Chapter 1: Someday, Somewhere in the World…
Machine guns blazed in the night. Cannons roared. Explosions lit the sky, joined by flying sparks that danced through the air over a dark silhouette that loomed over the city. Then, over the sounds of gunfire and explosions came the booming shriek of the monster. The metal of an electrical tower twisted and broke. The electric wires that were supposed to have shielded the city snapped and twisted away through the air, the roar of the saurian beast growing louder and deeper, impossibly more terrifying than before. Its tail swung out, toppling another tower. Then, unfazed by the flames and smoke and the assault of the guns and tanks, the beast stalked towards the doomed city.
Fanged jaws parted and from within them fire came. The creature turned and twisted its head, spewing the flame in all directions, melting away what was left of the towers. Again it roared, a note of triumph in its fierce cry now as still it advanced. People screamed and fled before it, trampling one another in the streets that the colossus towered over. It turned its head, seemingly annoyed, and again let loose its flame. In an instant a whole city block had been consumed in fire, the flames rising high into the air but still stopping short of the full height of the gigantic creature that waded through them. It turned its attention again on screaming, fleeing people and once more turned its flame directly on them, their screams rising suddenly and then ceasing altogether.
Sirens wailed and bells rang. Buildings exploded before the dragon-like breath of the beast. Power lines snapped as its legs brushed through them. Cement crumbled and rained down on the streets as it passed through buildings as if they were made of nothing more than paper. People fell before its feet and then its feet fell down upon them.
Tanks rolled forward. Their cannons fired, the shells exploding against the thick hide of the monster. It roared down at them in fury, diverted from its path and advanced toward them. Here the full visage of the beast was illuminated by the fire, a great dinosaur like creature far larger than any ancient animal that had ever stalked the primordial past with blazing eyes and glistening fangs. The tanks rolled backwards, attempting to retreat as the monster charged towards them, not remotely hurt by the exploding shells. The jaws parted again and more flame gushed from the maw of the beast, consuming the tanks, the street, the nearby buildings, and sweeping further into the city, consuming everything in a sea of fire.
The lights in the room clicked on, causing the black and white images on the screen to fade.
“The Godzilla attack of 1954 devastated Tokyo.” Dr. Ethan Redmond explained to students gathered in the seminar room. “More than one hundred and twenty nine thousand people died and the cost of the damage was astronomical. But it’s the aftermath of those attacks that’s relevant to our discussion on nuclear energy policy.”
He paused, looking over his glasses at the students gathered in the Brooklyn College classroom.
“The predominant theory regarding Godzilla’s origins is that it was some form of sea creature, perhaps a relic prehistoric survivor, either awakened or, more likely, mutated, by radiation from nuclear tests in the Pacific conducted after 1946. Following the destruction of Tokyo and Godzilla’s death, testing of nuclear weapons was unofficially ceased by the United States and the Soviet Union. Neither nation wanted a radioactive monster leveling their cities, or, for that matter, to give the other side the opportunity to argue for reparations for nonaligned countries should their testing be implicated in such a monster’s creation. And yes, the Soviet Union did try to argue that the U.S. owed Japan reparations for Godzilla’s attack. Ask either your history or political science professors for the story on how the U.S. wiggled out of that one.”
The image of Godzilla could be seen, transparent on the screen in the lit room, tearing at Tokyo Tower with its teeth.
“However, as subsequent searches of the Pacific found no evidence of any other Godzillas, Cold War tensions began to push the nuclear issue. While the United States and Soviet Union eventually agreed to a limited test ban treaty, both international politics and the energy crisis of the 1970s drove nations around the globe to pursue nuclear energy both for military purposes and domestic energy production. Godzilla’s attack, of course…”
He stopped mid-sentence as he fumbled to switch videos, eventually changing the image to one of marching protestors, many of them carrying signs with crude drawings of Godzilla.
“Godzilla’s attack was cited by opponents of nuclear energy as a reason not to pursue further development of nuclear power, including here in the U.S. But as time has gone by and there have been nuclear power plants built and nuclear tests conducted from India to North Korea without anymore Godzillas appearing, nuclear power has again increased in political acceptability, particularly in response to the climate crisis. Which gets us to the contemporary debate on Indian Point.”
He glanced at his watch, irritated by how much time he seemed to have used up without realizing it.
“Alright, I guess I’ve kept you long enough for today. We’ll pick up this discussion next class.”
The students began filtering out of the room as he gathered his notes and shut off the godawful technology that he hated dealing with. Sometimes he felt like an old man in a young man’s body, only in his mid thirties but constantly feeling inept with modern devices that everyone else around him seemed to take for granted.
“Excuse me.”
He looked up, finding himself face to face with a pretty young woman he’d never seen in his class before. She must have noticed his puzzlement as she smiled and extended her hand.
“Dr. Redmond, I’m Keisha Williams. I was wondering if I could talk with you about Godzilla.”
***
“Why should I give a rat’s ass about something that happened almost seventy years ago?”
General Ruben Sanchez, the broad shouldered and bull-dog faced National Security Advisor, took a deep breath and reminded himself that he was speaking to the President of the United States.
“Sir, the sonar readings clearly show something large moving in the Pacific south of Japan. Considering the radioactive fall out from Fukushima about a decade ago it’s not out of the realm of possibility that it’s a new Godzilla or something very like that.”
President Ted Dale leaned back in his chair, placing his feet on the desk of the Oval Office, his brow wrinkling. Sanchez braced himself, knowing well that Dale’s brashness and combativeness was part of what his appeal to voters seemed to have been. His own appointment by President Dale had been something of a surprise, though he understood the political appeal. Not only had Dale needed to appeal to Latino voters but the decorated general’s reputation for toughness had appealed both to Dale’s political base and to his own hyper focus on appearing extra masculine. To his surprise though, the President did something he rarely did. He asked a question about the matter at hand.
“How big was Godzilla?”
Well, Sanchez decided, it was a start.
“Fifty meters sir.” Then, seeing the President’s brow wrinkle, “That’s one hundred and sixty four feet tall.”
“There are lots of buildings that are a lot taller than that.” Dale snorted.
“Wouldn’t stop him from knocking them over, Mr. President.” Sanchez replied, trying hard to keep his tongue and tone both in check. Three years into the presidency though it was getting harder and harder.
“How big is this thing you’ve picked up on sonar?” Dale asked, either oblivious to his appointee’s frustration or unbothered by it.
“Estimated to be about eighty meters, or about two hundred sixty two feet.”
“That’s quite a bit bigger.”
Sanchez noticed he seemed to have Dale’s attention.
“Why would it be Godzilla? After all this time?”
“Sir, we try to keep this under wrap but we’ve had reason to believe for a long time that there could well be other Godzillas, or maybe even other giant monsters of different sorts out there in the remote parts of the world. We know Godzilla was either awakened or created by hydrogen bomb tests in the 1950s…”
“Hold up.” Dale said, raising his hand. “Is this something that could derail the new energy policy? I’ve got a lot riding on those new and improved nucular plants.”
“Sir, that’s not really my department.” Sanchez demurred. “For now, it’s probably best we make sure the Japanese government is aware and make contingency plans for if Godzilla or something similar appears.”
“Forget the Japanese. It’s not our problem.” Dale said, waving his hand dismissively.
Sanchez tried hard to keep his poker face on, but wasn’t sure he was succeeding. Dale had made what he called “American Nationalism” the cornerstone of his political platform. Attempts to persuade him of the importance of helping other nations, even allies, usually fell on deaf ears.
“Let me ask you this though.” The President said after a pause. “How did they kill Godzilla back then? From what I’ve heard tanks and jets weren’t much use against him. Didn’t they use some kind of secret weapon?”
“Some of these details are, of course, classified Mr. President.” Sanchez said gravely. “A Japanese scientist by the name of Dr. Daisuke Serizawa used a device he invented that was apparently capable of destroying oxygen. That weapon killed Godzilla in Tokyo Bay. However, Dr. Serizawa was worried about the possibility of his device falling into the wrong hands so he destroyed all his notes and, having insisted on placing his Oxygen Destroyer in Tokyo Bay himself, cut his diving line and sacrificed himself to take the secret of how to make the weapon to the grave.”
“Such a waste.” Dale muttered. “He could have made a fortune and made Japan a powerful country. Just stupid.”
“Dr. Serizawa is considered a national hero in Japan, Mr. President.” Sanchez replied, deliberately insuring that he spoke as softly as possible.
“They do like that kamikaze stuff for some reason.” Dale mused, failing to notice that Sanchez had winced at the remark. “Regardless, it doesn’t help us any that we don’t have that device. And you’re suggesting we have no clue how to make one if we need it?”
Sanchez shook his head. “There has been some classified research into the matter over the years but nothing productive.”
“Well for now let’s sit on all this and keep it quiet. I’ve got enough going on with the energy plan. Ironically, it’s some scientist from Japan that’s apparently causing us a new round of heartburn on it. Everyone thinks he’s got something better than nucular. Maybe I’ll get lucky and Godzilla will step on the old guy.”
Dale laughed at his own joke. Sanchez though remained stoic, quietly wondering just how the country had fallen so low as to have such a man as Ted Dale sitting behind the President’s desk, and what it would mean for the country when a crisis really did occur.
***
“Ladies and gentlemen.” The Japanese man with the thinning hair said with a smile. “It is my great pleasure to announce that after years of dedicated research the world is now significantly closer to achieving the long awaited dream of creating a working, sustainable, fusion reactor!”
The audience applauded. Everyone gathered for the announcement in Osaka knew it was a phenomenal achievement, both for Japan and for the world. The power of the sun and its fellow stars, harnessed in the hands of humankind.
“With this advancement, we can build a world of unlimited energy potential, free from the effects both of polluting fossil fuels and the deadly effects of nuclear fission. It presents a tremendous step forward into the future, all made possible by the work of Dr. Masao Inamura and his work with the artificial element, Reikanium. I will now yield the podium to Dr. Inamura and ask that he speak on what will surely be Nobel Prize winning work.”
The audience applauded as Dr. Inamura stepped forward. He was a tall man, his mostly gray hair combed back, revealing the lines of an aged face that seemed to convey a life that had known both great joy and great sadness. He peered out at the crowd over the lenses of his glasses, adjusted them, and then looked down to his notes.
“I hope you’ll excuse me if I keep it brief,” he said, “but I am an old man and not much for long speeches these days. The creation of Reikanium and the realization of fusion power is the culmination of my life’s work. I have dedicated it to the memory of my late wife, who I regrettably lost in the nuclear accident of the last decade. It is time now, to realize a world where such tragedies are not possible; a world where nuclear energy is a thing of the past, along with carbon based fossil fuels. I realize, of course, that in the face of a changing climate there are many who argue that nuclear energy is essential, that the deaths of people like my dear wife are so rare as to be statistically insignificant. I speak to the world as someone who has seen the suffering such power can cause, both as a young man and an old man in my country, as someone who has known fear both of the bomb and of a monster, and who has also known deep sorrow created by a damaged reactor. I say from firsthand experience, that there is nothing insignificant about the lives jeopardized and lost to nuclear energy. If my life ends having opened the door to freeing the world from such terrible power, I will die a most happy man.”
***
Blip
“Sir, I think you had better see this.” The young America naval officer called to his superior.
Blip
“Another one to report?” His commanding officer asked, his voice betraying weariness as he looked at the object caught on their vessel’s sonar.
Blip
“Looks like it sir. Much too big to be a whale.”
Blip
“Is it rising?”
Blip
“No Sir. Doesn’t appear to be. It’s making steady movement towards Japan.”
Blip
Blip
“What should we do Sir?”
Blip
“Report it in as we’ve been ordered to do. The higher ups will make any further decisions.”
Blip
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Godzilla: Second Crisis
Moderator: GodzillavsJason
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Godzilla2004
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Re: Godzilla: Second Crisis
Chapter 2: Up From the Depths
The Aqua-Line was busy in the early hours of the evening. Cars full of people, traveling from one side to the other, traveled by bridge and by tunnel, over and under the bay. The people traveling inside-the businessman heading home after a long day, the young mother with her little girl playing in the back seat, the car full of teenagers, and the countless others-noticed the sound as they drove through the tunnel. At first they thought it had to be the work of some machinery, some other vehicle sharing the tunnel with them. Then, slowly, it dawned on the people listening that the sound seemed so enormous as to be coming from all around them.
Something was in the waters outside the tunnel. Something big.
Still, it was only a disconcerting curiosity. Until the walls of the tunnel cracked and water came rushing in, flooding the Tokyo Bay Aqua-Line. Screams. Cries for help. The sobs and wails of frightened people. All washed away in an instant and as an endless torrent of water filled the tunnel.
Above it all, the sound still echoed; the roar of a mighty creature that had heard the noises coming from within the tunnel and responded to silence it. Now the beast responsible moved on, closer to the noise and bright lights of the city ahead.
***
“So, what is it you want to know about Godzilla?” Ethan asked as he sat the coffee down.
The young woman who had asked for his time sipped the drink and thanked him, then added a little sugar to it before answering.
“Well, you know I’m not a student in your class, right?”
“I had suspected as much.” Ethan said with a nervous laugh, wondering where this was going. “I didn’t recall seeing a Keisha Williams on the list.”
“Right. I’m a journalist and…”
“Newspaper? TV?” Ethan interrupted.
“I have my own blog.”
“Ah.” Anyone could be a “journalist” now, he reminded himself. If he wasn’t careful he was going to be the soon discredited professor whose career went nowhere because of something crazy about monsters he was quoted saying on some trash website.
“I was wondering what you thought about these stories?” She continued, handing him printouts of stories from various websites. “You’re an expert on Godzilla, right?”
“Wrote my thesis on him.” Ethan replied, looking over the accounts of mysterious sonar readings and strange lights at sea. “But really my area of expertise is energy policy. My only focus on Godzilla is how he influenced those policies.”
“He?” Keisha asked. “What makes you so sure it was a ‘he’?”
“In Japan Godzilla is often thought of as male. Probably has to do with the Gojira myth from Odo Island.”
“Odo Island?” Ethan watched wearily as he saw she was taking out a pen and paper.
“One of the Izu Islands south of Japan. It’s where Godzilla first appeared in 1954. The creature was referred to by the inhabitants of the island as an ancient and terrible deity they called Gojira. An American reporter, a man by the name of Steve Martin, heard the name while he was investigating the disappearances of several ships in the area and somewhere in the course of reporting the name became Godzilla.”
“So do you think Godzilla had existed there in the ocean around that island already? Or do you think it was created by radiation from the nuclear tests in the Pacific in that era?”
“Look, do you mind telling me exactly what your interest in Godzilla is?” Ethan asked. “Godzilla’s a legitimate topic, but in the years since his attack on Tokyo there have been all kinds of crazy theories spun out and since nothing like him has ever appeared since a lot of them risk your credibility if you expound on them too much. I really don’t have any interest in being the crazy monster guy.”
She put her finger on the print-outs she had handed him. “These reports read an awful lot like the ones that were coming out when Godzilla first appeared don’t they?”
Ethan hesitated.
“There have been all kinds of false alarms before.” He said. “A few strange lights at sea and a couple of sonar anomalies don’t prove anything. And like I said, it’s happened before and still, no Godzilla.”
“I think the writing’s on the wall.” Keisha protested. “Godzilla’s coming back, and that makes this new interest the Dale Administration has in pursuing big new nuclear facilities and new nuclear weapons all that more dangerous.”
“Well, I’m not going to jump to any conclusions…” Ethan began, realizing that what had started as a discussion over coffee was now spinning out of control. Then he realized that Keisha was no longer looking at him but over his shoulder, and her eyes were growing wide with horror.
Ethan turned, looking at the TV where CNN was broadcasting on the destruction of an undersea tunnel in Tokyo. And then, as the sea began to churn, a form Ethan recognized began to emerge rise from the depths.
***
Rising from the water, head towering high into the night air, the unmistakable form of Godzilla stood in Tokyo Bay like a vengeful ghost born out of a long forgotten nightmare. In an instant the image of the beast, with charcoal gray hide and jagged dorsal plates, glistening white claws and rows of fangs beneath blazing eyes, was broadcast around the world. The jaws parted and a terrible roar echoed across the city and around the globe. Generations had been born and died since the last time a scene like this had unfolded in what suddenly seemed a cursed city. But now, at long last after years of fear that it might happen, years of hoping it could not happen, and years of denial that it would ever happen again, Godzilla had returned.
The water flowed away from the great beast as he waded ashore, stepping onto land at Haneda Airport. All around Tokyo Bay sirens had begun to wail. People were alternatively trying to flee as far from the bay as they could or trying to get as close as possible to get a glimpse or even a picture of the monster. Then there were the people on the planes. Crammed into flying canisters, they were trapped in the monster’s path unless the pilots could pull off an escape. But as the engines of the huge jets roared and Godzilla turned his head and snarled, it became clear that there would be no fleeing from the atomic dragon.
Godzilla roared as a single jet raced down the runway, answering what sounded to his ears as the challenge of a rival. The spines of the monster began to glow. Blue flame gathered in the back of his throat as his jaws parted. Then all at once atomic fire spewed across Haneda airport, obliterating the runways and consuming the grounded jets in massive fireballs. As the lone surviving plane lifted into the sky, seemingly escaping the fire, Godzilla’s tail lashed around like a whip and smashed through it, sending the wings and two halves of the plane’s body flying in four separate directions.
Inside the surrounding terminals, people from around the world were trampling each other trying to get to safety. The earth shook as the monster stalked past them, heading towards the city itself. The flames were spreading in his wake, threatening to consume those he had left untouched.
***
Dr. Inamura sat and watched the news coming from Tokyo with grim recognition. The younger people in the room all bore expressions of bewilderment on their faces. For Inamura though, as he watched the familiar form wading through the commercial buildings and crushing them as a man might an anthill, this was an all too familiar scene. Instead of bewilderment, the old man bore a look of sadness as he watched the fires illuminate the saurian beast towering over his nation’s capital.
Slowly, his hand trembling slightly as he did, Dr. Inamura pulled from beneath his shirt the locket he wore around his neck and opened it, gazing remorsefully on the woman smiling back at him from within.
“So I live to see yet another nuclear horror.” He whispered. “Another one that I have failed to stop. My dear Rei, I am so sorry. I am still so far from realizing the promise I made to you.”
***
Trains roared along the tracks as Godzilla advanced further inland, towards the heart of Tokyo, some derailing on the tracks the monster had already crushed and broken with his heavy footfall. Others rushed towards him, their breaks screaming as they tried to stop before crashing into a clawed foot and their engines burst into flames.
Godzilla looked down on the wreckage before him, teeming with screaming, struggling people fighting to stay alive. With an angry roar the monster lunged forward, swinging his jaws down to catch one of the train cars between them. Inside the train people screamed and clawed at each other as fangs tore through metal, cornering them from either side. Then Godzilla rose back to his full height, the connected cars of the train swinging as he clasped one in his maw. People fell from the train, splattering on the ground below. Others tried to hang on as the monster shook his head from side to side, sending them flying great distances to grizzly deaths. The cars of the train began to come unhitched from one another and were thrown by the force of the monster’s shaking into distance buildings until finally Japan’s risen dark god flung the last car aside.
From the sky came the roar of fighter jets. The Japanese Self Defense Forces had deployed as quickly as the monster had come to shore, determined to drive the beast away or kill it if they could. Missiles fired, streaking through the air and exploding against the thick hide of the leviathan from the sea. Through the smoke and flame, Godzilla still stalked, unfazed by what he must surely have seen as a pitiful attempt to stop him. His lip curled, a roar escaping from his mouth as the jets flew over him. Then, turning to follow them, he again let the atomic fire fly, incinerating each of them and lighting the sky of Tokyo with the funeral pyres of the soldiers.
Godzilla turned again, looking to the north and slightly west as he honed in on where he was going through some mysterious instinct. To those elderly souls old enough to remember the first time the monster had come there was no mystery as to what he was doing though. As Godzilla thundered on, crushing buildings and people beneath his feet, it became apparent to those old enough to remember what was happening.
It was just like before. Godzilla was retracing his steps.
***
“Would you look at the size of that thing!” President Dale exclaimed as he and his national security team watched the destruction of Tokyo from the White House. “It’s enormous! I didn’t realize he’d be this big! Why didn’t someone tell me he’d be this big?”
General Sanchez held his tongue, remembering how he’d attempted to explain details like Godzilla’s size to Dale previously. As they watched, Godzilla was smashing through the taller buildings of Tokyo as he traveled further into the city, unimpeded by the cannon fire of tanks that had been rolled out to try and halt him. These he simply stepped on, walking over them with barely any notice as he seemed focused, fixated on something.
“It’s as if he’s going somewhere.” Sanchez found himself saying aloud.
“What was that?” Dale asked.
“It looks to me as if he’s headed somewhere, Sir. With purpose that is.”
“What are you? The monster whisperer?” Dale quipped.
“It looks familiar.” Sanchez mused, causing Dale and others to raise an eyebrow. “Maps of his 1954 attack…I’ve seen them and I think he’s taking the same path as back then, or one very close to it.”
“You’re saying he’s got deja vu?” Dale asked.
