“But how could…?” The look of incredulity was replaced by one of total dismay as Ogata’s pondering came to a horrific realization in mid-sentence. “The mist! It must be… oh gods…”
“Sir, the rotors seem to be… rapidly tarnishing or something!” the pilot shouted.
Extreme panic overtook the soldiers as the mist began quickly eating away at the metallic parts holding the copter together. The corrosive properties of the mist quickly became evident, and the men inside began literally praying for a quick death upon the imminent collision with the ocean’s surface. That, they collectively agreed, would be merciful compared to what would happen if the mist ate through the hull and glass in time to touch their exposed skin, eyes, and mucous membranes.
Within seconds the Sikorsky hit the surface of the water from about twenty meters in the air. The craft rolled several times over the flowing waves before settling into a quiet floating position. The rotors and other metal parts were largely eaten away by the mists, while the portions of the cracked glass windows were badly stained by the acidic radioactive fog.
Several minutes later the already compromised front window smashed outwards as Ogata’s boot kicked through it. Though the copter had fallen out of the nucleus of the mist, his face and arms were still covered with blood-filled welts from what fleeting exposure he had to the deadly fog.
Blood rolled down from the commanding officer’s forehead, seeping into one of his already swollen eyeballs and greatly adding to the pain. His left arm was torn open from just below his elbow down to his wrist, the ligaments underneath exposed to the stinging salt of the water. Nevertheless, Ogata was a seasoned warrior who had long since learned to endure pain such as this with little complaint.
Consequently, he remained conscious and coherent as he pulled himself from the wreckage and waded waist deep into the unforgiving waters of the Philippine Sea. It was then he suddenly heard low, agonized moaning from what was left of the downed Sikorsky. Ogata knew he had to move back to the wreckage to check for other survivors, so he forced himself to wade through the pain as the salty water assailed his open wounds and festering radiation-induced sores.
The tough-as-nails military man gazed into the canopy and winced at the initial sight that greeted him: two of his men lay dead and mutilated, their bodies skewered by jagged pieces of broken metal. Their skin was covered with oozing radiation induced abscesses, indicating they too experienced the effects of the mist before the impact with the water put them out of their considerable misery.
Several feet from them in the back of the copter was what appeared to be the eviscerated bowels of one of the other soldiers snaking out from under the collapsed back section of the craft. This seemed to suggest the former owner of these gastro-intestinal viscera had been crushed beneath the twisted metal hull when it was pushed inward. It was then that he heard the moaning sound again, which he pinpointed to be coming from just a few feet to his right.
Ogata looked down to see the pilot, Yamada, still sitting in the front seat with his body covered in radioactive, yellowish discharge-exuding welts. A large piece of the control dashboard had broken from the console and punctured his left shoulder. The injured, sickened man feebly turned his head to look at the captain, seeming to recognize him after a few seconds.
“Help me…”
“I… see you, Yamada-san. Stay strong. I shall help you out of there.”
Ogata waded back into the partially flooded chamber that used to be a Sikorsky H-19 Chickasaw Transport copter. Once reaching Yamada, he struggled to unclasp the emaciated soldier’s damaged seatbelt. It was after several minutes of this that Ogata felt something brush against his leg under the surface of the flooded canopy.
“What was that?” he said while flinching with a start.
The question was answered when one of the adult Glyceracon that had swam into the damaged craft suddenly emerged from the water and sunk its fangs into Yamada’s throat.
“Dear gods!” Ogata exclaimed as he leapt back a foot, his open wounds and sores tearing further and causing him blaring pain.
The pilot choked out gasps of agony as the giant annelid began consuming his contaminated but still nourishing blood. Reacting like a soldier, and desperate to save the only other survivor of the wreckage, Ogata pulled his USN MK-2 combat knife from the sheath strapped tightly around his lower leg.
“Yamada, this must be one of those damn giant worms! Hold still and remain calm, I will get you free!”
