Megadrak: Beast Of The Apocalypse

by Christofer Nigro

  The other two men again followed Itaru’s commands, even though Akira was still having some difficulty remaining on his feet. Fortunately, though, the adrenalin rush now surging through him managed to counter his body’s desire to collapse, at least for now. Nevertheless, the scientist disliked how sick he now felt, and it took almost all of his focused will to continue moving rather than keeling over and just quietly accepting his final fate.

  Itaru hoped for the best regarding his two friends, but he knew he needed to focus his attention on getting to police headquarters and assuring Eda’s escape. She was likely the only still living villager who was not currently holed up in the fort.

  The lawman also realized that the kaiju had chosen to follow him rather than one of the other two. He did not complain, though, as saving lives was his job. And Eda knew the risks of serving as the sole personnel worker for the island police.

  When Itaru finally caught sight of the police hut and ran towards it, Eda suddenly rushed out the front door, apparently alerted by his approaching footsteps.

  “Sir, whatever is that loud smashing sound?” she asked. “Are we experiencing tremors?”

  “Eda, don’t ask questions. Follow me, as fast as you can!” was her boss’s impassioned response.

  The woman was no coward—someone with her occupation could not be—but even she couldn’t stifle a scream at seeing the kaiju smashing aside trees like toothpicks as it pursued Itaru with a savage animalistic resolve that was now directed at her as well.

  “Just follow me!” her boss counter-screamed.

  Luckily, she didn’t hesitate and began running directly behind the constable.

  A few seconds afterward, the kaiju trampled over the police shack, easily smashing the sturdy building into splinters.

  “Oh, great spirits! What is that thing?” Eda screeched in stream-of-thought fashion as panic began overcoming her.

  “Just focus on getting away!” Itaru shouted between breaths as he ran. “Do not talk, just run!”

  However, the rapidly gaining giant beast immediately swung down its enormous four-fingered hand in an attempt to grab the tiny people who were trying to escape its clutches. It succeeded in grasping Eda between its massive fingers. As for Itaru, he was only struck with the equivalent of its index finger, which had the effect of knocking him off of his feet.

  With the wind nearly knocked out of his lungs, the constable looked up to see the screaming Eda lifted fifty meters into the air and inspected closely by the deadly kaiju. She yelled and begged the creature to release her while pummeling its fingers with every iota of force she could muster, all to no effect whatsoever.

  The gigantic creature quickly seemed satisfied with whatever its inspection entailed, and it promptly stuffed the struggling woman into its cavernous mouth. The last thing Itaru saw before using the acquired extra time to get to his feet and running zig-zag fashion through the village was Eda’s dismembered legs falling from the monster’s salivating gullet as it closed its jaws and crushed the life out of her fragile little body.

  ***

  Koji was the first to reach the ocean shore, where he spotted a small number of canoes that were tied to another wooden scaffold. He was deeply concerned that neither Akira nor Itaru made it there yet, especially since he knew the monster would be pursuing one of them. His mind was suddenly filled with a plethora of anxious thoughts, as if on a psychic kaleidoscope.

  Did Itaru get Eda out in time? Did Akira collapse on the way over here? Did the kaiju get him if he did? He looked like he was going to collapse! Dear ancestors, what if he did? What should I do?

  With tears again running down his cheeks, a course of action quickly came to the young man’s mind. The result was a decision that may have increased his chances to live, but not one that he was sure he could live with.

  “Forgive me, please,” the islander whispered aloud as he began running towards one of the canoes. “I need to get out of here, I need to leave, I need to warn the mainland, the kaiju will overlook the fort, how could it know anyone is inside? It can’t, it just can’t…”

  Before Koji reached one of the small dinghies he heard the distinct whirring sound of helicopter blades. He looked up to see two Sikorsky H-19 Transport Copters, proud creations of the Mitsubishi corporation at the start of the conflict in Korea, cavorting over the shimmering surface of the Pacific Ocean. They resembled nothing less than giant metallic dragonflies as they quickly descended to the white sandy beach. The help summoned by Eda had now arrived, and not a micro-second too soon as far as the young Imotojima native was concerned.

