The Day of the Nefilim

by David L. Major

  “Buildings,” he said when he saw what the General was looking at.

  “Yes, Einstein. Buildings.” He called the other helicopters.

  There were yelps of glee. It was the Gores, of course. The General felt a surge of intense dislike for them. If those bastard twins didn’t share the post of Vice Secretary-General and a long list of other titles between them, he would have long ago taken great pleasure in organizing an accident for them. The patronage and protection of the Secretary-General had served them well.

  Thead noticed the General’s expression of disgust.

  “You don’t have much time for those colleagues of yours, do you?” he asked, at the same time peering towards the island.

  “It’s not your concern.”

  They flew over a jumble of buildings and looked down on the inhabitants, who were either scurrying for shelter or standing looking up into the sky at the new arrivals. Near the center of the town was a square or market of some kind. The crowd in it didn’t look even remotely human.

  “Mutants!” said Thead. “So you have them as well.”

  “You know them too? Well, now we know where at least some of them live, don’t we?” said the General, looking around to see if any of the other helicopters had arrived.

  At the same instant, the Gores’ helicopter flashed past them, the chatter of gunfire and the smoking trail of an air-to-ground missile in its wake.

  The General swore and opened a channel. “You have my permission to open fire.”

  “Well, thank you, General sah. Thank YOU!”

  The General grimaced again. Thead said nothing.

  This would surely serve the General well back at Mount Weather. Mutants had been a source of major frustration for as long as anyone could remember – for as long as history had been recorded, in fact. It wasn’t so much anything they did, although they did meddle when it suited them; it was more that they kept themselves separate, and so little was known about either them or their agenda. They were beyond the jurisdiction of the surface. Whenever they were hunted or pursued, they disappeared underground, and no one had ever known exactly where they went. Until now. He wondered how many places there were like this.

  The General imagined the Secretary-General’s beaming face in front of him as he pointed the helicopter’s nose towards some buildings. He was still smiling as he pressed the fire button.

  The other helicopters arrived. “Leave a few of them alive,” he told them. He needed a half-dozen or so for questioning. And something to show at Mount Weather, of course.

  Soon the sound of his men, happy in their work, filled the headphones. The General flew above the length of an alleyway, herding a group of mutants before him. When they were cornered, cowering against the end wall, he turned to Thead.

  “Have a turn, boy. All you need to do is press this.” He tapped a red button and looked Thead straight in the eye, waiting. This was a test.

  Thead looked down at the cowering group. They were all the same, with insect wings and heads half the size of a human head, but they were different sizes, with the larger ones trying to shelter the smaller ones. A family, maybe.

  Thead pressed the button without hesitating. There was a soft thudding sound, and the mutants were engulfed in a ball of fire. It dispersed almost immediately, but the flames clung to them. After a few seconds, they stopped moving. When the flames subsided, nothing was left but a collection of blackened husks.

  “The joys of anti-personnel air-to-ground DF-3 incineration accelerant,” said the General. “Well done, Thead.”

  “A pleasure, General.” Thead smiled.

  The other helicopters were flying over the rooftops, dropping incendiaries among the buildings. Smoke and flames rose from the crowded streets, in the way of wars everywhere.

  The Gores were hovering above the marketplace, firing their machine guns happily and randomly into the crowd.

  “But ain’t this the life, sister,” said the brother, pausing to lob a grenade into a group of fleeing mutants.

  “Makes you feel it’s all worthwhile, don’t it? Sure as heck gives you that warm useful feeling,” Alexis replied, taking aim at a bird hybrid and squeezing the trigger carefully. Its head exploded in a shower of blood, beak, and brains. “Yup. Sure does,” she agreed with herself, taking aim again.

  Finally bored with the marketplace, they went roaming above the houses, setting fire to them. Pausing in front of one of the larger buildings, they saw someone running into it.

  “Let’s try the laser. Have we tried the laser yet?”

  “No, brother, we haven’t tried the laser yet. And I’m of the opinion that we most definitely should.”

  The brother armed the laser, waited until it was charged, and fired. The beam sliced through a door frame in the front of the building, along the front wall, and then took out the upper half of a window, setting old wood alight as it went.

  “Not bad,” he said, “but I prefer the kick of the machine gun. Call me old fashioned, but there you go!”

  “Aw, you’re just an old romantic,” replied Alexis, at the controls. “Let’s hear that little baby fire up, boy!” Her brother obliged by swapping weapons and opening fire on a group running into the building.

  A few seconds later, the General’s helicopter came up beside them. Without saying anything, the Gores flew away.

  The General flew over the building and made towards the beach.

  “Two there!” Thead yelled. “We just passed them!”

  The General looked down and saw two figures. One was a female, normal enough. The other was a Nefilim. What was a Nefilim doing here?

  He swung the helicopter around in a tight circle. “Get on these two,” he said to the side gunner.

  As soon as they were in his sights, the gunner opened up. The bullets skittered harmlessly around the girl, but the Nefilim was hit and fell. The helicopter overshot them. The General swung it around as fast as he could.

