“This is Lieutenant Asuri Kima from the Self-Defense Air Division. Both myself and another craft, piloted by Lieutenant Daniel Innes, are above you at a high altitude. Please respond if you can hear us. Over.”
“I hear you! I hear you! Over!” Koji shouted back, doing his best to maintain a view of the road while turning his head to direct his voice towards the speaker system located in the middle of the dashboard.
“Good,” Asuri replied. “Now listen, please. Innes and I are going to open fire on the kaiju to buy you some time to reach Tokyo Bay. The government believes it has surmised your intention for taking this path based on the direction of your vehicle. That would be to lure the monster off the main island and out to sea, correct? Over.”
“That is correct! Over!”
“Good. Once you hear us descend and open fire with our machine guns, you should be able to conserve your fuel a bit. Be sure to let us know before you part with the vehicle. Over.”
As promised, within seconds Koji heard the roar of the twin fighter craft making a rapid descent, followed by the clatter of the Browning machine guns unleashing a hail of lead directly on the back of Megadrak’s head and vertebral region. The rapid bombardment by two simultaneous barrages of .50 caliber bullets on the kaiju’s upper posterior couldn’t be ignored by the beast despite the lack of serious harm inflicted by the assault.
Megadrak’s anger at the newest attack from the fighter jets caused the great beast to stop in its tracks, turn its head, and release a stream of oral mist in the general direction from which the bombardment originated. Asuri and Innes were prepared for this, however, and they took appropriate evasive action. The two men swung their craft away in opposite directions before ascending a full hundred meters afterwards. The lethal stream of mist failed to catch either of them.
Okay, that definitely helped, Koji mused to himself, especially since the truck is now running on no more than fumes. But I see the bay area on the horizon. If the truck would hold out for just another half a mile…
At that point Koji decided to go for broke and slammed his foot down on the accelerator as hard as he could, confident that the pedal would be of sufficiently sturdy construction to withstand it. That confidence paid off, and the island-born naturalist was able to move at full speed without needing to drive in a dangerously erratic manner.
That is more like it. Please let it keep going just a bit longer…
The truck traveled another quarter-mile before a cloud of misty fog surrounded it.
Despite experiencing a moment of extreme terror that made his heart feel as if it would burst from his rib cage, Koji was quick to realize the cloudy substance was actually steam emitted from the trunk of the vehicle, and not another blast of Megadrak’s corrosive mist. This smoke indicated the truck was overheating. The island man responded by continuing to push down the accelerator, determined to milk the truck of every last drop of fuel to cover the final distance between him and the bay.
He nearly made it before the truck stopped dead once the last of its petroleum reserves was depleted. Before jumping out of the military vehicle, Koji followed the order Asuri gave him to contact them via the radio communicator one last time.
“I am about to leave the truck. Over!”
“Detach the wireless radio from the red and yellow color-coded wires,” he heard Asuri’s voice stream through, explaining things clearly but quickly. “It is a 38 Set AFV radio receiver and transmitter, and it enables us to continue to communicate with infantry on the ground. It will allow us to do the same with you. The microphone will be a small orange circular object attached to the square black communicator by a long thin wire, so be sure to take that so you can speak back to us. It has been charged by a 12-volt battery, so it should give you a few hours of power. Put it around your neck and get out of there! Over!”
“Acknowledged! Over!”
Koji disembarked from the now sessile vehicle with record speed and waved the smoke from the overheated engine away to acquire a better view of his surroundings. First, he turned around to see how close Megadrak was to him; the answer to that was too close, as he could see the beast traipsing towards him just a hundred meters behind. Second, he looked ahead to check how far he was from Tokyo Bay, and he could see the beach on the opposite horizon.
So damn close on both counts!
Koji ran the rest of the distance as fast as his fairly athletic legs would carry him. He could not outpace Megadrak unless the kaiju was a good distance away, and he hoped this would constitute “enough of a distance” to make it to the shoreline on foot. After about fifteen minutes of running, during which he could hear and feel the rumbling steps of the gigantic monster behind him—and rapidly closing on his position—the young man finally felt the sand of the beach under his feet.
The island son knew he needed to reach the section of the dock where private motor boats were parked before he again ended up in range of the kaiju’s oral mist. He made a point to run in zig-zagging fashion just in case and felt frustrated that the sand somewhat impeded his speed. Do not trip on the sand, every second counts, you fool…
Koji desperately sought to identify any landmark he could recollect that would indicate the right direction to the dock. He recalled the wooden structure being situated along a stony section of the beach, so he turned down a side trail that seemed to lead to an area containing many piles of large rocks.
He emerged from the trail to notice the dock he was looking for and, thankfully, three motorboats tethered to it. He knew it would take a minute or two to run over to the wooden platform, and then another minute or two to get the boat’s motor started.
