Chapter 24: A Miner Issue.
Marcus, Admiral Malek, and Sargent Brock continued to watch from their helicopter. They hovered above Godzilla, who was still lingering in the crater of the nuclear explosion. The monster was nearly finished absorbing the last remnants of radiation from around the blast zone. Godzilla didn't seem to notice his voyeurs. He was too engrossed with what he was doing. Marcus had never seen the monster so still before. The only sign of movement was coming from Godzilla's spines, which were flickering regularly and randomly with brilliant blue light, seemingly independent of the monster's direct control.
"Wow, look at the lightshow down there." Admiral Malek observed impressed.
"Do you think he is absorbing the radiation through his back plates?" Marcus asked, continuing to watch the flashes of light emanating from below.
"No idea, but the levels of radiation down there are nearly gone." Admiral Malek answered, looking to the readout of the nose-mounted Giger counter. "I'd say he's about done."
"Maybe we should get out of here before that happens?" Brock pointed out.
"The Sargent makes a good point." Admiral Malek acknowledged. "Marcus, put some distance between us and Godzilla, but stay within sight. I want to see which direction he goes when he leaves."
"Well, it sure was nice of Godzilla to clean up the mess for the Russians." Brock noted sarcastically, referring to the radioactive contamination.
"Everything comes with a cost Brock..." Marcus said ominously.
...
Meanwhile in Japan, Akira and Haruki were on the move themselves. They were riding up front in a military truck being driven back to their airbase. For a military vehicle, the seats weren't too uncomfortable. Akira was looking out the window at the countryside. Haruki had been talking nearly nonstop since the trip began, but Akira's mind was elsewhere. His thoughts were still lingering on Kiki. She had been above and beyond the perfect host for the wayward pilot in his hour of need. But maybe she was a little too good. Akira couldn't put his finger on it, but there was something very odd about the girl.
As suspicious as Akira found her though, in near equal measure, he was smitten with her. There was just something very alluring about Kiki. He had never met a girl like her before. On the surface, she appeared to be nothing more than a regular unassuming Japanese woman. Nothing remarkable. And yet, there was a mysterious aura about her, and it was pulling him in. Shewasvery attractive, and it was undeniable that he felt a physical attraction to her, but she had more going for her than just superficial sex appeal. It pulled at the edges of Akira's senses, teasing him. Suffice to say, she had left quite the impression on him.
"Hey Akira, are you listening?" Haruki asked.
"What…?" Akira turned his head towards his friend.
"I said… I'm kind of hungry." Haruki frowned at Akira, realizing the he really hadn't been listening to him. "The smell of that girl's kitchen put a spell on me too and the only way to lift it is to put some food in my stomach." Haruki smiled widely.
"I think we should just get back to base." Akira said dismissively. He was still well-fed from his earlier meal.
"Hey, that's not fair, you already got to eat!" Haruki countered. "Me and the boys have been out all day looking for you. I know this place at the next town that has great food. I know you got your fill already, but you could get some dessert while the rest of us get some late lunch." He opened the window behind them to talk to the troops riding in the back. "Hey guys, who votes that we stop for something to eat?"
"Yeahhhh…!" The soldiers yelled, raising their fists up in the air as one unified unit.
Akira didn't turn to look, but he could see their reaction in the mirror. It appeared that the vote was unanimous. He turned to Haruki, giving him the evil eye for starting a mutiny among the troops. Akira could see behind Haruki that even the driver was smiling at him in a sympathetic, 'yearning-for-beef', sort of way.
"We're not really expected back for a while yet anyways, and there are no monsters left in the area to worry about." Haruki reasoned.
"Alright fine. If it will keep you happy, we can stop." Akira surrendered. "At least it's not so far from the base." He added, seeing a road sign marking the distance to the town of Kitamatsu and the air base. "You are talking aboutKitamatsu, right?"
"I sure am." Haruki confirmed.
The next junction in the road brought them to the turnoff towards Kitamatsu. The town was only about five miles up the road, but the lane was full of twists and turns and the terrain got more and more rocky as they went. The road brought them into a mountain pass with the town settled into the surrounding valley. It quickly became apparent that Kitamatsu was a mining community that had sprung up around a large coal deposit. Industrial buildings were everywhere, and they passed equipment which bared the logo of the Mount Aso Mining Company.
"There it is." Haruki pointed out the restaurant to the truckdriver. The building in question looked pretty rustic, and it didn't give the impression of a place that would serve food. Akira gave Haruki an unimpressed glare. "Trust me, just give it a chance!" He assured Akira.
Once they had stopped, the troops piled out of the back and eagerly followed Haruki inside. Akira took his time bringing up the rear. Once he had entered the restaurant, he saw Haruki embracing a heavyset middle-aged woman who was the owner of the establishment. She had Haruki in what could only be described as a bearhug. She had him clear up off his feet.
"You've brought me more business my boy!" The woman said cheerfully, setting him down.
As it turned out, Haruki was originally from Kitamatsu, and the woman was his aunt. Haruki smiled like a weasel when Akira caught his eye. Once Haruki had said his hellos to everyone in the kitchen, he joined Akira and the rest of the men at two large tables they had pushed together.
"I know what you are thinking, but the food here is actually exceptional." Haruki promised Akira. "Once the men taste the cuisine here, they will be coming back for the rest of their lives. It's just that this place is a little off the beaten path if you are an outsider. You need a guide to help you find it." He winked.
Despite Akira's initial doubts, time proved Haruki to be as good as his word. The service was prompt, the food divine, and their waitress was very cute, which never hurt a restaurant's return business. Location aside, there was very little to complain about. Akira only tried a dessert himself, but it turned out to be a marvelous concoction. It was a fried funnel cake with cheesecake filling at its core. If he wasn't so full already, he would have ordered a second helping.
Haruki's group was having a great time, but Akira looked around and noticed that the overall mood in the restaurant was quite somber. It felt like they were having a party in the middle of a funeral. Haruki must have gotten a sense of something being wrong too. He snuck away from the table and was sitting at the bar talking to his aunt quietly. As Akira came up to them, she hushed him. Haruki turned to see Akira and then looked back to his aunt.
"It's ok, you can trust Akira, he's my very good friend." Haruki assured her. "This is my aunt Miyoko." Akira bowed politely. "Tell him what you were telling me." Miyoko eyed Akira for a moment, seeming to take the measure of him, and then bowed back.
"I was telling my nephew; you guys should leave town as soon as you can." Miyoko began. "There's trouble brewing here."
"Oh, what has been going on?" Akira asked.
"It started about three days ago." Miyoko began. "One of the coal miners supposedly went crazy and murdered one of the other men while on shift."
"Really…?!" Haruki asked stunned.
"Yes." Miyoko answered. "What happened, is the main shaft of the mine unexpectedly flooded, and so they had to evacuate it. The management running the Aso Company did a head count afterwards to make sure everyone got out okay, but they came up short by two men. When they sent a search party back inside to find them, they only found one of their bodies floating in the water. The body had been badly mutilated by some sort of edged weapon, so naturally, they suspected foul play. Dr. Suda, the local coroner, has yet to identify what the murder weapon was. The police were contacted and brought in to investigate. Through various interviews, they discovered that the two men, Yoshi and Goro, had gotten into a fight earlier in the day. The police suspect that was the motive for the murder. The two men had an ongoing history of animosity, and it wouldn't be the first time things got physical between the two of them. They think it just got out of hand in this instance."
