Life After The Age of Monsters:
A Saga of Those Who Survived
By: gorgara4888
The old jeep rolled along the freeway as the massive jungle of skyscrapers loomed ahead of them. Hiroki turned to see the smiling face of his twelve year old grandson Yoshi riding in the passenger seat. Yoshi always loved to come with Hiroki to the city.
"Did you take you pill today?" Hiroki asked. Yoshi nodded and went back to playing with the two figurines that Hiroki had carved for him for his last birthday. There was a black ape and green dinosaur. Hiroki had taken several weeks worth of nights studying pictures from books he borrowed, by candle light to conserve electricity. Now the city was around them after a few blocks they had to stop because the way was full of abandoned cars. As they got out Hiroki turned to Yoshi.

"Okay what are the rules about the city?" He asked.
"Stay togather, and don't eat or drink anything without asking first. If I hear anything I am to tell you."
Hiroki smiled at his grandson and handded him the handle of a red wagon. While he shouldered an old but well kept riffle. Hiroki had heard stories of the gangs of pirates that still roamed the city and the ferals who were as dangerous as a bear or mountain cat though he had never seen one himself. As they walked through the empty halls of the city Hiroki began stripping metal of cars and collecting beams of broke steel.

"Grandfather?" Yoshi asked as he helped Hiroki put a large chunk of bent rebar in the wagon.
"Yes Yoshi?"
"Tell me again why no one lives in the city anymore?"
"Its because of the monster Yoshi. Not just any monster but the King of Monsters." Hiroki began as they marched along the broken streets in search of anything they could use. "Long ago mankind discovered a powerful energy source."
"Like the solar cells, or the wind mills that make electricity for the house?" Yoshi asked.

"Yes, kinda like that only this energy made solar cells look like nothing but a ember compared to it. This energy was dangerous like fire and we were not responsible with it and it woke up the monsters, who had been sleeping for a long time. The monsters first came only one at a time but then they began to come in larger numbers all over the world. The monsters would fight each other to see who was stronger and over the years they killed each other till only one was left. The last one was the King of Monsters, he was the first one awakened by the energy and he was the strongest of the ones awakened."

"What happened next?" Yoshi said excitedly, but Hiroki held up his hand to silence the lad. Hiroki had heard something coming from the coffee shop down the street.

"Yoshi get in." He ordered opening a car door and shoving the young boy in. Slowly Hiroki advanced on the shop his riffle ready. Guns were very rare and Hiroki was lucky enough to have one. He also carried a sword strapped to his belt incase he had to fight in close quarters. He came to the edge of the front window which was busted out and glass spilt everywhere. The sound came again a shifting of rubble inside the shop. Hiroki stood against a wall and counted to three. He jumped around and aimed his gun at the shop. Inside on the counter was a large cat. The animal turned at Hiroki's arrival and hissed at the man. Hiroki noticed that parts of the animal had burns on it and its fur was patchy. He quickly returned to Yoshi and led them around the animal. Radiation sickness wasn't communicable but the cat could be rabid and rabies vaccine was hard to find and expensive to buy. Giving him an idea Hiroki lead Yoshi down the street to a large white building with a big red cross on it. Hiroki liked to avoid hospitals as the corpse count was high and he had heard that pirates and ferals liked them as the meds kept them alive, but today he would try to find medicine for the village he lived in as the flu season was going to start and they had lost eight people to it last year. Slowly he and Yoshi crept through the shattered hallways checking every room hoping to find them all empty. The finally came to the end of the hall where one door was hard to open. Figuring what he was going to see on entry Hiroki ordered Yoshi to stand guard outside. The boy smiled and saluted his grandfather then turned and watched the stairs and door for any movement. Hiroki used his sword to jimmy the door open the stink repelled him for several seconds before he could enter the room. As he suspected the door was blocked by large crates of medical equipment and beyond that was a rotting corpse of what Hiroki thought to be a older man but he couldn't be sure as the body was badly decomposed. He said a small prayer for the pour soul and looked around the room for anything he could use. his eyes alighted on the crates that blocked the door. Tears came to his eyes as he looked at the red lettering spelling "Flu Vaccines. Handle with care." He quickly dragged the crates out and put them on another wagon that Hiroki had scrounged up from the department store down the street. Satisfied with the days haul he and Yoshi began the long journey back to the car as the light faded from the sky.

