Chapter 1
The arctic sun had begun to rise, casting an eerie glow on the wind-blown, icy landscape. Just as the first few rays of sunlight appeared over the horizon the army pontoon arrived at the crash site. It was their job to find any survivors, but in the prevailing circumstances there was a slim chance that anyone had
survived.
The plane was a Boeing 777, belonging to Alaska Airlines, and had gone down about 10 miles west of the Chandalar River. The crash was in an unusual situation; the plane had gone straight through the roof of a thermokarst, a labyrinth of ice caves in the permafrost caused by melt-water. So, the plane was
sticking headfirst into the ground with only the tip of its tail sticking out of the cave. Most of the plane was buried deep in the frozen ground.
Within several minutes, the recovery team was crawling across the frozen wreckage, like so many ants at a picnic, in an attempt to salvage anything. They
investigated every nook and cranny of the airliner, but to no avail. All they found were frozen bodies. Then, under the lead of Colonel O'Brien, the team
began to search the tunnels of the thermokarst. This could be dangerous if you didn?t know what you were doing, so O'Brien made sure that every member of the
team had a walky-talky, a first-aid kit, and some provisions, all in case they got lost. Another danger was crevasses; one misstep and they could be frozen
for centuries, as had happened to many mammoths in the past. But the team would find something even more dangerous than a crevasse, but which had fallen into a
fate similar to that of the frozen pachyderms.
Colonel O'Brien was peering closely at the walls of the icy tunnel, when he noticed something strange. The ice appeared to be a pale green colour, barely
discernible but still, it was definitely green in colour.
"Lindsey," O'Brien called "come take a look at this." Doctor Carthright came over to where the Colonel was, and looked closely at the wall of ice.
"What do you make of that?" Colonel O'Brien asked, eager for an answer.
"I'm not sure Mitch," she said, "but it looks like minute algae are growing in the ice."
Mitch was perplexed. "You mean something can actually live in the ice? How could that be possible? Look at those bodies over there, they froze in less than a
day."
"You're right," Lindsey said, "but certain algae thrive in freezing temperatures. There's plenty of light coming in trough the ice, and they can get all the nutrients they need from the ice itself."
Mitch wasn't listening. Peering through the greenish haze, he saw something frozen in the ice. He couldn't make out what it was, but there was definitely some object embedded in the walls.
"Lindsey," he said in a somewhat spaced-out voice "do you see that?"
"Yeah," she replied, "it looks like, well I can't tell what it looks like, the ice is too hazy with all the algae in it."
So, to satisfy their curiosity, they set about digging out whatever there was frozen in that ice. Seven team members, with pick in hand, were chipping away at the ice, until it was thin enough to see what was frozen inside. This was even more of a shock than finding the algae. Frozen solid, for who knows how long, was a clutch of six eggs, perfectly preserved. Even the nest of bracken that they were lying on was preserved, to the point that the green vegetation was still green. The ice had perfectly embalmed the eggs and nest, and as a result nothing had rotted. All was in perfect condition.
Digging ever more carefully now, they managed to expose the eggs. It was a strange sight, half a dozen eggs in the middle of the tundra. But there they were, sitting on their nest as if no time had passed at all. Mitch picked one up carefully, in case it might break under too much pressure, and held it up to the
sunlight.
He looked hard at the egg. Due to the bright sunlight, he could make out a silhouette of the creature inside. It was curled up, and Mitch could barely make out the outline of a head, and three pairs of legs, with a tail folded over the back. He could also see the yolk and airspace at the top of the egg.
"Look at this, Lindsey," He said, "there's still all the veins and everything inside. If I didn?t know better I'd think it was alive."
Mitch lifted his other hand and lightly touched the shell of the egg, near the tiny creature's head. The thing jerked up a leg, as if to defend itself. It was
still alive.
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Although the team's mission was deemed a failure when they returned, nevertheless it was an important arrival. They had brought back the eggs and the nest that they had been found on to the secret underground research station in the Sierra Nevada Desert, popularly called "Area 51". Although people usually connect Area 51 with aliens, the fact is that the U.S. government has never even seen a living alien; they all die with the impact. But the facility is used for more than just examining downed spacecraft, for genetic research also goes on there. But this was a first for Area 51, never before had a prehistoric animal, frozen alive in the ice, ever been inside of the underground complex. But here they were, 6 rounded eggs sitting on a nest of bracken, which was carbon-dated to be 65 million years old. Doctor Carthright was ecstatic.
