Terra Monstrum

Chapter 17: Conquering the Worm

Jiuzhaigou Valley, China.

A soothing mist floated through the air as Gorosaurus lay sleeping in the wilderness, eyes closed and leg kicking lazily. After a long day of being chased by Chinese fighter jets and Monarch spy planes he had settled down here, in what seemed to him a very peaceful place to take a nap. No humans had followed him into the valley, and the sprawling expanse of rocks and trees felt welcoming to his ancient sensibilities. The sparkling mirror lakes that surrounded them were less inviting, having turned deadly by the runaway escalation of geothermal activity, but the blanket of hot steam they provided was pretty damn exceptional in his opinion.

It was quite a disappointment, then, when the voices of the Shobijin came ringing into his head. The resting giant hissed and rolled over on his back, trying not to pay attention. The Shobjin's messages continued though, continually growing louder and clearer until he had no choice but to pay attention.

"Gorosaurus! Gorosaurus wake up! We need you!"

He stayed where he was, legs in the air and eyes still blissfully closed.

"Gorosaurus, you have to help! We have a situation in Central America, we need you and Anguirus!"

He gave a lazy squirm, happy where he was. He wondered why they needed him and Ang specifically.

"Because you're the closest two who aren't already busy! Please! We already sent Baragon!"

They needed three monsters? Again? That was weird, he thought. Why couldn't Baragon finish the job?

"Well she was actually doing very well, we'll have you know, up until she got eaten."

Gorosaurus opened his eyes. He had to admit, that was hard to ignore.

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The Lacandon Jungle, Mexico.

Colorful exotic birds and the mutant bugs that hunted them scattered into the blood red sky above what had once been an extraordinarily beautiful land. The tropical rainforests for which the land was named were still present, but drastically thinned compared to any year past. Huge portions of them had disappeared, literally overnight in some cases, and were now replaced by deep, barren trenches of dirt that stretched for miles. The jungle looked as if it had been through war, scarred by the pits and gouges of some catastrophic conflict.

Humans were not to blame for this damage, however. Not directly, anyway. The UN, in fact, had spent a great deal of money over the past four days trying to remedy this problem. The Lacandon was an irreplaceable source of natural beauty and national pride, not to mention a hotbed of endangered plant and animal species. It would serve the UN well to make a public display of protecting it. Of course there was also another motive, one which they were much more bashful to admit. The wood.

It was no secret that the Lacandon Jungle suffered from deforestation and the slash and burn tactics of the past. Much of the land was currently under strict legal protection, and rightly so considering the damage that had previously been done. The idea of opening more land to logging would have been ferociously disputed in the past, but unfortunately desperate times seemed to call for desperate measures.

The painful truth was that earthquakes, mudslides, forest fires, volcanic eruptions and rampaging monsters were wiping out forests all over the globe, drastically cutting down on mankind's supply of natural resources. Similar crises were taking place with the mining and fishing industries. For PR's sake they wouldn't make any hard decisions until after this situation blew over, but it was their shared opinion that humanity simply couldn't afford to be cautious anymore. Not if they wanted to survive.