The nonstop ringing of phones permeated the air like an acrid cloud of smoke. Combined with the dozens of frenzied conversations going on in the relatively small room, John Ericson’s voice was growing hoarse as he frantically barked orders over the hysteria that was his control room. In all his years as Secretary of Defense, he had never faced a crisis like the one gripping the heart of Manhattan. In fact, no one had. There weren’t exactly any precedents for fighting off a giant human in any military histories.
“Where is my god damned air support?” John barked into the phone currently held up to his ear. A cellphone was also ringing in his left hand, in addition to two more phones ringing endlessly on the desk in front of him.
“Black Hawks from Westfield are en route, sir. T-minus 5 minutes, F15’s fueled up on the tarmac, on standby.”
“STANDYBY?!” John roared, garnering more than a few looks from his surrounding officers. “What the hell are they waiting for? Get those birds in the air, NOW!”
“Yes sir!” the voice responded.
John slammed the phone back down into the receiver. The chaos of the last thirty minutes was more than the Secretary of Defense had endured in his entire career, which included five tours of duty. His clothes drenched with sweat, John gnashed a cigar between his tightly clenched jaw.
“WHAT THE FUCK!” A terrified voiced screamed.
John and everyone else in the room looked over towards the source – a woman with her hands on her head, staring at a TV tuned to CNN. The large, flashing banner at the bottom of the screen that read WARNING: GRAPHIC FOOTAGE seemed unnecessary, as the news was showing the footage of Tasha swallowing a living, frightened woman, over and over again.
“Jesus Christ… now she’s eating people?” someone bawled.
“Where the fuck are our tanks?” John growled.
“City’s gridlocked sir. They’re making progress, but much slower than expected.”
John’s attention snapped from TV to TV, as every news outlet in America was already covering the giant woman terrorizing Manhattan. So many questions were running through his head he could hardly think straight, let alone mount a defense to save one of the largest cities in the world. He watched the enormous girl sit on a three story building, which instantly popped like a balloon under her giant ass. The cigar fell from his open mouth as he witnessed the demolition, wondering how many lives were just snuffed out.
“Sir!” A man shrieked, running over with a cell phone in his hand, “You need to take this.”
“What?” John barked, snapping out of his daze. It took all of his focus to look away from the busty giant – everything from her immaculate proportions to her physics-defying movements were hypnotizing to the Secretary of Defense.
“It’s Dr. Caroll sir. He… he claims to know what’s going on. With… her.”
John’s jaw clenched instantly as he began grinding his teeth. Raymond Caroll – he should have known. This whole incident wreaked of one his little science experiments gone wrong that he had to clean up. Only this time, it wasn’t little.
John grabbed the phone, nearly crushing it in his shaking hand. “Caroll,” he growled.
“Secretary,” Raymond’s voice was sardonic, even playful.
“If you had anything to do with this, you’re a dead man,” John was shaking as he watched the giant woman stand up, mindlessly brushing the debris off her unbelievably pert butt as if she’d just sat on a dirty chair.
“My, my… threats already? Is that a twinge of jealously I hear?”
“Jealous? What the hell are you talking about?”
“Her name is Tasha,” Raymond continued, elongating her name so John would remember it. “You wanted a human test for my experiment, no? Well… I’d like to report my first trial as a humongous success.”
“You’re insane, Raymond. Look what you’ve done to our own citizens, our own country. You think you’re a god with…”
“I AM NOT A GOD!” Raymond erupted in a shrill cry. John remained silent, listening to the laboured breathing of his former subordinate. “But I have given birth to a Goddess, so maybe you’re right. America could have harnessed this power, if you had given me more time. Imagine – a country with the ability to grow any regular citizen into a weapon of immeasurable destruction? We could have ruled the world until the end of time. The greatest nation to ever exist.”
“Caroll…”
“NO!” Raymond shouted, “You ruined that chance, John. Now I’m leaving… John. And I’m taking my HECT with me, John! It’s unfortunate… but New York City shall serve as a gravesite – a grim reminder of what happens when the brilliant Dr. Raymond Caroll is crossed. My beautiful Tasha will continue to grow – bigger, and bigger, and BIGGER – and her reign will be absolute.”
Raymond stood on top of the roof of the building at 20th and 5th, cell phone in hand, as he watched Tasha walking slowly off in the distance. His eyes were open as wide as possible, and his face contorted into a maniacal grin.
John swallowed loudly and closed his eyes, trying his best to maintain his composure. “If you have any shred of sanity… of human decency… left in that head of yours, you’ll tell me how to reverse this. How to stop her without nuking our own city, for Christ’s sake. Raymond… please.”
“It must be exhilarating…no?” Raymond whispered, as if he was sharing the most intimate of secrets. “To be her? She must be hundreds of feet tall by now… to look down at our pathetic society from the perspective of a God? Her power is… limitless. No longer constrained by the fabricated rules of law, social conventions, or morality. Unbound by pathetic religious dogma, and answerable to absolutely no one. The bigger she grows, the more infinite her power becomes. LOOK DOWN, OH TASHA, AND REJOICE! REVEL IN YOUR ASCENT TO GODDESSHOOD, AND WORRY NOT OF THE INSIGNIFICANT BEINGS YOU LEAVE BELOW!”
Before John could even compose a response, Raymond’s babbling devolved into a fit of hysteric laughter.
“Ohhh, goodness,” Raymond chortled, “I apologize, old friend. Sometimes I do get carried away, I must admit. Nevertheless, I fear our time together has come to an end. My flight is here, and I really must be leaving. Best of luck.”
“Raymond… RAYMOND!” John shouted.
But the crazed doctor had already thrown his cell phone from the roof of the building. He took one last look at the towering giantess he created before climbing into the news chopper that just landed on the roof. As they took off, Raymond noticed plenty of people on other roofs watching the giant woman – his giant woman - in awe.
“Raymond,” Henry spoke as soon as their new passenger donned his helmet, “what the fuck is going on?”
“Henry,” Raymond smiled as the helicopter lifted into the sky, heading away from the chaos of Manhattan, “let me tell you exactly what’s going on.”