Godzilla Returns (20 page)

From their balcony, Nick and Brian watched the chaos below as they made their plans. They both agreed to duck the evacuation helicopter. With an automobile at their disposal, they both felt that they could do their own reporting. It wouldn't be live, it wouldn't be broadcast as it was happening, but it would be
something
.

"I wish we could find Yoshi," Nick said. "I know how to use a video camera, but I'm no expert."

Brian nodded in agreement. "I think Yoshi is going to the tower," he said.

Nick paused and shook his head.
I hope he'll be okay
.

"Look!" Brian cried, pointing. "Here comes the helicopter!"

"Let's get out of here before someone tries to stop us." Nick quickly gathered up his video camera, his tape recorder, and plenty of tapes for both machines.

At the last minute, Brian grabbed his battery-powered portable television/radio and a police band receiver that was tuned to the emergency broadcast frequency.

"Good idea!" Nick said, spying the device. "Now we've got our own portable news van!"

"I'll drive," Brian insisted.

* * *

It took them a few minutes to sneak out of the INN building. There were security guys all over the place, herding people to the helipad. But eventually Nick and Brian made it to the garage. The red Toyota was just where Nick had left it.

"It's gassed and ready to go!" Nick said as they stowed their stuff and jumped inside. Brian checked the rear-view mirror and started the engine. Just then, they heard a clanking sound.

"Drive!" Nick screamed. "The guards are closing the security gates."

With a squeal of rubber, the Toyota peeled out. As they neared the exit, the metal grill gate began to descend.

"Hold on!" Brian cried as he stepped on the gas.

The car shot up the exit ramp and through the doorway. It just made it under the security gate - it was so close that the gate scraped some paint off the roof as it came down. As Brian turned the corner, Nick saw INN security men running after them.

"So long, suckers!" Nick cried triumphantly. "We've got an Emmy to pick up."

Brian laughed. As he sped through the deserted streets, he felt his heart pumping fast. He felt so
alive
.

Brian recalled the only other time he had felt like this. It was the day he'd made his first skydive. He remembered he was so scared, yet so exhilarated, too.

Then again, deep down inside, a nagging voice echoed a growing fear.

Who's really the sucker?

June 18, 1998, 9:11 P.M.
Somewhere In the Roppongi District

They hadn't driven far before Brian pulled over to the curb. He switched off the engine and turned to his roommate. He and Nick exchanged puzzled glances.

"What now?" Brian asked.

"We wait," Nick replied. Then he placed the battery-powered television on the dashboard and began to channel-surf. He got mostly dead air.

"Try channel 57," Brian suggested. "It's been set to pick up INN satellite feeds."

"Cool!" Nick said as he flipped the channels. Max Hulse's bland face filled the tiny screen. "Talk to me, Maxie!" Nick quipped, turning up the sound.

"There is still no sign of Godzilla," the newscaster told the international audience. "No sign since he was seen in Tokyo Bay seven hours ago. Let's go to the tape..."

The image shifted, and Brian and Nick watched the now-familiar shot of Godzilla rising from the waters of the bay.

"This shot was taken by a military spotter this afternoon. Evacuation of the areas near Tokyo Bay began by dusk. Now, in early evening, the city is nearly deserted.

"But
will
Godzilla come ashore? Will the monster destroy Tokyo for a
second
time?"

"Sheesh!" Nick said. "He sounds like he'd be disappointed if Godzilla
didn't
show up."

After that, Max Hulse switched over to Blackthorn Adams, who was reporting from Japanese military headquarters.

They listened as Adams launched into a review of Tokyo's defenses. He concentrated on the power grid that was built to protect the heart of Tokyo.

"After Godzilla's first assault," Adams explained, "the city planners built a series of high-tension wires around the heart of the city. These electrical wires carried power to a growing city... but the designers also planned for the unthinkable - the possible return of the monster Gojira, or a creature like it.

"Those power lines were built to handle much more electricity than necessary to power the city. If Godzilla ever returned, the grid would act as an electric fence that, it was hoped, would deter the monster from reaching the Imperial Palace and the business and commercial heart of Tokyo.

