Megadrak: Beast Of The Apocalypse

by Christofer Nigro

  The one-person assault on the kaiju was not yet over, however. As the small spurt of deadly fog billowed away, Megadrak was surprised to see the heavily emaciated little form of Izumi step towards, not away, from the kaiju’s monstrous visage.

  Her teeth were gritted with an expression of rage beyond description, of a fortitude that was as resolute as the piercing sword of Yamato. Her body was so suffused with poison that her nerve endings were now totally inured to pain, so she walked through the remainder of the mist and endured the multiple radiation blisters it formed all over the skin of her face and neck with no outward complaint.

  After approaching to within a few meters of Megadrak’s face, she bent down and picked up the fully automatic rifle that the departed general had dropped during his brave efforts to hold the beast off. She was determined to spend the last moments of her life doing no less than he for the same cause.

  “Lady Amaterasu… Great Goddess… please protect… my Kimiko. Please… save us all” went the quick prayer she uttered to the sun goddess and reigning power over the Shinto deities.

  Izumi’s prayers appeared to have been answered as an empowering warmth coursed through her horribly septic body, giving her just enough strength to aim the machine gun at the massive target before her and pull tightly on its trigger. More hot lead poured from the fully automatic’s muzzle, to be followed by more roaring hisses from the kaiju as its face was again besieged by a fusillade of leaden projectiles fired at the speed of sound.

  The enraged monster saw what its acute eyesight perceived as a sunny glow briefly swathe Izumi’s body at the same moment it lashed its hand at her. Megadrak’s bluish palm came crashing directly down on the spot where the woman stood defiantly before it. A sensation of heat was noticeable to the kaiju’s hand as the floor gave way beneath it.

  No sign of its comparatively tiny adversary was evident after the blow was completed. The woman was simply gone, and Megadrak was now devoid of further challenge within the Diet’s uppermost chamber. It was now simply time for it to deliver the coup de grace.

  To that end, the beast raised its massive arms and brought them down on the eastern portion of the Diet building. With that impossibly potent display of strength, the entire eastern side of the great edifice came tumbling down like particles of silicate in a sand castle.

  Though the kaiju wasn’t aware of what this structure entailed, it had nevertheless toppled the central building of the Japanese government, an event that some would long view as a message to the island nation’s parliament—as well as every government of humankind on the planet—that would not soon be forgotten.

  The Leviathan had risen; Tiamat had disgorged her cosmic spawn; Jormangand the Midgard Serpent had constricted his gargantuan coils; and humanity had just been given its eviction notice from the top spot on the planetary food chain.

  CHAPTER 18: Gone with the Sun

  “Make way for progress!” Ren Honda cried as he and the rest of his swiftly bolting party ran down the final flight of stairs that would bring them to the main exit from the Diet building.

  The journalist was followed by former neighbors Mizuki and Aya, then Koji and Sato, then the Takiguchi siblings—with Keiko holding the hand of the now-orphaned Kimiko Goya—and finally by Risa Kimura as they made it out of the once-regal structure scant minutes before it crumbled to the ground. The sacrifices made by Major General Ryu Nakamura and housewife-turned-hero Izumi Goya—the mother of little Kimiko—had allowed the party to escape with their lives.

  However, they realized their chances for making it away from the area alive were greatly in question. The sight of Megadrak’s titanic form plowing into the eastern section of the Diet, and subsequently walking clear through the structure’s walls of hard masonry as if they were comprised of jelly, cemented that unpleasant fact in the groups’ joint psyche. This display of the kaiju’s might, followed by its vengeful roaring hisses, made it transparently clear that it would stop at nothing to stomp out the remaining members of the fleeing human party.

  “We need to split up!” Ren decreed. “Three groups moving in opposite directions will confuse it and get it off at least one of our tails. Good luck on that turning out to be yours!”

  “Koji-san, this way!” Sato pointed in a northern direction, as it was there he had parked the government commissioned vehicle in which he had driven the Imotojima native to the Diet.

