Transcending the Legacy (12 page)

The snapping branches are no longer an echo, they are solid and coming from my right.
As I turn toward the sound, I see two soldiers stalking towards us, eyes black as night pupil to rim. They are no longer human’s, but Dwellers.

The soldiers reach for their holsters simultaneously, drawing their handguns as the
y continue to close in on Nate and me. I don’t hesitate drawing my gun, aiming at one of the Dweller soldier, and pulling the trigger. The kick of the gun is felt, but the sound of my shot is lost in the mass exodus of bullets from everyone else.

The soldiers’ bodies rattle side to side from the impact of the lead peppering them.
They both drop to their knees, blood and blackness rolling from their lips. The blood is theirs, but the blackness... it is all Dweller. The soldiers’ mouths part wider as the dark occupiers push from their cadaverous keepers. They slip from the mouths and whip through the brush rapidly. Viciously, they attach themselves to the two closest possible vessels, two more of Briggs’ men. The Dwellers are relentless as they wrap themselves around the throats of the soldiers and push their way into the gasping men. Within seconds, the soldiers writhe and thrash, then revive wired to hunt, invade, occupy, or in our case...kill. More unconfined beings serpentine their smoke-like forms through the long, empty branches of the trees, speeding toward all of us.

Briggs yells, “Pull back. Get back to the trucks!”

I raise my gun to take as many shots at them as I can when Nate locks his arms around my waist, lifts me off the ground, and carries me away toward the truck. I try to push against him, make him drop me back to the ground, but he has gained his strength back and then some. “What the hell are you doing, Nate? We need to help them! I can help them!”

As
I kick his shins trying to get him to let me go, he grunts, “Saving you from yourself.”

We round
the truck at the back doors when I see the familiar ebon Dweller snake along the ground like thick, creeping, charcoal soot. Nate puts me down and holds me to him. Fiercely, I raise my gun and fire, but the inky Dweller skids and dodges my strike.

With Nate still holding onto me, he pulls me back
from the exposed Dweller as I fire two more shots. Two of Briggs’ men pass us and release and array of slugs into the parasite. The Dweller shrinks back at their heavy strikes, but bullets won’t hold it forever. I look beyond the immediate battle into the thicket and spot four Dweller possessed transients closing in on us quickly. I sweep the woodland behind me and deadlock on a throng of once mortal and souled humans, now Dwellers savagely advancing on us. No! Siobhan magnifies the fear collapsing in around me as she yells, “There are more! Oh God, there are more!”

Just as one is within reach of Siobhan, something extremely fast soars across the open space and takes hold of the Dweller, then disappears among the trees.

What was...
?

The feeling of a
living being’s warmth grazing me, makes me turn in the direction of an approaching Dweller. It is then that I see the massive entity clutching the Dweller in its giant hands. His other massive hand joins the one clenched around the Dweller and pulls it apart, the inky being instantly disintegrating into ash. Nate and I look at each other, astonished and unable to form words for what we had just seen. This colossal being has slowed enough for us to take in the extent of its girth, but it hasn’t revealed its face. “It is one of those giants from the forest in Japan; the Nephilim,” says Nate.

I shake my head, shocked to see
one of these mammoth beings on Earth again, but this time saving us. I think of what Daniel had said to us about how they might have been trying to protect us in that forest. The giant in Japan did not look like these.

Unsure of what it will do next, Nate guides me backwards, his hands gripping my arms pulling me
back into the open space with the other guardians. I don’t fight him this time. Daniel has his theory, but I’m not up to test those waters and the motives of this ultra-sized colossus before us. Branches snap under our feet as we back away and he turns his head toward the sound. He heard that? How could he hear that over the gunfire? Unless, he can sense that we are afraid. He turns completely around to face us now. I am even more in awe as I look head on at a very human appearing man, just monumental in size. His strange and beautiful saffron colored eyes move from Nate to me. His furrowed brow softens just before he sprints passed us, becoming a blur among the team. I watch him move and try and hold steady on his form, but I keep losing him… Suddenly, I see three more of these immense beings slow long enough to surround us.

Wait, there are more?