"That's awful, did they ever find the suspect to question him?" Akira asked. "Which one was the suspected murderer?"
"That would be Goro, and no, they haven't found him yet." Miyoko answered. "A police officer, and two miners who were Goro's friends went in to look for him, but all three of them were killed while investigating the mines. Their bodies were recovered, and the wounds were identical to Yoshi's. Since then, they've posted guards at all of the mine's exits to wait Goro out. It's been two days, and he hasn't turned up yet. They think he is still held up in the mines somewhere, but no one knows for sure. I saw the bodies of the victims myself and the look of horror on their faces…" She paused, remembering. "I will never forget it. It was like they had seen a demon. Coal production has been at a dead halt because the company has suspended operations until Goro is found. Most of the workers are afraid to even go up to the mine. For some, it's because they think Goro is a murderer and still lurking in the tunnels, but others think something else is going on up there."
"What do you think is happening?" Haruki asked.
"I'm honestly not sure." Miyoko replied. "None of this makes much sense to me. Goro was my friend and a regular patron here. I can't see him doing what they said he did, but there just isn't any other reasonable explanation to what happened. I'll tell you this though, the longer this goes on, the angrier people are getting. The life blood of this town is the coal mine, and the workers can't get back in there until this is resolved. The town is dividing into two camps, those who are certain Goro is a killer, and those who aren't certain. It mostly boils down to folks who are the friends and family of both men."
"There's been two more murders!" A man came bursting into the restaurant shouting. "The guards up at the exit of the mine have been slain!"
"Are you certain Sato?!" Miyoko asked.
"Yeah, word is spreading all over town!" Sato replied. "Also, a little girl is missing! She was taken from town! They think Goro took her! Her window was smashed open!"
Just then, a big man came inside the restaurant and pushed past Sato, followed closely by two others.
"The time has come to pick a side Miyoko!" He said in a demanding tone. "No more sitting on the fence. It's gone too far now. The police aren't getting anything done. We're going to have to hunt him down ourselves."
"This is crazy Haruo." Haruki stepped forward, trying to reason with him. "I've known you since we were in school together. You're a reasonable guy. There's no proof Goro had anything to do with any of this."
"What do you know about it?!" Haruo said, refusing to listen to him. "You weren't here to see it for yourself!" He was getting more upset as he spoke. Haruki got closer and tried to reach out to touch his shoulder. Haruo exploded, punching Haruki right in the jaw.
Haruki went down, crashing into a section of empty chairs. The soldiers sitting back at the table saw what happened and immediately jumped up to defend Haruki. They tore across the room and overwhelmed Haruo, pushing him to the ground. Haruo's two friends did not join the brawl, recognizing they were outnumbered and outmatched. The soldiers surrounded Haruo on the ground, and then started to stomp the hell out of him with their boots, swearing at him all of the time.
"You dare to attack one of The Emperor's soldiers?!" Sargent Kasai asked. "Who do you think you are, peasant?" He kicked Haruo in the face, bloodying his nose and knocking him senseless. Once Haruo had been subdued, they pulled him from the ground and forced him onto his knees. Haruo was so dazed that he barely knew what was happening anymore. Kasai drew his katana and rested it against the back of Haruo's neck.
Kasai's family had a proud samurai heritage, and his sword had been passed down for generations from father to son. At that time, the average Japanese officer was carrying a sword provided by the Imperial Army that was mass produced in a factory, but Kasai's sword was the real deal. It was hundreds of years old. As such, he was an officer who strongly believed in honor and tradition. He took his service to The Emperor quite seriously. He felt that an attack on one of the Emperor's troops was the same as an attack on the Emperor himself. Kasai took a step to the side and positioned himself to strike off Haruo's head for his infraction. The situation had gotten far out of control. Akira finally recognized that if he didn't intervene, the situation was going to escalate even further.
"Wait, pull him up!" Akira ordered. Sargent Kasai and the other soldiers stopped, respecting Akira's rank, even without his uniform. They brought Haruo to his feet so that Akira could look him in the eyes. "That is a man you should be showing more respect to." Akira stepped in closer to Haruo, pointing down to Haruki on the ground. "He's fought actual monsters for you!" Akira brought his fist back and then backhanded Haruo stiffly on the jaw. His head snapped back from the force. The impact hurt Akira's knuckles, but he had to pretend it didn't to maintain control of the situation. Akira didn't like being so heavy handed with a civilian, but there was method to his madness. His own cruelty would satisfy his soldiers' need for retribution, as well as serve another purpose.
"Akira, take it easy on him!" Haruki said, getting up from the ground with some help from his aunt. "He's just upset. Please, let it go."
"Very well…" Akira stiffened his back and then turned toward Haruki. "But it had better not happen again!" Akira warned. The soldiers pushed Haruo back to his friends, who caught him and practically had to carry him out of the restaurant.
A moment after they had gone, a police officer wandered in from the outside. Akira spotted him and kicked himself for hitting Haruo so openly. The last thing he wanted was trouble with the local law enforcement. But to his surprise, the officer bowed to Akira before saying anything to him.
"Sir, we are in desperate need of help." The officer began. "You can see the situation unfolding around us. This town was a powder keg waiting to go up before the girl went missing. Now that she's gone, we are on the verge of anarchy. Two of my own men are dead already, the girl's parents are beside themselves, and I can't keep the peace on my own anymore. A show of force from the military would go a long way to keeping order."
Akira stood there surprised by the request. He thought for a moment, staring at the officer. Finally, after due consideration, he made up his mind. Akira turned to Sargent Kasai.
"Go to the truck and break out the guns." Akira ordered. "Haruki, call the base and tell them to send as many men as they can." Akira then paused, getting a very odd feeling. "Also Haruki, tell them to bring any heavy weapons they have at their disposal."
...
In Russia, Sargent Dimitri and his men were huddled together trying to stay warm in the net below the helicopter. Their lives were not in danger from the cold, but their comfort was a long-lost cause.
Zev was sitting in front of Dimitri and kept leaning to look back behind the helicopter. Dimitri stared daggers at Zev each time he did, as if it were inviting trouble. They had already gotten lucky once. One of the Rodans had been so close to them when they first took off with the egg. Unbelievably, the monster passed on through without even noticing them. Dimitri was afraid that if Zev kept looking back long enough, eventually he'd see one of the Rodans bringing the swift hand of revenge upon them.
The helicopter was so close to the base now. Dimitri recognized landmarks on the ground as they passed over them. He was more than a little surprised that they had gotten so far totally unmolested. Perhaps command had arranged for another radio-transmitted distraction for the Rodans? Whatever the reason, Dimitri couldn't believe their good fortune so far. He hoped it would hold for just a little while longer.
