Chapter One
Earth,
The
present 9.15 am
Gbenga’s eyes were sad
as he looked at the still body of nameless. Strange name__ his true name was
not known, so the hospital had designated him nameless. His bulky body was
covered by a white sheet, which reached the mid point of his porky stomach.
His skin was dark and
scarred. Signs of the terrible accident he had survived many months ago; in a
manner of speaking that is. Gbenga did not regard his comatose existence as survival.
He was a shell of a man and he merely existed. His eyes became more sad and his
face even more grim.
A sigh burst from his
lips and only then did the sights and sounds of the happenings around him
register in his brain. His eyes drifted around the white room he was in. It was
wide, with high ceilings, made of a shiny white material he could not
countenance.
He was in a hospital, the
three crosses hospital; one of the best and most expensive hospitals in
Nigeria. His sad eyes drifted to the bulky man lying in front of him who had
several frightening looking machines attached to his body. These machines were
taking his vitals and other body information to assure the doctors he was still
alive.
The hospital management
knew the man as nameless, but he knew him as Might.
Nephilim
(8 days after the Karnack incident).
There
was pain. It was not just pain however. The pain was suffused with blackness.
If he wanted to describe the blackness better, he would call it darkness. His
spirit was plummeting thousands and thousands of leagues into a pit. A pit
filled with gross darkness. He could see no bottom as he looked down into it.
Alarmed
he looked up and saw a light. It was brighter than any light he had ever seen
before and in that instance he knew; in that light lay his absolution and he
had to do all to get to it.
Flapping
his arms desperately he struggled to slow his downward progress. Miraculously
his progress halted and he found himself hovering mid way between the dark and
light. Stretching his arms, he began to claw towards the light.
His
progress was slow going at first and then instantly became faster. In seconds,
he was streaking towards the light at breakneck speeds. Absolution was just an
arm reach away and to his immense relief he plunged into it.
His eyes opened slowly,
more than a little languidly. Then they closed as a sharp pain seared through
his chest cavity. The pain was so bad that his brain was robbed of every
thought. Just when he felt he could bear it no longer, it began to recede until
it eventually disappeared.
Opening his eyes once
again, his eyes fluttered and scanned his strange surroundings. The world
around him was a desert wasteland. That fact brought puzzlement and confusion.
This was because he could remember nothing before he awakened a few seconds
ago.
Sitting up slowly, he
took stock of his surroundings more carefully. There was nothing but desert
sand in a hundred and eighty degree direction. Turning backwards, he was
startled to see a giant mountain sixty meters away from where he lay.
Only then did he notice
the remains of the mechanical creature lying on his right, a few paces away. Startled,
he quickly edged away from it, his eyes wide with shock and fright.
There was a red glow in
what remained of its eyes that began to fade away slowly until the broken
sockets were black. He knew what that meant of course. It was dead,
deactivated, put out of commission.
Sighing he rose to his
feet. The pain he had experienced earlier came for a brief moment and faded
away. He rubbed his chest experimentally, surprised at how hard and knobbly it
felt. Looking down he saw he wore what remained of a battle suit, black and
ragged looking, with some of the armored threads torn and ripped exposing the
circuitry underneath.
‘What the__’
His eyes drifted back
to the broken remains of the robotic entity lying a few paces away from where
he stood. Walking towards it, he leaned down slowly to examine it more
carefully. Only its torso remained. There was nothing from waist down. It had a
strange silicon and polymer based skin which was blackened and burnt at some
points suggesting that it had been exposed to great heat; maybe even a great
explosion.
Half of its face was
smashed. This close it looked as if a fist did it but he could not be sure.
Standing up straight, he looked around once again and strained his thoughts as
he struggled to remember. For a couple of seconds he got nothing but blackness
and then suddenly it came rushing back.
He remembered all. His
amnesiac companions, swift, brainwave, falcon and bull’s-eye; he remembered the
journey; Absalom, Gethsemane, the prophets, the event and the harbingers.
His eyes drifted back
to the creature lying in the sand. Now he knew what it was. It was all that
remained of a harbinger. Giving it a closer scan, he realized it was female.
Another sigh burst from
his lips and he turned facing the desert emptiness once again. Where did he go
from here now? His eyes grew sad as he thought this. He had never felt so alone
in his life. Thinking of swift, brainwave, falcon and bulls-eye brought tears
to his eyes.
Swift was the lucky
one. He had boarded the flight. That was the last thing he remembered;
activating that fusion grenade which had killed the last two harbingers and
flung Swift into the light portal called the flight. Swift had gone home
leaving him trapped in Nephilim with no way of going home.
His tears came down more
freely now and his shoulders slumped. Before he could give into the despair
completely, a strange voice spoke.
“Do not cry my son__”
He jumped startled,
spinning around in a wide circle as he searched for who had spoken. His eyes
narrowed and grew hard with fear and suspicion when he realized he was alone on
the desert wasteland.
A worried look crept on
his face. Was he losing his mind? The voice sounded as if the person speaking
was right beside him. Just when he thought he imagined it, it spoke again.