“I don’t know why Sir.” Sanchez said, refraining from showing his irritation as he watched Godzilla on the screen. “But I do think that’s what’s happening.”
***
The people of Tokyo scrambled to get out of the way as Godzilla loomed over them, smashing through the tall buildings and bringing rubble and shards of glass raining down on them before the monster’s footfall. Godzilla roared in frustration as the buildings blocked his path, his great bulk crowded by them as he attempted to walk by. He slammed his weight against them, tore at them with his claws, and smashed through them with his tail. He was almost there. Almost to the destination he was being pulled towards.
Then, as he emerged from the forest of concrete and steel, he saw it. There, before him, rising to the sky and formed of thin beams of red and white, was Tokyo Tower. Godzilla roared in recognition, blinking his eyes as he saw it both before him and in his mind as he remembered it. Was the memory real? He neither knew nor cared. But he remembered tearing it down and was driven to do so again by something deep inside he did not and could not question.
And so he advanced. The ground shook as he walked, splitting and uprooting the trees around the base of the tower. He slammed hard against its base, slashing with his claws and pushing with his great strength. Then, with little resistance, the tower twisted and toppled, the top of it plummeting to the ground and then crashing as Godzilla roared triumphant over it.
All around him the fires were spreading. The city was illuminated as if by the lights of Hell itself. And over the sounds of the screams and sirens, the destroyer roared.
The Aqua-Line was busy in the early hours of the evening. Cars full of people, traveling from one side to the other, traveled by bridge and by tunnel, over and under the bay. The people traveling inside-the businessman heading home after a long day, the young mother with her little girl playing in the back seat, the car full of teenagers, and the countless others-noticed the sound as they drove through the tunnel. At first they thought it had to be the work of some machinery, some other vehicle sharing the tunnel with them. Then, slowly, it dawned on the people listening that the sound seemed so enormous as to be coming from all around them.
Something was in the waters outside the tunnel. Something big.
Still, it was only a disconcerting curiosity. Until the walls of the tunnel cracked and water came rushing in, flooding the Tokyo Bay Aqua-Line. Screams. Cries for help. The sobs and wails of frightened people. All washed away in an instant and as an endless torrent of water filled the tunnel.
Above it all, the sound still echoed; the roar of a mighty creature that had heard the noises coming from within the tunnel and responded to silence it. Now the beast responsible moved on, closer to the noise and bright lights of the city ahead.
***
“So, what is it you want to know about Godzilla?” Ethan asked as he sat the coffee down.
The young woman who had asked for his time sipped the drink and thanked him, then added a little sugar to it before answering.
“Well, you know I’m not a student in your class, right?”
“I had suspected as much.” Ethan said with a nervous laugh, wondering where this was going. “I didn’t recall seeing a Keisha Williams on the list.”
“Right. I’m a journalist and…”
“Newspaper? TV?” Ethan interrupted.
“I have my own blog.”
“Ah.” Anyone could be a “journalist” now, he reminded himself. If he wasn’t careful he was going to be the soon discredited professor whose career went nowhere because of something crazy about monsters he was quoted saying on some trash website.
“I was wondering what you thought about these stories?” She continued, handing him printouts of stories from various websites. “You’re an expert on Godzilla, right?”
“Wrote my thesis on him.” Ethan replied, looking over the accounts of mysterious sonar readings and strange lights at sea. “But really my area of expertise is energy policy. My only focus on Godzilla is how he influenced those policies.”
“He?” Keisha asked. “What makes you so sure it was a ‘he’?”
“In Japan Godzilla is often thought of as male. Probably has to do with the Gojira myth from Odo Island.”
“Odo Island?” Ethan watched wearily as he saw she was taking out a pen and paper.
“One of the Izu Islands south of Japan. It’s where Godzilla first appeared in 1954. The creature was referred to by the inhabitants of the island as an ancient and terrible deity they called Gojira. An American reporter, a man by the name of Steve Martin, heard the name while he was investigating the disappearances of several ships in the area and somewhere in the course of reporting the name became Godzilla.”
“So do you think Godzilla had existed there in the ocean around that island already? Or do you think it was created by radiation from the nuclear tests in the Pacific in that era?”
“Look, do you mind telling me exactly what your interest in Godzilla is?” Ethan asked. “Godzilla’s a legitimate topic, but in the years since his attack on Tokyo there have been all kinds of crazy theories spun out and since nothing like him has ever appeared since a lot of them risk your credibility if you expound on them too much. I really don’t have any interest in being the crazy monster guy.”
She put her finger on the print-outs she had handed him. “These reports read an awful lot like the ones that were coming out when Godzilla first appeared don’t they?”
Ethan hesitated.
“There have been all kinds of false alarms before.” He said. “A few strange lights at sea and a couple of sonar anomalies don’t prove anything. And like I said, it’s happened before and still, no Godzilla.”
“I think the writing’s on the wall.” Keisha protested. “Godzilla’s coming back, and that makes this new interest the Dale Administration has in pursuing big new nuclear facilities and new nuclear weapons all that more dangerous.”
“Well, I’m not going to jump to any conclusions…” Ethan began, realizing that what had started as a discussion over coffee was now spinning out of control. Then he realized that Keisha was no longer looking at him but over his shoulder, and her eyes were growing wide with horror.
Ethan turned, looking at the TV where CNN was broadcasting on the destruction of an undersea tunnel in Tokyo. And then, as the sea began to churn, a form Ethan recognized began to emerge rise from the depths.
***
Rising from the water, head towering high into the night air, the unmistakable form of Godzilla stood in Tokyo Bay like a vengeful ghost born out of a long forgotten nightmare. In an instant the image of the beast, with charcoal gray hide and jagged dorsal plates, glistening white claws and rows of fangs beneath blazing eyes, was broadcast around the world. The jaws parted and a terrible roar echoed across the city and around the globe. Generations had been born and died since the last time a scene like this had unfolded in what suddenly seemed a cursed city. But now, at long last after years of fear that it might happen, years of hoping it could not happen, and years of denial that it would ever happen again, Godzilla had returned.
The water flowed away from the great beast as he waded ashore, stepping onto land at Haneda Airport. All around Tokyo Bay sirens had begun to wail. People were alternatively trying to flee as far from the bay as they could or trying to get as close as possible to get a glimpse or even a picture of the monster. Then there were the people on the planes. Crammed into flying canisters, they were trapped in the monster’s path unless the pilots could pull off an escape. But as the engines of the huge jets roared and Godzilla turned his head and snarled, it became clear that there would be no fleeing from the atomic dragon.
Godzilla roared as a single jet raced down the runway, answering what sounded to his ears as the challenge of a rival. The spines of the monster began to glow. Blue flame gathered in the back of his throat as his jaws parted. Then all at once atomic fire spewed across Haneda airport, obliterating the runways and consuming the grounded jets in massive fireballs. As the lone surviving plane lifted into the sky, seemingly escaping the fire, Godzilla’s tail lashed around like a whip and smashed through it, sending the wings and two halves of the plane’s body flying in four separate directions.
Inside the surrounding terminals, people from around the world were trampling each other trying to get to safety. The earth shook as the monster stalked past them, heading towards the city itself. The flames were spreading in his wake, threatening to consume those he had left untouched.
***
Dr. Inamura sat and watched the news coming from Tokyo with grim recognition. The younger people in the room all bore expressions of bewilderment on their faces. For Inamura though, as he watched the familiar form wading through the commercial buildings and crushing them as a man might an anthill, this was an all too familiar scene. Instead of bewilderment, the old man bore a look of sadness as he watched the fires illuminate the saurian beast towering over his nation’s capital.
Slowly, his hand trembling slightly as he did, Dr. Inamura pulled from beneath his shirt the locket he wore around his neck and opened it, gazing remorsefully on the woman smiling back at him from within.
“So I live to see yet another nuclear horror.” He whispered. “Another one that I have failed to stop. My dear Rei, I am so sorry. I am still so far from realizing the promise I made to you.”
***
Trains roared along the tracks as Godzilla advanced further inland, towards the heart of Tokyo, some derailing on the tracks the monster had already crushed and broken with his heavy footfall. Others rushed towards him, their breaks screaming as they tried to stop before crashing into a clawed foot and their engines burst into flames.
Godzilla looked down on the wreckage before him, teeming with screaming, struggling people fighting to stay alive. With an angry roar the monster lunged forward, swinging his jaws down to catch one of the train cars between them. Inside the train people screamed and clawed at each other as fangs tore through metal, cornering them from either side. Then Godzilla rose back to his full height, the connected cars of the train swinging as he clasped one in his maw. People fell from the train, splattering on the ground below. Others tried to hang on as the monster shook his head from side to side, sending them flying great distances to grizzly deaths. The cars of the train began to come unhitched from one another and were thrown by the force of the monster’s shaking into distance buildings until finally Japan’s risen dark god flung the last car aside.
From the sky came the roar of fighter jets. The Japanese Self Defense Forces had deployed as quickly as the monster had come to shore, determined to drive the beast away or kill it if they could. Missiles fired, streaking through the air and exploding against the thick hide of the leviathan from the sea. Through the smoke and flame, Godzilla still stalked, unfazed by what he must surely have seen as a pitiful attempt to stop him. His lip curled, a roar escaping from his mouth as the jets flew over him. Then, turning to follow them, he again let the atomic fire fly, incinerating each of them and lighting the sky of Tokyo with the funeral pyres of the soldiers.
Godzilla turned again, looking to the north and slightly west as he honed in on where he was going through some mysterious instinct. To those elderly souls old enough to remember the first time the monster had come there was no mystery as to what he was doing though. As Godzilla thundered on, crushing buildings and people beneath his feet, it became apparent to those old enough to remember what was happening.
It was just like before. Godzilla was retracing his steps.
***
“Would you look at the size of that thing!” President Dale exclaimed as he and his national security team watched the destruction of Tokyo from the White House. “It’s enormous! I didn’t realize he’d be this big! Why didn’t someone tell me he’d be this big?”
General Sanchez held his tongue, remembering how he’d attempted to explain details like Godzilla’s size to Dale previously. As they watched, Godzilla was smashing through the taller buildings of Tokyo as he traveled further into the city, unimpeded by the cannon fire of tanks that had been rolled out to try and halt him. These he simply stepped on, walking over them with barely any notice as he seemed focused, fixated on something.
“It’s as if he’s going somewhere.” Sanchez found himself saying aloud.
“What was that?” Dale asked.
“It looks to me as if he’s headed somewhere, Sir. With purpose that is.”
“What are you? The monster whisperer?” Dale quipped.
“It looks familiar.” Sanchez mused, causing Dale and others to raise an eyebrow. “Maps of his 1954 attack…I’ve seen them and I think he’s taking the same path as back then, or one very close to it.”
“You’re saying he’s got deja vu?” Dale asked.
“I don’t know why Sir.” Sanchez said, refraining from showing his irritation as he watched Godzilla on the screen. “But I do think that’s what’s happening.”
***
The people of Tokyo scrambled to get out of the way as Godzilla loomed over them, smashing through the tall buildings and bringing rubble and shards of glass raining down on them before the monster’s footfall. Godzilla roared in frustration as the buildings blocked his path, his great bulk crowded by them as he attempted to walk by. He slammed his weight against them, tore at them with his claws, and smashed through them with his tail. He was almost there. Almost to the destination he was being pulled towards.
Then, as he emerged from the forest of concrete and steel, he saw it. There, before him, rising to the sky and formed of thin beams of red and white, was Tokyo Tower. Godzilla roared in recognition, blinking his eyes as he saw it both before him and in his mind as he remembered it. Was the memory real? He neither knew nor cared. But he remembered tearing it down and was driven to do so again by something deep inside he did not and could not question.
And so he advanced. The ground shook as he walked, splitting and uprooting the trees around the base of the tower. He slammed hard against its base, slashing with his claws and pushing with his great strength. Then, with little resistance, the tower twisted and toppled, the top of it plummeting to the ground and then crashing as Godzilla roared triumphant over it.
All around him the fires were spreading. The city was illuminated as if by the lights of Hell itself. And over the sounds of the screams and sirens, the destroyer roared.
-
Godzilla2004
- Yojimbo
- Posts: 31
- Joined: Sun Aug 08, 2021 11:37 am
Re: Godzilla: Second Crisis
Chapter 3: Fears That Might Become Reality
“Let me make one thing clear before we get started.” Dale said at the beginning of the meeting. “I don’t care to hear how much damage was done to Tokyo. I don’t care about how many people in Japan died. All I care about is how this impacts us. It’s like I said in the campaign, we have to put America first.”
General Sanchez bit his lip. It had been less than twenty four hours since Godzilla had attacked Tokyo. He was thankful this meeting wasn’t open to the press, not that anything of that matter had ever stopped President Dale from saying whatever thought crossed his mind, no matter how callous. People were being pulled out from under the wreckage of buildings right now in one of America’s closest allies and the President couldn’t be bothered to show even an ounce of compassion towards them, let alone offer any tangible help. How then, Sanchez wondered, was this country supposed to be able to lead if it did so without care?
“Here’s what I want to know.” Dale continued, pounding his finger on the desk for emphasis. “Are we in any sort of danger and what’s being done about it if we are.”
The Secretary of State, Secretary of Defense, and Secretary of Homeland Security all looked to Sanchez. Fine, he thought. If no one else had the balls to tell him the truth he would be glad to do it. Someone had to.
“Godzilla can’t have gone far from Japan at this point so it’s doubtful that the mainland U.S. is in any real danger at this moment. The biggest risks in the days to come will be to our territories in the Pacific and Hawaii…”
“Nothing too important.” Dale said dismissively.
“And to the Pacific coast.” Sanchez said, almost through gritted teeth.
“Well at least it’s not to any areas that might vote for me.” Dale said with a laugh. He caught Sanchez’s look and added “Just joking Sanchez.”
General Sanchez didn’t particularly care if he was or wasn’t. It wasn’t appropriate either way.
“Anyway, what steps do we need to take here? A naval blockade?”
“Plans for one have already been drawn up, Sir.” The Secretary of Defense interjected. “Just waiting for your authorization. And we’ve already started regular air patrols of U.S. waters.”
“Good, good.” Dale said. “If he shows up, hit him with everything we’ve got. I can see it in the history books now, ‘The man who killed Godzilla!’”.
He waved his hand through the air as if imagining the as of yet unearned moniker up in lights.
“We should definitely start coordinating our response with other nations that surround the Pacific.” Sanchez said, interrupting the President’s fantasy.
“Why?” Dale asked, looking perplexed. “Why can’t they take care of themselves for a change?”
The atmosphere in the room grew uncomfortable.
“Sir,” Sanchez pressed, “doing so will increase the likelihood of us finding Godzilla and being prepared to deal with him when the time arises. With a crisis like this that threatens so many nations, it’s important for us to have a multilateral response.”
“That’s just jargon Sanchez.” Dale sneered. “In the real world we have to look after ourselves. We’ve been looking after everyone else for decades and what have we gotten for it? Nothing. I campaigned on putting a stop to that and I’m not going to go back on that promise just because everyone’s afraid of a big lizard that’s probably got a brain the size of a walnut.”
Sanchez sighed and relented. There was no persuading him.
***
“So the question I guess we should start with,” Keisha said, pausing to take a bite of pizza, “is why is Godzilla reappearing now? Or rather, why did a new Godzilla appear now?”
“I think the answer to that is pretty simple.” Ethan said, thumbing through the notes he had brought with them. The two of them were sitting in the living room of Keisha’s home, collaborating on what had gone from what probably would have been an interesting blog post that Ethan had been reluctant to assist with to a writing project that promised to elevate both of their careers. The world was suddenly in a crisis and people all across the globe wanted answers. Ethan was pretty sure he had them, and Keisha was apparently confident that he did as well.
“Godzilla, or the first Godzilla, appeared after atomic and hydrogen bomb tests in the 1950s.” He said, thinking out loud. “We know for sure that Godzilla was either awakened, mutated, or created by the radiation from the tests conducted near where he first appeared because of the radiation the creature was found to give off and leave behind. Hell, a lot of the people who died in his first rampage, and for that matter some of the survivors, had radiation burns.”
“Right.” Keisha agreed. “And for a long time after that nuclear energy was something largely avoided by nations around the world. At least openly and for a time. But we know that the Soviets were secretive about their use of nuclear energy, and that gave the world Chernobyl eventually.”
“It’s the more recent reactor meltdown in Japan that I think is responsible.” Ethan said.
“So do I. It’s the obvious culprit. How much radiation leaked into the Pacific in that disaster?”
“I’m not sure.” Ethan said, shaking his head. “And who knows, there could be recent nuclear waste dumps in the oceans we don’t know about or something. Still, it’s the most obvious suspect.”
He started typing something into his phone, staring intently at the screen as he scrolled through whatever search he had entered.
“Looking for something specific?” Keisha asked.
“I’m looking to see if Dr. Kenichi Yamane has been quoted anywhere as of yet.”
“Yamane…” Keisha said, looking thoughtful. “I came across that name somewhere….”
“He’s the grandson of Dr. Kyohei Yamane, the famous professor of biology and paleontology that helped to discover the original Godzilla. Both of them have been considered the preeminent experts on Godzilla of their times, as was the current Dr. Yamane’s father in between them.”
“You two making any headway in here?”
Ethan looked up to see Keisha’s father standing in the door way, leaning on a four-pronged walking stick with tennis balls supporting it. He wasn’t in good health. That had been explained to him before he had arrived and briefly met the man who, until this point, had been resting in his bedroom. Now, as the older man looked out at him with a drooping eye-the residual of a somewhat recent stroke he’d been told-and stubbornly tried to drag his oxygen machine and walk with his cane at the same time, Ethan found himself thinking that Keisha must have her work cut out for her here at home.
“Daddy, let me help you with that.” She said, exasperation in her voice as she went to his side.
“I’m just goin’ to the recliner Baby Girl.” He protested, the oxygen tubes coming off his face as he struggled to do more than he could. “It’s alright. I ain’t helpless you know.”
“I know Daddy, I know.” Keisha assured him, helping him move the oxygen machine to his chair and putting a couch cushion in it for his back before he sat down. “But you still don’t need to be overdoing it.”
“So,” the old man said, turning his attention back to Ethan, “Keisha tells me you’re some kind of expert on Godzilla. You know how we’re gonna kill him yet?”
Ethan paused, unsure if he was being tested or teased. The old man stared at him seriously for a moment then grinned and let loose a hoarse but delightfully amused laugh.
“I’m just messin’ with you son. Ain’t no body gonna figure that out just yet. Hell, they don’t even know where he came from.”
“Well,” Ethan said, smiling nervously and unsure of what the best thing to say to that was, “I think we have an answer to that at least.”
“Oh?” Mr. Williams asked. “What’s that now?”
“Well, Mr…”
“Joe.” He interrupted him. “Just Joe. No worries about the mister part.”
“Sure.” Ethan replied, relaxing just a bit. “We know Godzilla is connected to radiation and there was a nuclear incident in Japan about a decade ago. So that’s probably the answer as to where it came from.”
“So there was a dinosaur out there in the ocean somewhere and this accident turned it into a monster?” Joe Williams asked.
“Well, maybe…Godzilla certainly has a lot of similarities to dinosaurs, but there are a lot of dissimilarities as well.”
Keisha’s father laughed again.
“That’s what I’m tellin’ you. You don’t know if he was a dinosaur or somethin’ that was out there that we never heard of before or somethin’ brand new. We just don’t know. And you know what the thing about what we don’t know is right? People are scared of what they don’t know. They’re scared of what they don’t understand. If Godzilla was a plane crash or a hurricane or a nutcase with a gun no body would be panickin’ like this no matter how many people died. But he’s somethin’ we can’t wrap our heads around. He’s somethin’ reminds us just how much is out there on God’s earth and in the oceans that we don’t understand. Doesn’t matter that those jets and tanks can’t hurt him. You can’t hurt an earthquake or a volcano but it don’t scare people like this. It’s that we don’t understand him. And that reminds us of somethin’ we don’t like to be reminded of. Know what that is?”
“No…” Ethan replied nervously. “What’s that?”
“That we ain’t God.”
“Alright Daddy.” Keisha said, patience thin in her voice.
“No, no, it’s true. But I hear what you’re saying on this nuclear stuff. That makes sense. Know why? Because people get full of themselves easy. You think about it. How full of ourselves did we have to be to think we could split an atom, the thing that makes up everything in the universe, just to kill millions of people? And what did that arrogance get us? It got us Godzilla. Then after Godzilla is stopped everyone said, ‘We’ve learned our lesson. We can’t have these nukes anymore.’ But what happened? After awhile, people got arrogant again. And then we get Godzilla again. That’s the whole of history if you think about it. People just repeatin’ the same stupid, awful mistakes, again and again and again.”
He dozed off, breathing deeply as he slept in the chair.
“Sorry about that.” Keisha said, her voice almost a whisper. “He’s really sick and too stubborn to admit it. Plus he doesn’t get as much company as he’d like so I should have known he’d want to come in here and talk to you at some point.”
“It’s alright. Honestly, it seems like he has a lot of wisdom.”
“That he does.” Keisha replied with a soft smile. “That, plus the sleep apnea and the COPD. It kind of keeps him in a fog. The stroke weakened him but the doctor says it didn’t do much to his mind so I’m thankful for that.”