  “I know that female!” Thead yelled above the sound of the turbines.

  “In that case, when we find her, I’ll allow you the pleasure of dispatching her.”

  But the female was gone. “Time to get on the ground,” said the General. He ordered two of the helicopters to continue looking for survivors, and sent the others to the marketplace.

  The Gores were meticulous about certain things; document-ation was one of them. “History must never forget our work,” they said as they filmed their exploits, taking great care to capture the most telling and graphic moments. Alexis was particularly adept with a camera, probably because she lacked her brother’s tendency to get carried away in the heat of the moment.

  “We’ll get just the finest shot of yourselves landing there, General,” Alexis said into the radio. “Looks mighty fine, all that burnin’ shit and those dead mutants lyin’ all round the place. Be right fine with some choppers comin’ down, ain’t that so, Theo?”

  “Damn right, sister.”

  There were occasions when the Vice-Secretaries, in spite of themselves, made sense. Some film of the General and his boys in action on the ground might be useful later. One always had to consider the media. And the troops inside the helicopters had been unable to take much of a part in the festivities so far. They had been cooped up for several hours, and were getting jumpy. It was the compassionate thing to let them have a run.

  The helicopters headed in to land. Thead was hanging out the side window, firing his new pistol at anything that moved. He was missing everything, but he was enjoying himself. Then he saw Sahrin. She was standing in front of a cowering mutant, and she had her arm drawn back, preparing to throw something.

  “Bitch!” Thead had never had any reason to dislike her in the past, but now that he found himself on the opposing team he wasn’t going to let details obscure his appreciation of the big picture. He took aim, but the other helicopter was coming down between them. It blocked his view a second before Sahrin’s grenade took flight. Another couple of seconds after that, i
t erupted in a ball of flame.

  The General, who had seen nothing, felt the blast. Even as he turned to see pieces of helicopter being scattered by the blast, he was considering his options. He didn’t know what type of weapon had taken out it out, or from what direction, so there was no advantage in going back up.

  He landed and ordered the soldiers out, but it was unnecessary; they were on the ground already and spreading out across the square, killing wounded mutants and apparently forgetting the order to take some prisoners. The General and Thead followed. The General was half expecting another attack, but it didn’t come. Whoever had wasted the helicopter would be foolish to have stuck around.

  “It was her,” Thead said. “The female from the beach. I saw her again, just now. Over there.” He pointed to a building beyond the burning carcass of the destroyed helicopter.

  The Gores had landed as well, and came running over. The sister was still filming as she stumbled over pieces of debris and bodies. Theo was carrying a rocket-propelled grenade launcher.

  “RPG for short, boy,” he offered when he saw Thead looking at the weapon. “A fine companion when no argument or contradiction is to be tolerated. Jesuz, what a freaking mess!” He looked around at the remains of the helicopter.

  “I was just saying,” said Thead, “that the one who did it was over there. I saw her.” He pointed again to the spot where he had seen Sahrin, happy to demonstrate that he knew something of value.

  “Well, no shit.” Theo raised the RPG to his shoulder and before anyone could say anything, fired a grenade towards the doorway Thead was pointing at. He didn’t use ordinary grenades. These were souped-up versions, made especially for him by the weapons techs back at Mount Weather. When the projectile exploded, it demolished an entire side of the building, and set fire to the buildings on each side of it. The upper floors promptly caved in, collapsing onto the shattered remains of the ground floor. Fire spread, and within seconds the row of buildings was an inferno.

  The Gores laughed and slapped each other on the back. Alexis got the whole thing on film.

  The General went back to the radio and called in the other helicopters. It was time to clean up.

  After a few minutes, they arrived, and their cargo dispersed through the streets of the island. The gentle, meditative sound of occasional gunfire wafted through the air.

  * * *

  How Sahrin came to be on the island of the mutants

  SAHRIN WOKE. She lay still for a moment as the dream she had been having faded away. She sat up and stretched her arms, then with a start remembered where she was. She was underground, and it was now many hours since she’d followed the creature into the depths of the tunnels, away from the cavern full of the other sleeping Nefilim. Good call, she thought to herself. That was real sensible, to have gone there in the first place. Idiot!

  Sleeping soundly a few meters away was the Nefilim, whose name, she had learned, was a strange sound, the best rendition of which she could manage was something like Obirin. Its full name was a lot longer than that, but Obirin would do, it had said.

  “Where are we going?” she had asked.

  ‘We’re going to meet some others,’ was the reply. ‘It is some distance, and you must trust me.’ Until then, Obirin had said, he would explain as much as he could. And he did. As they walked and climbed through tunnels and rock formations, some natural and some artificial, Obirin had begun Sahrin’s education in the prehistory of the Earth.

  ‘Not all the Nefilim are united. Also, not all of us have been hibernating for the last few thousand years. There have been others, who have lived their lives deep underground. If everything has gone according to plan, they will have been alerted to the awakening that has happened, and they will be expecting me and some others of us who think the same way to come and meet with them. We will decide there what must be done next.’

  “Done about what?”