Ogata was aided in fending off the pain of his own injuries with an adrenal burst that enabled him to bring his blade to bear against the huge annelid. His first few thrusts the knife achieved minimal penetration against the monster coelomate’s leathery hide. Finally, after continued efforts, the triangular blade sunk deep into the mottled flesh of the worm’s ventral region. Blood-like fluid poured from the wound and the creature’s tube-like anatomy quivered under the painful assault. However, it continued holding fast to Yamada’s neck. Additionally, the giant annelid initiated a countermeasure against Ogata’s attack by lifting its hinder section from under the water and coiled about the commanding officer.
The captain felt his rib cage crack, as well as the hairline fracture in his left arm becoming a full compound fracture, as the annelidan grotesquerie tightened its constriction. The tough military officer retaliated by twisting his blade inside the worm, ripping part whichever of its innards were beneath that layer of hide. Crimson-colored ichor spurted from where the knife had perforated the worm while a stream of blood began dripping from Ogata’s mouth. For Yamada’s part, his body was undergoing seizures as the Glyceracon did its best to consume his lifeblood while concurrently attempting to kill the captain.
The deadly contest would be unexpectedly halted when Ogata heard a certain terrifying hiss emanate from directly behind and far above the wreckage outside.
The sound was loud enough to cause the captain to look up. It was there he saw the skyscraper-sized form of the kaiju looking down at him, its jaws contorted into what looked like an angry grimace that displayed its fearsome teeth.
“Gods, no…” was the last thing Ogata would say as the mega-beast reached its giant scaly hands down and tore open the damaged front section of the copter as if it were tinfoil. The monster grabbed Ogata, Yamada, and the giant worm in a single hand, easily ripping the pilot free of the seat he was still belted to in the process.
The dragon-like titan effortlessly lifted the trio of injured organisms and stuffed them into its yawning gullet, after which it bit down and pulped all of them in a single crunch. Scarlet fluid dribbled out the side of its mouth and stained the tips of several of its enormous teeth.
The monster’s great olfactory capacity could discern with a few sniffs of the air that nothing remained alive inside the metallic husk of the shattered copter. It turned its head in the direction leading directly out into the ocean and recalled the course that the other, similar airborne object had traveled. Its primitive albeit intelligent mind surmised that the direction in question must lead to a locale where there dwelled many more of these little perceived rivals for its global territorial domination.
Releasing an angry bellowing hiss, the kaiju dived underwater and began swimming at surprisingly high nautical speed along that path. It was a route that would take it to the island of Honshu, and directly into the metropolis of Tokyo.
The apocalypse was mere hours from the Land of the Rising Sun.
CHAPTER 7: The Huge and the Furious
Professor Akira Watanabe lay in a medical bed in Serizawa Hospital, located near the center of Tokyo Metropolis. It was a room on a special floor, where Koji sat at his side after having received a look-over by the doctors and declared healthy.
The displaced Imotojima naturalist found it interesting that the unusually spacious room had a third bed, this one occupied by an emotionally distressed young fisherman named Goro Takiguchi. That man’s assigned presence was a mystery to him at first, but all became clear
when he learned the fisherman was the first unfortunate soul to have encountered a Glyceracon in one of its various life stages.
Sitting on two chairs in front of the three men were biologist Dr. Daisuke Sato and a burly, salt-and-pepper haired man in military apparel whose two silvery pentagramic stars on his rank insignia identified him as a major general of the Japan Self-Defense Force’s ground division.
“Gentlemen,” said the high-ranking officer, “I am Major Hiro Matsumoto, and I am here to discuss the encounters with dangerous anomalous life forms that the three of you reported. Dr. Sato, his colleague Dr. Hayashi, along with a few soldiers and a pilot from the Maritime Self-Defense Force, have corroborated the sightings. Not only that, but… Captain Ogawa’s copter did not return. It is feared lost.”
“Oh no…” Akira lamented with his eyes sealed shut in disconsolation.
“What about Itaru?” Koji queried.
“You mean the island constable who likewise survived the island incident?” Major Matsumoto said. “He has been… reassigned to a special mission for the Self-Defense Force.”
“What mission?” Koji asked.
