by Russ Watts
Alyce folded her arms. “He’ll come back. If he’s scared, he’ll come find me. Can we go look for him? If he’s outside, he might get lost. Actually, yes, let’s go look for him.”
Mackenzie watched as Alyce picked up her bag and began putting her things inside. Maria was busy shoving bottles of water into a backpack. The store wasn’t built to withstand this sort of damage and would undoubtedly collapse soon. A huge crack ran through the western wall, and the floor was rippled as if huge snakes had crawled underneath it.
“Mac, where’s James?”
Mackenzie looked at Vic. The mere mention of James’ name brought a surge of anger to Mackenzie, but he had to accept that Vic liked James, maybe even loved him, and whilst the two were together, Vic hadn’t been the one to lose it. “I’m sorry, Vic. There was nothing we could do.” It was the best he could do. The truth wasn’t going to help anyone. James was gone, and no amount of bitching about him now, and what he’d done, was going to bring him back from the dead.
“Oh, right.” Vic looked crestfallen, and he put a hand over his mouth.
“I’m sorry, Vic,” said Laurel. “We’re going to—”
“Time to go,” said Maria. “Right now.” She shoved her car keys into Mackenzie’s hand. “Once we get out there, we need to hurry. My hands are shaking so Goddamn much I’m not in the best position to drive right now.”
“Where do we go?” asked Mackenzie.
“Anywhere that’s not here,” replied Maria.
“You really think we can make it?” asked Laurel. “I thought we’d decided it was too risky to go out there. You said yourself it’s right there, waiting for us. Can we outrun it in your car, Maria?”
Maria looked at her and Mackenzie. She opened her mouth to speak, and then closed it again. What could she say? She didn’t want to spell it out, but they were out of options. Stay and wait for the store to collapse in on them, or go outside and take their chances with the Goliath. At least out in the open there was a chance, however slim. Waiting inside was just waiting for death.
“Myles? Are you coming, dear?”
As one, they all turned toward the hatch. Michele had been so quiet since her husband was taken they had all but forgotten her. She was standing directly beneath the rooftop hatch, peering up at the opening.
“Michele? Come away from there.” Maria handed the backpack full of water to Laurel. “Michele, we’re leaving.”
“Mom?” Alyce began marching over to her mother. “We’re going to look for Beers. He needs our help. He’s lost. Mom?”
Michele looked blankly at Alyce and then stared up at the hatch. She cupped her hands around her mouth and began calling out. “Myles? Myles, get down here now. Your daughter needs you.”
“Michele, stop it. He’s gone. Attend to your daughter,” said Maria firmly. “Alyce is…”
With lightning speed, the Goliath plunged its jaws down through the roof, smashing through the hatch and snatching up Michele. As the roof tiles and broken solar panels began to cave in, Mackenzie saw Michele lifted up into the air, her head trapped in the monster’s teeth. Her arms and hands pummelled the monster and her legs kicked wildly, but there was little she could do. It had her.
The Goliath shook Michele about like a toy doll, all the while smashing its huge head through the roof sending the building into freefall. With daylight now poking through more and more holes in the roof, and the Goliath threatening to tear the whole place down around them, Mackenzie knew it was time to go. Michele had stopped struggling, and the Goliath was pulling her up through the hole it had made in the roof. Seconds later, a shower of warm blood rained down on the place where Michele had been.
“Go, go, go!” shouted Mackenzie. Grabbing Alyce’s hand, he charged from the back room, urging Laurel on ahead of him. From the desperate screams behind him, he knew Maria and Vic were following. He had no idea how they were going to get out. The front of the store had caved in, and the rear of the store had a giant dinosaur straddling it. The walls were heaving and rolling, and the ceiling above him was falling in. He would climb over every brick if he had to. If it cost him his last breath, he would get Alyce out of there. She was crying, begging him to go get her Mommy, but he pulled her with him, dragging her across the buckling floor.