“You
are not losing your mind Might and no you did not imagine it__”
He jumped spinning
around once again as he raised his huge fists which had black gloves on it with
sharp looking spikes on his knuckles. Why was he hearing voices? Swift was the
only one who had ever heard voices in his head. So why was it happening to him
now? Aloud he spoke__
“Who are you and why
can’t I see you?”
The voice did not
respond for a couple of seconds. Eventually it did, speaking with a weary and
sad undertone that puzzled Might.
“My
name Might is Eleyon and I am the God of gods. I am spirit and to see me you
must be in the spirit.”
‘Eleyon?’ Why did that
name sound so familiar? It came to him a second later. Eleyon was the deity the
prophets of Gethsemane worshipped. He remembered Mordecai the chief prophet
talking about him.
“Do
you remember now?”
He nodded slowly but
did not speak. There was silence for several minutes. Might was puzzled about
that until he realized that Eleyon was waiting for him to speak. He was not sure
how exactly he knew this but he just did. Swallowing he did.
“What do you want with
me?”
“I
want to help you__ help you find a way out of Nephilim.”
Might’s eyes brightened
at that.
“But
the way is long and perilous__ you must be strong and vigilant Might. You are
might and power, a creation of mine that I am extremely proud of. With love did
I fashion you, but on this odyssey you are going to need more than mere brute
force and strength.”
Might’s eyes grew sad
and confused at Eleyon’s words. Why was the being talking in this way? The
sadness he sensed in its voice was making him alarmed. Did it know something
that it wasn’t telling?
“You
do not have much time, you have to travel fast__”
“Travel? Where?”
“No
time ___ find the__ bioooospherreeeeee__”
And then there was
silence. The last part of Eleyon’s speech sounded like a recording from a
twisted tape. Biosphere? What in the world was a biosphere? A faint light from
the horizon caught his attention. He turned to it. The blue-black cloud covered
sky was lighter. A faint shaft of light pierced the clouds streaming down
towards the desert sand.
Something moved in his
spirit as he looked at the light. He turned back to Mount Karnack and waited
for Eleyon to speak again but he did not. Glancing back to the light, he sighed
and started walking towards it.
Chapter
Two
The light was further
than it seemed. As he walked, he tried without succeeding to stop thinking
about the others. It was an exercise in futility however. He could not help remembering
them; Swift most especially. They had traveled the last part of their journey
together, after Swift activated the fusion grenade that cremated Brainwave’s
body.
The sky above him
suddenly turned from blue-black to a strange sort of orange. He looked up
puzzled by this new turn of events. The sun that lurked beyond the clouds was
trying desperately to force its way through the cloud cover, but was for some
strange reason unable to do so.
He glanced down at his
body examining the ragged remains of the battle armor he wore. It looked very
high tech. The prophets of Gethsemane were probably the best scientists still
left in Nephilim. That thought made him think of the Chancellor supreme of
Absalom. His eyes grew hard. The man alluded to the fact that the scientists of
Absalom were the best. Back then, they believed him, until they realized what
an evil man he truly was.
A flash of lightening
coming from behind snapped him out of his angry thoughts. He glanced back. It
was coming from Karnack. The clouds were blacker over it and lightening flashed
in its depths.
A fierce wind began to
blow whipping up the sand around it in a barely concealed fury. The sight was
somewhat familiar to him. Straining his mind for a few seconds, the answer came
to him.
He was looking at the
beginning of a hazard. Those fierce super destructive storms that were common
to Nephilim. His eyes hardened as he began to run.
The swirling winds
behind grew stronger and more intense. Glancing back, he was shocked to see
several large tornado like columns of air racing towards him at breakneck
speeds. One was on a direct collision course with him. He broke right and
barely managed to avoid being carried off by the wind. He kept his feet planted
on the earth but only just barely.
Looking back, he saw a
wall of sand heading his way carried by violent winds. He increased his speed,
racing away as fast as he could. The sand swept over him lifting him high into
the air.
The strong winds lifted
him off the desert sands, flinging him into the center of the miasmic fury of
the hazard. The zinging and sparking sound in his battle armor grew louder.
Sand was probably entering the rips and tears in the seams he thought.
He lost all sense of
time and reasoning as the vicious winds battered him from left and right. He
was lifted, dropped, twisted sideways and spun around in vicious circles; just
when he thought he was dead for sure, he started to plummet, racing towards the
earth at breathtaking speeds.
For several seconds he
saw nothing beneath him but grayish black swirling clouds. Then everything
cleared and the earth came into view. By this time, he was just two hundred
feet above the ground and still falling fast. He closed his eyes and braced for
impact.
It took a couple of
seconds and then WHUMP!!! He hit the ground hard. The impact with the earth
however did not stop him. The force of impact drove him several feet into the
ground where he struck a brittle sort of rock, which dissolved beneath him.
Underneath that was a
wide cocoon of space, stretching several hundred miles down. This fall reminded
him of his fall in Sulphurlock when Brainwave asked him to use a fusion grenade
and some ripped propane lines to drill a hole down into the steel forges.
Falling for what seemed
like an eternity, he eventually struck what felt and sounded like a metal
floor. The force of impact drove a deep concussion into the earth, which rippled
away for miles in every direction.
