The Rong

The story I’m about to tell is one of those war stories that doesn’t remember some great battle, but something that is hard to believe like the war itself. It was never put on official record this incident and the blame was for the VCs. But me and my fellow troops, we know that they weren’t entirely responsible. What we saw has made us view this world of ours much differently. Some of us don’t accept the fact that it happened, some went mad and thought it better to end life in general. Me, I was quite about this story. Well, until now.

A little background on the characters though before I start this tale. I feel better when you know who’s who in a story so you don’t have to go through all that questioning on personas throughout the story. First off, my name is Private Henri Winston. I’m 22 now and I remember this story clearly because it happened on March 22, which is also the day of my boy’s birthday in 1962 back home. He would be turning one then, so I was quite angry that I was out killing men because of the politics and not home showing peace for my boy. I remember before the war, I was studying zoology in Berkley. So in a way, this war was giving me some hands on experience on the local fauna and flora when I got the chance. Of course, with my love of zoology, I got the nickname of “Tarzan” from my troop. Of course, I’m not the only one in this story. There was also Private Jon “Z” Robinson. Z was a man I could rely on and my wingman in battle. He was with me at Paris Island and he was our some what technology expert. He specialized in looking for the VC’s elaborate booby traps that laid all around this hell hole of a jungle, saving our lives countless times. Then there was field medic Phineus “Pheonix” Wright, who was a European who became an US citizen at the wrong time. As soon as his citizenship was accepted, he was drafted. We called him “Pheonix” because he always seems to change every day, usually from bad to happy. It was like a rebirth of sorts, but you see stuff like this all the time in Vietnam. Then there was Don “Timmy” Honda, a American Jap who loved his country. The reason we called him “Timmy” is beyond me. He was like that when we got there. To tell the truth, I really don’t know him that well, just the fact he loved Uncle Sam. And then, finally is our Lieutenant William “Shaman” Winters. He was a big black man who was a bold leader and always on the look out for us little white men. He was a good man, a really good man. He seemed to have an unnatural ability to turn the darkest hour into a good time of laughs. Death seemed so fleeting with him, but in a way this story is in his memory. But it looks like I’m giving stuff away, so lets start this tale of question of belief, which is besides humanity, what else do our wars of power awaken?

It was March 22, 1963 and it was a good day of victory. We had just successfully demolished a VC supply depot which was a few miles away of a remote fishing village on the Gulf of Tokin. It was called Son Long and it was a village that was near the border of North and South Vietnam. Our troop had told headquarters of this secret supply outpost and we issued a massive napalm strike. This burned the outpost, but also most of the rainforest. And even though it happen three days ago the raid, the forest was still burning. And brightly to, but it was contained. The river protected the rest of the forest and the village so everything seemed okay. We were going to be stationed there for another week, so we enjoyed this little R&R with the locals, but they seemed spooked. The fishers would come back from the sea with faces of horror, repeating about something about the king of the “Rongs” or something like that. Most of men just shrugged it off, but me and Shaman thought about it. These people were highly superstitious, but there faces seemed like they were truly scared of something worse than our war in their homeland. I asked Shaman what a “Rong” was in the Vietnamese language. Shaman looked at me with his grin, but his eyes seemed a bit distant and knowing. “A Rong, Private Tarzan, is a term used to describe the “dragons of the water”. They are what keep the villages alive it is said, and that’s with all the dragon arches are all over this village.” He said, pointing to the roof tops where the mighty serpents danced across the roofs it seemed. I continued to gaze at them with a new feeling, one that was like discovery of something new. Dragons where coming, the people said, but then my feeling of discovery was drowned by the feeling of fear. Dragons where coming.
  
