Godzilla Returns (6 page)

"Sorry," Will said, shaking himself awake. He longed for a cup of hot coffee. He looked longingly at her, too, as she took his hand and gripped it.

"Soon you'll see my homeland. It's much more beautifuller than Japan," she insisted.

Will smiled. He found her malapropisms cute. In fact, he found everything about her cute. Will wasn't blind to Soonji's faults. He knew she seemed like a shallow teenage girl who was moody, self-centered, and spoiled rotten. But he also knew that she was very beautiful, and that, for the moment, he was hooked.

"Finally the lazy sailors to get their stupid butts moving at last!" Soonji muttered impatiently in butchered English as the ferry pulled away from the pier.

* * *

The waters were calm, but the route was foggy as the Pusan ferry chugged its way toward the Korean peninsula.

On the ancient ship's bridge, high atop the upper decks, the captain scanned the waters ahead. The ferry was already over an hour into its journey, and the Sea of Japan had remained calm. The visibility, however, was less than adequate. The rising sun had not yet burned away the fog. It was an unnatural fog that seemed to envelop the sea in eerie patches. The ferry had been sailing into and out of these huge banks all morning.

"I can see more fog ahead," the captain announced. He lowered the binoculars from his weather-beaten face and turned to the man clutching the wheel.

"Keep the collision radar running, but do not slow down," he commanded.

The other man nodded, but was not happy with his captain's decision. The so-called "collision radar" on this old tub didn't always detect objects in the water ahead, especially objects that were low in the water.

But I'm not the captain
, the man thought bitterly.

As ordered, the wheelman pushed the throttle forward and the ferry sliced through the waves at a faster rate.

* * *

Less than a mile ahead of the ferry, sea birds roosted among strange, rocky outcroppings that projected from the water at odd angles in three long rows. The pointed tips of these outcroppings, which were stained dirty white with bird droppings, rose over fifty feet above the waves.

Kim, standing on the bow, spotted the three rows of rocks. He squinted against the wind and leaned over the rail to get a better look. He had made this trip twice, but had never noticed this strange rock formation before.

He heard a sound. The passenger cabin door opened, and then closed, behind him. Some passengers had come out of the warmth of the interior and onto the windswept deck.

Kim turned.

It was the American student and his girlfriend, the pretty Korean girl. Kim knew that the boy was an American - he'd heard him speak English.

Relieved that it was not his mother come to fetch him, Kim returned his gaze to the rocky formation.

That's strange
, Kim thought.
The rocks seem to have moved.
The formation had slipped into a fog bank, and then emerged again - this time it seemed much closer to the ferry.

Kim heard a startled exclamation behind him.

The couple had spotted the bird-covered rocks, too. The teenaged boy began jabbering in English.

* * *

On the bridge of the Pusan ferry, the captain and the wheelman heard the collision alarm go off.

"All stop!" the captain shouted, even before he saw the object in the ferry's path.

As the wheelman pulled back on the throttles, the captain lifted his binoculars and scanned the waters ahead.

At first he saw nothing. Rolling fog obscured his vision. Then the mist seemed to part and the captain spotted the floating mass of bony spikes. The three rows of objects were towering out of the water and drifting into the ferry's path.

"What is it?" the captain asked the wheelman. But the man at the throttle was far too busy trying to halt the forward momentum of the ship to answer his commanding officer. With a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach, the ferry captain returned his gaze to the horizon. He watched helplessly as the object drifted closer and closer to his ship.

In desperation, the captain reached for the steam whistle and pulled the chain. The loud blast cut through the fog. Birds, which had been roosting on the floating rocks, took to the air in a flurry of wings.

"Reverse all engines!" the captain cried, his eyes locked on the barrier on the horizon.

"Full reverse!" the wheelman answered, throwing the throttle in the opposite direction.

The engines groaned in protest as the propellers under the stern reversed direction. The whole ship shuddered. The captain and wheelman were thrown forward by the momentum of the vessel. Then the ship seemed to stop.

Before it could move backward, however, the Pusan ferry slammed into the floating mass with a sickening sound of grinding metal.

