The Day of the Nefilim (38 page)

“Never mind the wounded. I want you to send agents out through the enemy lines and into the surrounding countryside. Tell them to recruit the locals and organize whatever stray troops they can find. And then they are to attack the enemy from behind.”

The other members of the war council looked at each other. The local population would never lift a finger to help them.

“Yes, Secretary-General,” they murmured, knowing that it was a futile mission. Everything was lost. They were cut off and surrounded. Of the three relief columns that had tried to fight their way in, only one had made it. One had been repulsed, and the soldiers had scattered, fleeing into the forest. Another had been ambushed within sight of the mountain, and the few survivors captured.

The situation was even worse than the war council knew. On every continent, the population had turned on both the UN armies and the Nefilim. Armed with farm implements or tools or whatever else they could find, the mobs were now evenly matched with their tormentors, and were hunting them down wherever they could be found. It was worst in the areas around the largest cities, where millions were roaming the countryside, desperate for food and shelter. The cities, looted and burned, were controlled by marauding gangs. Cannibalism and disease spread. Violence was everywhere.

There were places that fared better, though. In isolated and remote areas, many communities had held together. They watched from a distance as the rest of the world slid into chaos.

But the Secretary-General and his councilors had more pressing matters to attend to.

“…the mutant thing has grown into this area…” someone was saying. “You can see how the plants have changed, they’re growing so fast that you can almost see it.”

“I’ve seen it,” said someone else. “You can see the path it takes, right under us.”

The Secretary-General started paying attention. “That grid thing of theirs? It’s here?”

“Well, it’s not actually a grid, Secretary, not literally, it’s more of a…”

“Christ, shut up… it’s here, under us now?”

“Yes, Secretary. There have been some strange side effects, too. Like this condensation. It just appeared out of nowhere.” The speaker made small waves in the water on the floor with his foot.

The Secretary-General was thinking. A smile formed. “God, yes, yes,” he said. “A gift from God.” Here it was then, proof that the universe was on his side, despite everything that had happened. The scales of justice had clicked back into place. He leaned forward.

“Do we still have any scientists among the Nefilim prisoners?”

“Very few, but there are some, yes, Secretary.”

“Then put them back together with our scientists.”

“Why, Secretary? Surely we can’t trust them, with their own armies outside.”

“Firstly, we have no choice, Field Marshall. Secondly, any of them that give even the slightest sign of resistance, deception or anything other than what we want from them are to be executed on the spot. Slowly and in front of the rest of them. We have one more chance, gentlemen.”

* * *

The scientists were put to work, adapting Mount Weather’s power and weapon systems to the Stream.

The Secretary-General, for his part, put away the ceremonial sword that had been presented to him several months ago by the civilian governor of the East Asian region. If everything went well, he wouldn’t need it.

Then he slept, and as he slept he dreamed of Vice-Secretary Alexis. Strangely, there was no sex. She was running, breathless and wild-eyed, up and down hills of sand, pursued by dark shapes that looked like black shadows cast against a wall. He thought that she got away, but he wasn’t sure. Then he thought that he had become one of the dark shapes and was chasing her himself. It was all very confusing. He was talking in his sleep, mumbling incoherently, when his aide shook him awake.

It had worked. The Stream was online. They had power again. By the time he got to the war room, it had come alive. The screens on the walls flickered with panoramic views of the surrounding countryside. Icons that represented units of soldiers glowed steadily on the map set into the table in the middle of the room. Radios chattered in front of their operators.

“Armaments?”

“Almost, Secretary. They’ve taken some time to charge up, but the main weapons systems are online. The hand weapons will take longer, because we can only charge a certain number at a time, but we’ve done some, and they’re already in use.”

“Very good! Very,
very
good! Now let’s get rid of our first encumbrance!” He gave the order, and sat back to watch the screens. Seconds later, lasers began slicing into foliage and Nefilim alike, burning both like dry paper.

* * *

BARK WAS GETTING RESTLESS. It felt like it had been days since the others had disappeared into the creature.