Relief was at hand. The helicopter had reached the Soviet base they'd departed from just days earlier. The landing strip was alive with activity. An odd vehicle caught Dimitri's eye as it rolled up into position under them. It was a semi-truck with a peculiar device built into the back end of it which resembled a giant outstretched claw.
The helicopter's pilot was maneuvering them right towards it. The claws were made out of metal but were padded on the inside. It became clear to Dimitri that its function was to hold and carry the giant egg while it was being transported off the base. It made sense. Once the Rodan's were back on the prowl again, nothing in the sky would be safe. A vehicle on the ground would have much less of a chance of being noticed.
The helicopter hovered above the truck and slowly started to lower its cargo down. Men on the ground were directing the pilot, but it was not an easy job regardless. One slip up, and the egg might come crashing to the ground. Dimitri wouldn't mind that so much as long as he wasn't along for the ride too. To him, the egg had already served its purpose. It had been his ticket out of the woods, and he didn't much care for what happened to it now.
The egg settled into the grasp of the claws. The metal fingers began to close around the egg once it touched a sensor at the bottom of the truck bed. With the egg settled in place, Dimitri and his men began to climb down the net. Their ordeal finally seemed to be over.
…
Akira put on an Army helmet and pinned his captain's insignia to his collar to identify himself as a soldier in civilian clothing. After that, he marched down the main street to the town center with his squad of soldiers, ensuring that the local residents got a good look at them along the way. The soldiers were mostly armed with standard issue rifles, but they did have one heavy machine gun at their disposal. Upon their arrival, Akira stood up on an elevated concrete slab to address a crowd that was gathering there.
"I am Captain Akira Saegusa of the Imperial Army Air Corps." Akira began. "I am aware of your troubles, and I have come to help you. The first thing I want you to do is recognize that we are going to approach this problem together as a community. We must stand united if we are to succeed. The second thing we are going to do is get organized. I want every able-bodied man who doesn't have a family to join us here in the square in the next twenty minutes. Those of you who do have wives or children, go home, arm yourselves as best you can, and spread the word to your neighbors."
"Our goals will be threefold:" Akira continued. "First, we will find the missing girl. Second, we will find and detain Goro for questioning. I want him taken alive. He is to be presumed innocent at this time. Lethal force will only be acceptable in cases of self-defense. I know there is a lot of confusion and disagreement in regard to Goro's character at this point, but let's give him the benefit of the doubt. We are going to get to the bottom of this. If he is guilty, he will be punished accordingly. And that brings us to our third goal, if Goro is not behind the slayings, we are going to determine what is, and then stop it. Whoever or whatever is out there has been proven to be extremely dangerous. Five men are already dead. I don't want to see any more, so we are going to approach this cautiously."
"We will break into three groups and methodically sweep through the village house by house." Akira explained. "Each group will be accompanied by several soldiers. I have requested additional support from the nearby airbase. More troops will hopefully arrive within the next hour and a half. If we don't find what we are looking for here in town, then we will converge on the mine to investigate there with the additional firepower of our backup. That is all. Arm yourselves and meet back here promptly."
…
By the time all the men had arrived at the town square, it was already starting to get dark. Fortunately, flashlights and lanterns were plentiful as Kitamatsu was a mining town. Many of the residents even wore their miners' helmets which had lights built directly into them. The darkness would only prove to be aminorinconvenience. The townsfolk didn't have any firearms, but they did have plenty of pickaxes and shovels. The officers who made up the remnants of the town's police force were armed with pistols. The lead officer, named Akio, even gave Akira his spare gun. Akira made sure to spread the police out evenly between the three groups to ensure their firepower and authority was best utilized.
Altogether, over forty miners had come to take part in the search. Nearly all of the young men who hadn't settled down yet elected to join them. Even Haruo turned up with his two friends. Akira wanted to keep an eye on them, so he ensured they ended up in his own group.
Akira had ten professional soldiers to work with, plus himself and Haruki. Akira formed the main group around himself. He kept the heavy machine gunner with him. They were to search the center of town and would be able to move to support either of the other groups if it became necessary. The other two groups were assigned four soldiers each. If Goro was the killer, he would not be able to stand against four well-trained men with rifles all at once. Between the miners, soldiers, and police, each group had about twenty men in their party. All three groups were given a signal flare should they need to call in support from the others.
After getting organized, the men fanned out and started to comb the town block by block. Akira led his group to the south end of town and commenced the hunt. The first ten minutes went by pretty uneventfully. There were no signs of trouble. Each house they came to was cleared one by one without incident. The first thing Akira found that was even remotely out of the ordinary was one family reporting that their dog was missing. It didn't exactly set off any alarm bells.
"What would Goro want with a dog?" Akira asked.
"Maybe he just wants some company up at the mine?" Haruki mused.
"Now is not the time to be funny." Akira replied sourly. "I'm sure it just ran away or something. Dogs do that sometimes."
The streets of the village were eerily empty and quiet. Families who had stayed in their homes put out decorative lamps to help the search teams find their way in the darkness. Some of them were quite intricate in their design. It was an odd contrast of beauty, given the unpleasant business they were attending to that night. Anyone coming in from the outside might think a town festival was going on.
As Akira and Haruki continued to patrol the streets from the front of their column, they spotted something that looked out of place up ahead of them. As they got closer, they found that a fence had been smashed over. It almost looked as though a car had been driven through it. Akira called up one of the townsfolk and pointed it out to them, inquiring if it had been that way prior to their arrival. The man informed them that it wasn't. Whatever had caused the damage, it had done-so that very evening.
The rest of the group crowded around the scene, not sure what to make of it. It didn't seem likely that Goro would make his trail quite so easy to follow if he wanted to avoid detection. Maybe he had stolen a car while everyone had been distracted? If Goro wasn't used to driving a motor vehicle, he might have lost control in his haste to get away. The group looked around for tire marks to discover which direction he might have gone, but there weren't any to be found. Akira and Haruki exchanged concerned glances.
After a few more minutes of looking around, Akira decided they needed to move on. As the group got back on to the main road, there was a noise in the long grass ahead of them. Flashlights gleamed over to identify where the sound had originated from. The sudden whoosh they all heard could easily have been made by a man running past them. Something was moving in the darkness, just beyond the light of their flashlights. A dark form darted into a nearby bush to avoid being overtaken by the beams of their searchlights. The soldiers rushed forward with their rifles, taking aim while the miners formed a perimeter with their flashlights and shovels, closing in on the bush from the flanks.
"Goro, if that is you in there, come out with your hands up!" Akira commanded in a calm, yet firm voice. "Drop any weapons you are carrying and surrender!" There was no response.
After a second, the leaves of the bush shifted slightly, and a head popped out from inside it. The face was small, furry, and had black patches around its beady eyes. It had a black nose and brown ears poking out of the top of its head. All around, there was a sense of disappointment.
"Is that a god-damned Raccoon?!" Akira groaned with disgust. He could have sworn the small animal was smiling at him. The raccoon was actually kind of cute, but Akira would never say it in front of the other men. The soldiers put their rifles to rest, and the group turned away from the furry distraction.
