The Dark Beyond

Paul's Valley Part 4/4 In flamez

Paul lead them to their armory. "Get whatever you can use," He told them. "I gotta make a few arrangements." With that, Paul left out of the armory, clearly in a hurry. It was at this point he realized he didn't have much experience with ANY weapon. He had lied about being about to use assault rifles so he could get closer to Anora, but he had never known how to actually use one. By the time he finished his thoughts, Samuel and Miranda had found a weapon they seemed to particularly like, and Miranda was walking up to him to show off a weapon she'd found. "Look at this one," she said, holding it excitedly to show him. "I like the colors on it." She held up a black shotgun with red stripes. "It's pretty cool looking," he agreed with her. "I think I'm going to call it the Black Tiger," she said, smiling cheekily. "Wow," Nelson replied, a silly smile covering his face, "What a name you got there." Miranda giggled softly. "I mean hey," Miranda said, a more suggestive smile overcoming her, "If it ain't black it ain't all that." "Clever," he said with an amused smirk. "What are you gonna get?" She asked him. "Between you and me," Nelson said softly, leaning in to her ear, "I don't really know how to use anything in here." For some reason, Miranda found that absolutely hilarious. She tried to cover her laughter up with her hands but wasn't very good at it. Samuel eyed them curiously as Miranda whispered into Nelson's ear a reply, "Wow really?? How'd you make it this far without knowing how to use a weapon???" Nelson chuckled a bit himself. "I don't know," he said with a silly smile. She shook her head, though she still grinned at him. "I'll show you how to use one of these," she told him, grabbing another shotgun from the huge display on the room, this one sitting on a rack up on the wall. It was a mix of black with a gold fire decal lining the gun. "Oooh me likey," Nelson said as he admired the gun before him. Miranda nodded early. "Well, the gun's not gonna teach you," She said eyeing him in a way that said, 'follow me.' "I'll be back at the Cabin later," Nelson told him. "Nelson..." Samuel started. "What are you.. Maybe you shouldn't.. I think we should probably talk.." but Nelson didn't hear anything else he had to say because he had already darted off behind Miranda. "I asked around earlier, and found out where the training grounds or whatever are. I was gonna train myself more to try to keep up with you, but we definitely gotta get you trained with a weapon." "I agree," he told her. They went to the training grounds, a huge, broad range with dummies lined up at the end. Miranda swiftly whipped out her shotgun from where it was strapped on her back, just above her butt. She held it and told him, "Well for starters, this is how you properly hold it." She waited for a moment while he observed her and mimicked how she held it a few times. With an amused smile she added, "This way your gun won't run away from you." Nelson smirked. "Ha, ha, ha," he sarcastically said, though smiling as he did. She then began to demonstrate how to fire it, reload it, etc. They practiced for a long while, joking around a bit in between. He found she was surprisingly funny, and quite a bit silly. By the end of their training session he felt pretty able to use the shotgun. He thought it would be harder to learn. When they eventually came back to the cabin, the moon illuminated their path. They knocked on the door, and Samuel let them in. "You two were gone all day," he remarked. "Yeah she was showing me how to use my thing," Nelson said cheekily. Miranda giggled. "His shotgun, he means," she added in.  "Yea," Samuel said slowly. He seemed to have more to say, but he instead sat against the wall. "Has Anora called you at all? Or were you too busy to notice?" Nelson frowned at his remark, but checked his phone. Miranda frowned at Samuel too. He saw one text from her. It read, 'My phone is acting weird'. "That's all she had to say?" Nelson said aloud. "What?" Miranda asked curiously. "All she said was that her phone was acting weird. She didn't call at all." He said it plainly. "Well," Miranda said thoughtfully, "Did she call you, Samuel?" Slowly, Samuel nodded. "When was the last time she called you?" She asked him. "Why does that even matter?" Samuel retorted defensively. "If she said her phone was acting up why shouldn't we believe that? She said she said she tried to call." "It's just funny," Miranda continued. "Could it be that her phone is only acting up when she calls you, Nelson? It's just kinda fishy to me." "I bet," Samuel muttered almost inaudibly. "What is she calling you about?" He asked him. It is kinda hella suspicious, he thought with a disappointed frown. If it was what he thought it was, he was not ready to face that reality. He wasn't sure he could handle it, or how he would react. "Just stuff about the mission," Samuel said quickly. "Come on man.." Miranda crossed her arms. "Don't you have a wife?" She asked. Samuel glared at her, but held his tongue. He took a deep breath. "Nelson, may I have a word with you.. alone?"
