The Resurrection Key

by Andy McDermott

  ‘One of our stories – well, the first story. It’s how everything began. The Rainbow Serpent brought life to the whole world from underground. This looks like it, a great snake digging down into the earth.’

  She nodded. ‘More truth in ancient legends.’

  ‘Seems to be a theme with you,’ Eddie noted with amusement.

  ‘I’ve kinda built a career on it, yes.’ She looked down again. ‘There are some bridges crossing the shaft to the pillar— Whoa!’ She instinctively drew back as she saw movement below. ‘I can see the Nephilim!’

  Several figures stood before the pillar at the far end of a wide bridge made of red stone. One raised her head and called out, her voice echoing up the shaft. Nina realised that a narrow walkway spiralled around the crystalline tower. At its top, about a hundred feet below her position, was a smaller crossing, an opening at its end leading inside the pillar—

  Again she drew back in alarm as a figure emerged from it – one she recognised. ‘It’s Gadreel!’ she hissed. Gold glinted upon the head of the robed Nephilim leader as he surveyed the activity below, then started down the spiral pathway, holding a baraka like a staff.

  ‘We’ve found them – so what do we do now?’ asked Cheng.

  ‘If their people are here,’ Nina replied, ‘we have to stop them from waking them. If we can get the key off Sidona, throwing it down that very, very big hole would be as good a way as any.’

  ‘Except we have to get the key off Sidona,’ Eddie pointed out.

  ‘Just because she’s nine feet tall doesn’t make her invincible. They’re giants, not superhumans. If we can catch her alone and off guard . . .’

  He raised the rifle. ‘Let’s see if we can, then.’

  They resumed their trek down the tunnel, moving with even greater caution as they neared their enemies.

  42

  Gadreel reached the bottom of the spiral walkway. From here, a broad stone bridge crossed the chasm to a large chamber where most of his forces were resting – but the most important of his people was here.

  Sidona stood before a wide portal in the great crystal pillar’s side, the opening blocked by a translucent door. Hints of what lay beyond were dimly visible, shadowy forms picked out by the ever-shifting light running through the enormous column.

  His people, imprisoned within.

  The Nephilim leader had been as amazed as his followers by what lay within the giant red rock – Zan told him the humans called it Uluru – but forced himself to overcome his awe. The People of the Tree had discovered this wonder . . . and corrupted it, turning it into a place of torment and despair.

  Sidona had made contact with the glowing spire when they first crossed the higher bridge, her inner senses exploring it – and finding over a thousand souls trapped in an unending nightmare. It was the same ordeal Gadreel and the others had experienced themselves, but they had chosen to endure it. Those here were prisoners, left to suffer for all eternity, their persecutors too cowardly to kill them.

  But now eternity was over.

  He gently touched his wife’s shoulder. She twitched, surprised; one hand was against the crystal wall, her mind fixed upon things beyond the physical realm. ‘My love,’ he said. ‘Is all well?’

  She turned, revealing tear-stained cheeks. ‘Yes, my lord,’ she said, composing herself. ‘I was . . . with our people.’

  ‘They will all soon be with us.’ He glanced up to the spiral’s top. ‘Zan is preparing the machine – under guard, of course. I do not trust him.’

  ‘A traitor can never be trusted,’ she agreed. ‘I will be glad when we no longer need him.’

  ‘As will I. Is everything prepared here?’

  ‘It is.’ She indicated a shallow recess beside the portal. ‘The resurrection key will open the door – once the gas inside has been removed. Come, look.’ She led him to the ledge’s side. ‘Down there – do you see the pools?’ Light shimmered off pockets of water lower down the red cliffs. ‘The gas will flow down through lead pipes into the water and become harmless. When it has all gone, the door will open.’

  Gadreel turned back to the entrance. ‘Our persecutors were very clever,’ he mused. ‘If they had applied that cleverness to weapons, they might still be here.’

  ‘But we would not.’ Sidona returned to the portal, producing the key from her robes. ‘Be thankful they considered themselves too civilised for war.’

  He smiled. ‘Indeed. Then begin. Bring our people back to life!’

