Godzilla: The Official Movie Novelization

THIRTEEN

Jenny was enjoying her family’s vacation in Hawaii. A blond, six-year-old girl from Seattle, she kept close to her parents as they strolled along the beach at Waikiki, along with dozens of other people. Palm trees swayed above the shore. Tiki torches lit up the night while the mouth-watering aroma of roast pig wafted on a balmy breeze from a nearby luau. Hula dancers in grass skirts put on a show for the tourists. A busy beachfront bar offered drinks, both grown-up and otherwise. The rolling surf lapped at the shore, while the white sand was cool and squishy beneath Jenny’s bare feet. Rows of multi-story hotels, condos, and resorts faced the water, while thickly forested hills rose up further inland, beyond the shops and nightclubs. Laughter and music filled the warm night air. An ocean breeze had a salty flavor. It was past Jenny’s bedtime, but her parents didn’t seem to mind. They were on vacation after all.

The festive scene was suddenly disturbed by a flight of fighter jets zooming overhead, heading inland from somewhere out at sea. Sonic booms shook the night. The jets came in so fast and so low that their passage whipped up the sand on the beach. Startled tourists looked up in surprise. Even the hula dancers stopped swaying and stared up at the jets. Contrails of exhaust streaked the night sky. Bartenders stopped serving drinks.

Wow, Jenny thought. Nobody told me there was going to be an air show!

The jets were just the beginning. Police helicopters arrived next, swooping in from downtown. SWAT team members, equipped with rifles and body armor, belayed down on ropes from the hovering choppers to the hotel rooftops, staking out sniper positions. They aimed their weapons at the wooded slopes of the Koolau Mountains, almost as though they expected something bad to attack from the hills at any moment. The helicopters buzzed above Waikiki.

Jenny was captivated by all the excitement, until her mom grabbed her and hugged her tight. Her parents exchanged worried looks and whispered anxiously to each other, as did the many others vacationers frozen in place upon the beach. People pointed and stared at the unexpected invasion. Jenny heard someone speculate about “terrorists.” Despite her tender years, she felt the mood changing all around her. Grownups were acting confused and scared, which scared her, too.

Suddenly it didn’t feel like a fun vacation anymore.

The train glided toward the next terminal along the elevated track, which ran approximately thirty feet above the tarmac below. Rows of jetliners were parked wing to wing away from the runways. Ford lifted Akio onto a seat to await their stop. He wondered what would be faster and more efficient: getting off at the next stop and trying to catch another train heading in the opposite direction, or staying on this train until its circuit brought it back to their starting place, where, hopefully, the little boy’s parents were waiting anxiously for his return? Ford could just imagine how frightened they must be right now. He’d once lost sight of Sam at the mall; it had only been for a few minutes, but he still remembered how panicked he’d been at the time, all the terrifying scenarios that had flashed through his head before Sam had turned up over at the food court, perfectly fine. Those had been some of the longest minutes of his life, including his time on the front. He knew exactly what sort of hell Akio’s parents were going through right now. The sooner he got their child back to them, the better.

Akio sat quietly, watching the planes taxi below, until he suddenly sat up and pointed in excitement at a flight of military jet fighters roaring past the airport toward the densely forested hills beyond. Ford held onto him tightly, alarmed by the sight. Those had looked like F-35 Lightnings, probably launched from the Saratoga offshore. He could think of no reason why the supersonic fighters would be zooming inland at full speed.

Unless…

Streaking through the sky, the Lightnings flew in formation toward the mountain range overlooking Honolulu. The lead pilot, Captain Douglas Lang, readied himself for combat against an entirely new type of threat. As the jets crested a rocky jungle ridge, the MUTO came into view, crouching above the bamboo trees like the world’s biggest praying mantis. Despite being prepped for this mission, Douglas gulped at the sight of the enormous winged monster. It was hard to believe that such a creature actually existed outside of science-fiction movies or comic books. Yet there it was: right in front of them, rippling with some sort of eerie bioluminescence.

It’s still just an animal, he reminded himself, keeping his focus on his mission. And animals can be put down.

The F-35 was armed with both guns and missiles, which ought to be more than enough to take out the dangerous creature. “Niner-niner,” he reported over the radio built into his helmet. He aimed his cross-hairs at the MUTO, but, to his surprise, they bounced and wavered erratically, as though unable to lock onto the target. “What the-?”

The cross-hairs kept sliding off the target. It was like trying to thread a needle with a wobbly piece of thread.

