by Russ Watts
Mackenzie looked at the man he held in his hands. He was young, probably no more than twenty or so, and scared. He clung to his machine gun like a baby and sweat ran down his face. He had large eyes, a thick nose, and a face that could sink a thousand ships. Mackenzie imagined the man had signed up out of duty rather than any aspirations of a career. Panic was written all over the young soldier’s face.
“Look, we were on our exercises when we got called up. I don’t really know that much. It went underground, so we had nothing left to shoot at. I mean, I’m not sure the Goliath was even there to begin with. Right? What about LA? Who’s in charge now? The Yucca Flats. Man, they messed up big time. Where’s it gone? Is it here? I had to get out of there.”
“Randall? Take a breath. Calm down.” Mackenzie let go of the man, not wanting to antagonize him. He was visibly shaking, and Mackenzie had no idea if the gun was still loaded. The man was a mess. He was making no sense and getting all of his stories mixed up. “Just start from the beginning. Tell us what you can. It’s all right. We’re just like you, okay? We just want to be someplace safe. Talk to me, Randall. What’s happened?”
The soldier looked around the small group of people, and his eyes settled on Alyce. “It’s not the earthquakes that caused this thing to appear, it’s the other way around,” said Randall as he offered the girl a smile. “This thing, this Goliath, is causing the quakes. It tunnels underground, lives underground…it’s hard to explain.”
“Go on.” Mackenzie tried to sound reassuring, to soften his voice so Randall wouldn’t get spooked and then run off again, or do something worse.
“The tests out at Yucca. They messed up.” Randall shook his head. “I’ve got a buddy in the Marines, stationed out at Twenty Nine. I managed to get hold of him before the shit started. Command wasn’t telling us shit, so I figured I might be able to get more sense out of someone who actually knows what’s really happening. He has a contact who told him the whole area is flooded with radiation. The mines, the tunnels, they…they knew what might happen, but…”
Randall tailed off and looked back over his shoulder. He winced at something visible only to him, and then looked back at the others.
When he didn’t speak again, Maria prodded him. “But what?” she asked. “We know about the nuclear bombs. You saying the Goliaths are a result of that?”
“Sorta,” replied Randall. “Well, yes. Look, there was a long hiatus between the last test in 1992 and a few months ago. According to my buddy, they thought the bombs might have been the cause of today’s quakes. You know, open up a fissure underground or something? But that wasn’t it. A couple of weeks ago, they started finding sinkholes opening up all over the place. The tremors got bigger and bigger, the reports of damage and injuries grew, and then animals started disappearing. Whole farms just vanishing, hundreds of livestock disappearing without a trace.”
“They weren’t just killed by the quakes? Landslides?” asked Mackenzie.
“No.” Randall let out a long sigh. He knew he shouldn’t say what he was about to, but there seemed little point in holding back now. Faced with imminent death, what was the point in hiding behind lies anymore? “You heard of Goodsprings?”
“Sure,” said Mackenzie. “Couple of days back, the whole town fell into a big fucking hole. A lot of people died. It was on the radio. I think the news said the area was riddled with tunnels from some old coal mines. Before anyone had time to figure it out, the whole town fell into a sinkhole, destroying everything.”
“Well, the whole town did fall into a big fucking hole, but that’s where reality stops. We fed the media a line about the abandoned mines, to stop them going in and seeing what really happened.”
“So what did happen?” Mackenzie was beginning to get angry. Private Randall might be wet behind the ears, fresh out of training, but he was clearly telling the truth. And now the truth was coming out, Mackenzie didn’t like it one little bit.
“It was the Goliath,” said Randall nervously. “The ground underneath the town was weakened by activity from the monster. Two days ago it popped up and destroyed the whole place. The town was decimated. There were a couple of buildings still standing, but nobody got out. It…it ate everyone.”
Maria gasped and held her hand over her mouth, as if to stop herself from being sick. Vic said nothing but watched on with interest.
“She doesn’t need to hear this,” said Laurel to her husband as she took Alyce away.
“It ate everyone?” Mackenzie took a deep breath. “It ate hundreds of people?”