The intrepid young naturalist approached the boat that looked to be in the best condition, and he used a pocket knife he always kept handy to cut the tether. He then checked the motor to insure the shift lever was in its proper position. When Koji saw this to be the case, he hastily grabbed the throttle control arm, turned the hand grip to the start position, and slowly pulled the starter rope to get the engine going. Please, please start up promptly…
The sound of the motor revving up was proverbial music to Koji’s ears. That metaphorical tune was cruelly cut off, however, by another familiar sound, this one most definitely not something that Koji wanted to hear: the chill-inducing roar-hiss of Megadrak.
He turned to see the kaiju standing directly atop the small rocky hill that he ran down from just a few minutes earlier. This was less than twenty meters away. The Imotojima native cursed himself for failing to account for the oft-proven speed and stealth that belied the creature’s enormous size and weight.
Koji experienced an adrenal surge that overcame his panic, and this enabled him to forcefully pull the starter rope to get the motor fully activated. Often such motors started with a single pull; this one didn’t, though, and the young man realized he would not make it into the sea on time. Megadrak would be upon him with no more than a dozen steps forward, and was by now likely close enough to pick him off with an oral expulsion of radioactive mist. The kaiju announced its triumph with another roaring hiss that seemed to evoke a sense of sadistic glee.
It was then Megadrak’s turn to have a fortuitous moment rudely interrupted, however. That occurred when the F-51s piloted by Asuri and Innes again came soaring from the sky to rain another storm of lead down upon the titanic reptile.
No sooner was the beast distracted by the barrage than a third fighter plane appeared on the scene and dropped a few 500-pound hardpoint bombs directly onto the monster’s forehead. This bomb drop was accomplished with expert timing, just as Megadrak looked up after being hit by the salvo of gunfire from the previous two jets.
The incendiary objects impacted with the kaiju’s sensitive eyes and nasal passages, causing the monster to roar and shake its head from the pain. Megadrak was quick to expel a stream of its oral mist in retaliation, but the combination of pain and blindness resulted in a poorly aimed discharge.
Koji took full advantage of this moment
ary reprieve to pull the starter rope of the boat’s motor a few more times, finally managing to get it fully activated. He quickly stepped up on the small vessel and prepared to take off. As he saw the smoke clear from around Megadrak’s eyes, the evil glare directed at him by the kaiju made it clear that its eyesight was already recovering. It seemed that every part of this dragon-come-to-life was nigh invulnerable, and it would later be learned that Megadrak had a second set of transparent lids that protected its eyeballs from easy injury.
“Come and get me, you giant piece of goat shit!” Koji yelled while looking directly at the kaiju and waving his arms about to further spur it on.
Megadrak was quick to take the bait, as the creature seemed confident in its own invincibility. The monster was intent upon crushing at least one of its targeted prey before the day was over. With that intention single-mindedly dominating its primeval psyche, the kaiju wouldn’t waste time attempting to first eliminate the few paltry aircraft that intermittently assaulted it.
Koji was now in the motor-propelled boat, and he began racing out to sea on the surface of the water. He hoped he was out of range of the kaiju’s oral spray, but that was a moot concern since the sacs in its gullet were temporarily depleted. The kaiju stomped towards the shoreline and stepped into the water, in the process tossing about huge waves that seemed to swallow the entirety of the beach.
Koji prayed the velocity of the motorboat could out distance the kaiju’s swimming speed long enough for him to reach the nearby Ogasawara atoll called Lago Island. That islet was chosen as his destination point since he knew it to be uninhabited by human life. After reaching that destination—if he reached it—he would let the three aircraft take over and carry out whatever their plans were.
Considering the odds, Koji said a silent prayer to his ancestors, telling them his death would be worth it if the greater good was served by leading the kaiju to its doom. Or, failing that, to at least lead it away from the mainland and any more of the inhabited islands.
I truly wish I was not afraid to die, but I must confess that I am. Nevertheless, I must soldier on for the greater good despite my fear. Please give me the strength to do that. Greene, Akira… this is in honor of your memory. I would give up even the Three Treasures for that.
None of the participants in the above situation, including the great Megadrak itself, were aware of a new factor that was about to enter the scheme of things. It would constitute what all concerned would consider, to use American parlance, a “major monkey wrench.” And it was to first show itself at yet another small isle on the Ogasawara chain called Modo Island, an atoll which was uninhabited save for a small Japanese government-funded scientific research base. The scientists helming that base wouldn’t be alone there for long, however.
***
The day had gone casually and without incident of note for the four scientists working at the research facility on Modo Island. The task of studying the unusual flora and fauna extant on this atoll was a lot of work, but they were each professionally dedicated to the task.
One of them, a marine biologist named Professor Furata, was standing near the shore of the island about twenty meters from the base. He was walking along the shoreline looking for the odd type of conch shells known to be found there when he suddenly noticed a strange bubbling in the water roughly fifty yards distant. The curious scientist lifted his trusty binoculars from their place around his neck and squinted through the magnification lenses.
The amplification provided by the lenses revealed a violent foaming on the ocean, and Furata found it difficult to determine what was causing such a commotion directly beneath the surface. At first, he thought maybe it was either a submarine or a whale, but neither had ever produced an aquatic churning of this sort in his many years of experience with both. He adjusted the lenses to get a better view, and a proper focus was completed just before the mysterious and decidedly huge object made itself known by rising partially above the waves.