  ‘The awakening means that this world, which is as much ours as anyone’s, is about to experience great changes. Much is about to happen, but it is doubtful that the rulers of the surface, the human leaders, will want the masses of their people to know the truth of what is happening. They have never been able to admit that this planet has a history that is much longer than is generally known, although the rulers themselves have known of it for a long time. Much less so will they want the populace to know that it is not a dead history but a living one, and that that history has awakened, and is about to assert itself.’

  Sahrin thought that Obirin was assuming that she was a local, that this was her planet.

  “I’m not from here, from this planet, I mean,” she said. “I came here with some others in a ship. We sailed here…”

  ‘Yes, you’re one of the aether pilots, aren’t you. You were seen arriving. Your presence here aroused much interest.’

  “I am. And were we? And among whom? We followed the directions on the map that one of our crew had been deciphering, and it’s been our undoing. Unlike the locals, we have an understanding of your race, even if it’s a second-hand one. Your species traveled widely in the past, and there are traces of you in the myths and legends of many races.”

  ‘True,’ replied the Nefilim. ‘And the contribution we made to the affairs of those who we ruled was not a happy one, unfortunately. At its height, we ruled many systems and many cultures, and the Nefilim were harsh masters.’

  “While it lasted it was effective, I guess. But it was cruel, judging by the tales that outlived your empire.” Sahrin changed the subject. “I remember hearing a story once, when we were trading in the Enstrai Cloud. According to the legend, there would be a time when the Nefilim would be resurrected, reborn, and that it would happen when their two homes moved together. Has that got anything to do with what’s happening now? And if the Nefilim are being reborn, does that mean that they’re going to want their empire back as well? And what homes? Why two?”

  ‘So many questions. How human.’

  They were walking along a narrow path. The top of the cliff it was cut into disappeared into the darkness, but its lower reaches were very visible. A hundred or so feet below them, a river of molten lava flowed into a sinkhole at least two hundred feet across, forming a lake of fire that spat and boiled furiously. The air burned. Her lungs felt scorched.

  ‘Yes, the two homes are moving together. This planet is regarded by our race as part of our heritage. Earth, as the humans call it, was the first planet we ever traveled to. It was the first because periodically it is the closest habitable object in space to Marduk, which is what we call our own world. Marduk has a long orbit that takes it out on a huge arc into the coldest and blackest space. It spends three and a half thousand of this planet’s years in space, after which time its orbit brings it back into the reaches of this system. The last time this happened was three and a half thousand earth years ago.’

  “Then it’s about to come again? Or it’s here already… do the Earth-humans know?”

  ‘Some of them know. The ones that rule know, of course. They have always known. Those that study know. The scientists will know that something is coming.’

  “And what is going to happen?”

  ‘The Nefilim population on Earth have been sleeping for twenty eight thousand of this planet’s years. The two planets have been in close proximity to each other eight times during that period, but now, there are other factors in play which are causing the awakenings to happen.’

  ‘The earth-humans might like to think that they alone have instigated the process, but there is more to it. The humans have been watched and guided in everything they have done.’

  They had passed the lake of fire several days ago, and had traversed several caverns lit by small ferocious-looking creatures that looked like a cross between a bat and a firefly which flew far above their heads, making strident shrieking noises but never coming near them.

  Finally they emerged from the caverns onto the coast of an underground ocean.

  Small waves of
clear water lapped quietly at a long shoreline. Sahrin tasted it, and found it fresh and cold. They had both been hungry in the small tunnels, and had wiped condensation from the walls to slake their thirst. Now, beside the underground sea, they found strange fungi, all different shapes and sizes, like nothing that Sahrin had ever seen before. They stopped and rested, and ate their fill. The flesh was sweet, even if the appearance of the fungi did little for her appetite.

  “Why did your race go into hibernation?”

  ‘The answer to that lies in the changes that are about to befall this part of the universe. Eight orbits ago, our scientists found an object in space which puzzled them greatly. It was far away, so at first, their interest was merely academic. They identified the new object as a massive cloud of photons, stretched across a vast area in a belt. They set about analyzing this phenomenon, and soon found that it was heading, at great speed, in this direction. Towards this system. As you might expect, this lent some urgency to their investigation of its qualities.’

  He stopped, and thought for a few seconds. Sahrin bit into a piece of fungus.

  ‘When its path was calculated more precisely, they found that the photon cloud was going to arrive in this planetary system at the same time that Marduk would be at the perihelion of its orbit, and at its closest aspect to earth.’

  ‘The research that we – for I was one of the scientists who worked on this project – undertook indicated that the photon belt had some unusual qualities. It would absorb any light it encountered, both from the stars and our own sun. We calculated that both planets were going to pass through the cloud, and that it would take three Earth-days. Both Marduk and Earth would experience total darkness during this time. Of course, without sunlight, the temperature would plummet. But the real effects would be on the living creatures that were exposed to the photons. DNA would be subjected to a shifting range of frequencies, stimulating a resonance effect…’

  “I’m not understanding you,” Sahrin broke in. “I’m not a scientist.”