“Well, not quite everyone. There was one survivor,” said Randall quietly. “Look I really need to get going. Let me—”
“No.” Mackenzie stared at the soldier. “Say that again, please?” If he wasn’t so angry he would pity the man. This soldier was just a grunt. He wasn’t in charge of this sorry operation. He was just a messenger stuck in the shit with the rest of them. “You said there was a survivor?”
Randall nodded without looking up. He was afraid if he made eye contact with Mackenzie that he might freak out. “A woman. Sharyn something. I don’t know her name. She saw the whole thing. She described it. The monster was real. She was the only eyewitness we had to what we were facing; to what we had created. The woman told the military after she escaped how Goodsprings was destroyed, just ripped apart by the sheer power of this thing. She was our most reliable source of information about what happened there.”
“Jesus Christ.” Mackenzie kept an eye on Laurel and Alyce. He didn’t want them straying too far, but he was glad they weren’t around to listen to Randall anymore. “You’re saying just one of those things took down a whole town?”
“Yes. We encountered one outside of Baker, and another popped up in San Diego. Now they’re coming up all over the freaking place like rats. The one that destroyed Goodsprings wasn’t unique, or a rogue mutant; it’s part of a whole new species, and from what I’ve seen, we’re not top of the food chain anymore. We don’t know exactly how many there are. People who see them don’t tend to be around for long…”
Mackenzie instantly thought of Amy in San Diego. The radio reporter had told of the monster there, but he had assumed it had been dealt with. He had hoped when the monster that had been stalking them was dead it might be over, but there could be any number of these things. The Goliaths had caused the ground to shake; there was nothing natural about what had been happening at all. These things lived underground and had remained undetected, apart from human contact, for who knew how many years; yet now, thanks to the resumption of the nuclear testing, they were topside. Everything he knew, everyone he loved, was in danger.
“This Sharyn, where is she now?” asked Mackenzie. “Maybe she can help? What about your convoy. Are they still heading this way?”
“I don’t know. I…I got lost. I think so, but…” Randall was obviously covering up for the fact that he ran. He was itching to go before he was discovered. “As for Sharyn, the witness, well according to my buddy, she wasn’t much use to us. She was in no fit state to—”
“You keep saying was,” said Mackenzie. “Where is she now? Why haven’t we seen her on the news? Why did the military say nothing about what really happened to Goodsprings? They could’ve warned us.”
Randall shrugged. “It’s not like I was there, but you know how it is. We couldn’t have her causing panic. Imagine what would have happened if it had gotten out the military had covered up what happened in Goodsprings. She wasn’t an asset once we learned the truth, she was a liability. Look, I should get back to my unit. They’ll be looking for me. I’ve already said more than I should.”
“Let me guess, she succumbed to her injuries?” Mackenzie had a headache growing that would not go away, pushing to the front of his eyes. This whole sorry situation could have been avoided. It was a complete mess, a shambles from the very beginning.
Randall nodded. “What’s done is done.”
Not thinking what he was doing, Mackenzie punched the s
oldier in the gut. Randall doubled over and immediately pointed the machine gun at Mackenzie. “You want to go?” he wheezed. “You think you know better than me? I’m not a decision maker, I just do my job.”
Maria glared at Mackenzie. “Stop. This is a waste of time. We need to figure out a way out of here, not fight. You heard the man. The Goliath is gone. It’s dead. It’s dead, Mac.”
Mackenzie saw the gun pointing at him, but ignored it along with Maria’s advice. “Your job is to protect people. Seems to me that you’re part of a jigsaw that just doesn’t fit anymore. I’m sick of being fed a pack of lies. My family are in danger, and as far as I can see, the blame lies with you and yours. You caused this mess.”
“Mac, stop,” pleaded Laurel. She had one arm around Alyce, the other down by her side. Her hand was curled up into a ball, the fingernails digging into her palm as a measure to control her fear. She could see her husband was angry. He wasn’t thinking straight. Behind the anger in his eyes, she could see fear too. He didn’t want to fight. He just wanted to protect her, to protect them all.
“Let him do it,” said Vic. “The sniveling bastard deserves it. I lost James because of people like him.”
Mackenzie swung at Randall who ducked easily, leaving Mackenzie swiping at nothing but air. Randall retaliated and threw a punch back at Mackenzie, connecting with the side of his head. Mackenzie stumbled backward, shocked. Laurel began screaming at them to stop, but neither of the men were listening. She knew Mackenzie was going to get hurt if it continued. He wasn’t a fighter, and he was taking on a trained soldier.
