By now, however, gunfire was shaking the entire forest.
The war had begun.
****
The sun was still rising, but dark clouds had materialized out of the west and were now stretching toward them like long, oily fingers. The eerie stillness they had come to know so well on the island was now put to shame by a strange new wind that came accompanying the darkening sky.
John ran after Paul, descending a steep hill and coming into the empty courtyard of one of the ziggurats. He could see the temple standing beyond, the pyramid like a mountain in the background. The sun was almost perfectly positioned above the pyramid’s pinnacle, its light reflecting brilliantly off the polished limestone and the crystal capstone. It was so bright that it was almost unbearable to look at.
“We need to get into the pyramid,” John said as another platoon entered the strangely deserted courtyard.
Paul was skeptical. “I don’t like this.”
The other group ran over to them and reported that they’d just come from the pyramid. They said that there was no way into it.
Chadwick stepped forward while the two platoons joined in turning their weapons outward and to the forest that surrounded them. “If it’s like the Great Pyramid, its entrance might be sealed shut.”
“So how do we get in?” Hunter asked.
“Some think the literature indicates a tunnel system connecting the Sphinx and Valley Temple to the Great Pyramid. It could be the same here.”
“Could?” Paul asked as the wind hissed through the grass around their feet.
“How much ammo’s left?” Hunter inquired of the group.
They had used half of their supply in getting here. It wouldn’t be long before they had to resort to hand-to-hand combat.
“Come on,” Chadwick said, leading them past the tall ziggurats and toward the massive temple.
As the ascending steps leading into the temple’s immense entranceway came into view, they saw that two giants were standing guard on either side. They were dressed in some kind of reflective, glass-like armor that mirrored everything before them. Almost invisible behind the reflection of the temple’s steps and the complex beyond, their six-fingered grasps held spears longer than any normal man.
Hunter led the charge up the steps, his submachine gun echoing off the enormous buildings surrounding them and striking the guard on the right. John followed close behind, firing the more powerful assault rifle at the opposite giant. Neither of the monsters even flinched beneath the sparks showering off their armor.
And then the giant on the left raised its spear, took one step forward, and launched it through the air. It flew straight past Hunter’s head, nearly taking off an ear, and picked up a pureblooded islander behind him. The force of the throw skewered the man and took him all the way to the bottom of the steps, the spear’s bloody point pinning his dead body to the ground.
Henry picked up the man’s weapon and slung it over his shoulder as he continued racing upward after Hunter and his adopted brother.
The giant that had thrown its spear took a step away from its position, beginning to descend the stairs en route to a confrontation with the invaders. John peppered its chest with bullets while Hunter ran a wide path around it. He turned when he was a few steps above, and fired at its back until his weapon clicked empty. The giant spun back around, pulling a long diamond-like dagger from somewhere within its shining armor and threw it in Hunter’s direction. Hunter dropped the empty MP5, not bothering to load it with his last remaining clip, and pulled an old German Luger from the back of his pants just as the blade of the giant’s knife flashed by his face and sliced a deep gash across his temple. Stumbling backward, Hunter raised the pistol and fired it repeatedly into the giant’s face as it climbed the steps after him.
Stumbling blindly on the steps, the giant opened its mouth and roared, reaching out for Hunter.
Hunter dropped the pistol and pulled the sword from off his back, raising it above his head even as blood flowed like a river down his face. But before he could deliver the strike, he noticed Henry and Paul screaming a warning to him. Turning, he saw the other giant running down the steps at him. Henry and Paul were firing relentlessly at it, but to no avail. The giant was on top of him before he could even get his sword around, its spear plunging into his chest and exiting through his back. He cried out in pain, trying to hack at the giant’s hands with the sword. But the giant simply cocked the spear back and lifted Hunter off his feet. Then, with a snap of its wrists, it whipped the spear forward and sent Hunter’s body sliding off the long pole and flying freely through the air. He almost cleared the entire temple, but caught the first step against the small of his back.
With blind furry that was reflected right back at him in the giant’s armor, Paul threw himself at the beast. But the Nephilim simply backhanded him away, sending him toppling down the steep stairs.
Henry ignored Paul bouncing past him and fired the shotgun he’d taken from the dead islander. The shot struck the giant’s exposed knee cap. It buckled, bringing the giant down awkwardly across the steps. Before it could recover, John ran up behind it and plunged his own sword into the base of its neck. It unleashed a horrendous cry and, unbelievably, got back to its feet, knocking John off.
Henry aimed for the sword that was still sticking out of its neck and unloaded the other barrel. The cloud of buckshot tore away what flesh remained, and its head peeled away from its body, bouncing all the way down the steps and across the courtyard.
By now, the other Nephilim had turned on the rest of the platoon, barely noticing the bullets that were finding gaps in its armor. It reached out and grabbed one man after another, tearing them in half and tossing them down the temple steps.
