Chapter 4

Old Wounds

Vincent Martin laid in a cot in his private quarters. He was sleeping. Given his long day, the rest was much needed.

In a dream he was having, he recalled a memory from his early childhood. He remembered that he had almost drowned as a child when he was four. His parents had brought him along for a walk along the beach.

Vincent's parents, only eighteen and twenty years old at the time, had sat down at a bench and were not paying attention to little Vincent who was attempting to see how far he could swim.

The sun was setting and it was getting dark. The wind picked up and the waves got higher.

Then he didn't see his mother or father back on the shore. He tried screaming in desperation. His arms soon became too tired to keep his body above the water. The feeling of salt water invading his lungs would be so traumatic that he wouldn't learn to swim until his later teens.

Little Vincent awoke (spitting up sea water) on the shore with his father kneeling over him.

A deafening clap of thunder rippled through the black sky.

His parents vanished into mist. The sand became damper. Then the sand turned into water. Vincent took in a gasp of air before sinking.

The waves rose and fell in a violently choppy manner. Vincent surfaced from under the waves and struggled to stay afloat in the mayhem.

He didn't know what was going on. Just a second ago, he was on the shore with his parents. Then was back to drowning without explanation.

He saw a glowing blue light in the distance. It was the same powerful light from the island he had seen before. He was sure of that. But he wasn't sure of the island it was emanating from. He had difficulty making it out, but he knew it looked different from before. The waves calmed down enough for Vincent to see the island.

Vincent shuttered in horrific realization. He recognized the island. It was Manhattan.

"Vinnie!" a teenage girl cried out.

He instantly recognized it as the voice of his little sister, Taylor. It was coming from the island.

He could hear it as if she was right in front of him, but it was coming from the island of Manhattan in the distance.

"Vinnie, help!" Taylor cried again.

He could hear the tears of fear in her voice. She continued to cry frantically as a loud booming seemed to be moving closer and closer to her.

Vincent was swimming as fast as he could. It felt like there was more rain in the air than their was breathable oxygen as Vincent inhaled after each stroke. His arms and legs burned with exhaustion in the frigid water.

Then Vincent heard Taylor's blood curdling scream as the blue light erupted into a blinding explosion.

Vincent fell through the ocean like it was air. Everything was as black as he could imagine.

Down from the depths, a faint laughing could be heard. As he fell further, the laughter morphed into a horrible, inhuman cackle.

Piercing from the deepness appeared a pair, then two pairs, then three pairs of glowing red eyes holding maliciousness. The hellish glow from the eyes had soon conquered the blackness. Vincent's became disoriented while shielding his eyes.

From the deepness, Vincent heard "Zero..." from the hideous mouth that had made the cackle.

Then, beneath the center pair of red eyes, something was glowing. It was a golden glow. As the light grew brighter, a shape took form. Vincent recognised the shape. It was a floris de lis emblem burning in gold.

The hideous cackle rang louder than before. Vincent saw the three pairs of eyes coming down on his.

Vincent woke up beaded with sweat. He had never had a dream that horrendous.

A knock on the door was what woke Vincent up. He reluctantly got off the very comfortable cot to open the door.

It was a crewman. "Dr. Martin," the young crewman said, "the captain would like to see you in the conference room. We'll be arriving at G-Force Base soon, so please hurry."

"Why?" Vincent demanded.

"I'm unaware, sir. Captain Williams and Admiral Aso have ordered me to escort you to the conference room."

"Fine, I'll be out in a minute." Vincent closed the door and went to the bathroom to wash up.

Vincent, Gordon, Yukie, and the handful of other Site-G catastrophe survivors sat at a smooth round table.

Yukie was wondering if the rest of the world knew of the return of Godzilla, or if this was all still a secret that they were now a part of.

Vincent was hoping for answers. He wanted to know why Godzilla had decided to awaken now. He had a feeling that they knew something, and he wanted in.

Gordon was told that Admiral Aso would be present. He was thinking of all the questions he wanted to ask about the Gotengo II.

Admiral Aso and Captain Williams entered the conference room.

The soldiers who were standing around the room saluted.

"At ease, men," Aso ordered.

The men lowered their arms.

"You are all dismissed," Aso told the men.

They left room.

"Private Gordon," Admiral Aso acknowledged, "Good to soon you again."

"You as well, sir!" Gordon replied and saluted.

