Progeny

by Shawn Hopkins

  John cringed when he heard it put that way. It was true, there were correlations that didn’t match up, this not being the abyss in which the fallen angels were chained being the most obvious. “No, I guess he’s not Apollo…” And then the scenario suddenly became more sensible. “But he tried to free Apollo. He wants to instigate the apocalypse… to reestablish Satan’s reign on earth… But he didn’t have the key. He called it a joke, that God let the fallen angels think they knew all the mysteries of creation. So Osiris transports himself to this other plane of reality, this interpretation of Bermuda, and…”

  “What are you saying?” Samuel interrupted.

  “Is it possible that he isn’t just trying to escape, that he’s still planning on doing his part in ushering in another golden age by freeing Apollyon from the pit, something that’s prophesied to happen anyway?”

  “How?”

  “I have no idea. But if that’s been their agenda throughout the millennias, the reason for all the megalithic sites across the world—” he looked back to Henry and Chadwick, “—if the agenda has been to communicate the lost wisdom of Satan’s reign, the spirits being channeled really the spirits of his agents…”

  Henry nodded solemnly. “With the explosion of the New Age movement and the popularity of the Occult, the New World Order could be just around the corner.”

  Chadwick cleared his throat. “The New Age of enlightenment heralded by the return of the capstone to the Great Pyramid. Annuit Coeptis Novus Ordo Seclurum…”

  John’s gaze narrowed on a thought. “The dollar bill?”

  “The eye of Horus is housed in the disconnected capstone, the light of Sirius that the southern star shaft points to shining behind it. 1776 is the date written at the base of the pyramid… the date the Illuminati was formed.”

  Backing up a few steps, Samuel sat heavily into a chair, the torches’ shifting light casting thick and dark shadows across his tired face.

  Chadwick’s eyes flashed with revelation. He looked around the stone room, wondering silently if this was all possible. “The initiation into Freemasonry’s three degrees are astronomically structured. The Worshipful Master marks the sun rising on the equinox, the Senior Warden marks the sun at its meridian, and the Junior Warden marks its setting. The two pillars on either side of the Worshipful Master, representing Boaz and Jachin from Solomon’s Temple, mark both the summer and winter solstices. In the first degree, information is conveyed to the initiate while he’s standing in the shadow cast by the northeast pillar, the second degree in the shadow of the southeast. The third degree, when the candidate becomes a ‘Master Mason,’ takes place in a dark room after he’s symbolically killed and resurrected under the light of Venus rising at the equinox…”

  “I’m not following,” John stated.

  “It’s the same layout that’s used in Newgrange and other megalithic sites. And, as far as Scottish Rite Freemasonry’s concerned, the very core of Freemasonry is based on the premise that a scientifically advanced civilization existed before the time of the Flood. The Delta of Enoch, an ancient triangle of gold forming the centerpiece of a temple that Enoch built, supposedly contained the secret antediluvian knowledge. According to tradition, God gave Enoch the gifts of wisdom and knowledge and sent him thirty books filled with scientific mysteries; even the Babylonians credit him with introducing astronomy. Masonic tradition states that Enoch had his son, Methuselah, construct a subterranean building that could survive the coming flood and preserve the secret knowledge. Apparently, while Solomon’s workers were clearing the site for the temple grounds, they discovered the underground chamber and recovered Enoch’s preserved secrets. In 1128 AD, after the Babylonians and the Romans had their way with the holy site, the Templar Knights reportedly rediscovered the body of ancient wisdom. Freemasonry still claims to be the guardian of such antediluvian knowledge. The thirteenth degree of Scottish Rite Freemasonry, The Royal Arch of Enoch, is focused on the hiding and rediscovering of Enoch’s subterranean chamber. And you know that Washington DC was built by Freemasons, right?”

  John nodded. By now, who didn’t?

