Toombs nodded, “Between the battle and eating, he is already starting to doze off. From looking at him as he reentered the ship, I think that again his wounds are probably only superficial.” He looked toward Diana and a sly smile crept onto his round face, “However, I am unfamiliar with the mythology of the creature that attacked him. Perhaps if Ms. Cain could accompany me, she could fill me in on any specific wounds that the creature may have inflicted on Chimera.”
Diana shrugged, “Other than a description, there is not much written about the Ophiotaurus. I am really not sure that I would be all that much help to you.”
Toombs looked to Parsons, “Still, I would feel better having an expert on the attacking creature along to assist in the examination.”
Parsons looked at Diana, “Just go with him. It can’t hurt.”
Diana smiled, “OK doctor, it seems that I am your woman.”
Toombs ran his eyes over her, “Yes, you certainly are.”
As Toombs began walking toward Chimera’s holding bay, Diana turned to Luke and mouthed the words “Save me.” Luke smiled at her and shrugged. She responded with a less enthusiastic gesture then followed Toombs.
As they approached the holding bay, Diana was hit by the smell of Chimera. As if being in Toombs’ company was not repulsive enough, she had to deal with the odor of the kaiju as well. The doctor entered the observation deck and checked to make sure that Chimera was sleeping before entering the holding bay. Once he was sure that Chimera was not going to decide to start walking around and accidentally crush him, he approached the creature with Diana behind him. He walked around the kaiju and stopped on the side where the Ophiotaurus had grazed Chimera with his horn. He pointed at the wound, “Does the mythology say anything about the horns of Ophiotaurus having poisonous properties?”
Diana spoke with a sharp tone to her voice, “Like I said back on deck, other than mentioning a description of the Ophiotaurus, the mythology doesn’t say anything else about the creature. If it has any other special abilities, you know as much about them as I do.”
Toombs looked at the wound on Chimera’ side, “The wound does not appear to have caused any real damage. Chimera’s genes have been enhanced to help him heal as quickly as possible. That scratch should be fully healed in a few hours.” Toombs slid towards Diana, “It seems that we have an extra day at sea.” He attempted to place his arm around her, “I can think of a few things that we can do to pass the time.”
Diana balled her hand into a fist and struck Toombs in the jaw sending him falling to the ground, “Listen to me, Toombs. If you ever try to touch me again, giant monsters attacking us will be a day in the park compared to what I will do to you.”
Toombs wiped his chin, “What is your deal? Is it Davis? I see the way you look at him.”
Diana leaned toward Toombs, “My deal, is that I think you are a pathetic, disgusting, little man. From this point on, you will only speak to me on events related to our mission. Is that clear, Dr. Toombs?”
Toombs didn’t answer; he just looked up at her with a sneer on his face.
Diana stepped on his hand and dug her heel into his palm as she repeated her question, “Is that clear, Dr. Toombs?”
Toombs screamed, “Yes! Now get off of my hand! You …”
Toombs sentence was cut off when Chimera began to stir as a result of the noise in his holding bay.
Diana began walking out of the holding bay, “I suggest that you get up, doctor, and go tell General Parsons that Chimera will be ready for battle by tomorrow. It seems that your patient is starting to wake up.”
Toombs stood up and ran out of the room. From a dark corner of the holding bay, Allison whispered to her brother, “That Doctor Toombs is a man that it may benefit us to take sooner or later.”
Aiden looked at Allison with a mixed looked of confusion and revulsion, “That man is a hideous toad! Surely there are others who suit your fancy?”
Allison laughed, “Dear brother, you still have much to learn. Physical appearance is not everything. Let us see how events with this beast and the gods play out. If things continue as they are, we may look back on this Doctor Toombs and suddenly find him very desirable.”
Allison grabbed her brother by the hand and in a flash they were gone.
