The Day of the Nefilim

by David L. Major

  * * *

  A few days later they were above the ice. The light here was dim, as though they were sailing through a perpetual twilight. It seemed as though the long southern night was falling, but that was impossible. No night would ever darken the planet’s surface again.

  The illusion was caused by layers of heavy cloud that hung low, obscuring the tops of hills, and blocking the light of the sky. Storms surrounded them as they sailed above the ice sheets and glaciers, looking in vain for the node.

  “What do you mean, you don’t know?!” the rest of them had exclaimed when Geoca and the blue woman had admitted to not knowing where the node was.

  “We should be getting directions sent to us, but we’re not,” Geoca had insisted. “Each node has a keeper, someone who looks after it and makes sure it is safe. Like the old man in New York. And there should be a keeper here somewhere. We should be able to hear him, but it’s quiet. There’s nothing. Something has happened.”

  “Then how are we going to find it? In this weather? We can’t see shit!”

  After many hours of searching without knowing what they were looking for, they found a small group of huts in the hollow of a valley. There was no sign of movement, and no tracks in the snow around the buildings.

  “Let’s have a look,” Bark said, his mood a little better now that they had something to distract them. His vision of complication after complication stretching out ahead of them like a trail of black holes in space receded a little. They dropped the anchor among some rocks and let the ladder down.

  There were three huts. The snow had piled up in drifts against the walls and covered the doors, so that they had to dig their way in. Inside, the huts smelled of cold and damp, the sodden floors littered with empty tins and boxes. Papers were strewn everywhere.

  In the last hut, they found the body of a male slumped over a desk and covered in blankets. There was another body on a bunk in the corner.

  “Jesus, this place must have been unbelievably cold.” Reina tried the radio sitting on the table. It was dead.

  “They froze to death,” said Sahrin. “A nice welcome to the new age.”

  “What were they doing here?”

  “Some sort of research, I’d say,” said Reina. “Geology or something, judging by these.” The walls were covered with maps, and there were shelves of books with long, complicated titles.

  “It was a long shot anyway. Shall we go?”

  “Wait a minute.” The Senator looking at one of the maps. He turned to Reina. “Is this a map of the continent we’re on?”

  Reina looked. “Er… yeah, it is. Look, here’s where we are, I bet...” She pointed at a spot on the map that had been marked in red. It was close to a bay they had just flown over. And there was the mountain range that they had seen to the south. “So?”

  “And this other map. Is it the whole planet?”

  “Yes. It shows everything.” Reina explained how the Antarctic was shown on the world map as an irregular white procession of bays and inlets across the bottom of the map.

  “I wonder if this could be our answer.”

  “How’s that?”

  “Geometry. Structure and order.” The Senator went to the desk and picked up a pen and a ruler. “Show me the direction of this planet’s magnetic field.”

  Reina went up to the map. “There it is. That arrow there. Magnetic North.”

  “And New York?”

  Reina showed her. The Senator drew an arc from New York to the red mark on the Antarctic. “Show me where all the nodes you know of are,” he said to Geoca. “With a little luck, we might be able to deduce the location of our destination.”

  They settled down to work. Outside, the winds abated and the clouds began to clear.

  An hour later, the blue woman stood up. She’d been sitting on the floor, apparently unworried by the cold. Her eyes were glazed over, as though she was concentrating on something that existed on another plane.

  “The keeper,” she said. “It’s the keeper. I’m getting him. He’s been ill, and hasn’t had the strength to contact us. He can give us the directions we need.” She slipped back into her trance state.

  “That’s it, do you agree?” the Senator asked Geoca and Reina. The maps on the wall were covered in lines. On the map of the Antarctic, there were two points where the paths came together from five directions and intersected.

  Geoca and Reina both nodded. The Senator stood back and smiled for the first time in a long time.

  “That’s it, then. Our node is at one of those two locations.”

  The blue woman had come out of her trance. She pointed at one of the points on the map. “It’s that one, there. You did well. The keeper is there.”

  * * *

  A conversation in New York

  THE SECRETARY-GENERAL was talking to Vice-Secretary Alexis. She had just flown in from the west coast, and, of course, she had a problem.

  “We’re suffering overload, Secretary-General. There are just too many people. We’ve got all the known subversives, and now we’re rounding up the potential troublemakers. But there are just too many of them. The rail system can hardly cope. The grid is providing enough power, but there aren’t enough carriages. It’s fortunate that we planned ahead as much as we did, but twenty thousand carriages fitted with shackles for the North American region alone just isn’t enough. And the camps are crammed to the limit. It’s the same all over the world. The system is gridlocked in China and India.”

  The Secretary-General thought for a moment.

  “Use freight carriages as well, but only if they have solid sides. No stock carriages, we don’t want to alarm the general population.”

  “Very well. But that doesn’t solve the problem of where to put the prisoners. In North America we’ve got seven million in the camps, and we’re adding another three hundred thousand every day. It’s worse in other parts of the world.”

  “Then we’ll start the executions earlier than we planned. Get rid of as many as you need to. Just get the numbers down to a manageable level. I’ll leave the details to you.”

  “Of course. Thank you, Secretary-General.”

