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Day 1
The gasp of air he had taken was lost at the sight
before him as the bay water streamed down his face and over the scaled
muzzle he sat on. Godzilla drifted toward shore as Nick's jaw hung in total
shock.
It was destroyed. The whole city was destroyed.
Dear God
Dear merciful God.
Godzilla gave a warning rumble as they reached
the shore, and he titled his head ever so slightly, Nick rolling off to
land unsteadily on his feet. The ferry building still stood... technically.
It was listing heavily toward the water, one of the ship bays collapsed.
It was the least of his concerns.
His true concern lay three miles northeast. Where
they had set up a temporary camp, with the assistance of the military,
to monitor the mammoth ship hovering over the city. He remembered clearly
the last discussion he'd had with Craven. The man was seriously worried
about an undefined radio transmission and Randy was laying side bets in
the background with a soldier on whether the aliens were green or not.
"We lost, Randy," he whispered, slowly walking
past the twisted security fence and toward the side street. Godzilla lazed
about the water, sniffing curiously at the charred air. Nick stopped and
watched the great lizard.
Now he understood.
The last few moments in the research camp were
a chaotic blur. Nothing of note had happened so far. Mendel was monitoring,
Randy was playing a pocket video game and he and Elsie were going over
satellite photos.
A lump of pain formed in his stomach, choking a
sob out him. Elsie. Fiery, single minded and fiercely determined to hit
on him whenever the opportunity arose. How could she have survived this?
He stumbled down the street heading in the general direction of the camp.
Here, three miles away, was a waste land. Cars were nothing but smoldering
black husks and skeletal remains were scattered like so much chaff on the
wind. How could anyone have survived?
Nick kept walking. Remembering.
Godzilla had suddenly appeared. It had caught them
totally off guard. Their attention had been focused on the mammoth alien
ship, not their neighborhood monster. Godzilla had come running, covering
the three miles in a handful of titanic strides till he towered above the
research camp. The soldiers guns had been raised, but ignored by the monster
as Major Hicks screamed in his ear.
"What the hell's his problem?" Had been the last
words ringing in his ears a second before he became engulfed in a three
finger fist. Nick had screamed in protest as the world tilted sideways.
The brap of gunfire was lost in Godzilla's roar and he felt the beast move,
the second hand coming to wrap tightly around him, sealing him in darkness.
The earth shook as Godzilla leisurely caught up
with Nick in four strides, stopping to inspect a burnt out fish truck.
He snorted and lightly knocked the metal remains aside with a displeased
growl.
Godzilla had known. In the same way he knew when
Nick was in distress, the same way he knew his territory had been invaded,
Godzilla had known. Known the end of humanity was going to come in a burst
of energy and fire. Godzilla had saved his adopted parent and himself.
The rest of humanity was not his concern.
Nick sighed and kept walking. Humanity might not
be Godzilla's concern, but it was Nick's. Was he the last? He doubted it.
The ships were placed only over major cities. The rural country would theoretically
have been untouched.
He hoped.
He felt very alone, even with the great lizard
foraging behind him.
Godzilla had swum to his cave, deep underground,
protected by tons of rock and the Hudson river above. Nick had been released,
slightly damp, from Godzilla's protective grip into the near darkness of
Godzilla's home. Fluorescent lichen was the most meager of light sources,
letting him only see Godzilla as a moving dark shadow.
He'd been furious at first, then scared. Godzilla
had never brought him here before. Had made a point not to let anyone near
his cave. It was confusing and frustrating, those first minutes trying
to adjust to the darkness, hearing the water lap up on shore. There was
no way for him to swim out on his own and Godzilla seemed content to curl
up as if napping.
Nick had looked at his watched and estimated rescue
from the cave in twenty minutes. It would take that long to get the submersible
prepped and going. That was when the world shook. Nick stumbled back and
Godzilla let out a low rumbled as the water churned and the smooth cave
walls vibrated.
'What had happened?' was Nick's first fevered thought
as the rumble died back into the silence of the cave, punctuated by Godzilla's
rasping breathing and the water lapping on shore. What the hell?
This was the hell. An attack that had no warning,
no defense, no survivors.
Nick kept walking.
He wished someone was alive. That someone would
call out to him or make the slightest of noises. Heck, he'd settled for
a pigeon right now. Nick cast a look at Godzilla, who was moving off toward
the fishing district. Who was he kidding? Anyone who had survived the attack
was not about to stick their heads out with Godzilla perusing about.
Another thirty minutes came and went as Nick reached
the remains of the research camp. The strength fled from his legs and he
went down heavily to his knees. The place was leveled. The tents, the trucks,
tables and radio equipment. It was all dust and ruins. The remains were
here as well. Charred, black bodies, broken up by a tremendous wind.
A sob tore from Nick throat as he buried his face
in his hands. Gone. All gone! His friends, hell, his family, burnt
to oblivion. And he lived. Cruelest of all cruel fates, he lived! Nick
screamed, voice cracking as he vent his pain and anger to the uncaring
heavens.
The scream was joined with Godzilla's roar as the
lizard came running, ready to defend Nick against any attacker. But nothing
could protect Nick from the pain that overwhelmed him. Threaten to drown
him in it's intensity. Dead, all dead.
"NOOOO!!"
Nick had to get out here. Be anywhere but here.
He got up and ran, ran blindly through the lifeless streets. Someone had
to be alive. Somewhere. Somehow.
He had to find them. Find the others who had lived.
Join them and seek revenge. Yes, he thought without shame. Revenge, for
his friends and love ones. For the people he knew and the ones he would
never now meet. Vengeance.
Godzilla followed, his lazy pace easily keeping
up with Nick as he crashed into the ferry building door. He needed radio
equipment. Basic communication. Ignoring the unsteady groan, Nick rocketed
up the stairs to the lab ignoring the high tech communication equipment
littered about. He needed something self powered and went to root through
the supply closet as Godzilla looked through a window curiously.
Telescope, stethoscope... Blow up floating duck?
Nick threw it all out of the closet until he found the treasure he sought.
A portable short-wave ham radio. He clicked it on and nothing happened,
A quick checked revealed the problem. Batteries.
"Shit," he snarled, going to the desk yanking the
drawer open viscously. They had to have batteries around here somewhere.
Stupid D cell batteries. One drawer, two. There! In the bottom drawer,
a mix of loose batteries.
With trembling fingers Nick put them in and hit
the power button again. A hissing crackle was his reward and he slumped
into a nearby chair, thumbing the tuner. He nearly dropped it in fright
when a voice blared over the speaker.
A human voice.
Yes.
Nick was too mesmerized by the sound to make out
the words. He only followed the rise and fall of the deep timbre. Slowly,
the conversation seeped into his brain and realization sparked in Nick
Tatopoulos. People were alive. And they were gathering. He listened and
the man spoke of an airforce base.
That made sense. Isolated, secured. He scanned
the channels again finding two more voices. The third confirmed the first.
The air force base. The gathering.
Nick unwillingly shut the radio off. The batteries
needed saving. When he set the radio down, he saw the photo in it's cheap
aluminum frame. It was all of them, posed at the end of the peer. Elsie
had used photo shop to underlay a picture of Godzilla in the background.
Randy, ever the joker, had scrawled a little caption in the bottom corner.
'Team H.E.A.T. When only the most destructive will
do.'
Smart ass. Nick lovingly picked up the picture
and slipped it into his back pocket. Now he needed to garner what supplies
he could and join in the gathering. It was time for the remaining members
of H.E.A.T. to live up to Randy's motto.