Reina and Pig were getting jumpy as well. They’d gone back to the ship and told Nibat what had happened, and he had come back with them. They all sat on the seats in front of the shrine room and watched exotic birds flying in the jungle. They ate the food that Remedios brought for them, and after that they slept. But that had been hours ago, and now more time than they cared for had passed, and they needed to know what was going on.

Finally, Remedios emerged from the shrine room. She said something they didn’t understand, and pointed towards the door. The creature wanted to see them? The woman nodded, not sure what the question had been.

They went in. Geoca and Sahrin were still visible under the creature’s skin, but there was no sign of either the blue woman or Anak.

“What happened to them?” asked Bark, gesturing towards the empty spaces.

“Two of your friends went into the grid and haven’t returned,” the pile replied. “The other two have come back into the Stream, though. They are fine. They’re coming this way; they’ll be here any minute. They’ll be able to tell us everything that has happened. But I can tell you now that they must have been successful. The Nefilim grid went down several hours ago, and there hasn’t been any sign of life from it since. The Stream is growing everywhere… Your friends are here now...”

The bodies stirred, and the membranes that covered them dissolved into transparent threads, falling away as if they were dissolving in the air. A few seconds later their eyes opened, and Geoca and Sahrin sat up.

They looked around as though they were disappointed with what they saw. Geoboy and Geogirl opened their eyes as well, then whimpered and closed them again.

“Everything is so…
hard
here,” said Geoca. He looked disappointed.

“We did it,” Sahrin said slowly. “We closed their grid down.” She told the others how they had taken the victims and freed them into the Stream, and how she had barely released the last of them when the grid had suddenly disappeared altogether, blinking out of existence like a light being turned off.

“You did well,” said the pile. “Both they and the Stream will benefit greatly.”

“I believe that,” said Geoca.

“I want to stay there,” Sahrin said suddenly.

“I thought there was something up,” Pig said. “Is the Stream good, then?”

“Absolutely…
beautiful
. Like nothing else. I can’t put it into words now. Maybe later…” Her voice trailed off.

“It is a wonderful place, I know,” said the pile. “I know I look like a monster to you all, but I regard myself as being lucky, living in the Stream as I do. I would want it no other way. You know, if you really want to do it, you can. You can stay there. But there is something else,” the creature continued. “The Stream is growing everywhere, now that the grid is gone.”

“That’s great!” Reina was happy. If it was all over, she was looking forward to going home.

“But as I said, there is something else. Something is drawing power from the Stream. Something large.”

“What is it now?” they asked, their smiles fading.

“Their headquarters. Mount Weather. A few hours after the grid failed, they started taking power from the Stream.”

“They must have attached themselves to it, just like our flier has. Just there? Nowhere else?” Reina asked, her spirits sinking.

“Just when it could have been the end for them,” said Geoca.

“I suppose it’s no surprise that they should refuse to give up.” Bark kicked at a pile of dust on the floor. It squealed and ran off under the bench with the dolls on it.

“We’ll go back into the Stream.” Geoca looked at Sahrin, who nodded her agreement without hesitating. “We’ll see what can be done at Mount Weather. We’ll see if we can pull the plug on them.”

“Good,” said Bark. “And we’ll approach the problem from a different angle. We’ll continue on our way there.”

“Good luck to you all, my friends,” said the pile as it prepared to take Geoca and Sahrin back into itself. “As long as that place exists, it is a danger to all of us. And to everything.”

Bark, Reina, Nibat and Pig left for the ship, wondering what the Stream was like, and where the blue woman and Anak were.

* * *

SAHRIN FLEW IN WIDE SOARING ARCS through the Stream. Geoca, united and whole again, followed. They skirted the edges of the whirlpools of silver bubbles that tossed them from side to side, and laughed at the waves of pleasure that surged through them. Soon they remembered that they had a mission, and they stopped playing. They extended themselves out into the Stream, letting it carry them along. It was repairing itself, flowing into the places that had been left by the grid.