Chapter 18
As the morning sun shone on the ship, Luke got up, dressed himself in a pair of loose fitting sweat clothes, and then made his way down to the stable that held Jason. Luke slowly approached the Clydesdale with a carrot in his hand, which the horse gladly accepted. Luke then picked a brush and ran it over the animal. Luke was going to be leading Chimera into a battle today against two of the most powerful creatures in Greek mythology. If they survived that battle, he was then going to instruct Chimera to scale a mountain and challenge the gods who lived on top of it. The same gods that had shut down the most powerful naval vessel in the world with a single attack. Luke laughed to himself a little when he thought about the Herculean task that lay before Chimera and him. The fact was that he would not even make it to attempt any of those feats if Jason fled at the first sign of the oncoming danger or threw Luke off of his back.
The horse had done fine around Chimera but he had the benefit of becoming acclimated to Chimera when the kaiju was half drugged. Jason had yet to be tested in a situation where malevolent creatures were attempting to kill him. Parsons had assured Luke that Jason was a war horse who had endured hours of training and that he would stay the course. Luke had faith in the horse just as he had faith in Chimera.
He loaded Jason up with the reinforcer food cubes for Chimera and his speaking horn. Luke then stuffed his pockets full of carrots. Jason nuzzled his face at Luke’s pockets. Luke laughed, “Easy boy, if we succeed today you will have earned all of the carrots that you want.” Luke then grabbed the reigns and led the horse to the small boat that would carry them to shore. When he entered the launching bay, he found Parsons and Diana waiting for him. Parsons stepped up beside Luke and reviewed the plan with him, “You will probably come across Echidna and Cerberus as you approach the mountain. Have Chimera engage them. If he is able to defeat them, immediately send him to the top of Mount Olympus. Honestly, we are not really sure what he will encounter up there, but have him destroy everything that he sees. If he survives and is able to come back down the mountain, we will send up a SEAL team to clean up and salvage whatever technology is left.”
Parsons place his hand on Luke’s shoulder, “You and Chimera can do this! I have faith in you, son, as does everyone else on board.”
Luke nodded in reply as Diana walked over to him, “I am going ashore with you. Seeing the monsters in action may help me to better understand some of the other threats that we will face in the future.” She looked into Luke’s eyes, “Anyway, there is no way that I am letting you make your way to the mountain alone.” Luke smiled at her and then he directed Jason into the boat. Once the horse was settled, Diana climbed in as well. The boat was in fact a thirty foot long canoe. The EMP that struck the Argos had disabled all of the motorized boats onboard, so like everything else they were reduced to pre-industrial methods. A team of sailors ran up alongside the boat and began pushing it into the sea. As the ship began to slide into the water, the sailors began jumping onto it and manning the oars that protruded from its sides.
The boat was about halfway to shore when the bay doors at the back Argos slowly began to open. The gargantuan form of Chimera’s head began to poke out of the bay door. When the door was fully opened, Chimera leapt forward into the water. Luke and Diana both watched in awe as the majestic creature arched into the air and landed gracefully in the sea.
Diana leaned in toward Luke, “I have heard from people who have gone whale watching that it is one of the most breathtaking sights in the world. I can’t imagine that it has anything on seeing Chimera enter the water.”
Luke gently punched her in the arm, “And you called me a softy?”
The two of them laughed for a moment and then Lu
ke noticed that Chimera was heading out to sea. He picked up his speaking horn and shouted, “Chimera follow me!” The kaiju slowly turned around and began swimming toward the small ship. At the sight of Chimera coming toward them, the sailors doubled their efforts and reached shore just before Chimera was upon them.
Luke led Jason out of the boat as Chimera waded onto the beach. While the local population had been ordered to evacuate the area days ago, a few people had stayed in their homes. When they heard the crashing of Chimera’s footfalls as he walked ashore, the few stragglers who had refused to leave their homes came running out to the beach.
Luke was expecting them to scream and flee in terror at the sight of the kaiju but something Luke never would have imagined occurred. The people began cheering. He turned his head to Diana with a puzzled look on it. She smiled at him, “The government has told the public about the threat that we are facing and Chimera’s role in stopping it. He is not a monster anymore. He is hero. He is the hope of every of person living on this planet.”
