The Day of the Nefilim (30 page)

The others had come to some conclusion. They were setting off, with the two locals in the lead. As they passed between the buildings, they saw that there were more people here than just the Indians. A young couple came out of a house and approached them.

They spoke, and again Bark could not understand. He looked at Thead, who was standing next to him. Thead shrugged; it was gibberish to him as well. What was happening to them?

The couple, a man and a woman, had much lighter skin than the two local men, and they were dressed differently as well. They were resigning themselves to not being understood by the new arrivals when Reina spoke up.

“There’s no need to worry about us,” she said, answering the question they had asked. “We’re not here to cause any trouble. We just need somewhere quiet to hang out for a while. Our ship is making some adjustments. We’ll be on our way as soon as we can.”

“There’s no drama about how long you stay here,” the man said. He was tall and wiry, his hair bleached by long hours in the sun. “As long as you’re not bringing trouble, you’re welcome.”

“That’s right,” said the woman. She was shorter, and looked as though she was used to hard work. Her long brown hair was turning into dreadlocks, and her arms were swathed in bangles and tattoos. “From what we’ve just heard, we’re all on the same side.”

Reina was relieved. “Good. We need some time out.”

“I suppose that’s why we’re here as well, in a way,” replied the woman. “Hi. I’m Sarah. This is Steve.”

“I’m Reina.” She introduced the others.

“Can we have a look at the other flier?” asked Thead, but neither the two Indians nor the young couple could understand him.

“It’s already organized,” said Reina.

A few minutes later, they were standing in front of the flier. It had been there for a long time. The jungle had grown over it, winding its tendrils and vines through the ship’s undercarriage and around the drives.

“Where’s the pilot?” asked Reina, but Anak had got there first, and already had the answer from the two Indians.

‘
They’re surprised that we don’t know,’
the Nefilim thought.
‘The pilot left years ago, saying he would return. He was with the mutants. He went to work on preparations for the changes that are happening now, and he left the flier here. Because of that, they regard the Nefilim as their protectors. I see no advantage in acquainting them with any of the complexities of the situation in the wider world.’

Bark, Pig and Anak entered the flier. Leaves and dirt had gathered in the corners, and a bat flapped its way noisily outside, irritated at being disturbed. Other than that, everything was as it should be. The controls were working, their lights winking slowly in the gloom. After a few seconds, the ship realized that they were there, and the cabin lights came up.

Anak went to the pilot’s station. The ship responded, sensing a familiar form, even if it wasn’t its own pilot. Anak worked in silence for a few minutes, then turned back to the others.

‘
The ship has been waiting for its pilot for eight Earth years. It has used the last of its power reserves to maintain itself, and has protected the village during that time. It has distracted and deterred unwelcome visitors, so that the existence of this place has been kept a secret.’

“It appears that there’s nothing for us here, then,” said Bark.

“Not that there should have been anyway, of course,” added Pig. “But it does leave open the question of why rebel Nefilim should be wanting to protect a small village in the middle of nowhere.”

“True.”

It was getting cold. Even though the temperature was falling as if night was coming, it wasn’t getting dark. Perhaps it was getting dark somewhere beyond the sky’s endless new light. They left the ship and found Steve standing outside, waiting for them.

“The others have gone to their homes. There will be a meal soon. Do you want something to eat?”

“Excellent,” Bark said, after Pig had translated for him.

They followed him along one of the dusty streets to a large house badly in need of painting. The others were inside, along with several families of Indians, and others who looked as though they were from a mixture of places. Reina, when she had walked in a few minutes earlier, had thought that the place was like a cultural club; there were whites, blacks, Asians, a family of Arabs, and a couple of Polynesians.

A few minutes later, food appeared from a back room. As they ate, and the local beer was poured, the talk relaxed. Everyone had something to say.