“Stop this, Mac,” ordered Maria. “This isn’t going to help. This guy is no more to blame than anyone else. The Goliath is gone. Focus your energy on how we’re getting out of here. We need to find this man’s convoy. We need their help. We can apportion blame later. Just…”
Mackenzie was blinded by rage, by frustration and grief. He charged at Randall. He was quite sure that the soldier wasn’t about to shoot him, and Mackenzie succeeded in grabbing him. Both of them grappled like bears, twisting around and around each other until they tripped and slammed into the hard ground. Randall thrust a fist into Mackenzie’s face, and blood spurted from his broken nose. Quickly, the soldier grabbed Mackenzie, rolled on top of him, and pushed him down on the ground, bouncing Mackenzie’s skull off the road. Mackenzie yelped in pain and saw stars.
“Fuck you. I was trying to help,” the soldier began screaming in Mackenzie’s face. “You should listen to your friends. Who the fuck are you? What’s your problem?”
“Enough,” said Maria as she pulled them apart. “Enough of this shit, both of you.” Maria hauled Randall off Mackenzie, and pushed him away. “Get out of here. Go find your friends and tell them you have five civilians stranded out here who need transport.”
As Mackenzie dusted himself off and stood up, Randall began trudging away. “Fucking asshole,” muttered the soldier.
The man’s footsteps were the only sound that Mackenzie heard as he wiped the blood from his nose. Then he looked up and realized everyone was looking at him. Maria looked like she was about to take his head off, Vic had a wearied look on his face, and Alyce was snuggled up to Laurel’s side. His wife was crying, and when he started to approach her, she took a step back.
“No, Mac,” said Laurel as she shook her head. “What were you thinking? That wasn’t like you.”
“I’m sorry, okay?” Mackenzie rubbed the back of his head, finding blood where the soldier had slammed him into the ground. “What he was saying, what he said about the testing and the monsters and how all this could have been avoided. I just saw red. I just…look, I’m sorry. Laurel, can we just—”
“No, Mac, look at the state of you. Alyce is scared. You need to calm down.”
Mackenzie sighed. She was right. He had lost it. Randall had only been the messenger. They did need the army’s help, and his unit had to be close by. What had he been thinking? He knew that he had let his judgment be clouded. The truth was he had been thinking about Myles, about Akecheta, about Amy, and what happened next. Laurel would come round, he knew that, but he should’ve listened to Maria. She was right. They did need the soldier’s help. They needed to get home.
“Hey, Randall?” Mackenzie called after the soldier. The man was looking around nervously and seemed in no hurry to get back to his unit. Mackenzie suspected he was deserting, but in the middle of the desert found himself unsure where to turn. “Randall, wait up. We can vouch for you. We’ll tell them you were helping us. Just wait. I’m sorry, but don’t…”
Mackenzie heard a faint noise, almost like a muffled explosion. It echoed across the desert and mountains in the distance, trickling through the scrub and cacti before it reached his ears. His leg twitched as the dirt beneath his feet started to vibrate. At first just slowly, then more insistently until it was jumping around like fresh popcorn on the stove.
“Laurel?” Mackenzie looked at his wife with confusion. Was he imagining this? Had he hit his head that hard? The look on Laurel’s face told him this was real. The ground started shaking then, rippling like waves that knocked Maria off her feet. Mackenzie saw Vic begin to run back to the store, as if he could find shelter inside the ruins of the old place.
“Laurel!”
Mackenzie began to run toward her and Alyce before the uneven ground knocked him off his feet too. It was impossible to stay upright, like trying to walk a tightrope in a hurricane, and he saw Laurel and Alyce go down too.
The Goliath emerged quickly, exploding from underneath the Kelso Depot with a deafening roar. Its magnificent body climbed up through the building at speed, bringing the walls down around it. It was like a bomb going off, and the huge building was reduced to rubble and a cloud of dust in seconds. Mackenzie heard the familiar booming sound of the monster and watched as it clambered from the ground, appearing from the ruins of the building with frightening speed. He watched as the Goliath reared its head and let out its familiar call, its bulbous head silhouetted against the dark blue evening sky.
