The Godzilla Chronicles

    Darwin stood firm, he watch as Joey quickly came running up the court. He was not going to get by. Joey, knowing full well Darwin's intention approached his position none the less. The two stared into each others determined eyes. Closer, closer. Suddenly, at the last minuet, Joey twisted on his right leg, spun left and leaped forward. Darwin was completely taken off balance, expecting Joey to charge right at him. Desperately trying to regain his position he flung up his arms. It was to no avail. Joey released the ball and it sailed quietly through the basket.
        "That’s game!" Joey laughed, reaching down and helping Darwin up from the floor of the driveway.
        "Maybe," Darwin added, "but right after diner I want a re-match."
    "Sorry," Joey smiled, "but I’ve got a ton of homework for tomorrow, and I didn’t even start on the book report."
Darwin looked sheepish, "Yea, me neither. That Mr. Harrison is a real pain with the homework."
        "Besides," Joey said looking into the distance, "looks like a storms coming."
Darwin followed Joey’s gaze. Off in the distance appeared what to be storm clouds. An occasional flash of what could only be lightning cutting across the twilight sky.

        Jillian Santiago enjoyed spending her retirement in a small town like Bakersfield. A town with friendly people, children playing in the streets and a close nit community that really cared about their neighbors. It was a far cry from her days as a New York City school teacher teaching high school social studies in the South Bronx. A far cry from the time she was caught in that school riot, pushed down that flight of stairs and forced to take early retirement because of a fractured hip. Now she enjoyed spending her day writing her journal and working in her garden.
        The roses were coming in especially nice this year, and the snake plants, well, there was still time for the snake plants. Jillian was fond of her garden, and took great pride in insuring that every plant, bush and tree received the special attention it needed. She was hoping to encourage her snake plants to grow better by adding a special mixture of fertilizer to the soil, but now looking into the night sky she doubted she would get the chance.
        Off in the horizon the sky had been growing black, and a slow, but steady wind had picked up from that direction. Every now and then a flash of lightening, blue white in color streaked across the sky, and the low rumble of thunder would soon be heard. ‘Nothing like the storms we use to get back home,’ Jillian though to her self. ‘Nothing like the storms at all.’
        As she turned back to the door that would lead into her kitchen, realizing that her night of encouraging her snake plants would have to wait, Jillian noticed that the wind was picking up. And while the flashes of lightening remained about the same, the low thudding of thunder had increased to a stead pace. ‘This is going to be one hell of a storm,’ she though. And she rushed into her house to ensure that she hadn’t forgotten to close the upstairs windows.

Godzilla was confused. This strange land he had found himself in was different from what he was use to. Sure the strange creatures which were constantly under foot seemed the same, as did the strange things that rolled and flew all around him causing nothing but trouble. Godzilla knew how to deal with these annoying things, his instinct was clear on that. But unlike in the past, his instinct could not recall a time when it took so long to get back into the water and recover from these encounters. Nor could it recall a time when the land appeared so vast and flat. Godzilla stopped in his tracks. In front of him was another row of those strange trees whose branches stretched across from one trunk to another and caused great pain every time he pushed passed. But now his instinct knew what to do. With a loud roar, head held towards the night sky, his back plates glowed, and Godzilla directed his atomic breath at the waiting line of sentinels. With a large flash, which streaked across the night sky like lightening, the power lines snapped, the tension towers glowed white hot, and everything in front of him exploded into a hundreds fragments. Satisfied with what he had done, Godzilla continued his trek across the American plains, each foot step echoing like thunder across the night sky.