“That is entirely need-to-know, young man,” the major spat. “And you are not among the few who need to know. What you need to do, however, is thank your ancestors that you survived to describe what you encountered on the island. It has been reported that you also saw something much different and far larger than even the largest of those apparently mutated worms.”
“It was a daikaiju!” Koji exclaimed.
“Megadrak…” Akira whispered.
“What did you call it, Watanabe-kun?” Sato enquired.
The professor was quick to clarify. “Megadrak… ‘mega’ is an English prefix for something huge, and ‘drákon’ is Greek for ‘dragon.’ Also, ‘draco’ is Latin for serpent, and has also been used as a term for dragon. Since this incredible beast needs some type of nomenclature, I feel that combining all the above terminology into ‘Megadrak’—with the last letter being the English ‘k’ rather than ‘c’ in homage to the Greek spelling—is apropos.”
“I believe Megadrak will suffice, Watanabe-ka,” Sato opined. “The beast I saw did indeed resemble a bipedal dragon, one of such size that the largest of the dinosaurs would be dwarfed by it.”
“But something larger than fifty meters, Sato-kun?” Matsumoto queried incredulously. “Are you absolutely certain this reptilian creature was that large?”
“It was that large, you ignorant bastard!” Koji shouted. “We saw it up close! It killed people right in front of us! It is a worse threat than the giant worms!”
“Koji-san!” Akira yelled to counter his friend’s out-of-turn impertinence. “Major, please forgive him, he has been through much. I assure you he meant no disrespect.”
“Koji-san is not exaggerating,” Sato concurred, “and he has been through quite an ordeal, as Watanabe-ka mentioned. Please overlook his outburst.”
Matsumoto’s angry glare softened a bit. “I will overlook it. But do not make a habit of talking to me, or any other officer, in that tone or with such words, young man.”
Koji simply looked down and said nothing in response.
“I only saw one of the worms,” Goro mentioned. “It was not nearly as large as some of the worms these men describe, but it was much larger than any bloodworm I ever saw. And it was very dangerous, even at the smaller size. It bit into my friend Tatsuo’s face and attached itself to his skin. It was very difficult to get it off him and to kill it. My friend… died. I could not get help in time, my home village of Kenta is in Yokohama, I was unable to get him to Tokyo in time to…” The young fisherman’s voice broke off as tears welled in his eyes. “I swear I did everything I could! I swear!”
“At ease, Takiguchi-san,” Sato said gently. “No one here has any doubt you did everything possible to help your friend. You went through a horrible tribulation to try and save him, one that would have been daunting to the bravest of men. Even though he died, you proved yourself a loyal friend to the very end.”
“I am telling you,” Koji interjected, “the larger adult worms pose a far worse danger than the small ones. And this Megadrak, as Akira-san calls it, is far worse than all the Glyceracon in the world.” He stopped his diatribe to ponder for a moment. “Wait, the villagers that were in the fort…?”
“We are sending another transport copter to evacuate them,” Matsumoto said. “This one will be more heavily armed than the last unit. With any luck, that… Megadrak thing has left the island by now.” The major turned to address both Akira and Dr. Sato. “You two are scientists, and you, Koji-san, are an amateur naturalist. Are each of you in accord that this reptile resembles no species you have ever seen before?”
“Very certain, Major,” Akira assured the military officer. “That creature is far larger and mightier than any animal ever known to have walked the Earth, even during the Mesozoic Era. I strongly suspect its genesis lies with the atomic bomb tests conducted by the United States near the Bikini Atoll. That would likely explain this new species of giant worm too. In fact, the Glyceracon appear to feed on the skin cells and blood vessels near the surface of the Megadrak’s hide, which they reach by taking refuge in the epidermal crevices between its scales.”
“Which would mean wherever Megadrak goes, those worms will also go,” Sato added.
“My gods…” the major said, before segueing to a different train of thought. “There is another matter of importance to mention. A fishing schooner called the Ao Iruka vanished without a trace a day ago. It was believed to be in the area around the Marshall Islands at the time. One small escape raft managed to reach the mainland with two survivors, and we believe this kaiju may be responsible for its destruction.”
