Beyond the Heavens

The Sect

Kim kicked the person's hand and got away.

She got up, aimed her gun and focused the flashlight on the heap of bodies.

Suddenly a woman came out of there.

The woman was black, wore jeans, a T-shirt that were torn and bloody.

"W-who are you?" Kim asked.

The woman tried to get closer and Kim backed away.

I can't use the gun... otherwise I m gonna get that men's attention.

"I'm a fugitive like you."

"And how can I be sure?"

"There is no way to be sure."

"So what were you doing here?"

"I was hiding... I've been looking for the way out from this place for days," she said, looking around, "maybe we can find the exit together."

Kim frowned.

"Not that I trust you, but it seems that we want the same thing," Kim said.

Maybe..., Kim thought.

"But first I need to meet with some of my friends. Maybe you can help me,” Kim said.

"If they were captured by the Sect... I know where they are."

Kim broke into a smile, "can you take me there?"

The girl nodded.

"So let's go," Kim was going towards the door, suddenly the woman stopped her.

"Let's go this way."

The woman jumped up and picked up a grill from the ceiling.

"Okay."

Kim went towards her and climbed on the ceiling.

The woman closed the grill and they crawled towards the spot. "You said by the Sect... what did you mean by that?"

"The people who captured us... believe that aliens are heavenly beings..." The woman paused, "they believe they are gods. Then they capture others humans and sacrifice. They believe that by sacrificing... they can acquire alien powers or even become ones."

"This is a horror..." Kim said, murmuring.

"It's not everything... they also eat humans... the bodies you saw there are from people that they removed the organs to eat..."

Kim covered her mouth with her hand.

"We arrived..."

The girl opened a grill and went down, suddenly someone covered her mouth.

The girl gave a startled moan.

Kim went down, aimed a gun and the flashlight at the same time and focused the person who grabbed the girl.

She saw a tall black man, who was wearing a brown T-shirt, and military pants.

"Let her go!" she said.

Suddenly someone grabbed Kim's neck and kicked her knees making her fall.

The person took the flashlight and focused on her.

"Kim?"

Kim turned back and looked at the man.

"Tadeu?"

"Do you know each other?" the man on the other side asked.

Tadeu held out his hand to Kim to help her getting up.

"Yes... we know each other. She is the girl I told you about. Bruno... Kim, Kim... Bruno," Tadeu introduced them.

Bruno released the girl.

"Sorry," he said.

The girl nodded.

Tadeu looked around.

"We need to get out of here," he said, "the door doesn't open this way side," He added.

Kim looked up, "maybe we should go out by that way," She pointed to the ceiling.

"But where is the exit?" Bruno asked.

"She seems to know."

Kim looked at the girl.

"Do you know?" Tadeu asked.

"Yes... but there are a lot of those bad men there."

"We'll do something about it," Tadeu said.

Kim nodded.

"Let's go," she said.

The four entered the ventilator.

They kept crawling towards the exit.

"Calm down!" Tadeu stopped them.

"What's it?" Bruno asked.

Tadeu pointed down, "we will need weapons," he said.

Tadeu opened the grill and went down, then Kim and Bruno did the same.

Tadeu saw Kim carrying some knives.

"Can you use it?" he asked.

"I... I think so."

Bruno put the gun behind his waist.

"Let's go up," He said.

So did they, after 15 minutes they arrived at a place where gave access to the exit.

"Here we have to go down," said the girl.

Everyone went down. Where they got down, were a crossroads corridor.

"Where are we going?" Tadeu asked.

The girl pointed in front of them.

"There's an elevator, at the end of the corridor, on the left... that's where the men come. I just don't know where exactly the exit is."

"Let's go!" Tadeu said.

Everyone started to run there. When they got to the elevator, they clicked the button to go down, when the door was about to open they aimed their weapons.

The door was opened, there was no one inside and everyone entered.

"The exit can only be on the first floor," Tadeu said, clicking on one of the buttons.

After a minute they reached the first floor. When the door was opened they saw countless men armed on the other side.

"Damn," Tadeu said.

The men started to shoot them.

Kim clicked the button again to go up.

