Chapter 2
Nightmares over the pacific
Ryan stared out at the vast blue ocean as it sparkled for miles underneath the moonlight. Ryan couldn't help but allow a small smile creep up across his face, Riya on the other hand was anything but happy. She sat with her arms folded and her face scrunched looking like she was about to kill Ryan, "I can't believe how incredibly immature you are! I get up for a second to go to the bathroom and you take my seat!"
Ryan simply shrugged, "What? You left, the seat was fair game."
Riya started shouting, but Ryan was already drifting off and it wasn't long until he had completely fallen asleep.
Ryan awoke, sleepily rubbing his eyes he looked next to him Riya was gone, "Probably went to the bathroom again" he thought to himself. "I wonder where we are."
Ryan looked out the window, it was still night, "I couldn't have been out very long, maybe I'll just ask this guy here."
Ryan set out to tap the shoulder of the man in the coat who sat in front of him, but as his hand touched the coat the article of clothing simply crumpled to the ground.
"O-Okay, that was weird." Ryan said nervously backing away as far as he could into his seat. Ryan then took a look around the plane and suddenly realized he was completely alone, his eyes darted around the plane desperate for any sign of activity.
Ryan's mind was racing, what could of happened to everyone? Were they abducted by aliens? Or maybe this was some sort of secret government test in which he was the living guinea pig! Or … Ryan shook his head, "Come on hawk, snap out of it, there's got to be a rational explanation."
Ryan slouched back in his chair and looked out the window. Everything seemed normal, the ocean, the sky, stars and clouds all still there.
Something moved through the clouds catching Ryan's attention, it dipped in and out, over and under then disappeared. Ryan desperately scanned the clouds looking for any sign of the object . Suddenly the entire plane jolted with enough force to knock Ryan out of his seat. As he climbed back up Ryan could see the object flying alongside the plane, it took him a moment to register it as Rodan.
This was getting weird, Ryan knew that the Rodan's didn't fly this far out to sea, they mainly stayed along the coastal regions to find a place to nest. Once they did that they never left what they considered to be their territory. There was something strange about this one though, it had no eyes, just vacant holes where the eyes should be. The Rodan flew closer, almost as if it wanted Ryan to get a good look at it, or it wanted a good look at him.
With no warning at all the color in the Rodan's face completely drained, leaving a white almost skull like head with black cracks running down all sides of its face. Ryan watched with a mix of horror and fascination at the spectacle, wondering what was happening. Suddenly in a white powdery mesh the Rodan's head exploded, revealing at least nine writhing tentacles. They were long and serpentine, constantly wriggling and writhing. They were gray and bumpy in appearance and on the end of each tentacle was a type of mouth, some were split four ways creating an x like shape as they opened and closed their jaws. The second set were shaped more like a leech with thousands of razor sharp teeth which seemed to grow inward, laying flat against the roof of the mouth, unlike the other set of mouths which had teeth growing in the traditional up and down position.
Ryan watched, hypnotized by the tentacles seemingly seductive dance, then with a sudden stop the tentacles turned and faced Ryan. Time froze for a moment, nothing moved, then like lighting the tentacles lashed out at the plane crashing through the window to get to Ryan! Ryan's eyes fluttered open, his lungs working overtime as he was breathing very heavy. Ryan looked out his window, no Rodan, no tentacles.
He turned to look at Riya who was reading today's paper, "Man! You wouldn't believe this dream I had, there was this Rodan, and then these tentacles and…" Ryan stopped, realizing Riya hadn't even flinched
since he started talking, "Ummm, Riya? You okay?" he asked poking her shoulder. Riya didn't respond, she just kept reading the paper which completely obscured her face.
"Hey Riya!" Ryan shouted he pushed the newspaper down to reveal a bleach white skull grinning like a cat that had eaten a prize canary.
Ryan screamed and fell off his chair watching in horror as the same tentacle creatures that he had seen come out of the Rodan were now bursting through Riya's skull. The tentacles started to burst out all over the pale, cracked body of Riya Kanada continuously squirming and dancing. Suddenly they stopped, all of them, every last tentacle turning to face Ryan hawk. The monster tentacles then lunged without warning, Ryan screamed as they tore the flesh from his bones.
