The Dark Beyond

Trying not to die

"I bet you do," Kelly said, smiling wryly.
Samuel was still standing there, gaping and wide eyed. Nelson was beginning to be concerned considering he hadn't moved since he found out about Nelson and Anora. "Sammy," Kelly said, "You alright babycakes?" I KNOW she did not just say babycakes, Nelson thought, stifling a laugh. "Yeah, yeah I'm good," Samuel replied, popping his jaw. "Well then. If you really do want to join us man.. we're gonna have to start training you up: fast. There was an attack in California earlier and a few of the people who saw us in action wanted to join us. They're obviously not going to let just anyone in though. They're going to have an entrance exam. I'll put in a good word for you to my boss. He's kinda ruthless though so you're going to need to be VERY prepared. Especially your stamina man. Even back in our wrestling days, even though you were really strong and fast, your stamina was kind of a joke. And it's hard to be skillful when you're out of breath." Nelson nodded. "Well go put some shoes on," Samuel said, "We're gonna want to start immediately. We don't have much time." "Oh alright," Nelson said, glancing once again down at his bare feet. "I can't believe this tho, man!" Samuel continued, "She's such a guarded person. I'm in shock." "I mean hey," Kelly said, eyeing Samuel with a particular gleam in her eye, "That reminds me of our first time. Do you remember?" Samuel smiled at her. "How could I forget?" "I don't know," she replied softly, "I feel like.. a few details may have escaped my memory." She began walking up the stairs. "Maybe you have time to remind me?" Samuel looked at Nelson, who was awkwardly standing there, and grinned childishly. "Gimme one second man," he said before darting after his wife upstairs. Nelson stood there at the bottom of the stairs. "Uhm.. ew?"
They were at it for quite a while. He did his best to ignore the squeaking and various other disturbing sounds coming from their room, which was right next to his, as he put on his other pair of shoes, and changed shirts. He noticed it had a stain of lipstick on it, shaped like lips. He wished he could remember how it got there. Nelson waited downstairs for what seemed like forever when Samuel finally came down practically hopping to the front door to meet him. "I'm sorry man," Samuel said chuckling. "Duty called. But anyways, let's get going. We have allot to cover if you want to even consider being ready." And with that they were off.
***
They pulled up to an abandoned building on the outskirts of Cincinnati. "Alright man," Samuel said. "They're only going to take the best of the best. Meaning they're only going to pick one of you. So you have to beat everyone else. Unless something's changed, your gonna have to fight all of them elimination style, no breaks in between. The only time you have to quote on quote 'rest' is when two other people are fighting. And that might not be very long." Nelson followed Samuel into the building, which immediately lead to a dark descending staircase, with a room illuminated at the bottom. Nelson sighed nervously. In the room, he found that Samuel had numerous dumbbells, a punching bag, bench press, and MMA gear. A bright, dirty white light in the ceiling illuminated the room. "No pull up bar?" Nelson asked, "That's my favorite exercise." Samuel rubbed his goatee and looked around, before answering, "Be creative. Jump up and grab onto something and use that. But right now, grab some dumbbells and come back outside. I'll even do it with you." Nelson grabbed some 40 pound weights before joining Samuel outside. "We gotta get your stamina up before anything else," he told Nelson as they met out side. It was cloudy out, and little droplets of rain began to sprinkle down. "Perfect," Samuel said. "We're gonna jog a light two miles around this house to start you off. About twenty two laps." Nelson gaped. "A light WHAT now?" He didn't even know if he could make it one mile, but two? With weights? "Do you want this or not man?" Samuel asked. Nelson nodded slowly. "Come on." If this is what I gotta do to be around Anora more, I gotta suck it up. I'm sure she doesn't want a weak man. These type of thoughts floated around Nelson's head as the first ten laps went by. By the 15th lap, he could barely move. "Come on Nelson!" Samuel called back to him. "You're not gonna beat anyone like this. This is pathetic! I don't even feel it yet!" Nelson scowled at his own weakness. The rain was pouring heavily now. He slipped and fell. "Get up man," Samuel said, going over to him. "Is this the best you can do?" It took Nelson a moment to get the energy to reply. "Can... can Anora.. Can she do better than this?" "Way better." Nelson struggled up to his feet. "I'm not going to quit." "You sure you can do this?" "Yeah I can do this. I'm not gonna give out this easily.." he panted heavily between words. He had no clue if he could do it but he was gonna try. "Let's do this." He followed Samuel once again, giving it everything he possibly could.