The search continued building by building until the group had made it to the far side of town. The last place that needed to be checked before reaching the outskirts of the mining complex itself was a bar which was aptly named: 'We Serve Miners.' Akira and Haruki went in ahead of the rest of the group to check it out.
After passing the threshold, the pair stopped dead in their tracks. They could not have anticipated the horrific scene they found waiting inside for them. They had walked into the aftermath of a massacre. There were no less than four bodies in the bar, though some of them were so badly dismembered, it was hard to tell what body parts belong to who. There could have been as many as five victims.
"Holy shit…" Haruki whispered. His blood turned cold. His breathing became unsteady as the reality of what he was seeing began to hit him.
"What the hell happened in here?!" Akira asked alarmed. He brought his pistol up, darting it around the room looking for a target. His hand was shaking as adrenaline started pumping through his system. The scent of the freshly spilled blood hung heavily in the air. It hit Akira's senses like a rogue wave. His heart was pounding. He noticed that the back wall of the bar had been broken through, not unlike the fence from earlier. "I don't like this… I don't like this a lot." Akira's voice trembled, but he kept his composure.
"What could have done this?!" Haruki asked, not daring to move. There was so much blood on the floor that neither man could step anywhere without walking in it. Haruki spotted an odd mark impressed into the blood. It was about the size of a foot, but it wasn't a shoeprint.
"I know that just one man couldn't have killed all these people." Akira said, not taking his eyes away from the massacre for an instant. "Not like this..." He eyed the badly mutilated bodies.
One of the miners walked into the bar behind Akira and Haruki to see what was taking so long and witnessed the grisly scene for himself. The man fell to his knees, unprepared for the raw carnage. He likely knew some of the slain men personally, though identifying them in the state they were in would be quite difficult at that moment. Akira finally lowered his pistol, satisfied that whatever had caused such devastation was no longer there.
"Stay with him, I'm going to go around the back and see what I can find." Akira instructed Haruki. Haruki did not argue, he was still too stunned to move anyways.
As Akira came outside, the cool night air was a welcome refresher. He signaled for the other men in the group to follow him. The soldiers could see the serious look on his face and knew something was wrong. Akira carefully made his way around the side of the bar with the other men in toe. He kept a sharp eye out for anything that shouldn't be there, his weapon still drawn.
Upon reaching the back of the building, Akira found debris from the bar outside in the grass, along with a trail of blood that led in the direction of the mine. Akira examined the edges of the hole, and found sharp cuts left in the wooden boards where something big had forced its way through the wall. What could do such a thing, he had no idea.
Akira saw the same bloody impressions that Haruki had seen earlier and struggled to identify what they were. They had to be from an animal of some sort. The markings almost resembled something a stag might leave behind. The bloody marks were hooflike, though distinct from anything Akira had ever seen before. One thing was for sure, it wasn't any deer that crashed through the wall and had killed four grown men. He turned to his soldiers.
"Check the rest of the perimeter and be very careful." Akira instructed them. "Nobody is to go anywhere alone. I don't know what we are dealing with, but it's more dangerous than we thought. Send two villagers to go find the other two groups. Tell them they need to rendezvous with us here. I want to wait for our military reinforcements to arrive before we take this any further."
"You scared, sir?" One of the soldiers asked, confused.
"You're damn right I am." Akira admitted. "We'd be stupid not to be." He saw that the miners were gathering around the gaping hole in the back of the bar and getting a good look at what was inside. "There's some sort of tracks in there, and they're not human."
"What are we going to do?" Haruki came back around from the front of the bar with the villager. Both of them were still pretty shaken up.
"We're going to get this situation under control." Akira answered firmly.
"Do you feel in control?" Haruki asked, his tone bordering on insubordination. "Look at that mess in there and tell me this is something we can control." He was obviously even more scared than Akira was. "Admit it, this is beyond what we can handle."
"There's nobody else right now…" Akira replied solemnly. "We just have to do what we can with what we got until real help arrives." He put a hand on Haruki's shoulder.
"Okay…" Haruki answered, trying to keep himself calm. "What do you want to do next?"
"I figure our next best move is to start moving back in the direction we came from and getting people out of their homes and away from the mine." Akira replied. "If we get all the civilians together on the far side of town, we should be able to keep them safe until our reinforcements arrive. That hopefully shouldn't be too long from now."
Akira and Haruki were both distracted by a noise off in the distance. It was a series of pops coming from the north, from the vicinity of the mine. The sound could only be one thing: rifles being fired. The whole group stopped what they were doing and listened. There were about fifteen shots in all. The frequency of the gunfire diminished as time went by. Finally, they stopped altogether. There was only quiet as Akira's squad stood there listening and waiting to see what would happen next. No one was quite sure what to make of the incident. After a moment, a light shot up into the sky. It was a red flare.
"Damn… the right-flank boys must have gone up there without the rest of us!" Akira guessed. They would have been the closest group to the mine at the end of their search.
"What do we do?" Haruki asked.
"Well, they've got to be in trouble if they launched a flare." Akira reasoned. "We need to get up there and try to support them. Have the villagers go to the far side of town as we discussed. I'm going to take the machine gun and the rest of the troops up there to see what we can do."
Most of the villagers agreed to follow Akira's orders and withdrew back into the village. However, a few of them were determined to press on and find out what was going on at the mine. Akira didn't argue, there wasn't time to debate the issue. If they wanted to do their part to fight for their community, he didn't have the right to stop them.
What remained of the group quickly made their way up the gravel path towards the mine. Akira led from the front, now wielding a flashlight that one of the locals had given up before retiring from the field. Akira could only guess at what they would find once they reached the top. He readied his pistol and kept a sharp eye out for any would-be threats.
Akira got a bad feeling as they rounded the last bend that would lead them to the main entrance of the mine. He signaled for the machine-gunner to stop and ready his weapon for combat. The soldier set up around the corner and then rolled out into position on the road, looking for targets. Akira jumped out behind him in a crouched position, gun drawn. He could see very little ahead of them in the darkness. There were some lights on the ground, most likely dropped by men of the first group when they were trying to flee their assailant during the firefight.
Akira motioned for the rest of his men to join them behind the machine gun. One by one, the men took up firing positions. They all waited to see if anything would come out of the darkness at them, but everything was still. Akira got impatient and ordered everyone to stay in their place while he scouted ahead to get a better look at what lay ahead of them. He kept to the side of the road, allowing his men to have a clear line of fire to cover him.
As Akira approached the main mine's entrance and got closer to the lights on the ground, he got a better picture of the scene that lay before him. There were seven bodies scattered around the area. Two of them were near the entrance of the mine and must have belonged to the guards who had been posted there by the local police. The other five bodies belonged to members of the first search group. Akira looked over each of them carefully. Two of them were soldiers, one of them was a police officer, and the final two were miners. There were empty shell casings everywhere. Akira got a feeling of dread. Despite getting plenty of rounds off, the men had still been massacred. Whatever killed them apparently was not afraid of getting hit by a hail of bullets on its way to them.
