Strandline

Strandline - Episode 11: Soylent Green

Although Petra’s blood-streaked face was directly in front of Kristin, the image of the monster filled her mind’s eye. Godzilla, Kristin thought. It felt like an accusation.

“Of course we’ll come,” Craig said.

Kristin’s peripheral vision caught Naveen nodding. “Let’s go.”

He took Kristin’s hand. She flinched. “Um…” All eyes turned to her. Did they blame her? It was to dark for her to tell from their expressions, and she didn’t dare lower her mental shields. “What would we do?”

Naveen’s laugh was half amused and half frustrated. “You guys are, like, superheroes! Throw a car at it with your minds or something.”

Kristin blinked and turned to Petra. “We can do that?”

“No!” Petra’s vehemence took them by surprise. To Kristin she said, “We’ll think of something. Follow me.” She disappeared with a flash of light.

“You’ve got ‘Veen?” Craig asked.

“No!” Kristin shot back. “I mean, yes, but hold on a minute! We don’t know what we’re doing, and how the hell do I follow Petra?”

“Oh, right,” Craig said, chagrined. “I’ll teach you later. Let me steer for now.” His hand clapped down on Kristin’s shoulder, teleporting the three of them to what she figured was karma catching up with her.

Smoke burned Kristin’s throat as she tried to get her bearings. Blue and red lights flashed from fire engines and police cars haphazardly parked along a wide city road. A few cars had crashed or jumped the curb on to the sidewalk and sat abandoned. Some odd-shaped lumps also dotted the sidewalk. Kristin hoped they weren’t people.

Down! Petra’s mental voice ordered. Kristin, Craig, and Naveen dropped to their knees. Her hand–one of which clasped Naveen’s–touched cool grass. Somewhat surprised, she glanced around. They crouched behind a bench in a small, narrow park. The boulevard, which was eerily silent and still, was directly ahead. On the far side of the road smoke poured from an industrial-looking cluster of buildings. A line of palm trees attempted to beautify the utilitarian facade. The flames lapping from the top of one of half-crushed, cylindrical towers made the effort futile.

“The power plant,” Craig whispered.

The ground shuddered, just barely. Kristin exchanged wide-eyed looks with Naveen and Craig. Petra, who was on Naveen’s left, stared grimly ahead. Bryce sat to her left with his back to the bench and the destruction beyond. Blood stained the gauze wrapping his hand. His shoulders slumped, and his eyes were half-open.

The ground trembled again. It felt like it was coming from the somewhere to the right.

Naveen’s hand tightened around Kristin’s. “Is that the monster?” he asked.

“Yes,” Petra replied. “Walking.”

“Shit.” Kristin fully agreed with Craig’s sentiment.

Metal groaned and snapped, and a piece of sheet metal the size of a Volkswagon flew over the ruined tower. It sailed across the street and crashed into something–presumably a building–out of sight. A glass-fronted building judging from the crash and pattering of glass hitting pavement.

After releasing Kristin’s hand, Naveen peered over the bench to the right. “Why aren’t we throwing cars at it?”

Petra frowned at Naveen. “Look.”

The monster’s footsteps thudded a few more times before it rounded the corner of of the power plant and moved into view. The roughly human-shaped giant stood four stories tall and half as wide. Its bulk blocked some of the police lights, casting a swath of black down the road.

“Fire!” a male voice shouted. Canisters spewing smoke pelted the creature. Its scream sent chills up Kristin’s spine as it swung one house-sized leg to boot a police car aside. The handful of cries that joined the monster’s were eerily similar.

Horror gripped Kristin, and the strobing lights confirmed her suspicion. People–dozens of them–made up the lumbering creature. Narrow, whirling spotlights of red and blue showed a suited businessman’s arms and torso here, and the legs of someone in bloodstained white pants there. Somehow they pushed and pulled on each other to form a whole. The mouths she could see hung wide open and screaming. Some limbs twisted at unnatural angles. The giant left wide, bloody footprints in its wake. Those unfortunate enough to make up the monster’s feet were likely mincemeat by now.

Kristin managed to turn away from the others before her dinner came back up. A hand–Petra’s? Naveen’s?–held her hair back as she emptied her stomach. Had she unwittingly helped create this creature? Was it part of the Godzilla project? The thought made her stomach twist some more.

The monster screamed again, and Bryce cursed. “Water cannons. Like that’ll stop it.”

Kristin sat up straight and turned around in time to see Craig give Bryce a sour look. “What do you suggest they do, then?”

“Unless they have a witch on duty, they’re pretty much screwed. They’re trying to fight magic with brute force!”

“Magic?” Naveen echoed.

Bryce studied Naveen for a long moment. “You could stop it.”

Naveen rolled his eyes. “You want me to run up and kick it in its people-shin?”

“You’re a golem, you idiot. You’ll suck it dry!”

“What the fuck are you talking about?!”

“He’s right, Naveen,” Craig said softly.

Petra turned to Bryce. “Are you sure?”

“I am not a fucking golem, whatever the fuck that is!”

“Pretty sure,” Bryce replied as if Naveen hadn’t said a word.

Craig, Petra, and Bryce exchanged a look. Kristin guessed what they were planning, and she didn’t like it. “No!” she said. “Not against his will.”

Petra gave her a rueful smile.

Kristin lunged at her, but Naveen vanished before she collided with the other woman. “You bitch!”

The monster wailed with a hundred voices. Kristin scrambled to her feet in time to see the giant crumble. Bodies tumbling to the asphalt in a writhing mass. She didn’t see Naveen anywhere.

Soldiers, police, and medics rushed up to the human pile. Craig was gaping at the carnage as well, but Petra and Bryce hadn’t even gotten up. “Naveen’s in there!” Kristin said, waving at the chaos at the end of the block. “He could be hurt, or worse. Don’t you care?”

Bryce met her eyes easily. “Yes, but there’s no way I’m running up to a bunch of soldiers.”

“I’m not leaving Bryce,” Petra said. “He’s too weak.” Kristin glared at the older woman, who nodded wearily. “It had to be done. I’ll accept the consequences.”

Disgusted, Kristin turned her back on them and hurried over to the carnage. Craig soon caught up with her. “She’s right,” he said softly.

“I thought you’re his friend,” Kristin said without slowing her pace.

“I am!”

Kristin sniffed.

One of the soldiers stopped Kristin and Craig one hundred feet from the monster’s remains. As she debated “Jedi mind-tricking” the soldier to let them pass, the pile of bodies shuddered. A portion of it rose up a few feet. Several still bodies slid aside. An arm poked out, followed by broad shoulders, and a dark-haired head emerged.

“Naveen!” Kristin shouted.

His head lifted, and Kristin gasped.

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If you’re scratching your head over this episode’s title, it’s named after this movie: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soylent_Green