“I bet.” Ethan said, returning to his phone.
“Are you looking for something specific from this Yamane guy?”
“I want to see if he’s said anything new about a hypothesis he proposed about thirty years ago. Back then, he suggested Godzilla’s body must work similar to a nuclear reactor. If that’s true, it comes with a lot of implications. Some of them are pretty troubling. If what Yamane suspects about Godzilla is right, well, your dad would probably say we’re about to realize we’ve made some stupid mistakes.”
****
The room was filled to capacity with the brightest minds Japan had to offer, brilliant scientists sitting alongside military and government officials. Dr. Inamura was among them, his head swimming with grim thoughts and worries. He knew why he had been asked to come. The government wanted to see if Reikanium might have some potential to be used against Godzilla. Unconsciously, Dr. Inamura stroked the locket concealed beneath his shirt. He had sworn a long time ago that his work, whatever its implications, would never produce a weapon. He would never be an Oppenheimer or a Serizawa, feeling as if his hands were soaked in blood or that they would be. Still, he remembered reading something that someone had supposedly told Dr. Serizawa before his fateful decision to use his long lost weapon against the first Godzilla. He had his fears that might become reality and then he had Godzilla which was now reality once more. With that in mind, he knew what his decision would be if it came to that.
“Gentleman,” the Prime Minister, a short man with thinning hair accentuated by almost comical ears, said to begin the meeting. “I will be brief because our time may be short. You all know why we are here today and what the threat we face is. My hope is that this meeting may produce some solution to our problem. And so, knowing that there are greater minds than mine gathered here today, I will turn, for the moment, to one such mind, Dr. Kenichi Yamane.”
There was polite applause as a dark haired man who looked somewhat younger than his fifty years stood. Dr. Inamura had never met him before but knew him by reputation. Their fields vaguely intersected and he was the world’s most notable expert on Godzilla. He came by it honestly, his father and grandfather both having possessed that notable recognition before him. Inamura considered him, finding on his face a stern determination that somehow fit the man and the moment both.
“The Prime Minister has asked me to begin by offering the counsel I gave to him when he first called me.” Dr. Yamane began. “Some of you are quite familiar with a theory I proposed more than twenty years ago, that theory being that the source of Godzilla’s power-his ability to emit radiation and weaponize radioactive fire-are due to some internal process that must resemble a fission reaction.” Dr. Inamura looked at him over the rim of his glasses. “If that’s the case, then it provides two implications for us, both concerning.”
He looked over the room as he continued, his expression maintaining that grim determination. “Either Godzilla can replenish his energy supply through some internal mechanism, meaning that he possesses infinite power, or he must replenish it through feeding.”
“Feeding?” One of the military officers asked. “Does that imply he may soon return to eat people?”
“More likely he’ll feed on whales.” Someone volunteered.
“My operating theory, which to this point I had not been able to test and, frankly, would have preferred never to have the opportunity, is that Godzilla feeds on radioactive material.” Dr. Yamane explains. “That is, he survives and is powered by nuclear energy. As such, having exhausted some of his energy supply, he may need to seek out energy sources to replenish it.”
“What you’re saying then,” Dr. Inamura interjected, “is that either we are facing a creature with an unlimited supply of power or that Godzilla will likely return and target a source of energy to feed, like a nuclear power plant.”
“Precisely.” Dr. Yamane said solemnly.
An uncomfortable silence hung over the room.
“You mean on top of Godzilla we might have a nuclear disaster?” One of the government officials asked.
“We never should have built the reactors.” Someone else said. “And we should have shut them down after the accident.”
The room erupted into shouting until the Prime Minister rose and regained control.
“If it is true that Godzilla will seek out nuclear material to recharge himself,” Dr. Yamane continued, “then we have a clear and immediate step to take. We must shut down the nuclear reactors in Japan.”
There was widespread murmuring around the room.
“If we do that,” one of the Cabinet Ministers warned, “much of the country will be without power. Godzilla’s attack has already had a devastating impact on our economy. A massive power outage will surely compound that and push Japan into a recession.”
There were nods and a chorus of general agreement. Inamura found his blood boiling.
“It would be far better than the alternative.” He said, his voice loud and firm, shushing the room and drawing all eyes to him as he sat, forehead resting on his clasped hands.
“If Godzilla returns,” he continued, looking up to meet the eyes of all the others, “it will mean more destruction and death. A power outage? A recession? What is that compared to the screams of the dying? To people lost in the fires? To children orphaned and parents left grieving?”
The room remained silent, everyone listening.
“I lost my parents in Nagasaki.” Inamura said gravely. “I saw Godzilla’s first attack on Tokyo and lost my first love then. And when the reactor failed I lost my wife, my beloved Rei. I have seen first hand, again and again, the horrors nuclear power produces. We will survive as a nation without the reactors running. Many will die though if Godzilla returns.”
“Admittedly,” Dr. Yamane cautioned, “it is an unproven hypothesis. I feel the need to remind everyone of that. That said, I am extremely confident that it is correct.”
“The risk of what will happen if you are right outweighs the risk of what will happen if you are wrong.” Dr. Inamura assured him. “I believe it is a precaution worth taking.”
“There are so many unanswered questions here.” Said of the scientists. “For instance, why did the monster return to Japan? Why is it reappearing-or assuming it’s a new member of the species I should say appearing-now all of a sudden? Why does its path through Tokyo seem to so closely resemble the first attack?”
“I don’t yet have an answer to any of that.” Dr. Yamane replied. “For all that we know about Godzilla, there are many more mysteries that we have no answers to as of yet.”
“A more important question,” one of the generals interrupted, “is how do we stop it?”
Dr. Inamura leaned his chin on his hands, pondering that question.
“Are nuclear weapons being considered?” Someone asked.
Inamura’s head jerked up.
“All options are on the table.” The Prime Minister replied.
“I strongly object!” Inamura practically shouted. “Nuclear weapons would be more devastating to Japan than the monster itself!”
“Do you have any better ideas?” One of the cabinet ministers retorted.
“Perhaps.” Inamura said. “Just perhaps.”
“Let me make one thing clear before we get started.” Dale said at the beginning of the meeting. “I don’t care to hear how much damage was done to Tokyo. I don’t care about how many people in Japan died. All I care about is how this impacts us. It’s like I said in the campaign, we have to put America first.”
General Sanchez bit his lip. It had been less than twenty four hours since Godzilla had attacked Tokyo. He was thankful this meeting wasn’t open to the press, not that anything of that matter had ever stopped President Dale from saying whatever thought crossed his mind, no matter how callous. People were being pulled out from under the wreckage of buildings right now in one of America’s closest allies and the President couldn’t be bothered to show even an ounce of compassion towards them, let alone offer any tangible help. How then, Sanchez wondered, was this country supposed to be able to lead if it did so without care?
“Here’s what I want to know.” Dale continued, pounding his finger on the desk for emphasis. “Are we in any sort of danger and what’s being done about it if we are.”
The Secretary of State, Secretary of Defense, and Secretary of Homeland Security all looked to Sanchez. Fine, he thought. If no one else had the balls to tell him the truth he would be glad to do it. Someone had to.
“Godzilla can’t have gone far from Japan at this point so it’s doubtful that the mainland U.S. is in any real danger at this moment. The biggest risks in the days to come will be to our territories in the Pacific and Hawaii…”
“Nothing too important.” Dale said dismissively.
“And to the Pacific coast.” Sanchez said, almost through gritted teeth.
“Well at least it’s not to any areas that might vote for me.” Dale said with a laugh. He caught Sanchez’s look and added “Just joking Sanchez.”
General Sanchez didn’t particularly care if he was or wasn’t. It wasn’t appropriate either way.
“Anyway, what steps do we need to take here? A naval blockade?”
“Plans for one have already been drawn up, Sir.” The Secretary of Defense interjected. “Just waiting for your authorization. And we’ve already started regular air patrols of U.S. waters.”
“Good, good.” Dale said. “If he shows up, hit him with everything we’ve got. I can see it in the history books now, ‘The man who killed Godzilla!’”.
He waved his hand through the air as if imagining the as of yet unearned moniker up in lights.
“We should definitely start coordinating our response with other nations that surround the Pacific.” Sanchez said, interrupting the President’s fantasy.
“Why?” Dale asked, looking perplexed. “Why can’t they take care of themselves for a change?”
The atmosphere in the room grew uncomfortable.
“Sir,” Sanchez pressed, “doing so will increase the likelihood of us finding Godzilla and being prepared to deal with him when the time arises. With a crisis like this that threatens so many nations, it’s important for us to have a multilateral response.”
“That’s just jargon Sanchez.” Dale sneered. “In the real world we have to look after ourselves. We’ve been looking after everyone else for decades and what have we gotten for it? Nothing. I campaigned on putting a stop to that and I’m not going to go back on that promise just because everyone’s afraid of a big lizard that’s probably got a brain the size of a walnut.”
Sanchez sighed and relented. There was no persuading him.
***
“So the question I guess we should start with,” Keisha said, pausing to take a bite of pizza, “is why is Godzilla reappearing now? Or rather, why did a new Godzilla appear now?”
“I think the answer to that is pretty simple.” Ethan said, thumbing through the notes he had brought with them. The two of them were sitting in the living room of Keisha’s home, collaborating on what had gone from what probably would have been an interesting blog post that Ethan had been reluctant to assist with to a writing project that promised to elevate both of their careers. The world was suddenly in a crisis and people all across the globe wanted answers. Ethan was pretty sure he had them, and Keisha was apparently confident that he did as well.
“Godzilla, or the first Godzilla, appeared after atomic and hydrogen bomb tests in the 1950s.” He said, thinking out loud. “We know for sure that Godzilla was either awakened, mutated, or created by the radiation from the tests conducted near where he first appeared because of the radiation the creature was found to give off and leave behind. Hell, a lot of the people who died in his first rampage, and for that matter some of the survivors, had radiation burns.”
“Right.” Keisha agreed. “And for a long time after that nuclear energy was something largely avoided by nations around the world. At least openly and for a time. But we know that the Soviets were secretive about their use of nuclear energy, and that gave the world Chernobyl eventually.”
“It’s the more recent reactor meltdown in Japan that I think is responsible.” Ethan said.
“So do I. It’s the obvious culprit. How much radiation leaked into the Pacific in that disaster?”
“I’m not sure.” Ethan said, shaking his head. “And who knows, there could be recent nuclear waste dumps in the oceans we don’t know about or something. Still, it’s the most obvious suspect.”
He started typing something into his phone, staring intently at the screen as he scrolled through whatever search he had entered.
“Looking for something specific?” Keisha asked.
“I’m looking to see if Dr. Kenichi Yamane has been quoted anywhere as of yet.”
“Yamane…” Keisha said, looking thoughtful. “I came across that name somewhere….”
“He’s the grandson of Dr. Kyohei Yamane, the famous professor of biology and paleontology that helped to discover the original Godzilla. Both of them have been considered the preeminent experts on Godzilla of their times, as was the current Dr. Yamane’s father in between them.”
“You two making any headway in here?”
Ethan looked up to see Keisha’s father standing in the door way, leaning on a four-pronged walking stick with tennis balls supporting it. He wasn’t in good health. That had been explained to him before he had arrived and briefly met the man who, until this point, had been resting in his bedroom. Now, as the older man looked out at him with a drooping eye-the residual of a somewhat recent stroke he’d been told-and stubbornly tried to drag his oxygen machine and walk with his cane at the same time, Ethan found himself thinking that Keisha must have her work cut out for her here at home.
“Daddy, let me help you with that.” She said, exasperation in her voice as she went to his side.
“I’m just goin’ to the recliner Baby Girl.” He protested, the oxygen tubes coming off his face as he struggled to do more than he could. “It’s alright. I ain’t helpless you know.”
“I know Daddy, I know.” Keisha assured him, helping him move the oxygen machine to his chair and putting a couch cushion in it for his back before he sat down. “But you still don’t need to be overdoing it.”
“So,” the old man said, turning his attention back to Ethan, “Keisha tells me you’re some kind of expert on Godzilla. You know how we’re gonna kill him yet?”
Ethan paused, unsure if he was being tested or teased. The old man stared at him seriously for a moment then grinned and let loose a hoarse but delightfully amused laugh.
“I’m just messin’ with you son. Ain’t no body gonna figure that out just yet. Hell, they don’t even know where he came from.”
“Well,” Ethan said, smiling nervously and unsure of what the best thing to say to that was, “I think we have an answer to that at least.”
“Oh?” Mr. Williams asked. “What’s that now?”
“Well, Mr…”
“Joe.” He interrupted him. “Just Joe. No worries about the mister part.”
“Sure.” Ethan replied, relaxing just a bit. “We know Godzilla is connected to radiation and there was a nuclear incident in Japan about a decade ago. So that’s probably the answer as to where it came from.”
“So there was a dinosaur out there in the ocean somewhere and this accident turned it into a monster?” Joe Williams asked.
“Well, maybe…Godzilla certainly has a lot of similarities to dinosaurs, but there are a lot of dissimilarities as well.”
Keisha’s father laughed again.
“That’s what I’m tellin’ you. You don’t know if he was a dinosaur or somethin’ that was out there that we never heard of before or somethin’ brand new. We just don’t know. And you know what the thing about what we don’t know is right? People are scared of what they don’t know. They’re scared of what they don’t understand. If Godzilla was a plane crash or a hurricane or a nutcase with a gun no body would be panickin’ like this no matter how many people died. But he’s somethin’ we can’t wrap our heads around. He’s somethin’ reminds us just how much is out there on God’s earth and in the oceans that we don’t understand. Doesn’t matter that those jets and tanks can’t hurt him. You can’t hurt an earthquake or a volcano but it don’t scare people like this. It’s that we don’t understand him. And that reminds us of somethin’ we don’t like to be reminded of. Know what that is?”
“No…” Ethan replied nervously. “What’s that?”
“That we ain’t God.”
“Alright Daddy.” Keisha said, patience thin in her voice.
“No, no, it’s true. But I hear what you’re saying on this nuclear stuff. That makes sense. Know why? Because people get full of themselves easy. You think about it. How full of ourselves did we have to be to think we could split an atom, the thing that makes up everything in the universe, just to kill millions of people? And what did that arrogance get us? It got us Godzilla. Then after Godzilla is stopped everyone said, ‘We’ve learned our lesson. We can’t have these nukes anymore.’ But what happened? After awhile, people got arrogant again. And then we get Godzilla again. That’s the whole of history if you think about it. People just repeatin’ the same stupid, awful mistakes, again and again and again.”
He dozed off, breathing deeply as he slept in the chair.
“Sorry about that.” Keisha said, her voice almost a whisper. “He’s really sick and too stubborn to admit it. Plus he doesn’t get as much company as he’d like so I should have known he’d want to come in here and talk to you at some point.”
“It’s alright. Honestly, it seems like he has a lot of wisdom.”
“That he does.” Keisha replied with a soft smile. “That, plus the sleep apnea and the COPD. It kind of keeps him in a fog. The stroke weakened him but the doctor says it didn’t do much to his mind so I’m thankful for that.”
“I bet.” Ethan said, returning to his phone.
“Are you looking for something specific from this Yamane guy?”
“I want to see if he’s said anything new about a hypothesis he proposed about thirty years ago. Back then, he suggested Godzilla’s body must work similar to a nuclear reactor. If that’s true, it comes with a lot of implications. Some of them are pretty troubling. If what Yamane suspects about Godzilla is right, well, your dad would probably say we’re about to realize we’ve made some stupid mistakes.”
****
The room was filled to capacity with the brightest minds Japan had to offer, brilliant scientists sitting alongside military and government officials. Dr. Inamura was among them, his head swimming with grim thoughts and worries. He knew why he had been asked to come. The government wanted to see if Reikanium might have some potential to be used against Godzilla. Unconsciously, Dr. Inamura stroked the locket concealed beneath his shirt. He had sworn a long time ago that his work, whatever its implications, would never produce a weapon. He would never be an Oppenheimer or a Serizawa, feeling as if his hands were soaked in blood or that they would be. Still, he remembered reading something that someone had supposedly told Dr. Serizawa before his fateful decision to use his long lost weapon against the first Godzilla. He had his fears that might become reality and then he had Godzilla which was now reality once more. With that in mind, he knew what his decision would be if it came to that.
“Gentleman,” the Prime Minister, a short man with thinning hair accentuated by almost comical ears, said to begin the meeting. “I will be brief because our time may be short. You all know why we are here today and what the threat we face is. My hope is that this meeting may produce some solution to our problem. And so, knowing that there are greater minds than mine gathered here today, I will turn, for the moment, to one such mind, Dr. Kenichi Yamane.”
There was polite applause as a dark haired man who looked somewhat younger than his fifty years stood. Dr. Inamura had never met him before but knew him by reputation. Their fields vaguely intersected and he was the world’s most notable expert on Godzilla. He came by it honestly, his father and grandfather both having possessed that notable recognition before him. Inamura considered him, finding on his face a stern determination that somehow fit the man and the moment both.
“The Prime Minister has asked me to begin by offering the counsel I gave to him when he first called me.” Dr. Yamane began. “Some of you are quite familiar with a theory I proposed more than twenty years ago, that theory being that the source of Godzilla’s power-his ability to emit radiation and weaponize radioactive fire-are due to some internal process that must resemble a fission reaction.” Dr. Inamura looked at him over the rim of his glasses. “If that’s the case, then it provides two implications for us, both concerning.”
He looked over the room as he continued, his expression maintaining that grim determination. “Either Godzilla can replenish his energy supply through some internal mechanism, meaning that he possesses infinite power, or he must replenish it through feeding.”
“Feeding?” One of the military officers asked. “Does that imply he may soon return to eat people?”
“More likely he’ll feed on whales.” Someone volunteered.
“My operating theory, which to this point I had not been able to test and, frankly, would have preferred never to have the opportunity, is that Godzilla feeds on radioactive material.” Dr. Yamane explains. “That is, he survives and is powered by nuclear energy. As such, having exhausted some of his energy supply, he may need to seek out energy sources to replenish it.”
“What you’re saying then,” Dr. Inamura interjected, “is that either we are facing a creature with an unlimited supply of power or that Godzilla will likely return and target a source of energy to feed, like a nuclear power plant.”
“Precisely.” Dr. Yamane said solemnly.
An uncomfortable silence hung over the room.
“You mean on top of Godzilla we might have a nuclear disaster?” One of the government officials asked.
“We never should have built the reactors.” Someone else said. “And we should have shut them down after the accident.”
The room erupted into shouting until the Prime Minister rose and regained control.
“If it is true that Godzilla will seek out nuclear material to recharge himself,” Dr. Yamane continued, “then we have a clear and immediate step to take. We must shut down the nuclear reactors in Japan.”
There was widespread murmuring around the room.
“If we do that,” one of the Cabinet Ministers warned, “much of the country will be without power. Godzilla’s attack has already had a devastating impact on our economy. A massive power outage will surely compound that and push Japan into a recession.”
There were nods and a chorus of general agreement. Inamura found his blood boiling.
“It would be far better than the alternative.” He said, his voice loud and firm, shushing the room and drawing all eyes to him as he sat, forehead resting on his clasped hands.
“If Godzilla returns,” he continued, looking up to meet the eyes of all the others, “it will mean more destruction and death. A power outage? A recession? What is that compared to the screams of the dying? To people lost in the fires? To children orphaned and parents left grieving?”
The room remained silent, everyone listening.
“I lost my parents in Nagasaki.” Inamura said gravely. “I saw Godzilla’s first attack on Tokyo and lost my first love then. And when the reactor failed I lost my wife, my beloved Rei. I have seen first hand, again and again, the horrors nuclear power produces. We will survive as a nation without the reactors running. Many will die though if Godzilla returns.”
“Admittedly,” Dr. Yamane cautioned, “it is an unproven hypothesis. I feel the need to remind everyone of that. That said, I am extremely confident that it is correct.”
“The risk of what will happen if you are right outweighs the risk of what will happen if you are wrong.” Dr. Inamura assured him. “I believe it is a precaution worth taking.”
“There are so many unanswered questions here.” Said of the scientists. “For instance, why did the monster return to Japan? Why is it reappearing-or assuming it’s a new member of the species I should say appearing-now all of a sudden? Why does its path through Tokyo seem to so closely resemble the first attack?”
“I don’t yet have an answer to any of that.” Dr. Yamane replied. “For all that we know about Godzilla, there are many more mysteries that we have no answers to as of yet.”
“A more important question,” one of the generals interrupted, “is how do we stop it?”
Dr. Inamura leaned his chin on his hands, pondering that question.
“Are nuclear weapons being considered?” Someone asked.
Inamura’s head jerked up.
“All options are on the table.” The Prime Minister replied.
“I strongly object!” Inamura practically shouted. “Nuclear weapons would be more devastating to Japan than the monster itself!”
“Do you have any better ideas?” One of the cabinet ministers retorted.
“Perhaps.” Inamura said. “Just perhaps.”
