Chimera: Scourge of the Gods
A Kaiju Thriller
Matthew Dennion
Copyright 2015 by Matthew Dennion
www.severedpress.com
To my two daughters, Serene and Savannah, who are always willing to watch a giant monster movie with me, especially if it has Godzooky or Frankenstein Jr.
Prologue
Germany 723 AD
Hundreds of people had gathered around the mighty oak. They had come from as far north as Norway, and as far south as Scotland. Most of these people were Vikings, warriors from the time that they were born, until the time that they hopefully died on the battlefield, and ascended to Valhalla. The people gathered at the oak had seen dozens of battles, ranging from small skirmishes to massive armies clashing across miles of land.
Despite all of this battle experience, none of the gathered warriors had witnessed an event of this magnitude. The wars that they had lived through had all been wars between men, but on this day, gods would clash!
The oak the masses had gathered around was Thor’s Oak! The focal point of the entire Norse Religion. The tree was the one spot on Earth where Thor consistently showed his power by causing his fearsome lightning to strike the tree. For centuries, sacrifices have been made at the tree in Thor’s honor. Usually, the sacrifice came in the form of a ram or a bull. On rare occasions, a human was sacrificed to Thor. The stakes today were much larger than human sacrifice. Today a god and entire religion would fall.
The Christian Winfrid had declared that he would cut down Thor’s Oak. In doing so, he hoped to prove that Thor and the Asgardians were nothing more than a myth, and that the Christian God was the only true God.
As Winfrid picked up his axe and approached the tree, a gust of wind struck the crowd. Several of the war-hardened Vikings gasped as they were sure that Thor was soon to strike down this man and prove his power over the Christian God. Winfrid made the sign of the cross over his body and then approached the tree. He lifted the axe above his head and struck the mighty oak. Most of the crowd winced, expecting a bolt of lightning to descend upon them but to their surprise nothing happened. With each swing of the axe, more and more of the Vikings lost their faith in Thor and the Norse gods.
Through a portal, Thor watched and seethed with anger as the Christian cut into his tree. He roared and grabbed his Hammer preparing to strike down the human who dared to challenge his power!
Thor lifted his Hammer to call upon the thunder when Odin stayed his hand, “No my son, despite the lack of respect shown by this Christian, this is the moment we have been waiting for the humans to mature to. They have moved passed the need for our stewardship. Their civilization has reached the point where they can become the caretakers of the planet. The Olympians and the Mesopotamian gods have already moved onto another planet. It is time that we joined them.”
Thor took a deep breath and relaxed his arm, “Father, long have I fought to protect this planet from the frost giants and other races that would threaten it. Is this how I am to be rewarded for my efforts? Am I to be mocked by this human as he cuts down the symbol of my power? Is this how I am to leave this world, as a coward and weakling?”
Odin placed his hand on his son’s shoulder as they began to walk toward the rainbow-colored dimensional portal that connected their world to the rest of the universe, “My son, your words are accurate; we protect this planet, not the humans specifically. Our race has vowed to protect all planets which sustain life within the universe. This planet represents one of our greatest successes. The Earth is rife with life. These humans represent a shining example of the potential that life has on this planet. We have given the humans agriculture, mathematics, and language. We have taught them how to live on Earth without overusing its resources and threatening the viability of the planet.”
Odin gestured toward the rainbow portal, “Come my son, there are other planets that require our protection and supervision, our brothers and sisters have already begun working with the native populations of those planets to fight off the demons and monsters that would threaten them. Let us travel there now and assist our brethren in their efforts. We shall return to Earth in due time to evaluate the humans and their stewardship of the planet.”
As father and son entered the portal, Thor took one last look over his shoulder as Winfrid delivered the blow which sent his tree crashing to the ground, “Indeed father, we shall return.”
Chapter 1
Colonel Conner kept his men moving at a quick pace as they ran through the countryside. He stopped them one mile from the base of the mountain. Connor was not sure exactly what he and SEAL Team Omega were going to encounter today but one thing that he was sure of was that this was the most important mission he had ever led. The threat made by the enemy was both direct and absolute, not only to the US, but to the entire world. Like most of his missions, this was one that had to be kept secret. Given the gravity of the situation, the Greek government was assisting the US in helping to cover up the truth behind the current threat that they were facing. The enemy has set up their base of operations at the top of the largest mountain in the area. The government had concocted a story about a chemical spill around the base of the mountain that would require an evacuation of a twenty mile radius around the mountain. With that kind of clearance, Colonel Conner and his team were free to operate without fear of drawing the attention of the local population.
