“Then they have mine,” the vice president said. “Well, shall we get this thing along?” He looked down at the document in his hand. “Huh, so that’s the name he decided on?”
The commander forced a smile. “The acronym fits, at least.”
“I suppose it does.”
“You wouldn’t be able to change—”
“I’m afraid not.”
“Of course.”
The vice president cleared his throat. “It is my great honor to appoint on this day, by the power invested in me by the people and government of the United States of America, the official creation of the Strategic Taskforce Against Titanic Intrusive Creatures. STATIC.” He folded up the document and gave them all a warm smile. “And that’s it. You guys are official. I have faith you’ll do great work here.”
The vice president practically jumped out of his suit as a loud siren blared throughout the room. “What on earth?”
“Sorry, sorry,” Devonte said, “that’s my early warning system.” He regarded all of the confused faces staring at him. “It’s something I programmed and installed with Brannigan’s help.”
“Did you feel that, Devonte? That bump was you running me over with the bus you just threw me under,” Brannigan said, rolling his eyes.
“It scrapes the web looking for…weirdness that could be related to kaiju. The alarm lets us know there is something we should check out…”
“Well?” Commander MacPherson asked.
“What?”
“Go check it out!”
“Oh, right,” Devonte jogged over to the computer terminal and pulled up the alert on the big screen situated at the center of the room. “Seems like there have been a lot of bodies turning up in the Everglades with all of the fluid drained from their bodies.” He clicked another link. “Oh, there’s a video.” He hit play.
On the screen, a man appeared to be spearfishing in the shallower waters of the swamp. He stabbed down into the water and a warbling shriek crackled through the speakers in the room.
“What the fuck was that?” the cameraman asked.
“Probably just some bird or somethi—wait, something just touched my leg.”
“Man, don’t mess with me like that,” the cameraman said.
“I’m not, something definitely just slithered past my leg.”
“It’s a snake, man.”
“No, it’s way to bi—”
The man stumbled backwards and fell into the marsh water.
“Jason,” the cameraman shouted.
Jason’s body came back into view as something like a long rope lashed up out of the water. The black tendril had latched itself onto Jason’s face. His muffled screams were clearly audible on the video.
“Oh my god. Oh fuck. Oh…oh god,” the cameraman kept repeating. “What do I…what is that?”
Jason kicked and struggled against the tendril latched onto his face, but it didn’t last. There was a sound like water being flushed down a drain, and Jason’s body began to shrivel until only a mummified corpse remained. The tendril whipped Jason’s body around, finally releasing it and flinging it away into the distance with a splash.
The cameraman had started backing away slowly, and the footage became shakier, his hands obviously trembling in fear. There was another warbling shriek and several of the tendrils rose from the swamp like periscopes on a submarine.
“Please god, no,” the cameraman said as the tendrils swiveled in his direction. Each one had a mouth on the end. These mouths all screamed in unison and slithered their way towards the cameraman.
One of the tendrils lashed out ahead of the others and suctioned itself to the camera lens. Several rows of needle-thin teeth were visible for a few seconds before the cameraman jerked the camera free of the tendril mouth. At this point the cameraman lost the rest of his bravery. The rest of the video consisted of footage of the man’s furious sprint back to the airboat he and his friend used to get about, his panicked efforts to climb into said airboat, and the escape from the marsh. All the while, in the background the shrieks of whatever caught his friend rang out like a banshee shrieking, chasing him through the swamp.
“Supposedly,” Devonte said scrolling through a new article, “the cameraman is being held in prison in Sunset, Florida on suspicion of killing his friend and fabricating the video as a cover-up. I don’t know about you guys, but face-hugging tentacles seem up our alley, right?” He looked up at his teammates.
“Well,” the vice president said, “I think I should let you all get to work. I’ll see myself out.”
“Thank you for coming, sir,” Commander MacPherson said, then flipping her switch from polite to commanding, she barked, “Alright STATIC, this is our first real mission. Load up the mobile base, prep the jet, and let’s do our damn jobs.”
“What’s the plan, Commander?” Brannigan asked
“Well for starters, it looks like we’re going to Florida.”
END
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Acknowledgments
Monsters often are sympathetic creatures at heart. Sure they ravage, devastate, and destroy. But oftentimes they don’t mean it, they simply can’t help it. When I started writing, I started down one path, but at the end of the day, I simply couldn’t help but write this kind of story. Giant monsters are in my blood, in my soul. I love them. This story owes itself to that love, but to many of the people in my life as well.
Thank you of course to my parents, without whom there’s no guarantee I’d know what a kaiju is. From one film to a lifelong obsession with giant monsters is not necessarily an expected step, but hopefully one that you appreciate and are proud of!
A thank you to Luke and Lauren, who read every draft of every wild-brained idea I wake up with. Almost 100K words later, I’m sure they didn’t completely expect the depth to which my brain plumbs. I appreciate your willingness to read the roughest of drafts and offer kind and useful critiques.
A huge thanks to everyone who has contributed to the Kaiju genre in all of its mediums, paving the way and generating the interest that makes books like these possible.
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