Megadrak: Beast Of The Apocalypse

by Christofer Nigro

  O’Reilly made a quick report to the rest of the ground crew on his dashboard radio, alerting them to the circumstances and asking for Hellman, who had training as a field medic, to disembark from his tank.

  “Here comes the second one, Colonel,” Koji said. “Prepare yourself!”

  The final tooth was pulled from Okabe’s leg, and true to the promise he made to himself, the officer merely gritted his teeth harder rather than crying out in pain, despite the tremendous iota of will required to stifle that scream. Koji was just as careful with the second fang, but he still didn’t like the piece of skin that came off with the tooth, along with all the blood that poured out of the small but very deep puncture wound.

  All other soldiers were now outside the top exit of their tanks while Hellman rushed over with his medicine case.

  “This is one of those… giant worms we heard those reports on?” the field medic asked in mostly coherent Japanese.

  “Hai,” Koji replied.

  “What the hell is one doing on the mainland? I thought they were restricted to the islands off the Honshu coast?”

  “They feed off Megadrak’s hide and are often embedded in its scales,” Koji explained. “They go wherever the kaiju goes. And some may have arrived here in other ways. We still do not understand how well, and how far, they can swim. But they are quite strong, and like normal bloodworms, they are fully comfortable in an aquatic environment. This mutated species, however, seems able to thrive on land just as well.”

  “Jesus…” Hellman rubbed his eyes and then turned his attention to the Colonel, who was still trembling and now barely conscious. “By the way, I am I am First Lieutenant Robert Hellman. And you are…?”

  “I am Koji Sagawa.”

  “Save… the introductions, okay?” Okaba grumbled.

  “Colonel, lay back and don’t try to talk,” Hellman said. “Let me have a look-see at that wound.” The medic glared back at the other soldiers now climbing down from the tanks. “Can some of you men please come over here and drag this… thing’s body away so I can tend to the colonel properly?”

  Two of the men quickly complied with the request. Goro cajoled himself to help them, not wanting to look cowardly or squeamish in front of Risa again. He also felt ashamed under general principle for not helping Koji remove the worm from Okabe and believed he owed the colonel at least that much.

  The shaking fisherman hoped Risa and the soldiers didn’t notice that he retched involuntarily as he touched and helped drag the mutilated coelomate carcass away from the military officer. They let its ropey body down near the perimeter of the grass on the right side of the road.

  “Those perforations look bad,” Hellman said as he cleaned the wounds with methyl alcohol. “You should have waited for me to remove those embedded fangs myself, mister.”

  “I do not think it would have been a good idea to wait that long,” Koji snapped, “and though I am not a doctor or field medic, I am a naturalist, and I do have some basic medical training. I administered such aid to several people on Imotojima for the past few years.”

  “Regardless,” Hellman continued, “the colonel is in a lot of pain, even though he’s doing his best to act otherwise. Not even he can hide this level of suffering, though. I’m going to stick him with some morphine to kill the pain and then we’ll radio for an evac copter to take him to a military infirmary in Yokohama. There is just no way he is fit to command the unit now. No siree Bob.”

  “Lieutenant, these worms are venomous,” Risa reminded Hellman. “The colonel will get very sick if you do not get him to a hospital promptly!”

  “Yeah, I know, I know, lady,” the young American medic said. “We’ll get him to the hospital now, right after I inject him with some painkiller.”

  The group was suddenly distracted by the screams of Dell, one of the infantryman who had disembarked from the tanks.

  All on the road turned to see that another Glyceracon had emerged from its concealment in the grass and plunged its teeth into the area between Dell’s crotch and upper leg. The quivering man screamed in agony and horror as the worm’s powerful jaws ripped into the soft spongey flesh of that bodily region to imbibe the nourishment within the soldier’s veins.

  No more than a second later, three more of the worms slithered from the grass—two of them fully grown, and the other a small juvenile—and the horrific trio jointed the first in latching their jaws onto various portions of the debilitated soldier’s anatomy.

  “Oh, Jesus!” Lt. O’Reilly cried as the other men drew their weapons near-simultaneously.

