I finally wrote something again. Here's a Alternate History WWII Kaiju story for a terribleminds challenge. http://terribleminds.com/ramble/2013/08/16/flash-fiction-challenge-subgenre-frankenstein/
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Petty Officer Nolan Daniels mopped the
deck of the USS Massachusetts
and looked at the island they were anchored just off shore of. It
looked nice with a long beach, palm trees, and the scantily clad
female natives. The warning horn blared and he grabbed the glasses
from his pocket and put them on. He turned toward the ocean and the
site of the air detonation nuke. He could almost make out the gray
specks of the empty ships that would prove how efficient it was at
taking out a fleet. The experts said they were at a safe distance,
but if the waves were stronger than expected everybody could swim to
the island, at least theoretically.
Beneath the deck
Nolan could hear people strapping all the ammo and supplies down
tight in preparation of a possible shockwave, and the definite waves
that would be coming, but thankfully that wasn't his job today so he
leaned on the edge of the railing and waited. He hadn't seen a
nuclear explosion before, but he'd heard from other guys who had and
it sounded impressive, and nobody had seen one detonated above water
before. Another horn blared and shortly after a second, and that
meant it was close. More people came up above deck and officers tried
to keep people from bunching up too much, but to little avail.
The waves rocked
the ship back and forth and did the same to the gray spots on the
horizon that everybody watched. Nothing happened as they stood there.
The crowd started to fidget as the wait dragged on. Finally a plane
came overhead from the horizon and most of the sailors looked up, but
Nolan kept his eyes on the horizon and saw the detonation. It
blossomed silently then formed the mushroom cloud that everybody had
told him about. At that point everybody had turned their attention
back and the sound of the detonation reached the ship as well the
shockwave that rocked the ship backwards and had lots of the sailors
staggered backward. The ship righted itself and was buffeted by some
more waves, but nothing compared to the initial shockwave. The
sailors clapped for the display and the gray specks on the horizon
couldn't be seen anymore.
The
sailors started to go back to their work, but Nolan kept watch. The
waves started to grow bigger and rocked the ship more violently
again. A bubble of water rose up out of the ocean and broke and
poured down over a scaled reptilian head that pushed through the
surface. A roar went up from the sailors and the monster lifted his
whole head from the ocean and let loose with a bellow that made Nolan
tremble. The monster pushed forward through the water coming right at
the Massachusetts.
“Get the guns
armed and loaded,” Commander Hershall shouted from the conn tower.
The announcement's
replaced his voice as they commanded everybody to their battle
stations. Nolan ran toward the bow and the 16” gun he manned. The
rest of the crew had already unplugged the barrels, so he got to the
interior and helped load the ammunition. Turret one had all three
barrels loaded and they fired all three guns at once. The rest of the
armament went off shortly afterward and everything fell silent. Nolan
wandered out of the battery and saw no sign of the monster anymore.
One of the men by the railing pointed toward the water and the wake
moving along the surface, much larger than any torpedo. The monster's
head burst out of the water again maybe fifty feet from the ship. All
the turrets fired a full salvo that sent fire nearly to the beast let
alone the ordinance slamming into it's head and body, which Nolan
could barely make out through the smoke. The machine guns kept up
their constant fire, but their noise didn't compare to the howl the
monster let out. A spider-like leg slammed into the deck ten feet
from him and ripped through the deck, Nolan had no idea how far, but
it was definitely too far.
The monster's head
broke through the smoke with its mouth wide open. It clamped down on
turret number one and ripped the assembly from the ship. It reared
its head back and sent the machinery flying away. The leg near Nolan
came out of the deck then slammed down with a second leg in the hole
that used to be turret number one and detonated the spare ammo. The
explosion lifted Nolan off the deck and he flew with his limbs
pinwheeling before he slammed into the water.
It
took him several seconds to get his bearings, and he swallowed a good
amount of disgusting water before that happened then started swimming
toward the island. First he had to go around fifty feet of
Massachusetts, but he
was swimming faster than he ever had before. None of the big guns
were firing, but most of the machine guns were still going, or maybe
that was just the ringing in his ears. Nolan didn't look back to find
out, he just kept going. He kept the island in sight and ignored the
devastation behind him. He swam until his hands dug into the ocean
floor and he dragged himself forward then turned and sat in the
shallows and looked back. The Massachusetts
was listing badly as the monster stood tall over it. The two front
legs kept striking holes into the ship, but the monster didn't look
like it had taken a full broadside from the battle ship. There was
some damage, but not even as much as another ship would have taken.
Nolan got to his feet and ran from the edge of the island. The
natives weren't there anymore and they knew best.
