Rage explodes through me. I leap forward, Burning Aurora roaring to life, and go face-first into the miniature White Hole that erupts from between his kaiju’s flashing spikes at near point-blank range.
I’m ready for it this time and dig my feet in, charging straight through the attack. Xenatlas recoils in surprise when I explode out of the wrong side of his attack and strike him horns first in the face. The damage done isn’t negligible, but it’s not game changer either. Fortunately whittling down his HP isn’t the game I’m playing.
I deactivate the Burning Aurora while he’s off balance and make a grab for the egg. Taisaur’s hands close around it.
Logoutlogoutlogoutlogout!
Xenatlas’s massive digging claw swings around to uppercut me in the face. I flinch back…and fall over onto the carpeted floor.
I did it. I completed the quest!
I roll up, a headache throbbing in my temples as I readjust to being human sized. The loss of my heightened senses leaves me longing for Taisaur’s body. Then the smells hit me and I’m glad my nose isn’t as powerful. The Paris casino has seen better days.
“What the fuck, mate?”
I look around and find Max staring down at me from several feet away, arms crossed, a look of mingled disbelief and disgust on his face.
“I thought you were just logging in to check out what the hell that notification was,” he says, spreading his hands. “What the hell happened to that plan?”
“How long have I been out?”
“Out of your mind? Jury’s out,” he says. “But how long you been getting high on being a kaiju? Nearly six hours.”
No wonder my stomach feels as if it’s about to collapse in on itself. I’m starving. Like literally starving. It’s been way too long since I’ve last eaten. No wonder my head’s hurting. I need to rectify this.
As if on cue, Max throws a Snickers bar at me. My tired, hungry ass is too slow to catch it and the candy bar hits me in the face. “Jackass.”
“I don’t want to hear that from you right now,” he says. “I thought you were better than this shit, Aaron.”
There’s a lot of people using my name and telling me what they think of me lately it seems. I unwrap the snickers bar and devour it. Around a mouthful of nuts and chocolate I try to tell him about the quest.
“Really?” Max says, wrinkling his nose in disgust. “Swallow first. That’s nasty and I can’t understand a word your saying.”
I roll my eyes, swallow, and try again. “The Game Masters said if I took one of their missions, they’d give me the cure to whatever it is Plague Doctor left behind.” I look around expectantly.
We’re alone in a small out of the way alcove. “Where are we? I pulled off the mission. Everyone should be getting better now.”
“I know this’ll shock you, but after that shit you pulled earlier, the doctors don’t want you around,” he said. “I told them if you left, I left, and they don’t want to lose us both. Our blood being super special valuable and all. Course, last I checked none of them were doing too hot.”
He glances meaningfully out the alcove. I don’t think he means to let his hope show through, but it does. I grin. The Game Masters are bastards, but they’ve always honored their word when it comes to payouts for missions or quests or whatever.
“Well, here’s hoping the cure kicked in and they can be all upset at not discovering it themselves,” I say, pushing myself to my feet. My mouth is dry, especially after the sugar from the candy bar. “Any water?”
Max shakes his head. “Water got cut a few hours ago.”
“Shit.” Water’s one of those essential items you absolutely cannot go without. The human body just can’t manage more than three days without it, and going that three days is enough to pretty much crack open your skull and fry your brain like an egg.
“Yeah,” he says. “Here’s hoping…well, here’s hoping.”
“Yeah,” I agree, and take my first steps out of the alcove. “Where’s Isabella?”
Max doesn’t say anything.
I stop. “Max?”
“I’m really hoping the Game Master’s miracle cure worked,” he says softly.
Shit. With a sinking feeling I make him take me to Isabella. Our trip through the casino is not inspiring. Everyone is still sick, still coughing or bleeding or dying. The doctors are harried and haggard and look about ready to drop dead. I couldn’t tell you how much good they’re actually doing at this point. There’s no way they’re managing anything even remotely resembling research. They’re not in any shape for it.
Isabella is laid out on an improvised cot. She’s covered in a sheen of sweat but unlike everyone else, her skin is flushed instead of pale. Kneeling down beside her I can feel the heat her body is putting off from several inches away.
“What the hell?”
Max comes to stand beside me. “This started about half an hour after you logged in to check out that notification. She’s not throwing up and everyone else who took a needle’s dead, so there’s that.”
“But?” I say. I know there’s a but.
“But she’s got a fever of a hundred and six.”
“Shit.” I turn and kick the nearest wall as hard as I can. I must hit a good spot because the Sheetrock cracks. Dammit. With my luck the camera’s will be the only thing still working in this casino and the owners will track me down after this to demand I pay for the damage. If I survive. Right now, that’s looking a lot less likely. Everyone is still sick and Isabella’s caught something else entirely.
“This doesn’t make any sense,” I snarl. “They’ve always kept their word before.”
“Oh please,” Max says. “What word? They tricked us all into starting an interplanetary, maybe interdimensional war using giant monsters and call it a game. Yeah, those cheeky little buggers are trustworthy.”
“Why wouldn’t they payout this time,” I ask. “What changed.”
You have not received your reward yet because your quest is not complete, the cheerful AI chimes in.