Pig had some beer poured into a dish that had been set in front of him. A talking Pig was obviously a novelty here, and he was holding court in a corner of the room, surrounded by a group of children. They were laughing at his stories of life underground and the strange creatures he described, thinking that they must be fairy tales, but they became unsure of that when they remembered to look wide-eyed at Pig’s strange companions.

Only the blue woman chose not to take part. She stood outside, impervious to the cold or just ignoring it, looking up into the sky.

Reina was talking to Steve and Sarah. Bark sat beside her, not wanting to be left out, but forced to rely on Reina for a summary of what was being said.

“So how long have you been here?” Reina had asked the couple.

Steve answered. “We only arrived a few months before the Darkness came, but there are others who have been here for a long time. This community has been going for years. This area, this whole peninsula – it’s a high energy place, you know. It’s been known for a long time that there are certain places that would have an important role once the earth changes began. This is one of the safe places. One of the places where we can begin again.”

Sarah spoke. “And now the changes have begun, just like the seers and prophets said they would. I never thought things would be quite this messy, but we knew it was coming.”

“Yeah,” said Steve. “Those who have wanted to know have known. There are places like this all over the world.”

“The Indians here are great,” said Sarah. “They’ve known about all this for centuries. They’re Maya, you know, and according to their calendar, we’re on the cusp of two ages of the cosmos. The old system is falling apart, and the Earth is cleansing itself as it makes way for the new order. The photon belt and what it did to the sky is just part of that process. It was all foretold in their calendar. The death of the old technologies, as well.”

Reina had heard a little about this sort of stuff, but she had always written it off as New Age crap. She was still inclined to. She’d never heard anything about a Mayan calendar. “You mean you’ve known all about the mutants and all that?”

“No, not down to the details, although of course word has come in from the outside,” said an older woman who had been listening. “But why should that interest us, except in the most general sense? If we knew all about their struggles, we might be drawn in.”

The others nodded agreement. “That’s right. What’s important to them isn’t important to us. We want to live in peace with the Earth and in peace with nature. Power doesn’t interest us.”

Anak had been listening as well. “That’s an admirable ideal,” he said aloud, taking care to articulate his words clearly. “And there are those among my own race, myself included, who would agree with you. But it is an ideal, and reality is a harsh place at the moment. Unfortunately, we are in a difficult situation. Elements of your race and mine have both attempted to obtain degrees of power to which they have no rightful claim. In the case of the Nefilim, those who would have enslaved – and still would enslave – your planet have come unstuck at the hands of your own rulers. Treacherous and dangerous though my race can be, it appears that they have met their match in what your humans have become. And your leaders, using the Nefilim and the effects of the photon belt as an excuse, have turned on humanity itself, and seek to bend it to their will. Whether you like it or not, my friends, you have a role in this.”

Sarah didn’t look convinced. “And if we refuse, for the reasons you’ve heard?”

Anak found speaking difficult, but he persisted. “Even to refuse is to participate. By refusing them your acquiescence, you deny them the very thing they desire. You are doing the right thing, for the alternative is to be like an animal going to the sacrificial altar, just as my race taught yours to do long ago. When there is no blood on the ground, the power of the gods disappears. You will see.”

“Why are
you
involved?” Sarah asked.

“During the long contact between your race and mine, every possible political viewpoint has at some stage been held by individuals and groups among the Nefilim. We’re much like you in that respect. For the most part, though, the dominant view has been the aggressive one, which sees the Earth as a natural colony of the Nefilim, on account of its history and its proximity to our home world. These are the Nefilim who see the reconquest of Earth as the first step in our race reclaiming its empire.”

“But there are also isolationists, who want us to keep to our own world. The universe is vastly changed from the time when the Nefilim empire controlled thousands of star systems.”