"First, ladies and gentlemen, I'm glad to see you all alive," Aso said. "I hope you're all aware of how vital you are all are right now. With your help, our goal is to make damn sure we never have another 1956 or 1985. And you have my full support in your research," he turned to Captain Williams, "Take the floor, Captain."

"Yes, Sir," Williams began. "As you all know, your subject G escaped from your research facility at 0900 hours and twelve minutes today. After that, at 1100 hours and five minutes, the first naval and army units arrived at the shore and encountered the subject."

Williams tapped a few keys on a laptop. A projector turned on and displayed his screen. A video began to play. It was from the point of view of one of the battleships as Godzilla approached the Antarctic shore.

Vincent's blood went cold at the sight. A bit of fear struck everyone in the room as they looked into the shadows under Godzilla's heavy brow.

"Here, if you look closely, the subject can be seen holding a creature roughly a third the size of itself. Crewmen with binoculars claimed that the smaller creature resembled Subject G. The status of the smaller creature is unknown. The subject was seen carrying it out to sea."

"Another one," Vincent said. "A second Godzilla."

"That's what we want you and your team to determine, Doctor," Williams said. "And if this really is a young Godzilla, it can be assumed that it's the third, or fourth, or one hundredth for all we know. The game has changed! We may not be dealing with just one giant monster anymore."

Vincent thought back. He remembered the giant footprints in the snow.

"The footprints," Vincent said, "did you see them?"

"What about them?"

"There were three pairs of footprints not far from the coast. One pair was Godzilla's, one pair looked like they could have been from this smaller creature, but the third looked completely different. And it looked like there was some sort of conflict."

"Thank you, Doctor," Williams said. "Moving on. At approximately 1600 hours today a commercial cruise liner was attacked by the subject."

Yukie along with a few others gasped.

"We know this," Williams tapped on his laptop and brought up an American news program, "because it's all over the goddamn news."

The headline read "CLAIMS OF GODZILLA ATTACK!!" The program was playing footage of interviews with survivors of the El Relajar. The survivors were speaking as English dubbing played over them.

"It was Godzilla," the dubbed survivor said. "I've never been more sure of anything in my life! He was like a mountain that rose from the sea! He exhaled blue fire and everything!"

Williams muted the news segment.

"As of now, you are to speak with no one without proper approval. We can't risk any information you gather getting misconstrued. You'll make public announcements when told to. Does everyone understand?"

The people shook their heads affirmatively.

"The next few hours are pivotal, people. Once we reach the UNGCC base in Tokyo, you will be given everything you need."

Once no one had anymore questions, Admiral Aso dismissed the scientists.

Later that afternoon, Admiral Aso sat at his desk in his private quarters aboard the Gotengo II.

In front of him was a foot long model of the Gotengo I.

He held in in his hands and reminisced about its hallways and control room. He would have liked to have walked through it again.

It was he who commanded that airship, making him the world's first airship captain. He and everyone responsible for building the ultimate war ship were so confident in it that Aso and his ship were dispatched immediately to confront Godzilla when he suddenly appeared in 2000.

The battle only lasted a few moments when Godzilla had an iron grip on the ship. Aso ended the struggle by ordering his men to fire missiles at a nearby mountain. The ensuing avalanche allowed the ship to escape and buried the monster in a deep crevasse.

Godzilla was left unconscious and the UN funded Research Site-G was then established.

Takaki Aso had a particular loathing towards Godzilla; a very personal loathing.

In 1956, the young Takaki was separated from his parents in the midst of Godzilla's first assault on mankind.

It was 1956, Tokyo.

Takaki was with his parents. They were in the middle of an enormous crowd heading out of the city. The prime minister had ordered an evacuation of the entire city of Tokyo. Nobody was positive why.

Takaki lived only about a mile from Tokyo Bay, so it would take him a while to get out of the city. The massive crowd of people just slowed them down even more.

Around dusk, the military had hastened the evacuation. Everybody was walking faster. People were crammed against each other for over a mile.

That was when Takaki was separated from his parents. Takaki's parents held each of his hands; mother on the left, father on the right. The people in the crowd seemed to be getting crammed tighter every minute, they took up every available inch. It wasn't long until the panicking people were forced in between Takaki and his parents. First his father disappears into the crowd, then his mother was also torn away from his hand. Takaki was forced against his will to walk forward as he frantically looked around for his mother and father.

Takaki was all alone now, that was the last time he would ever see his parents.

Machine guns were being fired in the distance at the shore of Tokyo Bay. Every man, woman, and child turned their heads around in silence. They thought: "Are those guns? Who is shooting? Who is being shot at? Are we being invaded?"

