History Shows Again and Again

Chapter 12

May 2019

Zeek groaned as he came to, eyes slowly blinking open. He let his eyes adjust to the brightness of the day before he slowly forced himself to sit up, wincing as pain erupted from his back, and took in his surroundings. The medbay on the Argo with his clothes on the chair next to his bed. He rubbed his head, closing his eyes as he tried to remember what had happened, why was he-

He remembered a terrified scream.

He remembered the sound of ice being crunched.

He remembered how Ishiro looked as he fell to his knees.

He remembered that goddamn screech.

He slammed a hand over his mouth, his free hand gripping the blanket in his lap as he began to remember more and more. Vivienne...she wasn't here, not anymore and the full weight of that fact slammed into him.

"Damn it..." he gritted his teeth as he pulled his hand away from his mouth and slammed it on the bed. "Fuck!"

He took deep breaths, giving himself five minutes, now was not the time to mourn and wallow, that will come after everything was said and done. He slid out of the bed, detached what he needed to detach and quickly changed before heading straight to the bridge. As he walked inside, he noted that everyone was tense, seemingly expecting the worse with a beeping noise echoing through the air.

"What's going on?" he asked, causing everyone to look over at him.

"It's Emma." stated Sam. "She just shut down Outpost fifty-six's containment system."

"How much time do we have?" asked Ishiro.

"I'm not sure."

"Is Emma acting on her own or is Jonah forcing her?" Questioned Zeek.

"...the former." Ishiro answered and Zeek set his jaw before nodding.

"Oh shit" Sam suddenly spoke up.

"What?" Zeek looked at the other.

Sam looked at Zeek, then Ishiro, then Mark. "She's using the ORCA through the speakers. We don't have time. Reports coming in that containment have been breached."

Zeek, Ilene, Mark and Ishiro all looked out of the glass and, as they continued to get closer and closer. Zeek could see black smoke billowing out of the volcano as fireballs were flung outwards and lava began its slow track down the sides. On top of the volcano was really caught Zeek's attention. The creature was just...perched there, not moving in the slightest except for looking around.

"You got a catchy name for this one?" Mark asked Ilene.

"Local legends call it Rodan, the Fire Demon."

"That's comforting." Mark stated sarcastically before looking at Rodan, who was roaring.

"Uh, guys...?" Sam spoke up, causing everyone to look at him again and he was looking at the map that showed the developed storm. "You remember that tropical storm where we last lost Monster Zero? It's changing direction and, uh...guess where it's heading now."

"That's not possible." Rick stated. "No storm moves that fast."

"Unless...it's not a storm." Ilene suggested.

"It's Monster Zero." Zeek added just as the marker for the titan came up in the middle of the storm.

"Oh man..." swallowed Sam.

"We need time to finish the evacuation." Ishiro stated.

"Well, you better hurry 'cause it's closing in fast." stated Rick.