Two shots pinged off the metal band protecting the giant’s forehead, but if it moved it was an infinitesimal amount. Lei continued his barrage, moving in closer. Whitney took aim and waited for the right moment.
The Nephilim opened his wings and leapt into the air, sending up a sudden wind. Lei screamed and fell back. He apparently had not seen the Nephilim in their true form, that of demons. As Lei staggered back, he tripped and fell, dropping his AK-47.
The Nephilim descended like a hawk. The ground shook as it landed before Lei and snatched up the small man. “Shoot him!” Lei shouted, but Whitney didn’t trust her aim, not with the recoil created by the XM-29. She dropped the modern weapon and drew her 9mm. She quickly took aim and fired several rounds.
The first missed completely, but the next six pegged the metal circlet dead-on, at an extreme angle. As Lei began to scream, Whitney took careful aim and pulled the trigger again. The shot rang true. Sparks flew from the metal ring, which was knocked clean off the Nephilim’s forehead.
As the circlet hit the stone floor with a clang and warbled around in circles, the Nephilim showed true surprise. He looked at the ring, then at Whitney, who had taken aim again. She fired.
But the Nephilim was fast. He guarded his head with his hand and took the bullet in his thick palm, which healed over quickly. The giant dropped Lei and charged Whitney blindly. He barreled toward her, howling and gnashing his double rows of teeth.
Whitney fired three shots before the 9mm ran empty. A moment later, a massive arm smashed into her like a battering ram. The air in her lungs escaped as she was sent soaring into a stone wall. It was only the wide distribution of force delivered from the Nephilim’s broad arm that kept her ribs from shattering. She sat up, gasping for air. As desperation set in, she froze like a cornered mouse. There was nowhere to run. She picked up her XM-29 and tried to take aim, but her head spun and the beast already loomed above her. Two more steps and he’d be on top of her.
Eyes clenched shut, Whitney braced for what would be a painful but quick death. Then a single shot rang out, followed by a ghastly howl that caused a chill to run through every sinew of Whitney’s body. She looked up.
The giant staggered, as a fist-sized hole oozed blood from the center of his forehead, which ran down his body and mingled with the lines of his tattoos. Whitney could see that the injury had come from behind. She looked at Lei. He was on the ground, unconscious. Merrill and Aimee were emerging from the tunnel, but they were unarmed. Then she heard a bark and a voice yell, “Move your ass, Whitney! He’s coming down.”
Wright!
The shadow of the giant fell over Whitney just before his body fell forward. She dove to the side as he crashed down. The ground shook. Wright, Ferrell, and Vesuvius entered the fortress through the rear gate. Ferrell glanced at the back of the man’s head, where her single shot had taken him down.
“How did you know where to shoot him?” Whitney asked.
“Saw what you were doing. How you removed the headpiece. Nice shot, by the way. Figured you wouldn’t have done that without a reason and thought a shot coming out of the forehead would be as good as one going in.”
Whitney smiled. The woman’s adeptness at killing had become a blessing.
“Would have taken him down sooner, but this”—Ferrell motioned to the XM-29 in her hands—“doesn’t have the best long-range sight.”
The group merged around Lei’s body. Wright felt for the man’s pulse. “Still alive,” Wright said. Whitney, now weaponless, said, “I’ll take him.” She bent down and hoisted the small man over her shoulder. Though he was a head shorter and perhaps fifteen pounds lighter than Whitney, his weight made her muscles protest. But Wright and Ferrell needed their weapons, and she’d be damned before leaving him behind.
The group exited through the rear gate and hurried around the outer wall toward the river. As explosions continued to shake in the distance, they moved with more ease. No one would be looking for them while all hell was breaking loose.
“Do you think,” Merrill asked, “that the military found out about this place?”
Wright shook his head. “The explosions aren’t mortars or missiles. This is something else.”
“Sounds like timed charges.” Ferrell said.
The group listened. Every fifteen seconds a new explosion filled the air. Wright laughed. “I’ll be damned. Cruz is still alive!”
