Not daring to risk another look into the rearview mirror, Wally kept his focus on the road. After a few minutes ticked by, he finally caved in and asked, “Did we lose them?”
“Yeah,” Martin told him. “The Kaiju Spawn are fast but not fast enough to keep up with the rate you're driving.”
Wally stole a glance at the speedometer. He was pushing eighty and still accelerating. He didn't see the curve coming up until it was too late. The truck jumped the side of the road and plowed into an embankment. The last thing he heard was the sound of the hood of the truck folding up in front of him.
****
Wally came awake with a start as if someone had plunged a needle full of adrenaline into his heart. His head jerked from side to side as he took in his surroundings. His seatbelt had saved his life. Of that, he was sure. Martin was sprawled out in the passenger seat next time him.
The corporal was unconscious, her forehead smeared with blood from where it had struck the forward windshield. The windshield was cracked and dented outward but the thick glass had held together. He couldn't tell if she was still alive or not.
Panic filled him as he remembered the Kaiju Spawn that had been chasing them. He clawed at his seatbelt's release until it popped loose. His Colt M1911 had been thrown into the floorboard at his feet from the impact of the crash. Grabbing it up, he flung his door open and staggered out of the truck. It didn't take a mechanic to see that the vehicle was totaled.
The road stretching to the horizon was clear and there was no sign of the Kaiju Spawn moving about in the woods either. Pain rippled through his chest. Wally lifted up his shirt to see the huge bruise that had formed there from where he had been flung into the steering wheel despite his seatbelt. Again, he counted his blessings. Things could have been a lot worse.
He heard Martin groan as she stirred inside the truck. Her door came open and she flopped out onto the grass of the embankment. Wally rushed to kneel beside her.
“You okay?” He asked.
Martin stared up at him with eyes racked by agony. She tried to get up and failed, twisting her body sideways to vomit up the contents of her guts.
"Not doing so good," she gasped.
"We can't stay here," Wally stated the obvious. They were all right for the moment but that could change at any moment.
"I know," Martin said, wiping her mouth with her sleeve. "You're impatient to see your daughter."
"It's not that so much," Wally said, even though, deep down, that was all that mattered to him. "Can you walk? If I help you?"
"Let's find out," Martin said, gamely smiling despite her torment.
His arm wrapped firmly, Wally started off. It surprised him, how light she was. Then again, now that he gave her a closer look, she was on the skinny side. She couldn't weigh more than a hundred and ten pounds, if that. Her loose-fitting uniform had given the impression she was heftier.
"We need another vehicle," Martin mentioned.
Wally grunted. They were going around the curve, and up ahead was a remarkable sight.
The tail end of a tractor-trailer jutted at the sky. It looked for all the world as if the cab and the front half of the trailer had been smashed grill-first into the ground and been partially buried.
As they drew nearer, Wally saw that wasn't the case. The roadway seemed to end at a jagged edge. From below and beyond came strange slithery sounds unlike any he'd ever heard.
"What in the world?" Corporal Martin blurted.
"Beats me," Wally said.
"Was there an earthquake?" Martin said.
That wasn't it at all, as they soon discovered. The big rig had plunged into a giant print left when the Kaiju, which must have weighed upward of fifty tons, had caused the roadway to buckle. Like a sink hole, the ground had given way to a depth of forty or fifty feet. The trucker had slammed on his brakes---skid marks clearly showed where the rig had swerved like crazy---but been unable to stop and gone over the edge.
"Dear God," Martin said.
"We have to go around," Wally said, and turned to do so. But no sooner did he take a couple of steps than the strange sounds issued out of the hole again. Craning his neck, Wally peered down, and wished he hadn't. His skin crawled in sheer horror.
In the dark shadow at the bottom of the footprint, something moved. Something huge, and partially pinned by the tractor trailer. Black hide with sheen like patent leather, rippled obscenely as the thing struggled to free itself. No arms or legs were visible. No head, either.
