Greg Cox - Godzilla - The Official Movie Novelization

The ground rumbled in response, throwing Elle to the ground. She threw her hands out in time to keep her face from hitting the wet pavement. Rushing feet pounded past her, and she grasped just how scared Sam must have been when he’d nearly been trampled outside the hospital. She struggled to get to her feet even as the tremors increased in intensity. Through the crush of weaving bodies around her, she gaped in horror as, up the hill in Chinatown, an entire intersection bucked as though it was the epicenter of a quake.

Pavement cracked, wide fissures splitting the asphalt. Steam spewed from broken pipes. Several blocks away, the trembling intersection sank beneath ground level, briefly forming a deep crater, before erupting upward with explosive force. Chunks of cement and blacktop went flying as another monster, even larger than the first, surfaced from beneath the city. Eight giant limbs, each sporting vicious claws, pulled the grotesque body up onto the demolished pavement. The female screeched back at the male.

Oh, God, no , Elle thought. Not the other one, too!

More bodies shoved past her, obstructing her view of Chinatown and the new creature. She clambered awkwardly to her feet and rejoined the frenzied mob fleeing the creatures. The subway entrance beckoned her and she stumbled down the steps toward the gloomy, unlit station. National Guard members began to herd her through the entrance as they prepared to shut the emergency doors behind them. Elle didn’t like the idea of being locked underground in the dark, but it was better than staying out in the open in a city overrun with giant monsters.

Just as she reached the bottom of the steps, a fierce roar trumpeted across the city. The riveting growl was even louder and more intimidating than the strident howls of the MUTOs. Despite her desperate quest for shelter, Elle turned toward the source of the bellowing roar, as did all the Guards and awestruck citizens around her. Eyes bulged and jaws dropped as Elle and the others stared up the stairs at the riveting sight above. Oh my God , Elle thought.

Godzilla rose from the bay and stepped onto the land. His thunderous tread shook the earth as he stomped through industrial shipyards and piers. Office buildings and warehouses were reduced to splinters beneath him. A cable car was crushed beneath a great, clawed foot. His tail whipped behind him, toppling entire buildings. Smoke and flames and billowing clouds of dust and pulverized concrete obscured some details of his appearance, but his overwhelming size and power rendered Elle speechless and made her feel like a minuscule insect by comparison. Godzilla’s pitiless eyes fixed on the MUTOs, his ancestral foes. A furious roar shattered windows across the city and left Elle’s ears ringing. Everyone around stared up at the raging behemoth in awe and terror.

A giant now strode the earth, terrible in his wrath.

Elle had only a moment to absorb this humbling realization before the Guards pulled her all the way into the station and slammed the corrugated steel doors shut behind her. Impenetrable blackness replaced her view of Godzilla, but his footsteps still shook the station. Petrified people clung to each other in the dark, but Elle was alone with her fears.

She could only pray that, somewhere, the rest of her family was safe.

General alarm sirens wailed from loudspeakers at the refugee camp in the hills. Holding Sam’s hand, Ford frowned as groups of soldiers rushed past them. An announcement issued from the speakers:

“All U.S. Military and Emergency Response personnel, report immediately for duty—”

Ford didn’t like the sound of that. Stepping away from Laura Watkins and the other children from the school bus, he called out to the troops.

“Hey! What’s happening?!”

“All hands on deck!” an Army soldier shouted back at him. “Those things dragged the nuke downtown! It goes off, so does the city!”

“They need a crew down on the ground to disarm it!” another soldier said.

Ford couldn’t believe his ears. He remembered the warhead the helicopters had rescued from the wreckage in the mountains. The plan had been to lure all three monsters out to sea, then detonate the warhead. How the hell had it ended up downtown — where Elle was?

Sam picked up on the heightened anxiety in the air. “Daddy?”

Damn it. Ford hated what he was about to say, but there was no other choice. “Sam, buddy, you need to wait here with these nice people.”

Understanding, Laura came forward to take the little boy’s hand. “It’s okay, Sam—”

“NO!” Sam yelped. Fear contorted his childish features. “DADDY, WAIT!” He broke away from the nurse and rushed frantically toward his father. “I want to stay with you!”

His son’s plea hit Ford right in the gut. He couldn’t remember Sam ever saying that before, which only made what he had to do that much harder. His throat tightened and his eyes misted over as he knelt down to face the tearful child, while keeping one eye on the departing troops. Ford didn’t have long, but he owed his son more than just another abrupt disappearance. There had been too many of those already.

“Alright, squid, listen I—” He realized that this was no time to be glib. He dug deeper, speaking from his heart. “I’m going back to find your mom. That’s why I need you to stay here, where it’s safe. Can you do that for me?”

Sam absorbed his father’s words. It took him a moment, but he wiped his eyes and nodded. He was only four, but he seemed to understand. They both knew how important Elle was. Ford felt incredibly proud of his little boy — and grateful for his courage.

“Daddy loves you so much. You and Mommy are all I’ve got in this world. I love you more than anything. So I need you to be a brave boy, okay?” Ford’s voice cracked as he thought of his own father, who had sacrificed everything to save him so many years ago. Joe Brody had lost the love of his life and the mother of his child. Ford wasn’t about to let history repeat itself. “No matter what happens, just know—” He choked up, tears leaking from his eyes. “I’m gonna do everything I can.”

Sam responded by throwing his arms around his dad and hugging him tightly. Caught by surprise, and moved more than he would have ever thought possible, Ford squeezed the little boy back for as long as he could spare, which, sadly, wasn’t very long at all. More soldiers ran past them, answering the general alarm, and Ford reluctantly let go of his son. Ford started to stand up, then remembered something. He fished a small item from his pocket and placed it in Sam’s hand. The boy’s eyes widened as he saw what it was.

A toy Navy man, as promised.

He looked up at his dad and their eyes met, truly seeing each other for perhaps the first time. And possibly the last. Wiping his eyes, Ford climbed to his feet and sprinted off after the other troops, while Laura Watkins came forward to comfort Sam. Ford felt confident the boy was in good hands.

Now he just had to save Elle, too.

Chinatown was ground zero. Concentric circles spread out on the paper map from the current known location of the stolen ICBM. Stenz grimly contemplated the chart as his analysts pored over what data they could access with the power down. He listened as they formulated a desperate, last-ditch attempt to get troops in place to disarm the warhead before it took out the whole city.

“Thirty thousand feet should be right above the sphere of influence,” an analyst estimated.

A more skeptical analyst shook his head. “Even if they survive the jump, we’re talking a Hail Mary.”

Stenz understood the odds against them, but didn’t see any other choice. They could hardly stand by and watch the clock tick down to a thermonuclear explosion in the center of San Francisco. A hundred thousand lives were at risk. If there was even a chance of disarming the warhead, they had to take it, or there wouldn’t be a city left to defend.