The Day of the Nefilim (5 page)

Someone had drawn a map of the chamber. Opening his briefcase, he took out a large map of the tunnel system, found some tape, and stuck it up on the wall. Getting the smaller hand-drawn map, he picked up a pen and marked the location and orientation of the new chamber on the large map.

The addition of the new chamber completed the pattern. The only thing missing was the area beyond the sealed wall, but if he extended the symmetry of the known areas, he could fill in the missing parts there as well. This site was just like the others. Excellent. He picked up a phone and keyed the Secretary-General’s private line.

Although he is unaware of the fact, the General has an audience. The five travelers have left the room full of statues, and have come into his office, where they found him contemplating the maps on his wall.

Now they are looking, open mouthed, at the photos spread out on the desk. The shapes, the architecture, and the hieroglyphs are all familiar to them.

Bark is thinking that his strange feeling has been vindicated, and that this is probably not a good thing. “It’s them, for sure.”

“Yes. Nefilim…”

“If they wake…”

“I think they’re already awake,” Bark replied. “That’s what we saw from the ship. The movement. They’re just not on the physical plane yet.”

“Do you think these people know?”

“This one doesn’t, from the way he looks at the map.”

“But how did they know to come here? Somewhere, someone must know.”

“Either that or they’re about to find out.”

“You know, I’ve never seen Nefilim in the flesh.”

“None of us have. The sections of time that they escaped to have always been closed to us.”

“Why are we here? Why did the map bring us here?”

“Maybe we should go. I don’t care what the map says.”

“But there has to be a reason for us to have come here.”

“Does there? Just because the map fell into our hands doesn’t mean it was meant for us. And just because Thead decoded it doesn’t mean that he was meant to. It might have been nothing more than an accident.”

“Maybe. Maybe not. Even if it was meant for us, that’s no reason for us to accept our lot without question. It’s up to us, not some piece of parchment that’s been around so long that we’re not even sure where it came from.”

“True. It’s our decision. It’s up to us.”

“Exactly. In view of which, we should decide what we’re doing.”

“Well, it does seem interesting.”

“Any situation which has something to do with the Nefilim will be interesting. That might be a slight understatement.”

“Leave me alone. There’s no need to be sarcastic.”

“With you it’s hard not to be. This could be a bit dangerous, you know. We’ve all heard the legends.”

“The legends are bad enough, aren’t they?”

“The Nefilim legends, you mean? …they’re not pleasant.”

“I’m still curious, though.”

“Curious enough?”

They are curious enough, it seems. They head for the door.

“We’ve come all this way…”

“We can’t turn back now…”

“But…”

“But nothing. Don’t give me the shits, Thead.”

* * *

DEEP UNDERGROUND, the wall was starting to give. It started to crack, then resisted for a moment, swelling with internal heat caused by the waves of sound. Finally it gave up, exploding outwards and sending rock fragments showering into the tunnel. There was a heavy, audible sigh as different air pressures met.

The engineers smelled something stale. Before they could do or say anything, they slumped to the ground. An invisible cloud streamed out of the opened chamber, heading upwards through the caverns and tunnels as surely as if it possessed a conscious purpose. It rendered unconscious everyone in its path.

Undeterred by the plight of their operators, the machines kept digging or dusting or grinding. The cloud snaked through the kilometers of tunnels, backed out of blind alleys, retraced its steps, sought out the surface, turn by turn.

For the General and the others in the administration section, the first sign that something was wrong came when the alarms on the machines started sounding because of the inactivity of their operators. They opened a channel to the crew at the wall, but got only silence. They tried to contact other work sites, but there was nothing there either.

Then from a site closer to the surface, they heard incoherent speech; “the air… strange… what the f...” the voice faded into nothing. Whatever it was, it was heading towards the surface.

The General went to the door that led out to the main tunnel. The only person in sight was a single guard.

“In here, now!” he yelled. The soldier turned and started towards him. He was about twenty feet from the door when the General heard a confusion of voices and the unmistakable thud of falling bodies coming from somewhere down the tunnel.

Without a second thought, he slid the door across. The guard stopped and looked towards the depths. His eyes widened, and he dropped his gun and put his hands to his throat. He gulped air like a goldfish, then fell to the ground.

The door was airtight, as was always the case with operating command centers, so if this was some kind of gas, the area would be safe. The General went to the monitors and flipped through the cameras. One of them was trained on the breach in the wall. He paused when it came up, leaning closer to the screen. He couldn’t tell whether the crew were dead or unconscious, but they weren’t moving.

The wall was mostly gone. It had been reduced to a pile of rubble, and the area behind it was open but concealed in darkness. As he watched, he saw the shadows begin to flicker with traces of light.

He went to the research area. There were three people in the room: Bisset, a corporal and a young female archaeologist.

“What’s going on?” Bisset looked nervous.

“We have a slight problem.” The General closed the door and checked the seal. “The team that we left at the wall have broken through…”

Bisset nodded. “Well, that’s good…”

“...but there was something down there. Some type of gas. From what I’ve seen, it’s floored everyone down below. How many are there outside? Above ground?”

“Not many, sir,” the corporal answered. “I was up there a few minutes ago. A few at the gate, and some engineers in the vehicle section. And the kitchen staff, I guess. Pretty much everyone else was below ground working.”

The General called the guard post at the main gate. It was the point in the compound that was furthest from the cave mouth, so if anyone was still on their feet, it would probably be there. The phone at the other end was answered immediately.

“Main gate.” The voice was young and scared.

“What’s going on up there?”

“Everyone just dropped like flies, General. Men came running out of the workshop and collapsed, and everyone else as well, and now there’s just three of us left here. We must have been too far away, or something. I dunno. What’s going on… er…sir?”