The group picked up the pace and cut through the forest. They found the river flooded with shards of wood and chunks of what must have been larger boats.
“Definitely Cruz,” Wright said.
The river flowed swiftly, and a way across was nowhere in sight. But a voice gave them hope. “Hey, gringos, need a lift?”
Cruz floated downriver in a twenty-five-foot boat that would have been a dinghy to the Nephilim, but was near yacht-size for people. It had no mast but appeared solidly built and could be steered by rudder, as Cruz did, bringing the boat in toward a sandy portion of shore.
Thick ropes were thrown overboard. Al-Aziz’s head popped up over the edge. “Quickly, friends. Time is short!”
Lei was tied on and hauled up first while Aimee and Merrill climbed the other rope. Wright turned to Whitney. “You next.”
Whitney started climbing. Al-Aziz tossed down the rope that had hoisted Lei back over the side. Ferrell and Wright tied the rope to Vesuvius, who was hauled up by Aimee and Merrill. His tail continued wagging, even with the uncomfortable rope around his waist.
Whitney reached the top then turned to assist Wright and Ferrell, but she caught something in her peripheral vision. Something above her. She looked up.
High in the sky was a large bird-like creature, which Whitney almost took to be a pterodactyl, wings outstretched. It blocked out the sun then came around, straight for them. “Incoming!” Whitney shouted, pointing.
She heard Ferrell shout,” Aim for the wings!” then a barrage of bullets and tracers rocketed skyward. The descending wraith spun and wove, dodging some bullets and taking others dead-on. But Wright’s and Ferrell’s aim was too accurate and the bullets came too fast. The beast’s wings were shredded faster than they could heal, and it plummeted toward the earth. It landed in the river, sending up a geyser of water and casting out waves that shook the boat from its position.
They were floating away, leaving Wright and Ferrell behind. Cruz took the rudder and began steering back toward shore. Wright waved them on. “We’ll catch up downstream! Go!” Cruz nodded and aimed the boat for the center of the river where the current was strongest. They were off.
As they floated away, Whitney saw the Nephilim that had fallen from the sky emerge from the water like the mighty kraken, rising from its ocean lair. It howled and leapt from the water, landing on the shore near Wright and Ferrell, who had already begun their attack. Whitney recognized the attacker: Enki.
Enki pounded toward Wright and Ferrell as the boat rounded a bend in the river. Whitney saw sparks flying from Enki’s circlet. They were aiming at the right place. But soon the battle was blocked by a stand of trees. Gunfire and shouts echoed from upstream then stopped. The group waited in silence for some sign of what had happened.
Then it came. Enki rose up into the sky and flew toward the fortress. In his hands he held two bodies.
“Damn it!” Cruz shouted, the expression on his face pained.
Whitney was surprised to see Cruz express any kind of loss for Wright and Ferrell. But as the reality that they were gone set in, Whitney missed them both. The Boy Scout and the assassin. They had become her friends. Cruz’s, too.
“Time to go,” al-Aziz said.
“How?” Merrill asked. “We can only go as fast as the river flows.”
“Then we’ll speed up the river,” Cruz said, revealing a detonator in his hand. “Better hold on to something.”
A shriek cut through the air. It was Lei. He was looking up and pointing. Enki was back already and he had two friends. They floated through the air like bombe
rs approaching a target.
Merrill herded the group to the center of the boat and clutched his arms around them. “Do it!”
Cruz thumbed the detonator and pushed the button. In the distance a massive explosion shook, followed by a roar that sounded as though the earth itself were shouting.
The water was coming.
Chapter 70
As the roaring water grew closer, Merrill saw Enki balk. He either believed that the water would take care of them, which from the sound of it was entirely possible, or he had a healthy fear of deluges. Given his past history with God’s flood, Merrill wouldn’t be surprised if it was true. How fitting that humans were once again being saved from the Nephilim via a flood.
But Enki and the two other Nephilim suddenly dove straight toward them. The boat was a sitting duck and the rushing waters were still too far away to save them. Three shadows swept over the boat and a rushing wind blew past as the three winged giants flew just above them. Merrill looked downstream. They were waiting for them in the river ahead.