"How did they know we were going down?" Kim asked.

Tadeu looked around the elevator and saw a camera, "That," he pointed up.

Bruno took out his gun and shot to the camera.

Suddenly the girl fell.

"Wha---" Kim looked to the girl.

Bruno crouched down and touched the girl.

"The girl had been shot in the abdomen," Bruno took off his shirt and put it over where she was hurt.

"We have to remove that bullet," Tadeu said, looking at the girl.

"How long is this building?" Kim asked, worriedly.

"Right! W---"

Bruno interrupted Tadeu,"This

elevator has stopped," Bruno said, looking up.

"Damn!" Tadeu said.

Suddenly a crash started and the elevator started to fall.

"Hold on!" Tadeu shouted.

-------------

Kim woke up feeling something wetting her. When she opened her eyes she saw water around the elevator to the knee level.

Startled she looked around and saw Tadeu, Bruno and the woman unconscious.

"Tadeu!" Kim was shaking his body,

"Bruno! Wake up!"

Slowly Bruno and Tadeu opened their eyes.

"What..." Tadeu saw water around his feet.

"Hey!" Kim was giving the girl light slaps.

"We have to get out of here," said Bruno, standing up.

"She won't be back," Kim said to Tadeu.

"But is she breathing?" he asked.

Kim nodded.

"So there's not much of a problem. The most important thing is to get out from here," Tadeu said.

"Kim... give me your knives," said Bruno.

Kim handed it to him.

Bruno put the knife between the doors and tried to open them.

"It won't open," he said after a few minutes.

"We need to get out of here... this is getting flooded..." Tadeu said.

Tadeu took the girl and put her on his back.

"Let me try," Kim said.

Bruno handed her the knife and she tried to open it.

After a few minutes, a small space opened up between the doors.

"Its opening! Bruno help me on the other side."

Bruno did so, they finally managed to open the door. When they opened the door, they both aimed their weapons, but they saw no one.

The place where they had fallen was a drainage tunnel.

"It seems that we fell in a tunnel," Tadeu said, looking around.

"Kim... stay ahead and I'll stay behind to cover you," Bruno said.

Kim nodded, turned on the flashlight, took the knife and went ahead. They were looking for a way out.

They walked for three minutes until they reached a place where had tunnels on the left and right sides.

"So... which way are are we going to?" Kim asked.

Tadeu looked around.

"We should follow the tunnel where the water is at a lower level," Bruno said.

"The left one," Tadeu said.

"Yes," Bruno said.

The three started walking. After three minutes of walking suddenly Bruno heard a noise coming from behind and turned back.

"Kim ..."

Tadeu and Kim turned back.

"Focus back here," Bruno said.

Kim focused the flashlight behind and around Bruno.

Bruno sighed with relief, "There's nothing," he said.

Tadeu turned around,"Let's go on," he said.

When Bruno was about to turn around, he felt something drip on his arm.

What...

Bruno took the liquid on his arm and sniffed.

He looked up and saw two parallel glows on the roof.

"Damn! Run... it's an alien!" he shouted.

Everyone started to run.

Bruno shoot the alien, but it had no effect and the alien was still behind them.

"Kim... give me backup! My ammo is running out!"

Kim ran back and started shooting the alien. Suddenly the alien hit Kim's gun and she dropped it.

Then it wrapped his tail around Kim's neck taking her off from the ground.

Kim tried to release herself.

Bruno shot the alien in the eyes, the alien screamed in pain, fell and released Kim.

She fell on the ground.

Bruno went towards her and helped her to get up.

"Let's get out from here."

Kim got up and started to run. Quickly Kim picked up a grenade, pulled out the pin and threw to the alien.

"Guys!" Tadeu shouted.

Kim and Bruno arrived where Tadeu was.

"This must be a joke..." Bruno said.

In front of Tadeu had a wall of grills that separated the tunnel and the exit. Kim started searching her pockets and got a grenade.

"Guys! Get away!"

They both backed away, then Kim threw the grenade.

"Did it break?"

Tadeu coughed.

The smoke finally cleared, they could see that they had success in destroying the grid and they started to run there.