"Right now, even as I speak, the electrical defense grid is being readied."

Just then, Blackthorn Adams touched the headphone in his ear. He tilted his head and listened to a voice on the other end "I'm told we have a live report coming in," he said into the camera. "It's from Ian Smelt and Gary Greg, who are stationed at the shore of Tokyo Bay. Can you hear me, Gary?"

As the two youths watched, the image shifted again. Gary Greg, formerly a weatherman for INN, had already begun his report.

"The monster has already destroyed the Shin Tatsumi Bridge and is heading for the heart of the city. Yes, I can see him now." The picture abruptly shifted away from the handsome newscaster and focused on a dark blot on the far horizon. The image was out of focus but soon became sharper.

It was Godzilla, rising out of Tokyo Bay and heading toward a ribbon of highway.

"Oh my god," Nick said, recognizing the location. "That's Expressway Number One!" he cried out in amazement. "Godzilla's only a few miles away from us."

Brian started the car's engine and drove down the narrow, deserted street toward the expressway.

* * *

While Gary Greg watched and Ian Smelt filmed, Godzilla stepped ashore near Expressway Number One. From their position on top of a modern apartment building, the newsmen watched the creature as he crashed through a dock area. Trucks and railroad cars were knocked aside as Godzilla lumbered toward the lights of the city.

While the former weatherman gave a running commentary, the British cameraman filmed the monster's arrival.

Godzilla paused. He seemed confused by his surroundings. Or perhaps the creature was dazzled by the lights of Tokyo, which spread out before him. He swiveled his massive head back and forth. His predatory eyes scanned the horizon. He seemed wary, as if he expected an enemy to attack.

It was then that a strange sound filled the creature's ears. The sound was not the unfamiliar wail of the sirens, which had been screaming since the monster came ashore.

It was a familiar sound - one that Godzilla had heard before.

"It's the rumble of tanks," Gary Greg said into the microphone he clutched with a sweaty hand. "Yes, over there!" he cried. "Dozens of tanks are rushing down the expressway... they're coming from both sides, converging on the monster."

Godzilla blinked his eyes, then stared down at the tiny objects that moved slowly toward him. His lips curled back, baring his teeth. A threatening growl rumbled in his throat.

The tanks slowed and halted. The turrets swiveled as the cannons aimed at the monster.

"According to briefings, these are Type 75 tanks," Gary Greg reported. "Elements of the first Airborne Division. They're aiming all their guns at Godzilla."

The tanks opened fire. Dozens of shells struck the monster, exploding against his hide. Godzilla whipped his tail back and forth angrily. The motion leveled three- and four-story buildings on both sides. Smoke and dust filled the air.

Immediately, Godzilla counterattacked. His radioactive fire rained down on the armored vehicles. Many of the tanks backed away in time to avoid the heat ray.

Others weren't so lucky. Six tanks were reduced to radioactive slag, their crews vaporized. The rest of the tanks pulled back. They had tried to bluff Godzilla and failed.

Almost before it began, the attack ended.

"Now the tanks are pulling back," Gary Greg said as the image of the retreating tanks was beamed to a hundred countries.

"Will nothing stop this creature?"

* * *

As they raced through the streets toward the ramp to the expressway, Brian and Nick heard the sound of battle. Nick grabbed the television again and placed it on his lap.

"It looks like the tanks are retreating." Nick Said as he watched the screen.

Just then, Godzilla's awful roar echoed through the steel and concrete canyons of the city. Brian slammed on the brakes. They stopped in the middle of a wide boulevard between two walls of skyscrapers. "Look up there!" Brian cried, pointing.

Nick looked. On a highway overpass just ahead of them, three tanks rumbled by at top speed. They were gone as quickly as they appeared.

Then something odd happened. The ground underneath the car began to shake.

"Oh-oh," Nick muttered.

Suddenly, the towering concrete and glass building to their right seemed to burst apart. Brian slammed the car in reverse and stepped on the gas. The tires spun, but the car only shimmied. Chunks of stone, shards of glass, and whole pieces of office furniture rained down on the street in front of them.

