It was agreed.
A few minutes later, they were ready. The four of them sat around the mutant with their backs to it. When it told them to, they leaned back, and its surface opened up beneath each reclining body. As they sank into it, the mutant’s flesh wrapped itself around them like a placenta, a thin layer of translucent skin growing over them so that soon they looked like nothing so much as pupae inside their cocoons.
* * *
It was shining, filled with the pure light that stars produce. They were floating in sparkling blue and white waves that washed through them and over them, carrying them along. They knew who they were, but their physical bodies were gone. Their minds had taken new forms.
Geoca felt his miniature selves merge into him. His separation from them disappeared, their voices became his, and his theirs. He saw his own mind, clear and radiant, and he saw his thoughts clearly, as if each one had its own existence. ‘This is how it is meant to be,’ he thought to himself, and then for good measure agreed with himself.
They saw why it was called the Stream. It was warm, suffused with a soft bubbling energy that made them want to bathe in it forever. It was an intricate fabric of channels and pathways, and their minds flowed out into the fine tendrils that spread out into the earth like the roots of a plant.
It was there that they saw that the Stream was in trouble. They saw it being attacked, and as they dissolved more thoroughly into it, they felt its pain. They saw that the Stream was nowhere near the size it should be; it was being torn apart at its edges, eaten alive by something totally alien to it.
Something floated past them. They felt its awareness, felt it observing them. It hesitated for a moment, then slowly moved away. It thoughts were different; none of them understood it.
‘What was that?’ someone asked.
‘An elemental,’ answered the blue woman. ‘You might call it a nature spirit. There are many of them, many different kinds. They love being in the Stream. They will use it to reinvigorate the planet, if they get a chance.’
‘Then we’ll just have to give them the chance, won’t we,’ thought Sahrin.
‘Should we see where the damage is being done?’ thought Anak.
‘Yes.’ Sahrin was feeling better. Here, her pain was gone. ‘Where is the grid?’
‘All around us. Come with me.’
The blue woman led them to a place where the Stream was heavily disturbed by turbulence. It was writhing around, seeking escape from its pain. The grid was visible beyond the divide that separated it from the Stream. It was a churning mass of darkness, creeping forward, eating into the Stream like acid. As pieces were eaten away, they were thrown back into the grid and carried away.
‘This is how it is happening, then. Look at that!’
‘We can’t do much from here. Can we get through?’
‘I say yes. Let’s do it.’
‘But we don’t even know whether we’ll survive in the grid, let alone be able to enter it. We might just be foreign bodies to it. It could reject us. It might just chew us up, like it’s doing to the Stream.’
‘I doubt that it will reject us outright,’ thought Anak. ‘Remember the method that’s used to power it.’
‘OK, I’m remembering it. What if we end up in the same boat?’
‘We’ve come this far…’
They pushed against the grid. There was no resistance at all; it was as though it wanted them. As they crossed the threshold, something pulled at them, as though it would have liked to dismember them, but it didn’t have the strength.
Suddenly, they were inside. It was different here. Where the Stream had been full of light, here everything was underpinned by a static that hissed relentlessly.
A flood of tiny shards of artificial light swept around them in a blizzard, stinging them like pieces of glass. It felt strong, but it was a harsh strength, a composite of other things that had been pulled apart and reassembled in new combinations. The grid was a kaleidoscope on the verge of disintegration, continually fragmenting and being forced back into place.
They looked different here. The glowing bodies they had possessed in the Stream were gone; their physical bodies had been partially remade, flickering as if they had been created from the static itself. They looked like holograms that hadn’t been focused properly. Their minds were closed off again. When they spoke, it was almost with their physical voices.
“It hurts…”
“It wants to cut us…”
“Yes, it hurts!” It felt as though it wanted to flay them alive with its countless tiny needles.
“Wait,” said the blue woman. Something here had changed her blue coloring to a bright, burning red. She put her hands on them, one by one, and the pain stopped.
“It can’t hurt you now. It’s not that strong, it just needs balancing. It feels worse than it is.” She withdrew from them, but the healing she had given them remained, protecting them.
“I don’t like it. Look at it, it’s ugly.”
From here, they had a new view of the effect it was having on the Stream. Shafts of darkness plunged into the Stream and spread out, like the branches of a tree. Once inside it, they started twisting and turning, tearing the Stream’s body apart and throwing pieces of it back into the grid. When that was done, the static moved in to fill the empty space that was left.
“It’s awful.”
“It is. Let’s see what’s going on.”
The grid was constructed of broad, long corridors, inter-secting at right angles. On top of it was superimposed another finer grid of smaller pathways that divided the main squares into smaller ones.
“I know where we need to go,” said the blue woman.
“Where?”
“To the control points,” she replied, “where it began. There are four of them.”
“I know how to find them,” said Anak. “I know this system. There will be one near here.”
He led them to one of the main corridors. They paused at the intersection, looking at the torrent as it roared past them like an endless horizontal waterfall. They leapt into it, and it picked them up, sweeping them along. It was much faster than the Stream. After a while, Sahrin noticed that the grid was empty. “There are none of the elementals here, are there?” she yelled above the noise.