Suddenly, one of the men on the ground gasped for air. At least one of them was still alive. Akira turned and saw that it was one of his soldiers. He knelt down beside the man and looked over his wounds. The soldier had a deep gash in his left shoulder. The area around him was drenched in blood. Akira was amazed someone could lose that much blood and still be alive. Maybe if he could get the man some medical attention, he could be saved before he slipped into shock.
Akira heard a noise behind him. It sounded like a stick snapping. He half-expected Haruki to be walking up on him, but it wasn't Haruki. About thirty yards behind Akira, a large form emerged from the bushes. It was not a man. It was something the likes of which Akira had never seen before. It was a gigantic insect. The creature had large blue compound eyes, sharp pincers on each of its forelimbs, a dark brown armored carapace, and hungry looking mandibles. It had been stalking Akira slowly, but now that he had turned towards it, the creature rushed towards him with more speed than he would have thought possible for something its size. Akira's body and mind were at war with each other. His every instinct was telling him to run, but he didn't want to leave the wounded man behind.
"Get out of there!" A man's voice called to Akira from above. Several members of the first team had taken refuge on top of the nearby water tower.
Akira took aim with his pistol and rapidly fired off all six rounds he had at the oncoming threat. All but two of his shots ricocheted off of the insect's shell. The two bullets that did penetrate did not seem to bother the monster whatsoever. It was still charging full speed at him.
Again, Akira was back to the dilemma of having to abandon the helpless soldier. There was no time to think. Self-preservation won out in the end. Akira dropped his weapon and bolted away from the oncoming threat. He considered trying to get around the giant insect, and then lead it into the line of fire of his men, but there was no way to guarantee their firepower would be any more effective against it than his own was. He also wasn't sure he'd be able to maneuver around it in any case.
The monster didn't let up, and Akira soon found himself cornered. The gradient of the rockface that the mine was dug out from was far too steep for him to quickly climb up and he didn't like his chances of trying that. With the monster closing in, there was only one alternative way for him to go. Having no other choice, Akira ran into the mineshaft with the monster in hot pursuit.
The lighting inside the mine was actually better than it had been outside. The whole tunnel system was full of overhead lamps that were located about every twenty feet or so, and they had been left on. Akira looked back to see that he was still being chased. He had managed to put a little distance between himself and the monster, but it hadn't given up on him. Akira was clearly faster than the creature, but he didn't know where he was going. He could run into a dead-end at any moment. If he did, it wouldn't matter how much faster he was.
Akira wasn't watching his footing and tripped on the rail tracks that threaded throughout the entire mine. He stumbled forward, and nearly fell onto his face, but he managed to catch himself and stay on his feet. Right after recovering from that, Akira had to dodge around a rail car that connected to the tracks. The rail car was long and broken up into three sections. It had a tin roof and chains around the sides to keep people from falling out. It was meant to take large groups of miners further down into the tunnels all at once.
The creature following Akira had to go over the rail car. It was too big to simply go around it like Akira had. The process slowed the monster down even more. However, the racket from the flimsy metal being torn apart by the creature drained away any sense of optimism Akira might have gotten from it.
Akira spotted a sign indicating that the tunnel was going to branch off soon into several paths up ahead. He hoped that he had gotten far enough ahead of the monster to disappear down one of the tunnels and lose it. He identified one passage labeled as: Mine #8. That was Akira's lucky number, so he went for it.
Akira ran and ran. The tunnel was deeper than he thought possible. He started to think that if it kept going much further, he was going to run all the way to hell. As Akira raced down, he saw what looked like another branching tunnel that might take him back up, but it wasn't properly labeled. Akira couldn't risk stopping or even slowing down at that moment. The tunnels were full of the sounds of the monster pursuing him. With echoes all around him, it was impossible for Akira to tell where the monster was anymore. It sounded like it was still right behind him. He dared not slow down or look back again. If he were to trip and fall, that could be the end for him.
It was cold in the tunnels. Akira hadn't noticed it at first, but the temperature inside the mine must have dropped at least twenty degrees from the outside. He wished he was still wearing his heavy flight suit. Akira's footfalls echoed as he continued to run. He could see something up ahead in the tunnel. As he got close, he saw the tracks on the ground disappearing into a large pool of water that had flooded the bottom of the tunnel. He had reached the end of the line. There was nowhere else to go.
Akira came to an abrupt halt and considered the situation. There was no way to know what lay beneath the waterline. He didn't want to risk drowning checking it out. If he had lost the monster at the intersection like he'd hoped to, then he could just double-back and escape out the way he came. Akira peered up the tunnel, watching and listening. He could hear something echoing up in the tunnel behind him.
"Shit…" Akira whispered to himself, starting to panic. He turned off his flashlight to avoid drawing any more attention to himself.
Akira started to back himself into the water. If he hid under the water when the creature arrived, maybe he could conceal himself long enough for it to turn around. He didn't really have an alternative. If it was between being hacked to death or drowning, drowning seemed like the better option. The water was cold as it inched further and further up Akira's legs as he backed into it. Finally, Akira was up to his chin. He still kept his eyes on the tunnel ahead of him, watching as a shadow danced along the wall. The creature was closing in on him.
Akira was starting to wonder how long he would be able to hold his breath once the creature was close enough to spot him. He didn't like his odds. He was never a strong swimmer. Akira looked around to see if there was any other way he could get out of sight besides submerging. As luck would have it, the wooden support beams holding up the roof of the tunnel were thick enough for him to duck behind. It wasn't large enough to hide Akira's entire body, but if he kept most of his bulk under the waterline, he could still put his head behind it.
There wasn't enough time to consider another option. The monster was closing in fast. The water was about two meters deep. Akira got as far into it as he could, and then tucked himself into the back left corner. Once there, he stayed as still as he could. Any movement could put ripples on the water and give away his position. Akira tried to slow his breathing, but he was still trying to recover from running through the tunnel, and the cold water was starting to make him shiver as well. It also didn't help that he was scared. Down to his last option, and trapped, Akira just pray that the creature didn't find him.
Within moments, the monster had reached the end of the tunnel and stopped at the waterline. It stepped into the water, sending a ripple past Akira's hiding place. He eyed it, terrified. The creature took another step in, scanning the rockface and wooden panels. Its mandibles clicked together, echoing in the shaft in an unsettling way.
Step by step, the monster got closer until it was just three feet from where Akira was hiding. The monster paused and lingered there for several seconds. Akira didn't know what to do. He considered diving under the water and trying to swim around the creature to escape. Just as he was about to take flight, the monstrous insect shifted its weight and turned around. It stepped back out of the water and started to go back up the tunnel.
Akira could hear water dripping off of the monster as it sauntered away. He finally peeked around the edge of the support beam and saw the giant insect disappear around the corner. Akira let out a silent breath of relief. He had eluded danger for now. The only trouble was, he was still trapped down the tunnel, and the monster was blocking his only escape route.
Akira looked across from his hiding place and noticed something odd. There was a hole in the stone wall of the tunnel. It lay directly within the supporting framework, so it wasn't something the miners would have dug out, not if they were smart anyway. Akira made his way over to examine it more closely.
