try to escape and regroup to fight again another day.
****
General McCurry slammed his fist into the rear part of the .50 caliber gun emplacement atop the APC. Things had gone to hell and there was no hope rallying his forces any time soon, much less winning this battle. Though it pained him greatly, he had given the general retreat order only moments before. The best preliminary estimates he was given put the battle group’s losses at over fifty percent. The beach, minus the continuing stream of monsters pouring onto the sand, looked something akin to what Normandy must have looked like on D-day on a much larger scale. Clouds of black smoke drifted skyward from the wreckage of still burning tanks and APCs. His plan hadn’t included a properly detailed escape strategy should things go south. This battle had been do or die from its initial planning stages and McCurry along with his troops were paying the price for that.
Many of the surviving tanks closer to the ocean had no clear escape route up the beach. They were being overrun by the incoming tide of Kaiju and they were torn apart even as they tried to retreat. The two new Mother Kaiju were moving up the beach through the remains of McCurry’s force, which only added to the chaos. One of the Mother Kaiju was badly wounded. It dragged one of its legs along as it lumbered forward. Wounds leaking orange blood covered most of its body, but the thing refused to fall. The other Mother Kaiju was in far better shape though it too had suffered numerous wounds during the engagement. McCurry watched as the monster picked up a tank effortlessly, and hurled it into a group of infantrymen running for their lives.
He thumped on the APC’s roof. “Get us moving!”
Though he never heard the driver reply, the driver must have heard him. The APC backed up and turned itself around before its heavy wheels sent sand spraying into the air before they found traction. Then the APC rolled forward, building speed as it went.
McCurry knew his own personal evac copter was inbound. With the battle lost, he would be needed back in Washington. As the APC sped away from the beach, McCurry took one final look at the devastation the Kaiju had wrought.
****
Several hours later, exhausted and disheartened, McCurry stepped off his copter onto the White House lawn. A cluster of security personnel were waiting for him. They hurriedly rushed him inside to where the President and other members of the hastily assembled Kaiju task force leaders were.
One of the security officers handed McCurry a bottled water on his way to the war room. McCurry twisted its top open, downing half the bottle in one long chug. Not caring how he looked having just came from a battle, he poured the remainder of the bottle over his head. The cold helped him to gather his thoughts and regain his focus.
President Stewman sat at the head of a long table. The other admirals and generals who were available at the current time lined its sides as McCurry entered and took his seat at the end opposite the president.
“General McCurry,” the president nodded at him in greeting.
“Sir,” McCurry acknowledged as he slumped into his chair.
“It appears you were correct that the Kaiju would make their push inland via the Atlantic Coast. Am I to understand that efforts to stop them there failed?”
“Unfortunately so, Mr. President,” McCurry answered.
Admiral Fiore spoke up. “Failed might be an understatement.”
McCurry nodded in agreement. “It was an outright disaster. The only good thing to come of it was that we managed to eliminate one of the Mother Kaiju and wound another so severely, I doubt it will survive for very long.”
McCurry had expected to see some sign of relief in the expressions of the other officers present, but there was none to be found.
“What?” McCurry asked. “Am I missing something?”
“He doesn’t know?” the President asked.
“Know what?” McCurry scanned the room, searching the faces of those present for some clue of what he was missing.
“The number of known Mother Kaiju has increased significantly while you were away, General McCurry,” the President frowned.
“And things get worse from there,” Fiore added.
“America is now the only country, as far as our intel can discern, that remains capable of fielding any kind of significant resistant to the Kaiju.” The President called up the holographic representation of a globe in the center of the table. “Most of our places are completely overrun, their military forces in shambles.”
“As a last ditch effort, China resorted to tactical nukes on their own soil. Just as Dr. Johnson predicted, the fallout has had no noticeable effect on the Kaiju and the strikes themselves, like everything else that’s been tried, did nothing more than force the surviving lesser Kaiju to fall back and regroup,” Admiral Fiore wrung his hands where they rested on the table top before continuing. “We will not be making the same mistake here. The price is too high to pay for so little gained from such strikes.”
“So where does that leave us?” McCurry couldn’t help but ask, though technically it was his job to have that answer.
The President merely stared at McCurry.
Fiore shrugged. “We still have the forces that were deployed along the Pacific front but pulling all of them away to deal with the Kaiju incursion from the Atlantic side may prove a bad idea.”
