My Xenomorph

CH 8: Tunnel Trouble

We had made it over a few miles in the past hour, but I was getting a bit annoyed with the fact that we weren't at the base yet. "Prone," I looked at him, "How long until we get to the base?"

He didn't look at me, "Maybe a day, I'm not sure, I was on foot for about two days but I'm not sure how far I got from the base."

I grumbled and sighed. "Where do we have to go anyway? Do we just follow the road the whole time or do we have to cross something?"

"There is a Tunnel that we have to go past, then we keep going for a bit."

"Great..." I said sarcastically and stared out of the window. Xaez was still in the forest, I could see him jumping tree to tree. 'Should I even tell Prone about him?... No, he'd just kill him, he'd think he's like all of the other Xenomorphs' I was surprised that it had only been a few days since the Xenomorphs had come to our city, it felt like they've been here for months. 'How did they even get here in the first place? Is the whole planet taken over?'

I lowered my head and rested it on my backpack. It was like I was going camping with my dad and my brother. Mom never came with us, she didn't like the forest. We used to go fishing and run around in the woods, and if it was raining we'd have a contest to see who could make a fire in the rain. I missed that already.

Prone was looking out of his window as he was driving, he was probably looking for Xenomorphs.

We drove in silence for about another hour before I finally asked, "What's so bad about Xenomorphs?"

Prone looked at me with the face that meant 'really?'. He took in a breath then spoke, "Xenomorphs kill people, they take people and they kill people."

"People kill people," I stared out the window again, "What's the difference?"

"Do you want to know the truth?"

"Yes."

"Well... Xenomorphs... They, uh, take people and bring them to their 'hive' then they stick them to the walls," He paused for a second, " They get things that look like hands or a spider with a tail-"

I cut him off, "I've seen one of those! I think it was the second say in the woods. I was walking and I found one, it had jumped at me so I ran away."

"You got away from it?" He sounded a bit surprised. I nodded. " Good, if it caught you, you'd be dead... But like I was saying they take one of those and they 'face hug' you, after a while... a..." He stopped.

"What? After a while what?"

He sighed, "The Xenomorphs kill at birth, they burst out of peoples chests... we call it a chestburster, it looks like a snake but has little arms."

I looked down for a second 'Chestburster, Xaez was a  chestburster' I took a deep breath and said, "I know what they look like, I've seen one of those too, I've seen big Xenomorphs too."

"Have you seen a Queen or a Praetorian?" Prone asked.

I took a moment to think, "No, I don't think I have. What does the Queen look like?"

"She's big, really big almost twenty feet tall, she has a head crest like a Praetorian and she has four arms. Praetorians only have two arms though. But Xenomorphs are dangerous Kat, they can trick people and cut the power, they're smart and dangerous, just remember that okay?"

"Okay..." I sighed, I didn't want to belive that Xaez was bad. 'He's not tricking me is he? If he was I bet I'd be dead by now. He's not bad, he's good, I know he'd never let me die.'

We went silent again. I closed my eyes and decided to rest for a bit. Soon I fell asleep.

I awoke to Prone gently shoving my arm. "Kat, Kat wake up."