“What the fuck do you mean I didn’t complete the quest?” I demand. “I busted my ass to get that shitty egg here!”
My phone chimes. I already know what it is but I look down anyway. There’s a new notification on the Kaiju Wars Online app.
Part Two of the quest is now available to you, says the AI. Would you like to continue playing?
“No,” I mutter. “No. No. No.”
“What?” Max demands.
They didn’t call it a mission. They called it a quest. And they had said that harvesting that egg from Plague Doctor was only the first part. I had forgotten.
“I have to log back in,” I say. “It’s not just a mission this time, it’s a quest. A multi-parter. If I want the cure I’ve got to go back and do some more shit.”
There’s the chime of a phone. I glance automatically at mine in puzzlement, expecting another update from Kaiju Wars Online. There isn’t one.
Max holds up his phone. “Limited connectivity but some’s better than nothing yeah? I got a few things running that let me know when a kaiju shows up. Guess the Game Masters like that ‘cause they’re letting that stuff through but blocking so much else.” He shakes his head. “All these things they can do…I really don’t think…it doesn’t matter.” He opens whatever alert or notification was sent to him.
“Oh, shit.” He holds up the phone so I can see the screen. There’s a news clip of Xenatlas. He’s tearing through a small town. “Xenatlas just showed up in Good Springs. He’s heading this way. We’ve probably got an hour at most before he smashes his way here.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
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“And how the hell do you think we are supposed to evacuate all of these people?” Dr. Norman demands.
She seems to have been elected spokesperson for the trio of doctors where I’m concerned. She doesn
’t look happy to see me. She doesn’t look happy period. In fact, she looks downright awful. Her hair is clinging to her face in sweaty locks and her eyes are so ringed she looks like a raccoon. There’s a sickly-sweet smell coming from her too. She’s just as sick as everyone else now and there’s not a damn thing she can do about it. Physician, heal thyself.
“We have to get everyone out of here,” I push. “We’ll think of something.”
“Like putting your blood directly into them?” she scoffs, crossing her arms and pulling herself up to her full, if inconsequential height. “Even if we could somehow load up all of these sick people into vehicles or something and get them out of here, where the hell would we take them? Vegas is still under quarantine. All we’d be doing is moving them from one part of the city to another and if you’re right about another kaiju heading our way, that’s not enough distance to matter.”
We’re damned if we do and damned if we don’t. There’s nowhere that’s safe so long as we’re all trapped in the city. Our best bet is to hope that the US military is somehow able to take Xenatlas out before he gets here, which seems unlikely, and barring that, hope that he simply misses us. He can no longer tell where I’m at since I unfriended him on Kaiju Wars. Thank God for small miracles.
Dr. Norman glares at me while I try to think of something before finally snapping. “You are keeping me from helping people who genuinely need it. They may only have an hour left to live with that thing coming this way. I’m going to make sure they’re as comfortable as they can be.”
She storms off. I find myself admiring the woman. She’s given up hope that any of us are going to get out of here. There’s not many of us that can say we faced the end with grace. God knows I’ll never be one of those people. Pissed at me or no, that doc’s one impressive woman.
I return to Isabella’s side where I left Max to watch over her. “Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide,” I say. “Unless you count staying put.”
“I don’t,” he says. “I really, really don’t. We should get the hell out of here, Aaron. You unfriended him, right?”
“I did,” I say. “Maybe I should friend him again and then lead him away from here?”
“Fuck that,” Max says. “Aaron, these people are all dead. Let’s be real, you and me are the only ones walking out of this city.”
I stare at him. “What is it you’re suggesting.”
He shrugs. “I’m not suggesting, I’m flat out saying, the only smart thing to do is to cut our losses and run. Even the docs know they can’t save everyone. They’ve got to pick the people most likely to make it through and let the others they can’t help go.” He takes a deep breath and gets to his feet. “We can’t save anyone here. We need to let them go.”
My fists clench at my sides and begin to shake. “Fuck that.”
“It sucks but think, Aaron. Think. What’s the alternative?” He says this as soothingly as he can and dammit if there isn’t a note of sadness in his voice. He genuinely thinks this is the only real solution. Fuck him.
“I log in, finish the quest, and get the cure for everyone,” I say.
“And in the meantime, Lawson gets here and flattens Las Vegas and your unconscious ass with it,” he says.
I’m taken aback by the name. Then I put together the context clues. “Xenatlas’s name is Lawson?”
“Gene Lawson,” he says. “Forensics accountant and political activist. Very angry.”
I shake my head. It’s weird having a human name to put to the kaiju. “Whatever. Gene can’t stomp everything flat if he’s busy dealing with another kaiju.”
And it would take a kaiju to stop him. With the exception of Taisaur being taken out by fighter jets after our fight with Titanocobra, the US military has had no success repelling a kaiju or taking one out. But I’m not the only one here with a kaiju.
“Summon Solrin,” I say. “Confront him, hold him off while I finish the quest. You don’t need to stop him, just slow him down and keep him away from here.”
“Fuck you!” I barely block his punch in time as he comes at me, stepping over Isabella’s prone form.