        To any observer, the rag tag convoy of trucks and vans speeding down the Interstate looked like something out of a Woodstock festival. Dogging in and out between trucks and passenger vehicles filled with angry drivers, police standing by allowing this convoy to pass, it would be hard to believe that this was America’s crack Godzilla Countermeasures unit, currently in hot pursuit of the King of the Monsters. In the lead vehicle, a 1987 Ford Ranger, rusted, banged up, the days when you could make out its original color scheme long since past, sat lanky Jim Cirelli, a series of tracking units fitted onto the passenger side of the dash clicked off in front of him. Next to him, keeping one watchful eye on the road and the other on one of the tracking units sat a big, powerful soldier named Johnny Rocco.
        The two soldiers had worked together before, and the one thing Jim knew from his long association with Johnny, is that when he’s determined to catch up with something you best get out of his way. Following in the middle was another unimpressive vehicle, a VW mini-van which had seen its days of family picnics long past. A little, quiet guy name Bob Bondusky sat behind the wheel, desperately trying to keep up and stay behind Jim and Johnny as they barreled down the highway. In the back of the van, sitting at a make shift computer table, desperately holding onto the edge of the table, and looking over a stack of surveillance photos the government had provided of Godzilla, was biologist Ann Pfeif. Newly assigned to this unit, expert in mutative biology, Ann’s taken to referring to her little group of "misfits" as The Godzilla Boys. While there was no true order of command within the group, she had taken it upon herself to act as both a part time commander. As well as mother, nurse and whatever this group required at the time, within limits of course.
        Finally, taking up the rear in what could only be described as an orange and green painted UPS truck, was skinny private Tucker Guyson. Guyson was the technical brains of the outfit, for there was nothing which had to do with electronics that he didn’t know. This made him a little quirky, so he kept to himself most of the time. Currently he sat talking to himself, trying to compute the best possible scenario for encountering Godzilla, while trying to remain on the road behind Bob’s van.
        Suddenly the lead vehicle swerved into on coming traffic, then pulled back quickly to the right side of the road. Johnny Rocco’s voice boomed over the radio system.
        "Come on Tuck, you must have something from satellite tracking on the big guy by now!"
Guyson looked down at the display from the International tracking system sitting on the dash. This display was one of many the units hooked through the vast international tracking system set up by G-Force International. The display showed nothing. Reaching above his head and pulling down the radio microphone Guyson answered Rocco.
        "No, no, no! There’s nothing, nothing! I’ve checked the tracking system over and over and the readings still come up zero. Godzilla is currently no where within our range of coverage."
     In the lead van Rocco threw down the microphone with disgust. "That’s impossible, he must be in the area, the dam systems gone down again!"
        "Easy Johnny," Jim said, looking up from his own read outs. "While the system isn’t foolproof its been accurate nine times out of ten. Besides, if Tuck had picked anything up it would have also been relayed to these systems via G-Force control."
Jim looked at his row of monitors and adjusted the gain. "We’ll just have to face it, Godzilla not in this general area."
        "But the last readings we got put Godzilla here," Rocco interupted. "We’re too close to lose the big lizard now."
        "Be that as it may," Jim said, looking desperately over the dash and onto the road, "don’t you think you should slow down before we never get the chance to find Godzilla.?"
        Rocco eased off the accelerator bringing the entire convoy back to within the legal speed limit. He reached down around the floor and came back up with the microphone in his had. "Tuck, keep readjusting those instruments. I find it hard to believe that a creature as large as Godzilla simply vanished off the face of the Earth. Now either the instruments are mis-alined or the dam satellite system is down again. Either way I want to know the minuet any of these gages show anything."
        Guyson’s voice angrily responded. "Don’t go blaming me or my instruments, no, no, no! I’ve checked each and every piece before we set off and they were all working perfectly. There could be atmospheric interference with the tracking system but that seems very unlikely. The bottom line remains that until we plant our own unit on Godzilla there will be no way to know exactly where he could be going!"
        Rocco knew that Guyson was right, that there was nothing any of them could do to effectively track Godzilla until they could attach the special unit that Bob and Ann had devised. He just hated being so close to something and looking at the possibility of letting it get away.
        "Johnny," Jim said looking up from a map he had pulled out from under his seat, "there’s a rest area about a mile a head of us. Let’s pull in and rest up a bit. I want to check on how Ann's coming along with those surveillance photos and you need to check in."
        Rocco nodded and cringed. They all needed a rest, and the device was going to be useless, unless Ann could determined the exact spot to implant it on Godzilla’s body. Its just that he hated checking in with command base. The team had gotten use to acting as an independent unit, and Rocco was not in any hurry to return to his ‘by-the-book’ military days.