“And there are also Nefilim – Nibat and I among them – who for a long time have had good relations with the mutants, and with a few elements of humanity. This has been difficult at times, because of our history as a race, and it is difficult now as well, but we do what we have to. Our aim is to foil the ambitions of both the Nefilim and human ruling elites. Our own planet’s population suffers under a terrible weight, just as yours does, and we will do all we can to help the masses of the ordinary Nefilim, just as we are helping the ordinary people and the outcasts of the Earth. I suppose you could say that we are the Nefilim underground, just as the mutants and you people are the human underground. It is vital that we frustrate the designs of the UN and its agents, including the Nefilim who have gone over to them. And there will be more trouble from our home planet, you can be sure of that. They won’t have taken the destruction of their invasion fleet well. I’m afraid that your ideals will be sorely tested.”

When Anak finished, everyone sat thinking about the past, the present and the future, and how screwed up it had all become.

Reina got up. “I’m going to check on Sahrin and that keeper guy.” She pulled a blanket around herself and went out.

* * *

When she got to the ship, it was open, and the lights were turned off. That was strange; she couldn’t imagine that Nibat would have left it like that when he had come to the house. She climbed the steps. The control room was empty.

A muffled sound came from the rear of the ship, where the crew area was. She stood still, listening. She heard it again. It sounded like a stifled voice.

She was getting paranoid over nothing, she told herself. It was probably Sahrin. She went to the doorway that led to the sleeping quarters. There was a dark shape standing beside one of the beds.

“Sahrin,” she said softly, not wanting to alarm her.

The figure whirled around and something dropped to the floor with a hard metallic sound. It hesitated for a moment then rushed towards her. They collided, and Reina fell back against the wall. The figure lashed out, hitting her on the side of the head. Dazed, she struck out, connecting with something, but her assailant recovered his balance and ran past her, out into the main cabin. As Reina slumped to the floor, disorientated but still conscious, she heard the sound of someone hurrying down the flier’s steps. She struggled to her feet and found the control panel for the lights.

The floor was covered in blood. The keeper’s throat had been cut, so recently that his arms and legs were still twitching. She rushed to where Sahrin was lying. She wasn’t moving. For a moment Reina thought she was dead as well, then she noticed the rise and fall of Sahrin’s chest as she breathed; she was just unconscious, drugged so that she could sleep through the pain of her wounds.

Who would do this? It wasn’t the Nefilim; the murderer had been human, or at least the size of a human. It could have been one of the locals, but there was no way of telling. Thead… but would he be this stupid? He was on thin ice already, and if he was planning no good, surely he must be aware that something like this would just make everyone suspect him even more. But then, he could be relying on the confusion to cover his tracks…

She didn’t know what to do. She knew that she wanted to run back to the others and raise the alarm; but what if the murderer was outside, waiting for her to do just that, so he could come back and finish his… or her… work?

Reina went to the flier’s door. She stood at the top of the steps and breathed in so much of the cold night air that her lungs hurt. Then she screamed, as loudly as she could.

* * *

“From now on,” said Bark, “we must make a point of never being alone. If there is a murderer about, he’ll be less inclined to strike again if he’s outnumbered.”

“True enough,” said Geoca. “And if one of our group is the culprit, he will find less opportunities coming his way. Unless, of course, he chooses to do away with the person he is with.”

Sahrin was awake now. She watched in silence as the keeper’s body was covered.

“I was lucky, wasn’t I. Thanks, Reina.” Her voice was small. “If you hadn’t come along, I suppose there would be two bodies.”

“Most probably. And you’re welcome.” Reina’s head was throbbing now. Whoever had belted her had got her a good one.

Bark was thinking out loud. “Who wasn’t in the house when the body was discovered? The blue woman, she was outside… who else?”

“Any number of the locals,” Geoca said, then added “…and Thead. He said he was going out for a piss.”

Thead had just arrived. “Well, I was,” he said. “Of course, Reina wasn’t with the rest of you either, was she?”

“That’s true,” replied Reina. “And I suppose I knocked myself around just to make it look convincing. Shit, Thead, if I was going to ice anyone, I’d do it a bit more subtly than this.”
And I’d probably start with you, prick
.