Conner surveyed his men, all of them looking at him for orders as to what they needed to do. He felt a sense of pride in himself and his team in that they would again be taking steps to make the world a safer place. Connor cleared his throat and then began addressing his team. “Men, our mission is as follows. A threat of the highest magnitude has set up its base of operations at the top of Mount Olympus. The enemy has a powerful electro-magnetic pulse weapon in their employ. An attempt to bomb the top of the mountain was stopped when an EMP hit the bomber squadron when they were on route to the target, causing them to fall into the sea. As such, this is a low-tech mission. No enhanced targeting apparatuses and no radio. It’s just us and our firearms against whatever is on top of that mountain. Our mission is to scale the mountain and destroy the hostiles and equipment that we find there.”
One of the SEALS raised a hand to ask a question, “Sir, what exactly are we expecting to find up there?”
Connor shook his head, “We are not exactly sure. When the hostiles set up their base of operations on top of the mountain, they also began utilizing some form of a moisture condenser to cause heavy cloud cover to shroud the top of the mountain. Even satellite is unable to see exactly what’s up there.” Connor took a deep breath, “I may not be able to tell you what’s up there, but one thing I can tell you is, that whatever is up there, we are going to kick its ass!”
A roar of approval went up from the gathered SEALS and Connor felt that his team was as ready as they could be for the mission ahead of them. Connor raised his rifle above his head, “SEAL Team Omega, let’s move out!”
Connor led the jog across the open field toward the mountain. Within seven minutes, the team had reached the base of the mountain and they had yet to encounter any resistance. Their timing was good. It was nearly dusk and with night vision not being available, scaling the mountain at dusk was their best option of not being seen while still being able to see the mountain that they were climbing.
Connor waved his men forward to the base of the mountain. When they were within one thousand feet of the base of the mountain, Connor saw three large shapes begin to emerge from a cave on the mountainside. He pulled out his binoculars to get a better view of the objects. When he looked thro
ugh his binoculars, he could not believe what he saw. The shapes were three incredibly large wolves. Connor estimated that each of the wolves was at least thirty feet in height. The wolves sniffed the air then began to move in the direction of his team.
The wolves were charging at the group and running in a tight formation. Connor gave the order for his men to fire. Rifle fire ripped through the air but the bullets seemed to have no effect on the massive wolves. Connor watched in disbelief as the three wolves seemed to merge together and form one massive wolf with three heads. The merged creature was well over one hundred feet high. Most men would have turned and run when facing this supernatural adversary, but Connor and his men were SEALS. They held their ground and continued to fire. The three-headed horror continued to charge forward as if the bullets pelting its hide were nothing more than rain drops. When the monster reached the SEALS, all three of its heads reached down and began devouring the men.
Seeing that his team was being slaughtered and that their weapons were having no effect on their target, Connor ordered his team to retreat. The team turned around and began to run when they saw another massive shadow that seemed to be gliding across the ground and blocking their retreat. With the three-headed wolf massacring their comrades, the remaining SEALS risked running into the slithering shadow. As the SEALS approached the shadow, they saw a long thin form begin to rise into the air revealing the face and torso of a hideous gigantic woman with the lower body of serpent. The giant snake woman hissed at the men and then quickly used her body to encircle several of the SEALS. The men screamed in pain as the snake woman constricted her body and crushed them. Connor soon found that he and his remaining men were trapped between the two giant monsters. He knew that his team was on its last mission. He took small comfort in the fact that since he had no radio, as a precaution he had left two members of his team to watch what occurred from a safe distance. These men were held in reserve so that if the mission was a failure they could report what had happened to Connor’s superiors. Connor took a deep breath and shouted, “Tight formation everyone. We are SEALS if we are going to die, let’s die like SEALS.” The men replied in unison with, “Sir, Yes Sir.” The men then quickly formed a tight circle and began firing in vain at the monsters that surrounded them. Thirty seconds later the gunfire ceased and the countryside was silent once more.
Chapter 2
Faster, he kept thinking that he had to run faster. This was literally a matter of life and death and Luke Davis had to be faster. He pushed his legs harder and was sure that he felt something pull in his hamstring, but he pushed through the pain. Terrance was only about twenty feet from the door and the oncoming rush of buses was just outside. If Terrance made it outside, he would run right in front of the buses without fear of being run over.
With about ten feet left between Terrance and the door, Luke finally caught up to the fleeing student. Safety protocols dictated that Luke could not grab Terrance from behind; it had to be from the front or the side. Luke side stepped in mid sprint and felt his already tweaked hamstring tweak a little more. He slid in front of Terrance and caught the force of a two hundred pound fifteen year old slamming into him at a full sprint. Luke was pushed back several steps but he was finally able to halt Terrance’s elope attempt toward the door.
He didn’t say a word to Terrance. He just pointed back to the classroom. After trying to push through Luke as if he was sumo wrestler, Terrance finally relented and went back to class. As they were walking through the hallway, Luke thought to himself that this was the last time he left Terrance with a particular assistant when he went to lunch.