I react without thinking, counter attacking. In the next few seconds two things quickly become apparent. First is that Max Dryden is beyond enraged at the idea of becoming Solrin again. Second, is that the man, while scrappy and a real survivor type, has very little experience actually fighting.
He tries to get into a fighting stance like they teach you in those shopping mall karate schools and I knock his feet out from under him. He’s on his feet again in an instant and tries to throw a punch, but it’s all kinds of weird, torn between his effort to keep form and the fury he wants to throw into it. It’s weak as shit and I knock it aside before laying him out.
He goes down hard and spends the next few seconds blinking away stars.
“The fuck was that?” I ask him.
“How dare you,” he splutters. “How dare you ask that of me?”
“What, to step up and fight?” I say. “I’m sorry you missed the memo but it’s time to get off the fucking bench.”
“You do not get to get preachy with me,” he says, staggering upright. “You gave in to the fucking game. It’s a drug, Moretti. A drug that when we use it costs lives. We’re not just going on some drunken binge and wrecking a living room, we destroy cities. We. Kill. People.”
Something about that example with the living room sticks out. Like he’s speaking from personal experience. A few other things he’s mentioned click into place. “This isn’t your first time dealing with an addiction, is it?”
He grunts. “Ten points for those deductive skills. You’re still a dumbass. This game, and I still can’t believe we’re still calling it a game, is not fair or right. The Game Masters are actively trying to fuck us over. There is no good coming out of turning into a kaiju again. They won’t let it and we can’t control it.”
“And your solution is to say, sorry everyone, I’ve got a problem with this so I’m going to skip town and let you all die?” My tone isn’t as scathing as I’d like for it to be. I’ve got control.
It’s refreshing to have that again. I’d almost forgotten the sense of detachment and power that came from playing the game. How it feeds on our rage. It’s what made the cover of an anger management device so convincing before and it’s what lets me now as the question in a way that doesn’t guarantee Max is going to try taking another swing at me.
“You two are freaking loud,” Isabella says from her position on the floor where she is pushing herself upright.
I’m on my knee beside her in an instant. She waves me off before I can try to convince her to lay back down and instead sits upright completely. Heat is still radiating out from her, but there’s no signs of sweat or shadows under her eyes. In fact, her eyes are the clearest and brightest I’ve seen them since she won her UFC match.
She looks me in the eyes and asks, “Can you summon your kaiju here now?”
I have the points. I can purchase that now. “I can.”
“Then you need to,” she says.
“But I can get the cure,” I say. “If I just finish the quest—"
She cuts me off, placing a finger to my lips. “The cure won’t mean anything if this pendejo turns us into tortillas first.”
There’s a problem with that. I can’t beat Xenatlas, or Gene Lawson. Whatever. He’s too powerful. Too big and too many levels above me. And if he kills me in our world as Taisaur he just might kill me for real.
Max’s phone chimes. He pulls it out. “Oh shit.”
“What now?” I ask, dreading the answer.
“Xenatlas is right outside Vegas,” he says. “And the US military’s going to drop a fucking MOAB on him.”
The mother of all bombs isn’t anything to laugh at. It hits hard. Taisaur and Xenatlas soaked hits from what we think was the alien’s equivalent back on Weroik. The hits didn’t take either of us out and that was a few levels ago. More tha
n a few in Xenatlas’s case.
But they still hit hard. If the airstrike does enough damage and Xenatlas keeps coming, then maybe, just maybe, I’ve got a chance.
“Okay,” I say, taking a seat beside Isabella. “You’re looking better.”
She grins. “I’m feeling better.”
“Good.” It would suck to throw myself into this fight to keep her safe only to somehow pull through and find she’d died. She was right before. I am definitely a selfish asshole. “Don’t let this dickhead do anything weird to me while I’m out of it?”
Her grin turns wicked. “No promises.”
I roll my eyes and log in.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
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The familiar options lay before me. KAIJU, ATTACK, and HUB. There’s a new one below them, replacing the TOP SECRET message with QUEST: PART TWO.
I don’t select it, but the AI begins cheerfully talking in my head anyway, sounding bright and happy, like a teacher’s pet who spent all night studying and knows the answer to the absurdly difficult question that was just asked.
To complete the second part of your quest, you must take the EZNACIAN EGG to the HUNGRY ABYSS on Weroik. There you must destroy the military facility surrounding the HUNGRY ABYSS and then feed the EZNACIAN EGG to the HUNGRY ABYSS so that it may be devoured.
Way too fucking cheerful. I don’t think I’ll ever get used to that.
Do you wish to continue your quest now, Mr. Moretti? It asks in the same tone as a waiter offering desert. Would you like some chocolate cake? Would you like to feed a kaiju egg to the Hungry Abyss?
What exactly is the Hungry Abyss? I’m sure all the places I’ve destroyed before had names, but I never knew them. Is the fact that the game is actually telling me what this location is called significant? With a name like the Hungry Abyss it sounds downright horrific.
“No,” I say to it. “I want to…” I trail off. Why am I bothering to explain myself to a machine? I select KAIJU and am greeted a moment later by the sight of Taisaur.
Kaiju for Dummies Page 14