“I’m getting all sorts of guidance errors,” he reported. “Switching to manual.”

He reached to flip the switch, just as the MUTO reared up on its hind legs and began glowing brighter than before. A rippling aurora charged the air around it, only a heartbeat before it slammed its upper limbs down, generating a visible electromagnetic pulse.

No! The captain’s entire cockpit display went black. He fought to maintain control of the plane even though all of its electrical systems had shorted out instantaneously. This can’t be happening. It’s just an animal…

Flaming out, the disabled aircraft spiraled down toward the jungle floor, where the Green Berets scrambled to get out of the way. The crashing fighter jet slammed into the earth with stupendous force. The impact knocked the fleeing soldiers off their feet.

Seconds later, a huge orange fireball billowed up above the trees.

All at once, the entire airport lost power.

Agitated voices filled the train as the overhead lights sputtered out, leaving the passengers in darkness. The train slowed to a stop upon the track, stalling between stations. Ford kept a tight grip on Akio as the boy pressed his face up against the window, looking out towards the mountain slopes none too far away. The hellish red glow of rising flames could be seen from the airport, lighting up the night. Confused passengers murmured anxiously as they spied the distant inferno. No one else seemed to know what was happening, but Ford had a likely idea. His memory instantly flashed back to the creature from the pit.

I think we found it, he thought.

Jenny and her family jumped as an explosion went off in the hills. Thick black smoke rose from the dark jungle, followed by bright red flames. Her father swore under his breath while her mother stifled a frightened sob and scooped the little girl up into her arms. All around them, people were acting scared and confused. Nobody seemed to know what to do or even which way to run. Their hotels were even closer to the hills where the explosions were, so there was nowhere to run except into the ocean.

I don’t like this, Jenny thought, hugging her mom. I want to go home.

Looking away from the menacing flames and smoke up in the hills, she stared out at the sand and surf instead. Her eyes bulged as she spotted something peculiar. The tide appeared to be retreating rapidly from the shore, ebbing back into the bay, as though it, too, was afraid of all the scary noise and commotion on the island. Her brow wrinkled in confusion.

Was it supposed to do that?

She tugged on her dad’s arm, calling his attention to the fleeing waters. His sunburnt face went pale at the sight. Her mom turned around and gasped out loud. She thrust Jenny into her daddy’s arms and they took off running inland, away from the shore, as fast as they could. Her mom shouted at the other grownups and children on the beach. Jenny had never heard her so scared, not even that time Jenny had accidently stepped out in front of traffic.

“Run!” her mother yelled. “RUN!”

Aboard the Saratoga, Serizawa commandeered a pair of binoculars from a passing seaman. His heart racing, he placed the long-distance lenses to his eyes and searched the moonlit sea for the enigmatic shape he had spied before. He quickly relocated the mysterious object, only to discover that the jagged protrusion had been joined by two smaller points on either side. Recognition dawned in his eyes as he grasped what he was seeing: a row of gigantic dorsal fins.

Racing straight toward the fleet.

Warning sirens sounded as observers aboard the various ships spotted the oncoming threat and braced for impact. Serizawa suspected that few aboard the vessels, except perhaps Graham and a handful of others, knew exactly who or what was surging their way, but it was obvious that something very large and solid was on a collision course with the Saratoga and the other ships. Serizawa grabbed onto a safety rail, not that he expected it would do much good, not if this was indeed what he surmised.

It must be him, the scientist thought. What else could it be?

Torn between scientific curiosity and fear for his life, Serizawa prayed that he would at least be allowed to behold the legend in all its majesty before it laid waste to the floating super-carrier. Through the binoculars, he watched as the giant fins came closer and closer.

Then, at the last minute, before the mighty battleship could even attempt to avoid the collision, the fins dipped rapidly beneath the waves, diving beneath the Saratoga and the rest of the strike group. The ship pitched back and forth as something impossibly massive passed beneath it. Baffled flight crews shouted to each other in confusion. Only Serizawa understood the awesome force that had just passed them by. Nature had spared them, at least for the moment.

Drained, he lowered the binoculars and let out a sigh of relief. Part of him was actually disappointed that the owner of the fins had not fully revealed himself, but he suspected that that fateful moment would be upon them soon. He turned toward the unsuspecting island only a few miles away. He had visited Oahu before. It was a beautiful island, full of friendly locals and vacationing tourists.

Little did they know what was heading toward them.