“Anyone happen to have a gun?” Cruz asked. No one did. Wright and Ferrell had fallen. Lei and Mirabelle’s weapons had been left behind. Apparently Cruz had lost his as well.
“I have these,” Lei said, motioning to the grenades still dangling from his vest.
Cruz smiled. “Good enough.” Cruz moved to pluck the grenades from Lei’s chest and lob them at the Nephilim in a final act of defiance.
“Wait,” Merrill said. “Listen.”
Sounds like wood being scratched rang out from the surrounding forest. “Get down and don’t say a word.” Merrill said.
Mirabelle, Merrill, Aimee, Lei, Cruz, and al-Aziz congregated at the bow of the boat and lay down behind its two-foot rise. Merrill peeked over the top. The three Nephilim stood in the river, waiting coolly for their prey to be delivered to them.
The roar of the river grew louder as water rushed in from behind the boat. Perhaps they simply waited to make sure that no one jumped ship before the deluge swept them to oblivion.
Merrill prayed that the rushing waters would drown out the cacophony of rabid turkey calls now emanating from the forest. He looked over the bow of the boat, watching the Nephilim. They seemed none the wiser.
Enki stood at the river’s center, his wings slowly flapping as though he were prepared to take to the sky at a moment’s notice. Merrill then noticed his head. The giant’s circlet was no longer there. Wright and Ferrell must have managed to remove it before being killed.
Merrill recognized the other two Nephilim as well. Thor, brandishing his mighty hammer, Mjölnir, stood to the left, ready to bash the boat to splinters. To Enki’s right stood Anubis. He wielded a scythe like a true lord of the underworld. The three represented so much ancient power on earth, it was inconceivable to fight them and win.
Merrill smiled as the brush around the edge of the river began to shake. It would take an equally ancient predator to accomplish that.
Shrieks filled the air that drowned out even the raging waters, which rounded the river bend and crashed toward them. A group of twenty-two crylos sprang from the shore on both sides of the river. They bounded out toward the Nephilim, claws extended.
The three Nephilim were startled by the attack but quickly regrouped as their wounds healed. Thor swung his hammer out in wide circles. Merrill was shocked to see the hammer actually throw sparks as it connected with one of the crylos, which shook from shock and fell smoldering to the ground. Anubis brought his scythe around with a whoosh, decapitating two crylos at once. Enki howled and drew his sword, plunging it into the nearest dinosaur.
The trees split open and the same large thirty-foot crylo pounded out into the river. With a flash of teeth, the monster crylo had Anubis’s head in its jaws. A sickening crack and howl filled the air before Anubis’s headless torso fell back into the water.
The sight of one of their own lying dead made the other two Nephilim pause for a moment, giving three crylos time to leap onto Thor’s chest and push him back into the water. The boat was almost upon the battle scene now, and Merrill doubted that, between the frenzied crylos and the enraged Nephilim, they would make it through.
But as Enki saw the deadly torrent of water approaching behind the boat, his eyes opened wide and he sprang up into the air. The next moment Merrill felt the boat lurch up and bound forward. He looked back. A wall of water, fifty feet high, had picked them up and carried them forward. They careened over the drowned crylos and Thor. The boat held up to the punishment and cruised onward, surfing on the torrent’s crest.
Merrill lost sight of Enki, who had flown high into the sky, but at the speed they traveled, he hoped the fight and their time with the Nephilim was over.
No one spoke as the boat careened down the river. Everyone simply held on for dear life, clutching onto each other. Merrill managed to look into the eyes of his wife and daughter. They had escaped together. They were a family again.
Chapter 71
No one was sure how much time had passed, only that an amazing amount of distance had been covered. When Whitney saw the familiar blue inflatable boat resting on the shore of the large lake, she knew they had made good time. The water’s flow slowed as they spilled out into the lake. The boat eased to a crawl but continued on its path across the lake, drawn to where the river re-formed and ran out to sea.