Briggs’ and the rest of the guardians have stopped shooting and are backing away from the zipping behemoth men as they obliterate both the remaining exposed and occupied human Dwellers along with the soldiers the Dwellers took. All but one remains and he is just as panicked as Briggs.

The giant
that defended Nate and me is moving slow enough for me to track him again. He is wearing a gauzy, burlap type material as a shirt, a dark cotton material for pants, and no shoes. His long, chestnut hair whips around as he moves from one Dweller to another. I notice another one slow, fair skinned and headed with silver, cinereal eyes. He is just as massive as the other, and wears similar burlap and cotton clothes; again, no shoes. He takes a Dweller occupied man in each hand and snaps their vertebrate, folding them in half with the squeeze of his hands. He drops them to the ground then rockets into action again. Two more slow to a visible pace as the Dwellers dwindle. How many are here?

All of us are huddled together now, except Ezra and Xander who are still in on the edge of the brush.

Xander starts to back away, yelling for Ezra, “Ezra, get back!”

Ezra backs away a bit, throws down his empty handgun and picks up one of the abandoned and strewn rifles from the ground. He aims it directly at the Herculean man that rescued Nate and I moments ago.

I break away from the huddle and take hold of the barrel, raising it high into the air. “No
, Ezra!”

Ezra pulls it back into him, away from my hands and he grimaces disapprovingly, “What are you doing
, Jes? They are Nephelim! They will kill us! That is what they do!”

Daniel flanks Ezra on his other side saying, “They are not going to kill us!”

“You don’t know that!” Ezra readies to aim again just as one of the giants storms toward Ezra in a blur, the one that kept Nate and me safe. Before Ezra fires, he takes hold of the rifle and launches it deep into the forest. Taken aback, Ezra stands frozen from the mountainous man approaching him now.

The dark haired, amber-
eyed giant mumbles something in another language and closes in on Ezra. He looks mad and I don’t know if he is going to attack him, so I do the first thing that comes to my mind, step between them.

I hear Xander growl at me in the distance. “Jesca
, what are you doing?”

Ezra takes hold of my arms and starts to push me out of the way.
I use all my muscle to stand my ground and lock eyes with the vast mortal before me. “Wh...Who are you? Are you a Nephilim?”

I can’t help
sounding breathless from this astonishing being mere inches from me. He doesn’t answer. Maybe he doesn’t understand me. The sharp edges of his rugged face are both intimidating and beautiful as I attempt to tell him who I am. “ I’m Je...”

He stops me before I can finish telling him my name, with a baritone voice that is
both frightening and tender at the same time. “I know who you are.” He looks back at the rest of the guardians and Briggs’ team, “I know who all of you are.”

He calls out in that same strange dialect he used earlier. In a flash, four other
mammoth men come to stand next to him. The fair-headed one with the silver eyes stands to his right. Another to his left has red hair and just beyond him, the other has hair black as a raven. The two to his left share the same color eyes, crystalline blue. Brothers? The fifth one to the right of the silver-eyed blonde, has deep brown hair and brilliant amber eyes just as the one in the middle. With all of them standing in front of us collectively, I stumble back against Ezra’s chest. I wonder if the one that defended Nate and me is the leader of this titanic army of five.

L
ike he read my mind, he replies, “I am Ira.” He points the the fair-headed one, “Seth,” then to the red head, “Errol,” the raven haired one, “Lathan,” and the one with deep brown hair just like Ira’s, “ and Cale.”

All of them had the same color eyes; a beautiful light amber.
Ira’s eyes dart to Ezra suddenly. “We are Rephaim, not Nephilim.”

Ezra stiffens uncomfortably from Ira’s words.

Daniel draws Ira’s trained eyes from Ezra with his expressive excitement. “Amazing! Of course! I had displaced the Rephaim branch of descendants!” Daniel’s eyes are wide and he is muttering something under his breath, like he is jogging his memory of what he knows of their race.

Ira looks from Daniel to the herd of us.
“You need to get back in your transport.”

Our transport? I look at him
confused at first, then realize. “Oh, you mean the trucks.”

Ira and the other Rephaim advance on us, as he continues to speak, “It is not good for you to be out in the open. Your transport will help protect you for now.”

