Greg Cox - Godzilla - The Official Movie Novelization

Was it supposed to do that?

She tugged on her dad’s arm, calling his attention to the fleeing waters. His sunburnt face went pale at the sight. Her mom turned around and gasped out loud. She thrust Jenny into her daddy’s arms and they took off running inland, away from the shore, as fast as they could. Her mom shouted at the other grownups and children on the beach. Jenny had never heard her so scared, not even that time Jenny had accidently stepped out in front of traffic.

“Run!” her mother yelled. “RUN!”

Aboard the Saratoga , Serizawa commandeered a pair of binoculars from a passing seaman. His heart racing, he placed the long-distance lenses to his eyes and searched the moonlit sea for the enigmatic shape he had spied before. He quickly relocated the mysterious object, only to discover that the jagged protrusion had been joined by two smaller points on either side. Recognition dawned in his eyes as he grasped what he was seeing: a row of gigantic dorsal fins.

Racing straight toward the fleet.

Warning sirens sounded as observers aboard the various ships spotted the oncoming threat and braced for impact. Serizawa suspected that few aboard the vessels, except perhaps Graham and a handful of others, knew exactly who or what was surging their way, but it was obvious that something very large and solid was on a collision course with the Saratoga and the other ships. Serizawa grabbed onto a safety rail, not that he expected it would do much good, not if this was indeed what he surmised.

It must be him , the scientist thought. What else could it be?

Torn between scientific curiosity and fear for his life, Serizawa prayed that he would at least be allowed to behold the legend in all its majesty before it laid waste to the floating super-carrier. Through the binoculars, he watched as the giant fins came closer and closer.

Then, at the last minute, before the mighty battleship could even attempt to avoid the collision, the fins dipped rapidly beneath the waves, diving beneath the Saratoga and the rest of the strike group. The ship pitched back and forth as something impossibly massive passed beneath it. Baffled flight crews shouted to each other in confusion. Only Serizawa understood the awesome force that had just passed them by. Nature had spared them, at least for the moment.

Drained, he lowered the binoculars and let out a sigh of relief. Part of him was actually disappointed that the owner of the fins had not fully revealed himself, but he suspected that that fateful moment would be upon them soon. He turned toward the unsuspecting island only a few miles away. He had visited Oahu before. It was a beautiful island, full of friendly locals and vacationing tourists.

Little did they know what was heading toward them.

Piano music tinkled softly in the background as Bob and Barbara McQueen celebrated their fiftieth anniversary in an elegant restaurant on the top floor of their luxury hotel. An open bottle of champagne rested on the table between them as they finished off their entrées. Bob had ordered the surf and turf while Barb had gone for the coconut shrimp. A picture window offered a lovely view of Mamala Bay, but the elderly couple only had eyes for their meals and each other. Bob had vaguely registered some noisy planes zipping by outside, but knew they weren’t all that far from the Honolulu airport. Certainly, he had no intention of letting some inconsiderate pilots spoil this romantic dinner. He and Barb had been saving up for this Hawaiian vacation for years.

Caught up in their celebratory meal, the couple completely failed to notice as, less than a mile away, a huge reptilian beast rose up from the bay to tower over Waikiki. Torrents of cascading seawater veiled the monster’s form so that only the titanic proportions of the leviathan were revealed. Standing erect on two stout legs, the monster was nearly four hundred feet tall and solidly built, with a broad chest and brawny forearms. A pair of enormous jaws, resembling those of some prehistoric saurian, opened wide, but the creature’s roar was drowned out by the urgent wail of a tsunami warning.

Bob lifted his head irritably from his steak. Now what?

A massive tidal wave surged onto the shore. Terrified vacationers, including Jenny and her family, ran in panic, seeking higher ground, as the tsunami roared over the beach to flood the crowded streets and buildings beyond. The raging water washed over blocks of bars, night clubs, shops, and restaurants. Telephone poles and power lines snapped one after another, causing a total blackout to envelop Waikiki. Clinging desperately to her daddy and looking back over his shoulder, Jenny stared in fear as the merciless wave chased after them. Her father stumbled in the dark, but kept on running. The wave finally spent itself, only a few blocks behind them, and Jenny thought that maybe they were safe. The roar of the wave died away, only to be supplanted by a series of thunderous impacts, like the slow, ponderous footsteps of a giant, getting closer and closer. Boom. Boom! BOOM!

The footsteps were accompanied by a deep, churning rumble that sounded like a giant breathing. Jenny stared wide-eyed into the darkness behind her, seeing only a looming shadow that stood bigger and taller than any of the blacked-out hotels overlooking the beach. A shadow with legs, arms, and a head like a dragon’s.

It’s a sea monster , Jenny realized. For real!

Flares shot up like fireworks from the hotel rooftops. Flashes of blood-red light offered glimpses of the gigantic creature emerging from the bay and stomping through the flooded streets. The monster was literally too big to take in all at once. Jenny caught only bits and pieces of the colossal whole.

Three rows of jagged fins running down the creature’s mountainous back.

Two clawed hands with four fingers each.

An endless, spiny tail that looked as long as a train.

Snipers opened fire from the rooftops. Tracer bullets split the darkness, but the giant sea-monster kept striding forward, squashing cars and trucks and small buildings beneath his mighty tread. His mammoth tail swung back and forth behind him, wiping away bars, boutiques, and coffee shops. Smoke from the gunfire added to the confusion, but the furious barrage had no effect on the monster, which seemed to be heading toward the nearby hills, heedless of whatever structures got in his way. He paid no attention to the insignificant men, women, and children frantically running away from him, or even the SWAT teams trying and failing to repel him. Mere humanity seemed beneath his notice.

Fleeing tourists and locals scrambled to get out of the way of the monster’s path of destruction. Jenny’s family ducked into an alley and huddled together, clinging to each other in fear, as the lumbering beast passed them by. They stayed there for what felt like forever until, finally, the giant footsteps seemed to recede into the distance. The deafening gunfire gradually died away as well.

Is it over? Jenny wondered. Please let it be over!

The family waited several more minutes before cautiously venturing out of the alley and looking around. The electricity was still out all over Waikiki, but numerous small fires blazed inside the ruins of trampled buildings. As the smoke from the guns began to clear, blown away by the wind from the ocean, Jenny and the other survivors gaped in astonishment at the cataclysmic view before them.

The monster was gone, heading northwest toward the hills above Honolulu, but he had left a trail of destruction in his wake. A swath of flattened buildings and vehicles, at least three blocks across, stretched from the sea to the jungle beyond. The invincible creature had cleared a path through the heart of Waikiki, crushing everything in his way. A trolley car had been ground into the pavement. A giant footprint was sunk deep into a luxury golf course. Neither tourist traps nor residential neighborhoods had been spared. Palm trees littered the rubble like broken toothpicks.