  “So all of this stuff was incorporated into the city’s design and layout.” He sighed as he placed the back of his hand against his forehead. “Never mind…” He took a deep breath, forcing himself to part with all the implications such a revelation demanded. “It doesn’t concern us right now. The main point is that there’s definitely a connection between what’s happening both politically and spiritually in our world, and the secret wisdom that, according to the Book of Enoch, was introduced by fallen angels in the days of Jared.”

  Henry nodded his concession. “The Bible talks about Satan being the king of this world order, right? The prince and the power of the air? Well, isn’t it obvious? Just look around. If the world’s mythologies do find their roots in the antediluvian world, in the Book of Enoch and Genesis six, then they’re more than just harmless stories handed down over the generations. They’re the stories of fallen angels, of what brought God’s judgment on earth.” He became animated, waving his hands. “How many scientific breakthroughs came by men communicating with spirits? Yeah, we call it science today because we can back it up with mathematical formulas, but where did the knowledge come from? Take Pythagoras for example. Along with Herodotus and Solon, he was actually shown Egypt’s secret wisdom by a priest, Solon’s impression of whatever he saw prompting Plato to proclaim that the Egyptians had a divine heritage that stemmed from the gods’ reign on earth. What’s even more interesting is that the Pythagorean Theorem was used in the construction of the pyramids. Is it possible then that Pythagoras picked up on this formula while examining Egypt’s sacred texts?” He shook his head. “Think about it, we have Sirius Radio — Sirius being the Egyptian Dog Star, its logo a dog with a star for an eye… If you look around, you’ll find the esoteric attached to almost everything science produces and markets.”

  “Like cars,” John muttered. He was referring to all the gods, stars, and planets that named them. “Or all the cities across the world…”

  Chadwick tugged at a phantom itch on his earlobe. “Who do you think is behind all this, running the show?”

  Henry’s blue eyes were ablaze with conviction. “Satan’s New World Order is spelled out on the most common piece of currency in the world, going through the hands of millions of people every second of every day. But no one stops to consider its implications, how it got there, what it means, what the strange symbols are doing on the currency of a supposedly Christian nation. Obelisks in DC, the Vatican, Bermuda…”

  As John listened, another moral dilemma began peeking from out of his exhausted soul. If the fallen angel thought that in freeing his brothers from the abyss, he could usher in the apocalypse described by the book of Revelation, then he obviously thought it was possible to construct a different ending than the one prophesied — Satan’s everlasting sentence with the Beast and False Prophet within the lake of fire. But then, John wondered — and this was the quandary — was he doing the same thing, trying to prevent a prophecy from coming about? If God foretold the events in Revelation, then certainly John couldn’t change them from occurring anymore than Osiris could. It reminded him of a Christian politician he once heard speaking about Iran’s prophesied attack on Israel, how God was going to intervene and defend Israel Himself but that America needed to defend Israel by preemptively attacking Iran so that they couldn’t attack Israel. John saw it as an illogical absurdity contradicting the very belief the speaker claimed was at the center of his faith, nothing more than a political ploy designed to get Christian conservatives excited about going to war.

  If Osiris was supposed to free Apollo, then he would need the key… The last puzzle piece.

  “Do you still want to try and use it?” Chadwick was asking him.

  “Use what?”

  “The pyramid.”

  Samuel, overwhelmed by the speed in which things had so quickly changed, said, “It’s the only thing we
haven’t tried ourselves.”

  “Okay,” Chadwick said, stepping close to John, “then there’s a few things we should go over first. They may be completely irrelevant, but—”

  John held up his hand. “Hold on.” He turned back to Samuel. “What do you want to do?” he asked.

  He did his best to lift his tired and weary eyes, blinking away a tear. “Do we have a choice?” He dropped his gaze again, seeing in his mind’s eye all the family and friends that would soon be slaughtered around him. “Now we can only hope that God really did send you here, because if He didn’t… we’ll all die.”

  John swallowed the finality of the statement like broken glass. He asked his brother, “Is this what you want?”

  Henry nodded. “Let’s get out of here.”

