If anyone is working with GCP instances, using Ubuntu 16.04 LTS, I downgraded the kernel from:
uname -a
Linux elasticsearch-1-vm 4.13.0-1007-gcp #10-Ubuntu SMP Fri Jan 12 13:56:47 UTC 2018 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
To:
uname -a
Linux elasticsearch-1-vm 4.13.0-1006-gcp #9-Ubuntu SMP Mon Jan 8 21:13:15 UTC 2018 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
To fix the issue with the GCP instances, I ran:
sudo apt remove 4.13.0-1007-gcp
sudo apt install 4.13.0-1006-gcp
exit
Then in google cloud console, restart the instance, then SSH back in then:
sudo service elasticsearch start