Interview with Corporal Kimi Jayden, heroine/ protagonist of JAGANNATH
I got lucky the other day and managed to squeeze in a few minutes of an interview with Corporal Kimi Jayden in the North Georgia Renegade Enclave’s weapons locker room. Kimi is the heroine/ protagonist of JAGANNATH, and I’m sharing this interview so you the reader can get to know her a little better. She’s an intimidating woman, let me tell you. She’s not only super-hot and sexy, with that short, wavy, flaming red hair and those captivating emerald green eyes, but she’s also a bad-ass soldier and a tough, lethal killing machine. I wouldn’t want to come across her as an enemy. Wiry, strong, mega flexible (like a pro gymnast in her prime), and damn, the girl is fast! Every move she makes is fluid, seemingly calculated but simultaneously spontaneous. After I popped my eyeballs back in their sockets, I stumbled through my interview.
Here it is:
The Reality Bender: Hi, Kimi. It’s an honor and pleasure to meet you. How are you today?
Kimi: Busy. What do you want?
TRB: Well, I, uhh... was hoping I could get a quick interview.
Kimi (donning her battle gear): It damn well better be quick. I got a world to try to save here, in case you didn’t notice.
TRB: Yeah, well, I did, in fact. I sure am glad you’re one of the good guys. We need more soldiers like you.
Kimi: Don’t patronize me, buddy. I don’t have time for that crap. So get to the point.
TRB: Right. Sorry. I, uhh—
Kimi: I don’t want your half-ass apologies either. Lily needs me. She’s out there all alone, and the Reaper wants her bad. We don’t have much time before it figures out how to kill her, or takes her somewhere we’ll never find her. Every second counts.
TRB: Understood. So how did you find out about Lily, and what’s so special about her?
Kimi: If you met her, you’d know why she’s so special. One of our hoverships was on a recon and rescue mission in Savannah, Georgia. They filmed a holovid of their operation—that’s a holographic video—and relayed it back real-time to our Enclave. We’d heard rumors about a young girl who’s immune to Reaper absorption, but they were sketchy, and came from a bunch of unreliable refugees who were so shell-shocked and hyper-tweaked they would’ve said anything to save their asses. But we had to check it out. The hovership filmed the Reaper trying to absorb Lily, and failing. Do you have any idea how amazing that is?
TRB: How amazing what is?
Kimi (scoffs and shakes her head): Are you even paying attention? How amazing it is that anyone could be immune to Reaper absorption. It’s unheard of, like an urban legend.
TRB: So you mean, like, everybody can be, umm, absorbed by this Reaper creature?
Kimi (rolls her eyes): How else do you think the damn thing has nearly destroyed civilization and sixty-plus percent of the world’s population?
TRB: Wow. That’s... horrible. So what exactly is this monster, this Reaper?
Kimi: Where the hell have you been hiding? It’s like a slime creature that can change its shape and form. It rose up out of the ocean sixteen years ago. Hello, do you not watch the news flashes? Have you not seen the cities burning? It can assume the likeness of anything it absorbs. Worse, it can read the minds of any creature it absorbs, animal or human, and guess what? It likes the monsters from our nightmares the most. It killed my whole family fifteen years ago, when I was just thirteen, and I couldn’t do a damn thing to stop it. I’m lucky as hell it didn’t get me. I still hear their screams as it absorbed them.
TRB: Unbelievable. I’m... really sorry for your loss.
Kimi: Yeah? Well, doesn’t matter anymore. Because I’m gonna kill that fucker, one way or another.
TRB: I have no doubt you are. And I swear I’m not patronizing you. But how? It seems indestructible.
Kimi: Any damn way I can. For one thing, it’s flammable. Our flamethrowers are kick-ass weapons against it. And the gel guns make its flesh harden and crystallize. That’s the best invention since fire to destroy the damn thing. But we need a better weapon. And we think Lily is it.
TRB: Yeah, Lily. Why? She seems like a helpless kid. What can she do?
Kimi (squinting at me): Helpless, hell. She’s the bravest little kid I’ve ever seen, even though she doesn’t know it. Yet. That thing killed her family too, you know? But she still managed to survive somehow. And I gotta save her. We think her DNA can turn things around. There’s something magic in her blood. She may be our only hope left. And she needs me.
(Kimi’s eyes get hard and shimmery, and I see the fierce compassion in them. This woman is determined to save that little girl, even if the rest of the human race perishes in the process.)
TRB: God, I hope like hell you can save her. So... what’s the plan? What’s next?
Kimi: We lost Lily to that damn thing once—I lost her—and that’s not gonna happen again. I’m going to get her back, and get her away from that worthless slimy piece of shit. And bring her back here, where she’ll be safe. Then we’re gonna learn how to use her magic to save the rest of us. Then I’m gonna hunt down that motherfucker and rip its heart out with my bare fucking hands. And you’re in my damn way. So move.
TRB: Yes, ma’am. Best of luck to you. I hate to resort to a cliché, but we’re all counting on you.
Kimi: Yeah? Well, make yourself useful for a change, instead of carrying around a damn microphone and asking a bunch of stupid questions. Go see the scientists and help them figure out a way to make Lily’s magic save us all. When I bring her back. Because I’m damn well going to bring her back, alive and safe, and you fuckers better be ready to make her mojo work. You got that, Mr. Interview Man?
TRB: Yes, ma’am. Good luck, Kimi, and Godspeed.
(with her back to me, she flips me a bird on her way out)
***
Man, you should see that woman storming out of the weapons locker room, all confidence and determination in her stride. If there’s any chance to save the human race from extinction, it’s in her capable hands.
I almost feel sorry for this Reaper creature.
Almost.
***
Kerry Alan Denney: Author Bio
Colleagues and readers alike have dubbed Kerry Alan Denney
The Reality Bender. The multiple award-winning author of the post-apocalyptic sci-fi/ horror thriller
JAGANNATH (Permuted Press February 3, 2015 – e-book ISBN 978-1618684134, trade paperback ISBN 978-1618684127) and the paranormal thriller
SOULSNATCHER (Lazy Day Publishing April 29, 2014 – ISBN 978-1499251777) as well as six more novels and numerous short stories, Kerry blends elements of the supernatural, paranormal, sci-fi, fantasy, and horror in his work: speculative fiction at its wildest and craziest. With joy, malicious glee, and a touch of madness, he writes reality-bending thrillers—even when the voices don’t compel him to. His protagonists are his children, and he loves them as dearly as he despises his antagonists... even when he has to kill them.
Kerry lives near Stone Mountain, Georgia with his Golden retriever Holly Jolly, a professional Therapy Dog, and is currently writing his next supernatural novel and trying his best to remain rooted in this dimension—and deciding which characters he’s going to kill.
Kerry’s The Reality Bender
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Twitter (@KerryDenney)