Ryan awoke to the stinging sensation of Riya's left hand slapping him across his face, "Will you get a grip! What's wrong with you!?"
Ryan's mind had yet to fully comprehend his status of awareness between sleep and waking, as a result he began to spill out an endless stream of babbling nonsense about Rodans, tentacles and Riya's face exploding, which earned him another sharp slap across the face.
"Will you get a grip already?" Riya commanded poised for another strike to Ryan's facial features, but it was unneeded as Ryan slowly came back into reality.
"Whoa! What a weird dream" he said a little sluggish, then he rubbed his left cheek, "OW! What did you hit me for?!"
Riya rolled her eyes "Oh grow up you big baby, I didn't hit you that hard and besides were here I had to wake you up some way."
Ryan looked around the plane cabin, "Here? You mean Sollgel Island? But were still in the air".
Riya sighed again, "Look! There are no air strips on the island, and this plane is not designed for a water landing."
Ryan looked out the window at the small island that was rich with thick vegetation, "So, if we can't land..." Ryan wondered out loud "How do we get down there?"
Riya shoved a large brown sack in his face as she made her way to the cockpit door. Ryan examined the backpack like sack with it's strange cord attached to it, it was almost like a…Ryan's eyes widened in a fearful expression.
"Riya!" Ryan burst into the cockpit where the pilot was helping Riya strap in. " This is insane!" shrieked Ryan " I can't jump out of a plane! I'll be smeared all over the ground, or worse chopped into tiny little bits by the propellers, or…."
Riya ignored the nineteen years olds diatribe; she simply nodded to the pilot who nodded back and started strapping on Ryan's parachute while he continued to rant.
Ryan was so overcome with fear that he didn't even notice the proceedings of the pilot, he also didn't realize that both Riya and the pilot were ever so subtly pushing him towards the airplane's outer hatch.
"Look, Ryan all you have to do is count to ten, then you pull the cord and the chute will take up the rest, besides..." Riya said with a smile, "I'll be right behind you."
"Whoa!" Ryan shouted, "What makes you think I'm going fir…"
quickly both Riya and the pilot pushed Ryan out the door before he could finish, the rest of his sentence trailing after him. Ryan eyes were shut tight and his fist were clenched in a death grip around the parachutes straps, hoping, praying that he wouldn't die out here on this giant bug infested island. Ryan counted ten seconds then pulled his cord.
" I'm going to die!" He shrieked in his mind as the parachute came out perfectly and his decent slowed, "I'm going to die, I'm going to die, I'm going to die and even if I live I'm going to get eaten by a giant spider and then I'm going to die!"
Ryan's mantra of death continued until he saw Riya float down next to him with that same smile he had seen her with when they both first came to work for the Daikaiju Digest, a smile that symbolized new beginnings, adventure and hope. Ryan suddenly felt a tinge of guilt for all the hard times he gave Riya, maybe he would make it up to her, that was of course assuming he lived that long.
The ground was coming up slowly, and Ryan continued to keep an eye out for Kamacuras, Rodans and giant spider webs, along with any other creature that would like to eat him.
Ryan eventually reached the ground although he had long since lost sight of Riya and most of their equipment. Ryan sat down for a moment getting his wits about him and untangling him self from his now deflated parachute.
As Ryan relaxed a moment he saw some of the luggage he and Riya brought floating along the coastline, "Oh just wonderful" Ryan thought, "Eight hundred bucks just to get thrown out of an airplane and for my luggage take a swim in the Pacific Ocean."
Ryan released a long tired sigh, one of many he had uttered since taking this trip. "Well might as well get moving, I don't want to be stuck out here by myself when night comes."
Ryan got to his feet and drug the suitcase out of the water. Ryan couldn't help but notice how heavy it was, "Why do women have to pack so much stuff!!" He complained as he lugged the over-encumbering suit case, "You would think she was going to move out here."
It suddenly occurred to Ryan that he had no idea as to how they were going to get back home if the plane couldn't land here on the island. As a wave of fear swept over Ryan he decided he had better find Riya, and fast, or he would be in a lot of trouble.
