Godzilla Lives!
A Godzilla fanfiction by Travis J. DeSantis
Chapter Twenty-One
For the past week, Ogakor drifted. Deep, warm currents carried him hundreds of miles out to sea and he was now somewhere well south of Japan, outside the range of the JMSDF's searching.
The giant crocodile was also drifting in and out of consciousness. Having been caught in the detonation of an SSN-class Submarine's nuclear generator, to say the enormous mutant was in considerable pain would be a monumental understatement. His sheer size and chemically altered genetics afforded him some defense from the radiation, but each waking moment was nonetheless spent in agony. Often, he only awoke to surface and take a breath, but even that simple act sent fire searing into the monster's chest.
As it was, the monster reptile was a broken and bloody mess that was barely recognizable as alive, whose passing left a wake of ichor that poisoned the fish. Ogakor spent most of his time unconscious. However, sleep was no respite for the monster. Even then, he was prone to twitching convulsions. With no destination of his own, the giant crocodile was carried by the currents until his scaled body washed up on a remote island.
Like the Izu chain, the Ogasawara Islands were a tourist magnet. But even a monster such as Ogakor could not be found on this pristine beach untouched by Man. It was located within a rocky cove with lush jungle vegetation growing right out into the sand. Here, the monster was hidden from the world's prying eyes. The similarity of this place to his home in Australia was something the giant reptile could not appreciate.
Ogakor thrashed in a violent spray of sand and water. Unbeknownst to the mutant, whose simple animal brain could not comprehend the gravity of his situation, he was mutating further. Any ordinary creature would have been killed outright by an atomic explosion. But crocodiles were an ancient race that preceded and outlived the dinosaurs themselves, and Patterson's tampering had changed the monster's genetics just enough. Thought it hurt like no other pain in the world, the nuclear energy also acted as a trigger.
Bones broke, twisted, and grew, repositioning themselves. Muscles thickened and swelled, bringing new strength. Spikes and talons extended with a sickening squelch of blood. The thermonuclear burn on his shoulder healed and the missing blades were replaced. Already deadly fangs ground against bone as they split and shifted, creating an even more fearsome maw. Even his ruptured eye grew in, filling the bloody socket with renewed vision.
At last, the transformation was complete. Ogakor, now fully awake, raised his head and cried out. The sound was somewhere between a hiss and a shriek that conveyed the grisly voice of an angry revenant.
The scent of Godzilla lingered in the croc's nostrils, just as the pain dealt to him by the dinosaur remained in his memory. Ogakor clambered back down the beach and slid into the water, immediately heading north. He would follow the trail of his foe to the ends of the Earth if need be, determined to slake his thirst for revenge.