A loud groaning and
cracking sound rang out all around him. It sounded like thick heavy rock being
ripped apart. Groaning, he sat up slowly, rubbing his tender joints, when a
faint sizzling sound reached his ears. He leapt to his feet instantly, scanning
his darkened surroundings warily.
The sizzling continued
for another twelve seconds before it stopped. Peering into the darkness, he was
shocked to see something light up at a point almost at the opposite horizon.
Stepping forward, he strained his eyes to get a better look.
A half second later another
light lit up; then another, and yet another. The lights kept coming on in a
straight line, illuminating the darkness. Before long the light was only ten
feet away; then it became five, until invisible bulbs directly over him lit up.
The bulbs continued to light up until the earth for miles around was lit up.
Might turned around in
awe, realizing he was in what looked like a massive underground
airstrip/aircraft hanger. The rusty carcasses of more than two dozen futuristic
looking aircrafts lay thirty miles to his right.
To his left, about
thirty miles away, were half a dozen buildings that looked like warehouses. His
eyes narrowed as he looked at them. Scanning his surroundings once more, he
took a deep breath and started towards them.
As he walked, he
pondered on what had made the lights in this underground airstrip to come on.
It probably had something to do with his fall. Sighing he increased his pace,
his booted feet making loud clangs as he walked.
He reached the door of
the first warehouse within minutes. His eyes widened as he looked at it. It was
a mammoth structure, almost twenty feet high and forty feet wide. The other
structures were even bigger than this one was.
Sighing he tried the
door. It did not budge. Only then did he notice the keycard pad on the right
side of the door. Beneath that was a touch screen with numbers from 0-30 on it.
His eyes narrowed; it needed a numbered password to open. His face grew
thunderous.
Roaring in fury, he
leapt forward and drove a hard blow into the door. The metal surface crumpled
like paper as the force of the blow ripped it off its hinges, flinging it
several feet backwards where it smashed into the floor, skidding backwards with
a grating sound before coming to rest against the legs of a metal conference
table.
A thick layer of dust
covered the surface of this table. The room smelt moldy and musty. Might choked
back a sneeze as he walked into it. A blinking green light on his right caught
his attention. He started towards it brushing away the cobwebs along his path.
The light came from a square shaped instrument, which was almost completely
covered by dust and dirt.
Brushing the dust off it carefully, he
realized the light came from a tiny bulb, about the size of a pinhead. It lay
beneath a square shaped button. This button was on the front of the decoder
like instrument. There were five of such buttons, each with a tiny bulb
underneath it. Only the bulb under the first button was blinking.
Reaching down, he
pressed it. There was a screech followed by a thud and a section of the top
half of the decoder like instrument slid open, revealing a light, which beamed
upwards forming a holographic image. It was the image of a weary looking old
man. He wore an army green uniform with four stars sewn onto the left shoulder.
He was seated in a chair and appeared to be facing a camera.
“This
is General Holdstatt, leader of the 23rd mobile infantry attack
squad. I don’t know who you are or where you might be watching this from, but
if you are seeing this, it means I am dead and our mission failed. Our attempts
at repressing the enemy’s incursion have been grossly ineffective. The threat
grows stronger even with the use of our most deadly weapons; it seems the
darkness feeds on every attack we make.
“This
entire quadrant is almost completely irradiated; we are mostly to blame for
that. As a result I am ordering a full retreat and evacuation of any remaining
forces from this base to B1 twelve alpha; designation Biosphere. The last
transmission I received from NORAD stated that B1 is now up and running. It
appears that is where our entire force will make the last stand.
“However
before we do that, I and two of my elite mobile units will organize one last
sneak attack. If we can get one of our tachyon missiles into the eye of this
thing, it might stop it for good. Our attacks on the exterior have failed
miserably; but perhaps an interior attack might work. Should my team and I
return, I will destroy this message. If we do not, the message will be left
here for any straggling forces to find. Here are the co-ordinates. Memorize it
and immediately make your way to B1 twelve alpha___”
A series of numbers
immediately flashed on the screen. Might quickly memorized the numbers and with
a screech the light went off and the message stopped.
Chapter
Three
Great sadness filled
Might’s insides as the transmission ended. The mission had obviously been a
failure. The general and his men had perished.
His sad eyes quickly
scanned the room he was in. The round conference table with about two dozen
chairs was the only furniture the room had. To his left, nailed into the wall
were half a dozen mid sized shelves. The door of each of these shelves had a
password track pad beside its handle. A frown roughened Might’s face as he
looked at it. To his right was a large door, leading to God knows where. With a
building this size, this could not be the only room inside it.
Still frowning, he
started for the shelves with long brisk strides. Reaching them, he paused for a
couple of seconds before he raised his fingers to touch the first one. It
crumbled to brown powder at his touch. He did the same thing with the five
other shelves and had the same result.
A shinning substance
glittering from the powdery remains of the sixth shelf caught his eye. Frowning
he leaned down and reached into the thick pile of dust like wood shavings. His
rummaging produced seven keycards, which had a bluish red luminous glow
emanating from them.