Wally couldn't make sense of it. The part he could see resembled nothing so much as a thick tube, about six-feet around. Then the near end rose into the air and opened to reveal a maw rimmed by inward-curving saber-like teeth. There were no eyes, no nose, nothing but the mouth. It hissed, and he stopped cold in consternation.
"What in heaven's name……?" Corporal Martin said in amazement.
A tiny part of Wally's mind screamed at him to shoot but he stood mesmerized as the creature reared even higher and poised as if about to strike.
"Let go of me," Martin said, fumbling to unlimber her M16.
Wally complied. He wanted both hands free to steady the Colt anyway. As he adopted a combat stand and took deliberate aim, he remembered his last sight of the gigantic Kaiju as it stomped away from the shopping center. Remembered several long black ridges low down on the Kaiju's enormous legs. He hadn't given them any thought at the time. He was too astounded by the monster itself. But now that he did, he realized the black things hadn't been part of the Kaiju. They were whatever this thing was.
"Shoot!" Martin bawled.
Wally fired twice, the Colt bucking and booming. He saw the slugs strike. He even heard the fleshy thwack-thwack of the impacts. But the shots appeared to have no more effect than if he had used a pea-shooter.
The creature struck.
In pure reflex, Wally dived to one side. He smelled a vile odor and looked up to find the aberration's mouth spread wide above him. He tensed, thinking his time had come.
Corporal Martin cut loose. She staggered in close, and with the M16 on full auto, stitched the thing from right to left and back again.
Recoiling, the thing collapsed in on itself, like one of those toys made of springs that Leigh played with a lot when she was younger.
"Run!" Martin urged, and tried to take her own advice but she only managed a few steps when she stumbled and would have fallen if Wally hadn't gotten to her and wrapped his arm around her waist. Blood was trickling from her mouth and she gasped as he hustled her away from the hole.
Afraid the thing would rear up again, Wally kept his head turned until they'd gone far enough that he felt safe. Slowing, he remarked, "That's twice you've saved my life."
"Who's counting?" Martin said, and succumbed to a fit of coughing that went on and on.
"That's doesn't sound good," Wally said when she subsided.
"Leech," Martin said.
"Say what?" Wally replied, not sure if he had heard correctly.
"That thing back there. I've had one stuck on me before, the time our unit was doing maneuvers in a swamp. It got on my leg and was sucking my blood. Except for all those teeth, or whatever they were, that's what that thing was. It must have been on the Kaiju and fell off."
"Just our luck," Wally said. He scanned the road ahead for movement but there were only smashed and broken vehicles and more than a few bodies.
"Listen," Martin said.
Wally had already heard the distant thoom of the Kaiju's ponderous tread. "It's not moving very fast. If we can find another car or truck, we can circle ahead and reach my daughter in plenty of time."
"I love an optimist," Martin said, only partially sarcastically.
In a quarter of a mile they came on another pickup. It had gone down a short embankment into a ditch, and Wally would have passed it by, thinking it must be too damaged to be of any use, when he spied part of a bare leg and a shoe sticking out the open driver's door---and the leg moved. "Someone is alive in there.
"
Martin had recovered enough from the accident that she was able to walk with only the slightest assistance. Quite obviously, though, she was still in a lot of pain. Wiping at her mouth with her sleeve, she said, "Let's check it out."
The leg was scrawny and laced with varicose veins. The shoe had been in vogue decades ago. The same with the dress the driver had on. So it was no surprise to Wally to discover that the woman must be in her sixties, if not older. He released Martin, who leaned against the pickup, while he slid an arm under the old woman and eased her into an upright position. She gave a start and her eyes snapped open, twin mirrors of pure fear.
"What? Who? That thing! That horrible monstrosity!"
"You're all right, lady," Wally said. "Looks as if you hit your forehead on the steering wheel."
"I did?" the old woman said, and gingerly touched a welt on her brow. "Oh. Now I remember. That monster came up behind me. I was so stunned, I let up on the gas. And when I saw it might step on me, I ran off the highway to avoid it."