Laurel suddenly began climbing over a pile of masonry, and Mackenzie saw light ahead. The dull sky blossomed above, and Mackenzie wasted no time in lifting the crying Alyce up and over the rubble. Laurel grabbed her, and Mackenzie began to scramble over the bricks behind them. The monster had knocked down a wall, meaning they didn’t have to dig their way out, just use the gaping hole in the store where the front entranceway had once been. As Mackenzie stumbled onto the dusty ground, he saw Maria fall next to him. Vic followed her, and the ground shook as more booming thunderous noises echoed around their heads.
“Maria, where’s your car?” asked Laurel.
“Mom! I want my Mom!” screamed Alyce.
Mackenzie felt a cloud block out the sunlight on his face, and he looked up to see the Goliath standing over them, one monstrous powerful leg now planted firmly in the middle of the store where they had been only moments before. The clouds were a long way off, clever enough to know to stay out of the way of the dinosaur that was leering over the remaining survivors.
“Fuck, we’re dead,” said Vic. He began to walk backwards, into the street, away from the collapsed store, away from the monster, and away from the others. “We’re fucking dead.”
“Maria, where’s the car?” Mackenzie ignored Vic and looked around the street. He saw the charred remains of the bus, and the Kelso Depot across the road, but no sign of a car.
“There,” said Maria quietly. She raised a hand and pointed to a huge mountain of bricks that had once been the south-western wall of her store. Underneath it, Mackenzie spotted a deflated tire, a shattered windscreen, and what looked like a car door. “There it is. He’s right. Vic’s right. We’re f—”
A hail of bullets blistered the air, ripping through the sky above them and punching into the midriff of the Goliath. With a huge roar, the monster turned into the gunfire.
“What the hell is that?” asked Mackenzie. The thunder he had heard before was nothing of the sort. It was there again, a rolling noise that seemed to just roll on and on without pause. There was a pulsing sound behind the thunder, and more to it than just God’s work. Mackenzie heard engines. He watched as more gunfire erupted overhead, shattering into the monster’s body, tearing bloody holes in its thick hide. Drawn by the gunfire, the Goliath took a giant stride in the direction of the noise, away from the store. Mackenzie smiled. Maybe, just maybe, there was still a chance.
“I want to go home.” Alyce yanked her hand from Laurel’s and ran into the street kicking up dust with each step.
“Alyce, get back here.” Laurel let Alyce slip from her grip, unable to hold onto her. She watched as she ran to Vic who was heading for the bus.
Catching sight of the movement below, the Goliath stopped and turned its head toward the two small figures below.
“Alyce, stop,” growled Mackenzie. He noticed the monster’s attention was drawn to her. They needed it to follow the gunfire, not them. “Just stand where you are.”
A moment later, the monster resumed its march toward whoever was firing at it. Small bursts of gunfire reached the beast and tiny pieces of skin were shaved off its thick hide. Mackenzie could tell it would take more than a few bullets to bring it down.
“What is that? It sounds like an army,” said Laurel.
“Maybe it is.” Mackenzie beckoned Alyce over with promises to look after her. She came back to him slowly, her large eyes all the time staring at the magnificent creature towering above them.
“Out here? We should be so lucky.” Maria ducked as a crackle of gunfire erupted. It was followed by an explosion, a muffled booming sound in the distance, and then nothing but the bellowing of the Goliath as it continued walking away from the store. “I don’t think a
nyone out there’s going to help us. With what’s happened, I doubt we’ll be seeing anyone else come through here today. Whoever it is, they’re a fair way off.”
“But the shooting…surely, that must mean rescue is coming?” Laurel hugged Alyce tightly to her as the girl returned to them. “The police or the army are close, you can hear them. They’re going to kill it, aren’t they?” She looked down at Alyce, at the orphaned young girl who seemed to finally comprehend that neither her mother nor her father were coming back to her. “They’re going to kill it.”
Maria licked her lips and then regretted it. She tasted blood. “I’m not convinced anything can kill that Goliath. You haven’t seen it up close, Laurel, so close you can smell its breath rising from its stomach. You haven’t seen how Goddamn tough it is.”
Vic approached the group but hung back, staying out in the street. He preferred to be out in the open where he could see it and where he could see it was safe. He felt like an outsider, even though he had been cooped up inside with these people for the best part of the day. Was that his fault? Had he sided with James too much? It didn’t matter now. James was gone, and these people were all he had left.