It was a scene that filled Professor Furata with horror beyond imagining.
Emerging from the surface of the water was a tubular creature that at first glance appeared to resemble a gigantic worm, somewhat like the reports of the Glyceracon he had received. However, this creature was a sickly greenish-yellow in color instead of brownish red. Other differences included two enormous coal black eyes on a clearly defined, squarish head and a neck region that bore a quartet of writhing, tendril-like parapodia much longer than those on even the adult mutant Glyceracon species.
This monstrosity also had one additional anatomical difference from the adult Glyceracon reported and observed up to that point: it was truly gigantic, over forty meters in length.
The titanic polychaete extended half of its bulky hose-shaped body upwards from the water to display two entire rows of thick polypodia on its underside, these being tumor-like protrusions that seemed to move about with a will of their own. The annelid-like daikaiju opened its round cavernous maw, extended a long yellowish bowel with four huge protruding fangs on the end, and released a roaring screech that was so otherworldly and piercing that it literally sent Furata down to his knees.
The ginormous creature bobbed its head about in the air as if catching the scent of something. Furata removed his hands from his ears and looked up again to see that this newly discovered kaiju appeared to have noticed him. It dove down into the water while remaining on the surface and began moving directly towards the shore where the scientist stood with a speed comparable to that of a torpedo.
The professor’s flight response was duly triggered and he ran back towards the base as quickly as he could, his progress slowed by the panic-stricken man falling onto the sand a few times in his clumsy haste to make it back and warn the others.
Furata burst through the front door of the base to find a botanist named Nakano tending to some plant samples he picked up during an early morning excursion. The second man turned around with a start after his fellow scientist’s dramatic entrance.
“Nakano-san, we need to get out of here now!” Furata cried before taking several huffs of air. “There is a daikaiju heading towards the island!”
“Calm down, Furata-san,” Nakano replied as he grabbed his colleague by the shoulders. “The reports of the kaiju, provided they are even true, said it was nowhere near our location.”
“This one looks considerably different from the one described on the mainland!” Furata shouted while pushing away from the botanist. “This one is not reptilian, but resembles a giant coelomate!”
“Do you mean like the mutant bloodworms we were warned of?”
“Not entirely! This one is far, far larger! It is truly a daikaiju! We must get to the copter and evacuate this island now!”
By that point, another of the four scientists present, a zoologist named Akabe, ran into the front lab to find out the source of the ruckus he heard.
“What are you two shouting about?” he asked the two.
“Akabe-san, get Suda and tell him we need to head for the copter immediately!” Zurata shouted in a completely histrionic manner.
“Suda is on the other side of the island collecting specimens,” Akabe replied. “Tell me what is going on here.”
The answer to Akabe’s question was immediately provided, but not from the words of Zurata. It instead came when the enormous worm-like kaiju burst its grotesque head through the roof of the lab.
All three men looked up with startled terror at the huge monstrous visage peering down at them through its pair of massive oily black eyes. Then, in a flash of motion, the monster opened its maw and ejected its toothy proboscis towards the floor. Nakano and Akabe wailed in agony as they were skewered clear through their torsos by the kaiju’s four two-meter long fangs. They were immediately pulled into the giant annelid’s externalized intestine, and then scooped back into its waiting mouth. The entire action occurred in no more than two-point-five seconds.
Furata was sickened and horrified beyond words, but he refused to
allow himself to stay paralyzed and meet the same fate as his two colleagues without resistance.
He hurried over to a metal supply cabinet a few feet to his left, pulled open one of its drawers, and grabbed a loaded revolver the scientists kept for use against hostile island fauna. The biologist managed to steady his shaking hands just enough to take aim and fire several shots, ultimately emptying the chamber at the giant annelid’s head.
Most of the bullets hit their target but appeared to have no effect save for attracting the full attention of the creature. And that may have been due to the sound of the revolver repeatedly being fired rather than the impact of the projectiles against the monster’s yellowish-green hide. The titanic coelomate-like beast opened its mouth slowly, as if deliberately savoring the anticipation before grabbing another morsel.
Zurata tossed the gun at the creature and screamed. He fell on his duff and braced himself for the unspeakable final fate that awaited him.
Much to his further shock, however, the gigantic worm had barely begun to extend its gastric proboscis before it turned its head to the side and bobbed its anterior around as if sensing something far more compellingly sumptuous in the distance. Whatever it detected proved so alluring that it extracted its head from the demolished roof of the base and utterly dismissed the tiny prey that Furata represented for the much better target of predation that caught its “nose.”
Zurata’s life was spared, but it cannot be said he would ever be the same again. The fact that he remained sitting silently in the same spot, with his eyes staring blankly ahead, for four full hours before being found in exactly that state by the returning Professor Suda was but the first indication of the biologist’s permanent ruin.
Megadrak: Beast Of The Apocalypse Page 27