McCurry didn’t even have to think about that one. “Agreed,” he said quickly. “What’s the current status of the Kaiju who broke through my lines?”
“The severely wounded Mother Kaiju you mentioned has stopped moving and appears to be dying not far outside the area that your forces engaged it. Two more Mother Kaiju have joined with the other survivor that is still on the move. The three of them are pushing westward at a staggering pace, destroying everything in their path. Much of North Carolina is nothing but ruins and burning rubble.”
“The refugee camps!” McCurry exclaimed. “They’ll be straight in the path of those monsters.”
“We know,” the President said. “We’re doing everything we can to evacuate those poor souls even further inland. However, most of the National Guardsmen initially assigned to that task have been pulled away from it in an effort to engage and slow the Mother Kaiju down.”
“With respect, Mr. President, buying time and retreating isn’t going to save us forever,” McCurry’s voice was cold and hard. “Eventually, we will run out of places to run.”
“The survivors of your battle group are rallying in three different locations as we speak,” Fiore told him, reshaping the holographic globe into a more close up representation of the East Coast. “Here, here, here.” Fiore pointed to the far western portion of North Carolina, northwestern South Carolina, and West Virginia. “We need you in the field again to take command of those groups. If you can eliminate the three Mother Kaiju in North Carolina, perhaps we can drive the lesser ones back towards the ocean and set up a new defensive line somewhere not far from the coast.”
McCurry rubbed at his cheeks with the fingers of his right hand stretched across the sides of his face as he thought it over. “What makes you think a second defensive line will fare any better than our first effort to stop them?”
“No one said it would general,” the President shook his head, “But at this time, trying again appears to be the only option available to us. In the meantime, the air force will do what they can to make your job easier. With any luck, by the time you return to North Carolina, they will have already downed another of the Mother Kaiju.”
****
Captain Marcus Clifton was in command of the wing of F-16s that flew towards the town of Sylva. Two Mother Kaiju awaited them there. The things were moving westward as fast as their giant legs would carry them but their rate of travel was slowed by the fact that the great beasts tended to stop every so often to fully unleash their rage on the stores, homes, and buildings that lined their path.
His wing men, Burton and Higgs, were survivors of the first main battle with the Kaiju too. All three of them had faced the giant monsters before at on the beaches of North Carolina. Marcus was ready as the Mother Kaiju came into view ahead of them. The two Mother Kaiju had pulled ahead of the third one that was following them. The reports claimed that the last Mother Kaiju was wounded and simply couldn’t keep up with these two. Marcus was intent on making these Mothers bleed just as badly.
“We got visual, sir,” Burton said over the radio, stating the obvious.
One of the two Mother Kaiju was utterly reptilian in nature. The thing looked like a T-Rex on steroids with long, human like arms that dangled at its sides as it moved. The other was unlike anything Marcus had ever seen. It had a head shaped like a ram’s right down the curled horns on the sides of its skull. The thing didn’t have arms so much as it had clusters of writhing tentacles that jutted out of its shoulders where its arms should have been.
Marcus powered up his F-16’s weapon systems and instantly got a lock on the lizard Kaiju with his missiles. One would think that with the Mother Kaiju being so large, it would next to impossible to miss them anyway. He knew from experience that wasn’t the case. The creatures were far more agile than they appeared. He had seen Mother Kaiju like them dodge incoming missiles like a lucky infantrymen might manage to get out of the way of an incoming bullet.
“Hold your fire until we get closer,” Marcus ordered.
“Ah, come on, boss man,” Higgs challenged him. “Have a little faith in modern technology.”
“Yeah,” Burton spoke up sarcastically, “because it’s done wonders in winning us this war so far!”
“Can it!” Marcus barked at them. “Pick your targets and engage on my mark!”
The trio of F-16s came zooming in, dropping in altitude to engage the Mother Kaiju better, as Marcus took a breath and got ready for the crap to hit the fan.
“Fire!” he shouted.
Missiles flew like spears, howling through the air to strike the two Mother Kaiju. Both Marcus and Higgs had targeted the lizard one. Their missiles made contact with its chest and shoulders. Bright explosions of orangish flames blossomed against the creature’s scaly flesh. One of the explosions sent a chunk of the thing’s right shoulder spiraling away from its body.
Burton had elected to go after the ram-like Mother Kaiju. His missiles never made contact with its body though. The thing’s masses of tentacles rose up, slapping the missiles out of the air like whips. Some of its tentacles were damaged in the process, but they appeared to be healing themselves at an impossible rate.