His frown deepened as
he looked at it. There was something vaguely familiar about them. He strained
his mind as he struggled to remember. It came to him ten seconds later. They
were hover cycle keycards. The hover cycles he had gotten from both Gethsemane
and Absalom had keycards like this one. You held it on your person and pushed a
button to get the hover cycle going. Without it, the hover cycle would never
move.
He rose to his full
height and turned around slowly. There was no hover cycle here that much was
certain, which meant that he had to check out the other buildings; including
the rest of this one. He glanced at the door on the right as he thought this
and started towards it a second later.
A mere flick of his
wrist brought the door down in a shower of wood and dust. There was a long corridor
beyond it. Sighing he started down its length. The corridor ended at another
door. This one was made of steel. He tried the handle but it did not budge.
Taking a firm stance, he drove a hard right into it. The lock shattered into a
million pieces and the door creaked open.
Striding in, he was
shocked to see that the entire room was filled with weapons. Pulse rifles,
laser cannons, nail guns and some other futuristic looking items that he could
comprehend. The hard look on his face softened somewhat. At least he had
something to use to defend himself if need be. That was if any of them still
worked.
He picked half a dozen
weapons from the racks on the wall glancing around as he did so. There did not
appear to be any ammunition around that he could see, unless___
He glanced at the
Ingram shaped guns in his hands. Heaviness flooded his spirit as he looked at
them. These sort of guns were one of Swift’s favorites. Raising the guns
slowly, he released a short burst at the shattered remains of the door behind
him. The barrels spat out long bursts of red flame ripping the twisted door
into shreds.
Satisfaction surged on
his insides. So the guns still worked. The ammunition it used was probably
self-generating. Examining it carefully, he was surprised to see a strange sort
of oil on it. A preservative? Who knew? Sighing he made his way out of the room
to continue his search of the building.
His search yielded
nothing. That meant he had to search the other buildings too. That thought did
not fill him with relish. The other buildings were more than twice the size of
this one. Who knew where the hover cycles were kept or if they even worked?
Frowning he strode towards the exit. His stomach gave a loud rumble at that
instant. A sigh burst from his lips at the sound. Finding food was another top
priority.
The second building was
a behemoth with two stories. The ground level was only one huge room, built
igloo style with reddish brown concrete ceilings. Thick clouds of dust wafted
over him as he punched the door open. He sneezed violently several times before
walking in.
When the dust cleared,
he saw there were seven doors built into the walls in a wide circle. His face
brightened as he examined each of the steel doors in turn. Maybe the doors had
hover cycles stashed behind them. With a determined look on his face, he made
for the first door.
Breaking it down took
less than a second. To his chagrin however, he discovered the room behind it
was empty. The second room contained two dozen biomechanical suits. He stepped
into the room to examine them, holding his breath as he did so.
Brushing the dust off
one, he examined the label on the inner lining. Aziomle survival bio-suit provides full protection from radiation and
small-scale explosions. The frown on Might’s face grew deeper as he
remembered General Holdstatt’s message on the irradiated quadrant. The only
question now was whether the suit would work.
Still frowning he
unclasped it from the hook it hung from and started for the top story of the
building. He discovered nothing there but a stack of papers covered with tons
of codes, numbers and words that made no sense to him. He did not have better
luck with four other buildings. It was with the sixth that he hit pay dirt.
A dozen hover cycles
were arranged in a straight line in the first room he came to. Six of the
keycards did not work. The last one however did. It belonged to a giant of a thing,
which was all green with silver handlebars, and a skull carved into both of its
sides.
Pressing the start
button, it chugged loudly for five seconds and went off. Trying it again, it
chugged and chugged for so long that for several terrifying seconds Might was
afraid it would not work.
Eventually the loud
chugging became a smooth purring growl. Leaving it to run for a bit, Might
turned his attention to the biomechanical suit. Stripping it of the covering cellophane,
he examined it carefully.
A zipper ran all the
way down its front. He unzipped it slowly sighing as the piney scent of leather
wafted into his nostrils. He shed his battered battle armor and slipped on the biomechanical
suit, zipping it closed carefully.
There was an instant
jolt within the threads of the suit. His eyes grew wide in alarm when he felt
the suit instantly harden, becoming armored as it did so. The collar extended
and a hood covered his head. A thick pane of reinforced glass slid out of his
neckline and joined the top of the hood sealing his face inside the small
compartment with a whoosh. Cool somewhat sweet scented air filled his nostrils,
blowing from where he did not know.
Clambering onto the
hover cycle, he revved the engine once more and sped out of the building
heading for the massive runway in front of it. Reaching the runway, the touch
screen console on the hover cycle came to life. Several dots were typed out
vertically in a straight line followed by the words co-ordinates.
Might quickly filled in
the co-ordinates he had gotten from General Holdstatt’s message. The onboard
computer gave several shrill beeps and a holographic map beamed out showing
miles and miles of desert terrain, eventually ending at a huge dome shaped
structure with the words B1 12 flickering over it.
Gritting his teeth,
Might revved the hover cycles twin engines and streaked faster than a bullet in
the direction where he hoped the exit was. The lights that lit up the runway
began to go off after him for some strange reason. He increased speed, slowing
down when he saw a large sign with the words
DANGER!!
APPROACHING IRRADIATED ZONE.
