(Chapter 8: Answered Prayers)
In the afternoon, Michaels was sitting in the Ford residence, Beatrice was sleeping, and James was speaking with friends on the phone.
The television in the background was just faint noise as many memories went through his mind, things he wished he would have done. Michaels wished he had stayed in Cherokee, stayed with his best friend, and in all honesty, he wanted to die with his best friend. Now Michaels thought that Robertson was dead, the mountains had been slammed with tons of landslides and earthquakes, that it would be almost impossible to live in that region of North Carolina.
Like Robertson, Michaels was thinking about the time they performed in front of their families one Christmas Eve, when they were still teenagers. Michaels wished he could go back to the year of 1974, when he was sixteen years old, and when Robertson was nineteen years old. The former deputy remembered that the best times the two would have, was recorded on the super 8, and old video cameras from the years of the past.
When Michaels was twenty years old, he thought of placing the old films of him and his best friend, into a chest, and then burying it underground in the backyard of his home, to serve as a time capsule. Now that the landslide had pretty much wiped out their respective town, retrieving the time capsule chest would be impossible.
Michaels was still thinking of the memories when James was done talking on the phone, the Monarch official noticed the sad look on Michaels's face.
"What's wrong?" James asked, trying to figure out why Michaels was down in the dumps so badly.
"I had answered this not too long ago, but I think my best friend is dead. I don't know if you have a friend that goes everywhere with you, has your back, calls you daily, and lives in the exact same neighborhood, but Sheriff Robertson was the best around, there comes no better."
James nodded his head, patting Michaels's back in an attempt to comfort the depressed deputy. The Monarch official had no such friends, that were there for him ever since the day he was born, but deep down, he felt the pain from Michaels.
"I may not have such a friend as Robertson is to you, but I can relate to it, when I lost my uncle back in 1973. He was one of the people that went to Skull Island, he was one of the people in which never came back. In the time I knew him, he was tough, a fighter, a man who never gives up. I went to the movies with him, shared some good laughs with him, then he went away from me, and never came back. When I got my job for Monarch eight years ago, I saw the Skull Island expedition on their timeline. I saw every person who went, it broke me when I saw my uncle's name on the missing/deceased list."
"Damn..To know that pains me even more. We are in dark times, while you have probably made your uncle proud, and redeemed yourself by becoming a Monarch official, what have I done? I remember I buried a chest full of my best times with Robertson, we performed various Sam Cooke songs in front of our families on a Christmas Eve in 1974, probably my best memory, clouded over by these troublesome times, that box is no longer accessible due to the landslide in Cherokee."
The two shared a moment of silence for their fallen people, the people they looked up to. One of them was dead, the other one wasn't. Michaels let out a sigh of disbelief, no hope remained within him, Michaels felt like he was fighting for a dead cause.
"Well, if Robertson isn't with us anymore. You can make him proud, become a sheriff of Kannapolis. If you can't become a sheriff, join me in Monarch. You still have time to redeem yourself, this isn't the end of the world."
Then, Michaels had an idea..
"We stop the son of a bitch that killed Robertson, the son of a bitch that destroyed the place of my childhood, the place where I spent the happiest moments of my life. Let's kill that son of a bitch, Barugon. Let's thaw Gamera out, while we get the military to try and devise a plan to keep Barugon distracted. This is my path to redemption, if I'm going to redeem myself, I'll slay a dragon."
And so the path to Michaels's redemption was chosen, to kill Barugon. It wouldn't be so easy, but it had to be done in order to regain confidence, to regain hope.
(The next day)
Military had arrived, surrounding Gamera with various devices to try and set him free from his frozen prison. Almost as soon as Gamera's body was frozen over by Barugon's freeze mist, studies were done on Gamera, his frozen body was all over the news all over the world. Gamera was the most talked about thing in every country, it all proved that humans were not alone in the world. The soldiers were using a large weapon in which would unleash extreme heat onto whatever it was aimed upon, it appeared as if it wasn't working so much, but upon further inspection, the ice was slowly but surely melting. From the cracks on the ice, loud breathing could be heard.