A voice (in Japanese) called out through the loudspeakers that rose high above the crowd, "Attention... due to recent events, the lack of vehicles, and the overall progress of the evacuation, the remaining citizens must evacuate the city on foot." There were still thousands of people in the city.

Not five seconds later, a hellish roar exploded from the bay. It was a roar that would haunt Takaki for the rest of his nights.

Every single head in the street shot around again in shock. More gunfire could be heard along with the sounds of mayhem and destruction.

The lights of many fires alighted off in distance.

Little Takaki was pushed, shoved, and knocked around as he could not keep up with the rest of the crazed people. He was mostly trying to stay up and not get trampled to death. His eyes were filled with panic as tears poured from them. "Where is my mother!" he thought. "Where are my parents!"

The large crowd soon broke up as the faster ones made there way ahead. There was much more elbow room now. The only people Takaki could see now were the elderly, the ill, and worst of all, children; abandoned children.

Takaki walked through the abandoned city of Tokyo. He had never felt more alone.

About an hour later, Takaki was still wandering the streets. He wasn't crying, because he had no more tears to cry. He showed no signs of sadness. He showed no sign if any emotion at all.

"Mother... mother... father," thought Takaki in a cold, emotionless tone. "Are they still hear? What if they left the city without me. What if they just couldn't find me, so they left me. Or maybe they're still hear, and maybe they're looking for me. I got lost before, and they found me. Maybe they will come up behind me, or from around that corner."

Takaki looked at the street corners, he looked behind him too. He thought he just might run into them. He just wanted them to come walking around that corner. Then he would run too them and they would embrace him. Then they would get out of this damned city together.

He continued to walk slowly towards the corner. He played the scenario of his parents coming around the corner over and over. But it wasn't what happened.

He backed up and leaned up against a wall, then slid to the ground. He started to weep, which soon broke out into a full cry.

"Mama!!!" , Takaki yelled through his choked throat, "Papa!!!" He continued to yell out for his parents until his throat was sore. He buried his face in his knees and continued to cry alone with no one to comfort him.

He shunned away the rest of the world around him. He didn't even notice that the earth was shaking at a steady rhythm beneath him, growing louder and stronger.

Takaki rose his head up out of his sorrow. Now he did feel the earth shake beneath his feet. "An earthquake?" he thought. "No, this is different, strange. Earthquakes don't act like this at all."

The ground quaked with a BOOM... BOOM... BOOM...!!!

It felt like the source was not too far away, maybe only two kilometers. Takaki looked up at the eastern sky, it was illuminated a fiery orange.

Despite being in the absence of the sun, the air was warm.

Sounds of chaos and destruction could be heard in the distance.

The orange sky, the warming air, the horrible sounds,... it was all getting closer to Takaki.

BOOM... BOOM... BOOM!!!

The natural instinct to run hit his knees and Takaki found himself sprinting. He was running the other way, away from the terror that was heading towards him. This was the fastest he had ever ran. He had never sprinted for so long. He could feel the muscles in his legs burning, but he continued to sprint. He ran as if the jaws of hell were after him.

The danger grew closer and closer with every passing step. Takaki could feel each BOOM as his feet touched the ground grow louder and stronger.

Takaki almost lost his balance a few times due to the violent shaking of the ground.

Then he was thrown completely off the ground by the BOOMING of the earth. The chaos was getting ever closer. He got back up and kept running.

Takaki had sprinted for almost three miles now. Running, running, running away from a threat yet to even be seen.

He couldn't run anymore. It was physically impossible. He stopped all at once and began to gasp heavily. The air was thick with ash and smoke, making it hard to even breathe normally.

He started to walk at a fast pace, still struggling for breath. He looked up and saw that he was outside the train station.

He decided to hide in a building. He was closer to the train station, so he made his way in there.

When Takaki got inside, he saw that it was deserted, like every other place on the streets.

Takaki walked slowly through the abandoned train station, looking for somewhere he thought would be a good place to take cover. His eyes then looked out the window.

In amazement and curiosity, he saw a train car crushed under what looked like a huge, dark, rocky column. Then the column rose up and stepped forward.

Takaki had realized what he was looking at. He looked up upon the thing that was responsible for the explosive sounds that had been chasing him and leaving countless dead in its fiery wake.

Takaki starred in awe as a one hundred and sixty-four foot tall dinosaur stood just a quarter mile away. It had three rows of enormous dorsal spines running down it's back. In its maw was a large train car, along with another in its left hand.