As E
zra, Daniel and I back up, the Rephaim pressing us back toward the truck, Daniel stutters and rambles under his breath.

Hearing his hushed rant, Ira looks down at him curiously.

Daniel stammers, “Thank you...f,f,for your protection.”

Ira nods
, but relays no other emotion as he and the others corral us into a cluster. Briggs voice is gruff and directed at Daniel and Sebastian, not the giants. “We are about five miles from the Tennessee compound.”

I catch sight of Elisha, Siobhan, and Corinna, gaping mouths and eyes cast upward taking in the appearance of these huge beings.
I admit, they were by no means ugly, like the giants we saw in the Aoikigahara Forest. Actually, they were rather attractive and quite a bit shorter than the ones we encountered.

“You don’t look like the giants we have seen. We saw giants like you during the intersection in Japan. They were much taller though…and grotesque,” I say.

Ira looks sideways at his small titan army and they erupt in laughter. I cover my ears just as everyone else in our herd does. Their roaring chuckles resemble the pitch of a freight train. It doesn’t take them long to see that the full-toned laughter they possess pains us and they quickly clear their throats hushing their amusement. Ira’s low-pitched voice carries on, “Those were the Nephilim. They are thought to be the fathers of the Rephaim.”

Ira looks sideways at the others. The fair-headed one covers his growing grin.

Ira continues, “But, much like the other stories about us, that is false.” His eyes dart to Ezra. “You killed a Nephelim on that battlefield. I can understand you were afraid, but now that you see that my stock means you no harm,” Ira leans in domineeringly and bites off each word, “Don’t. Do. It. Again. ”

Ezra visibly swallows hard and nods quickly as he answers,
“I am very sorry.”

Ira doesn’t act in response to him, just leans back and looks at
Daniel, still maundering on about the Rephaim and Nephelim to himself. Suddenly the heavy mist that is saturating us turns to rain. My body tenses from the frigid drizzle and I see Ira look up into the sky.

He
utters, “We have much to discuss. First, we must seek shelter for you. We will follow your transport to this Tennessee compound you speak of. The beings that seek you want you dead. They will strike again soon.”

Before departing
, Briggs grabbed as many supplies from his truck as he could. With him and one other soldier being the only two survivors from their truck, they took the driver and passenger positions in the front cab. A few of the bags had water and food, while the majority they piled into the center aisle of our truck was weaponry; cross bows and arrows, sub machine guns, assault rifles, grenades.

He yelled through the small panel separating us from him,
“Each of you keep a gun on you until we get into that compound safely, understand?”

None of us responded.
He didn’t trust the Rephaim and I can understand that for the most part. He just lost four men to the Dwellers. We watched the entire disturbing process and we were helpless and stripped of security. The Rephaim did come to our rescue though. They weren’t the enemy in my eyes.

I take a drink of water to quench my dry throat and
look out the window at Ira and one of the other Rephaim striding along side of our truck. It is strange to see, but each of his strides is slow compared to the speed we are going. Perks of being a giant with a long stride I guess. Makes keeping up with us humans easier. Ira must feel me looking at him because he looks over at me out of the corner of his eye and I quickly look away. I catch sight of Elisha staring out of the window in the same direction I was just looking. She is not discreet about her gawking at all. The expression on her face doesn’t hide that she is not only awestruck by their appearance, but also appreciating their attractive physique...thoroughly.

I look past Elisha at Nick watching her out of the corner of his eye. He mutters, “Getting a good look Lish
?”

Elisha rolls her eyes and sighs audibly. “Nick, seriously! They are giants! It is pretty impressive! Nothing to be jealous of
, babe.”

Nick scoffs,
“Jealous? I’m not jealous.”

Eli
sha looks at me, raises her eyebrows, and mouths, “So jealous.”

She turns back to him and snuggles up close, whispering something in his ear.
A coy smile spread across his face for a moment, then he looks up and down the aisle at us. “Hey, do any of you know what language they were speaking?”

Ezra leans forward, hands resting on his legs and looks down the row at Nick. “Aramaic,” he says.

Nick tries to repeat the word, “Ara...?”