A pair of huge black
steel doors loomed in the distance. A worried look crept on his face when he
spotted them. The doors looked thick and formidable. Getting through them would
take some doing. The onboard computer spoke at that instant.
“Obstacle detected five hundred meters ahead. Activating laser cannons.”
Two formidable looking
laser cannons burst out of its sides instantly spitting out several searing red
bursts. The steel doors disintegrated into a million tiny pieces, showering the
surrounding area with pieces of steel and wood shavings.
Beyond this door was a
huge expanse of desert sand stretching to the opposite horizon. The air around
this part of the desert was green and cloudy; it was definitely irradiated.
With a loud vroom, the hover cycle sped across the sand, crossing hundreds of
kilometers in seconds quickly becoming a small dot on the horizon before
eventually disappearing from view.
Chapter Four
Earth
Gbenga’s eyes focused
fixed on Might’s face. His eyes showed his barely contained excitement. He
could have sworn the big guy just sighed. Was he waking up?
He realized that was
just wishful thinking a few moments later when he saw Might’s breathing return
to its usual steady rhythm. Disappointed he returned to his very troubled
thoughts.
The doctors of the
three crosses hospital felt he was unhinged. He could not say he blamed them.
After all, why a man should be spending hundreds of thousands of naira every
month on a man who was no relation of his made no rational sense. Not to
mention the fact that majority of the hospital staff felt he was better off
being left to die.
Of all of them, he was
told Might had been in a coma longest, almost a year now. The longer he spent
in a coma, the more likely it was that his brain functions might end up being
impaired.
As with all things in
Nigeria, no one liked stress. No doctor was willing to continue treating a
patient who might never wake up. It was a waste of valuable time and money.
Another sigh burst from
his lips at that thought and he leaned back in his chair glancing around his
surroundings. The high ceilings, white colored walls and the myriads of
machines and equipment connected to Might’s body were as familiar to him as his
own skin. His phone rang at that instant dragging him out of his reverie.
He reached into the
pockets of the grey slacks he wore and pulled out his Lumia 1860 Smartphone.
His eyes grew sad and impatient as he checked the caller ID. It was Seyi, his
wife.
Months ago, he would
have been pleased to see that she was calling him, but not now; not anymore at
any rate. So much had changed since he had awoken and seen the CNN news
bulletin about the brilliant scientist’s yet unknown discovery. The whole world
was eagerly waiting for the unveiling of his latest scientific marvel, which
would be broadcast to everyone on the planet at the G8 summit in Geneva taking
place in December. That was barely six months from now.
No one in the world
knew that the unveiling of that discovery would trigger the event that would
turn earth into Nephilim. He alone knew what the earth’s fate was. He and Seyi
that is, because he had told her about it. Sadly, she did not believe him. That
unbelief brought strain between them, making them slowly drift apart.
The ringing of his
phone grew more insistent. It had a function, which made the ring tone louder
the longer you left it unanswered. He had not quite figured out how to turn it
off. He made a vow to himself to find out how to do it. Even if he had to dig
the manual out from underneath the scores of boxes he had stacked in his study.
He toyed with the idea
of simply ignoring the call, but decided not to. The sooner he got it over with
the better for him. He pushed the call icon on the touch screen and raised the
phone to his ear.
“Yes?”
“Why didn’t you pick up
your phone immediately?”
As usual, her voice
sounded angry. She was obviously spoiling for a fight. He was tempted to yell
at her for using that tone of voice with him, but the feeling of anger faded
away and was quickly replaced by weariness. It was not worth the trouble to
bicker.
“I have no reason__” He
said in a glum voice.
A heavy silence loomed
from the other end of the phone. He knew what that meant of course. She was
controlling her temper with great difficulty. He waited. The silence stretched
to half a minute before she spoke.
“Where are you?” Her
hard voice had a steely edge to it.
“Do you need to ask?”
his tone was sarcastic.
He knew he was asking
for it. She almost always threw a hissy fit when he sounded like this.
“THE HOSPITAL
AGAIN???!!!” She screeched.
A sigh left his lips.
She never disappointed.
“Gbenga when will this
madness end?”
“IT IS NOT MADNESS!!!”
He roared infuriated by her patronizing tone.
“Just because you don’t
believe in something doesn’t make it a lie does it? After all, in the early
nineteen hundreds, no one believed that man could fly and we all know how that
turned out.”
“Don’t bring the Wright
brothers into this Gbenga. That is a different thing and you know it.”
“How is it different
Seyi? Most of the great men who are now being celebrated today were at one time
or the other called mad because of the things they perceived and saw, which
nobody else did. The list if endless; Thomas Edison, the Wright brothers,
Richard Branson and if we want to go all spiritual, Jesus Christ.”
“OH PLEASE! Don’t tell
me you now see yourself as some sort of modern day Jesus Christ? Just because
you have acquired the taste for religion does not give you the right to preach
to me. What do you take me for? AN IDIOT??!!
“Now you are wasting
your hard earned money trying to keep a man who the doctors say might be better
off dead, alive. Not to mention spending millions of naira to build a bunker
underneath our home, because of some vision you thought you saw when you were
in a coma.