  “But the others…” Koji said with concern.

  “As loathe as I am to agree with Honda-san about anything,” the scientist replied, “he was correct! We must split into groups! Now come with me if you want to live!”

  Koji grudgingly did as the man he had quickly come to respect instructed.

  “We have a car over there!” Mizuki pointed out as he headed in an easterly direction towards the vehicle owned by the mostly departed Goya family—whose ignition keys he retained since he was the last person to drive the car.

  Aya chose to follow Mizuki, due to her familiarity with both the car’s location and her former neighbor, a man she trusted.

  Kimiko, however, declined going with them. “I will stay with Keiko-san.”

  Keiko Takiguchi smiled tenderly upon hearing this despite the horror of the circumstances. She took the little girl’s hand and they began following Risa and the woman’s older sibling Goro to Ren’s car, all of which they were more familiar with.

  However, such an exodus from the grounds was not to be prompt, since the journalist insisted on pausing to snap a few pictures of Megadrak smashing through the remnants of the Diet.

  “These are going to be huge on the paper’s front page!” the journalist said with a proud beam.

  “For the sake of the gods, Honda-san!” Risa screamed. “Let us go now! Or I shall drive your car myself and leave you here!”

  “Good luck with that,” he snapped, “since I have the keys!”

  Risa was swift to remedy that situation by reaching into the journalist’s pocket, where she had previously witnessed him depositing his car keys, while he was in the process of taking another photo. Having retrieved what she intended, the woman rushed to Ren’s vehicle with the Takiguchi siblings and Kimiko in tow.

  “Hey!” he shouted. “Oh, for the love of shit!”

  The reporter ran several feet behind the others toward the car, now having no other choice if he wanted to have the slightest chance of escaping the area to see his priceless photos published. His delay had proven costly for all of them, however, since the kaiju’s immense stride caused it to quickly gain ground as it pursued the group.

  The vehicle was parked on a road north of the Kantei, the now vacated residence of the Prime Minister. The party could clearly see the small but ornate building, which was located diagonally adjacent to the now destroyed Diet. Before they could reach the vehicle parked a few yards from the chief politician’s residence, though, Megadrak had gained on the fleeing group and sent its gigantic foot down to crush them like a human callously stomping an ant into oblivion.

  “Look out!” Keiko hollered as she grabbed Kimiko and leapt to one side.

  Ren, Goro, and Risa heard her warning in time and did the same, albeit to the right of Keiko’s left.

  The kaiju’s huge scaly sole came crashing down in the space the human party had just vacated, leaving a cavernous footprint in the muddy ground and shaking the earth with its impact.

  Now in a state of abject panic, Ren ran towards the Prime Minister’s residence, hoping to gain entrance and cause the beast to lose sight of him. He wasn’t thinking clearly, but the circumstances made this understandable; the likewise-panicking Goro and Risa—also in a state of mind that compromised their clear reasoning faculties—followed him.

  Ren surprised all by leaping clear through the window leading into the first floor of the empty residence, barely taking the time to cover his face with his sleeved arms to protect it from the resulting multiple shards of glass. The journalist ran right through the comfortably adorned housing unit towa
rds where he surmised—and prayed—the back entrance would likely be located.

  After Goro and Risa followed him in, they took but a brief second to look around the stately manse’s interior.

  “Into the restroom!” Risa shouted in a sudden moment of clarity. “It is our only chance!”

  Goro followed without question, rushing into the loo just in time to see her leap into the spacious bathtub.

  “In here with me, quickly!” she screamed at the top of her lungs.

  Not knowing what else to do, Goro leapt in the large porcelain tub atop her.

  The back door to the residence was pushed open as Ren slammed through it, running faster than he ever imagined he could. The kaiju’s foot went smashing down on top of the residence, going clear through the ceiling to crush all the furniture within.

  The entire building collapsed inwards and was annihilated in less time than it took the absconding journalist to catch his breath. He thought Goro and Risa had followed him in there, but they were far enough behind that they obviously did not make it out. They were nowhere else to be seen, so he could only presume the worst.