"You did good," Wally said. The pickup appeared to be intact. Best of all, the keys were in the ignition. "This is Corporal Martin," he said by way of introduction. Then, "And we'd like to borrow your truck, if you don't mind."
"I beg your pardon?”
"He has a little girl he needs to save," Martin said. “And he has to get there fast." She frowned. "But he'll be doing it without me."
"I will?" Wally said.
"I'm hurting," Corporal Martin said. "I think I'm busted up inside. It's best if you and this lady go on without me. I'd only slow you down."
"Hold on," the older woman said, and pointed at a hill a few hundred feet away. "I live just on the other side, there. We can walk it, if you're up to it, dearie, and I can tend you. That way your friend can borrow my truck and go on, quick."
"You'd let me?" Wally said. He wasn't sure he had it in him to lend his own car to a complete stranger.
"Why not? You have a little girl, she said," the old woman replied. "Help me out and you can back up and be on your way."
Wally didn't argue. Leigh came before all else. It was only as he was speeding off that he glanced in the rear-view mirror and saw Corporal Martin and the old woman smile and wave that he realized he hadn't gotten her name. No matter. Once Leigh was safe, he'd make it a point to return the pickup.
Provided he lived that long.
****
Getting the pickup out of the ditch hadn’t been an issue. The truck was four wheel drive and a pretty powerful vehicle. The damage done to it when the old lady had driven it off the road appeared to be mostly cosmetic. Wally was glad the old lady had just given it to him on faith. If she hadn’t, Wally didn’t want to think about what he might have done to get it. The old world’s way of doing things died more and more each day. Civilization, if not already dead, was hanging on by a thread. One could make an argument that in parts of the country, the United States was a good bit of the way back to the law of the gun even before the Kaiju rose up from their slumber. Now . . . It was like the Old West all over again. If you had the power, you took what you needed to keep you and those you loved alive. At least that was the closest thing he could equate the current state of America with.
Wally hoped the Corporal and the old lady would survive until he found Leigh and returned but in truth, he didn’t really have the time to think about them anymore. Either they would or they wouldn’t and there was nothing he could do about it.
The road ahead of him wasn’t nearly as congested with wrecked and abandoned cars as the interstate had been. Still, he kept his attention glued to the road. Wally had learned the hard way just how fast things could change. His foot was heavy on the gas pedal as he rounded a turn a little too fast and had to fight with the steering wheel to keep the pickup from going out of control. Cursing himself for being careless, Wally let out an audible sigh of relief as the road straightened out again. Exhaustion and stress were catching up with him now that there was no immediate danger in sight. He hadn’t seen any Kaiju Spawn since the encounter he and the good corporal had with the Kaiju leech. That thing had creeped the heck out of him. There sure hadn’t been any reports of things like it existing before all the radio stations and such had gone off the air.
His M1911 sat on the seat next to him within easy reach. He knew there were only a few rounds left in its magazine. Having the Corporal’s M-16 to go with it would have made him feel a lot better but he hadn’t dared ask Martin for it. As beat up as she was, her and the old lady were going to need everything they had just to hold on if a pack of Kaiju Spawn sniffed out wherever the two of them ended up digging in. He could imagine the monsters finding the two of them at the old lady’s house. Kaiju Spawn claws rending wood as they tore through the front door and dozens of the creatures came pouring inside. Wally shuddered and stole a glance up at the sky. He had lost track of how long he had been driving but he knew he had put a good distance between himself and where he had left the two women. If he got into trouble again, the corporal wouldn’t be around to save him this time.
Night was falling. The sun was sinking from the sky and the shadows were growing deeper in the woods lining the road. Soon, Wally would either need to turn on the pickup’s headlights or abandon the truck to continue towards Sylva on foot. If he gave up the truck, it would slow him down greatly. Wally wasn’t sure he was willing to risk turning on the lights. They would draw any Kaiju Spawn in the area to him like flies to a rotting corpse. Driving without them was just as great a risk. Sure, the road was clearer here but that wasn’t the same as entirely clear. His night vision wasn’t very good, never had been. The last thing he needed was to plow into one of the scattered cars he was still passing from time to time or misjudge a turn in the darkness.
