Chapter 4
Assessing the Radioactive Danger Levels
September 2nd, 2004, 8:45 A.M.
Pentagon, Washington D.C.
Martin's eyes shot open, and he sat up at his desk, with cold sweat rolling down his forehead. A folder with a radiation symbol on the front lay near the spot where he'd rested his head, with the words "Godzilla & Radiation Reports" written on the top.
He'd been working late, until he fell asleep well past midnight. And he'd been there, in 1954, watching Godzilla's attack Tokyo, just like his father. It felt too real, and Martin recalled the light of the flames, the screams of dying people, and the shadow of the titanic behemoth as he came closer...
The youthful secretary considered himself lucky that he was just dreaming, even though the events of the 1954 attack had happened.
A near-shaken Martin recalled the story his father told him, every graphic detail of Godzilla's rampage through the streets of Tokyo, and including how Martin's father was lucky enough to survive it.
"Hey, man. How about you go take a shower?" He heard Marv comment from nearby, "You look like shit."
"I'm okay..." Martin said to the Pentagon worker, "I'll be okay."
"Mr. Martin!" A general approached his desk with a file in his hand, "Get this report down to the Secretary of Defense on the double, Godzilla resurfaced near Taiwan yesterday, and the Geiger counters in our stealth planes managed to take a reading on his radiation levels!"
Martin stood and took the file from his superior's hand, "Understood, General Stewart."
He departed the room with the report, and Martin walked through the halls, where a couple of decorated military officers standing off in the corner were in the midst of a very grim discussion. "How many more ships and planes are we going to lose to this monster?" A colonel asked, "The Roosevelt has got to be the biggest disaster in history."
"I hear the top brass on the West Coast are making big preparations in the event Godzilla decides to attack our shores." A military secretary remarked, "San Francisco beach is packed with tanks and artillery fortifications, and word has it that super-powerful nuclear weapons may be ready to go."
"Damn, think of the fallout." Another colonel grunted.
"Lots of radiation, and we could be seeing the next Hiroshima and Nagasaki."
Martin turned, and continued through the hall until he was in the office of the Secretary of Defense, where he was greeted by Defense Secretary Brody Raddums and General M. Bernie. Martin nodded to the latter, and approached the former with the file in hand, "Here's the latest Godzilla report, sir."
"Thank you, Mr. Martin." Raddums took the file, and studied the report in a serious manner, "'Radiation levels are entering the red zone, more spikes have been detected in Godzilla's nuclear energy output. Radioactive fission starting to become unstable.' Says here that Gamera challenged Godzilla again, only to retreat when the latter inflicted damage upon him..."
"We've seen Godzilla and Gamera clashing across the Pacific over the last few years since Tokyo." General Bernie commented, "One of our military regents in Alaska reported last year that they battled on the northern islands, and Godzilla attempted to burry Gamera in the ice."
"However, Godzilla's increase in radioactive might be the top concern." Martin interjected.
"It is a major concern." Raddums said, "The president and the other military leaders must be informed, and our allies in the Japanese government and the JSDF should be alerted. We may be looking at a large-scale radioactive disaster in the making, the readout in the report indicates that Godzilla is a walking nuclear time bomb."
Martin's heart thumped intensely. Beforehand, he didn't think the situation with Godzilla would become more dangerous than ever. Now, from what the latest report had entailed, the world was about to witness the biggest nuclear explosion in history, and Godzilla was the bomb.