  Koji ran a few yards in front of the area where he could see the copters would touch ground. Along the way, he frantically waved his arms to get the attention of the pilots. As the flying machines landed, a group of armed men in uniforms, accompanied by two individuals wearing white attire which identified them as civilian scientists, immediately disembarked.

  “Over here! Please!” the young island native pleaded.

  A gray-haired, robust looking man in military raiment approached in front of all the others, and it was obvious he was the personage in charge of the operation.

  “I am Captain Shinji Ogata,” the superior officer of the evacuation procedure announced. “And you are…?”

  The naturalist’s response was a run-on stream of panicked exposition. “My name is Koji and this island is under siege by a kaiju you have to get us out of here you have to get us all out of here please!”

  “Calm down and take a few breaths, young man!” the captain said while waving his arms in a “tone it down” gesture. “This ‘mysterious beast’ you refer to would be the giant predatory species of worm that is attacking the residents here, correct?”

  “No! I mean, yes, there are such creatures here, but there is a far larger kaiju, a daikaiju, that looks like some immense dragon! It walks on two legs and it is destroying everything in its path!”

  The two scientists exchanged incredulous glances, after which one stepped forward and entered the conversation.

  “Koji-san, I am Dr. Daisuke Sato,” the scientist introduced himself, “and I am a biologist. You have clearly been through a very traumatic ordeal, but we need to understand precisely what type of animals we are dealing with here. Are you saying there is some type of large aggressive reptile present on the island as well as the unusually large worms we were informed of?”

  “Yes!” Koji exclaimed hysterically. “But this reptile is not merely large, it is truly gigantic! It is destroying everything, it will kill us and everyone else on the island if we do not leave here immediately! Please!”

  Captain Ogata looked at Dr. Sato as the scientist put an arm around Koji’s shoulders to calm him.

  “What do you make of this, Sato-kun?” Ogata said.

  “I do not know what to make of this,” Sato replied, “nor, I believe, would my colleague Dr. Hayashi, until we have the opportunity to actually see the specimens this boy is referring to.”

  It was then that Professor Akira Watanabe stumbled out of the brush, having finally made it to the shore. The soldiers pointed their rifles in the man’s direction upon hearing the sound, but Ogata made a gesture they recognized as a signal to stand down.

  “Akira!” Koji shouted. “Thank my ancestors you made it!”

  “And thank my own ancestors,” Akira said, “that… help seems to have… arrived.” After saying this, the ailing and exhausted zoologist finally allowed himself to collapse to the ground.

  Ogata pointed to Dr. Hayashi and one of his soldiers while barking an order: “Hayashi-sama, Yakabuchi-san, go tend to that man and carry him aboard one of the copters.” He then turned back to Koji. “As for you, young man, though I sympathize with all you have been through, you need to take command of your emotions and explain to us in much greater detail exactly what you and this other man encountered here. We cannot mount an effective response if we do not know exactly what we are up against.”

  Ogata would indeed receiv
e his answer, though not by way of Koji’s lips. No sooner did he make his demand of the youthful island son than the ground began shaking beneath his feet as the result of what sounded like extremely massive footsteps heading towards the beach. Within moments another man emerged from the brush, this one wielding a revolver and dressed in attire that identified him as one of the island’s constabulary.

  “Itaru!” Koji hollered. “You made it also! But Eda…”

  “She is dead,” Itaru responded somberly. “And we will be dead also if these soldiers do not get us off of this island immediately.”

  It was then that the gigantic kaiju emerged into the view of everyone assembled on the beach. The titanic reptile released a roaring hiss of extreme rage at the group of tiny rivals for planetary dominance that it saw standing before it… or, rather, far beneath it.