  “Alright, then you better start coming up with a game plan.”

  Henry asked Samuel to gather any men who knew about the temple complex and then followed him to the door. Looking back before leaving, he said to John, “Thanks for coming for me. And thanks for instilling some hope. I didn’t think I had a chance.” And then he went to find Hunter and Paul.

  John clenched a trembling hand as he faced Chadwick. “Okay, what do we need to know?”

  Taking a breath, he began, “If the Great Pyramid was built by Khufu, then one of the two and a half million blocks, each weighing an average of two point six tons, would’ve been moved into place every five minutes throughout the length of his entire reign. That didn’t happen.” He shook his head, “My point is, it’s still a mystery and should be treated as one.”

  John agreed.

  Chadwick then began going over the Edfu Texts and their telling of how the Seven Sages (just as in the Babylonian and Indian traditions) supposedly survived the Flood and passed down the knowledge of the antediluvian world to future generations. Coming from an island — “the Homeland of the Primeval Ones” — that was destroyed by a flood, they came to Egypt as the builder gods who illuminated the land with the wisdom of the past epoch. The Temple of Dendera was inscribed with building texts crediting the architectural plan as being handed down from the demigods who ruled after Osiris. The new world that the Sages created was designed to resurrect the former world of the gods, perhaps from prior First Times. So whether or not the Pyramid complex remained from a previous First Time or had been rebuilt by the Sages, Chadwick didn’t know because the mythologies seemed somewhat contradictory. The Pyramid’s mysteries were supposedly known only by Thoth. But what little Chadwick did know, he began explaining to John. The journey to the Duat, the translation from earth to heaven and from mortality to immortality… How the whole ground scheme functioned as a ceremonial gateway, and what was left of the internal construction of the Great Pyramid.

  TWENTY-THREE

  Morning. 21st day of June. Bermuda, Northeast of temple complex

  No one knew when the sun was supposed to stand still at its northernmost point, but it was at this precise moment of the solstice that the pureblooded army suspected the pyramid would mysteriously “activate” and establish a portal to some unknown location — hell, Orion’s belt, First Time… It was anyone’s guess.

  John looked up at the rising fireball quickly approaching its zenith and figured they only had a few hours remaining. It was going to be close.

  Knowing they couldn’t actually win a war, the plan was simply to gain access to the pyramid before Osiris’ armies did and try to hold them off from within it. But if they were to attack the complex too soon, then they’d be left with the impossible task of defending the pyramid for hours rather than mere minutes. If they proved unable to keep the giants out of the pyramid or if the giants managed to enter the pyramid before them, then they would have no choice but to destroy the site, possibly trapping themselves on the island forever.

  “They should all be in position by now,” Paul growled. He was still angry with the mission, that it was based on nothing but ludicrous speculation and sure to get a lot of them killed.

  Henry nodded as he stole a quick glance at the two dozen islanders surrounding them at the edge of the mangrove swamp. He wished Jackson was with them. But even after three weeks, Jackson’s injuries proved too great to allow him anything more than sentry duty back at the cave. Most of the pureblooded that Henry observed around them seemed to be from the States, though he was sure at least a few were European. Their white eyes were shining with nervous tension through the mud coverings applied to their faces. Even though they still seemed to believe that God was somehow going to deliver them as a people, it was less of a certainty as to which of them would actually survive to realize the victory. Their shaking hands held weapons that ranged from AK-47s and grenades to revolvers and axes, their clothes an assortment of animal skins and whatever they had been able to salvage from the graveyard over the years. Henry knew, even more so than they did, that most of them weren’t going to make it through the day. He rested a hand on the hilt of the sword that was given to him and sighed.