Nelson nodded cautiously. Miranda eyed them intently but merely put her hands in her pockets and went to sit on the couch. Nelson followed Samuel outside. As they took a seat on the porch, Samuel immediately said, "I don't like her. She's trouble." "I should beg to differ," Nelson said with deceptive calmness. He found that whenever he was dealing with a lot of emotion - in this case, pain and fear of his suspicions - and trying to cover it up, his vocabulary became allot more formal. "I believe she's just looking out for my best interests." "Man I'M looking out for your best interests!" Samuel looked at Nelson with a strange expression on his face. "She's like trying to turn you against us... I mean we already gotta deal with Cherry and whatever her deal is. We don't have time for this." "I don't believe she is trying to turn me against you. More so that she's interested in me and if somebody is fucking up she's gonna be the first one to tell me. And as it stands, it would appear Anora doesn't have time to call me either." He replied coldly. "You really think I'm like that?" He asked Nelson. In all his time of knowing him, Samuel was always the most paragon person he'd ever met. He never went over the speed limit, he never cursed - except once - he was super adamant about following his religion. Samuel was the last person on Earth or elsewhere that he would believe would do that. But nothing else made sense. Her phone was clearly working. You would think that he being her boyfriend, he would be the first person she called. So something has to be up, he concluded. "Nelson..?" Samuel asked, a worried look on his face. "I don't see what else it could be.." Nelson slowly said. "You're the person I... you know... trusted more than anyone. But I just don't...."He paused. "Man I don't even want to think about it to be honest. And about Cherry, I think she might be an alien.." Samuel widened his eyes. "Hold on what?" Samuel asked. "Why? I mean yeah she's kinda weird, she somehow deciphered the alien language and then disappeared...." Samuel frowned. "Dang maybe she is..." "Yeah, plus that alien said something about it too," Nelson added. Samuel crossed his arms. "This is serious. We..." he stopped when he noticed three people approaching their front porch. Nelson whispered to Samuel, "Do you have your guns?" Samuel nodded. "I don't think we'll need it. I'm sure we can just talk." Nelson chose not to respond. He commended Samuel's good nature, but he always suspected the worst in people before the best. Especially people such as these. They walked strangely; a bit crookedly. They didn't speak, only walked eerily towards them. Nelson put one hand on Nightmare, and the other on his shotgun. "Relax," Samuel said slowly. "Can I help you guys?" He asked politely. The three men stopped, then without a word continued.
"Man fuck it dude they're getting close," Nelson said, tensing up, Nightmare tingling in his hand. The three men grabbed knives out of their pockets, smiling just enough to notice that they were smiling. They were just a couple of feet away. "Don't make us have to use force," Samuel warned. "What's up with these guys??" Nelson frowned as he drew Nightmare, twirling it in his hand. The men's eyes widened as they saw the blade. They charged him. Samuel immediately shot two of the guys in the head before they took another step. The third one made it to Nelson and sliced at him with his kitchen knife. Nelson, one hand on the hilt of his shotgun strapped above his butt like Miranda and the other skillfully holding Nightmare, he spun around the knife and behind the man and knocked him in the back of the head with hilt of Nightmare. The man collapsed, seemingly unconscious. "What the hell was that?" Nelson asked, scanning around the area. "I don't know," Samuel muttered. "There's a bunch of weird stuff... WATCH OUT!" The man had gotten up and sliced at Nelson again. Nelson ducked back just in time, like he was playing limbo, came back up and punched the man so hard a few teeth flew out of his mouth and he smashed through the wooden stairs on the porch. That was when Miranda, who had just stepped outside, shotgunned the guy in the face as he lay there. "What's going on out here?" She asked. "Are you okay?" Nelson nodded. "Let's have a look around here real quick and see if there's anymore," Samuel suggested, "I'll call Paul and let him know too." And with that they separated, Miranda of course following Nelson. "Well Commander did mention the murder rates being hella high," Miranda said as they searched the area around the cabin. They weren't exactly in the most populated area of Paul's Valley, and the trees were a bit few and far in between. They didn't see anyone else around there so they decided to go back in.
As they did, Samuel's phone rang. Nelson and Miranda eyed him curiously. He stepped out of the room to answer, closing the door behind him. Miranda took a seat on the couch. She eyed him with concern in her eyes. "Are you alright?" She asked. Nelson shook his head. Miranda patted on the seat beside her. "Come on, sit down, cheer up! It's not the end of the world," she said, optimism ringing in her voice. "I just feel kinda conflicted," he told her as he sat down. She rubbed his shoulder comfortingly. "It's okay," she said, "I'm not good at cheering people up like you did for me, but I wanna try." She cut the TV on. "Maybe this will help," she suggested.
        To his pleasant surprise, the soap opera he and Kelly had started watching was on: 'Loved and Lost'. "Is this a new episode??" Nelson said excitedly. "You like this?" Miranda asked. "Yeah, you?" He replied. "She shook her head. "Never seen it." As they sat there and watched for a while, it became clear that Miranda was quite intrigued by the show. "What is this?" She asked, "Like is this real life?" Nelson chuckled. "'Course not. You ever heard of a soap opera?" Miranda shook her head, a small smile on her face. "I never watched much tv." Nelson eyed her with interest. "Yeah. I can imagine what with how you grew up," he conceded. "It's kinda amazing. What's her name?" Miranda asked him, questioning him about the TV show. He gladly answered her, explaining the plot and everything to her. As they talked and laughed - laughed quite a bit because Miranda absolutely cracked him up it seemed - they had moved closer to each other, their shoulders touching. He found that her sweet orange aroma quite appealed to him. "Hey.?" Miranda began, "Is your arm comfortable?" She looked suggestively at his arm next to hers. She told him, "You can rest your arm on me... my shoulder, if you'd like." Nelson eyed her curiously. He was about to politely decline, but then that thought entered his mind again. Anora seemed allot more interested in Samuel then he right now. What were they talking about out there? He figured he might as well, since Miranda seemed far more interested. He thought he saw her cheeks turn red as her scarlet red hair as she lay against him. "This is quite.. comfortable.." she said shyly. Nelson nodded slowly. She was shorter than Anora, but she fit very nicely in his embrace, he felt. They were awkward at first, but as the show caught their attention, the tension eased up tremendously. They cuddled there completely at ease, and the next thing he knew they were asleep in each other's arms.