On the bridge, the captain and wheelman were knocked off their feet. The captain landed hard on the deck. The wheel itself was pulled out of the wheelman's grip as it twisted to the side. Indeed, the whole ferry was pushed to the side. Then its bow was lifted into the air.

"Damage report!" the captain screamed into the radio. "I want a damage report!"

"Captain!" an excited voice cried over the intercom. "The hull has been breached. We are taking on water."

"Damn," the captain cursed. He immediately reached for the long-range radio.

The captain keyed the mike. "This is the Pusan ferry," he said urgently. "Mayday... mayday. We have collided with an object and are taking on water... Mayday! Mayday!"

* * *

Will Adams managed to push Soonji and the little Korean boy back inside the passenger compartment right before the collision. Like everyone else, they were knocked off their feet. Now all of the ferry passengers were in a panic. Most of them were screaming in fear.

When the ship finally seemed to settle, the passengers calmed down a bit.

Will held Soonji down as he rose unsteadily to his feet. "Stay there," he said. Pale with fright, Soonji could only nod.

As Will cautiously approached the windows, people inside the ferry were still talking excitedly. One woman's panic-filled voice cut through the noise. "Kim! Kim!" she cried frantically.

Kim turned when he heard his mother calling him. He rushed across the heaving deck to her side.

"Mom!" he cried. "We hit some rocks.
Floating
rocks! I saw them moving!"

Kim's mother ignored his words. She pulled her son close and held him. The whole ship vibrated as the engine strained to move the ferry. The ship seemed to be stuck, as if it had run aground.

Just then, several crewmen ran into the cabin. They began taking down inflatable life rafts that were stored in the cabin's ceiling. One of them produced a bullhorn.

"We must abandon ship," the sailor said through the loudspeaker. "The hull has been ruptured and we are taking on water. Please remain calm. Emergency calls have already been sent. Help is on the way. As a precaution, we will now board the lifeboats in an orderly fashion. Please remain calm."

Of course, his words had the opposite effect. The passengers were thrown into a panic once again. Women sobbed. Men cried out. Some of the crowd tried to take the inflatable rafts away from the sailors. Fights broke out.

Though Will Adams knew almost no Korean, he understood the pandemonium all around him.
This ship is sinking!
He glanced down at Soonji. Her face was white with panic. She clung to the deck as if it were a lifeline.

A sinking lifeline
, Will thought glumly.

Nearby, Kim's mother clutched her son close. She could imagine no more horrible fate than drowning. It had been her lifelong fear. But she did not worry for herself - she prayed only for her young son's life.

Meanwhile, the young American stood up and looked out of the cabin window, toward the bow of the ship.

Suddenly, he gasped and took several steps back.

Kim, his mother, and a few others turned when they heard Will cry out. They, too gasped as a dark shadow rose up and fell across the bow of the Pusan ferry.

As the frightened, unbelieving passengers and crew watched in awe and horror, a giant monster rose up out of the Sea of Japan with an ear-shattering roar!

May 29, 1998, 7:18 A.M.
The Pusan ferry
Sea of Japan

"It's
Gojira!
" one of the sailors screamed. All eyes turned to the large windows.

The sailor let go of the uninflated raft he held and it dropped to the deck. The sailor hit the deck, too, and curled up in a quivering mass of fear. A nearby passenger - a burly man - quickly snatched up the raft and pushed for the exit. Another man grabbed the raft out of
his
hands, and a fight broke out.

In seconds, the Pusan ferry erupted in pandemonium. One woman screamed and fainted. She hit the deck hard because everyone else was too startled by the appearance of the now-legendary monster to catch her. Other women, and many men, too, began to scream. Children sobbed in fear.

Will Adams looked up as the shadow fell over him.

Godzilla!
he thought, taking two steps backward. He stared awestruck at the apparition standing before him.
Gojira
- the Japanese name for the prehistoric monster known worldwide as Godzilla - was supposed to be dead.

Hell
, Will thought,
Godzilla never should have existed in the first place!

As Will stared at the creature, panic swept through the rest of the passengers. All semblance of order was gone. People rushed for the exits, thinking they could escape the creature by jumping into the Sea of Japan. Will stifled his own panic and observed this incredible freak of nature with a critical, objective eye that would do his reporter father proud.