Monica, “Aramaic, an ancient language dating back to the ancient Assyrian Empire and Neo-Babylonian times.”

Jake clears his throat, “Do you know what they were saying?”

Monica shrugs,
“My Aramaic is a bit rusty.”

Ezra
murmurs, “When he was stalking toward me, he was mentioning how I was a murderer.”

Sitting across from Ezra, Daniel states directly at him,
“You are no such thing.”

Ezra shakes his head.
“No. The giant that attacked us in the forest looked bestial.”

Nate
replies, “I remember the giant that attacked you on that field and he looked nothing like these giants. These look like super-sized men.”

Elisha snorts and mumbles,
“Amen, brother.”

Nick nudges her with his arm and warns her verbally.

Elisha covers her face with her hands. “Ugh, sorry, babe. Nate made it too easy.”

I am curious about all the mumbling Daniel was doing earlier in regards to the Rephaim and the Nephilim. Even now, his brow is furrowed deep in thought.
I swallow the bit of water I just sipped and ask, “Daniel, what do you know about the Rephaim?”

Daniel folds his arms over his chest. “They are like the Nephilim in that they are enormous in stature and genetically considered giants, but the
smallest of the race. Theorists believe they lived in our world in ancient times just as the Nephilim, but disappeared with no explanation. Biblically, they are said to be the “fallen ones” just like the Nephilim.” He glances at Elisha. “Obviously better looking too.”

Elisha nudges Nick and hisses, “See, it isn’t just me.”

Xander interjects, “Well, they are back obviously.”

Daniel
agrees, “And there is a reason. This is our chance to find out who they are, where they come from, and why they are here now.

I want to know all of those things too, but more than that, I wanted to know why they are helping us. Are they helping because they know our salvation is on the line as a race?

Ezra announces, “We will find out once we get to the compound.”

As we rock in a side to side motion silently, I watch Xander as he holds a bottle of water in his hands and
stares at the floor of the truck. Nate is sitting next to him leaning his head back against the window panel eyes almost shut, but looking at me. He realizes I have seen him and he turns his head to look out the rear window of the truck. Watching two of them sitting next to each other now, I never in a million years would have expected them to be like this; bonded like brothers.

Xander suddenly sits back, leans over and nudges Nate. “You okay?”

Nate thinks about it before he answers quietly, “Yeah.”

Xander puts his hand on Nate’s shoulder and squeezes. When he releases it, he
takes a water bottle from the duffle bag under his seat, and hands it to Nate. Is Nate sick? Is that what this is all about? Maybe it is just that simple and I’m looking too far into it.

For a moment, I wonder if my not choosing between these two is the reason for the change in their relationship.
Has their bond as cousins become strong enough that when it comes time for me to do whatever it is this legacy requires of me, they will understand my purpose and not try to stop me or get in the way? That is what I hope for the man who sets my soul on fire and the man that keeps it safe to be at peace with what I am being called to do.

The truck jumps suddenly, rocking us from side to side and drawing me from the scene between them. Still latched in, I
turn sideways on the bench and look out the window at the gravel becoming concrete again. We pass vacant cars, vacant houses, vacant streets. I see the Rephaim with the long blonde hair and silver eyes up ahead a ways, leading our caravan.

* * *

Time passes before we turn off onto gravel once more. The terrain has gotten rocky and we are on an incline, climbing. The panel on the front wall of the truck slides open and Briggs’ calls out, “We are here.”

I look outside and see Ira walking parallel to the truck beyond the tree line. Darkness and walls of a tunnel shroud the truck. Quickly, I turn to look out the
rear window searching for the Rephaim. Ira is standing just beyond the over-growth in the woods watching us enter the compound.

“What about the Rephaim? Are we going to have them follow us in?” I ask urgently.

Briggs replies,
“We will talk about it in the compound.”

Talk about it?
They saved our lives and we are just going to leave them out there? I feel my blood boil as we continue to travel deep into the dark tunnel. I can’t hold my tongue, “What is there to talk about? We can’t just leave them out there!”

Briggs responds, “There is plenty to talk about.
These people in this compound have never seen these, these...”

Daniel, Ezra, and I finish his sentence, “Rephaim.”