****
He woke up in his bed. Samuel sat beside him. "You awake man?" He managed a nod. "What happened?" "You made it to 17 laps, and passed out for a day." "Oh." Samuel sighed, disappointed. "I don't know man," he began, "If you can't even start off there.. There isn't any way you'll be able to impress the commander. You're gonna need to be able to fight multiple people with little to no break. And if you mess up, that's it, you're screwed." Samuel waited a moment. "Are you sure you can do this? This isn't something to be taken lightly. Those things out there.." he pointed outward towards the sky. "Those alien things. They're already stronger than normal humans. They have technology we can't even wrap our heads around. We're probably only alive because they haven't taken us seriously yet. Or they want something from us before they finish us. We need better than this. I knew you would struggle, but I thought you could at least finish this." "It's harder than it looks," Nelson said. "I see." Samuel stood up. "Maybe this isn't for you." Nelson frowned. "I mean it's not the end of the world," Samuel continued, "Most people probably couldn't do it either. But we NEED to be better than most people." He left and went downstairs, leaving Nelson to his thoughts.
Nelson lay there for a moment, deep in thought. Maybe he didn't have any business trying to get involved in all this. Sure, he had a huge crush on Anora, but all of this was feeling like too much for him. He hoped she wouldn't be disappointed in him. He got up, checked the time on his phone before showering, eating, and going in to work. He was still sore but he managed to walk to work anyways, ready to try to explain to his coworkers what had happened. Minus the aliens, of course. As he walked in, his boss was standing there, along side his two other coworkers who were there when he left with Anora near the end of his shift. "Nelson," his boss immediately said, "I'm surprised you came back. Especially with that stunt you pulled off. It's all on camera." Nelson frowned, but said nothing. "It's even still on your shirt, dude." His boss pointed to the lip stick stain on his shirt, on this chest part of his shirt. "I'm surprised these two tried to lie for you too." "They did??" "Yep." "Well he's one of the survivors from the Korean attack on Tennessee, like us.." One of his two coworkers, the short Hispanic one admitted, "He probably needs this job just like we do.. sir." "He should have thought about that, Estavon," The boss frowned. "You can't go around chasing girls in the middle of your shift. No matter how they look. She wasn't even attractive enough to lose your job over." Nelson raised an eyebrow, feeling himself getting angry. "In case you haven't caught on by now, you're fired." The boss turned to the other two coworkers. "Estavon, Javen, you two are fired as well." Javen, the bigger, overweight one with the Afro immediately exclaimed, "You can't do this! We need this job!" The boss shrugged. "I can't have y'all doing whatever you want around here." "They didn't do anything." Nelson's voice sounded calm, but he was particularly angry. "Get out before I call the cops." "Fine," Nelson snorted, walking calmly out the door. Although as we walked out, he lost his temper a bit, and slammed the glass door. He thought he heard it crack a bit. He heard his ex boss yelling from behind him but he ignored it and went back to Samuel's house. To his surprise, he saw Anora's car outside Samuel's driveway.
