Corruption

Cold - Hearted

Anora stared in dismay as Samuel finished explaining everything that happened while her and Kelly were.. busy. They were of course fully dressed now and in the living room, with everyone else. Anora frowned, and Kelly seemed at a loss for words, although she kept looking her direction. Samuel seemed completely disgusted.
"Holy shit.." Estavon muttered, "Dude.. are Dylan and the others okay?" "We rushed them to the hospital," Samuel replied, "Dylan's girlfriend isn't looking like she's going to make it.. unfortunately. But as for everyone else, they may be okay." Samuel seemed deeply troubled. He didn't seem like the same person. He looked mostly the same except for a few weird looking lines going down his arms, and his eyes now looked a bit more like cameras, though not too noticeable if you didn't look too hard. "N-Nelson.." Anora muttered quietly, confused. Everyone turned curiously at her. "He.. he attacked them?" "I think Miranda has been trying to brainwash him," Samuel said coldly. "He didn't seem like himself, like he was confused.. or something. I tried to smack some sense into him, maybe get him to snap out of whatever Miranda put in his head. But he's stronger than before, and Miranda interrupted. I'm still getting used to this new body, as weird as it sounds." "You should be a hell of a lot stronger than you were before," Henry told him. "S-so... Miranda... she.. recorded us..?" Kelly asked, clearly nervous to speak to Samuel. Samuel stared at her coldly for a while before replied. She shied away from his gaze. "Obviously."
"Wait, what happened to Cherry then?" Paul asked, "And Im sorry, I would have helped if I were awake. We all would have." "Most of you." Samuel corrected him with a mean glare at Kelly. "And I don't know. She ran away. She must have been scared into doing whatever she was doing. This really blows man." "Why would She record them though?" Jasmine asked. "She's sick mane," Javen commented. That was when something clicked in Anora's head.
        She felt herself swell up with anger. "D..Don't tell me..." She muttered, "She's going to show that to Nelson.." "That would make sense, if she's really trying to brainwash him," Samuel said. "If he feels anything like I did about it, he's as good as gone." "Fuck!" Anora cursed at herself, and her own inability. She began feeling a hatred she never felt before. She wanted Miranda dead. She had played them the whole time. She wanted nothing more to have her killed in the most painful way possible. "I'm going to kill her." Anora said coldly, "If it's the last thing I do." This fucking bitch has destroyed my marriage! She was probably behind that attack on my wedding day, and now she's done this too. If I could have just kept my head on straight... but least I can remove her's. Anora let her anger consume her. "He used to be your husband?" Jasmine asked, "Well what would Miranda want with him?" "That fucking alien psycho bitch," Anora scowled, "She always kinda acted like she had a crush on him or something. But this.." "We're going to need a lead on her before we can do anything," Paul noted. "Now that she's not here.. she could be anywhere in the universe." "She better hope it's not ever in the same place as me." Anora spat. "At the same time, remember we went with Dylan to those.. his source of information underwater. Remember them, Anora? Whenever he heals up, he should give us clearance." Anora sighed irritably. Who knew how long it would take for Dylan to heal. The longer it took, the more time Miranda had to manipulate Nelson. I did everything I possibly to try to find him... I was still getting played.. I wish I could take matters into my own hands.. Anora thought angrily. She would everything she could to prepare while they waited. She couldn't sit around doing nothing.
*******
It was a month before Dylan was able to speak and give them the information they wanted. He talked to them outside in the parking lot in his wheelchair. Eugene would take a little longer because all of his ribs were broken on his right side, but he was conscious. Dylan just had a concussion and both of his legs were broken, along with heavy bruising all over his torso. His girlfriend had passed away while he was unconscious from head trauma from the street pole falling on her face and a ruptured liver, combined with multiple broken ribs. Samuel explained the situation to Dylan. "Damnit..." Dylan muttered. "That was this Nelson you were looking for? She's definitely done something to him. There's no way a human is this fucking strong. And judging by what you said about the recording, it sounds like she's trying to turn him against us. If we could have saved him he would have been very useful.." "I'm sorry about your girlfriend," Paul told him. "Let's just not talk about it please," Dylan said quickly. "Besides, the situation is getting out of control. Fucking.. fucking everyone knows about aliens now. A giant flying saucer just appeared in the middle of the street. People recorded it. It's circulating all over the internet now. I don't know even know what to do right now. Although your suggestion to go talk to our only alien allies seems like our best bet. But there is a problem." "What?" Samuel asked. "They haven't been answering," Dylan explained. "Henry already knew in an event like this to contact them but it's like they're missing." "More like dead," Henry corrected him. "I looked via our satellites and the Mariana Trench is filled with debris.. and bloody body parts. In the same location where they were supposed to be hidden." Dylan laid his head on his hand. He looked completely defeated.