  “You’re welcome, my dear. Do you have any other problems?”

  “Nothing that we hadn’t anticipated. Looters, of course. They’re being shot on sight. There’s chaos in the cities, but that will decline when we get the troublemakers out of the way and the bulk of the population out into the country. We’re keeping strict control of food and water. The rationing system is going smoothly, as is the curfew. We’re letting them outdoors for eight hour shifts. Anyone found on the street outside their allotted time is treated as a looter.”

  “Very good.” The Secretary-General was staring at her.

  Alexis knew what was going on. She arched her back slightly so that her uniform stretched tight across her breasts.

  She stood up and came around his desk, unzipping her jacket as she went. In a single efficient and calculated movement she climbed out of her pants and onto the Secretary-General, straddling him in his chair. His stomach made it difficult, and she was balanced precariously on the edge of the chair, her knees on either side of his. She reached down to the side of the chair and twisted a lever. The back of the chair swung back, taking the problematic abdomen with it.

  “That’s better,” she said, sliding upwards, at the same time unfastening the belt on the Secretary-General’s trousers. She lowered her face onto his, taking his tongue into her mouth.

  “Nngg…” The Secretary-General reached out and punched the intercom. Someone in the outer office answered. “No interruptions,” he said, his voice thick. He brought his hand back and put it between her legs, pushing as many fingers as he could into her.

  She moved further up, rubbing his face between her breasts, laughing as he moaned and covered them with slobber. Reaching below her, she started rubbing him, slowly and firmly.

  “Who’s a hard Secretary-General, then,” she said, her tongue in his ear no
w. She pushed his hand away and put his penis between her legs, rubbing it back and forth against her wetness. The Secretary-General moaned and slobbered some more over her nipples.

  She thrust downwards, driving him into her. She moved with a hard, insistent rhythm, her hips grinding against the flab that covered his pelvis. A few seconds later the Secretary-General made a loud gasping sound and had an orgasm inside his Vice-Secretary.

  * * *

  Undertakings on the ice, and the General meets God

  FROM THE AIR, they couldn’t see anything that might distinguish the site they were looking for. There was nothing except a few outcrops of rock scattered around in a wide expanse of snow. A mile or two away, a range of hills reached for the sky in a half-hearted attempt to escape the monotony of the landscape.

  “Are you sure this is the right place?” Bark was asking. “There doesn’t seem to be much here.”

  “It is. The keeper says we are almost above him. He says we should land.”

  “Land…?”

  The blue woman was insistent. “He just says that we need to.”

  I suppose he knows what he’s talking about, thought Bark, taking the ship down. They landed near a small pile of rocks.

  “There,” said the blue woman. “He says that the entrance is among those rocks.”

  “I’m not so sure about this,” said Pig. “There’s something about it that I don’t like. I have a feeling.”

  “I agree,” said Sahrin.

  “Who am I to argue,” said Bark. “We’ll leave the crystal on board until we make sure it’s safe. I’ll go, and a couple of others can come with me. Everyone else can stay on the ship. Any volunteers?”

  Sahrin was already lowering the steps to the snow. “Me.”

  “I’ll show you the way,” said the blue woman.

  A few minutes later, the three of them were standing in front of the rocks. Bark was about to suggest that they look around for an entrance when there was a loud grinding sound, and a section of the rock in front of them slid into the ground, revealing a flight of metal stairs that led down to a set of doors.

  “That’s pretty obsessive security for such a quiet neighborhood.”

  “You’re starting to sound like an Earth girl, Sahrin,” said Bark. “The sooner we get you away from all these bad influences, the better.”

  “What bad influences?” Sahrin asked, feigning confusion. “They’re all so civilized here.”

  “It’s not entirely their fault,” said the blue woman as they went down the steps. “They haven’t exactly had a free hand.” They stopped in front of the door.

  “How do we open it?”

  “Never mind,” said the blue woman, and a second later the door slid open.

  They entered and found themselves facing a glass wall. On the other side of it were some doors, and a couple of corridors that disappeared off somewhere. Before they could say anything or wonder what to do next, a section of the glass wall slid away and one of the doors beyond it opened.

  “Must be our boy,” said Bark. “Let’s go.”

  The keeper was there, alright. He was tied to a table in the center of the room. A Nefilim was adjusting a device that had been put around his head. Lights pulsed, illuminating the man’s face like something from a fairground. The keeper saw them enter and tried to twist his head, but the device wouldn’t let him. He was held fast. He tried to speak, but couldn’t.

  Behind the Nefilim stood a couple of soldiers, their guns already trained on Bark, who had walked in ahead of the blue woman and Sahrin.

  “I was hoping so much you’d make it, Bark.” It was Thead’s voice.

  Sahrin, who hadn’t entered the room yet, thought quickly. They hadn’t seen her. She stopped just outside the door, staying out of sight. She kept quiet and listened to what was being said.

  The voice she didn’t know belonged to the General.

  “That’s enough, Thead. You. The one in the weird getup. You have a piece of crystal with you. Where is it?”

  Bark ignored the question. “Thead, what’s going on? What are you doing with these people?”