Godzilla stormed across the countryside, the electrode magnetic wake produced by his enormous bulk playing havoc on the natural conditions of the atmosphere. As rain poured down upon his rippled surface, it was instantly turned to steam, as the radiation of his body raised his internal temperature. He had just come across one of those strange forest of small square trees lined in rows. While this hindered his progress, it did not stop him, and he was determined to find the ocean and escape from these strange little creatures. Suddenly he heard a switching noise over head, and one of those strange birds with its wings spinning above its head came into his view. He had seen these strange birds before, and every time they had caused him pain. Godzilla stopped in his tracks, watching. The bird seemed to be circling high above his head. It did not make any threatening motions, it did not cause any pain. Circling, circling, circling, Godzilla stood transfixed, what was the strange bird up to?

A moment later another of the strange birds joined the first. This too, began to circle over Godzilla’s head. After a moment, Godziila was board. Regardless of how they were acting, eventually they would attack. Godzilla did not like it when this happened. Snarling, pulling his head back, Godzilla focused his anger onto the first strange bird, and it exploded into hundreds of pieces of burning metal. The other bird quickly began to head towards Godzilla. Now it would try and harm him, the creature's instincts told him. Two bright flairs shot out from the sides of the bird, and Godzilla felt a burning sensation spread across his chest. It did not heart much, but annoyed Godzilla and made him even angrier. Focusing his glare, it watched the bird begin to climb and arc back around. Godzilla would not give it a second chance to cause pain.

        Ann Pfeif sat in the back of the van toiling over the printout she had just completed. Bob Bondusky peered over her soldier. "Well?" he asked in his typical claim low tone voice.
        Ann handed him a copy of the printouts and the photos which had been provided by G-Force Japan. "As far as I can tell," she said, "the best spot to place the device is behind the third vertical fin, just above the right shoulder. At least that’s the information I was able to gather from the Birth Island reports."
      "And how do you expect to deliver it?" Bob asked. He was concerned about the placement of the device. They had worked very hard on getting the funding to develop this project. It took literally hundreds of hours to develop, months to construct, and there was only the one. If properly placed, it would interact with Godzilla’s nervous system, then the team would be able to track the beast where ever it went. But one degree off, and the entire project would be waisted. G-Force International won’t give them a second chance.
        "I’ve studied Sinjo’s reports," Ann said without looking up from the readouts. "When properly placed, the device will interact with the creatures nervous system. Of course his team was trying to find a way to interact with Godzilla, not just track it."
        "That’s all and good," Bob added, "but that still does not explain how we’re supposed to deliver the device. If 5 inch armor piercing shells won’t penetrant its thick hide what chance does our little device have?"
        "Sinjo was able to deliver the controlling device using a simple RT launcher," Ann stated mater of factly. Bob gave her a surprised, and puzzled look. "Of course he did have Ms. Segusa in helping him aim the shot," Ann added quickly.
        "So what your saying is that its all up to dump luck," Bob said sarcastically.
        Ann looked up from the readout and stared at Bob. Then with a determined look, she shoved another pile of paper and photographs into his hands. "Not if I have anything to say about it."