  She placed the key into the recess. It clung to the glassy surface as if magnetised. She closed her eyes and placed her palm upon it.

  A low rumble slowly rose in volume. ‘It begins,’ Sidona proclaimed. ‘The gas is being drawn from the chamber.’

  Gadreel turned to the portal. There was a faint yellow tinge to what lay beyond; the room was filled with the same gas as the sarcophagi. As he watched, the colour gradually disappeared, as if draining out through the floor.

  Before long, it was gone. ‘It is safe,’ said Sidona. ‘I can open the door.’

  She did nothing physically, but Gadreel knew she was reaching out with her mind. The rumbling faded – then the door started to open, slowly rising upwards.

  He pulled her back as residual wisps of gas curled from the widening gap, but they dispersed in moments. The barrier continued to rise. Gadreel held his breath, waiting for his first view of what awaited within . . .

  Both he and Sidona were left briefly speechless by the terrible yet incredible sight. Finally, he spoke. ‘We have found them. They are here!’

  His wife took the key. ‘I will wake them.’

  ‘Wait.’ She stared at him, demanding an explanation. ‘Summon Maseen – any priestess can bring them from their sleep. I need you for something more.’ He looked up the spiralling walkway. ‘Our enemies of old are gone. But we have new ones – powerful ones.’ His expression turned cold. ‘Come. We will use the humans’ machine to destroy them!’

  ‘There’s another split coming up,’ said Nina. ‘Which way do we go?’

  The main passage continued its descent, but another angled off it, heading slightly upwards. Eddie and Barney examined scuffed dust on the floor. ‘Most of them went down,’ said the Australian.

  ‘Only most of them?’ Cheng said, regarding the other tunnel nervously.

  ‘A few went up and didn’t come back. The man went with them.’ He pointed out the tread of Zan’s shoes.

  Eddie nodded. ‘I’d say they sent scouts to check the side tunnel. They came back, told Gadreel what they’d found, and he sent Zan up there. Maybe he even went with him.’

  Nina thought back to what she had seen of the shaft. ‘It could be the way to the higher bridge. If it is, then Gadreel’s probably not there any more – he went down that spiral pathway.’

  ‘So Zan’s alone with the qi tracker?’ said Cheng.

  Barney shook his head. ‘A couple of those bigfoot fellas went with him. Even if one’s gone somewhere else, he’s still got company.’

  ‘Sidona will have the resurrection key,’ said Nina. ‘We need to find her first.’

  ‘She might have gone with Gadreel and Zan,’ Eddie suggested.

  She nodded. ‘And if she did . . . right now she could be alone with Zan! We can get the key and the tracker at the same time. So we need to go that way.’ She indicated the upper tunnel.

  Eddie readied the rifle. ‘Let’s do it.’

  They proceeded cautiously up the new passage. Like the main route, it appeared to have been carved from a natural fault, but this one was not as wide. Nina guessed the Veteres had not needed to bring sarcophagi through it – which in turn suggested the prison of Tartarus was somewhere below.

  Before long they reached another junction – and heard noises. ‘Lights out,’ Eddie growled.

  A new passage to their left sloped steeply
downwards. A glow was visible at its end – the same multispectral shimmer as the crystal pillar. Signalling for Cheng and Barney to stay put, Nina and Eddie crept down it. ‘Must be something big,’ Nina whispered. ‘It’s lit up like a football stadium!’

  They reached the bottom, finding themselves on a balcony overlooking a huge cathedral-like chamber. The pair ducked behind the stone parapet when they saw numerous Nephilim below. Most were warriors, wearing their bizarre, brightly coloured armour, but to the couple’s relief, they did not seem to be expecting battle. They had divided into smaller groups amongst broken boulders scattered across the floor; parts of the ceiling that had fallen over the untold millennia. ‘Looks like they’ve made camp,’ Eddie murmured. ‘I count . . . about eighteen.’

  ‘And they all squeezed into that little ship?’ said Nina. ‘Damn, and I bet it didn’t even have a bathroom.’