"This is a once in a lifetime experience Mitch" she said, "Who else can say that they touched 65 million year old eggs?"
"Me." Colonel O'Brien said flatly. "I was the one who found them, after all. So, what do we know about our little friends?"
"Well," Lindsey began "we've figured out why they didn't die like the mammoths or Neanderthals that have been found frozen in ice did."
"And why was that?" Mitch asked, not really caring very much.
"The algae." Lindsey replied. "The oxygen produced by the algae kept the tissue inside of the eggs alive, and the freezing temperatures kept them in a state of
hibernation."
"You mean those things slept for 65 million years?" Mitch said dumbfounded.
"No," Lindsey replied "they weren't sleeping. To be proper, they were lying dormant, like a seed. The tissues were preserved and kept alive by the alga
growth, and the nature of the eggs kept them alive. I guess whatever's inside of them is a really hardy bugger."
Lindsey had no idea that what she just said was an understatement.
Chapter 2
General Allen had the privilege of being one of the few people present when the first of the eggs hatched. He insisted to be there, so he could evaluate the
usefulness of whatever came out of the eggs. He was sure that whatever was inside would be a big help to the present situation of the world. He couldn?t have
been more wrong.
Before the day of their hatching, the eggs had been closely studied. They were about the size and shape of a baseball, pitted across their surface like a golf
ball, and as hard as a billiard ball. They were creamy white in colour, and were overall reminiscent of an insect egg. They seemed to be tolerant of any
temperature, and within three days of arriving at Area 51 they had begun to hatch.
Doctor Carthright, Colonel O'Brien and General Allen all stood impatiently at the thick security window. The eggs were on a pedestal in the middle of a room
that formerly housed some of the wreckage from Roswell. The room had walls made of a titanium alloy that could withstand all but the most powerful explosions, and the windows were just as strong. The army took no chances that anything may escape or otherwise damage the facility, and this was no exception.
The three officers were summoned there when Michael McCormick, another Colonel, noticed one of the eggs shaking. All doors leading into the cell were quickly
sealed off and the other officers summoned. As they gazed at the eggs they wondered what would come out. They didn't have long to wait.
Soon all the eggs were shaking, and all of a sudden a pair of glistening mandibles pierced the shell of one of the eggs. This pair, which was placed horizontally, was quickly followed by a pair of vertical jaws, and
together they bit a hole in the side of the egg. So now, the animal's mouth was free from the eggshell, and the rest of its head quickly followed.
And what a head that was! It was almost grotesque, but strangely familiar to the observer. Above all, it resembled a caterpillar's head in general appearance,
but the enormous mouth took away any affection that one might have for this outsize insect. This mouth had four jaws, as before mentioned, but also had four silk glands, like a normal caterpillar, one between each jaw. The head was shaped somewhat like a cross between a Vicks throat lozenge and an octopus; an upturned
pyramid with rounded corners and the top missing. Two squinting, compound eyes blinked at first exposure to the light, and there were six occelli, or "simple
eyes", arranged in the shape of a V in the middle of its head.
The creature sat with its head sticking out of the eggshell for a couple minutes, apparently exhausted, then with much twisting and turning thrust out its right foreleg. It looked exactly like the leg of an insect, jointed midway through and covered in short bristles. Actually, the animal's head was covered in a dense coating of the same bristles, but they grew in such a way as to resemble a short coat of hair. It then freed its left foreleg, and paused for a while before freeing the next pair of legs. It continued this process until six pairs of legs had been freed, after which it flopped down, exhausted, and had a long rest. While this was going on, all the other creatures were going through a similar process, and an hour after the hatching had begun, the last of the little ones were pulling their tails free of the eggshells. They then proceeded to eat the remains of the eggs and any yolk and other membranes that had not been absorbed before hatching. And now that they were all hatched, it was just a matter of time before they grew hungry, and thirsted for fresh meat.
