Mayday: A Kaiju Thriller

Chapter Twenty

I heard Dr Russell squelch through the mud and push through the tent flap behind me. She gasped.

“Catherine,” I said over my shoulder in a low voice. “Get back inside. Find us those parasites.” When I didn’t hear her moving, I glanced back. “Now, Doctor.”

She nodded without looking at me and backed slowly inside. I turned my attention forwards again. Priya was a few feet in front of me, frozen like me.

“Priya.” I held my hand out, beckoned. “Come on. Slowly.”

Priya kept her eyes on the Maydays around us as she stepped back and put her hand in mine. Her palm was clammy with sweat and rain.

Another ripple of lightning rolled across the clouds. Serraton was edging forward to our left. Like Grotesque, Serraton was almost reptilian in nature, but his slender body and long, thin limbs were more reminiscent of a snake or a Chinese dragon. A long tail ending in a fin swept back and forth behind him, while his narrow snout formed a blade that ended in a sharp, curved point. He lacked the weight of the heavier Maydays, but during the war he’d loved using surprise to launch his attack, frequently slipping undetected through shallow harbours before making landfall, or on a few occasions digging his way through softer earth to burst out in the middle of a city, consuming terrified civilians as they tried to flee from a monster they couldn’t keep track of.

I pulled Priya back. Serraton fell to all fours, nimble like a cat, and started forward.

Tempest roared. The screeching, tortured sound froze Serraton in his tracks. The slender Mayday tossed his head and glared at us with his big black eyes. A blue frill flicked open from the sides of his neck and he growled threateningly. But he didn’t take another step.

“They’re not attacking,” I said.

“It’s Yllia,” Priya said. “They’re afraid she’s infected.”

“Then why the hell are they all here? Don’t they have better things to do? They’re free, Volkov’s dead, why don’t they bugger off to stomp some other city?”

“Maybe they think we’re a threat.”

I stared at Tempest across the forest that separated us. He snorted, steam rising from his nostrils. Is that it? Are you scared, big guy? How does it feel?

“You reckon that fire-breathing attack of his can reach us from there?” I asked.

“I don’t know. I don’t think so. Maybe he could start a forest fire, but it’s so wet I don’t know if it would catch.”

“Let’s hope you’re right.” Serraton was on all fours, straining like a dog on an invisible leash. “And let’s hope he can keep that one under control.”

“We’ve got to get out of here,” Priya said.

“You won’t hear me arguing.” I ran through the scenarios in my head. They had us pretty much boxed in. We’d have to go straight through them to get back towards the city. That wasn’t going to end well. We could retreat further east, but Grotesque was still unaccounted for. He could be circling around behind us as we stood here, just waiting for us to run.

I couldn’t see a way out. The skin of my throat itched, tightened. I forced myself to breathe. I couldn’t panic. But this was terrifying. We weren’t anonymous souls running around a city as a Mayday stomped blindly through. Tempest had made this personal. He knew who we were, who I was. And he was hunting us.

I tugged Priya’s hand. “Let’s go back inside. I think we’ve got a bit of time before they get too impatient and try to burn us out.”

She nodded and we backed away together. It didn’t look like she had any better ideas. Maybe she didn’t like me, and maybe I didn’t trust her, but neither of those feelings would stop us being crushed beneath a Mayday’s foot. We had to stick together, for now at least.