  “Dear gods!” Sato exclaimed. “That monstrosity is like nothing I have ever seen…”

  “Men!” Ogata commanded. “Aim your weapons and fire at will!” The captain turned to one of the soldiers, whom he motioned to hold his fire. “Obatu-san, you get the scientists and this civilian aboard one of the copters and tell the pilot to rev up the engines for emergency retreat!”

  “Hai!” Obatu replied before running to carry out the order.

  In the meantime, the other soldiers obeyed the command to open a salvo of gunfire on the towering beast that lumbered towards them like an immense demon from the depths of some god-forsaken underworld. The barrage of high-caliber lead projectiles unleashed against the kaiju merely bounced off the monster’s ultra-dense hide as if they were motes of dust.

  “Sir, the bullets have no effect!” one of the alarmed soldiers bellowed to his commanding officer.

  “Scatter!” Ogata shouted as the beast approached the tiny military men and reached down for them.

  The soldiers did as ordered, but three of them failed to evade the kaiju’s mammoth hand. Since the beast had already eaten, it simply crushed the trio of offending mites between its scaly palms as a person may crush sunflower seeds.

  “Use grenades!” Ogata ordered. “Throw a volley of them at the back of its lower legs, try to damage its hamstrings!”

  Four of the soldiers detached one of the World War II pineapple grenades they had attached to their belts, pulled the pins while holding onto the spoon, and began rushing around the kaiju. The foursome split into two pairs who ran in the opposite direction to confuse the beast. The kaiju first focused its attention on the two soldiers rushing to its left side and lifted its train-sized foot to stomp them flat.

  The duo grasped the handle of the grenades as tightly as they could to prevent the five-second fuse from being prematurely activated and attempted to leap clear of the ten-meter long foot bearing down on them.

  One of the two soldiers didn’t quite make it, and he was immediately crushed under the enormous scaly heel. A portion of the ill-fated man’s blood spattered out from under the kaiju’s foot as his body was instantly pulverized. A heavily muffled blasting sound was heard, followed by wisps of gray smoke billowing through the same creases in the creature’s foot. This indicated that the grenade exploded without so much as scratching the sole of the monster’s foot.

  Though the other soldier managed to jump clear, he was momentarily stunned by his proximity to the shock wave produced by the kaiju’s thunderous stomp. As a result, the man’s outstretched hand lost its grip on the grenade it held. He turned his head to see the metal pineapple laying a few feet from his face, and he realized to his horror that the spoon had been released. The soldier’s last act was to close his eyes and tightly grit his teeth to brace himself for the gory end that awaited him in two seconds. When that brief span of time ended the grenade exploded, blowing the man’s head into a spray of brain matter and skull fragments.

  This distraction created by that pair’s sacrifice enabled the other two soldiers to successfully navigate to just a few meters behind the kaiju’s enormous calves. They hurled their fist-sized death-bringers with expert precision, each at a different leg. As intended, one grenade exploded against each calf near-simultaneously. The wide wafts of smoke from the twin blasts receded within a few seconds to show that the explosions failed to breach the beast’s hide. Thus, its hamstrings—and hence, its ability to walk—remained fully intact.

  The two soldiers who so carefully timed their grenades to blow up simultaneously swore in tandem.

  Nevertheless, those two explosions were just powerful enough to cause the angry beast to take notice. Its primal but intelligent mind quickly deduced the two little beings standing behind it had managed to initiate some sort of attack against it. The kaiju’s response was to whip its tremendous tail towards its miniscule attackers with a swiftness that belied its enormous weight. The speed of this action caught the two men by surprise, and they found themselves swatted several meters through the air.

  One of the airborne soldiers slammed into a tree about a hundred meters to his left. He died instantly as his spinal cord was crushed.

  The second flung officer landed in a pile of thickets, which greatly blunted the impact of his landing, and he found himself alive but in serious pain. The man instinctively attempted to sit up until he heard a curious rustling in the foliage just behind him. He turned his head to see himself face-to-face with the hideous open mouth of one of the adult Glyceracon that had slithered towards him. Before he could react in any fashion, its proboscis extended and sunk its four needle-like fangs into the flesh of his face.