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They were truly strange creatures, like a two-foot long centipede. Technically speaking, that's almost exactly what they were. The head looked a little too
large for the body, and their twelve legs only supported the front half of the body, the rest sweeping backwards to form a long tail. The tip of this tail was crowned with two big claws, resembling the stingers of a scorpion. Once again looks were not deceiving, because it was later learned that the claws were stingers, equipped with a very potent poison. One of the animals had died during the hatching process, and Doctor Carthright was able to examine it.
"Well, we know one thing for sure." Lindsey said as she ushered Colonel O'Brien into the lab room.
"And what would that be?" Mitch asked, looking at the dissected remains of the little creature with disgust.
Lindsey poked at the thing's head with a scalpel. "They are very intelligent. I examined the brain case, and it is much more advanced than any other arthropod
known to man. Most insects have little more than a bunch of swelled nerves for a brain, and the same goes for spiders, scorpions, centipedes and the like. But
in these things there is a real brain, like that of an octopus, divided into many complex lobes."
Mitch wasn't really listening, but had gone over to the body of the creature and looked at its mouth. Big, jagged teeth lined the inside of the mouth and these
extended all the way down the throat and into the stomach.
"Woah!" Mitch exclaimed, "If this thing tried to bite my finger, I wouldn't have a finger left!"
"You wouldn't have a hand left." Lindsey said. "Its mouth and throat can expand to take in very large meals, and those rows of teeth can slice through bone. All in all, that thing would've grown up to be one big killing machine."
"What do you mean big?" Mitch asked. "How big do they get?"
"Well," Lindsey began, "We don't know for sure, but the proportions of the head and legs compared with the body suggest that they could reach a considerable
size. If these are anything like other arthropods, then they won't stop growing until they reach an old age, and I can't tell how long these things live for."
"Can't you guess?" Mitch asked.
"We could guess," Lindsey said impatiently, "but that wouldn't be very reliable, now would it? We do know one more thing about them though."
Mitch looked at her. "And that would be?"
"They're all females." Lindsey replied. "I took the time to run their gene-sequence through the computer's database, and it showed a similar sequence to a smooth stick insect from New Zealand."
"How is that possible?" Mitch asked. "Don't they need guys too?"
"No, they don't." Lindsey replied. "It's called parthenogenesis, Mitch. That means 'without males'. Basically, they are all born pregnant, like a New
Zealand stick insect, and can produce more eggs throughout their lifetime. So, if they get enough food, they could become literal egg-laying eating machines."
Mitch looked out of the lab window and into the cell containing the creatures. They had broken through the plexi-glass dome that had kept them on the pedestal
and were now wandering around the room in search of food. As Mitch watched, the little creatures had begun to fight with each other. The biggest one reared up on
its legs, lifting the first two pairs above the ground, turned to face the smallest of her sisters and let loose a curtain of silk from the four facial
glands. No sooner than the little one was struck down, than all four of the other creatures descended on her, and within fifteen minutes they had reduced their
unfortunate sister to a pile of fuzz and her two stingers, which had no effect against her gluttonous sisters.
Chapter 3
The army decided on a name for the creatures soon after they had devoured their poor sister. They were called Opagatorn, which is a corruption of a Toltec
word for "cannibal". Under the advice of General Allen, the public was not to be informed of the existence of the Opagatorns, except in the unlikely event of an escape, in which case it would be best for the public to know what to expect. But since the army was taking all the necessary safety precautions there was no worry of an escape, so the existence of the Opagatorn was to remain a secret. However, certain members of the New York Zoological Society and the Zoological Society of London were included in the project, which became known as "Project Opagatorn".
It was soon realised that to prevent any more cannibalism amongst the Opagatorns it was necessary to find out what they would eat. It was obvious from the immense array of teeth and powerful stomach acid that the Opagatorn were carnivores, but what to feed a 65 million-year-old centipede wasn't exactly common knowledge. So, in an attempt to find out what they would eat, a chicken, sheep, trout, monkey, caribou, bullfrog and crocodile were brought into the cell by Colonel McCormick. The four Opagatorns ignored the animals and attacked the Colonel instead, but despite his frantic pleas for help, General Allen advised that the Opagatorn be allowed to finish what they had begun, because he'd rather lose one of his men than all of them. Plus, he was going to discharge McCormick the next day anyways, so he didn't think it was too much of a loss. Lindsey thought he was sick and
twisted.