Suddenly Bruno fell and screamed in pain.

Tadeu and Kim turned back.

"Bruno!" Tadeu shouted.

Kim and Tadeu saw the alien again, behind Bruno.

"Tadeu... run away! I'm going to save Bruno!" Kim said while running towards Bruno.

"B---"

"Go Tadeu!" Bruno shouted.

Tadeu nodded and left.

Kim threw two knives at the wall as she ran towards the alien.

The alien was about to attack Bruno's neck with his tail.

Kim used the knives she had thrown as a ladder, she gave a somersault in the air and cut the alien's neck into shape of X. Damn... she is good, Bruno looked at Kim.

Kim got in the floor and went towards Bruno.

"Can you get up?"

"I think so."

"Let's go... the alien won't take long to regenerate itself."

Bruno got up with Kim's help and they started to leave of the tunnel.

They both came out of the tunnel and looked around.

"We were lucky. It is still daylight ... the alien will not come after us. Now we just need to find Tadeu."

Kim looked at Bruno and saw him unconscious.

"Bruno!" Kim carried Bruno on her back and looked around for Tadeu.

Where is Tadeu?

Suddenly she saw a flashing light, she stared and saw Tadeu waving.

"There!" Kim started walking towards Tadeu.

When she reached the door of the house where Tadeu was, he went out.

"What happened to Bruno?" Tadeu helped Kim.

"I don't know, suddenly he lost consciousness... but he is breathing."

Both took Bruno to a room where the other girl was.

"How is she?" asked Kim.

"Not good. The bullet is in a very deep place. I can't extract..." Tadeu paused, "we need to get her to the base," he said, "I don't know if she will resist…"

"What do you mean by that?" asked Kim.

"It takes an average of three to four days to reach the base," he said.

"We'll have to do it in less days," said Kim.

Tadeu sighed.

"It will not be possible. If we travel at night... maybe... but that is risky," he said.

"So we leave early."

"I'll show you something."

Tadeu went absent and returned.

"Look!"Tadeu handed her a paper.

"What is it?" Kim received the paper.

"A map. I'll show you something."

Kim opened the map and Tadeu pointed it out somewhere.

"This is where we are... and the base is here. The route that we use is this. I mean, we must return to this point and go to the base."

"And why can't we go this way?" Kim pointed somewhere on the map.

"There is a terrorist group in the middle of this place."

"And this one?" Kim pointed to another location.

"In this place the road is closed ... if it is to go by this way, it will not be by car," Tadeu looked at the other girl and Bruno.

Kim nodded.

"I see," she said.

"But maybe we can do it in two days... we will have to leave as soon as the sun rises and as soon as it is getting dark we should stop. But for that we need a car." "So what are we going to do?"

"You stay here taking care of Bruno and the girl. I'll use the daylight as much as I can and look for a car. In addition... we must leave of this place... we need a place with countless compartments," he said looking around.

"It's okay," She said.

Tadeu withdrew a gun and began to count the ammunition.

"I don't have any more bullets... it's not like they're going to work, but ..."

"Take this..." Kim handed him a knife.

"And what about you?"

"I don't think I will need it."

Tadeu sighed.

"It's okay. Take care."

Tadeu left the house.

Kim turned around, saw Bruno and the girl.

I have to change her compresses.

Kim started walking around the house looking for compresses. She went towards the girl and cleaned her up.

After 15 minutes she cleaned up the girl's wound.

"There you go... this is it! Let me see Bruno."

Kim got up and went to Bruno and saw him moan of pain.

"What I---"

Kim placed her and on Bruno's forehead and noticed that he had a high fever.

"My God!"

Kim got up and went to find cloth and water to lower the his fever.

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Kim sighed with relief.

Finally his fever has dropped. Kim looked at the window. It's already getting dark... Tadeu doesn't comes back... maybe something happened to him? Maybe…? No... he will come back.

"I think I should take a shower."

Kim went to the bathroom, undressed and got in the shower.

She hummed enjoying the bath.

Suddenly she heard the bathtub curtain being opened and she turned around scared.

"B..Bruno?"

