Mayday: A Kaiju Thriller

Chapter Twenty-Seven

“Get in the car,” I said.

No one moved. They all stared towards the rapidly approaching footsteps.

“Get in the fucking car!” I yelled. I went for the driver’s door, tried to reach for the handle with my broken arm, and changed my mind. “Lindsey, you’re driving.”

Lindsey swept past me and started the car. I ran around the other side and helped Dr Russell into the back seat. I turned back for Priya.

“I have to keep contact with the infant,” she said.

“To hell with that,” I said. “Whatever you’re doing, stop it. It’s bringing Tempest right to us.”

I reached for her arm, but she flinched away. “It’s too late. If I let go, the others won’t be able to recapture Nasir and Serraton. Tempest knows where the infant is now. I don’t know how, but he knows. There’s some connection—”

“Fine,” I said. “Bring the ugly thing with you.”

I reached into the back of the station wagon and touched the infant. Tiny flickers of electricity seemed to hum through my fingers. My palm sunk into the slimy, fleshy skin. I took some of the weight with my good arm and Priya took the rest. Together, we lifted it out of the empty tank and carried it around to the back seat. As Priya sat down, the infant rested in her lap like the ugliest cat I’d ever seen. Its breathing seemed to get louder.

I slammed the door, ran to the back and shut the boot, then jumped into the front passenger seat. I had enough time to put on my seatbelt before Tempest’s head appeared over the tree line in the distance. My heart stopped.

Lindsey slammed the car into reverse and put her foot down. The station wagon’s tyres squealed on the rain-slicked concrete for a moment. Then the rubber caught and I was thrown forwards as the car hurtled backwards across the broken ground.

“We can’t outrun him,” Dr Russell said. “We have to hide.”

“There’s nowhere to hide,” I said. Lindsey spun the car, put it in drive, and took off onto the road. I kept my eyes on the side mirror. Tempest carved a swathe through the forest, scattering trees like they were toothpicks. “Keep driving.”

“It’s what I’m doing, isn’t it?” Lindsey snapped. She tugged hard on the wheel to take a corner. We were forced to follow the winding, narrow roads across the island. Tempest wasn’t. He continued straight for us, each step of his twelve legs bringing him closer.

Lindsey’s driving was taking us further east, further inland. The car climbed up the increasingly steep roads, winding around the low mountain, carrying us past a river swollen with rainwater.

“This doesn’t make any sense,” Priya said.

I was half-listening as I watched Tempest grow larger in the mirror. “What doesn’t?”

“This connection I have to Tempest through the infant. I can’t break it. Why is it only Tempest? Why not the other Maydays as well?”

Lindsey threw the car into another turn. We slid along the outside of the bend, one tyre skimming the edge of the road. A monstrous foot slammed into the road fifty metres back, cracking the surface.

“Faster, Lindsey. Faster,” I said.

“I swear to God, Boss, one of these days I’m going to—”

A claw fell from the sky and skewered the road right in front of us. Lindsey slammed on the brakes and pulled us around. The car slid to the right, past the claw. It skimmed along the outside of the car with a nails-on-chalkboard sound, shearing off the side mirror. I was close enough to see the grain of Tempest’s claw as we flew past.