Godzilla at World's End (25 page)

The teeth of the saw caught Anguirus on the creature's relatively soft underbelly. Anguirus howled in rage and pain and let loose of Gigan's throat. The cyborg stumbled backward, finally toppling onto a burning building in the heart of the ruined military base.

When the cyborg monster struck the ground, the land under Craig Weedie shook. He fumbled with his camera and realized he was out of film. As he quickly reloaded, Anguirus, black blood streaming from his wounded belly, continued the attack. He lunged at Gigan again, while the cyborg was down in the rubble.

The two creatures locked into a clinch, tearing and ripping at each other with fang and claw.

Suddenly, the thunderous sound of the battle of the titans was interrupted by a more familiar noise - the sound of jet fighters approaching from the east.

Shanghai ...

Godzilla lumbered past the two Chinese warships, moving them aside with the backwash of his passing. As the frigates maneuvered to get out of the monster's path, sailors on deck opened up on Godzilla with machine-gun and small-cannon fire. The shells detonated harmlessly against Godzilla's thick hide.

With a quick maneuver, the frigates moved out of the path of Godzilla. The missile submarine, floating on the surface of the sea between the shores of Shanghai and Changxing Island, was not so quick - or so fortunate.

Godzilla slammed into the vessel with all of his massive, unimaginable power and bulk. Though the
Romeo
-class submarine was built to withstand the incredible pressure of the ocean depths, it could not endure the force of Godzilla's attack. With an ear-shattering crash, the submarine split in two even as it capsized. Godzilla reached his forearms down and thrust the wreckage aside.

Curiously, there was no explosion. The two halves of the submarine simply sank, spilling some sailors into the violently churning waters while dragging the others down with it.

With the naval attack broken, Manda raised its serpentine head once again, hissing curiously. Then its elongated eyes focused on Godzilla, and the dragon hissed again. This time the sound was clearly a warning.

Godzilla bellowed a challenge, and the sound of his mighty roar echoed over the decimated city of Shanghai.

Blue flashes rippled across Godzilla's dorsal spines, and a blast of blue radioactive fire washed over Manda. The dragon pulled back its wedge-shaped head and squinted its eyes against the assault, but took no more notice of the energy blast than it would off a stream of water fired by a squirt gun.

Manda hissed angrily and slipped off the docks and into the sea. Its head raised above the waves, Manda swam quickly toward Godzilla.

The creatures soon met. Godzilla lashed out at Manda with his foreclaws. He quickly seized the dragon's coiled body and lifted the monster out of the tossing waves. But grabbing a dragon and holding it were two different things, as Godzilla soon learned.

With a speed and agility that belied its bulk, Manda circled its body around Godzilla's bull neck. The dragon dug its sharp claws into the thick, ridged hide and hung on.

In an attempt to dislodge the creature, Godzilla thrashed about in the sea, sending torrents of water washing over the barges and commercial ships docked at the wharves, flooding the warehouses full of raw materials and manufactured goods. Godzilla reached up and tugged futilely at Manda's serpentine body. The dragon's wedge-shaped head bobbed in front of Godzilla's own.

But as the King of the Monsters opened his mouth, and blue lights danced along his spines once again, Manda began to constrict its coils tighter, choking the King of the Monsters ...

On the shores of the Caspian Sea ...

It took only a few minutes for the airplanes to appear in the blue morning sky above him. To his surprise, Craig Weedie recognized the aircraft from countless visits to Russian military installations during his trip through the former Soviet Union - they were MiG-27 ground-attack aircraft.

The twin titans still wrestled in the ruins of Peliograd, oblivious to the attack to come. Anguirus lashed out with his spiked tail, slamming it against Gigan's body again and again.

As he watched, Craig slipped behind a tumble of rocks. Half a kilometer suddenly did not feel like a safe distance from an impending air attack.

With graceful precision, the MiGs banked and, with their variable wings swept forward and wide, pointed their duck noses at the monsters on the ground. In a blasting stream of exhaust and fire, tactical air-to-ground missiles leaped from each wing. Craig lowered the camera and covered his ears as the first missiles struck home.