“Of course not,” answered the blue woman. “Would anything live here by choice?”
“We’re almost there,” said Anak. “Soon you’ll see the only life form that the grid is home to.”
Something had appeared ahead of them. It appeared first as a distant glow, like daylight at the end of a tunnel. As they approached it, they saw a gigantic mass. It looked like a huge ganglion of nerve tissue, some cell that had grown out of control and become a tumor.
The current entered the cavern that surrounded the object. It was suspended in the center of the space, held in place by thin tendrils that grew out of it like tentacles. The force of the flow diminished, leaving them floating in front of it.
“Jesus! Is that thing meant to be here?”
“Of course,” said Anak. “It creates the power that keeps the grid going. It is the gateway – the contact between the physical world and the grid.”
It was beating slowly, like a heart, as the currents flowed in and out of it. There was sound coming from it, some kind of voice. As they got closer, and moved in among the outer branches, they realized that it wasn’t one voice, but a cacophony of voices. There was whimpering, and moaning and screaming. It was a choir of pain.
“Where’s that coming from?” asked Sahrin.
“You’ll soon see,” Anak replied. “I thought it might be like this.”
They were approaching the thing’s center. The branches had become thicker, and attached to them were objects that looked like air sacs in ribbons of seaweed. They stopped in front of one of the pods. Something was trapped inside it.
“What is it?”
The thing in the pod moved, straining against its imprisonment. A face turne
d towards them.
“This is what happens to the grid’s power source,” said Anak. “Their life energy is drained from them, until finally they become empty husks. Then they are replaced.”
They looked around. There were scores of the cocoons scattered around them.
“If we can get them out, the grid will lose its power,” said Sahrin. “Does that sound right?” She reached out and started pulling at the pod. The material came away in sticky strips.
Anak followed Sahrin’s example. It came away easily, falling from the body in large clumps. As they threw it aside, it was carried away by the current, disappearing into the distance.
It was a boy, probably just a teenager. As they pulled him out, his eyes opened. His mouth opened and closed as though he was trying to say something, but no sound came. He looked back and forth in confusion at the strange apparitions floating around him. They asked him who he was, but there was no answer, just the blank questioning look in the eyes. He began moaning.
“He’s not all there.”
“Literally. The grid has been eating him alive.”
“First, we should free them all,” said the blue woman. “Then we take them to the Stream. It’s this place that is hurting them. In the Stream, their pain will cease.”
They set to work, moving among the closest arms of the ganglion and freeing all the prisoners they found. Then they herded them like sheep along the current, until they reached a point where the grid and the Stream were touching.
“Here you are,” they said, and pushed them through, one at a time, delivering them into the Stream like midwives delivering babies. It was an easy birth. The grid seemed unaware that it was losing something, and allowed them to pass through easily. Sahrin and Geoca went through with them, and watched as the tortured bodies transformed into glowing spheres of light.
‘I think they’ll like it here,’ thought Geoca. ‘How do you feel?’ he asked one of them. ‘Are you all right?’
There was no answer, but Geoca felt a wave of happiness flowing from it. It reminded him of a dog wagging its tail.
‘They may have been people once,’ thought Sahrin, ‘but they’re something different now.’
‘They seem simple,’ thought Geoca, watching them drift away. ‘But they’re happy. Let’s go back.’
They went back into the grid, where the blue woman and Anak were waiting for them. They went back to the ganglion and searched thoroughly, freeing the rest, taking them to the Stream and releasing them.
It was a long time before they put the last of them through. By then, the grid was reacting to what was going on. The current was growing erratic. By the time they took the last group to the Stream, the grid was no longer advancing on it. Its strength was gone, and it was retreating, falling back before the advancing effervescence like dark sand being covered by the incoming tide.
Anak pushed the last of the newborn through. “There are three more control points.”
“Then let’s find them. We must be giving someone a few headaches.”
Anak agreed. “If that’s what you get when your world starts collapsing around you, yes.”
* * *
They found the second control point, and then the third. They cleared both of them out, removing all of the prisoners from each and setting them free in the Stream. They lost track of time.
“They just feel, don’t they,” said Sahrin, watching the last of them float away. “I wonder if that’s all they’ll do.”
“There’s one more control point,” said Anak.
“And then they’ll be history.” Geoca was enjoying himself. “I wonder what’s happening out in the real world?”
“I’d say that we have their attention by now,” the blue woman answered.
“Let’s go.” Anak knew the way.
Sahrin had been thinking. “What’s to stop them just putting a whole lot more people in here, and reactivating the whole thing?”
“Nothing at all,” Anak replied. “An important detail, and one that can only be attended to in the physical world.”
“A bit of wanton destruction?”
“Totally wanton, I’m afraid.”
“Break a few gadgets…”
“All their gadgets…”
“Then let’s finish up here as soon as we can. The sooner we kill off this pile of shit, the better.”