-
Godzilla2004
- Yojimbo
- Posts: 31
- Joined: Sun Aug 08, 2021 11:37 am
Re: Godzilla: Second Crisis
Interlude
Two months had passed since Godzilla’s attack on Tokyo. Since then, the monster had vanished, sinking into the depths of the Pacific and eluding all efforts to locate it. Wide sweeps had been conducted by Japan, South Korea, China, Russia, the Philippines, and Australia. European nations had joined in the effort. Still, no monster. Many of the participating nations were not shy about placing the blame on the lack of U.S. involvement in the hunt.
As Ethan walked across the university campus a chorus of chants caught his attention.
“Show me what democracy looks like!”
“This is what democracy looks like!”
“Show me what democracy looks like!”
“This is what democracy looks like!”
“Looks like a big turnout for the protest.”
He turned, finding Keisha suddenly at his side.
“Yeah.” He said. “People are on edge and Dale is just making it worse.”
“Isn’t that kind of what he does?” She asked with shrug.
“It’s different now.” Ethan sighed. “The whole world just got plunged into a crisis. He’s not just a bumbling idiot anymore. He’s an idiot who doesn’t know what he’s doing when we really need someone capable leading the country.”
“I was reading up on this nuclear plant he’s rushing to open up at Indian Point. I didn’t get a lot of the technical stuff though. What’s the big deal with that? Besides the whole radiation might make a monster dinosaur thing?”
“It’s a Natrium reactor.” Ethan sighed.
“Pretend I don’t know what that means.” She said, giving him an amused look.
“The short answer is that it’s next generation nuclear technology. It looks to put out at least four times the amount of energy that a traditional nuclear plant does and does so without producing near as much waste.”
“That’s good right?” Keisha asked. “More energy, less waste, less carbon emissions; what’s wrong with that?”
“What’s wrong with the sun, wind, and waves?” Ethan replied. “The Union of Concerned Scientists took a look at these so-called advanced reactors and put a paper out on them. Natrium reactors, along with the other models, all have significant safety issues, sustainability issues, and implications related to potential acts of terrorism and threat to national and global security. They found many of the claims of supporters of new nuclear plants misleading and called for Congress to suspend construction on them.”
“So why’s it being rushed through?” Keisha asked. “Why does Dale want it so bad? He was big on oil and coal in the campaign.”
“Same reason anything gets movement in this country anymore.” Ethan shrugged. “Rich people that supported campaigns, including his, have invested in the project and want it done. They see the writing on the wall. Fossil fuels are finally going the way of the dinosaurs that helped make them. The wealthy and well-connected have delayed the inevitable as long as they can and brought us who knows how many generations of misery for it. Now they’re turning to nuclear, dressing it up as clean and safe, correctly noting that statistically meltdowns and explosions have been rare events while brushing over the scope of the damage and death they create. Nuclear energy is the next energy boom for investors, their answer to the climate crisis, and probably the next disaster for millions of ordinary people and the environment.”
“So what you’re saying is that there’s no such thing as safe nuclear power?”
Ethan looked on as a massive banner was lifted by the protestors that read, “No Godzillas in New York!”
“Yeah.” He said. “That’s what I’m saying.”
***
President Dale took to the podium and glared out at the gathered reporters.
“Let’s set the record straight.” He said. “I am here to debunk the hysterical smear campaign that has been leveled by the political opposition and their allies in the biased media against my Energy Freedom Initiative, particularly the Indian Point project. America needs energy. Huge amounts of energy. We cannot get there without nucular power. For these reasons, I have expedited with presidential powers, powers I have determined are well within my right to use, the construction and opening of the plant. Testing of its operations have been successful. More successful than anyone but me ever predicted. And now, America will have the most powerful nucular power plants in the world, no thanks to the idiots opposing me in Congress.”
He paused, and thrust his jaw forward as his eyes roamed over the room.
“Any questions? I mean there shouldn’t be. I just explained it and it’s all pretty simple right? Even you all should be able to get it.”
He flicked his finger out. “You. No not you. You. Ask your question already.”
“Mr President,” the reporter he’d called on began as she glanced briefly at her notes, “Japanese scientists, including Dr. Kenichi Yamane, widely considered the foremost expert on Godzilla in the world, has urged nations around the globe to suspend operations and production of nuclear energy, theorizing that Godzilla may be drawn to them. Japan and other nations have shut their nuclear plants down entirely. Why is your administration pursuing the opposite policy and expediting the opening of new plants beginning at Indian Point?”
“Okay, first of all, let’s make something clear.” Dale practically thundered. “No one had ever heard of this Yamane guy before now. No one! Where did he come from? Seriously! Secondly, all these scientists say they think this about Godzilla, they think that, but come on, no one really knows! And look, Godzilla is a Japanese problem. New York is way away from Japan. How far is that? No one knows. I mean I know but you don’t know. And besides that, the cure can’t be worse than the ailment. What we do to stop Godzilla can’t be worse than Godzilla. Do you know how many people would starve and freeze or sweat to death if we turned off the power plants? Do you even care? Do you know what that would do to the economy? We can’t shut down! The people in those power plants want to work!”
He was waving his arms now, gesturing frantically.
“I’m tired of this alarmism about Godzilla. Godzilla is not coming here. He’s just not! You know how we know that? Because we’re not doing the sweeps. If we don’t bother him with the sweeps he won’t attack us. No sweeps, no Godzilla. And if he does show up, we have the best military in the world and the best nucular weapons in the world so we’ll be okay.”
***
Joe Williams sat in his chair, flipping channels, breathing in deep as his oxygen machine pumped fresh air into his lungs. He was tired. More than anything he hated being so tired. He could sleep most of the day and still be tired. If he could just feel rested everything would get better he thought. He just needed his old energy back.
In his younger days, he had loved life like few other men did. As a kid he’d partied hard, gotten around, and had so much fun that it still managed to put a smile on his face. His wife had tamed him, and as over the moon for her as he’d been it hadn’t taken her much. For him, it was an easy transition from a wild teenager to a dedicated, conscientious young husband. When Keisha came into the world, life had only gotten better. He relished every minute with his baby girl, everything from diaper changes to playing in the floor with her and her dolls to teaching her to ride a bike. When he’d seen her come out of her room in her prom dress he had cried over how beautiful and grown up she’d become. Life had been worth living.
The only time that Joe had ever lost his love of life was when his wife had died. There, in that hospital room, for a brief moment, he wished that he had gone with her. It had felt as if his whole world had vanished in an instant. Then Keisha had put her arms around him, crying, and life came back into focus. He couldn’t die, he had told himself. His baby girl needed him. He had a duty to stay alive no matter how much the grief hurt. And so, for awhile, his responsibility was what he lived for.
Now though, Keisha didn’t need him. She thought she did, but he knew better. She was grown, strong, independent, smart-everything he could have ever hoped she’d be and more. Still, he wasn’t ready to die. Not just yet. The stroke had wrecked his body but it couldn’t take Joe’s love of life from him. He wanted to get better. He wanted to see grandkids someday; to bounce them on his knee and spoil them rotten. Wasn’t that what old men were supposed to do when their kids had kids after all?
He was going to get better. It would take more than a stroke to beat Joe Williams. If he could just get his energy back, he’d be moving around again and getting things done. Anyone that didn’t believe that didn’t know Joe.
The tv stopped on the news.
“These images were shot by a film crew working on a nature documentary.” The reporter said with urgency. “They were filming dolphins in the Atlantic when they captured the following footage.”
The screen changed to show the jagged, almost oak leaf like dorsal plates of an enormous, charcoal gray animal churning waves as it swam. What Joe Wilson saw on the screen looked to him like some sort of enormous crocodile, only he was sure it must have been thousands of times bigger than the biggest croc that had ever lived. His eyes widened a bit as he realized what he was looking at and put the word “Atlantic” to it. The stroke had ravaged his body but his mind still whirled sharp within it. The implication of what he was seeing came through to him with glass-like clarity.
“The video was uploaded by the crew to YouTube before they began alerting news stations and government agencies.” The reporter continued, her urgency only seeming to increase. “So we can now confirm that not only is Godzilla in the Atlantic but he is headed in the direction of the eastern United States.”
“Oh God…” Joe Williams muttered. “Not here Lord. No…”
Two months had passed since Godzilla’s attack on Tokyo. Since then, the monster had vanished, sinking into the depths of the Pacific and eluding all efforts to locate it. Wide sweeps had been conducted by Japan, South Korea, China, Russia, the Philippines, and Australia. European nations had joined in the effort. Still, no monster. Many of the participating nations were not shy about placing the blame on the lack of U.S. involvement in the hunt.
As Ethan walked across the university campus a chorus of chants caught his attention.
“Show me what democracy looks like!”
“This is what democracy looks like!”
“Show me what democracy looks like!”
“This is what democracy looks like!”
“Looks like a big turnout for the protest.”
He turned, finding Keisha suddenly at his side.
“Yeah.” He said. “People are on edge and Dale is just making it worse.”
“Isn’t that kind of what he does?” She asked with shrug.
“It’s different now.” Ethan sighed. “The whole world just got plunged into a crisis. He’s not just a bumbling idiot anymore. He’s an idiot who doesn’t know what he’s doing when we really need someone capable leading the country.”
“I was reading up on this nuclear plant he’s rushing to open up at Indian Point. I didn’t get a lot of the technical stuff though. What’s the big deal with that? Besides the whole radiation might make a monster dinosaur thing?”
“It’s a Natrium reactor.” Ethan sighed.
“Pretend I don’t know what that means.” She said, giving him an amused look.
“The short answer is that it’s next generation nuclear technology. It looks to put out at least four times the amount of energy that a traditional nuclear plant does and does so without producing near as much waste.”
“That’s good right?” Keisha asked. “More energy, less waste, less carbon emissions; what’s wrong with that?”
“What’s wrong with the sun, wind, and waves?” Ethan replied. “The Union of Concerned Scientists took a look at these so-called advanced reactors and put a paper out on them. Natrium reactors, along with the other models, all have significant safety issues, sustainability issues, and implications related to potential acts of terrorism and threat to national and global security. They found many of the claims of supporters of new nuclear plants misleading and called for Congress to suspend construction on them.”
“So why’s it being rushed through?” Keisha asked. “Why does Dale want it so bad? He was big on oil and coal in the campaign.”
“Same reason anything gets movement in this country anymore.” Ethan shrugged. “Rich people that supported campaigns, including his, have invested in the project and want it done. They see the writing on the wall. Fossil fuels are finally going the way of the dinosaurs that helped make them. The wealthy and well-connected have delayed the inevitable as long as they can and brought us who knows how many generations of misery for it. Now they’re turning to nuclear, dressing it up as clean and safe, correctly noting that statistically meltdowns and explosions have been rare events while brushing over the scope of the damage and death they create. Nuclear energy is the next energy boom for investors, their answer to the climate crisis, and probably the next disaster for millions of ordinary people and the environment.”
“So what you’re saying is that there’s no such thing as safe nuclear power?”
Ethan looked on as a massive banner was lifted by the protestors that read, “No Godzillas in New York!”
“Yeah.” He said. “That’s what I’m saying.”
***
President Dale took to the podium and glared out at the gathered reporters.
“Let’s set the record straight.” He said. “I am here to debunk the hysterical smear campaign that has been leveled by the political opposition and their allies in the biased media against my Energy Freedom Initiative, particularly the Indian Point project. America needs energy. Huge amounts of energy. We cannot get there without nucular power. For these reasons, I have expedited with presidential powers, powers I have determined are well within my right to use, the construction and opening of the plant. Testing of its operations have been successful. More successful than anyone but me ever predicted. And now, America will have the most powerful nucular power plants in the world, no thanks to the idiots opposing me in Congress.”
He paused, and thrust his jaw forward as his eyes roamed over the room.
“Any questions? I mean there shouldn’t be. I just explained it and it’s all pretty simple right? Even you all should be able to get it.”
He flicked his finger out. “You. No not you. You. Ask your question already.”
“Mr President,” the reporter he’d called on began as she glanced briefly at her notes, “Japanese scientists, including Dr. Kenichi Yamane, widely considered the foremost expert on Godzilla in the world, has urged nations around the globe to suspend operations and production of nuclear energy, theorizing that Godzilla may be drawn to them. Japan and other nations have shut their nuclear plants down entirely. Why is your administration pursuing the opposite policy and expediting the opening of new plants beginning at Indian Point?”
“Okay, first of all, let’s make something clear.” Dale practically thundered. “No one had ever heard of this Yamane guy before now. No one! Where did he come from? Seriously! Secondly, all these scientists say they think this about Godzilla, they think that, but come on, no one really knows! And look, Godzilla is a Japanese problem. New York is way away from Japan. How far is that? No one knows. I mean I know but you don’t know. And besides that, the cure can’t be worse than the ailment. What we do to stop Godzilla can’t be worse than Godzilla. Do you know how many people would starve and freeze or sweat to death if we turned off the power plants? Do you even care? Do you know what that would do to the economy? We can’t shut down! The people in those power plants want to work!”
He was waving his arms now, gesturing frantically.
“I’m tired of this alarmism about Godzilla. Godzilla is not coming here. He’s just not! You know how we know that? Because we’re not doing the sweeps. If we don’t bother him with the sweeps he won’t attack us. No sweeps, no Godzilla. And if he does show up, we have the best military in the world and the best nucular weapons in the world so we’ll be okay.”
***
Joe Williams sat in his chair, flipping channels, breathing in deep as his oxygen machine pumped fresh air into his lungs. He was tired. More than anything he hated being so tired. He could sleep most of the day and still be tired. If he could just feel rested everything would get better he thought. He just needed his old energy back.
In his younger days, he had loved life like few other men did. As a kid he’d partied hard, gotten around, and had so much fun that it still managed to put a smile on his face. His wife had tamed him, and as over the moon for her as he’d been it hadn’t taken her much. For him, it was an easy transition from a wild teenager to a dedicated, conscientious young husband. When Keisha came into the world, life had only gotten better. He relished every minute with his baby girl, everything from diaper changes to playing in the floor with her and her dolls to teaching her to ride a bike. When he’d seen her come out of her room in her prom dress he had cried over how beautiful and grown up she’d become. Life had been worth living.
The only time that Joe had ever lost his love of life was when his wife had died. There, in that hospital room, for a brief moment, he wished that he had gone with her. It had felt as if his whole world had vanished in an instant. Then Keisha had put her arms around him, crying, and life came back into focus. He couldn’t die, he had told himself. His baby girl needed him. He had a duty to stay alive no matter how much the grief hurt. And so, for awhile, his responsibility was what he lived for.
Now though, Keisha didn’t need him. She thought she did, but he knew better. She was grown, strong, independent, smart-everything he could have ever hoped she’d be and more. Still, he wasn’t ready to die. Not just yet. The stroke had wrecked his body but it couldn’t take Joe’s love of life from him. He wanted to get better. He wanted to see grandkids someday; to bounce them on his knee and spoil them rotten. Wasn’t that what old men were supposed to do when their kids had kids after all?
He was going to get better. It would take more than a stroke to beat Joe Williams. If he could just get his energy back, he’d be moving around again and getting things done. Anyone that didn’t believe that didn’t know Joe.
The tv stopped on the news.
“These images were shot by a film crew working on a nature documentary.” The reporter said with urgency. “They were filming dolphins in the Atlantic when they captured the following footage.”
The screen changed to show the jagged, almost oak leaf like dorsal plates of an enormous, charcoal gray animal churning waves as it swam. What Joe Wilson saw on the screen looked to him like some sort of enormous crocodile, only he was sure it must have been thousands of times bigger than the biggest croc that had ever lived. His eyes widened a bit as he realized what he was looking at and put the word “Atlantic” to it. The stroke had ravaged his body but his mind still whirled sharp within it. The implication of what he was seeing came through to him with glass-like clarity.
“The video was uploaded by the crew to YouTube before they began alerting news stations and government agencies.” The reporter continued, her urgency only seeming to increase. “So we can now confirm that not only is Godzilla in the Atlantic but he is headed in the direction of the eastern United States.”
“Oh God…” Joe Williams muttered. “Not here Lord. No…”
-
Godzilla2004
- Yojimbo
- Posts: 31
- Joined: Sun Aug 08, 2021 11:37 am
Re: Godzilla: Second Crisis
Chapter 4: The Folly of Man
“How the hell did you all miss that damn thing turning up in our ocean!?” President Dale roared at his national security team.
“Our ocean, Sir?” Sanchez asked, trying not to bristle. Most everyone in the room was trying to avoid Dale’s ire. Sanchez though had about reached his limit.
“Don’t be stupid! I mean the Atlantic!” Dale roared. “How the hell did you let him get into our ocean!?”
“If we had joined with the other nations in conducting the sweeps we might have picked up on Godzilla’s movements.” Sanchez replied, his voice icy. “We were told not to do that. That’s how Godzilla got into the Atlantic undetected.”
The tension in the room was growing heavy as Dale sizzled and Sanchez refused to break eye contact with him.
“Look, just kill the damn thing already!” Dale growled. “How are you going to do that? I want answers!”
“We’re working against time.” One of the generals said. “Godzilla is headed for New York and our options for intercepting him on such short notice are limited.”
“New York?” Dale asked, seemingly genuinely perplexed. “What would it want to go to New York for?”
“Indian Point most likely.” Sanchez muttered.
Dale’s expression changed from confusion to outrage in a second.
“Don’t any of you dare get to suggesting we shut that plant down! We are not caving to a bunch of hippies and Japanese egg heads on my energy policy! It has to be something else!”
“There’s no way this is a coincidence Sir.” Sanchez protested. “The Japanese and the Pacific nations all shut down any reactors they had. Meanwhile we fired up a powerful next generation reactor and Godzilla leaves the Pacific and heads right for where that reactor is operating. If you shut the reactor down then chances are he will leave.”
“We are not shutting the reactor down and that’s final!” Dale shouted. “We’re going to kill this monster here and now! Now tell me what you’re all going to do already!”
“We have five vessels prepared to intercept Godzilla.” A navy admiral volunteered. “Two destroyers, two cruisers, and an aircraft carrier. The destroyers and cruisers will confront Godzilla directly in a U-shaped formation. They’ll box him in and unload on him with everything they have. The aircraft carrier will provide backup from some distance back and be prepared to engage if Godzilla breaks through their ranks.”
“That’s it?” Dale asked after a minute. “You’re not considering nukes on that thing?”
Once again, Sanchez found himself the only one in the room willing to mount any opposition. “Sir, Godzilla draws his power from nuclear energy. Using a nuclear weapon is likely a very bad idea. But even if it were effective, the radiation from the blast would be a danger to the country in and of itself.”
“Don’t give me that! I want that bastard dead! I’m giving you an order as President of the United States! Nuke that damn lizard!”
It was the Secretary of Defense that finally spoke. “We could position the aircraft carrier far enough back that a nuke could be launched against Godzilla if he gets past the ships. It may not be necessary, but it might be wise to keep it available in case he gets through.”
“That’s what I want to hear!” Dale practically cheered. “I approve the operation. Let’s get the ball rolling on this!”
“We should also be drawing up plans to evacuate New York City and the surrounding area Sir.” Sanchez volunteered. “If this fails and you don’t shut down Indian Point, Godzilla will make landfall there shortly after the battle.”
“No need.” Dale said, waving him off. “We’ve got the best weapons in the world. Have a little confidence Sanchez. We’re going to show the world how to kill a monster.”
He paused, a smile spreading on his face.
“Just think how great this will be for my reelection campaign!”
***
Jagged dorsal plates surged through the ocean, churning the water into white foam as Godzilla sped towards his destination. The four naval vessels ahead of him were being readied, the men on board braced for a battle they never expected to have to fight in.
“Godzilla closing in, moving at 40 knots!” Came the warning. “All ships, prepare to fire!”
One by one missiles from the four ships roared into the sky, arching over the ocean before racing back down towards the advancing monster. Flame engulfed the beast as the countless missiles found their target, the water becoming a sea of fire and the sky blackening with smoke. Still though, as the soldiers watched in shock and mounting horror, Godzilla did not slow. The mammoth beast did not even seem to heed the barrage of missiles, continuing single minded in its advance. The onslaught continued, missiles exploding against Godzilla’s body and in the water around him, but still he came, unfazed and undaunted.
Over the ships the engines of jets roared as the full force from the distant aircraft carrier arrived. Dozens of jets fired their missiles at once, each one perfectly aim to strike the dark god swimming towards the ships. Each one exploded against the thick hide, none of them piercing it or stopping the monster’s charge. Any normal creature produced by nature should have died by now, splattered into pieces on the surface of the sea or sinking to the bottom with a thousand gaping wounds, but Godzilla remained unharmed.
As Godzilla came within range, the guns of the four ships fired. From the air, a small quartet of helicopters rained missiles down on the beast. But it was all a last, desperate effort. Godzilla collided against the destroyer in his path, the jagged edges of the his dorsal spines shredding through the metal of the ship, sending screaming soldiers plummeting into the sea. In an instant the ship had been torn in two and was sinking, Godzilla moving forward from the blockade unhindered.
***
“Did you see that!?” Dale shouted as he and his national security team watched the footage being beamed to them by drones hovering over the battle. “It tore through that ship like paper! What the hell were you all thinking with this plan!?”
He leapt from his seat and slammed his fist on the table. “That’s it! Nuke it! Nuke it now!”
The collective feeling in the room shifted from one of horror at what they had all just witnessed to one of desperation.