Godzilla looked like a
Tyrannosaurus rex
, but on closer examination the resemblance was slight. The creature had a tiny, wedge-shaped, almost feline head, a bull neck, and a wide, barrel-like chest. The three rows of spikes - which Will had at first thought were gigantic rocks - clattered as the creature towered over them.

Godzilla was almost completely motionless now - only his eyelids fluttered, and his lips curled back, to reveal six-foot-long bone-yellow teeth.

The monster stood on his hind legs, chest-deep in the churning waters of the Sea of Japan. Though Will could not judge the depth of the water here, he figured it must be close to two hundred feet deep.

That would make Godzilla over three hundred feet tall!
he realized with amazed terror. Streams of seawater ran off of Godzilla's hide, giving the monster a slick shine.

Then Will heard a huge, sustained rush of air. The creature must have just exhaled, he realized. Carefully, Will sniffed the air. An odor of fish and ozone permeated the atmosphere around the ferry.
I can smell it
, he said to himself.

Will was surprised to notice that Godzilla's body was not covered with scales - nor was it green. Instead, the creature was a dull charcoal black color, and his skin seemed gouged and pitted with deep vertical grooves. More than anything else, Godzilla's hide resembled the bark on an ancient oak tree. Will could swear that some of the grooves had barnacles, seaweed, and other sea life growing in the deepest furrows.

As Will watched, Godzilla slowly turned his mammoth body to the side. The huge spiked plates on his back slammed together, ringing like bronze church bells. This slow movement caused the water around Godzilla to churn even more.

Waves crashed against the damaged ferryboat with tremendous force. This action brought new screams of panic from the passengers, who still crowded the exits in a desperate attempt to flee from the monster.

Suddenly, there was another rush of air as Godzilla inhaled. Then a terrible, echoing roar smashed against Will's eardrums. As he covered his ears with his hands, Will's eyes rose until he was looking up at Godzilla's massive, feral head. To his shock and surprise, the great prehistoric monster seemed to be staring right back at him with a cold, reptilian gaze.

For a moment, the human and the monster locked eyes.

Then Will felt a tugging on his pant leg. He looked down. Soonji was clinging to his leg, her eyes wide, her tiny face pale with fear.

"Get down, Will," she whimpered, averting her eyes from the beast. "He
sees
you!"

* * *

The Maritime Self-Defense Force station near Hakata harbor in Japan was the first to receive the distress call from the Pusan ferry. Instantly, the duty officer sent out an emergency alert to the rescue choppers that were always on call.

Within minutes, three large, American-designed, single-rotor Sikorsky SH-60 "Seahawk" helicopters, built under license in Japan by Mitsubishi, were being powered up.

Also on the tarmac was a modified MH-53J "Sea Dragon" helicopter, bristling with antennas, with "Pave Low Enhanced" technology to enable it to lead a rescue or an attack in fog or in darkness. Like the rescue choppers, this highly advanced helicopter was always ready to launch at a moment's notice.

While the ground crews readied the aircraft, an officer burst from a nearby building, waving a clipboard in his hand. He ran to the MH-53J "Pave Low" helicopter's side door.

"Here are the exact coordinates of the ferry!" the officer cried over the sound of the spinning rotors. He handed the pilot the clipboard.

"Be advised -" the officer said, getting the pilot's attention by yanking on his flight suit.

"Yes!" the pilot barked impatiently, still studying his flight plan. "What is it?"

"The captain of the ship reports that he was attacked," the officer replied.

"Attacked!" the pilot said, both puzzled and excited. "Attacked by whom? The Communist Chinese? The North Koreans?"

"Worse than that." the officer replied.

* * *

Godzilla's roar echoed throughout the interior of the Pusan ferry, drowning out the screams of fear and panic.

"Come on... hurry!" Kim cried, tugging his mother's arm urgently. "We've got to get to the lifeboats!"

Kim's eyes, wide with dread, kept shifting from his fear-paralyzed mother to the panic-stricken crowds clogging the exits.