Wally slowed the pickup as he noticed there was some kind of roadblock up ahead. It looked military in nature. There were two large lights set up on either side of a large transport truck that had been turned sideways in the roadway. He could see what appeared to be a machine gun emplacement in the truck’s bed. The military setting up a roadblock here, on the outskirts of Sylva, made sense. What didn’t make sense was the lack of personnel at it. There were no soldiers to order him to stop and no gunner behind the machine gun. Wally stopped anyhow. Driving around the roadblock wasn’t an option due to the woods surrounding the road. The pickup he drove would never fit through the small space left open between the ends of the truck and the trees. Wally came to a stop and killed the pickup’s engine. He sat staring at the roadblock, wondering what to do. No matter how much he didn’t want to, he was going to have to get out of the pickup.
Reaching over, Wally grabbed his pistol, took a breath to steel himself and swung open the pickup’s door. With his M1911 held ready, he cautiously advanced on the roadblock. There was still no sign of anyone nearby. As he continued to creep forward, the smell hit him. It nearly made him gag. He raised his free hand to cover his mouth and nose. The place stunk of offal, blood, and decay. There was something else in the smell too, something that reminded him of a fish market or a stagnant body of water.
Wally froze as he saw movement in the bed of the parked transport. A blood smeared, reptilian face rose up over the side of the truck’s bed, its yellow eyes locking onto him. Wally felt his bladder let loose as a warm trickle of urine soaked the center of his pants between his legs and ran down the lengths of his legs. He jerked up his pistol, taking aim at the snarling face of the monster. It jumped erect in the bed of the truck as Wally squeezed the M1911’s trigger. The shot sparked off the edge of the truck bed as the Kaiju Spawn gave an inhuman roar of anger and leaped towards him. The creature landed only a few feet from where he stood. Wally barely had time to readjust his aim and get off a second shot before it came charging into him. The round from the M1911 blew a chunk of meat from the once human thing’s shoulder. It was howling in pain as it struck him. Wally felt the Kaiju Spawn’s claws rake across his chest in the instant before they hit the asphalt of t
he road with the creature on top of him. Only dumb luck saved his life. The barrel of the M1911 was angled into the Kaiju Spawn’s temple when the impact jarred him just enough to cause him to involuntarily squeeze its trigger again. The shot ripped through the side of the Kaiju Spawn’s skull and exited its other side in an explosion of flying brain matter and bone fragments. The Kaiju Spawn’s heavy form went limp over him. With a grunt, he heaved its corpse upwards enough to roll it off of him.
If there had been more of the creatures, he would have been dead. Apparently, it had been alone though because in the wake of the gunshot, the falling night was quiet once more except for the panting noise of his panicked breaths.
Wally lay there in a puddle of his own urine, covered in splattered Kaiju Spawn blood, for a solid two minutes before he found the strength and nerve to move again. He realized with a start that he had no idea if the Kaiju Spawn blood was as infectious as that of a real Kaiju’s or not. His heart pounding inside him, he raced the rest of the way to the transport truck, desperately searching for something to wash himself off with. He pulled himself up to peer into the bed of the truck and wished he hadn’t. What he saw put him onto his knees, throwing up what was left of the contents of his stomach. Inside the truck bed were piles of detached human limbs and the shredded, gnawed upon, torsos of the soldiers who must have been assigned to hold the road.
When his body finally stopped shaking from the dry heaves tearing through it, Wally wriggled out of his shirt, turning it inside out and used it as best he could to wipe away the Kaiju Spawn blood on his skin. None of the blood had gotten into his eyes or mouth thanks to the angle of the shot that had sent the Kaiju Spawn to Hell where it belonged. At least not so far as he could tell. He still felt like a human being. That was a good sign. Wally figured if he made it through the next few minutes, he was okay. He didn’t know a lot about the transformation into Kaiju Spawn but he did know it was supposed to happen very quickly.
Kaiju Spawn Page 2