“There’s a half way point between those four ships and the aircraft carrier.” The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said. “That’s by design. That’s the area where we’ll hit Godzilla with the missile if that’s your order, Mr. President. That way we can minimize the risk to our service members.”
“Good.” Dale agreed. “As soon as that monster gets to that point though I want it dead! You’re all about to see I was right about this!”
***
Onboard the aircraft carrier the soldiers were rushing to shield their eyes. They had all been informed that the blockade had failed. Now there was just one more option to stop the beast from reaching them. The men and women on the vast ship were unsure which was more concerning, the approaching monster or the incoming weapon of mass destruction. Regardless, they knew that if this failed they were the last line of defense standing between Godzilla and the largest city in the United States.
If this didn’t work, millions could die.
From the heavens, the missile screamed down, striking its target directly. An enormous flash of light lit the horizon as a tower of fire ascended into the clouds. Massive waves rose in a shockwave from the epicenter of the blast, rocking the distant aircraft carrier. Somehow, over the roar of the explosion, the roar of Godzilla could be heard echoing in tandem, sounding like the death cries of a demon.
And then all was still.
For a moment all that could be heard was eerie silence, punctuated by the spray of water that had started falling from the sky. The ocean rocked, unsettled by the atomic explosion. Then, in the distance, they saw the light.
Beneath the surface of the sea something was glowing bright blue. As the light came closer it seemed that there was some shape within it, growing and twisting as it simultaneously came closer to the ship and to the surface. Then the water began to swirl in a massive whirlpool and terror rose before them.
Godzilla rose slowly, towering over the ship below him even as he emerged only to his waist. But this was not the same monster that had ravaged Tokyo. He had grown suddenly, expanding in both height and mass. The beast’s hide seemed frayed with red, fleshy wounds exposed all about its torso and on its face, as if the sudden growth in size had ripped what looked like charred, burnt flesh. Red light glowed from within those wounds and steam rose out of them, making Godzilla look as if he must be a living tower of painful sensation. But it was the eyes above the fanged snarl that most filled the men and women looking up at the beast with dread.
Staring down at them, if this monstrous thing could see from those horrible eyes, were two empty white orbs. It was as if a visage of death was staring down at them, or some ghost risen from the grave. Then, seeming to confirm that he could indeed see with those seemingly lifeless eyes, Godzilla parted his jaws and roared down at the aircraft carrier, louder and angrier than ever before.
“Fire!”
The cannons and missiles of the ship unleashed their barrage against the titan looming over it. Fire blazed and smoke mingled with the steam rising from the monster’s body. As the ship fired though Godzilla did not move, did not shriek, did not even flinch. Instead the monster’s spines glowed with bright blue light and its jaws parted, blue flame gathering in the back of its throat.
Then, in an instant, everyone on the aircraft carrier died and the ship was consumed by fire.
***
The White House’s national security team watched the footage being sent to them via drone with mounting alarm. Their plan had not only failed but had backfired spectacularly. Godzilla hadn’t merely survived, he had grown and become more terrifying as a result of their attempts to kill him. Now there was nothing standing between New York and total annihilation.
President Dale’s reaction was, at the moment, undecipherable. He was glancing back and forth between his phone and the screen, seemingly unable to focus his attention.
“Mr. President,” Sanchez said, forcing him to look up from his phone, “we have to shut down Indian Point. Now.”
“We are not shutting down Indian Point!” Dale snapped, his face growing red.
“Mr. President!” Sanchez shouted back, “That nuke didn’t just fail to stop Godzilla it made him even bigger! Nuclear energy is a bad idea! He’s clearly being drawn to Indian Point so we have to shut the plant down! Please Sir! Lives are on the line and our weaponry can’t stop that thing!”
Dale fumed for a moment, his eyes darting from Sanchez to the screen where Godzilla had resumed his path towards New York.
“He doesn’t look bigger to me!” Dale finally exclaimed. “Don’t put that out there! That’s fake news! If anything, he looks injured to me! In fact, look!” He waved his phone in the air, displaying his Twitter page but not so close that anyone could actually see it. “People are saying he looks hurt!”
It was all General Sanchez could do to contain himself. No one else had seen the footage of what had happened yet. Was Dale displaying insanity? Was he just this compulsive of a liar? Or was it just plain stupidity?
“Let him go to New York!” Dale said, surprising everyone in the room. “We’ll kill him there. He’s plainly injured so it will probably just take another nuke.”
“Another nuclear weapon?” The Secretary of State gasped. “In New York?”
“Sure. It’s just New York. It won’t be a big loss for the country.” Dale practically snorted, a mad little grin forming on his face. “I’m making the order. As soon as he arrives in New York, hit him with another nuke. And if he’s still kicking after that, hit him with another one. Hell, use the whole damn nucular arsenal if you have to; just get the job done! That’s an order!”
With that the President of the United States stood up and abruptly left the room, his fingers tapping away furiously on his phone. Everyone else sat there, aghast. None of them could decide what was the greater horror-that which they had just witnessed or the insane order they had just been given. Finally, it was Sanchez, nearly boiling over with anger, who leaned in and gestured to the Secretaries of Defense, State, and Homeland Security.
“Call the Vice President and the rest of the Cabinet.” He told them. “It’s time you all did what you should have done with this president a long time ago.”
***
New York was consumed in panic. The Governor had ordered an evacuation and sent National Guard troops to assist. People were screaming and running through the streets. Godzilla would arrive at any moment. In a short time the city would become a scene from a nightmare.
Ethan hurried to load a few essentials into his car. Having a vehicle was something many New Yorkers had found an inconvenience. Today, he was happy that he hadn’t been one of them. In all his time studying and lecturing on Godzilla, he had never imagined he’d be trying to flee from him.
Suddenly his cell phone rang.
“Keisha?” He asked, surprised to hear from her.
“Oh my God, Ethan, I’m sorry! I didn’t know who else to call! No one else is answering!”
“Calm down. It’s okay. What’s wrong?” He asked, trying to sound as reassuring as possible.
“It’s my dad! There’s something blocking the door! I can’t get to him! There’s no one else here to help me! Oh God!”
“I’ll be right there! Hang on!”
He hung up the phone and jumped into his car. “Damn it…Why the hell is this happening!?”
“How the hell did you all miss that damn thing turning up in our ocean!?” President Dale roared at his national security team.
“Our ocean, Sir?” Sanchez asked, trying not to bristle. Most everyone in the room was trying to avoid Dale’s ire. Sanchez though had about reached his limit.
“Don’t be stupid! I mean the Atlantic!” Dale roared. “How the hell did you let him get into our ocean!?”
“If we had joined with the other nations in conducting the sweeps we might have picked up on Godzilla’s movements.” Sanchez replied, his voice icy. “We were told not to do that. That’s how Godzilla got into the Atlantic undetected.”
The tension in the room was growing heavy as Dale sizzled and Sanchez refused to break eye contact with him.
“Look, just kill the damn thing already!” Dale growled. “How are you going to do that? I want answers!”
“We’re working against time.” One of the generals said. “Godzilla is headed for New York and our options for intercepting him on such short notice are limited.”
“New York?” Dale asked, seemingly genuinely perplexed. “What would it want to go to New York for?”
“Indian Point most likely.” Sanchez muttered.
Dale’s expression changed from confusion to outrage in a second.
“Don’t any of you dare get to suggesting we shut that plant down! We are not caving to a bunch of hippies and Japanese egg heads on my energy policy! It has to be something else!”
“There’s no way this is a coincidence Sir.” Sanchez protested. “The Japanese and the Pacific nations all shut down any reactors they had. Meanwhile we fired up a powerful next generation reactor and Godzilla leaves the Pacific and heads right for where that reactor is operating. If you shut the reactor down then chances are he will leave.”
“We are not shutting the reactor down and that’s final!” Dale shouted. “We’re going to kill this monster here and now! Now tell me what you’re all going to do already!”
“We have five vessels prepared to intercept Godzilla.” A navy admiral volunteered. “Two destroyers, two cruisers, and an aircraft carrier. The destroyers and cruisers will confront Godzilla directly in a U-shaped formation. They’ll box him in and unload on him with everything they have. The aircraft carrier will provide backup from some distance back and be prepared to engage if Godzilla breaks through their ranks.”
“That’s it?” Dale asked after a minute. “You’re not considering nukes on that thing?”
Once again, Sanchez found himself the only one in the room willing to mount any opposition. “Sir, Godzilla draws his power from nuclear energy. Using a nuclear weapon is likely a very bad idea. But even if it were effective, the radiation from the blast would be a danger to the country in and of itself.”
“Don’t give me that! I want that bastard dead! I’m giving you an order as President of the United States! Nuke that damn lizard!”
It was the Secretary of Defense that finally spoke. “We could position the aircraft carrier far enough back that a nuke could be launched against Godzilla if he gets past the ships. It may not be necessary, but it might be wise to keep it available in case he gets through.”
“That’s what I want to hear!” Dale practically cheered. “I approve the operation. Let’s get the ball rolling on this!”
“We should also be drawing up plans to evacuate New York City and the surrounding area Sir.” Sanchez volunteered. “If this fails and you don’t shut down Indian Point, Godzilla will make landfall there shortly after the battle.”
“No need.” Dale said, waving him off. “We’ve got the best weapons in the world. Have a little confidence Sanchez. We’re going to show the world how to kill a monster.”
He paused, a smile spreading on his face.
“Just think how great this will be for my reelection campaign!”
***
Jagged dorsal plates surged through the ocean, churning the water into white foam as Godzilla sped towards his destination. The four naval vessels ahead of him were being readied, the men on board braced for a battle they never expected to have to fight in.
“Godzilla closing in, moving at 40 knots!” Came the warning. “All ships, prepare to fire!”
One by one missiles from the four ships roared into the sky, arching over the ocean before racing back down towards the advancing monster. Flame engulfed the beast as the countless missiles found their target, the water becoming a sea of fire and the sky blackening with smoke. Still though, as the soldiers watched in shock and mounting horror, Godzilla did not slow. The mammoth beast did not even seem to heed the barrage of missiles, continuing single minded in its advance. The onslaught continued, missiles exploding against Godzilla’s body and in the water around him, but still he came, unfazed and undaunted.
Over the ships the engines of jets roared as the full force from the distant aircraft carrier arrived. Dozens of jets fired their missiles at once, each one perfectly aim to strike the dark god swimming towards the ships. Each one exploded against the thick hide, none of them piercing it or stopping the monster’s charge. Any normal creature produced by nature should have died by now, splattered into pieces on the surface of the sea or sinking to the bottom with a thousand gaping wounds, but Godzilla remained unharmed.
As Godzilla came within range, the guns of the four ships fired. From the air, a small quartet of helicopters rained missiles down on the beast. But it was all a last, desperate effort. Godzilla collided against the destroyer in his path, the jagged edges of the his dorsal spines shredding through the metal of the ship, sending screaming soldiers plummeting into the sea. In an instant the ship had been torn in two and was sinking, Godzilla moving forward from the blockade unhindered.
***
“Did you see that!?” Dale shouted as he and his national security team watched the footage being beamed to them by drones hovering over the battle. “It tore through that ship like paper! What the hell were you all thinking with this plan!?”
He leapt from his seat and slammed his fist on the table. “That’s it! Nuke it! Nuke it now!”
The collective feeling in the room shifted from one of horror at what they had all just witnessed to one of desperation.
“There’s a half way point between those four ships and the aircraft carrier.” The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said. “That’s by design. That’s the area where we’ll hit Godzilla with the missile if that’s your order, Mr. President. That way we can minimize the risk to our service members.”
“Good.” Dale agreed. “As soon as that monster gets to that point though I want it dead! You’re all about to see I was right about this!”
***
Onboard the aircraft carrier the soldiers were rushing to shield their eyes. They had all been informed that the blockade had failed. Now there was just one more option to stop the beast from reaching them. The men and women on the vast ship were unsure which was more concerning, the approaching monster or the incoming weapon of mass destruction. Regardless, they knew that if this failed they were the last line of defense standing between Godzilla and the largest city in the United States.
If this didn’t work, millions could die.
From the heavens, the missile screamed down, striking its target directly. An enormous flash of light lit the horizon as a tower of fire ascended into the clouds. Massive waves rose in a shockwave from the epicenter of the blast, rocking the distant aircraft carrier. Somehow, over the roar of the explosion, the roar of Godzilla could be heard echoing in tandem, sounding like the death cries of a demon.
And then all was still.
For a moment all that could be heard was eerie silence, punctuated by the spray of water that had started falling from the sky. The ocean rocked, unsettled by the atomic explosion. Then, in the distance, they saw the light.
Beneath the surface of the sea something was glowing bright blue. As the light came closer it seemed that there was some shape within it, growing and twisting as it simultaneously came closer to the ship and to the surface. Then the water began to swirl in a massive whirlpool and terror rose before them.
Godzilla rose slowly, towering over the ship below him even as he emerged only to his waist. But this was not the same monster that had ravaged Tokyo. He had grown suddenly, expanding in both height and mass. The beast’s hide seemed frayed with red, fleshy wounds exposed all about its torso and on its face, as if the sudden growth in size had ripped what looked like charred, burnt flesh. Red light glowed from within those wounds and steam rose out of them, making Godzilla look as if he must be a living tower of painful sensation. But it was the eyes above the fanged snarl that most filled the men and women looking up at the beast with dread.
Staring down at them, if this monstrous thing could see from those horrible eyes, were two empty white orbs. It was as if a visage of death was staring down at them, or some ghost risen from the grave. Then, seeming to confirm that he could indeed see with those seemingly lifeless eyes, Godzilla parted his jaws and roared down at the aircraft carrier, louder and angrier than ever before.
“Fire!”
The cannons and missiles of the ship unleashed their barrage against the titan looming over it. Fire blazed and smoke mingled with the steam rising from the monster’s body. As the ship fired though Godzilla did not move, did not shriek, did not even flinch. Instead the monster’s spines glowed with bright blue light and its jaws parted, blue flame gathering in the back of its throat.
Then, in an instant, everyone on the aircraft carrier died and the ship was consumed by fire.
***
The White House’s national security team watched the footage being sent to them via drone with mounting alarm. Their plan had not only failed but had backfired spectacularly. Godzilla hadn’t merely survived, he had grown and become more terrifying as a result of their attempts to kill him. Now there was nothing standing between New York and total annihilation.
President Dale’s reaction was, at the moment, undecipherable. He was glancing back and forth between his phone and the screen, seemingly unable to focus his attention.
“Mr. President,” Sanchez said, forcing him to look up from his phone, “we have to shut down Indian Point. Now.”
“We are not shutting down Indian Point!” Dale snapped, his face growing red.
“Mr. President!” Sanchez shouted back, “That nuke didn’t just fail to stop Godzilla it made him even bigger! Nuclear energy is a bad idea! He’s clearly being drawn to Indian Point so we have to shut the plant down! Please Sir! Lives are on the line and our weaponry can’t stop that thing!”
Dale fumed for a moment, his eyes darting from Sanchez to the screen where Godzilla had resumed his path towards New York.
“He doesn’t look bigger to me!” Dale finally exclaimed. “Don’t put that out there! That’s fake news! If anything, he looks injured to me! In fact, look!” He waved his phone in the air, displaying his Twitter page but not so close that anyone could actually see it. “People are saying he looks hurt!”
It was all General Sanchez could do to contain himself. No one else had seen the footage of what had happened yet. Was Dale displaying insanity? Was he just this compulsive of a liar? Or was it just plain stupidity?
“Let him go to New York!” Dale said, surprising everyone in the room. “We’ll kill him there. He’s plainly injured so it will probably just take another nuke.”
“Another nuclear weapon?” The Secretary of State gasped. “In New York?”
“Sure. It’s just New York. It won’t be a big loss for the country.” Dale practically snorted, a mad little grin forming on his face. “I’m making the order. As soon as he arrives in New York, hit him with another nuke. And if he’s still kicking after that, hit him with another one. Hell, use the whole damn nucular arsenal if you have to; just get the job done! That’s an order!”
With that the President of the United States stood up and abruptly left the room, his fingers tapping away furiously on his phone. Everyone else sat there, aghast. None of them could decide what was the greater horror-that which they had just witnessed or the insane order they had just been given. Finally, it was Sanchez, nearly boiling over with anger, who leaned in and gestured to the Secretaries of Defense, State, and Homeland Security.
“Call the Vice President and the rest of the Cabinet.” He told them. “It’s time you all did what you should have done with this president a long time ago.”
***
New York was consumed in panic. The Governor had ordered an evacuation and sent National Guard troops to assist. People were screaming and running through the streets. Godzilla would arrive at any moment. In a short time the city would become a scene from a nightmare.
Ethan hurried to load a few essentials into his car. Having a vehicle was something many New Yorkers had found an inconvenience. Today, he was happy that he hadn’t been one of them. In all his time studying and lecturing on Godzilla, he had never imagined he’d be trying to flee from him.
Suddenly his cell phone rang.
“Keisha?” He asked, surprised to hear from her.
“Oh my God, Ethan, I’m sorry! I didn’t know who else to call! No one else is answering!”
“Calm down. It’s okay. What’s wrong?” He asked, trying to sound as reassuring as possible.
“It’s my dad! There’s something blocking the door! I can’t get to him! There’s no one else here to help me! Oh God!”
“I’ll be right there! Hang on!”
He hung up the phone and jumped into his car. “Damn it…Why the hell is this happening!?”
-
Godzilla2004
- Yojimbo
- Posts: 31
- Joined: Sun Aug 08, 2021 11:37 am
Re: Godzilla: Second Crisis
Chapter 5: Persecution of the Masses
Coney Island Beach would normally be filled with crowds of people. The amusement park would normally be echoing with the laughter and delighted screams of visitors. The city would normally be bustling. Today though, beneath a gray sky, tanks and soldiers lined the beach, preparing for the arrival of a killer. A massive wave washed toward them, breaking just before the shore. And there, waist deep in the water, stood Godzilla, more massive and terrifying than ever.
“Fire!”
Cannons and rockets blazed, striking their massive target without difficulty. Godzilla waded through the explosions, dead white eyes fixing on the soldiers defying him as he roared. Atomic fire flew from his maw. His head turned slowly, sweeping the flame over the beach, devouring everything and everyone it struck. Then Godzilla came ashore, wading through the raging fires and sweeping the flames behind him as he walked. The rides of the amusement park crumpled under his feet. Brick apartment buildings and small businesses were crushed and ruined. A disaster like none the city had ever seen had come to Brooklyn, and no one would soon forget the devastation it would leave behind.
Godzilla roared again, his body a great mass of pain and agony. The terrible flame that had struck him, the flame like the one he remembered vividly from before, had twisted and enlarged him. His muscles ached. His flesh burned. His blood was boiling in his veins and arteries. But for Godzilla, pain fueled rage and rage in turn fueled power. Atomic energy was surging through his body like never before, and yet to cease the pain his instincts were driving him to feed on more.
The whirling rotor wings of helicopters caught Godzilla’s ears and drew his attention to the tiny crafts flying towards him. Guns and missiles fired at him again, each shell of ammunition smashing harmlessly against his hide. But Godzilla was in no mood to have his time wasted. He fired back at them, the helicopters exploding and the burning debris falling to the city below, causing yet more damage as they did. The titan roared, partly in triumph and partly a challenge, a call to some greater foe he could vent his pain and fury on. None came, and so he pressed on, towards his destination to the north.
The streets and buildings were still full of people who either hadn’t been able to evacuate so quickly or who had chosen to stay and tempt fate. Before the destroyer countless people were screaming and fleeing, the noise eventually reaching up to him with his keen hearing. Agitated, Godzilla turned his fire on the crowd, the blue light evaporating flesh and bone, melting people into scorched shadows on the streets and sidewalk. Those not close enough to die instantly were thrown by the explosion, their bodies landing burned and twisted. And still their cause of death stalked forward.
Against the brick wall of a building a woman looked up from where she sat, her arms around the young child she held close. Their clothes were dirty, their hair unwashed. She hid the child’s eyes as she looked up at the monster looming over them. She did not scream, instead forcing back the horror growing in her chest and only holding the child tighter. But she couldn’t control her cough.
“It’s okay.” She said between the coughs and as the monster loomed directly over them. “We’re going to see daddy soon. And we’ll be some place nice. Some place where we won’t have to worry about bills or getting sick and paying for a place to live ever again.”
***
Ethan drove as fast as he could, struggling to keep his eyes on the road and not on the towering reptilian colossus that loomed on the horizon. Godzilla appeared much larger than he had when he had appeared in Tokyo, easily one hundred meters. What’s more, the monster had taken on an almost ghastly appearance, with cracked, seemingly bleeding skin and dead white eyes that could be seen from blocks away. His mind was racing, wondering what had happened to spark this transformation.
He cursed and swerved, dodging people and other cars. The people left in the city were in a full blown panic, and with the monster looming on the horizon and the fires it was creating spreading out from its trail of devastation he couldn’t blame them. If he wasn’t needed he’d be fleeing this place as fast as he could. It seemed as if every nerve in his body and every cell in his brain were screaming at him to turn and do so. He couldn’t though. He was needed.