One of the people visiting the site of Gamera's body, who had remained hidden from guards all around the site, was Ken. The teen had last seen Gamera on the ship, as he flew out from beneath the waves. Ken had seen Gamera all over the news, he was fascinated with the gigantic snapping turtle. He had so many thoughts running through his head, so many imaginative thoughts in his mind for tales he could tell his children in the future. Gamera was like something out of a dream, a gigantic turtle hero, except a badass snapping turtle the size of a building. As he looked upon Gamera from afar, his mouth hung open in awe.
Ken felt so small when he was one of the tallest people in his family, he felt so feeble, so dominated, so powerless before this massive frozen solid Gamera. Ever since he had seen the titanic turtle, he couldn't stop talking about it, stop thinking about it, stop daydreaming about it. Gamera was a living legend among the people of the Earth, as anticipated, the younger children at the high school in which Ken went to, mostly the young freshmen, always spoke about Gamera.
In the days of the past, many monsters terrorized the people of the Earth, such as big worms, bugs, lizards. However, the people of the modern day times in the years spanning from the days of the civil war all the way to the 80s, they had never seen such a gigantic beast. The world had never seen a beast that stood 378 feet tall, and looked even bigger due to how bulky Gamera was. Human kind hadn't seen a beast of such proportions in thousands of years.
The last time humanity had seen a beast of such size, and godly stature, was in the middle ages, specifically the year 1410. A massive mountain on four legs, known as Titanus Methuselah, wiped an entire village off the map. The year 1410 would be the last time that humanity would see a goliath sized beast, all the way until 1988 when Gamera appeared.
Before Ken left the scene, he could've sworn he seen the eye of Gamera slowly look over at him within the ice prison that he was covered in. At the same time, Michaels was looking up at the head of Gamera. Even though he knew that Gamera couldn't understand human language, he still spoke words to him.
"Come on big guy, you've got a job to do. You're the protector of our human race, the guardian of the Earth. That rainbow sprouting lizard doesn't have shit on you, he's a chump! A damn chump! I bet he shoots cabbage patch kids out of his asshole."
Then, from within the mouth of Gamera, an orange glow could be seen. The ice and frost covering his body began to melt quicker, at a rapid rate in which could be clearly seen. His eyes started looking all around, he started to wiggle his fingers and move his arms around. The beast was no longer frozen, or trying to break free of his frozen stupor.
"Seismic records are growing!" A nearby seismologist warned, the military brought seismologists along with them in order to detect the arrival of Barugon, and the seismic readings were spiking off the charts.
"That son of a bitch is here.." Michaels said, then looking at possible places to retreat to if Barugon came their way. He decided to choose a large parking garage not too far away, the deputy could only hope that the two goliaths would not destroy it during their fight, it would also provide a good look of the action.
The military got into a safe location from which they could fire upon both beasts, they were closer than the seismologists and the Monarch officials. The ground continued to shake harder and harder, cars and trucks rattled violently.
"I think we should go towards the city, it isn't too far, but it is far enough to stay at a close distance away from these two monsters." James said, a slight hint of fear in his voice, Michaels objected and wanted to stay behind.
"No, I want to see Gamera fuck Barugon up." Michaels said with a smug grin on his face, as he seen Gamera snarling at something, the titanic snapping turtle had sensed something terrible coming towards him.
After a few more intense seconds passed by, Barugon burst through the runway once more, coming out of the hole he had previously left behind. Gamera let out his loud howl of a roar, echoing across the skies. Barugon knew that Gamera's weakness was freezing cold, and he would use it as frequently as possible, this time, he had come to kill Gamera.
