Project Maigo (23 page)

At the suggestion of the local villagers he’d become friendly with, he set out on a bamboo rafting trip. The lazy trip down the scenic river relaxed him. Helped him forget the stress that ruled his life. As he lay on the bamboo, he listened to the wind rustle through the leaves while the water bubbled by below. He watched the clouds glide by, heavy with rain to be unleashed later in the day.

I’m going to stay
, he decided.
Learn the language. Find a wife.
This was the life he’d been born to live, and with the money he already had in the bank, he could live it until the day he died without ever having to work. A permanent vacation.

Not that I’ll live idly
, he thought. He’d already begun helping in the village, remembering the carpentry skills taught to him by his father. Working to help people, he’d discovered, was far more gratifying than working for stacks of green paper.

The raft shook beneath him. He leaned his head up, asking, “What was that?” The three men in the raft with him, Yosakon, Gan and Tanipat, looked bewildered. They spoke rapidly among themselves. Chris reached for his smart phone, but paused. The three were talking over each other. He’d never get a translation.

Chris sat up to find the placid river transformed. Waves bounced them in every direction. He’d researched the river before leaving. There shouldn’t have been rapids here. Judging by his friends’ reactions, the rough water was a surprise to them too.

The next quake—he felt positive this was an earthquake—forced Chris to cling to the boat’s side. The three men with him fell down, shouting.

The next booming quake shook the trees on the shore so violently that the small creatures—frogs, snakes, lizards—clinging to the branches fell into the water. A flock of bird soared past, moving away from the sound’s source.

He’d never experienced an earthquake before, but he didn’t think you could discern the direction from which it originated. But that last boom had definitely come from upriver. The three men with him must have realized this too, because they all turned around, speaking in worried tones. Their homes were back upriver. Their families.

Chris looked upriver, waiting for the next shake. The view behind them was mostly river and the jungle closing in on either side. But the open area above the river allowed for a spectacular view of a distant mountain. The village these men were from, where he’d been staying, was at the base of that mountain. Tiny specks appeared over the mountain, moving quickly. More birds.

But then the scene changed. It took him a moment to fully understand what he was seeing. The trees atop the mountain blurred. Then rose up. That immense unmoving mass of earth was rising! The jungle split apart, falling away. Dark earth and stone exploded into the air.

Boom!

The world shook around them, the sound drowning out his compatriots’ screams. The mountain transformed, crumbling over on itself as something rose up above it from behind.
A demon
, Chris thought. Some ancient Thai god was rising from the mountain. It was Gan, one of his guides, who first understood, shouting, “Nemesis!”

The monster was known even in this backwater part of the world. While communication with the outside world wasn’t common, some of the shops had televisions and phones, and a few had satellite Wi-Fi. Chris would stop at a street vendor every morning for a breakfast of two potongos, the Thai version of a donut, and some sweet custard-like sauce for dipping. The shop next door, also a post office, offered free Wi-Fi, which he used to read the news on his phone, though he’d skipped that routine this morning. So while his Thai friends knew what Nemesis was, they didn’t know about the other Kaiju rampaging through the world he’d escaped. He’d never considered the possibility that the vengeful creatures would have any reason to come to this peaceful part of the world, but here it was, a monster that looked similar to Nemesis, but was not Nemesis.

It was built similarly—thick neck, horrible face, armor-plated and spike-covered arms. Thick ropey skin twisted and bundled around a pattern of orange flesh that glowed in the dim, overcast light. But it wasn’t the same. Its face was actually far uglier than Nemesis’s, its brow low and furrowed over a pair of radiant yellow eyes. The pictures he’d seen of Nemesis showed almost human, brown eyes. The biggest difference were the hands. Where Nemesis had five fingers, this thing had three—a thumb and two claws that looks like pincers.

A second head rose up, just behind the first, eliciting a shout of surprise and horror from Chris, but not just from its presence. It was the thing’s appearance that unnerved him. It looked...human. But not. It stood tall like a person. Carried itself like a confident man. It had two arms. Two legs. Five clawed digits at the end of each appendage. Its face, while human in structure, was anything but. The mouth occasionally dropped open to reveal large triangular teeth, before snapping shut again. And like the first monster, it had angry yellow eyes, thick dark skin, spikes and a pattern of those explosive—
what are they called? Membranes
. Both creatures had thick backs, like protective shells. He knew that Nemesis hid her wings beneath a similar structure. Were these two capable of the same destructive force? Standing at least 300 feet tall, he didn’t doubt it.

The pair of giants stepped over the mountain, descending the far side like two hikers out for a stroll, indifferent to the lives they were crushing beneath their feet. The mountainside collapsed, sliding down in a rush of damp earth. Chris had no doubt that the village from which they started their journey was now destroyed.

The three Thai men wailed at the sight. As one, they dug their paddles into the water and struck out—upriver.

“What are you doing?” Chris shouted. The men didn’t reply, but Chris answered his own question. They were heading home. To their families. To find the dead. Maybe rescue some lucky survivors. These were brave men. But Chris did not share their commitment to the buried village. In the shadow of these two monsters, a part of his old self, which cared
only
about himself, returned with a vengeance.

After taking his phone out of his pocket, he slid to the side of the raft, looked down at the dark water and paused. He didn’t know what kind of wildlife might wait for him in the river, but as the world shook again, he doubted predators would be thinking about eating. Nearly tipping the raft, he slid into the water, keeping his right hand, phone clutched tightly, lifted up. Using his legs and left arm, he kept himself above water and kept his connection to the outside world dry.

The shaking impacts came rapidly. The giants, on level ground now, moved faster. He glanced upstream and saw the raft making good time back the way they had come. Beyond them, he saw the two giants, making steady progress...downstream. He needed to reach the shore. He needed to run!