He swerved down the street to Keisha’s house and threw the vehicle into park almost before it had stopped. Leaving it running, he leapt out and ran up the brick steps of the porch to the little white house where Keisha was banging frantically on the door.
“Oh my God, Ethan!” She cried. “He’s barricaded the door!”
“What!?”
“He’s blocked off the door!” She screamed again. “He says he won’t come out! I’ve been trying to push the door open and it won’t budge!”
“What about the back door?” Ethan asked, desperate as he tried to figure how much time they might have.
“It’s blocked too!” Keisha cried. “The windows all have bars on them!”
Ethan turned the knob and pushed with all his might but the door only budged so far. He couldn’t even squeeze his fingers through the crack.
“Mr. Williams!” He shouted. “Joe!”
Slowly, a shadow rose up behind the curtains. Then an aged, trembling hand pulled the curtain back just enough to show Joe Williams leaning on the pile of furniture he had somehow pushed up against the door, looking out at them from behind the glass and bars of the window.
“Daddy!” Keisha cried. “Let us in! We have to go! Now!”
“It’s too late for that…Baby Girl…” He wheezed.
“Daddy! No! What are you saying!? We have to hurry!”
“Joe, come on!” Ethan tried. “Let us in!”
“No!” The old man shouted back with unexpected force, silencing the two on his porch.
His good eye fixed on them both as he raised his oxygen mask to his face and breathed in deep.
“You two listen to me now.” He said once he had caught his breath. “I’m just going to slow you down. You both know that. The time to get people like me out of the way has passed. The folks in charge of that blew it. Nothing you and me can do about it now though.”
“Daddy!” Keisha sobbed.
“I ain’t gonna be the reason you die here Baby Girl!” He said firmly. “That’s all there is to that. I’ve had a good life. Ain’t ending how or when I would have picked, but given my options making sure I don’t slow you down in getting away from that thing seems like the best one.”
Keisha was banging on the window, screaming frantically for her father. The house and the ground it was sitting on were beginning to shake.
“This is what a parent does, Baby Girl.” Joe Williams said, his strength of resolve seemingly channeled to give his body strength it wasn’t supposed to have. “It’s our job to take care of our babies and protect them, even if it means sacrifice. Now go! Don’t look back! And don’t grieve me and forget to live! You hear?”
Keisha was near hysterics, pounding hard and trying to break the glass, not that doing so would help with the big iron bars installed on them. Ethan had to steady himself as the earth shook again. Godzilla’s roar sounded, so loud and close that he looked up expecting to see the monster directly over them. Then he looked back to meet Joe William’s steady gaze.
“You get my daughter out of here.” The old man said. “Right now, understand? Keep her safe for me. Please…”
They looked at one another for what felt like an eternity before Ethan slowly nodded.
“Keisha…We have to go.” He said.
“No! No! Daddy! I won’t leave you! No! Damn it! No!”
Everything shook again.
“Go!” Joe shouted. “Now!”
Ethan grabbed Keisha around the waist and bolted for his car. Keisha screamed, kicked, and tried to grab the railing of the porch.
“I love you Baby Girl!” Her father called after her. “Stay safe for me!”
Ethan threw her in the car and got in before she could get past him, pulling the door shut and throwing it into gear even as she hit and scratched at him, screaming frantically for her father. The ground was shaking and a shadow emerging in the corner of Ethan’s eye. He didn’t dare turn his head, knowing full well what horror was waiting for him if he did. Instead he slammed his foot on the gas and drove as fast as he could, Keisha screaming in his ear the whole time.
Inside the old house, Joe slumped beside the pile of furniture blocking the door. He finally sobbed, letting tears flow for just a moment before whipping them away. It had hurt him so much to do all that and taken so long. He was so tired he could barely hold his head up. It was all he could do to breathe, but he knew there was no point in using his machine anymore. He left it laying beside him, still running as he lay his head back against his pile that he knew was the greatest and most important bit of work he’d ever done in his life. Keisha had a chance now and far more of one than she’d have had with him slowing her down.
The house shook. Appliances and little collectables that had been gathered over a lifetime fell and broke on the floor. It didn’t matter now. He wouldn’t need memories for much longer. What was most precious had been saved.
Joe Williams closed his eyes and smiled, ready to meet death with a happy heart and without a fight. Slowly, the shaking of the house seemed to grow more distant. The pain seemed to fade. All he felt now was tired and he let go, sinking into a much needed sleep. He didn’t feel a thing when the roof caved in or even realize it had happened.
***
Ethan drove as fast as he could, Keisha screaming as she watched the house she had grown up in disappear in a cloud of rising dust and debris along with the entire city block. Godzilla loomed above them, advancing without pause as the monster took her father from the world.
“Damn it!” Ethan shouted as he dodged an erratic car on the road then swerved again to dodge a small group of people running in the street. The people who hadn’t been evacuated were now panicking as the monster bore down on them and the fires spread out from his rampage. He turned his head to look at Keisha, finding her staring wide eyed at the scene behind them, and then looking in his rearview mirror he saw just how close to death they were.
The crowd of people in the street had fallen as the ground had shook and then, looking up and screaming as their unavoidable fate came down upon them, were squashed flat under the monster’s foot. The car that had been swerving erratically flipped over on its side, then it too was crushed under the beast’s other foot. Godzilla might appear to be lumbering through the city, but such a large animal with such a great stride didn’t need to move very fast to cover a great distance by human standards. If Ethan slowed down just a bit they were in very real danger of being crushed like the people behind them had been.
“We’re not going to make it!” Keisha shouted.
“We are too! I promise!”
“No, listen to me for a second!” She said, turning a tear stained face to him. “We can’t outrun him forever! There’s a subway entrance a few blocks from here. Get us there and then let’s get underground.”
“Alright, just tell me where!”
“Keep going straight!” She told him, her voice almost drowned out by the roar of jets and the missiles they fired. The missiles streaked through the air and exploded against Godzilla’s body, the loud booms they created paling in comparison to the furious roar of the monster. Everything glowed blue for a moment as Godzilla’s atomic breath raced over them in the sky and struck some of the jets, then everything flashed red as they exploded.
“This is insane!” Ethan shouted. “How could they have not prepared for this!? How come they didn’t evacuate sooner!?”
His shouting was cut short as the burning jets rained down around them, crashing into buildings and the street, causing explosions as the burning debris fell like fire from heaven.
“There! It’s right there!” Keisha shouted, pointing frantically.
Ethan slammed on the breaks and threw the car into park. “Come on!” He shouted.
The two of them raced to the entrance of the underground train system, looking back to see Godzilla coming ever closer. There were other people who had been gawking around the entrance who now thought better of it and were rushing down the steps. Ethan and Keisha joined them and squeezed in with the crowd of people that had already sought shelter here. Desperately they all huddled together-groups of people of different faiths praying together, people of all different walks of like trying to comfort one another, all as the city above them shook and the sounds of explosions and the roar of Godzilla filtered down to them, each of them wondering if they would be safe here or if the streets above might cave in and crush them all as the monster rampaged.
***
Godzilla moved from the now raging fires of Brooklyn to the edge of the East River. There were people stuck on the Brooklyn Bridge, watching as the monster waded into the river and began to come closer to them. Some got out their phones and took pictures and video as Godzilla advanced. Others did the sensible thing and leapt from their cars, trying to run to safety. Still others panicked and attempted to push their cars through, slamming into the other vehicles and succeeding only in jamming themselves in tighter than they had been. Horns blared and people screamed. All the while, Godzilla came closer.
Those looking from the bridge couldn’t believe the size of the beast that now loomed over them. The deepest part of the river below barely covered Godzilla’s legs. His head towered over them, looking down at the bridge blocking his path to his destination. His lip curled, a low growl escaping from his maw as he briefly considered the obstacle. Then, unbothered, the titanic saurian merely walked through it. The bridge itself crumbled. The suspension cables snapped and wrapped around the leviathan’s body, causing Godzilla to voice his annoyance with a deafening roar that drowned out the screams of the people below.
Tearing himself free, Godzilla advanced forward, his tail lashing out and smashing through the one of the bridge’s support towers. The tower toppled. Part of the bridge twisted and fell towards the water. People and cars were sent falling into the river below, hitting it as hard as if they had smashed into concrete. Others still on the bridge were crushed by falling debris from the tower. Panic only made matters worse, as people were trampled and pushed off by one another or drove their cars off the remains of the bridge in terror. Godzilla ignored all this, unbothered and uncaring now as he focused on where he was going.
Soldiers and tanks were lined up along FDR Drive, waiting for the monster as he waded through the river. Machine guns, rockets, and cannons all fired, roaring not half as loud as the shrieking of the nightmare beast stalking towards them. Godzilla roared a warning, only annoyed by the fruitless attempts to hurt him even as explosions riddled his body. Then the fire came and the street was engulfed in the atomic torrent, soldiers screaming as they were burnt and vaporized. The wall of flame rose up like a barrier to Manhattan, parting only as Godzilla passed through it.
Buildings crumbled and people died as Godzilla advanced, just as in Brooklyn. From the labyrinth of sky scrapers ahead of him, more helicopters came, pelting him with ammunition in a vain attempt to drive him away. Godzilla ignored them for as long as he could stand before turning and, with pinpoint accuracy, blasting them from the sky. As the helicopters fell like burning meteors on the city below, Godzilla continued his march to the north, towards the power that was beckoning him and the sweet relief he instinctively believed it would bring.
The roaring of jets caught his ears but before he could react they had surrounded and fired on him from all sides, flying straight up as their missiles exploded and engulfed him in the blasts. As the flames died away and the smoke cleared, blue light gathered along Godzilla’s spines. This had become more than mere irritation. Now he was angry.
Another wave of jets flew towards him from the north, from the direction of his destination. To his mind, they were protecting what he sought. So if these were the guardians of the power he had come to feed on then Godzilla would claim his prize through battle and death.
Godzilla unleashed a massive blast of atomic fury, swinging his head from one side to the other as he did. His blast of fire didn’t just destroy the jets this time. Instead it lashed out further, sweeping the horizon as he turned, striking skyscraper after skyscraper and melting through them, burning even through the Empire State Building. One by one the towering buildings were split in two, their top halves toppling over and crashing to the streets below, reducing the Manhattan skyline to burning ruins.
Godzilla roared louder than before, lifting his head to the heavens above as he did. He had come here with purpose and he would not be denied. Nothing would stop him as he claimed the sustenance and power he craved. Any that tried would know both hell and death.
***
Ted Dale sat in the President’s private residence, dividing his attention from the scenes from New York playing out on the TV and his phone where he was diligently tweeting out his thoughts:
New York is NEVER going to recover from this!!!
How awful! Thoughts and prayers!
We are going to stop Godzilla very soon!!! And that’s a PROMISE!!!
He paused for a moment, watching as a blast of blue light swept the city. He looked on as Godzilla towered over everything, roaring over the rising fires. He thought for a moment, realizing that the nation would turn to him for comfort and leadership and knowing he would have to provide. His brow wrinkled for a moment as he thought, then all at once the words came to him:
I won the last election in a landslide! LANDSLIDE! Totally unfair how others are saying it was close!
We had the biggest crowds of any inauguration EVER! EVER!!! Anyone who says different is LYING!!!
A reporter was talking on TV, but he wasn’t listening. Instead, the President of the United States thought hard and then fired off another tweet:
America is GREAT!!!
“This just in,” he heard the silver haired man on the TV saying, “President Dale, as the crisis in Manhattan is happening now, just, at this moment, tweeted, and I quote, ‘I won the last election in a landslide.’ Landslide in all caps. ‘Totally unfair how others are saying it was close’ and, quote, ‘We had the biggest crowds of any inauguration ever…anyone who says different is lying.’ He then followed it up with this three word tweet, ‘America is great.’”
Dale blinked, pleasantly surprised to see his words on the screen so quickly. Social media was truly a wonderful thing, he thought. If only it would replace the mainstream media.
“Angela,” the reporter continued, seemingly perplexed, “what do you make of this?”
“Well it’s certainly shocking.” A blonde haired woman replied, seemingly as baffled as the first reporter. “Here we are in the middle of a national crisis, with the Governor of New York saying that he has gotten no response for requests for help from the federal government, and the President of the United States is, instead of leading, apparently tweeting nonsense while Americans are dying and a major city is being destroyed!”
Dale’s temper flared and he tweeted furiously again:
FAKE NEWS REPORTER JUST CALLED SAYING AMERICA IS GREAT NONSENSE!!! UNBELIEVABLE!!!!
The first reporter was back on the TV now.
“This is, frankly, horrifying.” He said. “It seems as if the President is genuinely disconnected from reality in the middle of a crisis!”
Now Dale was fuming even more than before:
FAKE NEWS! I am very connected with reality! More so than anyone ever was before!!!
This is not a crisis! I have everything under control! Only I and I alone can do this!!!
This is not serious. It’s being contained. CONTAINED. Wouldn’t know that from the LAMESTREAM MEDIA!!!
This is so unfair! I’m being treated worse than any other president ever! Presidential harassment!
WITCHHUNT!
If the fake news media wants Godzilla stopped maybe they should ask their friend Rosy O’Donnell to fight him. She’s big and ugly enough to!
“More breaking news.” The silver haired reporter was saying, drawing Dale’s attention back to the screen. “We are receiving word now that the Vice President and a majority of the Cabinet have submitted a letter to Congress stating that President Dale is unfit to carry out his duties as President, citing apparent mental breakdown and confusion, and as such he is being relieved of his duties so that the Vice President can assume the role of acting President during this crisis pursuant to the Twenty Fifth Amendment. Remarkable development wouldn’t you say Angela?”
Dale’s scream of fury drowned out whatever the other reporter said. Secret service agents came into the room and found him throwing anything he could get his hands on. Everything except his phone at least which he was waving around frantically.
“They can’t do this to me! I’ll sue them! I’ll have them locked up! This has to be fake! Get me someone on the phone! Now! Anyone!”
It took some time, but eventually a high ranking official was found and brought into the room. General Sanchez considered Ted Dale coldly, listening for a moment as he stomped about the room and raved.
“This is treason! Treason! That’s what it is!” Dale roared. “You can’t do this to me! You hear me! They can’t do this! Whose idea was this!?”
“It doesn’t matter now Mr. President.” Sanchez said, his voice as cold and dispassionate as he could make it.
Dale grew quiet, hoping that the words “Mr. President” meant something they did not. Maybe, he allowed himself to believe, this meant that Sanchez was truly loyal. That he truly was one of the “good ones”. Maybe he had put a stop to it all and he was still President.
“The Cabinet has voted. A letter has been submitted to Congress. The fact is, it has been decided that you cannot carry out your duties and as such, you have been relieved of them.”
Dale was shaking in anger now. “This is a Deep State conspiracy! You’re all fired! I’ll sue you! I’ll have you all locked up!” He fumed, his threats painfully hollow to everyone but himself.
“If you’ll excuse me now, Mr. President, I have important matters to tend to.” The general said, turning his back and leaving the man to scream and throw things in his fit. Sanchez didn’t care that the man behind him would soon be sitting on the floor tweeting slanders about him and every other enemy, real and imagined. He had a job to do. The Japanese Government had called with the promise of a plan that might stop Godzilla, and as National Security Advisor he had to alert the new acting President.
Coney Island Beach would normally be filled with crowds of people. The amusement park would normally be echoing with the laughter and delighted screams of visitors. The city would normally be bustling. Today though, beneath a gray sky, tanks and soldiers lined the beach, preparing for the arrival of a killer. A massive wave washed toward them, breaking just before the shore. And there, waist deep in the water, stood Godzilla, more massive and terrifying than ever.
“Fire!”
Cannons and rockets blazed, striking their massive target without difficulty. Godzilla waded through the explosions, dead white eyes fixing on the soldiers defying him as he roared. Atomic fire flew from his maw. His head turned slowly, sweeping the flame over the beach, devouring everything and everyone it struck. Then Godzilla came ashore, wading through the raging fires and sweeping the flames behind him as he walked. The rides of the amusement park crumpled under his feet. Brick apartment buildings and small businesses were crushed and ruined. A disaster like none the city had ever seen had come to Brooklyn, and no one would soon forget the devastation it would leave behind.
Godzilla roared again, his body a great mass of pain and agony. The terrible flame that had struck him, the flame like the one he remembered vividly from before, had twisted and enlarged him. His muscles ached. His flesh burned. His blood was boiling in his veins and arteries. But for Godzilla, pain fueled rage and rage in turn fueled power. Atomic energy was surging through his body like never before, and yet to cease the pain his instincts were driving him to feed on more.
The whirling rotor wings of helicopters caught Godzilla’s ears and drew his attention to the tiny crafts flying towards him. Guns and missiles fired at him again, each shell of ammunition smashing harmlessly against his hide. But Godzilla was in no mood to have his time wasted. He fired back at them, the helicopters exploding and the burning debris falling to the city below, causing yet more damage as they did. The titan roared, partly in triumph and partly a challenge, a call to some greater foe he could vent his pain and fury on. None came, and so he pressed on, towards his destination to the north.
The streets and buildings were still full of people who either hadn’t been able to evacuate so quickly or who had chosen to stay and tempt fate. Before the destroyer countless people were screaming and fleeing, the noise eventually reaching up to him with his keen hearing. Agitated, Godzilla turned his fire on the crowd, the blue light evaporating flesh and bone, melting people into scorched shadows on the streets and sidewalk. Those not close enough to die instantly were thrown by the explosion, their bodies landing burned and twisted. And still their cause of death stalked forward.
Against the brick wall of a building a woman looked up from where she sat, her arms around the young child she held close. Their clothes were dirty, their hair unwashed. She hid the child’s eyes as she looked up at the monster looming over them. She did not scream, instead forcing back the horror growing in her chest and only holding the child tighter. But she couldn’t control her cough.
“It’s okay.” She said between the coughs and as the monster loomed directly over them. “We’re going to see daddy soon. And we’ll be some place nice. Some place where we won’t have to worry about bills or getting sick and paying for a place to live ever again.”
***
Ethan drove as fast as he could, struggling to keep his eyes on the road and not on the towering reptilian colossus that loomed on the horizon. Godzilla appeared much larger than he had when he had appeared in Tokyo, easily one hundred meters. What’s more, the monster had taken on an almost ghastly appearance, with cracked, seemingly bleeding skin and dead white eyes that could be seen from blocks away. His mind was racing, wondering what had happened to spark this transformation.
He cursed and swerved, dodging people and other cars. The people left in the city were in a full blown panic, and with the monster looming on the horizon and the fires it was creating spreading out from its trail of devastation he couldn’t blame them. If he wasn’t needed he’d be fleeing this place as fast as he could. It seemed as if every nerve in his body and every cell in his brain were screaming at him to turn and do so. He couldn’t though. He was needed.
He swerved down the street to Keisha’s house and threw the vehicle into park almost before it had stopped. Leaving it running, he leapt out and ran up the brick steps of the porch to the little white house where Keisha was banging frantically on the door.
“Oh my God, Ethan!” She cried. “He’s barricaded the door!”
“What!?”
“He’s blocked off the door!” She screamed again. “He says he won’t come out! I’ve been trying to push the door open and it won’t budge!”
“What about the back door?” Ethan asked, desperate as he tried to figure how much time they might have.
“It’s blocked too!” Keisha cried. “The windows all have bars on them!”
Ethan turned the knob and pushed with all his might but the door only budged so far. He couldn’t even squeeze his fingers through the crack.
“Mr. Williams!” He shouted. “Joe!”
Slowly, a shadow rose up behind the curtains. Then an aged, trembling hand pulled the curtain back just enough to show Joe Williams leaning on the pile of furniture he had somehow pushed up against the door, looking out at them from behind the glass and bars of the window.
“Daddy!” Keisha cried. “Let us in! We have to go! Now!”
“It’s too late for that…Baby Girl…” He wheezed.
“Daddy! No! What are you saying!? We have to hurry!”
“Joe, come on!” Ethan tried. “Let us in!”
“No!” The old man shouted back with unexpected force, silencing the two on his porch.
His good eye fixed on them both as he raised his oxygen mask to his face and breathed in deep.
“You two listen to me now.” He said once he had caught his breath. “I’m just going to slow you down. You both know that. The time to get people like me out of the way has passed. The folks in charge of that blew it. Nothing you and me can do about it now though.”
“Daddy!” Keisha sobbed.
“I ain’t gonna be the reason you die here Baby Girl!” He said firmly. “That’s all there is to that. I’ve had a good life. Ain’t ending how or when I would have picked, but given my options making sure I don’t slow you down in getting away from that thing seems like the best one.”
Keisha was banging on the window, screaming frantically for her father. The house and the ground it was sitting on were beginning to shake.
“This is what a parent does, Baby Girl.” Joe Williams said, his strength of resolve seemingly channeled to give his body strength it wasn’t supposed to have. “It’s our job to take care of our babies and protect them, even if it means sacrifice. Now go! Don’t look back! And don’t grieve me and forget to live! You hear?”
Keisha was near hysterics, pounding hard and trying to break the glass, not that doing so would help with the big iron bars installed on them. Ethan had to steady himself as the earth shook again. Godzilla’s roar sounded, so loud and close that he looked up expecting to see the monster directly over them. Then he looked back to meet Joe William’s steady gaze.