Luke had been so focused on Chimera’s ability to save the planet by battling gods and monsters that he had never considered the kaiju’s ability to inspire people. A smile crept across Luke’s face as he thought that it was time to try something new that he had been working on Chimera with. He yelled into his horn, ‘Chimera, let them know we are coming!”
Chimera looked down at Luke and then he placed his front paws on the ground. The beast lowered his head and then it shot up into the air as he unleashed a roar that shook the countryside. The crowd fell silent for a second then answered with a chorus of cheers. Luke waved at them and then jumped onto Jason. He was about to take off when Diana climbed up behind him. She whispered into his ear, “I told you that I was not going to let you do this alone. What kind of friend would I be if did?”
Luke simply nodded at her and then directed Chimera to follow him. He then gave Jason a nudge and began the trek to Mount Olympus.
Chapter 19
The waves crashed onto the packed beaches of Malibu as Allison and Aiden watched the beach goers from the top of a sand dune. They were both dressed for the beach. Aiden wore his white swim trunks as low on his hips as he possibly could without having them fall off. Allison wore a wire thin bikini with a thong bottom that left just enough of her covered to tantalize the imagination.
Aiden surveyed the beach and shook his head, “Their world is ending and yet here they are enjoying themselves. Dear sister, I swear to the Fates that I will never understand how the human mind works.”
Allison giggled, “Aiden, what else would you have them do? They are powerless to stop the events which are unfolding around them. How would you suggest that they spend their final days of life on this planet? By hiding in their homes and praying to their God who will not come to their aid? Is not enjoying their last few days of life the most logical way to spend the final moments of their already brief lives?”
She began walking down the sand dune toward the beach, “Come with me brother, let us stop judging them and instead allow a select few of them enjoy pleasures which their species have never thought possible.”
Allison walked onto the beach and she made sure that every movement of her striking body was perfectly timed and balanced. The heads of everyone on the beach were slowly drawn to her as she made her way to the water. She saw a young couple wading out into the surf. The man was well built and handsome and the female was young and beautiful in her own right. Allison decided that it was time to entertain herself a little as she continued to gather breeding partners for the gods. She walked up next the young man and placed her hand in his. She titled her head slightly and smiled both at the man and his girlfriend. “Hey there stud, how about you leave this homely little tramp here and take a swim with me?” She then wrapped her arms around the man and kissed him.
His girlfriend screamed, “Hank, what the hell do you think that you are doing?
Allison pulled away from the kiss and then laughed at the woman, “Forget about him, princess. He is mine now.” Allison took Hank’s hand and began to lead him further out into the water. His girlfriend first yelled curses at him as he followed Allison like a mindless slave. When they had reached waist deep water, Allison turned around so that the girlfriend could see her as she kissed Hank again. Allison looked over to see the girlfriend break down in tears. She maintained the kiss with Hank as a wave rolled over them. When they were submerged, a bright light surrounded them and when the wave had passed over them they were gone. The girlfriend eyes were still too filled with tears to see that her lover had disappeared.
Aiden shook his head and laughed at his sister’s cruelty. He began walking along the beach himself until he saw a young woman with the body of supermodel lying on her stomach and sunbathing near the shoreline. He approached the woman from an angle that would assure his body would block her sun. As his shadow fell across her, she rolled over and her mouth fell open and the sight of him. He reached out to the girl, “Can I interest you in a quick swim?”
Chapter 20
Dark storm clouds started to form overhead as Luke and Diana rode Jason at a fast trot in order to keep pace with Chimera. Luke was unsure if the storm clouds were just a natural weather pattern or the work of the Olympians preparing for the coming of Chimera. He and Diana rode in virtual silence for roughly half an hour until they were less than two miles from the base of Olympus. Luke pulled Jason to a halt and when the horse stopped, Chimera sat down for a moment as well.
Luke turned to Diana, “This is your stop.”
Diana’s scowled at him, “I told you that I was not going to let you do this alone!”