A strange phenomenon was observed after Michael had been devoured. As soon as the Opagatorns had eaten their fill, they went off to a corner and flopped down, apparently exhausted. Then, their exoskeleton would split right between the two rows of eyes, and this split would carry down the whole length of their body. Then, the Opagatorn would literally crawl out of its own skin, a new one having grown in under the old one. It would then turn around, eat the old skeleton, then fall to the ground. It would stop breathing, its body functions would crawl to a stop, and it gave all appearances of being dead. But it wasn't dead, because
the whole time that they were lying down sprawled out on the floor they were growing, slowly at first, but within an hour it had doubled in size. Also, while
they grew, and extra pair of legs sprouted just behind the last pair. Then, almost as soon as the growing stopped, the Opagatorn would get up and adjust itself into a comfortable position. Then it would fall into a deep sleep while its new exoskeleton hardened. This was repeated after every time they had a big meal until they reached six feet in length, after which they only grew an extra foot with every moult and now had twenty legs.
When the Opagatorn were all around six feet long they no longer fit in the cell, and had to be moved to a special facility in the nearby Sierra Nevada Mountains. It was found that, although they preferred human flesh to anything else, they also ate crocodile and monkey with relish. They would eat other things if primates or crocodiles weren't available, preferably big game. Colonel O'Brien, however, didn't like them at all. All he was concerned about was how they had
sliced up his good friend Mike, and went on and on about how easily they could do that to someone else.
Also, once they had reached six feet, the Opagatorn had started laying eggs. It didn't matter how old they were; their maturity was based on how big they were,
and the bigger they got the more intelligent they became. Once they were ten feet long, from the tip of their snout to the end of their tail, they were as smart as a six-year-old child and knew the routine of the feeders by heart. They knew the exact time that the food would come, and they even tried to get out when the doors were opened to let the food in. When the access doors were opened to allow the feeders to push in the food, all four Opagatorns would be right there waiting, and a couple of the feeders were lost in that way. So they started a different feeding programme.
It should have been mentioned before that the new facility where Project Opagatorn was situated was an enormous valley in between a couple of large mountains in the Sierra Nevada range. A gigantic building was constructed to house this valley; originally it was planned to be a test area for secret government aircraft, but the project had been cancelled just after the building was made. This building was the largest in the world, being big enough to enclose
Boeing HQ twice. Most of the walls were made of a very resistant titanium alloy, but one wall was very thick and hollow and contained a lab and other rooms in
which scientists and army personnel could work and observe the Opagatorns in the environment that was set up for them.
When the building was designed, the engineers incorporated an airlock into it, the airlock being one of three sets of doors leading into the outdoor area. So, in response to the Opagatorn's newfound knowledge, the feeders started putting the food into the airlock. They would then seal the inner doors, open the outer
doors, and the Opagatorns would come in and feed, but wouldn't be able to kill anyone or escape. The biggest Opagatorn, however, didn't like this arrangement, and when the outer doors were opened she would come in and ram the inner doors with her body, trying to break through. It was a very frightening sight, a huge
centipede which was now 25 feet long bashing into a window right in front of you.
Things took a turn for the worse however. It was now the middle of July, the 25th to be precise, and the Opagatorns were now over 50 feet long and had to be fed over 200 pounds of food a day or they began to fight amongst themselves. Colonel O'Brien insisted that keeping the Opagatorns alive was an unnecessary risk, considering there were now 28 of them, each of the big ones having laid 6 eggs, which had hatched several days before. However, General Allen and doctor
Carthright both insisted that this was a unique experience, that no other prehistoric animal could ever be raised in this way, and that these could be a
clue to what the world was like at the end of the Mesozoic era. Mitch was not impressed. Now that the Opagatorn were reproducing, more and more food had to
be brought for the young. What was even worse was that, with abundant food, the Opagatorns started working together as a team, the big ones showing strong maternal instincts towards their young.
This is what caused the biggest problem. The biggest of the Opagatorns, who had become the leader amongst her sisters, became very violent, attempting to smash
the windows of the facility and feed the soldiers to her children. Now that she had reached a length of 80 feet, and was still growing, she was a very fearsome
beast, but she had one ace up her sleeve that all the scientists wouldn't expect, and once she brought that into play nothing short of an A-bomb would stop the
upcoming onslaught.