“You get my daughter out of here.” The old man said. “Right now, understand? Keep her safe for me. Please…”
They looked at one another for what felt like an eternity before Ethan slowly nodded.
“Keisha…We have to go.” He said.
“No! No! Daddy! I won’t leave you! No! Damn it! No!”
Everything shook again.
“Go!” Joe shouted. “Now!”
Ethan grabbed Keisha around the waist and bolted for his car. Keisha screamed, kicked, and tried to grab the railing of the porch.
“I love you Baby Girl!” Her father called after her. “Stay safe for me!”
Ethan threw her in the car and got in before she could get past him, pulling the door shut and throwing it into gear even as she hit and scratched at him, screaming frantically for her father. The ground was shaking and a shadow emerging in the corner of Ethan’s eye. He didn’t dare turn his head, knowing full well what horror was waiting for him if he did. Instead he slammed his foot on the gas and drove as fast as he could, Keisha screaming in his ear the whole time.
Inside the old house, Joe slumped beside the pile of furniture blocking the door. He finally sobbed, letting tears flow for just a moment before whipping them away. It had hurt him so much to do all that and taken so long. He was so tired he could barely hold his head up. It was all he could do to breathe, but he knew there was no point in using his machine anymore. He left it laying beside him, still running as he lay his head back against his pile that he knew was the greatest and most important bit of work he’d ever done in his life. Keisha had a chance now and far more of one than she’d have had with him slowing her down.
The house shook. Appliances and little collectables that had been gathered over a lifetime fell and broke on the floor. It didn’t matter now. He wouldn’t need memories for much longer. What was most precious had been saved.
Joe Williams closed his eyes and smiled, ready to meet death with a happy heart and without a fight. Slowly, the shaking of the house seemed to grow more distant. The pain seemed to fade. All he felt now was tired and he let go, sinking into a much needed sleep. He didn’t feel a thing when the roof caved in or even realize it had happened.
***
Ethan drove as fast as he could, Keisha screaming as she watched the house she had grown up in disappear in a cloud of rising dust and debris along with the entire city block. Godzilla loomed above them, advancing without pause as the monster took her father from the world.
“Damn it!” Ethan shouted as he dodged an erratic car on the road then swerved again to dodge a small group of people running in the street. The people who hadn’t been evacuated were now panicking as the monster bore down on them and the fires spread out from his rampage. He turned his head to look at Keisha, finding her staring wide eyed at the scene behind them, and then looking in his rearview mirror he saw just how close to death they were.
The crowd of people in the street had fallen as the ground had shook and then, looking up and screaming as their unavoidable fate came down upon them, were squashed flat under the monster’s foot. The car that had been swerving erratically flipped over on its side, then it too was crushed under the beast’s other foot. Godzilla might appear to be lumbering through the city, but such a large animal with such a great stride didn’t need to move very fast to cover a great distance by human standards. If Ethan slowed down just a bit they were in very real danger of being crushed like the people behind them had been.
“We’re not going to make it!” Keisha shouted.
“We are too! I promise!”
“No, listen to me for a second!” She said, turning a tear stained face to him. “We can’t outrun him forever! There’s a subway entrance a few blocks from here. Get us there and then let’s get underground.”
“Alright, just tell me where!”
“Keep going straight!” She told him, her voice almost drowned out by the roar of jets and the missiles they fired. The missiles streaked through the air and exploded against Godzilla’s body, the loud booms they created paling in comparison to the furious roar of the monster. Everything glowed blue for a moment as Godzilla’s atomic breath raced over them in the sky and struck some of the jets, then everything flashed red as they exploded.
“This is insane!” Ethan shouted. “How could they have not prepared for this!? How come they didn’t evacuate sooner!?”
His shouting was cut short as the burning jets rained down around them, crashing into buildings and the street, causing explosions as the burning debris fell like fire from heaven.
“There! It’s right there!” Keisha shouted, pointing frantically.
Ethan slammed on the breaks and threw the car into park. “Come on!” He shouted.
The two of them raced to the entrance of the underground train system, looking back to see Godzilla coming ever closer. There were other people who had been gawking around the entrance who now thought better of it and were rushing down the steps. Ethan and Keisha joined them and squeezed in with the crowd of people that had already sought shelter here. Desperately they all huddled together-groups of people of different faiths praying together, people of all different walks of like trying to comfort one another, all as the city above them shook and the sounds of explosions and the roar of Godzilla filtered down to them, each of them wondering if they would be safe here or if the streets above might cave in and crush them all as the monster rampaged.
***
Godzilla moved from the now raging fires of Brooklyn to the edge of the East River. There were people stuck on the Brooklyn Bridge, watching as the monster waded into the river and began to come closer to them. Some got out their phones and took pictures and video as Godzilla advanced. Others did the sensible thing and leapt from their cars, trying to run to safety. Still others panicked and attempted to push their cars through, slamming into the other vehicles and succeeding only in jamming themselves in tighter than they had been. Horns blared and people screamed. All the while, Godzilla came closer.
Those looking from the bridge couldn’t believe the size of the beast that now loomed over them. The deepest part of the river below barely covered Godzilla’s legs. His head towered over them, looking down at the bridge blocking his path to his destination. His lip curled, a low growl escaping from his maw as he briefly considered the obstacle. Then, unbothered, the titanic saurian merely walked through it. The bridge itself crumbled. The suspension cables snapped and wrapped around the leviathan’s body, causing Godzilla to voice his annoyance with a deafening roar that drowned out the screams of the people below.
Tearing himself free, Godzilla advanced forward, his tail lashing out and smashing through the one of the bridge’s support towers. The tower toppled. Part of the bridge twisted and fell towards the water. People and cars were sent falling into the river below, hitting it as hard as if they had smashed into concrete. Others still on the bridge were crushed by falling debris from the tower. Panic only made matters worse, as people were trampled and pushed off by one another or drove their cars off the remains of the bridge in terror. Godzilla ignored all this, unbothered and uncaring now as he focused on where he was going.
Soldiers and tanks were lined up along FDR Drive, waiting for the monster as he waded through the river. Machine guns, rockets, and cannons all fired, roaring not half as loud as the shrieking of the nightmare beast stalking towards them. Godzilla roared a warning, only annoyed by the fruitless attempts to hurt him even as explosions riddled his body. Then the fire came and the street was engulfed in the atomic torrent, soldiers screaming as they were burnt and vaporized. The wall of flame rose up like a barrier to Manhattan, parting only as Godzilla passed through it.
Buildings crumbled and people died as Godzilla advanced, just as in Brooklyn. From the labyrinth of sky scrapers ahead of him, more helicopters came, pelting him with ammunition in a vain attempt to drive him away. Godzilla ignored them for as long as he could stand before turning and, with pinpoint accuracy, blasting them from the sky. As the helicopters fell like burning meteors on the city below, Godzilla continued his march to the north, towards the power that was beckoning him and the sweet relief he instinctively believed it would bring.
The roaring of jets caught his ears but before he could react they had surrounded and fired on him from all sides, flying straight up as their missiles exploded and engulfed him in the blasts. As the flames died away and the smoke cleared, blue light gathered along Godzilla’s spines. This had become more than mere irritation. Now he was angry.
Another wave of jets flew towards him from the north, from the direction of his destination. To his mind, they were protecting what he sought. So if these were the guardians of the power he had come to feed on then Godzilla would claim his prize through battle and death.
Godzilla unleashed a massive blast of atomic fury, swinging his head from one side to the other as he did. His blast of fire didn’t just destroy the jets this time. Instead it lashed out further, sweeping the horizon as he turned, striking skyscraper after skyscraper and melting through them, burning even through the Empire State Building. One by one the towering buildings were split in two, their top halves toppling over and crashing to the streets below, reducing the Manhattan skyline to burning ruins.
Godzilla roared louder than before, lifting his head to the heavens above as he did. He had come here with purpose and he would not be denied. Nothing would stop him as he claimed the sustenance and power he craved. Any that tried would know both hell and death.
***
Ted Dale sat in the President’s private residence, dividing his attention from the scenes from New York playing out on the TV and his phone where he was diligently tweeting out his thoughts:
New York is NEVER going to recover from this!!!
How awful! Thoughts and prayers!
We are going to stop Godzilla very soon!!! And that’s a PROMISE!!!
He paused for a moment, watching as a blast of blue light swept the city. He looked on as Godzilla towered over everything, roaring over the rising fires. He thought for a moment, realizing that the nation would turn to him for comfort and leadership and knowing he would have to provide. His brow wrinkled for a moment as he thought, then all at once the words came to him:
I won the last election in a landslide! LANDSLIDE! Totally unfair how others are saying it was close!
We had the biggest crowds of any inauguration EVER! EVER!!! Anyone who says different is LYING!!!
A reporter was talking on TV, but he wasn’t listening. Instead, the President of the United States thought hard and then fired off another tweet:
America is GREAT!!!
“This just in,” he heard the silver haired man on the TV saying, “President Dale, as the crisis in Manhattan is happening now, just, at this moment, tweeted, and I quote, ‘I won the last election in a landslide.’ Landslide in all caps. ‘Totally unfair how others are saying it was close’ and, quote, ‘We had the biggest crowds of any inauguration ever…anyone who says different is lying.’ He then followed it up with this three word tweet, ‘America is great.’”
Dale blinked, pleasantly surprised to see his words on the screen so quickly. Social media was truly a wonderful thing, he thought. If only it would replace the mainstream media.
“Angela,” the reporter continued, seemingly perplexed, “what do you make of this?”
“Well it’s certainly shocking.” A blonde haired woman replied, seemingly as baffled as the first reporter. “Here we are in the middle of a national crisis, with the Governor of New York saying that he has gotten no response for requests for help from the federal government, and the President of the United States is, instead of leading, apparently tweeting nonsense while Americans are dying and a major city is being destroyed!”
Dale’s temper flared and he tweeted furiously again:
FAKE NEWS REPORTER JUST CALLED SAYING AMERICA IS GREAT NONSENSE!!! UNBELIEVABLE!!!!
The first reporter was back on the TV now.
“This is, frankly, horrifying.” He said. “It seems as if the President is genuinely disconnected from reality in the middle of a crisis!”
Now Dale was fuming even more than before:
FAKE NEWS! I am very connected with reality! More so than anyone ever was before!!!
This is not a crisis! I have everything under control! Only I and I alone can do this!!!
This is not serious. It’s being contained. CONTAINED. Wouldn’t know that from the LAMESTREAM MEDIA!!!
This is so unfair! I’m being treated worse than any other president ever! Presidential harassment!
WITCHHUNT!
If the fake news media wants Godzilla stopped maybe they should ask their friend Rosy O’Donnell to fight him. She’s big and ugly enough to!
“More breaking news.” The silver haired reporter was saying, drawing Dale’s attention back to the screen. “We are receiving word now that the Vice President and a majority of the Cabinet have submitted a letter to Congress stating that President Dale is unfit to carry out his duties as President, citing apparent mental breakdown and confusion, and as such he is being relieved of his duties so that the Vice President can assume the role of acting President during this crisis pursuant to the Twenty Fifth Amendment. Remarkable development wouldn’t you say Angela?”
Dale’s scream of fury drowned out whatever the other reporter said. Secret service agents came into the room and found him throwing anything he could get his hands on. Everything except his phone at least which he was waving around frantically.
“They can’t do this to me! I’ll sue them! I’ll have them locked up! This has to be fake! Get me someone on the phone! Now! Anyone!”
It took some time, but eventually a high ranking official was found and brought into the room. General Sanchez considered Ted Dale coldly, listening for a moment as he stomped about the room and raved.
“This is treason! Treason! That’s what it is!” Dale roared. “You can’t do this to me! You hear me! They can’t do this! Whose idea was this!?”
“It doesn’t matter now Mr. President.” Sanchez said, his voice as cold and dispassionate as he could make it.
Dale grew quiet, hoping that the words “Mr. President” meant something they did not. Maybe, he allowed himself to believe, this meant that Sanchez was truly loyal. That he truly was one of the “good ones”. Maybe he had put a stop to it all and he was still President.
“The Cabinet has voted. A letter has been submitted to Congress. The fact is, it has been decided that you cannot carry out your duties and as such, you have been relieved of them.”
Dale was shaking in anger now. “This is a Deep State conspiracy! You’re all fired! I’ll sue you! I’ll have you all locked up!” He fumed, his threats painfully hollow to everyone but himself.
“If you’ll excuse me now, Mr. President, I have important matters to tend to.” The general said, turning his back and leaving the man to scream and throw things in his fit. Sanchez didn’t care that the man behind him would soon be sitting on the floor tweeting slanders about him and every other enemy, real and imagined. He had a job to do. The Japanese Government had called with the promise of a plan that might stop Godzilla, and as National Security Advisor he had to alert the new acting President.
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Godzilla2004
- Yojimbo
- Posts: 31
- Joined: Sun Aug 08, 2021 11:37 am
Re: Godzilla: Second Crisis
Chapter 6: Determined to Protect the Future
The area around Indian Point was still in the night. For miles around the area had been hurriedly evacuated ahead of Godzilla’s eminent arrival, in stark contrast to what had happened in New York. Here the only activity was at the nuclear power plant and at a small military encampment not far away, soldiers and scientists both scrambling to be ready. All knew how much was riding on the work they were doing. If it wasn’t successful, there was no telling how much devastation the world would be subjected to.
General Sanchez had insisted on coming out to oversee the operation. Through binoculars, he had seen for himself as Godzilla had appeared on the horizon far in the distance when the sun was setting, having torn through Manhattan and traveled north to this, the monster’s destination. Now, under the moon, the monster was ever closer to the arrival point. Among the soldiers, high ranking military officers, and officials from the Pentagon were also top scientists from a Japanese delegation, brilliant minds that might represent humanity’s last hope. Sanchez turned to one of them, Dr. Kenichi Yamane, who according to his briefing material was considered the foremost expert on Godzilla in the world.
“Tell me something Doctor.”, he said. “If the team in the power plant fail to reconfigure the reactor, what happens when Godzilla reaches it?”
“We don’t really know.” Dr. Yamane said grimly. “It could set off an explosion, mutate Godzilla further, or shower the United States in radioactive fallout. And those are just the possibilities we’re aware of.”
“So what you’re saying,” Sanchez sighed, “is we had better hope this is a success.”
“Yes General.” Dr. Yamane replied. “Very much so.”
In the distance an explosion sounded, followed by a thundering roar. Turning their attention to the distance, Sanchez and the others could see columns of water rising up as Godzilla waded through the river, setting off the mines they had laid for him, the whole scene lit by flares dropped from planes above. Godzilla roared again and staggered as another blast went off and then another, keeping the beast off balance. The plan wasn’t for these mines to kill the monster, merely to delay him. If they could keep him back, if they could buy more time for the modifications to the power plant to be made, then maybe, just maybe, this plan would work.
Godzilla stepped onto the shore and again set off another mine. Then another. The titan lost his balance and fell, vanishing in a massive spray of fire and dirt as he set off a string of land mines. Slowly though, the monster rose, roaring in defiance of those that would keep him from the atomic nourishment he sought. Again he advanced forward, looming over the little town before him. There were no massive skyscrapers or crowded streets here, just tiny houses and little buildings, all easily crushed beneath his feet or by his tail. Unimpeded, it would not take Godzilla long to reach the reactor.
Bombs fell from above, delivered by drones. They exploded against Godzilla’s body and rained down on the houses around him, engulfing the town in fire. Godzilla roared and lashed back at the sky with his atomic breath, destroying some of the drones. Still more came, raining the bombs down in an attempt to slow and distract the monster. In seconds the tiny town had been obliterated, trampled by the great monster and consumed in the fire of the bombs.
Sanchez watched as the shadow of the beast moved through the light of the fires and flares, wading through the trees of the rural landscape with the tallest of them barely brushing his ankles. There was nothing left to slow or dissuade him now. In a short time, Godzilla would reach the nuclear plant.
“Can we throw anything else at him?” He asked one of the generals.
“No sir.” Came the response. “It’s too close to the power plant. We’d risk an explosion.”
“Damn it! This is Sanchez.” He said into a two way radio. “Reactor team, do you read me? Come in. Over.”
“This is Inamura.” Came the reply. “We read you.”
***
Dr. Inamura didn’t take his eyes off his team as they hurried to make the needed adjustments to the reactor and load in the Reikanium. They were so close and yet so far, all of them laboring in protective suits to shield them from the radiation. The right amount of nuclear material had to be present to draw the attention of the radiation seeking monster. The right amount of Reikanium was needed in turn to reverse the fission reaction and start the fusion process. It was a delicate operation, and one that despite the circumstances could not be rushed if it was to be successful.
“Godzilla is advancing on the power plant!” Sanchez called. “Are you almost done?”
“Not yet General.” Dr. Inamura replied. “There is still more to be done.”
“You have to hurry! We won’t be able to extract you if you don’t get out soon!”
Dr. Inamura looked up at his colleagues, each of them nodding solemnly to him.
“We are here to finish the job, General.” He said. “We need more time and we will take it.”
The team of scientists hurried about their work, paying no heed to the rumblings from outside and the roar of the monster only slightly dulled by the walls of the building they labored in. Inamura himself went about checking and assisting in the work, making sure as only he could that his Reikanium was set to succeed where bombs and missiles and nuclear weaponry had failed. Then, as he made sure the last of the Reikanium was in place, he paused. The whole power plant was shaking now. Godzilla was coming closer. It wouldn’t be long now. With that in mind, he took off his protective face cover.
“Dr. Inamura! Don’t!” One of his colleagues warned.
“It’s too late for that.” Dr. Inamura assured him. “We all know it.”
The men and women around him looked to one another, knowing what he said was true as the roof and walls shook violently around them and Dr. Inamura removed a locket from within his suit.
“We came here to do what must be done.” He said as he opened the locket and gazed at his late wife one last time. “The world may well be saved by what we’ve done here tonight, my friends, though we may never know if it was or wasn’t. I believe in all of you though and in the work we have done together.”
With that, he lay the locket down gently. Dr. Inamura had dedicated his life to ending the use of nuclear power. Three times before in his life he had seen the destruction such power caused-Nagasaki in 1945, Tokyo in 1954, and Fukushima in 2011. Rei had died in that last horrible incident and he had named his greatest accomplishment in her memory. He had made a promise to her spirit at her funeral that he would work to make sure that no more suffering would come about from the pursuit of nuclear energy. Now, the greatest incarnation of the hubris and cruel disregard that had fueled the pursuit of such power was bearing down on him, making the very earth shake as it did. It was fine though. Dr. Inamura was at peace with it all ending this way, in the culmination of his great work. He had taken the torch of hope as far as he good and now he would have to pass it on to others.
“Inamura, get your team out of there!” Sanchez shouted.
“It’s alright, General.” The old man said reassuringly. “Our work is done. We hope it is not in vain.”
He and his colleagues looked from one to another, some smiling serenely, others nodding with solemn determination sculpted onto their faces.
“You’re heroes, every last one of you.” Sanchez replied at last after a long silence. “What you did here will not be forgotten, no matter what happens.”
The walls were cracking and the ceiling crumbling. They could hear explosions outside. Godzilla’s roar sounded above them. Inamura didn’t bother to answer the American general.
“It has been an honor to know you all and call you friends.” He said with warmth as huge pieces of the ceiling fell around them. “If there is another side, I hope to see you all there.”
***
Godzilla tore into the power plant with his claws, digging through concrete and steel as if they were nothing. He cast debris aside as he dug, searching for what had been calling to him, the source of sustenance he believed would extinguish his pain. Then he rose, a cylinder of steel venting radioactive fumes from fractured pipes grasped in his forelimbs. The monster gazed down at it with his dead white eyes. Blue light began to crackle about his dorsal plates before they all glowed at once. He could feel the power saturating every cell in his body, filling him as it traveled through every inch and fiber of his being.
Then, slowly, Godzilla became aware of something changing. It was subtle at first, so much so that he hadn’t immediately noticed, but now the power was trickling back out of him. The monster’s faced twisted in apparent confusion. Power was flowing back into the reactor, and not just the power he had drawn from it. The vast power stored in his body was coursing back with it, leaving him and slowly draining his strength. Godzilla roared in fury and confusion and tried to drop the reactor but it was as if his hands were fused to the machinery. Crackling tendrils of energy were slipping from his body and down his limbs to his claws. Again he roared, not so much in anger now but in confusion and frustration. It was as if his very body was turned against him. The power he commanded now refused to obey.
The reactor was glowing now. First blue, then a deep violet. Inside it, Dr. Inamura’s Reikanium was working. Reversing the fission process and beginning a fusion reaction, one fueled by power drained from Godzilla. As it did, Godzilla was growing weaker, struggling to free himself from the converted reactor’s grip. His body felt numb, his massive heart pounding furiously in the vast chasm of his chest. Again he roared, the sound now a scream. Furious. Confused. The sound of a wounded animal.
The light that had engulfed the reactor had changed. The dark purple was gone, replaced by a deep red that glowed brighter and brighter. Godzilla looked into the light, sensing the surging energy with some unfathomable sense gifted by his atomic origins. His eyes widened as he stared into it with the great white orbs, his fanged jaws parting to roar in defiance at the light one last time. Then the reactor exploded in a massive fire ball, the blast expanding outward and consuming everything in its reach. Across the river, General Sanchez, Dr. Yamane, and the other gathered observers shielded their eyes. The last thing they saw was Godzilla roaring within the blinding light then vanishing as if consumed by it. The earth shook as the blast expanded outward, the night sky glowing like the day. And then the light receded.