  The rest of the pureblooded men were organized into similar divisions and were all poised to attack the temple grounds from various entrance points. Dividing and scattering the giants was their only hope at sneaking past them and gaining access to the pyramid. The men who had been designated to take possession of the pyramid were the men who desired to leave the island, hoping, like John, that the sun’s position in the sky would activate the gateway while they were inside of it. Those who didn’t wish to be transported into the unknown, risking staying here rather than ending up in Tartarus with Zeus’ condemned Titans (or worse), would be attacking from the cover of the woods, seeking to draw the giants away from the megalithic site.

  “What’re you gonna do, Dr. Jones, when we’re all running around like grasshoppers, and the sun doesn’t activate a thing?” Paul asked Chadwick.

  He squinted. “I don’t think these people care one way or the other. They just want us to fight.”

  “They still believe we’re gonna deliver them.” Hunter stood. “Let’s go.”

  As John followed behind the zigzagging platoon, squeezing tightly the handle of the M-16, he thought about the women they were leaving behind in the caves. Their only chance at returning to reality was in using the complex at the next solstice. Many of them wanted to leave with them now or to fight alongside their brothers and husbands, but the chance of them being captured was too great. If the attack turned out to be a total disaster, then the pureblood’s very survival would depend on the impure not being able to quickly replace their casualties through more breeders filling their harems. Stuck in John’s head was the image of the women being handed a couple of revolvers, in case no one came back for them. He prayed as he ran, asking God to forgive him for the promise he was surely about to break.

  ****

  They first heard gunfire erupting from somewhere westward of their position, indicating that at least one of the groups had encountered resistance before being able to reach the temple site.

  Paul hoped the sound of battle would pull the enemy forces away from the complex and further into the forest. “Come on!” he urged the platoon.

  But half a mile before they reached the site, they also found themselves being attacked from above, a great assortment of winged creatures sweeping down at them. They were screaming and clawing, their tails snapping the air. The youngest of the platoon was snatched off his feet and pulled up into the air, screaming as the face of a man sunk lion’s teeth into his chest. The boy’s body disappeared up through the trees before landing in several pieces in front of them.

  John and Hunter unloaded a deadly wave of fire up into the cedar trees as the rest of the platoon sought cover.

  “Stop wasting your ammo!” Paul screamed.

  And then one of the creatures came crashing down through the branches, landing on its head with a sickening crack. Bloody holes lined its torso, and its wings were mangled around its body. But then it began to move, ferociously sweeping its tail back and forth.

  Chadw
ick ducked under the powerful death throes and stepped close, yelling savagely as he shot the demon creature in the forehead. A few men, following closely on his heels, chopped the head off, long blonde hair wrapping around its face as it rolled down a small decline and disappeared into a sea of ferns.

  “Come on!” Paul yelled, hearing more wings flapping above them.

  As they ran, more gunfire and screaming echoed in the forest around them, the flying abominations having descended on another platoon of islanders positioned nearby.

  Just when they were about to reach the edge of the forest, a handful of giants cut off their path, swords drawn and eyes ablaze.

  “Fire!” Hunter screamed out in surprise, unloading a series of shots into the nearest Nephilim. But the 9mm rounds from the MP5 barely impaired the giant’s progress.

  The rest of the men who were armed with guns unleashed a deafening symphony of lead that splashed into the ranks of giants and coated tropical trees with their defiled blood. But the giants continued to press forward, and they were forced to step back.

  John and Paul were firing from their shoulders, aiming carefully for the monsters’ heads, while Chadwick was simply sweeping his recoiling weapon back and forth from his hip.

  “Fall back!” Paul called out as the rounds from his submachine gun emptied the eye sockets of the closest Nephilim.

  Leaping at them from behind, a giant snapped its long blade and cut two of the retreating soldiers in half. Then it turned and swung back at John, sending John diving out of the way. Instead of his body catching the blow, a tree took it at center mass and toppled to the ground. John scrambled to his feet, running as fast as he could, feeling another swoosh barely miss his back.

  “Come on!” Paul was leading them away from the bleeding giants and further into the woods, intent on leading them back to the pyramid via some other route. After giving chase initially, the giants eventually gave into their injuries and surrendered their pursuit.