Luke smiled at her, “You haven’t. Having you this far has been a huge help to me but there is something else that you can do for me that would be a greater help to me than anything.”
Diana’s voice softened, “Just name it and I will do it.”
Luke reached into his pocket and pulled out a picture with a woman and two girls on it that he handed to Diana, “This is my family. I talked to them before we left and every day since then but I have not spoken to them since the EMP took out all of the ships electrical systems.” He paused for a moment, obviously fighting back tears, “If things go bad, if I don’t make it back. Promise me that you will go back to the compound in Virginia and find them. Promise me that you will tell them that I did all of this to protect them. That I love them more than anything, and that my last thoughts were of them as I rode into the unknown.”
Diana was crying herself as she took the photo from him, “I promise that I will find them and tell them everything. I will tell them how lucky they were to have had you as a husband and a father.” She quickly hugged Luke and then jumped off of the horse. She pulled a pair of binoculars from her coat and pointed to the top of a nearby hill, “I am going to watch what happens from there, so that I can report back to Parsons no matter what happens.”
Luke nodded and then shouted to Chimera through his speaking horn, “Chimera, follow me!” Luke then prompted Jason forward and Chimera followed in kind.
At the pace that Luke was riding Jason, he was within a mile of Olympus within twenty minutes. A light rain was falling on the open field that he was in and the clouds had turned so dark that despite being the middle of the day it looked as though night had fallen. When Luke looked up into the clouds and saw that they were swirling around Mount Olympus, he surmised that this was no natural weather pattern.
His eyes were drawn away from the top of the mountain when he heard a chorus of high-pitched howls coming from the base of the mountain. He looked toward the bottom of Olympus to see three huge wolf-like creatures coming from around the southern side of the mountain. Each of the wolves was about thirty feet high, making them far larger than any normal wolf but nowhere near the size of Chimera. The three beasts growled and then began running toward Chimera. As they were running, the wolves on either side of the wolf in middle swerved so that they ran into the middle wolf. The middle wol
f’s body bulged and twisted as he absorbed the other two beasts into himself. The result was far more than the sum of their parts. The three creatures had merged into the massive three headed monstrosity known as Cerberus, the guardian of the underworld. The combined height of the merged creature was about two thirds that of Chimera himself and much more than the mass of the three wolves were individually.
Luke decided that now was not the time to ponder the physics of the situation. He quickly lifted up his speaking horn, pointed at the three headed monster, and screamed for Chimera to attack. Chimera lifted himself onto his back legs, beat his chest, and roared before dropping his front hands back onto the earth and charging Cerberus.
Luke sat on top of Jason and watched as the two kaiju met in the middle of the field. It was Chimera that struck first by delivering a vicious back hand to the middle of Cerberus’s three heads. The blow struck with such force that the entire front half of Cerberus’s body was spun one hundred and eighty degrees. With the beast’s three heads directed away from him, Chimera pressed his attack by slamming his shoulder into Cerberus’s side. The impact sent the hell hound rolling across the open field. When Cerberus had finally stopped rolling, he was lying on his side and facing away from Chimera.
Chimera was running toward the three headed horror to end its existence when the ground in front of him erupted, spewing forth Echidna. The giant snake women quickly wrapped her long and powerful serpentine body around Chimera’s legs. The move tripped up the kaiju and sent him crashing into the ground. Before Chimera could even attempt to lift his body off of the ground, Echidna moved like lightning and wrapped her body around Chimera’s arms and torso as well. The pressure that her snake like body was able to generate was unimaginable. Even Chimera’s muscles were useless against it. Chimera’s chest sank as Echidna’s ever tightening grip forced the air from his lungs. With Chimera’s arms pinned at his side, the mother of all monsters lifted her claw above her head and slashed Chimera across his face. Chimera was in mid roar from the pain the attack had caused when Cerberus jumped onto his chest. The monster’s middle head bit into Chimera’s lower jaw while the two outside heads were tearing into Chimera’s shoulders.
Chimera: Scourge of the Gods: A Kaiju Thriller Page 8