Gamera slammed his huge arms down onto the ground, shaking the whole area as he began to move around to shake off more of the frost on his body. Barugon made a rather slow approach, slowly opening his mouth and his tongue shot out, the tongue began to emit freezing mist. Gamera was smart this time, and tucked his head and limbs into his massive shell. The large shell sat still for a moment before large blue flames jetted out of the four holes on its sides. This caused the shell to spin around quickly, and it slowly rose into the air with a baffled Barugon watching on. The shell then flew off from where it once sat at.
Barugon growled at the shell as it flew away from striking distance, it headed towards the mountains. The military fired upon the rainbow lizard, the bullets and shells only pestered Barugon, they did nothing to him. With a single swipe, he sent the tanks, foot soldiers, and military grade trucks flying. A soldier carrying an RPG, ran behind a large bush after firing a rocket right up to Barugon's face. Barugon shook his head in annoyance, and then shot his chameleon like tongue out at the soldier, it grabbed the soldier and dragged him into the mouth.
A few fighter jets swooped in, firing rockets at Barugon, each tiny missile exploding on impact. Barugon let out a loud growl, these futile attempts to kill him was starting to piss him off. He was able to swat one of the fighter jets out of the air, the other three were able to get away in time. Barugon turned around to face where the jets were heading, they were flying towards the same direction that Gamera went, to the mountains. A few more fighter jets came in, and dropped bombs down upon his back. The bombs did nothing, but only crack the seven spines running down his back. Barugon felt a slight sting due to how his spines were cracked, but this only angered him more, the gigantic lizard slowly turned to face the bomber jets flying away, towards the city of Charlotte.
From where Michaels stood with James, they could see the skyscrapers of Charlotte, they noticed that Barugon was headed for Charlotte.
"Oh no, he can't be allowed to head over that way. He'll destroy many more lives than he already has." Michaels said in shock, he looked over at James.
"I don't know what to do, there is nothing that can stop Barugon now."
(Cherokee)
The day continued to go on, around two hours had passed since Barugon took his leave for the city of Charlotte. The survivors had all woken up, all remained in the same spot, all had given up on life, all were waiting to die a slow and painful death of starvation and dehydration.
Deputy Duke, another good friend to Robertson, slowly looked over at his former sheriff with a hopeless look in his eyes.
"Robertson, it has been an honor to have been one of your best friends with Michaels. I wish he was up here with us though, but I hope he is taking care of himself down there. I enjoyed service with you during our time as deputies and your short time as sheriff, God bless you."
Robertson nodded his head to Duke, then he heard a loud humming noise from somewhere close by. Everyone looked around to see what was going on, the sheriff slowly drew his pistol out from the holster.
The humming got louder, and louder. A dark shadow then cast itself over the survivors, the trees viciously shaking in the wind, some blowing over. Then four bright lights were seen, the flying object slowly landed on the cliffside in which the survivors were awaiting death. The massive object seemed to be a gigantic snapping turtle shell..
The shell slowly sank beneath the horizon of the cliffside, after a few seconds went by, a large snapping turtle head began to rise from the cliffside. Arms began to sprout from the holes on the shell, Gamera slowly poked his head through the tree, to gaze upon the survivors. Some children clung to the adults out of fear, the gigantic snapping turtle let out a loud gust of air through his nostrils, almost knocking some people over. Robertson looked shocked at what he was seeing, the flying object was the shell of Gamera, it had all been revealed to Robertson at last.
Gamera's pupils were seen slowly dilating at the sight of humans, the beast seen that these people were suffering, Gamera could tell that these humans lost hope by the looks on their faces, their eyes completely devoid of emotion and joy. He had seen the massive landslide and the destruction that Barugon had caused, this deeply angered him. A snarling expression came upon the face of Gamera, though he wasn't angry at the humans, he was angry at Barugon.
The titanic turtle slowly placed his hand onto the mountain side road, his eyes looking at his hand. Robertson ushered the survivors to get on Gamera's hand, and he too climbed aboard. Their prayers had been answered, Gamera was the answer..