           It was Samuel who spoke up. "Give up if you want to," He spat coldly, "But I'm not about to let her get away with this bullshit. I'm going to hunt down whatever alien I can get my hands on. I'm sure they know about the ones that took Nelson." "So what if you can," Dylan muttered. "You can't get to where he is. We aren't capable of interstellar travel." "I know the government has recovered UFO crashes," Samuel retorted, "No point in denying it anymore. I'll capture one of them and make them do what we need. Am I alone?" "I'll help you," Jasmine immediately offered. "I'm in mane," Javen offered. "Yeah," Estavon agreed, "We didn't learn all that shit in training just to not use it." "If we're going to kill Miranda, I want to go." Anora said. "You crazy bastards," Henry commented, shaking his head. "Guess I'll have to show you how to use all the upgrades we got you." Paul obviously agreed to go. Dylan sighed. "Fine," he said, clearly reluctant. "You were supposed to be the commanding officer over the EED in Ohio before all this extra shit happened. I'm done. I'll have them give you clearance over everything before I step down. I was supposed to keep this a secret but I've failed in every possible way. I'm tired.. I..." Dylan seemed to have a hard time thinking. "I remember," he continued, "Eugene saw something last time he spoke to me, before you all got here. He saw something in Utah, where some meteorite crashed. Uhm.. some tall bird looking thing was spotted and of course everyone thinks it's an alien now.. might as well go look over there. Though I might also take it with a grain of salt. SkinWalker ranch gets a lot of reports of weird shit, and I think some of them are fakes looking for attention." "Consider it done." Samuel said. "That's not an order, you don't take orders from me anymore," Dylan told him. "I'm sick of this shit."
              With that, they all headed back one last time to get all their stuff, and get ready to fly back to the mainland. Of course, Kelly wanted to come along with them, including Arthur and Mary, still too young to talk yet. Samuel was very clearly struggling with dealing with her, but Jasmine seemed to help him out a lot. Anora still felt a funny feeling in her stomach, and she began to wonder if Miranda had somehow manipulated the pregnancy test.. but she couldn't think of how that would be possible, and she needed to train and become a better sniper and fighter if she wanted to kill Miranda. She prayed that she wasn't until this was all over. She felt that Nelson wasn't all the way gone yet. Judging by what happened to Eugene and Dylan and his girlfriend, Nelson could have killed all of them if he'd wanted to. But he didn't. He can't be all bad. She tried to avoid the awkwardness between her and Kelly as often as she could, and avoided speaking to her whenever possible. It was bad enough what she did, and if Miranda showed Nelson, she didn't know if that would be what was needed to make him lose himself. She was ashamed. She hated herself for it. Something was off about that night though, she hadn't felt right, like her emotions and hormones were out of her control..
           Just as they were leaving, Paul pointed something out on the tv playing as they packed. "I think we might have struck gold," Paul said. "Look in the background." Everyone looked, and it showed a reporter doing a news report on people panicking thinking aliens were going to bring about the end of the world, buying everything out of the gun stores in Spring Hill, Florida. It showed a very clear image of Miranda walking past the reporter towards a dollar general. What the hell is she doing going into a dollar general?? Anora thought, completely baffled. She paid extreme close attention to the camera and everywhere it showed as the reporter spoke and walked around. She looked it up on google maps, and found the Murphy's Market the reporter was standing in front of, and by extension the Dollar General Miranda must have walked into. She showed Samuel. He seemed irritated at her presence, and reluctantly thanked her for the information. "Then that's where we'll go," Samuel said. "Everyone ready?"