  A brief smile, then they surveyed the chamber. A high vaulted ceiling, great vertical columns carved into the red walls. The bases of many had crumbled into rubble over time. Giant heads between them stared sternly down at those below. The stone faces were not human.

  Nina recognised the features immediately: the same as those of the mummified corpses she had discovered in the Garden of Eden. ‘The Veteres did build this place . . .’

  Eddie’s attention was elsewhere. The long path from the surface ended at a tall gateway to his left; at the great space’s opposite end was an even bigger and more ornate arch. The crystal pillar’s glow came from beyond it, reflected by numerous large metal mirrors to illuminate the chamber. ‘What do you think this is? A church?’

  ‘Something a bit less spiritual.’ Her gaze traced a path from the room’s entrance to the archway. The fallen rocks had damaged several areas, but there was a clearly defined route through it – and one area contained the remains of cages. ‘It’s a processing centre. The Veteres brought their prisoners down here in the sarcophagi, woke them up, then took them through there,’ she indicated the towering exit, ‘to the actual prison.’

  ‘Why not just leave ’em in the coffins? It’s not like they could get out.’

  ‘They must have had another way of . . . storing them.’ She went back to the tunnel. ‘We can’t get through there. We’ll have to keep going.’

  They rejoined the two men, then continued up the passage. Before long, it opened out into the colossal crystal-lit shaft, leading to the narrow bridge Nina had seen from above. She dropped to a crouch at the tunnel’s mouth, looking across the gap.

  At the bridge’s far end was an entrance to a chamber within the pillar. She couldn’t tell if it was natural or had been carved out, but she could see people inside.

  Zan. Sidona. And Gadreel, the Nephilim leader having returned. The qi tracker was with them, guarded by a towering armoured warrior. Both he and Gadreel were armed with the deadly spear weapons. ‘Balls,’ Eddie muttered, lowering the rifle. ‘No way I can take ’em all out fast enough with this.’

  Barney’s first sight of the giants left him staring in shock. ‘What . . . what are they doing?’

  Sidona had her hands on both the crystal inside the tracker and the chamber’s glowing inner wall.

  ‘Nothing good,’ was Nina’s ominous reply.

  Gadreel gazed at his wife as she shaped the power flowing around her – and far beyond. It was almost gloriously ironic that the bestial inferior race had built a weapon that used the world’s near-infinite forces for destruction, while being almost incapable of operating it themselves . . . and even more so now it was being turned against them.

  They still had to rely on one human, however – for the moment. Zan was their only source of knowledge about the world the beasts had built. Typically for animals, Gadreel had learned from him, they had broken up into countless antagonistic packs selfishly battling for supremacy rather than uniting for the common good. ‘And which . . . tribe,’ the Nephilim leader asked, barely containing his contempt, ‘is the greatest danger to us?’

  ‘A tribe called America,’ Zan replied. The name sounded odd and unappealing to Gadreel’s ears. ‘It has the most weapons, the most powerful armies. It is my tribe’s greatest enemy.’

  ‘Your tribe is also our enemy. Perhaps I should ally with this America?’ The Chinese looked decidedly unhappy, until Gadreel let out a mocking laugh. ‘All human tribes are a danger to us. For my people to reclaim this world, we must remove such threats.’ He pointed at the tracker’s screen. ‘Show them to me.’

  Zan brought the map to North America. ‘Here, my lord.’

  The Nephilim leader hid his concern. Seemingly arbitrary lines across land marked tribal territories; the one Zan indicated was huge, stretching from one coast of the unknown continent to the other. A single tribe controlled such a vast area? And while America was the most powerful, there were others on the world map as big, or bigger. The enormity of the challenge he faced started to become plain.

  But it was one he would accept; that he had to accept. The humans had wiped out the People of the Tree, their capacity for raw violence outmatching their masters’ lofty intentions, and he was sure they would attempt to do the same to his own people even when faced with the superior weapons of the Nephilim – perhaps especially when faced with them. There was no animal more dangerous and vicious than a cornered one . . .

  A statement had to be made, a display of power so great it would shock the humans into surrender. ‘Where is their largest city?’

  Zan zoomed in on the east coast. ‘It is called New York.’