Briggs repeats us angrily, “Rephaim. They have taken us into their compound. We don’t have the right to invite beings that we know nothing about into their safe haven.”

Without waiting for a response to his answer, Briggs slams the panel shut.

None of us argue or bicker about his logic. To an extent, he is right. We don’t know anything about them other than that they are giants, they found us, and helped us.

Monica starts in,
“Daniel, in Japan you said that the Hebrew meaning of Nephilim was “the fallen”. You just mentioned it again about the Rephaim. Both of them are definitely descendants of each other through the giantism gene they share, correct?”

Ezra and Daniel exchange a look of wonder, then Daniel nods and says,
“Continue.”

Monica continues hesitantly, “This just seems too much of a coincidence.”

Ezra, Nate, Xander, and I comment in chorus, “There are no coincidences.”

Monica goes on, “In college, I studied Greek mythology.”

Luke interrupts, “Like Athena, Zeus, Andromeda?”

The last mythological name he speaks makes my skin crawl and my chest tighten.
That constellation held the passage to that hell Nate and Xander were taken to by Sam on Michael’s command.

Monica carries on, “In Greek myth, Orion was a breathtakingly handsome giant with supernatural abilities.”

Woah, hold on.
Is she going where I think she is going with this?

Monica, “What if they came from beyond the black hole in Orion’s Belt constellation?”

Just like the Dwellers descending from beyond the Andromeda constellation. I saw that constellation in my...

Monica interrupts
my train of thought by saying, “The very constellation that was revealed to Jesca in her vision beyond the veil.”

What if they are part of our salvation?

Daniel nods, but says nothing.

Monica revealing her thoughts is the revelation that reignites my urgency to talk to them. “We need to talk to them as soon as we get off this truck!”

Ezra responds to me eagerness calmly, “Jes,
just slow down.”

The truck rolls to a stop.

“I can’t,” I say as I release the safety strap, jump from my seat, and rush the back doors of the truck, sliding the hammer and pushing the doors open. “We need to ask them what they know!”

Ezra, Nate, and Xander are yelling at me to stop just as I jump down from the truck.

Before I can run back through the tunnel, multiple hands have me snared in place. Ezra and Sebastian come around to meet me face to face and Ezra tries to bear logic, “Jes, we can’t demand that this colony open their compound to us and then turn around and put them at risk.”

I try to pull away and groan, “We won’t be putting them at risk!”

Ezra answers, “I know that, but they won’t!”

Briggs comes along side the truck yelling,
“What the hell is going on back here? Ahh, off course, the feisty one!”

Son of a...

His words charge my anger again and I lunge for the tunnel even harder than before. Someone takes a hold of my waist and pulls me against them, keeping me from getting away.

Sebastian ta
kes hold of my shoulders gently. “Jesca, we will talk to them I promise! We all want answers as to why they are protecting us and what they know. First, we must meet the leaders of the colony, explain to them what has happened and who defended us. That is the only way we have a chance of them accepting the Rephaim. Alright?”

It wasn’t alright.
I didn’t want to play meet and greet with the colony when our answers could be on the other side of these rock walls. Somehow, Sebastian’s words were enough to break through my bull-headed logic and talk me out of my harsh approach. “Alright, ” I mutter.

Now that I am no longer seeing red, I’m abl
e to see who is holding me back, Nate, Xander, and Luke. They guardedly release my arms and waist.

Ezra says assuringly, “As soon as we have met them and explained what is going o
n, we will tell them about the Rephaim.”

Xander announces, “They are coming this way.”

Briggs walks toward the approaching group of men and women, meeting them halfway. Many of them are decorated with rifles slung over their shoulders as they talk with Briggs. He turns and beckons us to them.

As a group, we walk toward Briggs and the colonists. I
look up at the massive hollow area we are in as we make our way across the dirt floor of the compound. The large open space is dimly lit with scattered lanterns, some spotlighting the soaring cavernous walls around us.

Daniel, Sebastian, and Ezra lead our pack.
I assume the man that Briggs is talking to is the leader of the colony. Daniel walks right up to him and extends his hand. “Tom, thank you for taking us in.”