“It was a coma Gbenga!
You were practically dead. Its only natural you had dreams and hallucinations.”
“If that is true__”
Gbenga cut in angrily. “How did I recognize the three men and one woman lying
beside me in the hospital? You believe that was chance? Or the things I saw in
my so called hallucinations being reported on CNN a few months after I woke up.
Explain that!!”
There was silence at
the other end for a few moments, and then__
“I am done arguing with
you. Your dinner will be in the microwave when you get back. If you are hungry
that is.”
And with a click, the
connection was cut. Infuriated, Gbenga slid the phone back into his pocket.
Seyi could drive a saint to rage. Let her believe what she liked. Either way he
had nothing to lose. Nothing but your marriage, a sardonic voice in his head
reminded him. He quickly ignored it.
He was going to keep
preparing for the event no matter what anyone had to say about it. If in
December the event did not come, he’d turn the bunker into a study/guy hangout
and relaxation area for him and the few buddies he had left. If it did come,
she would thank him for it. That thought filled his insides with fear.
Seyi and anyone else on
the planet could say what they wanted. The event was coming. It would happen in
December this year, a little less than six months away. That knowledge came
from a place deep within him, from the depths of his being.
It was like Might said
when they were both still trapped in Nephilim. There were just some truths you were
not sure how or why you knew. You simply knew them because they came from deep
within you.
His excursion in
Nephilim might be just a fallacy to some, but what mattered was, he knew that
it was the truth. His sad eyes drifted to the twenty-one inch flat screen TV hanging
on the wall to his right.
It was one of the
doctor’s idea. According to him hearing news and other familiar sounds was
helpful to coma patients. It sometimes made them able to snap out of it. There
was a breaking news broadcast. Reaching towards the small table beside Might’s
bed, he picked up the remote control and raised the volume.
”World-renowned
scientist Gerald Summers arrives Myanmar amidst a lot of pomp and pageantry.
His visit it is believed is first a humanitarian trip and secondly, to check
the progress and performance of his genetically engineered rice which produces
three times the normal volume of ordinary seeds. Rice as we know is by far the
most important agricultural product in Myanmar covering roughly 5.5 million
hectares (13.5 million acres) of land in the fertile Irrawaddy delta region,
the lower valleys of the Sittang and Salween rivers, and along the Arakan and
Tenasserim coasts.
According
to Gerald’s claim, his genetically engineered rice could easily produce three
or four times the volume using only ten percent of the land surface being
cultivated for use. That would be an amazing feat if it is true. Early results
of the performance reveal that the seeds are so far keeping up with Gerald’s claims.
Anywhere
Gerald steps in the world becomes an instant red carpet style kind of event.
Since his discovery of a cure to cancer barely four years ago, the 38-year-old
bachelor has shot to the limelight. It is rumored that after this trip he will
be heading to some countries in North Africa to check out his samples of maize seeds,
which are purported to be able to grow in any environment known to man. It
could be desert, snow, ice or even flooded areas. Sounds mind boggling, but
with the amazing Gerald Summers, anything is possible___”
Chapter Five
The report went on.
Gbenga watched with sad frightened eyes. He could not tear his gaze from the
black haired, tall and rather harmless looking guy dressed in an ill fitting
black suit. His blue eyes were hidden behind horn-rimmed glasses, which seemed
too big for his face.
The guy looked every
bit the nerd, which in retrospect was what he was. No one would believe he was
the man destined to bring on the apocalypse. Maybe he was the Anti-Christ
spoken about in bible lore. Who knew anyway?
The guy was a
celebrity. He drew more crowds than a teenage Justin Bieber had done. Even the
most popular actors, actresses, sports stars and what not could not hold a
candle to him. He was a freaking legend. And no one had a clue that he was
about to unleash the darkness that would seal hundreds of millions of fates
around the globe, most of whom were his loyal adoring fans and admirers. What a
world.
His eyes narrowed as he
thought this. Since he realized what was going to happen he had begun to find
out all he could about Gerald Summers. Most of his research files and papers
were on his desk at home. He needed to study them.
His eyes drifted to
Might still lying prone on the bed. His chest rose and fell with his even
breathing. Frowning Gbenga rose to his feet reaching for the cane leaning
against the white plastic chair he had been sitting on. Putting most of his
weight on the cane, he limped towards the bed.
Standing over Might’s
even features brought tears to his eyes. He blinked them away furiously. Now
was not the time for tears. So much had to be done. Reaching down with his left
hand, he gently stroked Might’s cheek.
“You have to come out
of it bro__” He murmured. “I am not going to give up on you even if everyone
else has given up on you. Come out and help me figure out how we are going to
survive the event. You are the only one that knows what I know and has seen
what I have seen. I am alone out here. Once more I need your help.”
Might did not respond.
He listened for a tell, maybe a shift of his toes or fingers, a change in his
breathing, anything to tell whether the big guy had heard him. Alas, he got
nothing. With a deep sigh, he headed for the door of the room, opened it and
stepped out into the corridor behind it before he shut it firmly.
Nephilim
The land became more
rugged and uneven. Huge craters were everywhere, their interiors filled with a
black cloying darkness, which seemed almost alive. The lights of the hover
cycle beamed out illuminating tens of kilometers ahead.
