TRANSMONTANUS

'The Meg in fresh water'! The Columbia is a big river but has an even bigger problem and one we brought upon ourselves. America's rush to be the first country to build an atomic warhead has come back to haunt us.The underground tanks at the Hanford site are bleeding radiation into the river and spawned a mutation of GODZILLA-like proportion.

Synopsis-

After Japan’s sneak attack on Pearl Harbor while our ships were in the bay, this preemptive strike forced the United States to build a weapon of mass destruction. To make the atomic bomb, they had to open the Hanford Nuclear Reservation that lies on the Washington side of the Columbia River. Established in 1943 as part of the Manhattan Project in the town of Hanford located in south central Washington, the site was home to the “B” Reactor – the first full-scale plutonium reactor in the world.

Downstream some 70 years later – Gil Mowdy is the local police chief of Cascade Locks, Oregon. Normally his job is a bit mundane but not anymore. Now there seems to be an abundance of weird disappearances and random accidental deaths on the river. The cause of this becomes clear with the discovery of a giant mutated prehistoric fish.

Since the discovery seems unbelievable at best, he receives no backing from the City Chamber of Commerce. He does his best to protect the community by shutting down the river but the city officials won’t have it. The financial life source of the entire northwest region depends on that river. They finally have to give in when they realize that the creature does exist.

Now they need to figure out how to kill it and get the military involved. Unknown to Chief Mowdy, the city officials had other ideas. They want to poison the creature and keep it intact for another exhibit next to the Bigfoot Museum.

Their plan doesn’t work and ends up making the giant monster even madder. They try to block it off by closing the Bonneville Dam and then the creature sets out to destroy it. If that structure collapsed, it would flood all of downtown Portland and it would be a New Orleans situation all over again.

That’s when Gil comes up with a quick decision and opens the gates, top and bottom, and flushes the creature through the dam. He thought this would do the trick and kill it when slamming its’ way through – but no such luck. The reptilian skin is like steel and it has no damaging effect.

It was Professor Lubcheck’s idea that finally does the job. He let nature help with the demise of Transmontanus. He has the government bring in two full-grown male orcas that go toe-to-toe with the unnatural apparition.

They name the orcas Termantanus and Tee-Two and get them to the Bay of Astoria to keep the monster from getting into the ocean and free to continue to damage. They can’t let it get away.

Unfortunately the orcas were no match for the giant beast with its’ impenetrable skin. One of the orcas gets killed but that doesn’t stop the other from continuing the fight. It catches the creature off guard and that is when the US submarine takes its’ shot to take the beast down. It’s a direct hit and the Transmontanus is dead.