“Break formation!” Marcus yelled as the three F-16’s run carried them too close to the Mother Kaiju for his liking.
The ram Mother Kaiju sprung forward, its tentacles lashing out and upwards once more. They grabbed hold of Burton’s plane and jerked it apart into numerous pieces of flaming debris that spun away from where the plane’s body had been in various directions.
Burton’s screams began and died in less than two seconds.
“Coyote 2 is down!” Higgs was shouting but Marcus didn’t have time to think about what had happened to Burton. He had his own problems. As he and Higgs had flown past the lizard Mother Kaiju, the giant monster had clipped his F-16’s left wing with its claws. Dark smoke was pouring out of the wing and alarms were going off all over his console. It was taking everything he had just to keep his F-16 flying in a straight line and not going spiraling out of control to the ground below.
“Disengage! Disengage!” Marcus was screaming but Higgs appeared to be ignoring him. He looked over his shoulder to see Higgs through his canopy, falling behind him and going into a turn.
Higgs brought his F-16 around and came in at the Mother Kaiju for a second run.
Marcus was cursing like a sailor at Higgs’ stupidity, but there was nothing else he could do. He had to get out of there and could only pray he found a place to set down before his own F-16 either exploded or fell apart from the damage the Mother Kaiju had inflicted on it. He figured that if he made it back to base alive, the least he could do was put Higgs in for a commendation for bravery despite the man’s blatant disregard of command structure, because deep down, he knew Higgs wouldn’t be coming home with him.
****
Mark and his son Danny had moved from living in the tent that the National Guardsmen had issued them upon their arrival at the camp to staying inside Scott’s RV with him. The atmosphere of fear had continued to grow in the camp with each passing day. In the beginning, the folks cooped up inside its perimeter offered at least a strained degree of politeness to one another, but no more. It had become every person, every family, for themselves. Mark thanked God that he and Danny had met Scott on their very first day there. Scott was a good two decades older than he was and a veteran to boot. Scott was accustomed to making it through rough times. In some ways, he even seemed to thrive on them from what Mark had seen of him. They brought out the best in the grizzled old veteran.
Twice, other residents of the camp had tried to break into Scott’s RV. Whether they hoped that Scott had gas in its tank or were just after food, Mark didn’t care. He had helped Scott keep them away from what rightly belonged to the old vet. Each time the two of them had reported the incidents to the camp’s guards, but the National Guardsmen could not do much more than apologize and tell them they were doing their best to keep order. Mark understood that the Guardsmen had become outnumbered hundreds to one as the camp’s population had continued to grow. If anything, the number of Guardsmen overseeing the camp had declined as they
were pulled away to join the fight against the Kaiju. Still, understanding and forgiving were two very separate things.
Danny was taking the whole thing in stride. To his young mind, the nightmare that they were living was nothing more than a great adventure. When it was over, they would be able to go home. Mark knew better. They would never see home again regardless of what happened. Their home was likely nothing more than a torn apart shell. The Kaiju pressing further and further inland would have seen to that. Danny’s positive attitude played a large role in keeping Mark going. And Scott did everything he could to make sure the two of them had enough to eat and a safe place to sleep.
Food and water were becoming an issue in the camp. Mark didn’t know if the camp’s initial supply was merely running out or if the supply lines that kept the camp cared for had been broken by the inward press of the Kaiju.
Mark could tell more and more people were thinking of fleeing the camp but few did. He, himself, had considered doing so shortly after he and Danny arrived but hadn’t. The way he saw things, there was simply nowhere to run.
There were those in the camp who had brought generators with them. The few who still had fuel left that hadn’t been used up or stolen from them gleaned what news they could from their radios and satellite TVs. Scott had neither, so Mark had to keep his nose to the ground to find out what he could from others. Most stations, he heard, were nothing more than dead air or emergency broadcast system logos now. The few that remained on the air did so at sporadic instances and talked more about the nature of the Kaiju invaders than how the war against them was going. Mark took that as a very bad sign.
The camp’s rumor mill claimed that the Army had made a great stand against the Kaiju on the coast of North Carolina and was crushed there. Mark was inclined to believe it with the continuing decline of things inside the camp. Regardless, he told himself, today is a new day. Maybe things will get better.
Dawn of the Kaiju Page 3