“YAKAZAR-YAKAZAAAAR!”
Before he could say or do anything, Mackenzie saw the Goliath step forward, out into the open, and seize Randall. The man had dropped to the ground and begun firing at the monster. The bullets had done nothing though except to draw the creature’s attention. A huge foot stamped on Randall, and gallons of blood splashed out from underneath the monster’s leg, decorating the road with the soldier’s blood. When the Goliath lifted its leg, there was little left of the soldier except an untidy pile of clothes and bones, all tied together with stringy flesh and sinews of flesh. The monster roared again, and Mackenzie knew it wasn’t going anywhere. The army might have scared it into going underground, but now that it was back, it wasn’t leaving. It wasn’t dead. It didn’t even look hurt. Maybe it was a territorial thing. Maybe it had claimed this area and was clearing it out. Unless Randall’s unit appeared, armed with a lot more guns, they weren’t getting out of this one.
Mackenzie began to crawl along the ground toward Laurel and Alyce. The destruction of the Kelso Depot had been quick, yet the dust that had blown up around it lingered in the evening air, and Mackenzie had to frequently wipe his eyes so that he could see. The air was thick with the dust now, and he couldn’t call out to them, to let them know he was coming. Every time he opened his mouth, it was filled with warm air and sand.
“Don’t let it take me. Oh God, it’s coming, I can hear it. It’s coming!”
Mackenzie heard the voice somewhere to his left. It wasn’t male, and he would have recognized it if it had belonged to Laurel or Alyce immediately. That only left one option: Maria.
With the ground still shaking and the sandstorm swirling around him, Mackenzie got to his feet. He cupped his hands around his mouth and called out. “Maria. Maria, where are you?”
Mackenzie became aware of a shadow in the cloud of dust that had yet to disperse. It was the monster. It was moving, fast. It was getting closer to them.
&
nbsp; “Maria?” he called out again and got little answer.
She knew it was coming. It was heading in her direction, and she had no choice but to run. Her store was gone, the Depot was gone, and there was nowhere to run to. The desert was her last chance. Perhaps she would be able to hide so that it couldn’t find her in all the dust?
Maria ran. She ran faster than she had for twenty years. Something snagged on one of her feet and she tumbled down, smacking sharply into the road. Her hand sliced open on a piece of wreckage from the tour bus, and she jumped up quickly. In the maelstrom, she could see the Goliath, its hideous form reaching into the sky like a terrifying obelisk. It was going to hunt them all down, and right now, it was hunting her. Maria was thrown into fear as the head of the giant beast loomed over her. It came closer and closer through the sand, its deep red eyes becoming clearer the closer it got. Soon, she saw its teeth and jaws, dripping with blood. It snorted and stomped a foot on the ground sending shivers over her body. It could see her now, smell her, practically taste her; Maria felt dwarfed by its size and power, and she was caught in a no-man’s land. She could stay and fight, but hadn’t the strength to repel it, or she could run and hope to outwit it, hide in the desert or the ruins of her store.
Maria turned and ran. No way was she giving up that easily. She heard Mackenzie calling for her, but couldn’t see him. She was running away from the voice, not wanting to lure the beast any closer to him or the others. She ran, hoping it would get lost, give up the chase, or go and find something with a little more meat on its bones. She didn’t look back, but ran in what she thought was the direction of the open desert. The thunderous footsteps of the Goliath echoed in her ears. She wasn’t about to waste time in looking back for it. She just ran.
Maria was drenched in sweat, and though she was under the shadow of the beast, she could feel warmth on her back. It was sickly warmth, moist and oppressive, as if she were being coated in boiling paint. She recognized this wasn’t like the usual dry heat of the sun. The creature was undoubtedly right above her now. She could smell it. It was the same hideous smell she had experienced on the rooftop with Mackenzie. A smell like rancid meat engulfed her, and she tried not to think about how close the thing probably was. Her legs were beginning to feel like jelly and the rocking motion of the ground as the Goliath pounded over it was unsettling. Maria stumbled over a large rock that jumped into her path and she was unable to stay upright. Her legs tangled together, and as she fell, her face caught the side of the rock which tore a deep gash across her cheek.