The hole was just above the waterline and was large enough for a man to crawl through. There was no way to know what lay on the other side of it, but Akira decided it was worth taking the risk. He pulled himself out of the water as quietly as he could, hoping the sound of water leaking off of his back wasn't loud enough for the monster to hear. He crawled through the opening and slipped inside. Once there, Akira couldn't see much, so he turned his flashlight back on. The passage was pretty tight. Akira had to dig a couple rocks out of his way to get by. A tiny stream of water trickled around him and poured into the pool behind him as he made his way forward.
After nearly twenty feet of crawling, Akira found an opening that led into another large chamber. There was a smaller pool of water on the other side, but this water was quite warm. It was like an underground hot spring. It felt great after he'd been in the cold water for so long. Akira wriggled into the pool and lay in there for a moment, allowing the water to warm his body back up again.
Within the pool in front of Akira, he saw an object sticking out of the water. At first, he assumed it was a rock, but as he took a better look at it with his flashlight, he realized it was too round to be a rock. Akira crawled up close and discovered it was an egg. The far side of it was broken open, indicating that something had hatched from it. Akira saw that there were other eggs too, but they were sitting outside the water on a ledge and remained intact.
Above Akira, he could see an opening where the water was leaking in. He went over to look at it, only to discover another large cavity in the far wall of the cave. It looked to be where the creature had forced its way through the rocks. On the other side of the breach, he found another connecting vein of the mine. Akira quickly put together that the warm spring water must have incubated the egg, allowing the creature inside to hatch. It was starting to become clear where the monster had come from. The miners had dug too deeply for their coal and disturbed an ancient nest of giant insects. They'd allowed warm water and oxygen into the egg chamber to rejuvenate them.
The cavern containing the eggs stretched further into the darkness, beyond what Akira could see, but he wasn't about to go exploring that way when there was an escape route that lay in front of him. He could find no reason to linger any longer. Akira stepped through the opening in the wall and started to walk through the newly discovered passageway.
It wasn't long before Akira discovered the body of a miner. The man had tried to defend himself with a shovel, but it had been snapped in two. He was still clinging on to the two pieces in death. Judging by his state of decay, he must have been there for a couple of days already. It had to be the body of Goro, the miner who everyone had placed the blame on. Instead of being the perpetrator, he was in fact the first victim. A sad bit of irony. His name could finally be cleared, though Akira was sure it would be of little comfort to him now. Akira closed Goro's lifeless eyes and then moved on.
Akira next came across an area where the miners stored some of their equipment. Most of the tools were pretty useless, but he did find four sticks of dynamite, a lighter, and some electrical tape. Akira taped the dynamite together and then pushed it down his shirt before putting the lighter in his pocket. No doubt, the explosives would come in handy, but what he'd really been hoping to find was a map of the tunnels. Akira had no idea where he was, or where he was going. He didn't want to run into any dead ends. One more mistake could mean death.
With no other alternative, Akira just kept moving through the tunnel which led upwards. He thought as long as he just kept going up, eventually the shaft would have to come out on the surface somewhere. However, the path flattened out and Akira arrived at a junction point of several tunnels. There were three to pick from. Akira looked down each of them but couldn't see far enough to decide where they were going.
Akira just stood there, trying to figure out which of the three passageways was the wiser choice, but none of them seemed any better than the others. Suddenly, he felt a twinge of dizziness and got an irresistible urge to take the left tunnel. Before he knew it, his feet were carrying him towards it. Akira felt oddly certain that it was the correct way to go now. As it turned out, it wasn't a moment too soon. The monster had come up and around from tunnel #8 behind Akira and had spotted him again. Akira saw the creature too and made a break for the left tunnel.
As Akira ran through it, the passage began to slope downwards. Akira cursed to himself; certain he was about to come to another dead end. Two hundred and fifty yards of tunnel later, that exact thing happened. He came upon the end of the vein. This time, there was no water to hide in, just a solid rockface staring back at him. Akira grabbed a loose support beam and prepared to make his final stand. If he was going to die, at least he was going to go out on his feet like a soldier.
The monster was once again closing in on him. Akira stepped forward to meet it, and then saw something he hadn't noticed while running through the tunnel before. There was an automated coal elevator built into the side of the wall. This particular vein of the mine was newer than some of the others and was still packed full with mineral ore. So much so, that the miners had installed the elevator to send bucket loads of coal to a higher level of the mine. If Akira could just turn the machine on, he would be able to ride it up and escape.
The monster was nearly upon him. Akira flung the wood support beam as hard as he could at the creature and then rushed towards the machine. He found a conspicuous green button to push, and the machine sprang to life. Akira looked up and judged that there would be enough space for him to fit between the apparatus and the rockface. The monster meanwhile had caught the plank and used its pincers to snap it in half. The distraction delayed the monster just long enough for Akira to jump onto the conveyer belt and ride a bucket out of the monster's grasp. It snipped at him just a second too late.
Akira quickly came up into a new floor of the mine. He looked down and saw the creature staring up at him. The opening was far too small for the monster to climb up after him. It cackled angrily below Akira, scraping its claws uselessly against the solid rockface. Akira pulled out the dynamite from his shirt, along with the lighter. He lit the fuse and then positioned the bundle to avoid getting caught by the buckets as they moved upwards.
"Eat this you dirty son of a bitch!" Akira dropped the dynamite down below, spit at the creature, and then ran away from the hole as fast as he could.
Akira found a path leading upwards and he immediately followed it. As he continued towards freedom, the dynamite detonated below him. The noise was much louder than he had anticipated, and it shook him up a bit. Still, Akira felt fortunate that the explosion was in the cavern below him. He tried to shrug off the shock of the blast and continued forward.
The new tunnel was a little smaller than the old one. Akira had to stoop-over while walking. It seemed as though this was also a newer area of the mine. The workers hadn't had enough time to dig it out as thoroughly as the other shafts. As Akira continued upwards, the tunnel grew larger, and he was finally able to stand upright again. His back was thankful for that. After walking for several minutes tilted, it was starting to tire out.
After walking for another couple of minutes, Akira heard a noise behind him. He turned to look and couldn't believe what he saw. There was another creature coming up in the tunnel behind him. Akira took off up the passageway, running as hard as he could. The new creature must have come through one of the smaller side-tunnels Akira had just passed. He had no idea there was more than one. Did this mean more than one egg had hatched? And if so, how many? Running upwards at an incline proved to be way more taxing on Akira than running down one. He didn't know how long he could keep it up.
'Which would you prefer to be, exhausted or dead?' Akira thought to himself, trying to keep his body going. The incline of the tunnel was becoming steeper, making it even harder on him. Akira's legs were on the verge of cramping up. Pretty soon, willpower alone wasn't going to keep him going. Akira's luck hadn't run out yet though. He spotted a long line of minecars parked up ahead of him and got an idea.
Akira ran around the row of cars, and then jumped on the end of them. He found the emergency break and released it. Once he had done that, the carts began to move on their own. They were very heavy, loaded down by a full load of coal that had been left aboard. The weight of the train immediately started to build momentum as it rolled down the steep incline. Akira turned on the light at the front of the cars and then jumped off of the back, letting nature take its course. The giant bug seemed to be attracted to the light. Akira hoped it would encourage the monster to stay directly in the path of the runaway carts.