Might eyes were hard as
he revved the engines of the hover cycle making it zoom ahead with greater
speed. The cloudy green haze that hung in the air had not gotten any lighter.
In fact, it seemed thicker making visibility even poorer.
His eyes drifted to the
center console of the onboard computer. It counted down the miles he still had
to travel on a digital stopwatch kind of thing. According to the computer, he
still had about a day’s travel before he got to within a hundred clicks of the
biosphere.
His eyes narrowed as a
thought suddenly occurred to him. He reached down and tapped his finger on the
touch screen. The screen went blank for several seconds and then the words Inquiry? Appeared followed by a series
of dashes.
A key board appeared on
the lower part of the screen a second later. He quickly typed in Biosphere and
waited. Several shrill beeps later, the screen came alive.
My
information systems are in serious need of updates. The satellite systems I
automatically update from are either not available at the moment or are no
longer in existence.
However,
what I do have is this__
The
biosphere is the biological component of earth systems, which include the
lithosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere and other spheres. The biosphere includes
all living organisms on earth together with the dead organic matter produced by
them.
The information kept
coming. Might put the hover cycle into autopilot and struggled to read it.
Earth! What was that? Nothing he read seemed to make much sense. Eventually he
tired of it and reached for the screen again, typing the words B1 twelve alpha.
The computer gave some
more loud shrieks and then began to type once again.
B1
twelve alpha; designation biosphere; a top secret military installation built
by the remnant of the Aziomle communication franchise, assisted by Zebra one,
which is a code name for the top echelon of the science arm of the military.
B1
was modeled after the Biosphere of the earth, hence the code name B1 twelve
alpha. B1 is an environmental controlled city, built when it became evident
that the military was losing the war against the ether-tome, another code name
given to the ether darkness; and the whole earth was becoming irradiated by
nuclear and biological warfare.
As
that the time of the last update of my records, the site of B1 had been chosen
with construction almost complete. This information you are reading was at the
time of its uploading deemed classified. Password access was only given to the
top level of government, but was later made public when the major onslaught led
by General Holdstatt failed. This was to allow any stragglers or lost survivors
to find their way to the biosphere.
The
Biosphere was designed to be man’s last-ditch hope of survival. It is an
impregnable dome structure, with highly advanced defense systems reputed to be
able to fend off even an alien attack. The biosphere is self-sustaining; it has
its own climate, water, electricity and waste disposal system. It does not need
interference from any outside source.
Pockets
of human survival accompanied by what still remained of the world governments
were herded to the Biosphere. Soldiers deployed to different parts of the earth
began to find their way back to make their final stand against the ether-tome
and___
With a screech the
typing stopped. Might sighed surmising that was where the onboard computer’s
record stopped. His eyes hardened as he looked into the greenish gloom around
him.
Eleyon told him to find
the Biosphere. What secrets lay in the Biosphere that could give him the means
to get home? Sighing again, he took the hover cycle off autopilot and streaked
into the distance disappearing into the thick smog around him.
Chapter
Five
A few hundred
kilometers away, the computer on the hover cycle gave several loud beeps
rousing him from his reverie. The sensors picked out about five different forms
traveling in a straight path towards him.
From the little he
could see on the computer, they appeared to be people riding on some strange
looking contraptions he was not sure whether were machine or living. He drew
one of his Ingram shaped guns strapped to the side of his biomechanical suit.
The gun beeped as the ammunition it used, generated and slid into the chamber.
He raised the gun up,
pointing it straight ahead, as the hover cycle ate up the miles between it and
whatever was coming. The gloom surrounding him suddenly lightened and the
moving forms came into view.
His eyes narrowed as he
looked at them. They looked like people, really tall people. His hand tightened
around his guns and he did not lower them. A couple more steps closer and he
could see them very clearly.
The things they were riding
on were the first thing to catch his eye. They looked like a sort of mutated
camel with rivers of saliva dribbling from their mouths. The men or things that
rode them wore cloaks with large hoods, which shielded their faces from view.
They stopped short when
they saw him. The tallest amongst them took a deep breath and urged his animal
forward, stopping five paces away from Might’s hover cycle.
“Who are you?”
His voice sounded harsh
and mechanical. Might was puzzled about that until he leaned closer and
realized he was talking out of some sort of gas mask.
“My name is Might! Who
are you?”
“I am Obededom and
these are my men.”
“Men? Not machines?”
“Hardly__.” Obededom
chuckled. “We are men alright. Or at least we use to be.”
“What do you mean by
that?” Might said curling his finger around the trigger of his gun.
“You walk around this
irradiated part of Nephilim long enough with or without protection and its
bound to have some negative effects on you. My men and I are nomads. We have
traveled these irradiated wastelands for years eking out a meager existence and
surviving anyway we can.”
“Where are you from
originally?”
Obededom shrugged.
“Many different places. I used to live in Absalom. Neamo here was one of the
warrior prophets of Gethsemane.” He said pointing at the tall well built man
seated on the creature a few feet to his left.