John retrieved his sword and shook the carnage off it before charging the other giant’s blindside. Taking a few steps up so that he was higher than the giant, he hurled himself through the air, bringing the sword crashing down into its head as it was chasing after a screaming pureblood. Knowing that he wouldn’t be able to dislodge it, John leaned all of his weight into the reflective body armor, pushing the “mighty man of renown” until it lost its footing. It crashed down on the steps so hard that a few corners of the steps broke off. As it began to slide down the steps on its back like some freak show amusement ride, it held John tightly in its grasp, threatening to snap his spine. The repeated blows to its head from each descending step, however, proved to be John’s salvation. By the time it reached the bottom of the temple, its head was smeared all the way down the limestone, chunks of Nephilim brain matter clinging to the staggered steps.
Chadwick looked up to the sky and saw just how close the sun was to locking into position with the pyramid. He urged them all onward.
After stealing one last glance at Hunter’s unmoving body, Paul and Henry turned and entered the temple. John, Chadwick, and those that remained from the two platoons followed in after them.
****
They ran down a stone corridor, searching for a passageway that would lead them underground and to what Chadwick hoped was a tunnel system leading to the pyramid. But the corridor seemed to stretch on forever, no detail marking the walls or floor to signal whether their journey was even progressing. For all they knew, the floor was moving toward them and they were running in place.
John began to share Paul’s cynicism about the temple complex being left guarded by only two giants. It didn’t seem very likely that all of Osiris’ armies had been drawn away from the site. And then, materializing from nowhere, a group of white men in loincloths and covered in tattoos were suddenly running down the hall toward them. But a short burst of firepower sent them all to the cold floor, writhing in pain and blood.
They hopped over them and kept running.
A minute later, however, they came to scattered corpses lying in the corridor. White, tattooed men in loincloths, blood dripping from bullet holes.
They stared for a second, confused.
“Didn’t we
just killed these guys?” Paul asked.
Chadwick looked down the hall. “We’re running in circles.”
Just then, two men fell from the ceiling and landed on Paul’s back, swinging knives at his throat. Paul blocked the attacks with his forearms and threw one of the men to the floor. The other attacker started clawing savagely at his eyes, and Paul slammed him into the wall, too. Grabbing the man’s arms, Paul flipped him off his back, using all the man’s momentum to break both his arms at the elbows. The man howled in agony as Paul swung him around by the hands and threw him into the opposite wall… where he vanished.
Paul stood still for a second, staring at the blank wall, panting.
“It’s some kind of portal,” John explained, able to draw from his own experience with such things.
“Great,” Paul muttered. And then he stepped into the wall, disappearing, too.
There was a moment of hesitation before the rest of them followed.
****
We’re on the southwest corner of the island!” exclaimed a man with a Texas drawl. There was nothing around them but palmettos sprinkled across the shoreline, waves crashing off the reef in the distance.
John looked up at the sky. “We’re running out of time.” He stepped out of the circle and walked beyond the large, staggered monoliths. “Come on, get out of there.”
They walked away from the henge’s center.
“What is that?” one of the men asked, pointing up into the sky.
They turned their attention upward to the encroaching darkness, and to what initially looked like storm clouds. Now, however, the shapeless black clouds were filled with ghostlike figures flying back and forth within them.
“Come on,” John said, turning away from the coming nightmare apocalypse. He hurried back into the circle.
****
They were back in what they could only assume to be the temple, though in a room they hadn’t been able to access from within the long corridor. Huge pillars were stretching upward and holding a ceiling that they could barely see.
“Are we beneath the temple?” Paul asked.
Chadwick shook his head. “No,” Chadwick said, “I think we’re on the outskirts of the temple’s center. Look,” he pointed at an enormous entranceway that stood half concealed by red curtains. He ran across the stone floor and led them through it.
John recognized the room immediately. “This is where I was,” he whispered, looking up and seeing the opening in the ceiling. The sun was almost positioned at its center. Spinning around, he saw the mirrors positioned against the wall, just where they had been before.
“Mirror, mirror on the wall…” Paul mumbled. “Is that the thing you—”
But John was already halfway there.
“John, we need to find the passageway to the pyramid!” Chadwick shouted.
As John approached the instrument, images began appearing within the glass. His heart jumped. He recognized them.
Henry ran up beside him, about to pull him away, when he, too, noticed what was being displayed in the mirrors. “Johnny,” he whispered, gently tugging him.
It was Kristen. She was sitting in his chair, asleep.
“Johnny,” Henry said again, “if you want to see her again—”
“Yeah,” John whispered. And then, in a sudden flash of anger, he grabbed Henry’s sword from off his back and swung it into the instrument that had been watching his family. The panes of glass shattered and fell to the floor, exploding into hundreds of pieces that were sent bouncing and rolling at his feet. He continued to swing at the contraption, and once there was no longer any glass intact, he pushed the frame over and began stomping on it, twisting the metal.
“John!” Henry was screaming now, pulling him away. “Let’s go!”