A roar cut through the air, sending ripples through the water, which continued to stir with each giant footfall. Water splashed the phone. He sucked in mouthfuls, coughing and sputtering, but never slowing his hard swim. But the choppy water fought against him, pushing him back and forth. Downstream was the only direction he could move, so he leaned on his back, kept his phone hand raised up, and kicked hard.

Despite making good time, he began to weep five minutes later. The giants were gaining on him. Each thundering step brought them closer. To make matters worse, the current seemed to be slowing down. At first he thought that the river was widening, but a look to the side revealed the truth. The banks of the river were exposed, ten feet of mud and roots. As he twisted to look, his backside struck something hard, sending jolts of pain through his body.

I’ve been attacked!
he thought. But then his whole body ground against something rough. His journey down the river had come to a halt. Chris lifted his head to find himself lying on the smooth stoned surface of a barren riverbed. A fish flopped nearby, slapping itself to death on the stones.

He sat up, trying to make sense of this new world.
The mountain
, he thought.
It blocked the river
.

The ground shook again. Without the water buffering the blow, it felt like he’d been punched. The stones in the riverbed rattled. And then, screams. Three high pitched voices he recognized. Yosakon, Gan and Tanipat. The three men, eyes wide, clothing dripping wet, scurried over the river-bed rocks. They stumbled and fell, covered in blood, but they never stopped.

And then Chris saw why. The monster that looked like Nemesis had arrived. It towered over the jungle, eyes forward. Its massive tail swept back and forth as it walked, leveling the jungle, sending trees flying. But it never looked down. Never acknowledged their existence. It was simply passing through.

We just need to get out of the way!

Chris shouted to his friends to follow him as he ran for the shore. They could never outrun the monster, but if they could just get out of the way, they might—

BOOM!

The riverbed beneath Chris’s feet lifted up and then fell away. He toppled forward, striking his head on a stone. A flash of white filled his vision for a moment and sent a wave of nausea through his body. He rolled over—and screamed.

A giant clawed foot with black and twisted skin descended toward him. He shrieked with primal fear, wondering what the end would feel like, wondering if he had a soul and wondering if he’d condemned himself to some kind of torturous afterlife. And then the giant foot struck.

Twenty feet away.

Chris bounced into the air, landing hard, but this time avoiding hitting his head. Rolling over onto his hands and knees, he managed to stay upright with each shift of the earth, which came more rapidly and more powerfully, now that he was in the gap between the two giants.

As the immense foot lifted up and away, he saw the three villagers’ bodies crushed into the folds of the foot, bloody and very dead. Before he could react to this sight with relief or horror, a loud rushing sound like thunder locked him in place, his breath held.

The massive tail whipped past, sliding from one side of the barren river to the other, passing just a few feet over head. Flattened trees landed all around Chris, lashing him with thin branches, but he remained mostly unscathed.

I’m safe here
, he told himself.
As long as I don’t move, I’m safe
.

Part of him knew this wasn’t necessarily true, but he was a believer in luck, and this spot, for whatever reason, was lucky. So when the second set of gargantuan footfalls approached, he remained riveted to the stone beneath him.

When the giant emerged, its head turned down, like it was looking straight at him, Chris lost control of his bladder. But still, he didn’t move. The colossal monster made no move for him, and Chris could see by the thing’s wide gait, that he wouldn’t be stepped on.

Just stay still. Don’t draw attention. Don’t fucking move.

The sound of a new roar turned his head skyward. It sounded different from the two Kaiju, whose roars sounded like a mix of tubas and high pitched violins gargling water through a loud-speaker. This new sound was crisp. Modern. The white streak across the sky confirmed it.

A missile.

Just one.

The military didn’t have a strong presence in this part of the world. This missile must have come from far away—the ocean on the other side of the peninsula that was southern Thailand.

Chris tracked its path and then looked ahead. It was going to strike the man-monster. An easy target. Then he realized where it was going to hit.

“No,” he whispered. “God, no!”

Back to his feet, Chris ran for the shore. He tripped and fell into the muddy bank, getting tangled in the roots and slippery grime. He spun around as he fought to free himself, just in time to see it happen.

The missile struck the manly Kaiju’s chest. It disappeared with a
whump
and a small burst of flame. For a moment, he thought that was the end of it, that the missile had failed to inflict any damage at all. But then he saw the spray of orange liquid jet out of the monster’s chest. Before he could scream, or pray or fully comprehend what he was seeing, the world turned white and disappeared.

31

The worst part about staying in a hospital for two weeks isn’t the food. I’ve probably gained five pounds in chocolate pudding. And this time, it’s not the company. My roommate is Endo, and we’ve been pretty content to not speak to each other much. No, what really irks me is that I’m helpless to stop the global rampage being carried out by three of Gordon’s Kaiju. With nothing else to do but lay in bed, I’ve named them all.

There is Scylla, who first appeared in Sydney and worked its way along Australia’s southern coast. It’s a sharp-toothed monstrosity with a hammerhead. I named the second Kaiju to emerge from the ocean, Karkinos, one of the two monsters who attacked the port of Hong Kong. In many ways, it resembles Nemesis. The spikes. The long tail. But the eyes are all wrong, and the claws on its hands have fused together, forming two large blades, like serrated shears. It’s the third Kaiju, Typhon, that really freaks me out. It stands tall on two legs. Like a man...a man dressed in Nemesis skin: spikes, carapace and all. Not only is it powerful, but in the video footage, it appears to think before acting. Considering strategies. While the others seem to be all instinct, Typhon has a brain. The fourth Kaiju, Drakon, the svelte lizard-like monster, hasn’t been seen since it rescued Gordon in Rockport.