Kaiju Preservation Society(18)

“Oh, shit,” I said. I actually backed out of my chair.

“There’s another one,” Kahurangi called out, from a window on the other side of the cabin. I went over to him and looked where he was looking.

This other kaiju was just as brain-defyingly large. It looked at us briefly, then turned its attention back to the first kaiju. It was also too close, and we were also getting closer.

In fact, our path was taking us directly between them. Into the middle of whatever they were doing, or were about to do to us.

“Well, this seems bad,” I said to Kahurangi. I turned back and yelled at Tom. “I thought we were supposed to be climbing!”

“We are climbing!” he said.

Not fast enough, I was about to say, when one of the kaiju screamed like a thousand jet engines suddenly ignited, and drowned out the possibility of hearing anything else, ever.

That is, until the kaiju on the other side of the airship answered, just as loudly. I wasn’t aware it was possible to go completely deaf in stereo.

The screaming stopped, or at least I thought it stopped; it was possible my eardrums had simply melted. Then came another rumbling, again in stereo. Someone screamed from inside the cabin. I looked back out the window and saw the kaiju on this side lumbering toward the airship, slowly but then picking up speed in a way that should be impossible given how large it actually was.

I turned to warn the folks on the other side of the cabin, and noticed through those windows the second kaiju running up on us just as quickly.

Ridiculously, I ducked.

There was a thundering sound and a jolt, and I was sure the cabin would soon tear itself apart, but it didn’t. The noise was from below us; the sound of two kaiju colliding. We had actually climbed enough for them to miss us.

It took me a couple of seconds to realize they weren’t trying to kill us. They were trying to kill each other.

The Shobijin turned slightly to the southwest, and the starboard side of the airship was treated to the spectacle of two creatures the size of skyscrapers trying to beat the crap out of each other. Kahurangi and I watched, joined by the other newbies and Tom.

“What the hell just happened?” I asked Tom. I waved at the kaiju fight. “How did the pilots miss this?”

“We have trackers on the adult kaiju,” Tom said. “Sometimes we lose the signal. Which means sometimes they show up where we don’t expect them.”

“Yeah, like alongside our fucking airship,” Niamh said.

“They look like terrain, until they don’t.” Tom pointed to one of them. “That’s Kevin.”

“Really?” Niamh said. “Fucking Kevin?”

“He’s a local. I don’t know who the other one is. It might be a new adult, looking to claim territory.”

“So, this is a turf war,” Kahurangi said.

Tom gave the tensest shrug I think I’ve ever seen someone give. “Maybe. Could be a mating thing.”

A massive chunk of kaiju flew into the air, trailing viscera as it did. Deafening screaming flooded the cabin.

“Maybe not,” Tom amended, when we could all hear again.

The kaiju who was not Kevin was stumbling away from Kevin now, crashing through trees in the general direction of the Shobijin.

“Oh, no, no, no, run the other way, you dim-witted pile of rock,” Niamh said.

“It’s all right,” Tom said. “Kevin’s not going after the other one.”

“Okay, but what about that?” Aparna said, and pointed.

We all looked. Kevin had gouged up a clot of ground the size of a small park in his massive clawed fist and had cocked back a gargantuan arm.

“Tool user,” Aparna whispered, almost to herself. I stared at her, half-impressed she could be thinking about science at a time like this.

The speakers popped on. “Uhhhhhh, I would recommend seat belts right about now,” Roderigo Perez-Schmidt said.

We dived for our seats.

As I clicked in, I saw Kevin pitch the small park in the direction of the other kaiju, which meant in our direction as well. The massive clod flew apart, and one sizable chunk sailed right toward us.

That has trees in it, my brain said, and then the entire cabin violently rocked and swayed as the spray of earth and rock and trees pelted the Shobijin at an oblique angle, pummeling the airship before falling prey to gravity.

We did not fall prey to gravity. We stayed afloat. And kept going.

“How are we even alive?” Niamh asked, again speaking for all of us. “We were hit by trees.”

“I told you this thing was tough,” Tom said.

I looked around the cabin. Windows were shattered but had stayed in their frames. Carry-ons had dislodged from their cubbyholes. One woman didn’t make it to her seat on time and was now holding the side of her head with a small trickle of blood oozing out, but otherwise, everyone seemed safe. Tom was right. The Shobijin looked ramshackle, but it survived the attack.

Well, survived two kaiju attacking each other and being collateral damage. Which I think was as close as I wanted to get to actually being attacked by a kaiju.

“Tell me it isn’t always like this,” I said to Tom. “Trees being chucked at us by a kaiju, I mean.”

“First time it’s ever happened to me,” Tom promised.

The speakers clicked on again. “Gold Team, just reported into Tanaka Base. You’ll be happy to know Kevin’s tracker is safe and sound and reporting in from eighty klicks away,” Perez-Schmidt said. “Best thinking is one of his parasites dislodged it somehow. Anyway, now some of us will have a new mission on the schedule, getting him another tracker. Sorry about the surprise. If we’d known, we’d have taken her up before we hit land. The good news is we’re still on schedule and we don’t anticipate any more surprises between here and base.” He clicked off.