The General thought quickly. “Two of you stay where you are. One of you come to the admin section. I don’t care which one. The door’s shut. Just wait outside it. Do it now. No, wait. What ranks do you have there?”

“I’m a sergeant, and the other two are privates, sir.”

“Send one of the privates.” If it was some kind of gas, it would have only a limited life. It would probably have dissipated by now, but he had to know for sure, and given the absence of a canary, a grunt would do.

* * *

Up on the rocks, Bryce had watched it all happen. Soldiers staggered around for a few seconds then collapsed to the ground, where they lay twitching peacefully. A few minutes later, one of the guards at the gate ran towards the tunnel and disappeared into it.

“Something’s on, eh?” Tommy sat up.

“I reckon. Something’s on for sure. Don’t tell me you’re going to get interested, mate.”

“Oh, absolutely.” Tommy reached for a cigarette.

A few minutes later, they saw one of the two remaining guards talk briefly into a cell phone, and then they both ran towards the tunnel. The gate was left unattended.

* * *

With the guards from the gate with him, the General felt a little less exposed.

He told Bisset to stay in the lab, but the archaeologist insisted on coming along. His assistant, the young woman, would come as well. The General didn’t argue. It didn’t matter that Bisset would be there. And the woman would be needed.

He led the group down into the tunnels. Led was not quite the right word, of course; one of the grunts walked point. They all wore gas masks, in case there was a repeat of whatever it was that had floored everyone.

Behind the scientists, five unseen visitors follow in single file.

When they arrived at the remains of the wall, everything looked as it had through the security camera. The soldiers started to check the bodies on the ground.

“Don’t worry about them,” the General said as he stepped into the chamber.

The air was heavy with something that smelled sour, even through their masks. The floor was shiny and wet.

“Spread out, so we can see what’s going on. This should be one room, about a hundred meters long and about fifty wide.” The General stayed where he was while the archaeologist, the assistant and the four soldiers entered the cavern, their lamps cutting wide swathes in the gloom.

Like the other room in the photographs, this one was full of megaliths. As the columns of rock emerged from the darkness, the General saw that they were about ten feet tall and three feet wide. The walls were covered in alien script and markings.

“This all makes sense. Every site so far has had two of these caverns.” The archaeologist moved towards one of the walls. “And this chamber has these…” He held his lamp up so that its light crawled up the wall in front of him. Designs covered it from floor to ceiling. “This is new.”

The General went to where Bisset was standing. The patterns weren’t painted on to the walls; they were made of a colored resinous substance that glowed with internal color at the slightest encouragement from the lamps. The archaeologist was right. This is what would make all the difference in the months to come. It was the user’s manual.

This had been – and would be again – a command center.

The archeologist’s young assistant was standing in front of another wall covered with what seemed to be a map of landforms. “Another planet,” he said, joining her.

“No, look,” she said, running her light along the edge of a continent. “That’s part of the western coast of Africa. And see… there’s the east coast of Australia… there’s New Zealand… before they all moved apart. This is ancient.”

“My god, this is old,” said the archaeologist, shaking his head.

Bark and the others don’t follow the General and the other locals into the room.

To them, there is no darkness at all; the room is full of light even before the halogens are turned on. Up near the smooth dome of the rock ceiling, they can see more of the entities that were gathered around the mouth of the cave, flitting around in the stale air, like beetles with wings that are brittle and dry and make a hard rustling sound that make you want to shrink away. There is an urgency in the movement; a deep hum below the hysteria, a frequency lower than the human ear can detect.

Kali sits down on a piece of the dismembered wall. “I don’t like this.” The whine in his voice is familiar. “I want to go back to the ship.”

“Well, go back to the ship, then,” snaps Bark. He has trouble with Kali sometimes.

“Only if we all go.” Kali looks up towards the ceiling.

“Well, we aren’t all going to go, so shut up!” says Sahrin. There has never been much love lost between them. “The Senator’s outside, why don’t you go and wait with him.”

“Leave me alone,” says Kali, but he doesn’t move.

Thead shares none of Kali’s misgivings. He has joined the locals inside the chamber. He stands before one of the walls, where he instantly recognizes the script as the one that adorns his precious map. One of the beetle-wings whispers in his ear.

He reads the script, and understands it as words roll off the entity’s dry tongue. It and its kind have a mission that has been assigned to them by the history of their race…

Thead feels the thrill of exhilaration as the knowledge grows in him. It is an exhilaration mixed liberally with fear, which makes him feel it all the more keenly. And he enjoys it.

* * *

OUTSIDE, THE WINE AND SMOKE were forgotten. Bryce, Reina and Tommy were discussing what to do.

“It’s got fuck all to do with us, man.” Tommy was as keen as ever on getting involved.

“And that fact has got nothing to do with anything,” said Bryce. “I say we have a look. What are they going to do? Shoot us?”

“Umm…”

“Look, there’s no one at the gate, is there? If we get sprung we can just say we’ve never seen this place before and we thought it was deserted, and we’re just having a look.”

“Yeah, Tommy, don’t be a wus.” Reina was high.

“Yes, Tommy, whatever a wus is, don’t be one,” says the Senator dreamily, high on bindoo leaf and not at all worried about being shot.

“Nup. You guys are nuts. I’ll wait here and finish the wine. You won’t be taking the bottle, I guess?”

“Wus.”

“Yeah right. Someone has to look after home base.”

“Just means more weird shit for us,” said Reina. “Can we take the smoke? There’s another bottle in the truck. See you soon.” She and Bryce set off down the hill.

The Senator wonders briefly what to do and then follows them.