  This included Koji, who still held Colonel Okabe’s piece.

  “It is more of those worms!” a Japanese soldier named Ogata yelled.

  “I can’t get a clear shot!” another soldier, Rickard, shouted. He then turned to Lt. O’Reilly, whom he knew was now effectively in charge of the unit. “Sir, what should I do?”

  “Back… away!” Dell yelled as he summoned every iota of his will to remove a pineapple grenade from where it was attached to his belt.

  Rickard jumped back. “Dell, don’t…”

  “Move, goddamn it!” the horribly assailed Dell screamed as he willed himself to stay conscious long enough to use his last leaf of strength to pull the pin from the grenade.

  The others quickly ran behind the cover of the nearest armored tank, with O’Reilly and Hellman dragging the felled body of the colonel along with them. A few seconds later, the grenade clasped in Dell’s hand detonated, blowing his body and that of the three adult worms into a shower of gore that covered a whole section of the road.

  “Those sons of bitches!” Rickard exclaimed after angrily running from the cover of the tank.

  That turned out to be a foolish move, as it turned out the juvenile worm wasn’t blown to bits, but simply tossed high into the air by the grenade’s blast wave. When gravity pulled the thirteen-inch annelid back it landed right on Rickard’s left shoulder with a soft thwapping sound. Its small size and sausage-like width enabled it to not only avoid being blown up like its adult counterparts, but it was also just barely stunned by the grenade’s concussion wave.

  “What the hell…?” Rickard said as he turned his head to look at whatever soft object had landed on his shoulder.

  The soldier found himself looking directly into the “face” of the juvenile Glyceracon, which raised its head upon sensing prey. It quickly disgorged its bowel, which opened to reveal its four curved, razor sharp fangs.

  “Oh God!” was all the soldier could say before the small mutant coelomate sunk its fangs into the tip of Rickard’s nose.

  The military man began jumping and dancing about while screaming and shouting, “Get it off me! Get it off!”

  Despite how much he pulled, however, the wretched little monster’s hook-like teeth held fast to the small blob of nasal cartilage, and the extreme pain of trying to tear it off him only added to the torment experienced by the generally brave fighting man.

  “Rickard, what the hell…!” O’Reilly yelled as he ran to the man’s side, followed by his other men. Koji, Risa, and finally Goro ran over just behind them to offer whatever aid they could.

  Lt. O’Reilly and Ogata grabbed the worm’s tubular body and attempted to tear it from the still-screaming Rickard’s nose. It continued to hold fast, though, and the blood dribbling down the soldier’s face along with his ear-splitting screams constituted a major cause for concern.

  “Sir, I need to remove the septum cartilage it’s latched onto!” Hellman said as he pulled a scalpel from his medicine bag.

  Rickard simply continued to scream while he lay on the road kicking his feet up and down and flailing his arms about.

  “Sir, can you and Ogata continue holding the worm tightly while someone else holds Rickard’s arms and legs?”

  Koji and another enlisted man, Donaldson, ran over and used their well-honed arms to hold down the agonized and panicking soldier’s thrashing limbs.

  It was then the now more a
lert soldiers heard a curious rustling in the grass to their left. They turned to see several more of the adult worms slinking towards them at disconcerting speed.

  “Sir!” Hellman cried. “More of them!”

  “Shoot at will!” O’Reilly commanded. “Hellman, keep cutting! We got this!”

  The soldiers did as ordered, and the attacking worms found themselves torn to pieces as a relentless fusillade of bullets tore through their hose-shaped forms. Risa and Goro ran behind Koji to put distance between themselves and the ensuing onslaught.

  “Let me have the colonel’s gun, Koji-san!” Risa requested.

  “I will use the gun to protect us!” Goro interjected.

  “No, I will!” Risa rejoined, garnering a humiliated expression from her admiring male ally.

  “They’re all terminated, Lieutenant!” an infantryman named Otaro announced before a full-blown debate could erupt between Risa and Goro.