  Poor bastards. But they shouldn’t have followed me in there, I guess. I am not to blame for their stupidity, but only my own!

  In a move that would have surprised no one who knew the reporter even moderately well, Ren grabbed his camera and took a quick photo of Megadrak as it lifted its foot out of the debris that was once the Prime Minister’s official residence. I must make it out of here alive! My career will be assured once these pictures appear on the front page of the Rising Times… or even gracing the pages of the Fujin kôron magazine! I hope I have some film left for more photos!

  The stubborn photog turned and began running for the road where he knew the car was parked, predicting that he had but minutes to get there and start the engine. It was then that the fatal thought occurred to him.

  “Wait!” he shouted aloud to himself. “That stupid bitch took my keys! And she just got crushed back there! Why, oh, why do my ancestors hate me so much?”

  Just before the journalist could consider giving into despair, he was astonished to see his Mitsubishi pull up at full speed alongside him. Keiko was driving, and Kimiko was in the passenger seat.

  “Honda-san, get in! Quickly!”

  “How the hell did you…?”

  “I learned all about cars on Odaiba! I hotwired yours! Now get in!”

  Ren literally dived through the rolled down back window without bothering to open the door first. No sooner did the reporter get himself into a proper sitting position then he was next to scream a warning.

  “Keiko-san, it is about to…!”

  “I know!” the young woman yelled back as she hit the accelerator with all her might.

  The car swerved on the road in a desperate bid to avoid a blast from Megadrak’s corrosive oral mist. The tires made an ear-splitting screech on the asphalt, the deafening sound further augmented by Ren and Kimiko screaming in tandem with the deft move. Keiko’s impressive maneuver succeeded in preventing the billowing radioactive cloud from totally enveloping the car, but the back portion of the vehicle was “clipped” by it.

  “Where is Goro-kun?” Keiko asked the journalist. “And Risa-san?”

  “I am very sorry, girl,” Ren answered ruefully, “but they were in the Prime Minister’s Residence when… the kaiju stepped on it.”

  “That son of a bitch…” Keiko said to herself as her eyes filled with tears.

  Kimiko put a reassuring little hand on the young woman’s shoulder, and Keiko took one hand off the steering wheel to put it over the little girl’s own to accept the consolation.

  “Don’t you lose it now, girl!” Ren shouted.

  “I will not,” Keiko said with stoic conviction as she maintained the vehicle’s pace on the road.

  Megadrak remained in hot pursuit, however, keeping the passengers in the car ever-mindful of this terrifying fact with the loud thudding of its footsteps on the road behind them.

  After the vehicle had gone another half a mile it began shaking uncontrollably and making a sound as if its posterior section was skidding on the road sans its wheels. Ren looked out the back window to see that was exactly what was occurring: The corrosive mist that hit the rear section of the Mitsubishi had rapidly eaten through its metal frame and the hard rubber of the tires. The car was thus fast becoming damaged to the point of inoperability.

  “Keiko-san, you have to stop now!” he yelled. “The car is about to give out!”

  It was then that Kimiko’s attention was caught by a large, intriguing looking temple to the side of the vehicle.

  “Look there!” the little girl said, as if drawn to the holy building.

  “The Yasukuni Shrine,” Keiko said quietly, her teary eyes clearing at the sight of the majestic structure.

  The young Takiguchi maiden turned the vehicle and caused it to swerve off the road and onto the plain of grass leading towards the shrine. The car went for another several meters on pure inertia before it finally halted, its back section now deteriorated to the point where it could go no further.

  “Oh, we are so dead!” Ren declared as the three swiftly disembarked from the now useless anterior section of the car.

  “We must go to the shrine!” Keiko said as she and Kimiko ran towards the baroque structure.