  He pointed. Gadreel couldn’t read the text, but assumed the sprawl of grey where two rivers met in a bay marked the city’s boundaries. Several red lines ran close to it. ‘Then that is our target.’

  He waited for Zan to fix the crosshairs, then went to his wife. She was in a fugue state, barely aware of the real world. ‘Sidona. Can you hear me?’

  ‘I can, my lord,’ she replied, voice distant.

  ‘There is a target in the machine. Can you sense it?’

  ‘Yes.’ Her expression became one of discomfort, that of someone with a small but sharp stone trapped in their sandal. However the tracker marked its target, it felt unpleasant to those with the gift. ‘It is a long way from here, but I will reach out.’ She closed her eyes, concentrating – then gasped.

  ‘What is it?’ he asked.

  ‘So many beasts,’ came the whispered reply. ‘They are so many! The city, it is huge. The one we saw is nothing to it. The buildings, they . . . I cannot even count them. Tower after tower after tower, stretching to the sky . . .’

  ‘No tower stands for ever,’ he said firmly. ‘Can you bring them down?’

  ‘Yes. I can shape the power, even from so far away. I can destroy them.’

  ‘Then do so.’

  Sidona became still, concentrating. Zan watched the display anxiously. ‘The power is growing,’ he said as numbers flashed up in secondary windows.

  ‘How long until it will be released?’ asked Gadreel.

  He examined a shifting graph. ‘Fifteen minutes.’

  The Nephilim did not know the human unit of time, but guessed from Zan’s tone that it was not long. And after so many centuries, he could wait a little more . . .

  Sidona gasped again. Gadreel hurriedly crouched beside her. ‘What is wrong?’

  ‘Nothing,’ she whispered, a look of near-delight dawning. ‘I have just realised – this machine is more than a weapon. It . . . it is a focus for my power, it increases it.’

  ‘It increases your power? How?’

  ‘I do not know. But I know what it can do.’ She gripped his hand, eyes shining. ‘The larger the crystal, the greater my power becomes. I can use the key to wake our people. Not one at a time – all of them! All at once!’

  Gadreel could not reply for a moment, absorbing the magnitude of her discovery. He had thought reviving all the impris
oned Nephilim would take days, but now he could have his entire army before sunset! ‘What about the attack that is under way? Will moving the machine affect it?’

  ‘No. Now that it has begun, even without me the power will continue to build until it cannot be contained.’ She proved her point by withdrawing her hands from the crystals.

  ‘She is correct, my lord,’ Zan said, checking the screen.

  Gadreel helped Sidona stand, rising to his full height. ‘Then it is time to free our people. Every one of them!’

  Nina drew back into cover as Gadreel and Sidona emerged hand-in-hand from the crystal chamber and started down the spiral. ‘What are they doing?’

  ‘Dunno, but they look far too happy about it,’ said Eddie. He watched them disappear around the glowing pillar, then looked back. ‘Ay up. Zan’s doing summat with the tracker.’

  The group watched as the translator closed the laptop and bundled up the machine’s cables, then strained to lift it. He spoke to the warrior, who glowered disdainfully at him. ‘I think he was asking him to help carry it,’ said Cheng.

  ‘Looks like he got told to piss off,’ said the Yorkshireman. Zan hauled the tracker from the floor and carried it to the entrance in an undignified waddle. Eddie brought the rifle back up. ‘If I shoot him and the tracker goes over the side, that’s one problem sorted.’

  ‘We still have to find the key, though,’ Nina reminded him.

  Barney had other concerns. ‘You’re just going to shoot him? That’s murder!’

  ‘He’s a traitor,’ Cheng said, with surprising vehemence. ‘Because of him, thousands of people have died – including your friend.’

  ‘That thing he’s carrying is a weapon,’ Nina added. ‘The Nephilim used it to destroy a city in China. They’ll use it again. They consider this their world – they think we’re animals, vermin. They want to wipe us out.’

  ‘And that arsehole’s helping them to save his own skin,’ said Eddie. He lined up the sights on Zan’s head as he lugged the tracker to the top of the spiral—

  A noise from behind them.