People were still inside. The people still inside the train car in its mouth were all screaming in terror. Some would jump out the windows to their death.

The beast dropped the train car that was in it's hand. The car plunged to the ground; it's passengers screaming all the way. It crashed to the ground killing most of the people inside, leaving a few alive to die later as they lay trapped, mortally wounded, and bloody in the twisted metal.

The monster, with the other car in it's mouth, began to crunch its jaws down on the car. The windows in the train car burst under the pressure. The people were more terrified than ever.

The monster then flung its head to one side as it released the train car. The train car went flying to the ground. As another train carrying over one hundred evacuees came riding along the tracks, the two collided. There was a massive explosion of fire and black smoke. There were no survivors.

The lumbering giant observed the small spectacle of fire, smoke, and death. It kept a stern, emotionless look. The monster opened its jaws half way and released a horrible growl.

The lights of the enormous fires danced in the creature's eyes.

The air everywhere made blurry waves in the extreme heat.

The monster took in a large breath of the warm air, then released it in a hellish roar. Almost every window of every building around the beast exploded.

Bits and pieces of sharp glass flew at Takaki. He shielded his face with his arms. Large and small cuts covered the front of Takaki. He also received a small cut on his cheek.

The giant monster began to walk forward, towards Takaki. Each step sounded like a bomb going off. Each step covered more than twenty feet.

"Hide or run? Hide or run?" The question slammed back and forth within Takaki's naive head. He had recovered some of his strength, along with his breath. He knew the building wouldn't be standing in less than a minute. He bolted out the door.

Once again, Takaki found himself running for his life. He could hear the hideous cries of the beast behind him.

By the time he was to the next block, Takaki heard a loud crashing sound. He glanced behind him to see the train station in ruins, and the monster walking through it as if it were nothing.

The monster kept walking through the street, the faces of buildings were being torn away by the monsters sides and tail.

Takaki forced himself to look straight ahead and to just keep running.

It was then that a strange, loud humming sound arose. It was the monster. It's back glowed white hot. A few seconds later, a huge stream of what looked like a superheated stream of steam shot high over Takaki's head. It collided into a group of buildings on the left side of the street. The hot mist was dragged over to the right side of the street, engulfing everything in a rising sea of fire.

By the time Takaki was at the next block, the monster was much closer. When he looked back, he was overcome with horror and amazement. The towering giant lumbered over Takaki. Takaki tripped and fell to the ground. He laid there in awe as the creature towered over him and cast a massive shadow.

Being a child, Takaki had not yet fully grasped the concept of death. He didn't know what exactly to think right then. "Am I going to die now?" Takaki thought with excruciating sadness "I want my mom, ... my dad!"

"Mama!!!", Takaki yelled in desperation.

The colossus halted its march as Takaki yelled out.

Takaki thought that it had heard him, and by calling for some kind of help was a very, very bad idea. The monster slowly lowered its head down. It was then that Takaki, a ten year old schoolboy, made direct eye contact with a monster that wished only for death and destruction.

Takaki gazed into the monster's eyes and could see nothing other than fiery rage, and all of it was focused on him.

Deep in Takaki's heart, his own fiery hatred kindled. He hated this damn creature that had taken his parents away. He wanted to somehow rise up against it and kill it.

Just then, the fiery hatred in Takaki's heart was violently extinguished as the giant monster let loose a deafening roar directly at Takaki. The boy was forced to the ground by the incredible power of the cry. In his mind, Takaki was thrown back to feeling nothing but fear and horror again.

Then the monster began to lower its head to the ground at Takaki. It's face was falling ever closer to Takaki. Takaki could see greater detail in the creature's eyes now. It kept it's strong, stern look all the while.

Takaki suddenly felt himself being lifted up from the ground. He soon realized he was being dragged along the ground by the arms. He looked up. A soldier was carrying him away. The man had look of horror on his face, not to Takaki's surprise. He looked back at the giant monster just as an explosive round collided with its head. It's attention to Takaki had vanished as it rose its head up and continued it's juggernaut march towards a group of tanks. The tanks kept firing.

Takaki passed out.

It was the next morning when he woke up.

He was greeted by a delicate looking young Japanese woman. She asked him if he was feeling better now. Takaki said he felt much better after his rest, though he only meant physically. She told him that the soldiers had brought him here.

Takaki asked who she was. She told him she was volunteering as a nurse at the hospital, her name was Emiko Yamane.