Bruno was standing in front of her with a disturbing face and the eyes totally white.

"B-Bruno wh---"

Suddenly Bruno attacked her and she dodged.

Kim jumped out of the tub, ran out of shower and closed the door.

What happened to Bruno? Kim held the door to dont be open, I need to get out of here ..., Kim looked around.

Bruno continued to hit the door and Kim continued to hold onto it.

Suddenly the door was broken and Kim fell to the floor with the impact.

I can't lift this door..., Kim tried to lift the door over her.

Bruno approached her slowly.

I need t---

Suddenly Bruno fell, Kim looked back and saw Tadeu.

"Tadeu!" she shouted.

Tadeu put the gun away and ran towards her.

"Are you fine?" he asked, helping her lift the door.

Kim stood up and looked around her body.

"I'm fine... but I don't know what happened to Bruno."

Tadeu looked Kim up to down.

"You need to cover yourself... or you will get a cold," Tadeu was going to the toilet.

"Here," Tadeu handed her a towel.

"Thanks."

Tadeu crouched down and carried Bruno.

"We need to get back to the base as soon as possible," he said.

"Does this have something to do with Bruno?"

"Look for an outfit, wear you up ... I'll explain."

Kim did as he said. Went to a room, wore up then got back to where Tadeu was.

Kim sat down next to Tadeu.

"So... what really happened to Bruno?" she asked.

"He was poisoned ..."

Kim stared at him.

"But this poison..." Tadeu paused for a long time, "this poison... how can I say? It's not exactly a poison... but... it's something that can turn Bruno into a level three... I can say that is a virus. This virus enters through any wound in the human body... Bruno was poisoned when he was attacked... the alien must have contacted Bruno more than once..."

Kim went into thoughtful mode.

"And how do we invert this situation?"

"We might have some antidote at the base... but my biggest concern is transformation... the transformation takes about 72 hours, I mean…"

"Three days," they both said simultaneously.

"So we have to hurry... the first stage of the process of transformation is loss of control over the body, now he is sedated... but when he is conscious, he will be zombified... I mean, he will look like a zombie... the eyes will get white and he will attack everything that moves.

"That's why he attacked me..." said Kim.

"So, the first phase starts from the beginning of the poisoning to the stage that stays that way and takes six hours.The second phase takes forty-two hours, during that time the skin texture will change and the eyes too, the third and the the last one takes twenty and four hours, at that moment the whole body changes and he loses human consciousness... so we have to get in the base in less than 3 days, not only for him, but for the girl too."

"I see" said Kim.

Suddenly Tadeu made a strange face.

"What's it?"

Tadeu smiled sarcastically, "I'm hungry," he said.

Kim broke into a smile.

"I found some snacks in this house, cookies and others things... may be not enough but..."

Tadeu nodded.

"I'll be right back," she said.

After three minutes Kim returned and did not see Tadeu.

"Tadeu?" Kim looked around looking for him.

Suddenly Tadeu returned.

"Where were you?" Kim saw a bottle in Tadeu's hand that contained a green liquid.

Tadeu lifted the bottle.

"I was marking territory."

Kim frowned.

"For simple humans like us, the only thing left for us at night, is to mark the place where we are with the fluid of the aliens, as I already said... the aliens are assets of night... but aliens do not walk in territory marked by another alien," Tadeu raised the bottle again, "once I put this fluid out there, the alien cross this place will think this place is from another alien and will not get closer," he said. "

Wow!"

"Not only... I put sensor disturbances in 360º, so they will not detect the heat waves of our blood."

Kim sighed and smiled.

"Now let's eat something," Kim handed him a packet of cookies and juice.

They were eating for about thirty to forty minutes.

"Well... Kim, I'm going to lay down. We will wake up very early..."

Tadeu turned back and saw that Kim was already asleep.

When did she sleep? He asked himself.

Tadeu got up and went to sleep in a corner.

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"Tadeu... Tadeu... wake up!" Kim gave light slaps to the face of Tadeu.

Finally Tadeu opened his eyes.

"Ah! What is it?" Tadeu frowned, "aren't you too close?"

"Ah..." Kim stood up.