"Can you finish the story now?" Yoshi asked slightly impatient. Hiroki smiled. "Alright where was I?"
"The King of the Monsters killed all the others." Yoshi said excitedly.
"Ah, now the story becomes very sad. You see the King of the Monsters hated man for using the energy, but he also needed it to feed him and make him stronger so he raided our cities and devoured the energy. Unable to stop him we stopped making the energy. but he kept coming back. He would eat any energy produced that wasn't clean like our solar cells or the windmills at home. We even stopped making other energy then the great march happened. The King of Monsters angered that we no longer fed him rose from the sea and burned every city on the coast to the ground then began to move inland. People fled his march and Japan became nothing more than a cloud of smoke among the blue water. When he was done the beast left us and sought out other countries to feed him. We never went back to the cities for fear that he would return to destroy us once more." They had returned to the car and night had fallen as they drove back to their village.

"But what happened to him Grandfather? Where did the King of Monsters go?" Yoshi asked.
Hiroki sighed. "That I don't know Yoshi. There were rumors that he fought a monster that was as powerful as him and they both killed each other. There was also a rumor that the great goddess of Infant Island returned and slew the beast. Some had claimed that during his march across America they used a weapon that used the special energy that he fed on to kill him, and then there are those who swear he was stolen by spacemen to be used to kill monsters on other planets. I believe he is still here in the sea waiting, and watching for us to try and rebuild a life like we once had where the day never ended and a man could talk to another on the other side of the world as clear as you and I speak now." The darkness clears ahead as warm lights and fires greet them along with the sign reading "Edo village. Those who once called Tokyo home" They stopped at the blacksmith shop were Hiroki worked with his two sons who had minded the forge while he and Yoshi went to get metal for supplies. Yoshi's father and his uncle were there waiting to help unload. As Yoshi got out he turned to Hiroki and smiled.

"That was a good story Grandfather." And then he ran inside to greet his mother. Hiroki watched after the boy and something sad gripped his heart. It had been nearly fifty years since Godzilla razed Japan to the ground and now it was just a story told to children on cold nights. That is Hiroki's fear that the story will bring the real King of Monsters back. Hiroki was sure Godzilla still lived for as long as Man exists so shall Godzilla. That was what Mothra said right before the same very monster tore her in half. With Mothra gone, man was defenseless and doomed, or were they? Hiroki looked around at the village of Edo where lights shown and people farmed and rejoiced in the simpler pleasures. Were these survivors of the Age of Monsters so destitute? True not one had a cell phone or even a computer but did you really need those things or as Hiroki had found when he a middle class business man first walked from the ashes of Tokyo so many years ago and built the very house he now lived in with his hands that man could be a man as long as he had something to hope for. Something to live for. And funny to say that but Godzilla gave Japan that. Something to hope for a world without monsters. As Hiroki walked upstairs to his bedroom He passed an old photograph of Hiroki standing with a young woman in a military uniform. Hiroki stopped and touched the photo and smiled.

"I miss you Miki, but you found peace in the end." Hiroki Saegusa spoke sadly as he walked into his room and prepared for bed. There was much to do tomorrow as prefect of Edo it was his job to find a place to store the meds he had brought back and Shoji's teahouse was the best place.
The aging ex-sumo would not like to hear that the casks of Saki would have to be less than last year of accommodate the medicine but he would deal with it. As Hiroki closed his eyes he said a little prayer that the dream would not come tonight. For once it did not. Tokyo did not burn in his dreams.
Far away under the crushing depths of the ocean the leviathan slept no more a mere beast of flesh but a legend of monumental proportions. Godzilla may have not intended but the world was changed with his passing. The dominate race had learned humility and like the ancient Kami of Shinto legend once his job was done and his rage quenched he retreated to the solitude of the shadows to await another trespass by the creatures called man onto the place nature called sacred. He was content to wait. Like all true predators he was patient. If it be a hundred years than so be it. He slept and dreaming of fire. Fire of death, and rebirth for all are changed in flame.