  “Good work, men!” O’Reilly stated while making sure he kept his attention on holding the juvenile worm attached to Rickard’s septum, just as he had been for the past several minutes. “Keep on guard, there may be more of them! Hellman is almost done with this procedure.”

  “Hai!” Otaro said as he quickly went back to a sentry position.

  A few seconds later, Hellman’s scalpel finished its bloody but necessary job, as Rickard’s quadrangular cartilage was sliced from the end of his septum. The worm came loose with it, and O’Reilly slammed it hard on the ground before it could release the flesh and turn its jaws on either himself or Donaldson. While it lay squirming on the asphalt the lieutenant smashed it repeatedly with the butt of his rifle, quickly reducing it to a small pile of splattered gore.

  In the meantime, Hellman pressed an alcohol-soaked medical cloth tightly against Rickard’s rapidly bleeding nasal tip. “Someone get both the morphine bottle and the syringe out of my bag while Donaldson and Koji-san hold Rickard down. I’m gonna give him a painkiller that will also dope him up real good.”

  While Ogata moved to comply, Hellman just barely noticed a blur of motion out of the corner of his eye as another adult worm emerged from within the grass on the opposite side of the road and descended on the medic from behind. He then heard three shots fired, each of which struck the worm’s grotesque head and projected fanged bowel, blowing them to bits. Goro and Risa screamed as they were again spattered by the annelid’s blasted bits, and Hellman cringed for the same reason.

  The medic turned towards the tanks, where the sound of the gunshots originated. He saw Colonel Okabe, who despite his massive injury managed to force himself up and lean on the threads of one of the tanks for support. A still smoking revolver taken from his other holster was the source of those saving bullets. These were efforts that took a truly herculean effort of will to carry out, considering the officer’s condition.

  “Couldn’t… leave till… I got… one of them… myself,” the colonel said as he dropped his gun and collapsed.

  “Thank you, sir,” Hellman said in response while saluting the colonel just before the man lost consciousness.

  CHAPTER 21: Talons of Fury

  “Lt. O’Reilly, we have a situation,” Donaldson called out after popping up from the hatch of his tank. “When I radioed for that medical evac copter, I was told that one cannot be sent into this area now because the kaiju is currently headed this way with an F-51 squadron in fast pursuit. Well, what’s left of the squadron, that is. We’re expected to hold the line here and aid them in preventing that thing from getting back into Akihabara. A copter in this airspace right now might seriously interfere with the maneuvers of the jets.”

  “You cannot be serious!” Risa griped. “These men need medical attention now! They risked their lives for us!”

  “You calm down there, little lady,” O’Reilly insisted after stepping into her personal space.

  “I will not look so small after I knock you on your ass, big man!” the woman retorted in plucky aggressive fashion as she shook her fist a few inches from the officer’s face.

  O’Reilly gritted his teeth. “Jesus H. Christ, another dame who must read that Fujin kôron rag!” He then looked at Koji and Goro. “You two had best keep this out-of-place kitchen dweller from getting further out of place, or I’ll have her subdued.”

  “Kitchen dweller?” Risa repeated with irate incredulity. “Is that all you think a woman is good for? Cooking and cleaning? I will have you know that I survived one hell of an ordeal today! Let us see how well you and your men do when you face that monster, even with your fancy weapons!”

  “Risa-san… please,” Koji said after gently gripping her arm.

  She pulled away from him. “I will also have you know that my husband is a member of the Diet House of Representatives, and he will not take kindly to your behavior towards me!”

  “Wonderful,” O’Reilly quipped. “No doubt he’s one of those Liberal Democrats. They’d elect Howdy Doody as prime minister.”

  Risa took on a confused expression. “Howee Cootie?”

  “Never mind,” O’Reilly said with a sigh. “I guess that show still hasn’t made it to Japan. And it’s been on the airwaves for how many years now? Sweet Jesus, you people really are backward!”

  Risa’s lovely brown eyes suddenly burned red with rage. “How dare you insult my people, you bomb-dropping, round-eyed yarichin!”

  “Risa-san!” Koji yelled while stepping between her and O’Reilly. “Lieutenant, my friend is just very upset after her ordeal and might feel a bit of unladylike entitlement due to her husband being a member of the House.”

