KAIJU AU

[penguinfaery]

It had been just shy of 15 years since the monster had come to New York City.

One day it had just come from the sea. Of course there were conspiracies, that it was a US government conspiracy, that it was a Russian one, or a Japanese one, or who ever was a convenient target to point a finger at then.

But after the city was mostly flattened, the whole world took a hit, a big one. If any government had made the beast, they must be regretting it as well. The economy tanked world wide, and even now, it's still just starting to recover.

The beast couldn't be beat. It absorbed nuclear attacks, bombs made no dents in it, and no toxin seemed to work on it. And it didn't seem to worried about leaving the city, though no one new entirely why. Getting visuals, among all the burning destruction became hard, and whatever allowed it to absorb nuclear attacks sent all our equipment haywire.

With no idea how to handle the situation, the world governments decided to do the only options b they could find. They quarantined it. A massive wall was built all around the city, on the far shores and into the sea. There were great doubts that the wall would hold the beast back, but it was presented as a band-aid, a way to give them time.

Except the monster never tried to leave. And the research didn't show anything. And the guards around the wall became more laxed. And the world moved on.

A black market struck up, people who risk the tunnels and the bridges to hunt for treasures in the city. People left, and people left fast. Some are paid to search for specific objects (or at least to claim they do), some just go looking for whatever they can fine. Urban legends sprawl far and wide, that the beast settled to breed, that the town was over run with smaller monsters, that if you made a sounds or did a certain action it would find you no matter what, that if you held still it couldn't see you...no one really knows anything. The research that has been done gets passed around again and again, but it tells little.

But there's plenty that take the risk, anyway.

Comments

[the_prisoner]

This moment was just freakin' surreal, and Eddie took a step back, assessing the situation. This old man had just done a 180, but he also looked harmless.

Except he doesn't, not really. A voice whispered in the back of his mind. But it didn't have a lot of time to sweet talk him, because before he could entirely decided how he felt about Old Yellar here, he heard the sound every one in the zone hated to hear.

The low, rhythmic vibrations started as more feeling, than sound, but Godzilla out there must be in a tizzy today, cause it was moving fast

"I am trying to go to cover, and you better do the same."

No time to get out of the zone, so Eddie started moving, looking for one of the old entrances to the subway.

[ka_sera_sera]

Roland knows better than to hold them up asking stupid questions. Instead he keeps pace with Eddie, one part of him trying to figure out those vibrations and the rest trying to follow the man's gaze. It's almost a relief that something's happening now, something urgent and dangerous that can occupy his thoughts instead of the fear over Susannah and Jake, over his Eddie. He does not think on this consciously or for long but he does feel himself relax, his whole bearing going easier, his expression sharper and more alert than it'd been a moment ago. "What kind of cover are we looking for? Houses won't do?"

[the_prisoner]

"Down. It's gonna be safer if we can get down. She can plow over buildings if she's pissed off enough."

Sometimes humans can seem to be below it's delicate sensibilities. Sometimes it'd root them out no matter how hard they hid. Nobody seemed to have any idea why some days it wanted to destroy every living thing it saw, and some days seemed a free pass, but given that it usually didn't coming running through the city's left overs at full speed, he didn't want it to even see them.

"Subway entrance would be best..." And like a sign from God, he caught one down the road they were passing.

But it wasn't close, and the thuds were starting to take shape, the large boom and sounds of destruction now audible with the vibrations.

"There. Come on."

[ka_sera_sera]

He comes on. As he does he considers the rate at which those vibrations are getting stronger, the sounds in the distance. A signpost lists to one side as they pass it, shaken further out of its foundation with the shaking of the ground. "What are her weak spots?"

This isn't the Eddie he knows, the Eddie he trusts to hold his own in combat and who'd know how to spot any enemy's vulnerable points and describe them. But he's a native of this world, and speaks of whatever it is that's coming with familiarity. Not that he's going to stop running, mind - not until there's no chance at all. But it looks like Roland may well need to know.

[the_prisoner]

"Ah, you know, she's ticklish on her right heel."