     "I...is that Anora..?" Anora was talking to Samuel and Kelly at the front door, and he noticed his shoes in her hand. They noticed him when he was behind her. She turned around quickly when she heard him. "Oh.. um hey," she said, glancing at her feet a bit awkwardly. "Aren't you supposed to be at work?" Samuel asked curiously. Nelson merely shook his head. Anora looked curiously at him. "Is everything alright?" She asked. Nelson shook his head, wincing in pain at his legs, which was still sore from trying to keep with Samuel. "Something wrong with your leg?" She eyed him carefully. "I'm just sore from running," he replied. She looked him in the eye, and he felt those butterflies in his belly again. He couldn't look her in the eyes. "I was training him," Samuel explained. "He couldn't keep up..." Fucking wow, really?? Nelson thought, annoyed. You're just gonna say it in front of  her!? They all seemed to take note of his annoyance, and Samuel added on, "I mean it's nothing to be ashamed of man, it's not something for the average guy.." "Yea," Nelson quietly replied, trying to hide his irritation. First he couldn't keep up in training, then he was fired, now he was getting embarrassed in front of the girl he had a major crush on. He put his hands in his pockets and tried his best not to lose his temper, staring at the ground. "Samuel, you don't need to be so hard on him," Anora said, her voice sounding firm. "You want me to go easy on him?" Samuel asked, frowning. "That won't do him any good. I mean either he can do it or he can't.." Nelson sighed, still choosing to remain silent. "I know you two may have a thing going on," Samuel started, "But you can't let that cloud your judgement." "Excuse me?" Anora said, a coldness coming over her tone. "I'm just trying to be honest," Samuel continued, "Don't disrespect her." Nelson suddenly blurted out, his anger beginning to boil over, and his voice raising a little bit. Everyone turned around, wide eyed. It surprised himself too, considering he couldn't remember the last time he raised his own voice. He sighed. "Please," he added. He felt himself shaking in emotion; embarrassment, anger, annoyance. "Nelson..." Anora quietly said. "I'll just go for a walk and cool off." "Don't your legs need rest though..?" Samuel started as Nelson walked away. "Fuck my legs," Nelson said just loudly enough for them to hear as he walked off.
     He didn't know where he was going. He just knew he was infuriated. He walked all day, limping now as his leg soreness got worse. By the time the sun had gone all the way down, he found himself close to the Ohio river, staring at the skies. As he sat down on the edge of the concrete, feet dangling over the river, he got a call from Samuel, but he ignored it. An old hunch back guy walked up to him and asked in an unusually deep, raspy voice, "Can I sit here?" Nelson sighed, and simply replied, "Go ahead." The hunchback sat beside him. Well this is weird as fuck. He thought, trying to look at the the hunchback without being rude. He was rather large guy, wearing a large, black hooded robe. The large hunch protruded from the middle of his back. He was also wearing black gloves, and black large shoes. He got a text from Samuel, multiple texts, back to back. He sighed. "You seem bothered." The old man's voice was rather.. unnerving to him. He was still feeling angry, and instead of feeling nervous or afraid, he hoped the old man would try something. He wanted to punch something. "Life's been kicking my ass." He merely replied. He decided to look at the text messages from Samuel. They read, 'You need to get back here now man!' 'There's an Alien near the Ohio River walking around in a dark robe with glowing green eyes. We're trying to tell people it's a Korean robot..' 'I'm sorry about earlier but I want you to be safe. I don't want to lose any more people close to me. I'm not home cause we're out headed that way. I hid the key under some grass next to the door, right side. Be safe man.' Nelson gulped. Oh. Shit. He thought. Oh. Motherfucking. Shit. He turned slowly to face the hunchback beside him. It wore a scarf that covered its mouth and it's bottom two eyes, only showing the top two glowing green eyes staring direct at him. Nelson's eyes widened. It seemed to chuckle. "Why the look? Don't you like the color green?" Nelson gulped again. He nodded nervously. "Uh... um.... yea..." he muttered, hoping if he tried to stay calm and agree with it, it would wait to kill him until Samuel and the others got there. "It's interesting," the alien began, "Must humans scream and run away." "Um...." Nelson started, his heart rate accelerating. It took everything in him to remain still. "Ummm... how are you.. speaking... my language...?" "I like you." The Alien merely replied it's deep raspy voice speaking slowly and precisely, "Maybe I'll tell you later. If you make it that long." Nelson decided try standing up slowly. The alien followed suit. "NELSON!" He heard someone call his name from somewhere behind them. It looked like Samuel, Anora, and two other people he didn't recognize. "You're a.. Nelson?" The Alien echoed. "T-that's what they c-call me.." Nelson stammered. The alien