Panting heavily, his face red and veins bulging in his neck, John finally let himself be pulled away from the angel’s spyglass.
“Come on!” Chadwick shouted. He was standing beside a section of the wall that seemed to be moving, swimming in dark circles like some fantasy out of a video game. He stepped in.
****
It was the enormous room that contained the pool full of women; except that now there weren’t any giants in their company.
Chadwick swore loudly and began looking for another portal when one of the men cried out, “Jennifer!” and began running to the pool.
“No, Peter!” another called after him, running to restrain him.
The women turned and watched, unmoving, as the two men approached.
Peter ran to one that must have been either his sister or wife and grabbed her, trying desperately to drag her back with him and away from the pool. But she was resisting, lashing out with her nails and raking his face. He was pleading with her, tears running from his eyes, but she seemed numb to his concern.
The rest of the women congregated in the pool and were now slowly approaching the struggle. And a moment later, Peter disappeared beneath a tide of hording flesh and splashing water, a lustful frenzy overtaking him like sharks to a bleeding wound. Trying desperately to pull the women off him, his friend, too, was pulled down beneath the writhing sea of skin.
The sounds coming from the water were too much for John, and he had to turn away. “We should leave before…”
Already finished with the two men, or simply saving them for later, the naked women stood, one by one, and turned toward them.
“Let’s go,” Paul said, beginning to backpedal.
As the girls began stepping out of the water, the platoon could see their friends floating face down in the water behind them and knew there was no use in trying to save them. They all turned and ran back through the portal.
The next thing John knew, he was standing in the center of a henge, the same one he’d been transported to before. He led the shrinking platoon into another circle and vanished again.
This time, they found themselves standing at the base of the pyramid, an army of angry giants surrounding them, dead bodies of the pureblooded scattered beneath six-toed feet.
Though the sounds of battle were still echoing through the forest, it was evident from the scene before them that things had not gone well at all.
The giants began beating their bare, tattooed chests with six, seven, and even eight-fingered fists, waving swords and axes in the air while hissing at them. The eyes of those closest to them were glowing molten red.
“Why aren’t they attacking?” Chadwick asked. There had to be a hundred of them, each and every one ready to tear them to pieces if not for whatever was restraining them.
“Look!” John pointed to the sun. It was only minutes away from moving into its final position.
“They’re waiting to be transported,” Henry realized.
And then explosions began blowing handfuls of the Nephilim into pieces, whipping their cursed anatomy across the grass. Volleys of gunfire swept through their ranks from the forest around them, but still the Nephilim refused to retaliate, waiting only for the sun to move into place and activate the pyramid.
A combined force of the remaining pureblooded inhabitants suddenly burst from the trees and began charging the ranks of giants even as the sound of flapping wings settled over the complex.
“We’re out of time!” Henry yelled.
The churning black clouds had begun forming a circle in the sky right above the pyramid, sucking in the brightness of midday as if it were a black hole. Skinny black creatures with horns protruding from their elongated skulls beat their bat-like wings as they swam through the rolling clouds. The sun was standing as the eye of the swirling evil, its center poised above the pyramid’s diamond capstone. There was no doubt that these demons had come to aid in the fallen angel’s departure.
Even as more hellish creatures appeared gliding around the darkening vortex that was closing in on the sun, the pureblooded army was effectively cutting their way through the ranks of motionless giants, attacking with swords and grenades.
Branches of lightning
began flashing, and gusts of wind whipped through the forest.
Paul grabbed John and pulled him back into the circle beneath the pyramid, sending them to yet another location.
****
This is it!” Chadwick exclaimed. “The tunnel system beneath the complex!” He began running down the stone corroder, glowing bulbs tracing the ceiling above them.
Another group of Osiris’ soldiers appeared at the end of the hall, blocking their entrance into an ascending passageway that Chadwick could only hope led up into the pyramid.
“Is that it?” Paul asked Chadwick.
“I think so.”
Paul took the submachine gun from him. “Then go.”
“What are you doing?” shouted Henry.
“If you don’t leave this place, then Nick and Chris died for nothing!”
“What are you talking about?”
“Someone has to look after Jackson and Hunter and keep these people,” he nodded toward the remaining platoon, “from destroying the site.” A crystal arrow went streaking by his face. “If this thing even works, then I’ll see you at the winter solstice.” Then he turned and ran down the corridor, screaming while holding down the trigger of the submachine gun. Once it ran dry, he tossed it aside and pulled the sword from off his back. He entered the midst of the remaining demon-possessed soldiers with a brutal savagery of his own.
“Come on!” Chadwick navigated through Paul’s bloody assault and to the mouth of the ascending passageway. But then arrows began sinking into the bodies of the pureblooded men around them, four of them falling immediately.
Looking back beyond Paul, they saw another procession of evil soldiers making their way after them, two giants and one of the flying creatures accompanying them.
Progeny Page 34