  The soldier began beating on the annelid’s warty anterior with his clenched fists as it entwined its hose-shaped form around his body and constricted with a mighty grip. The man’s already fruitless pummeling grew exponentially weaker as the Glyceracon’s coils cracked his rib cage and forced the remaining air out of his lungs. The monster coelomate began feasting on its prey’s blood at its contented leisure as the soldier’s frenzied resistance finally ceased.

  The remaining soldiers on the beach continued firing at the dragon-like titan in the hope of delaying it just long enough for the first Sikorsky to take off for the mainland. This was the copter carrying Koji, Itaru, the unconscious and deathly ill Akira, and the two government-employed scientists, in addition to the pilot. The soldier who helped them get aboard, Obatu, had returned to aid his comrades against the kaiju.

  “The first copter has retreated successfully!” the returning Obatu shouted over the sound of the gunfire and the kaiju’s hissing roars.

  “Then try holding the monster at bay with a volley of grenades so we can board the second copter!” was Ogawa’s next command.

  “But what about the other villagers sequestered in the fort, Captain?” Obatu queried.

  “We cannot help them!” the captain retorted ruefully. “We need to lure the beast out to sea and send another copter here to evacuate them while it is away from the island.”

  Ogata and his five remaining soldiers saw the lower quarters of the kaiju briefly engulfed by the billowing smoke of several grenades hurled at its legs. This barrage had the effect of causing the creature to bellow with unfettered fury… but not much beyond that. It did, however, distract the kaiju just long enough to enable the men to make it to the second Sikorsky. They all boarded in record time.

  “Captain, what in the hell is that thing?” the pilot asked.

  “Just get us out of here!” Ogata yelled with all due haste.

  The pilot held his composure despite seeing the impossibly large behemoth heading towards the helicopter, and he had the Sikorsky take to the air in record time. The fact that the helo was at strip alert enabled the pilot to take off without having to go through the usual several minute-long prep procedures, but that was still enough time for the kaiju to get close to it.

  “Evasive maneuvers!” Ogata yelled as the kaiju swung its truck-sized hand at the rising copter.

  The pilot successfully moved the copter to the right to avoid getting swatted out of the air, but the abrupt maneuver caused t
he rotors to over-torque. As a result, the whirly craft began careening towards the white sandy beach as the kaiju rushed toward it with a fervent determination to smash it and the tiny creatures inside to pieces.

  “Throttle upwards!” Ogata exclaimed, and the pilot gave it his best effort.

  Despite the overtaxed rotors and engine, the effort paid off and the Sikorsky ascended sufficiently to avoid crashing to the ground. The pilot managed to position the copter to fly upwards just fast enough to evade the monster’s follow-up assault.

  “We did it!” the pilot hollered euphorically. “But the motor is shot—it may not get us to the mainland!”

  “Get us as far as you can before being forced to descend,” Ogata commanded. “I will radio for another copter to meet us where we set down.”

  The copter flew forward as fast as its overburdened engine could carry it, and the enraged behemoth on its tail realized that the flying object was going too fast to smash with its hands or tail. However, the beast was nothing if not relentless, and it opened its maw in the direction of the fleeing helo as if to roar in protest. But that is not what occurred; rather, it exhaled a large trail of the foaming, slightly luminescent mist that it previously brought to bear against the escape raft from the Ao Iruka.

  The rolling mist was projected at great speed due to its lack of mass, and it surrounded the copter within seconds.

  “What in the hell?” Ogata said. “Is that… smoke?”

  “Negative, Captain,” the pilot replied. “It looks like… some form of fog or mist, but I am not certain where it came from, as the conditions in the sky were completely clear just a moment ago.”

  A disturbingly familiar ticking sound suddenly erupted from the back of the craft.

  “Sir, the Geiger counter is going mad!” one of the soldiers sitting beside the device reported with justifiable alarm. “There is a huge surge of radiation around the copter!”