“You said two survivors reached Honshu?” Akira queried. “Well, did they not tell you what had happened to the schooner?”
“Those men did not arrive in the best of health,” Matsumoto replied. “Their flesh had wasted away, their eyes were leaking so much blood they were effectively blind, the hair all over their bodies had fallen out, and they immediately regurgitated any food or drink we gave them. They were also stricken with panic and incoherent. They died a few hours after we found them. Considering the state they were in, their passing was, to be frank, a mercy.”
“Their condition sounds reminiscent of severe radiation poisoning,” Akira noted. “But it sounds as if they were also exposed to some corrosive element that greatly accelerated the process of cellular decay.”
“That is still not the worst of it,” Sato added. “This Megadrak may actually be heading toward Japan.”
“But why would the beast head to the main island?” Akira queried.
“Because,” Sato replied, “if this creature is fully amphibious—and the description of its morphology appears to suggest that—then it may be logical to surmise it will seek to include the largest landmass in the region as part of its hunting grounds. It seems to have already displayed a propensity for targeting humans as part of its predation patterns. And… there are countless people living on the main island.”
“Dear ancestors, no!” Koji shouted. “It will destroy everything here! It will kill thousands, maybe millions!”
“All three divisions of the Self-Defense Force are preparing to counter the creature when it arrives,” Matsumoto informed them. “In addition, the United States military, which has pledged to defend us from external threats after forcing our disarmament, has likewise been notified. Yokota Air Base will soon be fully prepared for whatever may come. We shall then see how this animal withstands an attack from the full array of such ordinance.”
Akira closed his eyes tightly, fearing the worst. Is Megadrak the fabled beast of the Apocalypse, much as Leviathan and Behemoth were described in the Christian Bible? May the gods help us all.
CHAPTER 8: The Susano-o Adventure
Major Matsumoto was interrupted by the sudden banging on the outside of the door leading to the specially commissi
oned hospital room. There was also a very noticeable commotion just beyond the wooden barrier that sounded like an angry exchange of words between three people. Two of those voices he recognized as belonging to the duo of guards he had posted outside; the third was a young-sounding, somewhat high-pitched but male intonation he was not familiar with.
“What is the meaning of all this?” the major said as he burst from his chair, almost knocking it over in the process.
The military officer pulled the door open, only to have a smartly dressed young man with a fedora atop his head to fall into the room and land hard on the floor. A sophisticated camera that seemed to identify his status as a photo-journalist clattered onto the floor right in front of him.
“No, not the camera!” the intruding man exclaimed as he straightened his fedora and reached for the device to check its condition of repair without bothering to get back on his feet first. “This is a Canon rangefinder, with a top-notch Serenar lens! Do you have any idea how much those shops in Electric City charge for one of these cameras? You are damn lucky you didn’t break it, or I would now be sending a bill to this hospital!”
Matsumoto grabbed the interloper by the color of his sports jacket, lifted him off the floor as if he were a sack of laundry, and slammed him up against the wall. “My men and I do not work for this hospital! We are affiliates of the Self-Defense Force, and we have requisitioned this room for official government purposes. This means you have intruded upon a highly classified government operation. You should now be praying to your ancestors that I do not have you detained for this!”
“You cannot do that!” the lanky young man insisted. “My name is Ren Honda, and I am an agent of the press! The people have a right to know about the monsters!”
“Where did you hear about monsters?” the major demanded.
“Word does get around a big prefecture like Tokyo quite fast,” Ren explained. “And the reports made by those two men from the fishing schooner before they died from some flesh-rotting ailment highly reminiscent of radiation poisoning fell upon many ears. And then there is the matter of a certain Goro Takiguchi who was hospitalized after claiming his friend was killed by some type of… worm? And an abnormally large one, at that. Then there is the report that the victim displayed signs of radioactive particles in his blood, which in turn suggests a connection to the condition of those ill-fated men on the Io Aruka’s life raft. And beyond that, I have good reason to believe that Takiguchi-san is one of the patients in this very room.”
Megadrak: Beast Of The Apocalypse Page 7