“What about your car?” Vic looked at Maria and then Mackenzie. “We can’t just wait. This is our opportunity. We should make a run for it whilst it’s fighting someone else.”
“My car is gone, Vic. Just pray that whoever is doing the shooting can force it to retreat back underground. Maybe then we can make it back to Baker. Maybe then we can move on and get you all home. Maybe I can rebuild my store, maybe…”
Maria tailed off. Thinking about the future suddenly seemed almost a foolish idea. She was stuck in the desert with no transport with the last few remaining members of a tour group for company, whilst some unknown army fought a huge Goliath right outside. Her friends, Mr. Stepper and Akecheta, were dead. Glancing at the wreckage of the bus, she saw broken bones protruding from a mound of fleshy pulp. The only clue that Mr. Stepper had been there was the torch that lay on the blood-soaked ground beside the mangled body. Seeing it reminded Maria that Chris’ body was now buried under the ruins of her store, the remains of James and Michele were spread over her walls and roof, and the Goliath didn’t have a scratch on it. She hoped her sister was okay. Getting back to Baker was all she could think of right now. Short steps: get to Baker, get home, and go from there. Thinking beyond that was incomprehensible. Family came first, no matter what.
“Vic, help me with these,” said Mackenzie as he began to gather things from the ground. Some of Maria’s stock was mixed in with the crushed bricks and remnants of the store.
“I’ve got water, Mac,” said Maria patting her backpack.
“It’s not that.” Mackenzie picked up two cans of fly spray and deodorant, and asked Vic to find some lighters or matches. “We have absolutely no weapons at all. I’m just trying to be prepared is all. We don’t know for sure what we’re facing, and in the absence of any real weapons, we may have to improvise.”
Vic handed Mackenzie a dusty lighter. “Look, Mac, that’s all well and good, but we need to find some way out of here, or at least a place to wait until the army show up. They can’t be far.”
Mackenzie looked across the street at the plume of thin dust being driven into the air by whatever it was that was shooting at the monster. There was probably a convoy of vehicles, possibly tanks and trucks loaded with soldiers; the Goliath was a hundred feet away, rampaging through the desert, crushing huge rocks beneath its feet as it headed into the fight. Mackenzie knew their only hope of getting anywhere was that convoy. Walking a hundred miles through the open desert was not an appealing prospect, especially with Alyce. Exposure, coyotes, and a huge fucking dinosaur meant it was a sure fire way of getting killed. Vic had a point about seeking shelter. They had to get out of the open and under another roof, one that was considerably stronger than Maria’s small store. He looked across the street, remembering the backpacker earlier in the day, recalling the foreign girl who had unsuccessfully tried to run for cover from the monster.
“Maria, what is this Kelso Depot place? We never got around to seeing it for real before…well, you know.”
Maria looked at the sky lit up with fire and lightning. Small yellow sparks crackled in the clouds, and she hoped that the Goliath was taking a beating. “It’s the primary visitor center for the Mojave. There’s a museum inside, some artwork, some really interesting stuff that you would’ve liked, and lots of information about the Mojave area and its history.”
“Anything in there about how to deal with a hungry, marauding dinosaur?” asked Vic.
“Doubt it,” said Laurel despondently.
“But it’s still standing, right? It’s the only thing around here that still is.” Mackenzie hoped the building would hold. There were cracks in the façade and the red and white walls were coated in a fine dust, yet it was still standing. It could offer them a place to rest up and hide from the monster.
Mackenzie bent down to Alyce. “How are you, Alyce?” he asked. “What do you think? Shall we go to the Kelso Depot?”
“I’m okay.” The young girl wiped her red eyes. “I know Mom and Dad aren’t coming back. I want to go now. I don’t like that Goliath thing. It’s horrible. I want to go. I’ve still got my bag, see?” Alyce held up her bright pink bag. “I took care of it. I’ve got my book and a sweater and a juice and a toy for Beers.”