Akira sat there watching from the ground as the creature finally appeared from down the tunnel. It was right in the middle of the tracks as he anticipated. The monster was still in full pursuit of him. The giant insect saw the carts coming at him but didn't register them as a threat. It was a mistake.
The line of minecars collided with the monster only moments later, smashing right into its face. The creature's body was heavy enough to derail the cars, but that only made the wreck that much more devastating. The creature's head was compressed and forced inside of its own body. The cart's momentum carried it up and over the monster's frame, cracking its exoskeleton and partially crushing it. Coal and debris flew all over the place, hurdling down the tunnel. The crash made a horrific racket.
Akira took the opportunity to stop and rest. He was satisfied that the creature was dead. There was zero movement to be seen down the passageway once everything had settled from the collision. Akira stood up and leaned against the side of the tunnel wall catching his breath. After a moment, he looked up the passageway and saw what looked like a loading station ahead of him. He had to be getting close to an exit now. With a sense of pride, he turned and started to walk back up the tunnel.
Suddenly, a claw shot out from the wall and caught Akira's left shoulder. He experienced sharp pain as it clenched onto him. Akira looked over and saw yet another creature had reached out from a closed off section of the mine. A wood plank was wedged between its pincers and was preventing it from entirely closing around him. Still, the creature had a hold of him, and it hurt. Akira struggled against the creature's grip. He saw a pickaxe leaning up against the wall within his reach. He grabbed the tool and used it to pry open the claw just enough to free himself.
Akira slipped out of the monster's grasp and inspected his wounds. Blood was pouring out from both sides of his shoulder. It didn't seem to have broken any of his bones though. He could still move just fine. Akira got angry and pulled back with the pickaxe. He swung it wildly at the monster's exposed pincer. The shot landed right at the base of the claw where the two sections met at the joint. The ax penetrated the armored shell of the giant insect and embedded itself down deep into the flesh below.
The creature screeched in pain and pulled the ax back through the opening, snapping off most of the handle. Akira got a sick sense of satisfaction. His victory was short-lived though. The monster used its mandibles to pull out the pickax and then used its good claw to smash through one of the wood planks blocking its way. After that, it started to tear its way through the barrier bit by bit.
At that point, Akira knew well enough to get the hell out of dodge while he still could. He was out of tricks and weapons. The creature's one good claw was still more than enough to finish him off once it could get to him. Akira made his way towards the exit on his aching legs, hoping that it wouldn't be too much further. He could hear the monster shattering the last few boards and forcing its way through the barrier behind him.
Akira came into a dressing room for the miners where they could change in and out of their regular clothes into their uniforms. There were tan jumpsuits hanging above him on hooks attached to pull-chains which would lower them down. There must have been at least fifty of them hanging above him. In the poor lighting, Akira thought they looked like phantoms watching him struggle to escape. The monster meanwhile was approaching from behind.
Akira turned and saw it closing in on him. Out of desperation, he pulled on one of the chains. The suit came plummeting down and surprised the creature. The monster thought it was another man and attacked the clothing, stabbing through it with its pincer. Akira pulled more and more of the chains around him, confusing the monster even further. It couldn't seem to distinguish Akira from the clothing. Every time the monster struck one of the jumpsuits, it only made them swing on their line and increased the movement of things around it, adding to the confusion.
Akira used the opportunity to retreat, triggering more suits to fall to cover his escape. Akira went into the adjacent area and found himself in a locker room with a shower. He considered turning on the water to confuse the monster even more, but the hanging jumpsuits seemed to be doing a good enough job of that already. It might backfire if he tried something else. Instead, Akira continued to make his way out of the tunnel. He knew he had to be very near the exit if there were showers and changing rooms.
Akira spotted a first-aid kit hanging on the wall and snatched it up as he went. He was still bleeding from his shoulder wounds. Once he had left the locker room, he finally found the opening to the outside. Akira stepped into the night air and freedom. He saw an office building not far from the mine entrance and started towards it. From there, he could hide and patch himself up in relative safety.
The office was unlocked, and Akira discovered that it was at least in part a drafting room for one of the mine's engineers. He slumped over, leaning his back on a desk. Akira pulled off his blood-soaked shirt and threw the garment aside. Then he took out a roll of gauze from the first aid kit and got to work. He wrapped it around his wounds the best he could. As he did, he could hear the angry shriek of the monster coming out of the mine after him. Akira retreated to the backend of the office and hid himself under a desk.
For a time, there was only quiet as Akira crouched under the table, but then the monster smashed its way through the wall of the office. Akira jumped in surprise from the sudden impact. He was panicked. How did the monster know where he was? Akira peeked out from his desk and saw that the creature had found its way to the corner where he left his shirt.
'It can smell blood?' Akira thought bitterly, starting to back away and then looked for a way out of the office. As luck would have it, there was a rear exit he could utilize. He slipped out unnoticed.
Back outside, Akira crept through the mining facility's grounds, on the lookout for any possible threats. He saw a trainyard built adjacent to the mine. It was no doubt purposely constructed to load up and ship out the mine's coal. He could see a conveyer built next to the tracks which would pour coal directly into the train cars. With everything that had happened, it might be a while before they did so again.
As he scanned the area, Akira heard a loud crash which drew his attention. He spotted a creature next to one of the train cars. The monster had rammed its body against the car, attempting to knock a man off the top of it. The giant insect had nearly succeeded. Akira could see a man hanging off the edge. The only thing keeping him from falling was another man hanging on to him. The monster was right below them just waiting for him to drop.
Akira realized that Haruki was the one hanging on to the dangling man. Akira got closer and saw that Haruo was the man suspended above the monster. Haruki wasn't nearly strong enough to pull a man as big as Haruo back up to safety, but at the same time, he wasn't willing to let him go. He was starting to slip down himself.
Akira could hear Haruo urging Haruki to let him drop. Haruki stubbornly refused. Akira could see Kasai's body between himself and them. He was still grasping his katana in his hand. True to form, it looked as though he went down fighting. Akira saw an opportunity. He rushed forward, seizing the sword along the way, and charged the distracted creature, which was reaching up trying to snatch Haruo's foot. He was just inches out of its reach.
Akira swung the blade hard and completely severed the claw from the monster's arm. Then, before it could react, he took the tip of the sword and plunged the blade directly below the monster's head into its thorax. Akira must have hit something vital, because it made no effort to retaliate. Instead, the creature just collapsed, and the sword slipped back out. Haruki and Haruo came crashing down a second later, landing on the monster, which ironically helped break their fall.
"Look out!" Haruki called to Akira, bringing his attention to the other creature which had chased him out of the mine. It was still on his trail.
Akira stepped forward, putting himself between the monster and the other two men who were still picking themselves up off the ground. He was done running. Either he was going to kill the monster, or the monster was going to kill him. He readied the katana, gripping it with both hands. Akira figured he had a good chance of prevailing since the creature only had one good appendage left to work with. The creature moved forward towards him, though more cautiously than it had before. Apparently, it recognized Akira as a legitimate threat and not just prey.
