Looking away from the menacing flames and smoke up in the hills, she stared out at the sand and surf instead. Her eyes bulged as she spotted something peculiar. The tide appeared to be retreating rapidly from the shore, ebbing back into the bay, as though it, too, was afraid of all the scary noise and commotion on the island. Her brow wrinkled in confusion.

Was it supposed to do that?

She tugged on her dad’s arm, calling his attention to the fleeing waters. His sunburnt face went pale at the sight. Her mom turned around and gasped out loud. She thrust Jenny into her daddy’s arms and they took off running inland, away from the shore, as fast as they could. Her mom shouted at the other grownups and children on the beach. Jenny had never heard her so scared, not even that time Jenny had accidently stepped out in front of traffic.

“Run!” her mother yelled. “RUN!”

* * *

Aboard the Saratoga, Serizawa commandeered a pair of binoculars from a passing seaman. His heart racing, he placed the long-distance lenses to his eyes and searched the moonlit sea for the enigmatic shape he had spied before. He quickly relocated the mysterious object, only to discover that the jagged protrusion had been joined by two smaller points on either side. Recognition dawned in his eyes as he grasped what he was seeing: a row of gigantic dorsal fins.

Racing straight toward the fleet.

Warning sirens sounded as observers aboard the various ships spotted the oncoming threat and braced for impact. Serizawa suspected that few aboard the vessels, except perhaps Graham and a handful of others, knew exactly who or what was surging their way, but it was obvious that something very large and solid was on a collision course with the Saratoga and the other ships. Serizawa grabbed onto a safety rail, not that he expected it would do much good, not if this was indeed what he surmised.

It must be him, the scientist thought. What else could it be?

Torn between scientific curiosity and fear for his life, Serizawa prayed that he would at least be allowed to behold the legend in all its majesty before it laid waste to the floating super-carrier. Through the binoculars, he watched as the giant fins came closer and closer.

Then, at the last minute, before the mighty battleship could even attempt to avoid the collision, the fins dipped rapidly beneath the waves, diving beneath the Saratoga and the rest of the strike group. The ship pitched back and forth as something impossibly massive passed beneath it. Baffled flight crews shouted to each other in confusion. Only Serizawa understood the awesome force that had just passed them by. Nature had spared them, at least for the moment.