Whitney stood and stretched. Vesuvius was at her side, asking for attention. She petted him briefly before he moved on to the next person.
Glancing around the boat, Whitney took in the motley group. The missing members of their team, Wright, Ferrell, and Jacobson, had been replaced by al-Aziz, Lei, and her mother. They were leaving with the same number of souls with which they’d first landed on Antarktos, but the others would be sorely missed.
Whitney looked out over the cold, blue waters and remembered their kindness, and their sacrifice. It seemed fitting that Ferrell and Wright faced their end together. She sensed they wouldn’t have had it any other way. And Jacobson, her guardian angel, had been the first to fall to the Nephilim. She missed him the most.
Whitney watched her parents stand arm in arm at the edge of the boat. She’d lost several friends, but she’d gained so much. She had never entertained the idea of seeing her mother again. But here she was. Whitney smiled at her parent’s appearance. Outwardly they were remarkably different, but inwardly they were united.
Whitney ran her fingers through her nappy, blond hair and looked at her light-brown skin. She was the obvious product of her parents, with a look as unique as their love. After all they had been through, they had survived, only to find each other again. In hindsight, Whitney could see a design, a road map for their lives that had brought them all to this point. For a moment she entertained the idea that her father’s belief in God might not be totally misplaced. But a moment was all she had.
“We got company,” Cruz said.
Whitney followed his gaze to the last place she wanted to look: the sky.
Descending from above was the huge figure of Enki. He was alone and he still had no circlet on his head. As he dove toward them, Whitney saw that he had no weapon in his hand. She wondered if he was going to use his body as a bomb and simply shatter the boat beneath it. When he folded his wings to his back and began free-falling toward them, she was sure of it.
Enki fell like a missile. He was a thousand feet up, then a hundred. Everyone screamed and ducked, covering their heads and cowering. As Enki’s shadow blocked out the sun, there was a sudden rush of wind and a loud snap as Enki opened his wings. He flew down only feet from their heads. He skirted the water’s surface then pounded back into the air.
The group was stunned to be alive.
“He toys with us,” al-Aziz said.
Whitney was the first to see the purple haze filtering down to them, sprayed as though from a crop duster. Lei coughed and passed out. Only Whitney and Merrill, who had firsthand knowledge of the purple dust, held their breath then breathed through their
shirts. Even with the protection, Whitney felt the dust taking effect. She’d be unconscious within a minute, and Enki would have his way with them.
Whitney looked around for some option, anything that would help. All she saw were the unconscious bodies of her friends. Only her father still moved. They both reached for Lei’s grenades at the same time. Merrill met her eyes.
“You can’t,” he said, taking her hand.
Whitney glanced up. Enki was coming back around. “I won’t let mom lose you,” Whitney said. “Not after you’ve just found her.”
“I’m your father, Mira. It’s my job.”
Whitney pointed to Aimee’s unconscious form. “She needs you more than I do, Dad. Don’t you see the gift you’ve been given? After all this time!”
Merrill looked at Aimee for a moment then his resolve solidified. “No, you can’t. You’re not ready.”
Whitney understood. She knew he was worried about her eternal soul. She smiled behind her sleeve. “If God exists. If He’s as merciful as you think. Maybe there is hope for me yet.”
Merrill’s eyes went wide and quickly grew wet.
Whitney kissed her father’s forehead. “Let me go.”
“No.” Merrill’s fingers stayed tight and Whitney had to pry her hand free.
Tears slipped from his eyes and slid down his cheeks. It was the last time he’d see his daughter. They both knew it. He seemed weakened by the thought, but Whitney realized the purple dust was beginning to take hold of him.
All the better, Whitney thought. She didn’t want him to see how it would end.
Whitney took two grenades and ran to the stern. Enki was over the water again, headed straight for the boat. Whitney pulled one of the pins and lobbed the grenade toward Enki. It splashed into the water ten feet short and exploded. A plume of water shot skyward but was shattered by Enki’s body as he continued his forward motion.
Antarktos Rising Page 29