Uncharted: Whence The Devil Came
Abelard Archambault
Now, when the slaughter was at last over, it was with relief that I saw the lizards slipping back into the weed-covered sea and heading back in the direction from whence they came. But still there remained with us a feeling of unease; and so we rowed away from the island deep into the night, for there had been something about the whole affair which greatly haunted the mind.
As we rowed, we began to find it increasingly hard work; it seemed the weed thickened about us the further we ventured outwards towards open waters. And so, being in a wearied state, we settled down to two or three hours sleep before dawn. But even in those few hours of rest our sleep came to be disturbed, for at times we heard movement amongst the weed, and aiming the beam torch outwards, saw the sight of a great devil-fish framed within the light. At that, we killed the light and in a state of great fear rowed to a new position, for the thing could have brought us to a watery grave with one blow from its mighty tentacles.
The Beatles' psychedelic masterpiece "Tomorrow Never Knows" is perhaps my favorite of the fab four's tunes. In 2016, on the 50th anniversary of the album from whence it came, Revolver, producer Andrew Liles (sometimes of experimental groups Nurse With Wound and Current 93) released this extraordinary 50-minute remix of "Tomorrow Never Knows." At the time, Liles wrote:
Perspective is something that readers of Barry Cunliffe have come to expect. In Facing the Ocean: The Atlantic and its Peoples, which appeared in 2001, and now in its sequel, he has chosen to study Europe's oceanic destiny. Europe was, and is, the land between the oceans. Its deeply convoluted coasts and island fragments make for a total of 37,000 kilometers of interface between land and sea--equivalent to the world's circumference. It was "no accident" that Europe's first civilization arose in the Aegean Sea (on Crete), where the ratio of coast to land was at its greatest. The seashore is also where Europe came from--whence Europa was kidnapped to Crete, "a reminder, if one were needed," Cunliffe notes with characteristic charm, "that the seashore is a liminal place where unexpected things can happen!"
Following the voice she ran through the arch into a court, whirled about in momentary confusion and located the small guard-room whence the cries came. Two carabinieri started to their feet, but Baby brushed past them to the door of the cell.
One word as to the fate of the London pterodactyl. Nothing can be said to be certain upon this point. There is the evidence of two frightened women that it perched upon the roof of the Queen's Hall and remained there like a diabolical statue for some hours. The next day it came out in the evening papers that Private Miles, of the Coldstream Guards, on duty outside Marlborough House, had deserted his post without leave, and was therefore courtmartialed. Private Miles' account, that he dropped his rifle and took to his heels down the Mall because on looking up he had suddenly seen the devil between him and the moon, was not accepted by the Court, and yet it may have a direct bearing upon the point at issue. The only other evidence which I can adduce is from the log of the SS. Friesland, a Dutch-American liner, which asserts that at nine next morning, Start Point being at the time ten miles upon their starboard quarter, they were passed by something between a flying goat and a monstrous bat, which was heading at a prodigious pace south and west. If its homing instinct led it upon the right line, there can be no doubt that somewhere out in the wastes of the Atlantic the last European pterodactyl found its end.
By 2019, Monarch had formally established a research station, Outpost 33, on Skull Island to monitor Kong. When the ecoterrorist Alan Jonah and rogue Monarch operative Emma Russell unleashed the dreaded King Ghidorah from his Antarctic prison in an ill-advised attempt to reawaken all Titans and restore the natural order, the three-headed alien Titan emitted an alpha call that reached the ears of every living Titan on Earth, awake or dormant. Kong rejected Ghidorah's summons to join his reign of terror, one of only three known Titans to oppose it. However, Ghidorah's call awakened the Skullcrawlers still dormant under the island's surface, forcing Kong to battle them. While Kong triumphed, a powerful storm that Ghidorah had generated over the ocean began approaching Skull Island. By 2021, Aaron Brooks' father Dr. Houston Brooks was leading efforts on Skull Island to lead an expedition into the Hollow Earth through a entrance on the island dubbed the "vile vortex." The storm generated by Ghidorah eventually merged with the perpetual storm cell surrounding the island, creating an uncontrollable superstorm that plunged the island into permanent darkness. This turned out to be the fulfillment of an ancient prophecy; with the island blanketed in darkness, the evil bat-like Titan known as Camazotz flew from the Hollow Earth with his hell swarm in a bid to kill Kong and usurp his position as an alpha Titan. Kong was forced into battle with Camazotz, but was outmatched until a squadron of G-Team fighter pilots intervened. With their help, Kong overpowered Camazotz and banished him back to the dark recesses of the Hollow Earth from whence he came. With the storm unrelenting, Monarch evacuated any of the Iwi as it could, though many refused to leave the island and promptly vanished.
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