Explosions rippled across the distance, shaking the ground and loosening pebbles and dust from the ledges around him. The first two blasts, from missiles fired by the lead plane, blossomed on the ground. They were quickly followed by others.

Many others.

As explosion after explosion sundered the Earth, the two monsters continued to do battle. Soon their gigantic forms were all but obscured by smoke and fire.

In the chaos, Craig would see a flash of Anguirus's tail, or a silvery reflection off one of Gigan's metallic claws - but nothing more. The attack seemed to last forever, and by the time it ended, the Backpack Adventurer was hugging the ground and covering his head with his hands as dust and small rocks rained down on him almost constantly.

Soon the entire area was filled with smoke and dust. The wind, which was blowing toward the observer, smelled of cordite and burning wood. Craig coughed and choked. Through it all, he could still hear the roars and bellows of the struggling monsters.

Finally, the explosions died away. The sounds of the jet engines receded. Cautiously, Craig lifted his head. Gigan's shrill cries pierced the air, but it was Anguirus who was in control of the battle now.

As Craig snapped photo after photo, Anguirus dragged the thrashing Gigan down onto the shore. Gigan struggled and kicked, its red eye glowing evilly. But Anguirus continued to drag the creature into the lapping waves of the Caspian Sea, even as black blood poured out of a dozen wounds.

The four-legged beast had Gigan by the throat and would not let go. One of Gigan's metal claws slammed repeatedly against Anguirus's hard shell. A noise like a clanging bell echoed across the waters, but it looked as if Anguirus hardly felt the blows.

Gigan's other claw was missing its tip. The monster waved its useless stunted arm as a silver stream of internal fluids poured out of the soft center of the shattered claw. Gigan's roars seemed to weaken with each passing minute, as Anguirus inexorably dragged the wounded cyborg into the sea.

Finally, after many long moments, the struggle ended. Anguirus backed into the waves, until the green waters completely covered the creature. Gigan, its arms waving weakly, its beaklike mouth opening and closing silently, was dragged beneath the water headfirst as if it were a dying mouse in the mouth of a tomcat.

The Caspian Sea churned for a few more minutes, then stilled. Of the monsters' passing there was no sign.

Craig Weedie stood up, peering across the water. He found himself powerfully affected by the primeval contest he had just witnessed. He wondered if Anguirus had survived the struggle. He was almost certain Gigan had not.

As he stared out over the sea, the sound of approaching helicopters beat against his ears. Vaguely, Craig Weedie realized he would soon be rescued ...

In the East China Sea ...

Godzilla struggled against the coils that threatened to strangle him. Manda's head bobbed in front of his eyes, which seemed to dim and cloud over with each passing second. Godzilla tried to summon his fiery breath, but it somehow stuck in his throat.

Red foam flecked the edges of his massive jaws, staining the double row of teeth crimson. Godzilla's jaws opened and closed spasmodically as he gasped for air.

Finally, Godzilla managed to hook one of his huge, tearing claws around Manda's own neck. Godzilla's massive hand dug into the woolly hair around the dragon's head.

Godzilla began to squeeze. Manda stubbornly clung to Godzilla's throat and would not budge. But Godzilla reached up with his other claw and grabbed one of Manda's stubby legs.

Now, with both of Godzilla's mighty forearms dragging at Manda's coiled body, the dragon began to weaken. Suddenly, Manda's grip was broken. The creature tried to slip into the sea and escape, but Godzilla would not let it go.

Instead, the King of the Monsters lifted the dragon out of the water and held it at arm's length. Godzilla opened his eyes and stared into Manda's own.

Manda hissed and spat as Godzilla unleashed the full fury of his radioactive breath. The hot, burning rays washed over the dragon. Manda seemed to shrink back from the force of the blast, but Godzilla still gripped its neck tightly.

Manda's tail flailed wildly as it began to burn, and suddenly Godzilla released the creature from his grip. Manda struck the water with a huge splash and a boiling hiss. A wave of superheated seawater flooded sections of the docks once more. Godzilla, his arms spread wide, his tail churning up the waters behind him, turned his eyes to the sky above.

Godzilla's feral head tilted upward. Then the King of the Monsters opened his mouth and let loose a ringing, ear-shattering bellow of victory.

