The Day of the Nefilim by David L. Major Page B

great interest.’
    The General wondered how these creatures could have known anything about humans if they had been in suspension for millennia, but this was not the time to be distracted by minor details. The connection of the two humans to the Nefilim grid was the important thing.
    How his superiors had come to know that all this was going to happen he didn’t know – he didn’t want to know – but there had been whispers at headquarters of experiments with psychics and remote viewing, and a lot of work had gone into deciphering the strange inscriptions and diagrams that had been found at the other sites. They were methodical, the Nefilim – and their written language reflected the fact – but humanity was no less methodical.
    The hows and whys were of no concern to the General. Get the two bodies plugged in, and get above ground, out of here, and wait for the reinforcements to arrive.
    “What about my men?” he asked. “How long are they going to stay unconscious?”
    ‘Perhaps forever. There is no way telling,’ replied another of the Nefilim. ‘There had to be some difference between the air of our time and that of yours. We can breathe almost anything, our history is long enough, but your race, it seems, has a more delicate constitution.’
    The General’s skin prickled at the sight of the Nefilim’s smile. Thin lips peeled back over flat teeth that curved back into the creature’s mouth, like rows of tiny fishhooks.
    It was at that point that the General realized that the Nefilim wasn’t speaking. The pupils of its eyes, marble-small and red, were fixed on him, unwavering. It was using some kind of telepathy.
    ‘ Quite so ,’ the Nefilim answered the General’s unvoiced question. ‘Your own mind is doing the translating. Wherever possible, we prefer that others, you in this case, do the work…’
    One of the other Nefilim made a sound, which for no particular reason the General took to be their equivalent of laughter. “How long until you will be ready to start the grid?” he asked stiffly.
    ‘ The point of the alliance between our two races, yes,’ replied the one that had been doing the talking – no, the thinking. ‘Not long. Then we can all begin the real work.’
    The real work… Something else for later, the General thought.
    * * *

Various people meet each other
     
    BRYCE AND REINA, accompanied by the invisible Senator, could easily have encountered Onethian or the fleeing corporal as they found their separate ways through the maze of unexplored side tunnels, but they didn’t. Their paths never crossed.
    Onethian and the corporal did meet each other, though, near the compound’s main gate. Onethian, out of breath and gasping, found Corporal Ortega sitting on some rocks not far from the gate, looking into the middle distance with a dazed look on his face.
    Both being too disorientated to be scared of each other, and not at all sure what to do, they set off on the road towards Barker’s Mill. In time they arrived at the Red Lion, where they got drunk.
    * * *
    Bark and Sahrin soon found themselves back in the main tunnel system. They were trying to decide what to do when they walked around a corner and into Bryce and Reina, who were making their way towards the source of the noises they could hear.
    “Bark! Sahrin!” cries the Senator, overjoyed at the sight of them. Their new physicality, however, renders him invisible to them, so that Bark and Sahrin see only the two humans in front of them. The Senator fumes in frustration.
    “Are you going to try to hurt us?” asked Bark.
    “…because you’d better not,” added Sahrin, doing her best to sound dangerous.
    “Chill, whoever you are.” Reina wondered who the two strangers were. She’d never seen clothes anything like what they were wearing. Whoever they were, they liked color, texture and accessorizing. And fur.
    “As far as we know, we’re safe to be around,” said Bryce. “Which, I think, is more than can be said for