Mackenzie saw Alyce was trying to be strong. He was impressed by the girl’s resolve. She was probably the calmest of them all. He wished he had that much courage. “What are you reading?”
Alyce lifted her book out of her bag to show him the cover. “Snow White. It’s my favorite, remember? She looks like a princess.” Alyce put the book away.
“So do you,” said Mackenzie. “If anything, you’re a thousand times more beautiful than any princess I’ve seen. And even though your Mom and Dad aren’t here, I know they’d be proud of you. We’re going to take care of you, okay? Stick with Laurel and she’ll look after you. You know, we’ve got a daughter of our own. She’s a bit older than you, but I think you’d like her.”
“What’s her name?”
“Amy.”
“That’s a nice name. Is she pretty too?”
Mackenzie smiled. “Yes, she is. Very pretty and brave just like you.” Mackenzie looked at Laurel. “Let’s go.”
Together, they all walked across the street to the Kelso Depot. The fighting and the Goliath were out of sight now, taking place behind the large building. Although they could hear the fight, they couldn’t see who was winning. The battle was close now, audible enough for them to hear the shouts of the soldiers, individual guns being fired, and the smacking sound of the Goliath as it planted each foot on the ground. It still felt like they were suffering from an earthquake. The monster’s movements caused the whole area to rock and roll, and Mackenzie had to remind himself this wasn’t a natural phenomenon. The disturbance in the ground was being caused by the Goliath. Only when the ground stopped moving would he finally feel safe. When the ground was still, that meant the Goliath was still. And he was confident that it would only be still when it was finally dead.
“Come on, princess,” said Laurel reaching for Alyce’s hand.
Mackenzie was thankful Laurel was still with him. Amy would be devastated if anything happened to her mother. Thoughts of Amy were too much to take right now. He had to believe, to trust that John had taken care of her. Getting to her was a priority, right after they found a way out of this desolate desert. He looked around as they walked in silence. A dried-up creek ran away from the Depot and an old disused railway line stretched as far as he could see. Over in the distance from the west were small clouds of dust on the horizon. There were large undulating dunes and ridges in the desert, left behind by the Goliath. A blue-gray sky was settling over the horizon and to the west a faint orange glow suggesting where the sun was hiding. As the burning star disappeared from view, the sky above Mackenzie hushed and
became a serene cobalt color. The air cooled as the twinkling stars emerged overhead. It would be night soon, which meant it was even more important to have shelter if they couldn’t leave. He knew that a darkening sky meant the temperature would drop fast.
A booming sound cut through the air and he bristled. The sound ricocheted between the rocks until it was carried away on a faint breeze. Suddenly, the desert was quiet, unnaturally quiet; too quiet. There was no shooting, no shouting, no explosions or sound of fighting. It was eerie. Abruptly, the usual sounds of the animals that lived in the desert gradually rose. All manner of cries and whistles, squeals and yelps, screeches and shrieks rose up from the desert floor, all clamoring for attention. As he listened, he thought he might have even heard the faint howling of a hungry coyote.
“Is it dead?” Laurel had been leading them to the Kelso Depot, but stopped and turned to face her husband. The ground had stopped shaking, and the end to the fighting had caught everyone’s attention. A grin broke out on Laurel’s face. “It’s dead.”
“She’s right. Listen.” Vic held a finger up in the air, pointed toward the evening sky. “They got it. They fucking got it.”
Even Maria broke out into a smile. “Well I’ll be damned. I think…wait, what’s that?”
From around the corner of the Kelso Depot, a figure came running, clad in khaki from head to toe. The figure held a machine gun and ran straight for them. Dark goggles dangled around the figure’s neck, and when they came closer, it became evident it was a man, a soldier. He wore a pained expression on his face, and his upper body was covered in blood.
“What now?” asked Maria, as the soldier bore down on them. “What the hell is happening now?”
CHAPTER 16
“Look, just start over, you’re not making any sense.” Mackenzie hauled the soldier to his feet. After collapsing to the ground in front of them, the man had spoken so quickly that he had only been able to pick up odd words that made no sense.
“Private Randall, right?” Maria jabbed a finger into the man’s chest. “Start talking. What the hell is going on?”