Where Indian Point had once been a massive crater had formed. Water from the river was flowing into it. Godzilla lay near the center, having been thrown back by the blast and laying face down, his eyes closed and his body still. The onlookers waited with bated breath, afraid that the monster would move at any moment. All there was though was stillness. Then, finally, after what seemed an eternity of waiting, cheers erupted.
Godzilla had been defeated. The nightmare was over.
The area around Indian Point was still in the night. For miles around the area had been hurriedly evacuated ahead of Godzilla’s eminent arrival, in stark contrast to what had happened in New York. Here the only activity was at the nuclear power plant and at a small military encampment not far away, soldiers and scientists both scrambling to be ready. All knew how much was riding on the work they were doing. If it wasn’t successful, there was no telling how much devastation the world would be subjected to.
General Sanchez had insisted on coming out to oversee the operation. Through binoculars, he had seen for himself as Godzilla had appeared on the horizon far in the distance when the sun was setting, having torn through Manhattan and traveled north to this, the monster’s destination. Now, under the moon, the monster was ever closer to the arrival point. Among the soldiers, high ranking military officers, and officials from the Pentagon were also top scientists from a Japanese delegation, brilliant minds that might represent humanity’s last hope. Sanchez turned to one of them, Dr. Kenichi Yamane, who according to his briefing material was considered the foremost expert on Godzilla in the world.
“Tell me something Doctor.”, he said. “If the team in the power plant fail to reconfigure the reactor, what happens when Godzilla reaches it?”
“We don’t really know.” Dr. Yamane said grimly. “It could set off an explosion, mutate Godzilla further, or shower the United States in radioactive fallout. And those are just the possibilities we’re aware of.”
“So what you’re saying,” Sanchez sighed, “is we had better hope this is a success.”
“Yes General.” Dr. Yamane replied. “Very much so.”
In the distance an explosion sounded, followed by a thundering roar. Turning their attention to the distance, Sanchez and the others could see columns of water rising up as Godzilla waded through the river, setting off the mines they had laid for him, the whole scene lit by flares dropped from planes above. Godzilla roared again and staggered as another blast went off and then another, keeping the beast off balance. The plan wasn’t for these mines to kill the monster, merely to delay him. If they could keep him back, if they could buy more time for the modifications to the power plant to be made, then maybe, just maybe, this plan would work.
Godzilla stepped onto the shore and again set off another mine. Then another. The titan lost his balance and fell, vanishing in a massive spray of fire and dirt as he set off a string of land mines. Slowly though, the monster rose, roaring in defiance of those that would keep him from the atomic nourishment he sought. Again he advanced forward, looming over the little town before him. There were no massive skyscrapers or crowded streets here, just tiny houses and little buildings, all easily crushed beneath his feet or by his tail. Unimpeded, it would not take Godzilla long to reach the reactor.
Bombs fell from above, delivered by drones. They exploded against Godzilla’s body and rained down on the houses around him, engulfing the town in fire. Godzilla roared and lashed back at the sky with his atomic breath, destroying some of the drones. Still more came, raining the bombs down in an attempt to slow and distract the monster. In seconds the tiny town had been obliterated, trampled by the great monster and consumed in the fire of the bombs.
Sanchez watched as the shadow of the beast moved through the light of the fires and flares, wading through the trees of the rural landscape with the tallest of them barely brushing his ankles. There was nothing left to slow or dissuade him now. In a short time, Godzilla would reach the nuclear plant.
“Can we throw anything else at him?” He asked one of the generals.
“No sir.” Came the response. “It’s too close to the power plant. We’d risk an explosion.”
“Damn it! This is Sanchez.” He said into a two way radio. “Reactor team, do you read me? Come in. Over.”
“This is Inamura.” Came the reply. “We read you.”
***
Dr. Inamura didn’t take his eyes off his team as they hurried to make the needed adjustments to the reactor and load in the Reikanium. They were so close and yet so far, all of them laboring in protective suits to shield them from the radiation. The right amount of nuclear material had to be present to draw the attention of the radiation seeking monster. The right amount of Reikanium was needed in turn to reverse the fission reaction and start the fusion process. It was a delicate operation, and one that despite the circumstances could not be rushed if it was to be successful.
“Godzilla is advancing on the power plant!” Sanchez called. “Are you almost done?”
“Not yet General.” Dr. Inamura replied. “There is still more to be done.”
“You have to hurry! We won’t be able to extract you if you don’t get out soon!”
Dr. Inamura looked up at his colleagues, each of them nodding solemnly to him.
“We are here to finish the job, General.” He said. “We need more time and we will take it.”
The team of scientists hurried about their work, paying no heed to the rumblings from outside and the roar of the monster only slightly dulled by the walls of the building they labored in. Inamura himself went about checking and assisting in the work, making sure as only he could that his Reikanium was set to succeed where bombs and missiles and nuclear weaponry had failed. Then, as he made sure the last of the Reikanium was in place, he paused. The whole power plant was shaking now. Godzilla was coming closer. It wouldn’t be long now. With that in mind, he took off his protective face cover.
“Dr. Inamura! Don’t!” One of his colleagues warned.
“It’s too late for that.” Dr. Inamura assured him. “We all know it.”
The men and women around him looked to one another, knowing what he said was true as the roof and walls shook violently around them and Dr. Inamura removed a locket from within his suit.
“We came here to do what must be done.” He said as he opened the locket and gazed at his late wife one last time. “The world may well be saved by what we’ve done here tonight, my friends, though we may never know if it was or wasn’t. I believe in all of you though and in the work we have done together.”
With that, he lay the locket down gently. Dr. Inamura had dedicated his life to ending the use of nuclear power. Three times before in his life he had seen the destruction such power caused-Nagasaki in 1945, Tokyo in 1954, and Fukushima in 2011. Rei had died in that last horrible incident and he had named his greatest accomplishment in her memory. He had made a promise to her spirit at her funeral that he would work to make sure that no more suffering would come about from the pursuit of nuclear energy. Now, the greatest incarnation of the hubris and cruel disregard that had fueled the pursuit of such power was bearing down on him, making the very earth shake as it did. It was fine though. Dr. Inamura was at peace with it all ending this way, in the culmination of his great work. He had taken the torch of hope as far as he good and now he would have to pass it on to others.
“Inamura, get your team out of there!” Sanchez shouted.
“It’s alright, General.” The old man said reassuringly. “Our work is done. We hope it is not in vain.”
He and his colleagues looked from one to another, some smiling serenely, others nodding with solemn determination sculpted onto their faces.
“You’re heroes, every last one of you.” Sanchez replied at last after a long silence. “What you did here will not be forgotten, no matter what happens.”
The walls were cracking and the ceiling crumbling. They could hear explosions outside. Godzilla’s roar sounded above them. Inamura didn’t bother to answer the American general.
“It has been an honor to know you all and call you friends.” He said with warmth as huge pieces of the ceiling fell around them. “If there is another side, I hope to see you all there.”
***
Godzilla tore into the power plant with his claws, digging through concrete and steel as if they were nothing. He cast debris aside as he dug, searching for what had been calling to him, the source of sustenance he believed would extinguish his pain. Then he rose, a cylinder of steel venting radioactive fumes from fractured pipes grasped in his forelimbs. The monster gazed down at it with his dead white eyes. Blue light began to crackle about his dorsal plates before they all glowed at once. He could feel the power saturating every cell in his body, filling him as it traveled through every inch and fiber of his being.
Then, slowly, Godzilla became aware of something changing. It was subtle at first, so much so that he hadn’t immediately noticed, but now the power was trickling back out of him. The monster’s faced twisted in apparent confusion. Power was flowing back into the reactor, and not just the power he had drawn from it. The vast power stored in his body was coursing back with it, leaving him and slowly draining his strength. Godzilla roared in fury and confusion and tried to drop the reactor but it was as if his hands were fused to the machinery. Crackling tendrils of energy were slipping from his body and down his limbs to his claws. Again he roared, not so much in anger now but in confusion and frustration. It was as if his very body was turned against him. The power he commanded now refused to obey.
The reactor was glowing now. First blue, then a deep violet. Inside it, Dr. Inamura’s Reikanium was working. Reversing the fission process and beginning a fusion reaction, one fueled by power drained from Godzilla. As it did, Godzilla was growing weaker, struggling to free himself from the converted reactor’s grip. His body felt numb, his massive heart pounding furiously in the vast chasm of his chest. Again he roared, the sound now a scream. Furious. Confused. The sound of a wounded animal.
The light that had engulfed the reactor had changed. The dark purple was gone, replaced by a deep red that glowed brighter and brighter. Godzilla looked into the light, sensing the surging energy with some unfathomable sense gifted by his atomic origins. His eyes widened as he stared into it with the great white orbs, his fanged jaws parting to roar in defiance at the light one last time. Then the reactor exploded in a massive fire ball, the blast expanding outward and consuming everything in its reach. Across the river, General Sanchez, Dr. Yamane, and the other gathered observers shielded their eyes. The last thing they saw was Godzilla roaring within the blinding light then vanishing as if consumed by it. The earth shook as the blast expanded outward, the night sky glowing like the day. And then the light receded.
Where Indian Point had once been a massive crater had formed. Water from the river was flowing into it. Godzilla lay near the center, having been thrown back by the blast and laying face down, his eyes closed and his body still. The onlookers waited with bated breath, afraid that the monster would move at any moment. All there was though was stillness. Then, finally, after what seemed an eternity of waiting, cheers erupted.
Godzilla had been defeated. The nightmare was over.
-
Godzilla2004
- Yojimbo
- Posts: 31
- Joined: Sun Aug 08, 2021 11:37 am
Re: Godzilla: Second Crisis
Epilogue:
Ethan and Keisha sat together in the shelter, sharing a blanket and holding each other close. They were too tired to cry. Besides, both had done plenty of that by now. Now they were just numb. Numb and shaken. But it was over, and the images on Ethan’s phone reminded them both of that as they watched.
The live news feed showed Godzilla laying in a water filled crater, the result of whatever weapon or force that had been used to finally stop him. Ethan thought it was odd how peaceful the monster now looked, laying there, apparently dead with its eyes closed as the helicopter flew over the scene, the reporter explaining that it was a plan devised by Japanese scientists and executed with the help of the U.S. military that had finally brought the beast down. More details would be forthcoming the report assured them. It was over, he reminded himself. And yet, somehow it didn’t feel that way.
“How can the world go on from this point?” Keisha asked. “How can things ever be normal again after what we’ve been through?”
“It just will.” Ethan answered, almost reflexively. “It always does. No matter what happens, no matter how strange or disastrous things might be. The world keeps going.”
“It’s so unfair.” She said, her voiced strained as she looked away. “None of us did anything to deserve this. No one deserved this.”
“No.” Ethan agreed.
He was scrolling through videos now, taking in the reactions to what the country and the world had just been through. The minister saying that the attack on New York had been God’s punishment for abortion and homosexuality; the woman screaming at a police officer in the quarantine zone around Godzilla that she had rights as he told her she couldn’t cross the barriers and had to put on a mask for her own protection; people marching outside Congress with signs that simply said “Z”, whatever that meant. It was all the same thing-just people trying desperately to make sense of something terrifying and momentous and failing spectacularly to do so. The world would indeed keep going. Those who had lived through the horror of the monster’s rampage would keep on living.
And in that, he realized there must be some seed of hope even if he couldn’t bring himself to see it at that moment.
****
General Sanchez poured over the classified briefing books he had requested. A lot was happening very quickly in Washington and even in the wake of Godzilla’s defeat there was no time to rest and collect. President Dale had sent a letter to Congress challenging the Cabinet’s declaration that he was unfit to fulfill his duties. Congress would have to now decide on the matter and it looked as if the members of the President’s party were buckling. When it came to a vote, it was clear that the effort to remove Dale was going to fall far short of the two-thirds vote in both houses required. Still, Sanchez told himself, the short reprieve had been enough. Godzilla had been defeated, that was what was important.
He was due to testify before Congress soon. That didn’t matter. He knew what he would say already and that none of it would matter in the end. The country’s political system was broken. That in and of itself was a threat. But he was suspecting there were other dangers lurking in the shadows.
Sanchez was looking over more than a dozen reports gathered by the U.S. government following Godzilla’s attack in 1954. Reports and rumors of monstrous beasts, lurking in jungles, the ocean, deserts, caves, frozen wastelands, and even the skies and stars above. The more he read the more he realized that it was very likely that Godzilla was only the first. Humankind would have other monsters, monsters most likely of our own making, to contend with in the future.
Godzilla’s first appearance, Sanchez realized, had truly been a warning. His second, he feared, could very well be a prelude.
He worked hastily to draft a memo on the matter. He knew he wouldn’t be National Security Advisor for long. Once Dale was back in charge he was gone for sure. What he could say publicly about what was in these files then was restricted by law. But he had to do something. Everyone, he thought, had the responsibility to do something to try and make things better no matter what the odds of succeeding might be.
***
Dr. Yamane sat alone just outside the containment zone where Godzilla lay, defeated and apparently dead. He needed a moment of solace to collect his thoughts and, in his own way, a way he believed befit a man of science, to pay his respects to his departed colleague by reflecting on his legacy.
He hadn’t known Dr. Inamura other than by reputation before they had first met at the emergency conference in Japan. They had not had time to come to know each other well in the short time they had worked together on the plan to defeat Godzilla. Still, with all he knew and all he had seen from him, Dr. Yamane regarded him as a great man. He remembered his passion, the obvious pain he had carried when he had addressed that room in their home country. But Dr. Inamura had found purpose in his pain. He had put it to work, trying to make a better world. Despite all he had lost, he had not wavered when the time came for him to give still more and lay down his life for that world he dreamed of. It was a tremendous loss, of both a brilliant man and of years of advancement for humanity. Without Dr. Inamura to guide the world the research on Reikanium and its practical applications would be set back dramatically. Nonetheless, the sacrifice had not been in vain.
Yamane’s father had found purpose in his own pain, he realized. When Godzilla had destroyed his home and killed his family he had turned that agony into a drive to understand what Godzilla was and how to stop another such disaster, a passion he had passed down to his son. He remembered also the sacrifice of another scientist, a national hero, who his aunt had told him had agonized terribly about the implications of his research and what would ever happened if it were used, so much so that he had been willing to die to make sure that it was used only once. And yet here the world seemed to have come full circle, repetition of the mistakes that had brought the first Godzilla to life with the same results. What, Yamane had to wonder, was the point of all this advancement or even of humankind’s past mistakes if the world never learned from any of it?
And yet, as his thoughts turned to the body of the monster laying a few miles from where he sat, Yamane knew he had to try to make some good from this. If nothing was learned or gained then all of this, all the death and destruction, would have been for nothing. Perhaps, he thought, it would be anyway. Still, they had to try to break the cycle of hubris, foolish mistakes, and disaster.
***
Godzilla lay, still and silent. Dead.
The Reikanium had done its work, draining him of the nuclear energy that fueled him, the power that made his impossible body with all its strength and power live. Then, in those last moments where he had been at his weakest, it had brought him down with a massive explosion.
And yet, his body remained intact. Still. Cold. Dead.
Then, within the monster’s chest, something stirred. It was brief, yet powerful. So subtle as to go unnoticed, but still strong enough. A single heart beat.
Then all was still again. At least for the moment.
Ethan and Keisha sat together in the shelter, sharing a blanket and holding each other close. They were too tired to cry. Besides, both had done plenty of that by now. Now they were just numb. Numb and shaken. But it was over, and the images on Ethan’s phone reminded them both of that as they watched.
The live news feed showed Godzilla laying in a water filled crater, the result of whatever weapon or force that had been used to finally stop him. Ethan thought it was odd how peaceful the monster now looked, laying there, apparently dead with its eyes closed as the helicopter flew over the scene, the reporter explaining that it was a plan devised by Japanese scientists and executed with the help of the U.S. military that had finally brought the beast down. More details would be forthcoming the report assured them. It was over, he reminded himself. And yet, somehow it didn’t feel that way.
“How can the world go on from this point?” Keisha asked. “How can things ever be normal again after what we’ve been through?”
“It just will.” Ethan answered, almost reflexively. “It always does. No matter what happens, no matter how strange or disastrous things might be. The world keeps going.”
“It’s so unfair.” She said, her voiced strained as she looked away. “None of us did anything to deserve this. No one deserved this.”
“No.” Ethan agreed.
He was scrolling through videos now, taking in the reactions to what the country and the world had just been through. The minister saying that the attack on New York had been God’s punishment for abortion and homosexuality; the woman screaming at a police officer in the quarantine zone around Godzilla that she had rights as he told her she couldn’t cross the barriers and had to put on a mask for her own protection; people marching outside Congress with signs that simply said “Z”, whatever that meant. It was all the same thing-just people trying desperately to make sense of something terrifying and momentous and failing spectacularly to do so. The world would indeed keep going. Those who had lived through the horror of the monster’s rampage would keep on living.
And in that, he realized there must be some seed of hope even if he couldn’t bring himself to see it at that moment.
****
General Sanchez poured over the classified briefing books he had requested. A lot was happening very quickly in Washington and even in the wake of Godzilla’s defeat there was no time to rest and collect. President Dale had sent a letter to Congress challenging the Cabinet’s declaration that he was unfit to fulfill his duties. Congress would have to now decide on the matter and it looked as if the members of the President’s party were buckling. When it came to a vote, it was clear that the effort to remove Dale was going to fall far short of the two-thirds vote in both houses required. Still, Sanchez told himself, the short reprieve had been enough. Godzilla had been defeated, that was what was important.
He was due to testify before Congress soon. That didn’t matter. He knew what he would say already and that none of it would matter in the end. The country’s political system was broken. That in and of itself was a threat. But he was suspecting there were other dangers lurking in the shadows.
Sanchez was looking over more than a dozen reports gathered by the U.S. government following Godzilla’s attack in 1954. Reports and rumors of monstrous beasts, lurking in jungles, the ocean, deserts, caves, frozen wastelands, and even the skies and stars above. The more he read the more he realized that it was very likely that Godzilla was only the first. Humankind would have other monsters, monsters most likely of our own making, to contend with in the future.
Godzilla’s first appearance, Sanchez realized, had truly been a warning. His second, he feared, could very well be a prelude.
He worked hastily to draft a memo on the matter. He knew he wouldn’t be National Security Advisor for long. Once Dale was back in charge he was gone for sure. What he could say publicly about what was in these files then was restricted by law. But he had to do something. Everyone, he thought, had the responsibility to do something to try and make things better no matter what the odds of succeeding might be.
***
Dr. Yamane sat alone just outside the containment zone where Godzilla lay, defeated and apparently dead. He needed a moment of solace to collect his thoughts and, in his own way, a way he believed befit a man of science, to pay his respects to his departed colleague by reflecting on his legacy.
He hadn’t known Dr. Inamura other than by reputation before they had first met at the emergency conference in Japan. They had not had time to come to know each other well in the short time they had worked together on the plan to defeat Godzilla. Still, with all he knew and all he had seen from him, Dr. Yamane regarded him as a great man. He remembered his passion, the obvious pain he had carried when he had addressed that room in their home country. But Dr. Inamura had found purpose in his pain. He had put it to work, trying to make a better world. Despite all he had lost, he had not wavered when the time came for him to give still more and lay down his life for that world he dreamed of. It was a tremendous loss, of both a brilliant man and of years of advancement for humanity. Without Dr. Inamura to guide the world the research on Reikanium and its practical applications would be set back dramatically. Nonetheless, the sacrifice had not been in vain.
Yamane’s father had found purpose in his own pain, he realized. When Godzilla had destroyed his home and killed his family he had turned that agony into a drive to understand what Godzilla was and how to stop another such disaster, a passion he had passed down to his son. He remembered also the sacrifice of another scientist, a national hero, who his aunt had told him had agonized terribly about the implications of his research and what would ever happened if it were used, so much so that he had been willing to die to make sure that it was used only once. And yet here the world seemed to have come full circle, repetition of the mistakes that had brought the first Godzilla to life with the same results. What, Yamane had to wonder, was the point of all this advancement or even of humankind’s past mistakes if the world never learned from any of it?
And yet, as his thoughts turned to the body of the monster laying a few miles from where he sat, Yamane knew he had to try to make some good from this. If nothing was learned or gained then all of this, all the death and destruction, would have been for nothing. Perhaps, he thought, it would be anyway. Still, they had to try to break the cycle of hubris, foolish mistakes, and disaster.
***
Godzilla lay, still and silent. Dead.
The Reikanium had done its work, draining him of the nuclear energy that fueled him, the power that made his impossible body with all its strength and power live. Then, in those last moments where he had been at his weakest, it had brought him down with a massive explosion.
And yet, his body remained intact. Still. Cold. Dead.
Then, within the monster’s chest, something stirred. It was brief, yet powerful. So subtle as to go unnoticed, but still strong enough. A single heart beat.
Then all was still again. At least for the moment.