The last control point soon became visible, glowing like a nebula in space.
“This one’s bigger than the others.”
“This is the main control point,” replied Anak. “This is the one we have to destroy for real.”
The blue woman stopped. “Wait. I can feel something. There’s someone in here with us.”
“But there hasn’t been anyone or anything here, apart from the prisoners.”
“Well, there’s someone here now, and they’re heading this way...”
* * *
Alexis saw them. They were entering the outer reaches of the primary ganglion. There were only two of them, a male and a female, both human. This was too easy!
“Go and get them,” she said to the two Nefilim she had brought with her. “Alive preferably, but if things don’t work out that way, I don’t care…”
The two aliens swept forward, Alexis floating behind them like a dark Madonna.
A Nefilim diving towards you is a frightening sight. They came screeching out of the clouds of static, their arms out-stretched and their jaws gaping, looking like demons from some witch burner’s nightmare.
“Shit,” said Geoca. “I hope this was the right thing to do.”
“So do I,” replied Sahrin. “But it’s too late now. Let’s go.”
They sped away, down between two converging arms of the ganglion. Their pursuers were gaining on them; they were too close for comfort. Sahrin felt something clutch at her foot. She kicked herself loose as Geoca took hold of her by an arm and threw her to one side. She landed against one of the cocoons in the web. Its occupant began thrashing around, making it hard for her to free herself.
As Geoca launched himself feet first at the closest Nefilim, the blue woman and Anak came flying out of the shadows. Their trap, such as it was, was as sprung as it would ever be.
The blue woman stopped in front of the two Nefilim. She turned herself into a burning star, redder and brighter than any fire, and then an instant later became a whirlwind, spreading out into arcs that rotated in space like flaming swords, threatening to incinerate everything in their path. The glare was so strong that the attackers were blinded. They reeled backwards, shielding their eyes. Taking advantage of the confusion, Anak had come up behind them. He grabbed the closest attacker around its neck and twisted. Its death squeal disappeared in the noise of the grid and the moans of the prisoners.
The blue woman wasn’t able to keep up her display for more than a few seconds, and the other Nefilim could soon see what was going on. It lashed out with a foot, reaching past the body of its companion and hitting Anak square in the face. He reeled backwards, struggling to stay conscious.
Geoca and Sahrin leapt forward. Each of them grabbed one of the Nefilim’s arms and pulled as hard as they could, stretching the alien out as though it was crucified in space. It flailed around wildly, trying to shake them off, but they both knew that they wouldn’t be getting any second chances, and they held on. The alien finally dislodged Sahrin by bringing a foot up and kicking her in the head. The Nefilim swung its free hand around, driving its talons into Geoca’s face. It took hold of him and swung him around, close to its mouth. The blue woman leapt onto the Nefilim, but she was too late to stop it from ripping into Geoca’s body with its teeth. It threw him aside and was turning on her when Anak came charging at it.
He drove a fist into the Nefilim’s body. The blue woman sprang away as the Nefilim doubled over, unable to resist as Anak sent it spinning away like a bowling ball, where it became caught up like an insect in the web that surrounded them. It lay there, trapped, its head twisting back and forth as it
looked for some escape.
Alexis had been watching from a safe distance. Damn, I’m such a fool, she thought. I’ve fucked up badly. She should have let them talk her into bringing more than just the two aliens with her. But no, she had to prove that she was capable, and she was regretting it already.
Anak, the blue woman and Sahrin were looking in her direction.
I can’t fight here, Alexis thought. Shit! There was nothing else to do. She turned and pushed herself away into the first current she could find. She would flee to the center of the ganglion, and get back to the real world. And then she would come back with enough help to waste these vandals.
But the current wasn’t fast enough, and Anak was. Alexis felt a strong grip close around one of her legs. She spun around. “Who the fuck do you think you are? Do you know what you’re doing?” she yelled, looking around desperately for a way to escape.
Anak knew what she was thinking. “Don’t bother,” he said. “There’s no way out of this.”
“That’s right,” said the blue woman. “And as for who we are – we’re your future.”
Alexis sneered. “That’s a little melodramatic, don’t you think, freak?”
“Not at all, considering what we’re going to do,” said the blue woman.
Sahrin had stayed with Geoca. He was unconscious, and his wounds were bad. His body was mangled. It was obvious that he wasn’t going to survive. Unless… she took hold of Geoca, and moving him as carefully as she could, found a fast current to the Stream.
As they were approaching it, Geoca stirred. “It’s OK,” she said as he tried unsuccessfully to speak through the mess the Nefilim had made of his face. “It’ll be better soon.”
She eased him through the barrier between the grid and the Stream, gritting her teeth as he strained against the pain of the transition. “Hang in there,” she said, and then he was part of the Stream again. She stayed close as he floated, conscious but not moving. After a few minutes, he was able to communicate.
‘Better?’
‘Much better. I can feel the healing. Thank you.’
‘Not a problem. I know you’d do the same for me.’
The Day of the Nefilim Page 28