They soon found what they were looking for. It was a piece of night. Waterfalls of blue light cascaded into it, disappearing into the darkness like stars flowing into a black hole. They circled it slowly, not sure what to do. Leap into it? Into what?

‘It doesn’t look appealing.’
Sahrin skirted around its edges, keeping a safe distance away.

‘I suppose we know what comes next, don’t we...’

‘There’s no immediate rush, is there? It will take the others time to get there…’

‘It will…’

Geoca felt Sahrin come nearer to him. He reached out towards her and she came even closer, laughing. They swam around each other, teasing and probing. Finally they joined, flowing through the Stream, two currents that had come together.

‘
You feel… like I thought you would,’
Sahrin thought.
‘Like I hoped...’

‘And you,’
he thought, flowing through her. They entered each other with sighs that had no voices. As she wrapped herself around him he softened, feeling her resonate through him. Around them, crystals of light condensed out of the Stream and sparkled like stars in space. They became a helix, spiraling slowly around each other, creating a veil of ecstasy that enveloped them in silence.

They stayed like that for a long time.

After time had passed, they stirred.
‘Time to go,’
they said, and unraveling from each other, they leapt into the torrent and were swept into the black hole.

* * *

THEY WERE INSIDE Mount Weather’s power system. Stretched out into long thin trails, they squeezed into the labyrinth of narrow channels. In the Stream they had been unaware of dimensions, but here the narrow confines of the circuitry pressed in on them from all sides as they flew along its wires and fiber-optics and raced through the masses of chips and connections.

‘Look at their devices… all their machinery! We can get into it…’
Sahrin swept through the food refrigeration units and turned them off. Laughing, she locked a few doors, and stopped some elevators from working. She looked through the security cameras, using them as eyes to see the results of her work.
‘We can do anything we want here.’

Geoca found the radar screens and covered them with snow, so that the operators wouldn’t see the approaching ship.

Sahrin moved into the radio network and filled it with harsh static, then watched as the operators threw their headsets off.
‘Marvelous!’
She overloaded the machines that were charging the guns that the soldiers would use. They exploded in a shower of sparks.

‘The others must be getting close by now.’

‘What are they going to do?’

‘Who knows?’
Sahrin felt a sudden wave of doubt. They had no plan.
‘What are we going to do?’

‘A distraction,’
thought Geoca.
‘We’ll give them something to look at. I know just the thing. You do what you can with their lasers.’

‘Lasers?’

‘Look.’
He showed her one. There were a dozen of them, large powerful weapons concealed in bunkers around the circumference of the mountain.

‘But don’t touch the one I’m using…’

‘Yes…’
Sahrin took off towards the closest of the lasers.

Geoca entered another one, and looked through its sights. It was trained on a mound of rocks, which it was laboriously burning away, bit by bit. There must have been something behind it that they wanted to get at.

‘Time to put a stop to it.’
He found the amplification circuits. Hurled back and forth between the reflective elements, he grew in power, becoming a mass of searing, burning light.

The soldier sitting in the gunner’s seat cursed as the laser faltered. He swore and punched the side of his console in frustration. The laser’s beam faded out as though something was blocking its path, then suddenly a cloud of red-colored light shot from it, as though it was an obstruction being expelled. The soldier’s mouth hung open as the cloud stopped halfway to the rocks he had been firing at. It hovered fifty or sixty feet above the ground, then surged outwards like an exploding nebula. It flared, a seething transparent mass, then collapsed in on itself, congealing into a form that took the shape of a figure hovering above the no-man’s land between the human and Nefilim lines.

Geoca was putting on a show. He was fifty feet tall, a figure of fire burning so brightly that it was hard for anyone on the ground to look at him. He raised his arms, and a huge pair of wings grew out of his back, so that he looked like some angel from hell, a Marian vision from the other side. The two small Geocas floated beside him like oversized demonic cherubs, casting balls of cold fire towards the ground from their open mouths.