So wasting breath to be a wise ass with the safe haven almost a block and a half away is probably not smart, but hell, if he dies at least he'll die being himself.

And that's what really matters in the world.

And then the first leg crashed into their views, a huge sickly white thing, misjointed and as tall as the building it landed before.

"Ah fuck." Eddie said with a glance over his shoulder. He didn't think he could have upped his pace but suddenly, somehow, he found that extra little burs of energy.

[ka_sera_sera]

The look Roland sends the man beside him then is utterly reflexive, the flat and unimpressed one he's sent toward that face too often to be worth counting. But then Roland makes his first acquaintance with the beast, or with its leg, and that other path of thought is gone.

A small part in the back of Roland's mind wonders at this thing, spends an instant in awe of it. Wonders if this is another creation of the Great Old Ones run mad, or something even less natural. Something else.

But for now, the only thought the majority of Roland is concerned with is how to assess the situation, how to deal with it. He doesn't look around to get a better view of it, though. Wanting to look, wanting to see instead of run, is a common mistake and not something that is going to get the gunslinger killed today. Instead, he hears it. Hears the utter lack of another step for a long instant, hears grinding of rubble under that great foot as, presumably, the creature turns. Hears it take a breath, and thinks he may even be able to feel the force of that drawn breath ruffling his hair.

Then the other step comes, and this time Roland does look. The feet are aimed in their direction, and much more clearly so than before. "Turn!" he half-shouts, wanting to make sure he's heard. "She's looking for something! Let her pass us to find it!"

[the_prisoner]

"Let's hope to hell it's not us!" He yelled back over his shoulder. But then there was a place to duck in. One of the old places that went back and back and back.

He grabbed the man's shoulder again, jerking him to the side, and into the trashed interior of the restaurant. It had to be a sturdy building to be up, but if Godzilla here gave it some special attention, they were screwed.

"In here. Get back. All the way if you can. Look for a bathroom."

[ka_sera_sera]

Roland does not question it, lets Eddie lead them into the building and right into what looks like it used to be a kitchen. A moment later it becomes obvious Eddie's hopes, to hell or anywhere else, are about to be dashed.

"How long will this place-" How the building can take the creature's direct attention, Roland doesn't know yet. The back of it, if they can get there, is likely better. But this front room? How it takes her approach?

Not well.

The body beside him is more than familiar, has Eddie's look and sound and manner, and so Roland moves without thought to try and push that body against the near wall, meaning to spread his arms and bow his head and so become a shield for any debris. Without thought, of course, means that Roland is assuming Eddie will allow that, maybe even expect it. No time to think about whether or not that is going to be the case. They've only time enough to act.

[the_prisoner]

Luckily, if nothing else, Eddie has learned long ago to go with the flow. And this guy may be weird as hell, but he has phenomenal reflexes. Better than Eddie's.

So when he's pushed against the wall, he takes the shield as the building does it's best to shake down around them. And he looks towards the back, for an exit.

"All we've got now is-"

He's cut of by a shrill shriek that shakes more dust down around them, and then a huge twisting, crunch as she slams against the front, making the whole building sway.

"We're small. She's not. Out the back."

[ka_sera_sera]

As he runs - no hesitation, of course, because even if he did not trust Eddie's judgment here fear is helping make Roland's feet light and his body quick - a part of his mind is admiring Eddie. Even here, with a different life and (presumably) completely untrained, Eddie keeps his head now. Even now, with the noise and destruction and sheer presence of the thing very, very close. The size of it isn't anything Roland spends time or thought trying to quantify, but the creature is surely larger than anything in all but the most outlandish of all the old stories. Having it so close and rushing closer is an experience that even now is unimaginable. Indescribable.

"So fell Lord Perth," Roland finds himself muttering as he runs, and turns, and looks back. Too big, of course, to see all of it, certainly too tall to catch more than a glimpse of the head, but Roland does not look behind him without a purpose. He does not split from Eddie's path without a purpose, either, and yet now Roland is doing both.

"It's following me!" he shouts, using his very loudest, clearest voice. "Circle around! Get behind it!"