The thing Leland Lafayette Shaw ('Lee' to his friends, 'Shaw' to his colleagues, and 'Lieutenant' to everybody else) liked about wildebeests was that he didn't have to take it personally when they tried to kill him. Not like the razorwings or the teethfaces or whatever the hell it was Billy had named his latest monster breed. Teethfaces wanted you dead in a personal and intimate way, one that was going to end up with you on their dinner plate, or them on yours.
Wildebeests, though. Wildebeests were just scared, stampeding animals, and they'd even avoid stepping on you, if they could. They only wanted to get away from whatever had set them off. They had no specific desire to see you dead.
It was cold comfort to know that when they were stampeding right over the toy overhang he, Billy, and Kei were huddled beneath, but at least it was comfort.
He had Kei under one arm, Bill under the other. Both cradled against his chest, with his own back closest to the overhang. That was the job: keep his eggheads safe. They were all so close to face-down in the dirt he wasn't sure they wouldn't suffocate in it, but at least if one of the huge antelope broke through the overhang and landed on them, it was Lee's own back that would get broken first. His body that would protect Kei and Billy from being pulped. Any brawn would do, but there was no Monarch without them.
The thundering of hooves overhead was lessening, although once the wildebeests passed there would be the issue of what had set them off. Billy would be hoping it was one of his damn Titans, but it wasn't. Not one of the really huge ones like Godzilla, anyway. The whole earth would be shaking, and they'd hear its roars from however far away it was. Maybe one of the smaller ones, a MUTO only twenty feet high or fifty long. Lee would be just as happy if it had been some idiot with a gun, hoping to shoot himself a wildebeest.
One problem at a time, though. The hoofbeats were nearly gone now, far enough behind them that Billy started to uncurl. Lee tightened his arm, holding the scientist in place while he waited. Stragglers could still be coming over the outcropping, and he'd hate to lose one of his eggheads to impatience. Finally even the dust began to settle and he relaxed, ducking his head as Billy twisted his neck to look up.
They weren't just close enough to kiss. They were positioned for it, heads angled just so. If it'd been Kei, Lee would have risked the slap, or the punch in the nose, and taken advantage of the moment. With Billy, he only froze, gazing straight into Bill's blue eyes. Funny: the way Bill drew his eyebrows down in his intense frown always made Lee think the other man had brown eyes like Keiko, but they were as light as Lee's own.
Bill wet his lips, and—