Chapter 4
On that hot day of the 25th of July, Colonel O'Brien and Doctor Carthright were engaged in a heated debate about the Opagatorns.
"I'm telling you Lindsey," O'Brien shouted "the world would be better off if we just killed the lot of 'em. What would we do if they escaped? Huh? Answer me that
Lindsey. They would fill the mountains in no time, and then the starving masses would head into the major cities, breed there, and pretty soon all of the country is crawling with them."
"Woah woah woah!" Lindsey said "You're overreacting here! None of them will escape. We have them under control."
Mitch eyed her with suspicion. "How do you know they won't escape?"
"Well," Lindsey began, "if they could escape don't you think they would've done it by now? The big ones are over a year old now, we found the eggs last June in
case you forget."
"No," Mitch said, "I don't think they would've escaped by now. The biggest one is hardly eighty feet long, and they might be waiting for enough babies to be born
so they gather a huge army, and then attack."
"I don't think they're that smart, Mitch." Lindsey said, emphasising the word "that".
"Hey," Colonel O'Brien replied, "you said yourself that they are very intelligent, they have a real brain, and a couple months ago were as smart as a
6-year-old. For all you know they could be smarter than you!"
"Hey!" Lindsey retorted. "That was uncalled for!"
"You never know." Mitch replied softly, shrugging his
shoulders.
Just then a crashing sound was heard, followed by deafening screams and blood curdling roaring noises. Mitch and Lindsey rushed out of the lab and into the
control room, and were greeted with a truly horrifying sight.
The big observation window, which was fourteen inches thick and made of explosion-proof plexi-glass, had been shattered, and the Opagatorns were quickly
ingesting the army personnel. The Opagatorns had brought their secret weapons into play.
When Lindsey dissected the baby Opagatorn, it was still quite young and many of its body parts were not present yet. One important aspect that Lindsey had
missed because of that were the acid glands. As was aforementioned, the Opagatorns had very strong stomach acid, much stronger than ordinary hydrochloric acid. In the adult animals there are ducts running from the stomach to glands on the underside, and when they rear up in their typical stance two of these glands are raised high above the ground. By muscular contraction the Opagatorns can spray this acid in thick streams, and can repeat this several times in succession. So, the four adult Opagatorns had sprayed the window with their acid, and despite the barrage of machine gun bullets and grenades the creatures, now numbering 50 strong, stormed through the opening and devoured the frightened occupants.
As soon as Lindsey saw this, she screamed the most piercing scream ever. All the Opagatorns looked up at her and Mitch, and began to run towards them. Luckily
they were standing on a catwalk which was 20 feet above ground, but since the adults were much more than twice that length this was a small obstacle. But that
bided the frightened people some time to escape. They rushed outside, Lindsey sealing the thick security door behind them. They ran out into the woods on the
side of one of the mountains, and after some time scaled to the peak. Mitch turned around and looked down at the facility beneath them. The Opagatorns had
broken free of the building and were swarming around the perimeter fence, eating any escapees. The four biggest Opagatorns were now even bigger, the largest
measuring almost 90 feet probably, and many of the babies were over six feet long and ready to lay eggs.
Mitch sat down.
"You see that, Lindsey?" He said, gesturing towards the scene below. "Look at them, crawling around like the hell spawn they are."
"They're just animals Mitch." Lindsey said, vainly trying to calm him down.
"Animals?" Mitch said. "Just animals? Lindsey, how many mere animals have you seen that cleared out a military base in one minute? How many mere animals do
you know that figured out how to bust through a supposedly unbreakable window? Lindsey, how many animals have you seen that stayed alive in the tundra for 65 million years???????"
Lindsey didn't know quite what to say. "Mitch," she began.
Mitch cut her off. "You were wrong Lindsey. Allen was wrong, we were all wrong. We though we could control them, keep a wild animal that has never known
captivity in all of 65 million years, that has never listened to any rules except its own under our control. Just how much control do we have Lindsey? Or we think we have? I mean as a species, the human race dominates the globe, but how much do we really control. Disease runs rampant, there are still plenty of natural disasters, we don't control anything Lindsey. And then, a small group of people, nothing compared to all of the people in the world, tries to control a force of nature that's capable of wiping out entire cities in a month? What were we thinking?"