Manda, limp and perhaps dead, disappeared beneath the waves of the East China Sea ...

Thursday, December 14, 2000, 12:25 A.M.
Aboard the
Destiny Explorer
Off the coast of Chile

Leena Sims closed the battered handwritten journal and lay back in her bunk. Her mind was whirling with a hundred ideas. She'd been reading the journals of Alexander Kemmering for days now.

She decided that Kemmering was probably a scientific genius. But Leena was certain that he was also an egotistical megalomaniac determined to prove to the world that it was wrong and he was right.

Though Leena was still suffering from her fear of flying, some of the sheer panic had fled. It was worst when she tried to go to sleep. As she nodded off, she would experience a sudden surge of panic - like a fear of falling, only a hundred times worse. She found that if she worked hard enough, the fears vanished. And if she worked to the point of exhaustion, she could sometimes fall asleep without those disturbing incidents.

Leena was surprised to learn that she found some peace in knowing that the world was falling apart. It made her feel strangely free. Suddenly it didn't matter if her microchip process worked or not - or if Intel, Apple, or IBM made the bigger bid on the copyright to her process. The knowledge that she was helpless, trapped aboard an airship that was probably heading for certain doom was, in the end, comforting.

Free of the ghosts of her past and the memories of her father - a computer genius who died two years ago, before Leena achieved her success - Leena joined in with the others to try to solve the mystery of Alexander Kemmering's journals.

But as she waded through the obscure references to everything from the Bible to Hindu scriptures with unpronounceable names, Leena couldn't help thinking of Zoe Kemmering. The daughter of the vanished genius was hardly mentioned in these journals - and only as someone who found some obscure fact, or cleaned up a lab, or set up a camp. The dead archaeologist seemed to have used his own daughter as an unpaid assistant, surrounding her with all of his theories and scientific pursuits.

Once, in the third journal, Kemmering referred to his daughter as a genius. Leena suspected this was only because she believed in the theories he was putting forth.

For some reason Leena Sims felt a bond with the vanished girl, who was surely dead. Alexander Kemmering had dragged his daughter all over the world, making her live through his own obsessions. Perhaps, Leena realized in a moment of self-awareness, her situation was the same as Zoe Kemmering's. Leena's father had pushed her mercilessly, teaching her the basics of the inner workings of computers when she was just a child.

Leena idolized her father. She often acknowledged his help when she made her breakthrough. Sometimes, in early negotiations with the chip manufacturers, Leena referred to her new chip as "our invention" and something "we came up with," referring to her dead father's help in the research.

Finally, one of Leena's lawyers pulled her aside and asked her to stop using the plural. "These corporate types will think you can't do the work, Leena. They'll think it was your father's idea, not yours."

Leena understood the man's argument, but she had to fight not to use the plural when talking about "her" new process.

As her eyes closed and she lay back on her pillow, Leena wondered if Zoe had felt the same way about
her
father ...

Tuesday, December 19, 2000, 3:25 P.M.
Aboard the
Destiny Explorer
Off the coast of central Chile

"We're coming up on Concepcion," Captain Dolan announced to the others on the bridge. "We'll be over the city in about forty minutes."

This was not a revelation to the people on the bridge - they could clearly see the smoke rising from the city for the past hour. Despite its beautiful and sacred name, Concepcion would be just like the other cities they had passed over.

As they neared the Chilean metropolis of more than 300,000 people, everyone on the bridge grew tense, recalling their experiences near Santiago two days before.

Like almost every coastal city they'd passed since the communications blackout, Santiago was torn by war and civil strife. But unfortunately, the capital city of Chile was also a scheduled fueling and provisions stop for the
Destiny Explorer
. An arrangement had been made weeks before to provide the airship with food and water. Staples like that were not a problem now: the soldiers had brought aboard enough MREs - meals ready to eat - to feed three times their number for months to come. But the
Destiny Explorer
needed fuel.

The Petramco Oil Company had promised to deliver the fuel at a remote tank farm outside of Santiago. While the range of the super-efficient turbofan engines on the
Explorer
was phenomenal, and the tanks of the
Explorer
held thousands of gallons of jet fuel, without the stop in Santiago they might make it
to
Antarctica but not back again.