removed the cloak, revealing that the hunch was actually his other two arms, and all four eyes scanned him. It wore dark grey, smooth shiny amor, with blue lights shining from various points. It seemed to have an aura around it. A bullet flew by them and splashed into the Ohio river beside them. "NELSON RUN!!!" Anora's voice shouted towards him. "If you run, you will die." The Alien said calmly. Nelson took one step backwards, and raised his fists. "Well shit..." he thought out loud. "If Imma die, Im not dying like a bitch." The Alien snarled. "You want to do the fist thing?" It crossed two of its arms, and raised the other two fists. "Why are you doing this..." Nelson asked as the two circled each other, looking for an opening. "Is this... s-some kinda game to you all..?" The Alien merely smiled at him. "Come on," It snarled. Out of nowhere its throat widened, and it growled, loud, deep, and resonating. It vibrated his entire body, and made it hard to stand, and he noticed Samuel, Anora, and the others struggle at the bridge where the stood to stand still. It caused the bridge to shake so violently that cars started running off the sides into the river. Fuck it let's go out with a fucking bang! He thought, and yelled back before charging the alien. The alien charged him back. People were screaming everywhere, but he had tunnel vision on the alien. Instead of ignorantly colliding with the alien, he clumsily tried to combat roll to the left side out of the way, and just barely avoided the bulky creature, which slipped into the water. He stumbled up to his feet, limping in pain at his sore legs. He saw Anora aiming her sniper down at the river and who he now realized was her brother Charles shoot a missile into the river. The alien jumped out of the river, going above and over the missile and landing on the ground with a flip. The explosion caused the water to splash high up in the air, sending debris and fish all over them and the bridge and everywhere else. It smiled nastily. "My fucking God Samuel was not playing," Nelson thought fearfully. Two hard sniper shots bounced off the aura of the aliens armor where it's face was as it walked slowly towards him.  "It's like a force field or some shit.." he muttered. "It's fucking playing with us..." The Alien jumped in the air and tried to land on top of him and crush him, but it was a bit too slow and he once again barely managed to jump to the side out of the way, landing painfully on his back on the concrete. The adrenaline running through him allowed him to stand up and temporarily ignore his burning legs and the scrapes on his arms. He heard them yelling something to him but he ignored them and zoned in on his target. They stood face to face. Nelson threw a bunch of amateur punches at the alien, which more than easily dodged them, swiftly countering with blows to the stomach. His core was still moderately strong but it still lifted him off his feet. He landed on his knees a few feet away and just barely managed to stand up, his knees wobbling. A fish flopped pitifully beside his foot. He noticed the alien looked oddly at it. He picked it up along with one more. Good fucking Lord this hurts.. he thought painfully, Okay look... it has four arms... lemme try to separate them... "What kinda animal is that?" The Alien asked, eyeing the fishes cautiously. It doesn't know what a fish is? He grabbed a third one. "It eats.. electricity," he lied. The alien frowned. He began, to the best of his ability, to lightly jog at the alien. More bullets flew by him grazing the force field. Police sirens became audible somewhere in the distance. The alien readied all four of its arms. As he approached he threw two fishes towards the aliens left side, and just like he'd hoped, it used it's left two arms to catch it, and he threw the the third one at the right side, and the alien caught it with the right top arm. Perfect. The alien looked completely disgusted at the fish, but before it could throw them away, Nelson managed to get in uppercutting range. As he expected the alien tried to punch him with its bottom right arm. Since he knew it was coming he mustered all of his strength and jumped on top of the bulky three fingered fist/arm. The alien seemed surprised. He yelled and, with all his strength, full force uppercutted the alien in the face. It's light grey, scaly skin scraped his fist but he followed through by jumping off of its arm and Superman punching it again with his other arm. The alien took a few steps back. Nelson landed on his knees, but this time, he was too tired and too in pain to stand up again. "I... I can't ... move..."  Every part of him hurt. He had never been in this much pain before. "Clever," he heard the alien say. It growled and crushed the fishes in its hands, blood splattering everywhere. "At least I got to punch and alien before I died..." he said to himself, barely able to keep his eyes open. The alien picked him up by his shirt. "Now it's my turn." It growled at him. It's pointy teeth hung out of the corners of its mouth, similar to a vampire's. It threw Nelson in the air, and uppercutted him hard in the stomach. He blacked out.

                                       ****