Lindsey felt an overwhelming sense of guilt creeping up on her. "I guess we weren't thinking very clearly..."
Colonel O'Brien snapped. "Weren't thinking clearly? I don't know if you were thinking at all! I mean, as a whole, human beings think that just because of our
intelligence and all the things we have done that the world revolves around us. There are more ants in one anthill than there are people in the world, and yet we
claim ourselves the rulers of the planet. We forget that we are nothing more than an insignificant speck in the midst of nature's endless variety, a blip in the passage of time compared with the reign of the dinosaurs or other great natural dynasties. I have never been one to think that humans are bad for the world, but I know now that we are bad for ourselves. For years, lunatics and heretics have said that we will wipe ourselves out, and I've always dismissed that as crazy talk, but take a look down there Lindsey. Just look, and you'll see an awesome force of nature that was wielded by a couple of naive scientists like a 2-year-old who found his dad's gun. We did that, and that will undo us!"
As he said the word "that" he gestured out into the valley below. Lindsey stood up and looked out towards the horizon. There, nestled in between a couple of
hills off in the distance, was Los Angeles, the City of Angels. And headed directly for it were 6 large, serpentine shapes winding their way towards the heart of the city, followed by a mass of smaller ones. The end had begun.
Epilogue
At 6:28 AM on July 26th, 2014, what was described as a giant caterpillar was seen walking across a hilltop just outside of Los Angeles. This was dismissed as a
figment of the imagination because it was seen by a couple of eight year olds, but pretty soon enough reports of similar creatures came in to verify this as
the truth. Then the onslaught came. Around noon of July 30th thirteen of these creatures were seen heading down the main highway that leads into the city. The city police department was dispatched, but they only added to the victims that the Opagatorns had claimed. The army was sent in to battle this group of thirteen monsters, but when they got there the creatures were now 50 strong, and more were coming from the direction of the mountains.
While all this was going on, a second wave of Opagatorns was moving to the east of the Sierra Nevada mountains, through the desert, and the first of them arrived in Texas by August 3rd. Then a second, smaller wave went southwards, into Mexico, and here they thrived on the masses of Mexican people out on the streets. By the end of August, the Opagatorns had become known world wide, and even though thousands were killed each week, many more came in to replace them. The enormous amount of people in California allowed every Opagatorn to grow up very quickly, one person being enough food to cause them to moult. Yet the Opagatorns still had more secrets about them, and soon these became their most dangerous assets.
It was soon discovered that an Opagatorn can breath underwater. More than that, it can stay under water indefinitely, because all of the spiracles along its
back lead into a large gill chamber. If the Opagatorn is breathing air, then the air bypasses the gill and goes straight to the heart. But if it is breathing
water, the gills extract the oxygen and send this along the air passages into the heart. So an Opagatorn can actually breath air under water, and it does so more easily than when on land.
It was also found that they adapted quickly to changing situations. Although all the babies were essentially exact replicas of their parents, due to nuclear activity and pollution problems there were many mutations, the majority being able to survive quite well. So along with the typical Opagatorns, which were found to reach 200 feet in length, there were now other races, some even more dangerous. Because of this quick adaptation, they quickly became immune to the most powerful insecticides, and they fed off of nuclear and industrial waste. The only thing that could stop them from breeding would be a nuclear bomb, and there would have to be thousands of them dropped to destroy the four hundred thousand Opagatorn that were now laying twenty eggs a day. Also, since Opagatorns kept to heavily populated areas, any large-scale bomb drops would be highly impractical.
By the year 2020 there were Opagatorns all across North America and they had begun to trickle into the Amazon. Suddenly, all contact with Brasilia, Brazil's
capital, was cut off. It was soon found that there had been an infestation of Opagatorn there in the sewers for about two years, and they had bred and bred until the sewer rats they fed on were all gone. So they broke up through the pavement and ate everyone. And when the army came, the first of the Amazonian
Opagatorns ate them too.
Now, the Amazon rainforest was literally crawling with Opagatorns, but because of the hot climate and abundant monkeys for food they became even bigger and stronger. The Amazonian Opagatorns could get over 250 feet long and very big around, and these were the race that populated the rest of the world.