  “What?” Risa articulated with continued rage, until Koji patted her arm to request silence while he talked them out of a potentially troublesome situation.

  “And yes, as her husband is a Liberal Democrat, she most likely does read Fujin kôron a bit too often.”

  “What!?”

  Koji patted her limb again, this time just a bit harder.

  “So, can you find it in your heart to forgive her and allow us all to get out of this area before the kaiju arrives?”

  The sound of several jets in the sky suddenly reverberated through the air, indicating that their time was just about up. Within seconds it was followed by a distinct rumbling sound that signaled the fast-impending presence of a very unwelcome entity.

  “No…” Risa whispered aloud. “This is what you get for delaying us! Now we are consigned to die along with you! I hope my husband has you decommissioned and court martialed for this! Wait, that will not be necessary, since more likely than not you will die here too! It is the fault of your government that the monster exists in the first place! You Americans and your atomic weapons! When they are not destroying cities full of innocent people, the bombs are creating these giant beasts that destroy even more innocent people!”

  O’Reilly initially gave Risa a glare that seemed to return her infernal display of ire in kind. Before speaking, though, he stifled his gritted teeth and angry countenance. “President Truman made a call. It may not have been the best. It ended the war, though, and we’re now at peace.”

  “Some may call it ‘under occupation’ rather than ‘at peace’!” Risa rejoined.

  “Look, lady, we didn’t throw the first punch in that war,” O’Reilly said, trying to maintain a semblance of composure. “Were we supposed to just overlook Pearl Harbor?”

  “I am not saying that what the Imperial government did was right,” Risa replied, “but Pearl Harbor was a military target! A military base dedicated to war! Hiroshima and Nagasaki were large cities full of innocents, damn you! Your government targeted scores of innocent civilians, not soldiers and their personnel!”

  Koji stepped in again. “Risa-san, I sympathize with your need and opportunity to vent, but this is not the time. What was done was done, and we need to deal with what is going on now. Which would be the imminent arrival of Megadrak at this location.”

  O’Reilly was by that point less interested in trading politically
charged barbs with Risa over the morality of all that occurred during World War II than with performing his duty. As such, he turned to Donaldson, the soldier nearest him, and delivered a direct order.

  “Donaldson, have these three civilians help you carry the colonel and Rickard into the truck and drive them to the Akihabara Station, where citizens of the area are now being evacuated to Yokohama on the trains. Pronto!”

  “Aye, sir!” Donaldson said with a swift salute before turning to the three civilians and transferring the order. “You heard the man! Hurry!”

  The three civilians followed his command and they joined with Donaldson to help carry the poisoned and now insensate forms of Okabe and Rickard into the backseat of the spacious military truck. Goro and Risa sat on either side of those two, thereby taking up every inch of space in the vehicle’s rear section; Koji took the shotgun side opposite Donaldson in the driver’s seat.

  “That… exchange of yours with that American military officer was impressive,” Goro whispered to Risa. “You spoke for many of us, including me.”

  “Arigato, Goro-san,” she replied as quietly as her gradually diminishing anger allowed. “But Koji-san was correct. What was done is now done, and there will be time for recriminations and discussion later. I will talk to my husband when we are reunited.”

  Him again was all Goro could think after hearing about the man who won Risa’s heart alluded to once more. The fisherman felt horrible for the brief moment he came close to hoping that perhaps the politician didn’t make it to safety and contemplating if Risa would choose him if her husband was gone. He admonished himself accordingly.

  Your mother and Keiko would be ashamed of you for thinking such malignantly selfish things, even if for just a moment. But now they are gone, and I am thrown into circumstances with someone who could help ease that pain, but whose heart is loyal to another. Which just compounds the pain. I have seen better people than me lose their lives during all of this. Why did the gods take my mother and Keiko instead of me? Why did they have me meet someone like Risa when she was in no position to even consider offering me what I so desperately need, and which only she could provide? Are the gods truly this sadistic? Was sparing me thus far a means of punishing or torturing me rather than acts of generosity?