Some of the debris bounced toward the skidding car. Just then, the rubber caught the road, and the Toyota leaped backward.

It was not a moment too soon.

The huge front wall of the building hit the street with a deafening rumble. A fist-sized chunk of masonry struck the windshield, leaving a small diamond-shaped hole on the passenger side.

Brian continued to drive rapidly in reverse, putting as much distance as possible between himself and the crumbling building. Finally, he lost control of the car. The Toyota hopped the curb and sideswiped an orange pay phone. Brian slammed on the brakes and the engine stalled.

They watched, paralyzed, as Godzilla's massive foot crashed down on the street where, moments before, their car had sat. Almost casually, the monster brushed tons of rubble aside and slammed against the apartment complex on the opposite side of the street.

That building, too, tumbled like a house of cards.

As the apartment building crashed to the ground, the air was filled with choking dust and clouds of smoke. In seconds, Nick and Brian were blinded. They sat, quaking helplessly in the front seat of the car, until the ground finally ceased to rumble and the monster moved on.

* * *

"Godzilla is laying waste to the Shibaura section of Tokyo," Max Hulse informed his millions of viewers. From his vantage point on Tokyo Tower, all he could really see with the naked eye was the glowing fires in Godzilla's wake and the occasional flash of a distant explosion.

But thanks to dozens of cameras in helicopters that crisscrossed the skies over the city, the rampage was being taped from many different angles. All of the visual images were being fed to INN headquarters, and to Hulse and his remote team on Tokyo Tower.

"As you can see, the creature's advance through the city is not being opposed by the military." Hulse cleared his throat and paused for a moment.

"I've just been informed that Godzilla is nearing a section of high-tension wires," he told the viewers.

"In a few moments, we'll know if the so-called electric fence will keep Godzilla out."

* * *

Godzilla approached the steel structure warily. The creature instinctively sensed the energy that coursed through the nearly invisible wires. The creature halted. His feral head turned left, then right. But there was no opening in the wall of electrically charged wires.

Cautiously, Godzilla moved forward. His body made contact with the high-tension wires in several places.

Molten fire shot through the monster's body. Godzilla twisted his neck in spasms of pain. Bellowing, he thrashed his tail, striking the base of one of the towers.

The structure began to collapse, breaking some of the wires. Sparks exploded as the wires struck buildings, trees, and abandoned vehicles.

The pain was lessened, and Godzilla pushed through the barrier. Sparks ran up and down his body. The creature opened his mouth and groaned in agony.

Then the spikes on Godzilla's back began to glow. Radioactive fire built up in the creature's chest. He twisted his head and extended his long neck. A hot jet blasted from the monster's gaping mouth and struck the nearest electrical tower. The steel framework began to glow, then melt.

The tower collapsed into a heap of molten metal. Godzilla blinked and reared back. Another blast of radioactive fire melted a second steel tower.

Godzilla's roar of triumph rolled over the helpless city.

* * *

There was so much dust and debris covering their Toyota that Brian had to get out and wipe it off so he could see out of the windshield. Nick hopped out too. He was clutching the portable television.

After the terrible sound of Godzilla's passing, the silence in the streets was eerie. Far away, the civil-defense sirens still wailed. Closer to them, the alarm from a long-abandoned car warbled. There was no sign of any other human being.

"Come on," Brian said after he cleared the windows. "Let's go."

"Wait a minute," Nick replied. "I think I'm getting something... Okay!"

Max Hulse's voice, sounding tinny over the tiny speakers, droned on. "We're back, ladies and gentlemen," he said apologetically. "When the power grid was broken, we temporarily lost power. Now our emergency generators are up and running. Again, I apologize for the temporary loss of power, and thank you for staying with us."

"And not switching over to CNN," Nick added cynically.

They sat on the hood, listening to the report. After a few minutes, Godzilla's image filled the screen once again.

"The creature is approaching Expressway Number Two in the Shiba district," Hulse announced. "He is very close to our remote broadcast center here in Tokyo Tower. Yes, I can see the creature out the window, but he still seems far away."

"Do you know how to get to Shiba?" Brian asked.