“He and his companions
almost got to Mount Karnack when the skeleton horsemen attacked them. When they
were about to be overwhelmed, one of his members activated a fusion grenade and
he found himself here, lying a couple of miles beyond Karnack.”
“It was the same thing that happened to me.”
Might said with a gasp, looking at Neamo with awe. For some strange reason he
felt a kinship with the man that he had only ever known when he was with his
amnesiac companions.
“Where do you come from
Might?”
“Not really sure
Obededom. I have no memories beyond a month ago. I woke up in the desert plains
of Nephilim a few hundred clicks from Absalom with four other companions.
“We journeyed to
Gethsemane hoping to find answers to our amnesia; there we met the head prophet
Mordecai who sent us on a journey to find the city of light. Three of my
companions perished on the way. The fourth managed to enter the flight and
escaped from Nephilim.”
“Escaped from
Nephilim?? What do you mean escaped from Nephilim? How does one escape from
Nephilim?”
Might could see he had
their full attention now. He lowered his gun but did not ease his hard grip on
it.
“I think he found his
way into the city of light.”
“The city of light?
Isn’t that just a fairy tale? Does it truly exist?”
“I think it does. Swift
was carried into it. I saw it with my own eyes.”
A long silence followed
his words. A silence Obededom eventually broke.
“So where are you
headed?”
Might hesitated. He did
not want to lie but at the same time, he did not want to reveal too much to
these strangers. He did not completely trust them yet. It was at that instant
that Eleyon spoke.
“Tell
them__ you need something that they have. And they will only give you when you
tell them where you are going.”
His voice came so
suddenly that Might almost jumped. He was just able to keep it together.
“I am headed to B1
twelve alpha.”
“What is B1 twelve
alpha?” Neamo asked with a puzzled look on his face. Might’s eyes widened in
surprise at that, so Neamo could speak? Wonderful!
“It is called the
biosphere. An abandoned military installation built__”
“To house the remnant
of the human forces__” Neamo finished slowly. “After the failure of Holdstatt
at the war of the ether-tome.”
“How in the world could
you know that?” Might asked shocked.
“I used to be a prophet
remember? Our records are more reliable than anywhere else on Nephilim. What do
you hope to find in the biosphere?”
“I am not sure yet. But
whatever it is I hope it will give me the means to escape from Nephilim.”
A long silence followed
his hard statement. This time it was Neamo that spoke.
“Then you are going to
need food for your journey. We can only spare a couple of moldy bread and two
tins of salted fish plus a canteen of water. Its engineered liquid so you do
not have to drink too much of it at a go. And you can go longer before you need
to drink again.” He looked to Obededom for permission as he said this and the
man nodded.
One of the men at the
back leaped off his animal and walked over to Might, handing him a medium sized
package wrapped in thick cellophane. It looked and felt like a cooler.
“Thank you so much__” Might
said moved by their generosity.
“Don’t worry about it.
Just wish we could do so much more. Travel safe Might and may the most peaceful
and favorable things of the universe follow you.”
Obededom had already
driven his heels into the sides of the animal he rode and the creature cantered
forward, sweeping past Might. The others quickly followed and seconds later Might
was once again alone.
He sighed and strapped
the cooler to the side of the hover cycle taking hold of the handlebars once
again. Revving the engine, he sped off into the distance, even as the onboard
computer began to count down the miles he still had to cover.
He traveled for a few
more hundred miles before he realized that he was being followed. Nothing
around him suggested that what he thought was true, but he just sensed it from
deep within him.
That was despite the
fact that the earth had also began to tremble. Something or tons of something
were racing towards him at high speeds. He amped up the speed of the hover
cycle hurtling over the land so fast that it was as if a heavy hand was pressed
down on him.
The thundering behind
grew louder. He whipped his head back to catch a glimpse of what was chasing
him but he saw nothing. The scans on the onboard computer revealed nothing.
And then he saw it. It
was a giant of a thing, smoky grey in color with horns on its head and flashing
red eyes. He had his gun out in a flash and fired long bursts of red flame,
which created massive explosions behind him.
The creature gave a
loud shriek. What he was not sure of was whether it shrieked in pain or anger. Only
then did he notice the others. Their numbers seemed to be in the thousands but
something told him they were not more than a few hundreds at most.
They came out of the
cloudy haze in droves racing after the hover cycle slurring and growling. He
squeezed more bursts from his guns, decapitating tens of them, but more still
came.
He increased speed,
frowning when he noticed a grating clang coming from the hover cycle’s twin
engines. He was pushing the poor thing too hard. Glancing back, he was shocked
to discover that the giant grey creature was much closer.
There were barely four
paces between him and the creature now. With a loud roar, it crossed the
intervening distance in seconds and swept Might off the hover cycle with a deft
flick of its wrist.
The cycle fell on its
side, slid for about twelve feet and became still. Might hit the ground hard
and came up swinging as the creature bore down on him. The force of the blow
lifted the giant creature high in the air and deposited him almost five miles
behind, its heavy body digging a deep furrow into the desert sand. It groaned
for a bit and became still.
The rabid mob following
it slid to a screeching halt and screamed when they saw their leader go down.
With more screams, they raced back the way they had come leaving their leader
lying prone on the ground.
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