The sun was going down a bit and we all started to head to our fox holes that we made a little ways from the river. We made a big fire and we all sat around it making songs. I sat next to Z and Phoenix and we were talking about what we should do after the war. Timmy interrupted us for a minute about that he’ll continue to fight in the name of Uncle Sam, but we really didn’t give a s***t about what he thought. So we continued to talk. Z wanted to open a car shop on Route 66, and he said he’d get great business there. Phoenix was on one of his good talking days, so he said he just wanted to get back home to his girlfriend in Boston. Me, I just wanted to see my baby boy Hank Winston with my wife and maybe move to Texas to open a little ranch or something. We continue to dream and then we noticed our Lieutenant was gone. We all laugh though and hollered his name into the night, for we all knew he was back at the village flirting with this girl who kept giving him this look. Of course, sexual references where said and we were all having a great time. Some of the “dopers soldiers” as I called them secretly were smoking to get over some of their past war efforts like they did every night. I looked inland across the river and could still see the fires burning in the forest. It made me sad a bit to see such a forest burn in the napalm of war, but worried me a bit about the fact it’s been burning for three days. But then I turned my gaze to the ocean and saw the lighting and storms clouds. Rain was coming and that was good, very good. The boom of thunder echoed across the land and we all started to get ready for a harsh night. The men started to go back in, but it was me and Phoenix and Z’s turn for night watch. So we sat on the long around the fire, waiting to feel the pelting of rain across our helmets.

And it did come, it came hard. We kept the fire as long as possible, but the rain was fast and hard. Lighting streaked across the dark night. We huddled together, keeping our senses alert, because we had that feeling that we were going to see some action tonight. The rain continued for hours on end, but still in the distance the fires of before burned. We looked at the distant glow in disbelief and regret that we were some what responsible for the burning. Thunder boomed again and again, and then again. Now that last one was a weird thunder. It seemed longer than the other claps we had heard through the night. It also seemed to be more of a living noise, than one of nature. It was weird, but we thought it was just something to do with weather. Then we noticed the lights in the village were starting to light. In their glow, we saw the huddle masses of the village start to head for us. We watched in confusion as they passed us with fear and dread. It was odd, but we continued to watch. Shaman came out of the crowd and we grinned as we saw his shirt was still unbuttoned and he was just buttoning his pants. He laughed a bit and he just blushed, but then quickly went to his serious face. “Men, something is up,” Shaman said, “the village is heading to a hill up ahead. It’s like their running from a natural disaster or something after that last thunder boomed. So men! Pack up and roll out!” Shaman yelled. His voice seemed to carry across the rain and we saw the rest of the troop rise from their foxholes. We were breaking up camp when Phoenix stopped what he was doing when he looked at the ocean. “Look!” he yelled. We stopped and looked out the sea, seeing nothing at first. It was 10:30 and the looked like the rain had stopped so the glow of the moon cast over our damp bodies. The villagers were on a distant hill but I could see they too saw what Phoenix saw. And what we saw was something out of time itself. Sparks were dancing across the ocean’s surface as huge spires seemed to swim through the waves. A body erupted and we saw the spires were in fact spines of something huge. It got to the beach and lunged onto the cold sand. The thing was huge, towering above us. Water dripped from its emerald body and sparks of electricity it seemed continued to dance across its spines. It shook itself like a dog, the water falling like a sudden rain storm and the lights on the spines stopped. It then let loose a howl from its crocodile like maw, and then it hit me that the weird thunder, was that things roar. The whole troop looked in fear as it started to walk towards the distant glow of the fire. Its bulk obscured the moon briefly it passed us, its huge tail destroying some of the huts that were on the village outskirts. It was walking towards the burning fires of the air raid its bulk seen over the tree tops until it finally got to where the fires were, then it disappeared. We were speechless. Not a word was ushered. We just looked at the moon, were at a moment, was blocked by a living creature. A f**king dinosaur from the looks of it. It seemed like ages until Shaman told us to hurry the hell up and get to the villager’s hill. Timmy held his gun tightly and kept it pointed to where the creature disappeared. Well, that’s what I thought, and then he fired into the forest across the river. Shaman dashed across to the soldiers, “What the hell is wrong with you! Leave it alone! Save your ammo…”
And those were his last words, for that’s when he got shot in the head. We dove for cover as now the dark shapes of VC soldiers started to shoot us from across the river.
We could hear they’re hooting and hollering as they continue to rain down bullets at us. The moon light was only way to see them, and the clouds were coming back again. As I fired my M79 grenade launcher at a group of the VCs trying to cross the river, I noticed that the fires were finally out in the distance. A sigh of relief was ushered from my lips as I blew up the boat the VCs were using. The yelling and screams of our war where echoing in the forest. Without Shaman, we where kinda on the ropes and since we had only 20 men, and without our leader the VCs were coming to slaughter us. Victory seemed hopeless. Phoenix was busy with the wounded and Z and Timmy were shooting the VCs with their machines guns. We all were shooting our weapons and it seemed to go on for hours. And then someone on my side shot a flare towards the VCs to help us see the enemy. The red light erupted high above the forest, and we saw the VCs. We also saw it standing there, looking at the small creatures below it fighting. It let loose a mighty roar of some ancient wrath. I could see its eyes in the faint glow for a brief second, and they looked filled with ancient wisdom and pain. I could only imagine what the hell it was, but right now I was more worried about what it was going to do. The creatures mighty foot rose and landed on a group of VCs as the other were screaming bloody murder. The fire fight was now aimed at the giant animal. Its howl seemed to ripple across the river as it thrashed the forest to fall onto the soldiers firing at it. One VC launched a rocket at it seemed all it did was piss it off some more. The creature howled into the sky and that’s when I saw the same sparks dance across the spines like it did when it came out of the see. Its eyes were glowing and every single spine on it glowed a light electrical greenish blue. Its mighty jaws opened towards the Viet Congs and a beam of light seemed to shoot from its maw. An explosion rippled across the entire VC squad as we watched and heard their screams in the beast’s inferno. The beam stopped briefly, but it seemed to charge again, this time aiming for the boats. The VCs though were now firing at us and the beast, and we were just shooting at the VCs. The creature launched another beam and this time the explosion erupted the entire river, as sparks rapidly friend anything that touched water. We watched in horror as boats burned and sparks erupted in the VC troops.