  It was then that Ren noticed a distinct glow emanating from the controversial Shinto shrine, a temple that was constructed to commemorate the people who had given their lives in martial service for Japan. Strangely, the shimmering luminosity seemed to give Megadrak a degree of bewildered pause as the kaiju studied it with gestures indicating rapt interest and concern. The glow seemed to escalate and obfuscate the monster’s clear vision without similarly obstructing that of the three humans it pursued.

  As Keiko and Kimiko ran toward the stately temple’s hall of worship, they could see a golden glow from behind the haiden’s white gate curtains, illuminating the Imperial Chrysanthemum emblems embroidered on the cloth a bright reddish-orange.

  Standing at the entrance to the temple was what appeared to be the brightly illumined figure of a woman of roughly average height. Behind her stood a much taller, even more intensely glowing feminine shape, this one boasting a shining silhouette that included a draping garment that resembled wings.

  “Kimiko, it is okay,” a melodious, pleasantly familiar voice flowed from the first female figure. “You have naught to fear, little blossom.”

  “Mama?” Kimiko said, beginning to cry again, only this time with tears triggered by a joyous rhapsody.

  “Come to me, my brave girl,” the luminous silhouette of Izumi Goya said. “Great Amaterasu has accepted me into the arms of our ancestors for a special purpose. She wants you and Keiko-san, who is also brave and noble, to likewise come to us and become part of a very important Triune. Please allow us to save you, my darling girl.”

  The voice was ardent and filled with an overwhelming sensation of love and affection that radiated into all aspects of both Kimiko’s and Keiko’s beings, from the cellular to the psychic. The figure then raised her hand in a welcoming fashion to the two girls.

  “The Great Goddess can only hold this portal open for a short time,” the radiant figure of Izumi Goya said. “And her solar might can hold off a creature as mighty as Megadrak on this plane for only moments longer. Please, come.” Her glowing fingers wriggled as a further sign of beckoning.

  A whirling, bright yellow portal about ten feet in circumference now became visible at the temple entrance just behind the illuminated female profiles.

  Kimiko turned to Keiko and smiled, her tears drying away from her pale cheeks due to the balminess radiated from the portal’s light. The little girl then reached her hand out to the young woman who, in their short time together, had become like a second mother to Kimiko.

  “Come on, Keiko-san. There is no more for us here. Let us see what is in store for us there.”

  “Hai,” Keiko said as
tears of both sorrow and joy dripped from her eyes. She took Kimiko’s hand and walked towards the glowing portal.

  The figure of Izumi then took both their hands gently, and all three turned and stepped into the spinning vortex of light, disappearing into its brightness. Immediately after that, the taller figure of Amaterasu also turned and stepped into the portal, after which the vortex lost much of its illumination as its contours turned from a bright yellow to a cloudy blue.

  The Great Beast had descended upon the world as foretold in so many world mythologies, and now the gods had responded accordingly. But in precisely what manner, and exactly what fate had befallen these individuals who stepped into the rift, the world would have to wait to find out.

  After the portal dimmed to the blue of its secondary exit manifestation, Megadrak was no longer blinded by the light of the rift’s full incarnation, and the kaiju shook its head to clear its eyesight. The monster released a bellowing roar of anger and resentment, the resounding cry ending in a cascading lisp resembling a thousand cobras hissing simultaneously through a bullhorn.

  “Hey, wait!” Ren shouted in consternation for being denied the amazingly convenient egress. “Did you not forget someone?”

  The photojournalist was startled as a strange individual suddenly poked the top half of his body out from inside the portal. The man appeared Caucasian, either American or European by Ren’s estimation, with black hair and wearing eye gear that resembled glasses with opaque black lenses and equally dark rims. He seemed to be garbed in what looked to the journalist like some type of military outfit, but with a design he failed to recognize from any country he was conversant with. He likewise failed to identify the strange emblem on the man’s uniform, which depicted some entity that resembled a white, rotund semi-humanoid.

  “Crikey!” the mysterious man exclaimed, before continuing in a language Ren recognized as English. “This is very obviously not where I’m supposed to be!”

  “Crikey?” Ren responded. “That is… Slavic or German for something, right?”