"So... why so much despair?" "Well... it's morning already."

Tadeu looked around and sighed.

"Thank you," He stood up.

"You're welcome."

Tadeu rubbed his face.

"We should eat something before we go... I should see the girl and Bru---"

"About them…" Kim paused.

"Did something happen to them...?" asked Tadeu.

Kim shook her head.

"I cleaned the girl's wound and the wound is getting infected…."

Tadeu sighed.

"And Bruno... as you explained... the skin has already started to change."

Tadeu punched the wall.

"I'm going to wash myself... we need to eat something before we leave, the journey will be long,” he said, leaving.

After almost thirty minutes he got back to where was Kim.

"What do you do?" asked Tadeu.

"Ah.." Kim turned back and saw Tadeu half naked, he was wearing his military pants and he was smoking a cigarette.

He is so handsome.

"So…"

"Ah..." Kim got up and went towards him," i was packing the snacks I found here in this house... we can eat on the way to have time," Kim handed him a package of cookies.

Tadeu frowned.

"Thank you," Tadeu passed by her, "i'm going to get dressed, I need you to help me carry them."

Kim looked disappointed.

Tadeu got dressed then he left towards the place Bruno was.

He crouched down, looking at Bruno, held one of his arms and saw that the skin texture was getting scaly.

Then he opened his eyes and saw the left one fully orange.

"Tsk!"

Tadeu took Bruno and carried him to the car.

After landing Bruno, he saw Kim carrying the girl in her arms.

How does she manage to carry her in a serene way? Tadeu followed Kim with his eyes.

Kim put the girl down on the seat and felt Tadeu's eyes stuck in her.

"Did I laid her wrong?"

Tadeu shook his head.

"Let's take the remaining supplements and let's go."

"Okay."

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Kim looked at Tadeu and saw him concentrated on driving.

Maybe I should say something...

"So…"

Tadeu looked at her quickly.

"So…?" he asked.

"Basically you already told me about the base, but as you know... i lost my memory, even through I still have fighting skills and remember things sporadically... I would like to know more about these aliens and the current world," Kim looked away.

"Hmm... I don't know exactly when they appeared, but the aliens existence was noticed thirty years ago, in 2860... some say that they have always been here... nobody knows. Ten years ago men started to disappear and so women, by the way... they started to disappear before men and so that was so intense... in fact, many times they were killed by aliens."

"That is horrible!" Kim covered her mouth with her hand.

"It seems that they see women as objects, so much that they use them as bait, I mean, to attract other men."

"So that's why you treated me that way..."

Tadeu nodded.

"In addition, besides using women as bait, they also use as food source."

Kim swallowed hard.

"And why are men taken?" she asked.

"I don't know for sure... as I told you before, the alien that we found is a level three, then we have level four, which are humans turned into aliens... I heard around there that their planet is on the verge of extinction, so the planet earth is eighty percent favorable for them to live. In short they want to take our planet. Currently, we humans are fighting to expel these aliens from our planet. Some have tried to communicate with them..." Tadeu paused and forced a smile, "it's crazy. Coexist with aliens..."

"It's not possible?" asked Kim.

"I don't know... but everyone who tried to communicate with that objective, died in the clutches of the own aliens... it is clear that this species does not... What the f**k!"

"What?" Kim looked ahead.

In front of them were countless building stones that blocked the road.

"s**t!" Tadeu hit over the steering wheel.

"So?" Kim stared at Tadeu.

Tadeu sighed, took the map from somewhere in the car and opened it.

"Since our route has been damaged... the only option we have is to ask for a way on third base... it will take us ten hours," He said.

Tadeu looked at the map.

"And why didn't you put that option before?"

Tadeu closed the map and relaxed against the seat.

"The second and third bases haven't good relations... I don't want to say that we are enemies, but we are also not friends. There are strange bases... and that is one of them ... we don't like the way that they do things."

"Its Complicated."

"But we can take risk asking for help on the third base, the other route left has a terrorist group, I understand that the third base has different ways of doing the things, but the end is the same... protect the humanity."

"I understand."

Tadeu, Kim and the others continued their journey.