On September 31st, 2023, a large sea serpent was seen swimming about 30 feet beneath the surface of the English Channel. The following day, three more were
seen creeping along the banks of the Thames River, and their identity was confirmed as a group of Amazonian Opagatorn. Soon after, the Royal Family was moved, by plane, to Australia so they would be safe from the hordes of Opagatorns now ravaging the English countryside. Soon, however, a quintet of adult
Opagatorns and a swarm of little ones were seen along the shores of the Rhine, and within one year all of continental Europe and western Asia was heavily
populated with the creatures. A full-scale attack was launched to stop them from spreading, but the waves of soldiers did no more than providing the Opagatorns
with an easy meal. Also, it was found that the floor of the Mediterranean had become a prime breeding ground for them, octopus forming the bulk of their diet.
By the year 2035, all of Europe and Asia had been colonised by the advancing Opagatorns, and the Indonesian islands formed a bridge to Australia. In another 20 years the once enormous populations of China and Japan were severely lessened, the British empire had been reduced to a couple of pathetic refugees struggling for survival, and there was no one left in the New World. The U.S.A., once the most powerful nation on earth, was now left to the wildlife, although Opagatorns still reigned supreme; preying on the herds of cattle that now roamed free over the land.
By 2060 no where was safe for the human race. Every landmass on earth had its resident population of Opagatorn, every ocean basin was heavily populated, and even the tiniest coral islands had at least one Opagatorn on it, eating whatever it could. As was aforementioned, the Opagatorns would eat anything if primates and crocodiles weren't available, and so they could subsist on anything from herds of wildebeest on the African savannah to the sulphur bacteria that grow
on the inside of a volcano. By far the largest Opagatorns lived in the Hadal zone of the oceans, sifting through the bottom ooze and eating the skeletons of thousands of dead microorganisms. These behemoths could be 300 feet long and bigger around than the largest of commercial airliners. Because of these immense monsters of the ocean deep any attempts at hiding on the sea floor would be fatal; the Opagatorns recognised submarines as a human creation and attacked them with relish, human flesh adding a little flavour to their rather dull diet of mud and ooze.
By the year 2080 there was only a handful of people left on the earth, reduced to a nomadic existence in a vain attempt to keep away from the Opagatorns. These
nomads could use no technology because there was no one left who could work the much needed power plants or manufacture those essential batteries. So they had
to live off the land like their ancestors, and this made them less of an easy target to their pursuers. Nevertheless, by the year 2100 there were no human
beings left on earth.
When I say "left on earth", I mean that literally; while the Opagatorns were terrorising the earth masses, NASA had sent several space stations into orbit around the planet. These couple thousand people were the last humans alive, but without raw materials from earth it was only a matter of time before they died also. The very last human being alive died, alone in his cabin, in the year 2110.
Now with humans out of the way, it would seem that Opagatorns would thrive on the masses of other animals available to them. But instead, they began to die out.
The reason for this is that while humans were still in their prime, nuclear and industrial waste had leeched to the remotest areas of the earth. While most other
animals either died out or became immune to these, the Opagatorns became completely dependent on them for survival. So now that humans weren't making any more waste, considering there were no more humans, the Opagatorns had no other source for their much needed radioactive material, except in other Opagatorns. So, living up to their name, the gargantuan myriapods turned to cannibalism. The last Opagatorns to survive lived in radiation rich areas such as Chernobyl and
Japan, but 1000 years after their reappearance on earth the Opagatorns had become extinct again.
400,000 years after the last Opagatorn died of radiation deprivation, the earth reached another climatic optimum. In other words, life reached a peak of perfection. The dominant land animals were large rat-like creatures and raptor-like animals that evolved from crows, while birds teemed in the skies
and the oceans. There were almost no human fossils, save for people buried in cemeteries, because the rest had been eaten by Opagatorns, the bones being
pulverised by the rows of jagged teeth in their throats. In this New World all that remained to show that Opagatorns had ever existed were several clutches
of eggs, frozen in arctic ice. Those that were fortunate enough to be surrounded by algae lay in suspended animation, perhaps waiting to be unearthed by the next foolhardy species which forgets that they are nothing more than an insignificant speck in the midst of nature's endless variety.
The End?
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