  “Don’t worry about your friend, asshole.” The General’s voice was hard. “He’s with us now. He’s a bright boy, he knows the winning side when he sees it. Now, what about you? This is the only chance you’ll get.”

  “Forgive me if I seem impolite,” smiled Bark. “Thank you for the offer, but your approach leaves something to be desired.”

  The General made a tut-tutting sound. “Such manners… normally, I might be impressed by your spirit. I might even be inclined to play with you. But not today. Where’s the crystal?”

  Neither Bark nor the blue woman said anything.

  “People never learn, do they,” said the General. He drew his pistol. “If I were you, I’d talk, now.”

  “I’m curious, whatever your name is,” Bark said. “How did you send those messages to…” He almost nodded towards the blue woman, but she was standing next to him, and he didn’t want to give anything away. “…us?”

  “You’re stalling for time, my friend. No matter. The message you received was just another example of how the new technology can be used. The device we have attached to the keeper allows direct control of his mind. He is a transmitter, if you like. We used him to bring you here. Does that piss you off? It shouldn’t; it’s just the winners winning and the losers losing. Get used to it. Now, where’s the crystal? You’re trying my patience.”

  Bark said nothing.

  “Idiot.” The General turned his gun towards the blue woman and fired.

  Where the bullet entered her, her skin parted, becoming a swirling vortex of liquid blue light. The bullet fell harmlessly to the ground.

  “Would you care to try that again, General? I assure you, the same thing will happen,” she smiled.

  The General did try, a couple more times, with the same result. The robe she was wearing was torn by the bullets, but she was untouched.

  The General stared at her. “What the fuck are you?”

  “One of those that you would hunt down and exterminate like vermin, General. And before you ask, the chances of me changing sides are less than zero.”

  He lowered his gun. “Take her.”

  One of the soldiers went to grab her by the arm. She melted away under his touch, as though she was made of water. She collapsed into a pool of liquid on the floor, and instantly reformed, rising like a summoned spirit.

  The soldier backed away in confusion. She stood naked before them, her skin glowing like blue-tinted glass reflecting the sun.

  “Jesus, you people are weird,” said the General. “But whatever you are, rest assured, I’m going to get the crystal. And I’m going to get that ship of yours. Kill the male.”

  The soldiers both turned towards Bark. He recognized the weapons they were pointing at him. They were the same as the ones he had seen used in New York.

  Shit, he thought.

  He heard the hiss of the beam. And then… he wasn’t dead. Or if he was, it wasn’t what he was expecting. He opened his eyes in time to see the soldier nearest to him flicker out of existence.

  There was another hissing sound. The second soldier turned into a dark, burning shadow before disappearing.

  The General and the Nefilim didn’t move. The General raised his hands, palms outwards, as if to caution Thead against a rash action.

  “Thead, what the hell are you doing? Are you mad?”

  “Oh, I know what I’m doing, General.” Thead indicated the keeper with his weapon. “Let the prisoner go. Untie him. And you,” he said to the Nefilim, “…take that thing off his head.”

  The General and the Nefilim did as they were told.

  “You’ll be sorry, you little shit,” the General snarled through clenched teeth. He loosened the clamps on the table.

  “Not as sorry as you,” said Thead, and fired, turning the General into a black smudge on the floor. He turned to the Nefilim. “Against the wall.”
/>
  “What’s going on?” Bark asked. “I thought you’d changed sides. What happened?”

  Thead looked shocked by the suggestion. “Of course not! I’d never go over to these animals! I was with them because I was forced to. I was held prisoner after I was captured, and if I hadn’t pretended to go over, they would have killed me on the spot. You’ve seen what they’re capable of. No, I’ve just been waiting for the chance to get back with you all. When I heard about this trip, and that the purpose of it was to capture you and the ship, naturally I made sure I came along. I had to make sure that they didn’t succeed.”

  The Nefilim turned towards Bark and the blue woman as if it was about to speak. Before it could say anything, Thead fired. The creature joined the General.

  “It was about to attack,” said Thead, lowering his weapon. “I’ve been around them long enough to know.”

  Outside the room, Sahrin had been listening. She heard Thead’s words, but her mind was replaying the scenes from the attack on the underworld – Thead in a helicopter, smiling and laughing as he gunned down mutants. What he was saying sounded convincing, and yet… It doesn’t matter what people say, Sahrin thought, but what they do. But then, he had just saved Bark and the blue woman from being killed. She stepped out into the doorway.

  Thead was the first one to see her. “Oh, Sahrin. I didn’t see you there.”

  “It wouldn’t have mattered, would it, Thead?”

  Tense looks passed between them. Any further conversation was stopped in its tracks.

  In different circumstances, Bark might have questioned Thead about what Sahrin had told him; how he had been taking such pleasure in his part in the killing in the underworld. He might have, but the fact that Thead was holding a gun was such a strong and effective distraction that the thought never occurred to him.

  Thead saw that Bark and Sahrin were both looking at him in a manner that was altogether too calculating. The blue woman, who had retrieved her robe from where it had fallen, was looking at him with an equanimity that worried him just as much. This was a little less friendly than the reunion he had been planning.