In less than ten minutes, an entire VC squad was dead. We watched as the creature looked at the chaos and it roared again. We covered our ears as we watched the creature continue its roar as it started to head back to the waters from whence it came. We watched in silence as the creature walked towards the ocean. That’s when Timmy ran behind it, shooting his gun at its back, screaming words that I think were something about how it was its fault for Shamans death. The creature stopped and looked at us, well more so Timmy. It roared and then suddenly Timmy and those near him were quickly smashed by the creature’s tail. We were all frozen, for we just watch something kill over thirty VCs and now it just wiped half the squad now. The creature roared again as it started to run into the sea and it disappeared in the waves. I looked around me seeing Phoenix, Z, and ten more of our men who were just smashed by the creature’s tail, all our faces were blank. And in the distance, I noticed all the villagers were on their knees in what seemed to be a prayer. And, unknowingly, I knelt to and just sat there in the wet earth amongst the dead. For the first time in this war, the death wasn’t caused by our wrath.

The rest of the morning was a blur. I remember the villagers come back, not looking at us as they passed. They didn’t look around and they didn’t show any regret. One villager, a girl, went to Shaman’s body where she knelt and dropped a local flower on his chest. She then turned and continued to go towards her village. I remember seeing the wreckage of two or three huts. The river was dead, for it was a mix of splinter wood, dead VCs, and dead fish. All that just floated on the surface of that river. Z called in for a helicopter to help us with the bodies. When the choppers finally came, they asked about the impression on the dirt. We didn’t know what they were talking about, until they said that headquarters wants us for some R&R and give us a new lieutenant. We climbed aboard with the dead and when in the air, I finally knew what they were talking about. The impressions were from the creature’s feet and tail, and we saw they lead from the sea to the place of the now barren VC outpost. The fires were out and the land seemed different. Hell, I think we all were seeing something different in this world of ours. I was the one voted to report that night. I told the higher ups that the impressions were caused by rockets the VCs used on us. I didn’t really go into detail, I blamed it was because it was dark and smoke and the usually reason why a solider might not see anything. They believed me and they kept in the record. But, as I continue to fight in this war, I look at the ocean thinking. What has the sins of man done for such a creature to appear? Are our countless wars, which ravage our planet, finally, taken its toll? Is it time for a new age? I will never know what that thing was and probably never will. And what scares me the most is the fact it is there. And seeing what it can do is scarier for that thing came from the abysses of time, to wreak the revenge for the planet that we’ve caused. Our wars I believe, have finally taken its toll on the planet. And its our hands I think, that summoned that titan to the surface. Like the Vietnamese said about their Rongs, they are the rain and usually rain cleanses the earth of toxins. And I fear, we are such toxins, and that Rong is cleanses its land of us soon. Very soon.