Luke walked back into the classroom to see the rest of his students preparing for dismissal. Jack was skipping around the classroom singing a Wiggles song; Lester and Brian were sitting at the computer. They were glued to a SpongeBob YouTube video. Things were going well until the YouTube video froze. Luke could see that Lester was having difficulty dealing with the crashed video. Lester screamed, ran to the table in the middle of the room, and flipped it over before anyone could stop him. Luke directed Lester to pick up the table, and then he asked the three staff members who were standing around watching the event to start taking the other students out of their buses.
After Lester had sat down at the table in an appropriate manner, Luke pulled a social story out from his desk for the student. The social story was a printed up PowerPoint that gave Lester directions on what to do when he got angry. Lester worked through the story just prior to having his bus called over the loud speaker. Luke held out his fist to Lester who gave him an excited pound. Luke smiled and pointed to Lester’s bag. Lester picked up his bag then Luke walked him out to his bus.
Once Lester was on his bus, Luke jogged back inside and collected the daily behavior data for his students. Lester had hit someone five times that day and he had flipped the table twice. Terrance had eloped four times, causing Luke or one of his assistants to sprint after him and chase him down. He had also stripped naked on two occasions. Jack had hit himself in the face twenty two times today and Brian had bitten three people.
Most people would have looked at these behaviors and been horrified but as Luke was reading the data, he actually smiled. Luke smiled because the interventions that he had put into place were working. All of the student’s behaviors were down from yesterday and trending down from the previous week.
Luke was teacher of students with autism. He had a Master’s Degree in Education and was a Board Certified Behavior Analyst or BCBA for short. He was well-trained in using Applied Behavior Analysis techniques to modify students’ behaviors. Basically, the theory of Applied Behavior Analysis was that you found what motivated someone and used that motivation to reward the behaviors you wanted that student to exhibit. At the same time, you give as little attention as possible to the behaviors that you do not want someone to exhibit. In the case of Lester, Applied Behavior Analysis stated that you don’t say much when he flips the table over, as it is the behavior that you don’t want to see him exhibit. Conversely, you want him to read through the directions in the social story about what to do when he gets mad, so when he reads the story, you give him pound and a smile.
Luke thoroughly understood the concepts of Applied Behavior Analysis and, more importantly, he was able to effectively utilize those concepts in his classroom. Luke was good at what he did and he took great pride in that fact.
Teaching was a difficult profession to accurately gauge effectiveness in and teaching students with autism was another story altogether, but Luke had the data to prove how effective he was at his job. Every year, for the past ten years that he had been teaching, he had been given students with some of the most severe behaviors in the state, and in nearly every instance he had significantly reduced the behaviors of those students. Luke participated in yearly presentations where other teachers of students with autism presented interventions that they had utilized. Luke had won the award of best presenter in every presentation format that he had attended.
That he was able to attain such high level of professional success, and the fact that he was making a difference in the lives of students who were in dire need of help, pleased Luke tremendously. He loved working with the students; yes he was hit, kicked, and bit on a daily basis, but none of that mattered if those same kids gave you a pound at the end of the day or asked if you were still their best friend. As much as Luke liked the students, he had to admit to himself that he was starting to get burned out. First, there was the fact that he had been around long enough to know that there was not much out there for his students when they finished their schooling at age twenty one. Most of the progress that he had made with his students would be lost in programs that lacked the man power and funding to run a successful program for adults with autism.
The state was also making his job more difficult by the year. They had no idea how to assess special education students in the general population, let alone the students that Luke taught. As such, they dumped a ridiculous amou
nt of paperwork on teachers. At the beginning of his career, this would not have mattered but that was before he had a family. He had a wife and two daughters that needed his attention as a husband, father, coach, teacher, and dad.
Aside from the psychological burnout, there was the physical toll that his job was taking on his body. Blocking and redirecting students when they were running at full speed or hitting you was one thing when you were twenty-two years old. That type of punishment was something else when you were thirty-five. Luke had been talking to his wife about finding a new job but the same issues kept coming up. Luke needed a job that generated as much, if not more money than he made as a teacher, and even with his Masters and BCBA, that job did not exist. He could switch to a new school but with the current climate he would be pushed way back down the pay scale and with two young children that was unacceptable.
Despite these factors, he kept his resume up on several employment sites. He received plenty of offers for part time consulting jobs, which would have been fine if he was retired and was collecting his pension as a supplemental income. Luke was on his way out the door when the classroom phone rang. At first, he was content to let a parent phone call go to his voicemail and to respond to it tomorrow. However, when he checked the caller ID, he saw that it was his principal.
Luke picked up the phone, “Hi! Luke Davis’s room.”
The principal was quick with her reply, “Luke, I need you to come to my office immediately. There are some men here to see you.”
The teacher put down the phone and walked toward the office. He was wondering exactly who these men could be. Typically the principal would give him a clue as to who needed to see him, saying Mr. Blank is her to talk about his son or that a therapist needed his advice. Luke’s principal was unusually quick and cryptic with her phone call.
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