Chapter 1 – Memories of San Francisco

The silhouette of what was left of the Golden Gate district of the once proud city of San Francisco was perfectly outlined by the fading sun which blanketed land, air, and water alike in red light. Fire ceaselessly assaulted the landscape in the wake of a titanic battle still taking place further inland. And high in the skies above were the descending flare lights of the city's last hope to avoid a nuclear catastrophe.

Amidst the chaos and ruin, a group of civilians gathered, ignoring or outright refusing the evacuation calls, and searched for their loved ones. Turning over every slab of rubble, every car, every fallen sign, they desperately called the names of those they'd come to find.

A little girl named Madison, held tightly in her mother Emma's arms, cupped her hands over her ears as the adults around her, both familiar and not, continued crying out in vain. The result was similar to when one cupped a seashell to their ear, with the world around her sounding like she was listening to it from beneath the ocean's waves. But the muffled, muddied, echoing cries from the frantically searching adults struck her eardrums despite her monumental efforts to shield herself from the reality they all faced.

One voice in particular belonged to a man she knew well. The man who raised her. The man who sheltered her. The man she had known as indestructible her whole life. The man who never cried, snapped, or showed signs of fear. And the man who loved her with all his heart. Her father, Mark Russell, flashlight in hand, called to her elder brother whose face she could not find.

"Andrew!" Mark shouted repeatedly.

Mark's frantic search became almost violently desperate. Every obstacle in his way was kicked, shoved, or thrown aside with as much force as he could muster, almost as if every single one of them was personally responsible for his grief. Madison's mother gently stroked her hair in a calm, quiet attempt to soothe Madison's growing anxiety.

She'd never seen her father this way before. Tears streaming down his face like raging rivers. His body movements full of stuttering confusion and uncertainty. And no matter how many times or how loudly he shouted Andrew's name, he received no reply. And against her will, Madison began to shake.

"Where's Andy, momma?" She asked quietly, hands still cupped to her ears.

Her mother gave no response. She only continued staring at Mark as her own tears flowed silently down her cheeks while she continued to stroke her beloved daughter's hair.

Suddenly, a guttural clicking resounded behind them. All eyes snapped towards the source of the sound. And from the smoky haze surrounding the city's still standing skyscrapers erupted a colossal flying beast with long, slender legs and glowing red eyes. As it flapped its wings, a thunderclap was released which sent a wave of air pressure hurtling across the earth below and knocked all of them to the ground. Soaring overhead and arcing back around towards the city, the creature disappeared.

But following it... Was something much, much bigger.

Madison's eyes slid to the right from where the creature disappeared, and what she beheld both literally and figuratively took her breath away. A colossus the likes of which she'd never seen before burst through a small gap between two skyscrapers, knocking both towering structures to the ground on either side of itself in a horrific display of power and majesty. Debris and rubble fell upon it and bounced off its rugged, reptilian flesh to the ground below. And with every step it took it shook the ground enough that she felt it in her very bones.

Mark observed the creature's feet as it stomped towards them, noting a familiar layout in the streets below as the location of where their dwelling here in San Francisco once stood. In the confusion and amidst the carnage, he'd been searching in the wrong location!

"Nooooooo!"

SLAM!

A thundering footstep crushed what little hope Mark had left of finding Andrew as what remained of their home disappeared beneath its massive clawed foot. Mark's hand outstretched and reaching towards it clenched into a fist as he looked up towards its head high in the skies above. It didn't notice them. How could it notice them? All it was concerned about was finding the flying creature again. As the beast turned, its tail swept aside several city blocks flinging hundreds of tons of rubble over their heads and into the waters of the bay.

A few thunderous footsteps later, and the creature disappeared back into the haze of the city. But not before leaving them with single, ear-shattering roar. And the last thing Madison saw was the face of her father shrieking in rage towards the creature as its tail vanished into the gloom.