Just as it seemed that the fight was about to commence, there was a loud crackle of machine gun fire. Two streams of bullets struck the creature from the side. While some of the bullets penetrated, they did not kill the monster. It still struggled forward stubbornly. The machine guns stopped firing and a man wearing a face shield and a large cylindrical fuel tank on his back stepped forward and sprayed a stream of burning gasoline onto the creature. The ball of fire completely engulfed the giant insect within seconds.
The soldier using the flamethrower wasn't conservative with his fuel and continued to douse the giant insect until it fell over and stopped moving altogether. The machine gunners took no chances and piled on several more rounds just to be sure, but the creature was already well past dead by that point.
"Over there!" A voice rang out from the group of soldiers.
Another giant insect was emerging from the tunnels. This time, a trooper armed with a bazooka took aim at it. He lined up his barrel with the target. Everyone behind him knew to clear out. The soldier pulled the trigger, and an anti-tank rocket shot out from the tube. The round was well-aimed and hit the creature dead center. The monster exploded from the inside into at least a hundred smoking pieces.
It was all over. Akira's reinforcements from the base had finally arrived and were gaining control of the area around the mine. Once it was secured, they could sweep through the tunnels and clear out any remaining creatures and their eggs. Akira returned the sword to the body of its fallen owner. At least for them, the fight was done. He checked to see how Haruki was faring. Haruki was oddly favoring his shoulder too. He either injured it during the fall or strained it trying to hold up Haruo for so long. Akira padded him on his good shoulder and smiled at him.
"Still think stopping here was a good idea?" He smirked.
…
After he'd finished consuming the radiation at Kamchatka, Godzilla unexpectedly moved off to the west into the Sea of Okhotsk. Marcus followed him in his helicopter for as long as their fuel would allow before returning to the fleet. Once they were back, Admiral Malek called a meeting in the Essex's ready room to discuss their next move.
"The Japanese have elected not to join us up here." Admiral Malek began. "They don't want to deal with Godzilla so long as he's not in their own territory, though they would like us to keep them in the loop as to his activities. To a certain extent, I'm inclined to honor their request. I don't see the harm in it, so long as their priorities don't conflict with ours. Keeping up friendly relations with the Japanese is useful for us at this time. It should guarantee they continue to allow us to use their ports to resupply. That will keep us on the frontline and enable us to pursue our goals."
"Aren't you concerned with the Russians taking issue with us violating their territorial waters Admiral?" Captain Hillard asked.
"No, I don't think they will contest our presence." Admiral Malek answered. "In the first place, they don't have any naval assets in the area. Intelligence indicates that they were forced to evacuate years ago, even before the war, and haven't been able to regain a foothold since, because of the Rodans. Second, they can't risk launching air patrols in this area either. The Rodans wouldn't tolerate them."
"You aren't worried about the monsters either?" Captain Hillard inquired.
"Well, on that front, I don't think the Rodans will bother us with Godzilla so close." Admiral Malek noted. "After watching the end of their fight, I'd say they've had enough of him for now. We should have a free hand to operate for the time being. We'll just shadow Godzilla from a distance and learn what we can about him. There are a few things we can already deduce based on our previous experiences, but Dr. Richards has come to tell us about some of his more recent discoveries. Dr. Richards..." Admiral Malek invited him to take the floor.
"Through studying the corpse of Kameras, we have learned a few things about Kaiju biology." Dr. Richards began. "Though we can't confirm this is true of all Kaiju at this time, we can infer some things about their common attributes. In particular, we've discovered something rather interesting in regard to their durability. With perhaps the exception of Gezora, who proved to be at least somewhat susceptible to conventional weapons, the other monsters we have encountered have shown a great deal of resilience to standard military munitions. I think I have discovered why that is. At least in part."
"Really…?" Brock raised an eyebrow. "This outta be good."
"Upon examining samples of Kamera's skin, we found very high levels of carbon in the epidermis." Dr. Richards went on. "Carbon is a common element, but when it is concentrated in a pure form, it can be incredibly sturdy. Diamonds for example, which are a pure form of crystalized carbon, are the hardest element known to exist. The concentration of carbon in Kamera's skin is not as hard as diamond, but it's still very, very tough. I suspect all kaiju have a similar organic makeup, which makes them extremely durable. The concentration of carbon for Kameras was heavier in his claws, teeth, and other armored areas. I suspect that would follow suit with the other monsters as well. These creatures are virtually invulnerable in some areas. However, in the case of Kameras, there were certainly weak points."
"Godzilla was definitely able to find one." Marcus added.
"Yes, exactly my point." Dr. Richards agreed. "Since Godzilla's claws would assumably have a higher carbon count, in theory, then they should have no trouble punching through the skin which would have the lower sum. All signs point to that. Admiral, have you heard any word about our stake on the island?"
"It's uninhabited and had not been previously claimed." Admiral Malek answered. "We've quietly declared it within our sphere of influence, while not drawing too much attention to why on the world stage. The cover story is going to be that an oil deposit was found there. That should satisfy most of the foreign curiosity the claim will raise. So, at least for now, it's ours uncontested. Whatever secrets Kameras may yet reveal, are ours alone. Plans are underway to build a more permanent research base to aid your work. That will also ensure a higher degree of security."
"Oh, that reminds me, everyone here who is not military personnel will have to sign a non-disclosure agreement after this meeting." Dr. Richards noted.
Dr. Orsini seemed more than a little perturbed. Marcus couldn't decide if it was because of the NDA remark, or the fact that he felt the Kameras project should have been his from the start. Dr. Orsini probably did not like being regarded as an outsider who was not directly connected with the project.
"Back to the topic at hand, since we've established that conventional weapons are mostly ineffective, how is Project-M progressing?" Admiral Malek asked.
"We're waiting on confirmation from the lab stateside." Captain Hillard replied. "But they are hoping to have a prototype up and running within the next three months."
"Alright, well tell Dr. Steiner we need to move up the timeline." Admiral Malek remarked.
"Boy… he's not going to like that." Captain Hillard replied. "You know how particular he is."
"If he gives you too much grief about it, just tell him a couple days ago, I was standing in what used to be Tokyo." Admiral Malek frowned. "If we don't step up our game soon, we won't stand a chance against these things."
"Yes, unless we act, there will be more devastated cities on the news." Dr. Richards agreed. "The appearance of Godzilla means we need to roll out sooner than anticipated. He's far more aggressive than the previous kaiju we've encountered, and arguably more dangerous."
"The quiet days of the kaiju are over." Malek added. "We need to get mass production going as soon as possible. Dr. Steiner doesn't have the luxury of fine-tuning things anymore. We just need a viable anti-kaiju weapon in the field. If he doesn't like it, I'll have him flown into Tokyo to let him see for himself how bad it is firsthand. Given his own personal history, I don't think he'll like that too much."
"All of that may not be necessary, just tell him there was a sighting of Varan." Dr. Orsini suggested. There was quiet in the room while several people took stock of what he had said. Most were surprised to have heard Dr. Orsini of all people say it. "Hate is a hell of a motivator." He added, just to clarify his point.
…