        Jim was leaning against the side of the tracking vehicle enjoying a all too brief moment of quite. Guyson was busy scanning the radio waves for any information on Godzilla’s whereabouts. Ann and Bob were engaged in their favorite pastime, checking and re-checking their calculations, and Rocco was checking in with command base. Overhead, the sky darkened, and a slow breeze began blowing from the south west. 'That’s some storm coming,' Jim thought, as a light covering of rain began to fall.
        Johnny Rocco came trudging across the parking lot of the rest area they hand pulled into. A cup of strong coffee in one hand, gesturing angrily with the other. Jim could see that he was obviously annoyed, but Johnny always got this way when he checked in with base. Picking himself off the side of the van Jim put on his best ‘let’s claim Rocco down’ smile. "Report go okay?" Jim said.
        "He’s an asshole!" Rocco snarled, taking a quick sip from his cup. "Millions have died, millions are at risk of dying and all that moron can think of is how this project is being received by the press and how the project has already gone into cost over runs."
        "He’s worried that G-Force Japan is not happy with the way we’re handling things,"Jim said matter-of-factly. "Give it a rest Johnny." He reached out, taking the cup from Rocco’s hand. "You know that he’s always been interested in his own public profile, and keeping the Japanese pleased with our situation. Regardless what ever Ann and Bob come up with it will never be good enough for them," Jim handed the now empty cup back to Rocco. "They consider Godzilla their own personal property."         Rocco was about to answer him, when Guyson came rushing out of the command van, in a highly agitated state. "They found him, they found him!" he shouted.
        Jim and Johnny spun around as Ann and Bob poked their head out from their van.
    "Unit tracking spotted Godzilla half an hour ago near Canyon Falls," Guy held out an area map. "They reported that he appeared to be traveling in a north eastern direction. They were trying to determined if it appeared to be changing direction when all contact was lost!"
        Rocco pulled the map from Guyson’s hand. Everyone in the team knew the look developing on his face, knew that they were once again in for the chase.
        "We could cut him off near Wayco Bluffs!" Johnny cried as he threw the map down and headed for the Ranger. "We can finally get that bastard!"
        The rest of the team had to scramble to keep up. "Get the device ready!" Jim yelled at Bob as he climbed into his seat next to Rocco. Before Bob or Guyson could react Jim and Rocco had pulled off! The rain had increased steadily now, and as each van pulled out of the parking lot it through up a stream of mud.
        Back on the highway the convoy continued its routine of zigzagging in and out around the few cars they encountered. As they traveled on the rain which had been falling heavily began to let up. "I know its letting up," Jim said. "But lets get there in one piece, okay."
        Rocco was determined that he was not going to loose Godzilla this time. On the dash board in front of Jim, the tracking devices began to emit a steady blip. Rocco glanced over at the readout.
        "That’s him," he said in a low determined voice. He pushed down the accelerator and the van serged forward. In front of the convoy the sky grew steadily black.
        "Easy up there Johnny!" Jim was concerned about the storm they were obviously heading into. "Based on the look of those clouds ahead were not going to be able to do much anyway."
        Rocco looked up over the horizon. There was something strange about the formation of those clouds. As they pulled closer to the storm Rocco realized what the problem was that he hadn’t liked.
        "Those aren’t clouds," he said to Jim mater of factly. "That’s smoke."

The low and steady tone in his voice made Jim realize the severity of this situation. Before them a solid pillow of black smoke rose from the horizon between the peaks of two low lying mountains. What Jim had taken for storm clouds was the smoke filling the sky and blanking out the light. As the vans spun down the highway no one noticed the exit sign which stated Bakersfield 2 Miles Exit 6. No one noticed that there wasn’t a single car or truck on this road with the exception of their own unit. As Rocco pulled the lead truck off the exit heading towards the black smoke he suddenly realized that whatever town lay ahead, existed no more.
As the convoy truned off the exit ramp and onto the main street, Bakersfield lay before them a smoldering ruin. Every house, every building, lay in ruin and flames. The streets were almost unpassable, with debris and wreckage spun all over the place. Here and there lay the bodies of the dead, and above the roar of the flames, could be heard the cries of the dying. As the vans pulled to a stop, and the team got out, no one said a word. There was nothing anyone could say.