My Xenomorph

CH 15: Safe?

Roman didn't look up, instead he sighed and slowly said, "We'll...We'll have to ask Porter he should know when we're going."

Stephen nodded, "Ya know I always have ta ask ya first." He smiled and walked out of the APC.

Roman sighed again, "Maybe we can talk some more later. Anyway, how are the scratches? Do they hurt?" I wiped my eye's and shook my head a little bit, my shoulder was still a bit sore but it was ok. He got up taking my hand, and helped me out of the APC.

 "I'll be back in a little bit, I have a few things to take care of, ok?", I nodded and he walked off towards some of the other tents. 'To bad I won't be staying.' Stephen escorted me back to the tent I had woken up in and I sat down next to it. 'There are so many Marines here though, maybe I could try sneaking away when its dark?'

 I looked up at everyone who walked past, there seemed to be around 6 regular people in the camp, a few other Jeeps and the APC. Stephen wasn't very far away, he was with someone with a lot of bars on the shoulder of his uniform. I vaguely remembered him, Roman came up and started talking to him too, maybe it was Porter?

I recognized Sasha right away, wandering around out in the field scanning the trees. It was kind of frustrating that the sleeves of my shirt were wrecked, but I didn't want to think about it. I looked around the rest of the camp. There was camo-netting all over the place, one of the tents looked like it was meant for all the Marines, the other looked like it was for the Civilians, then there was my tent. There was also a stack of metal containers the size of shoe boxes too. 'Why would they care to set up the tents like this when they could all just sleep in one tent?

 I sighed, time was passing faster now since my curiosity was quite entertained. There were so many things to look at, then there was the APC. It was right next to my tent, so I got up and wandered towards it. It was large and looked like a cross between a tank and an armored box, it had a muffler from a car up on its side. There was the heavy door at back between what looked like two nozzles. 'What's with that?' I tilted my head then looked at the tires, it had eight with heavy suspension on the front four tires.

"Strange." I whispered to myself.

I heard someone chuckle from behind me and I swung around to look at them. "Liking Kelly I see," Vance said with a big grin on his face, "We've learned to love her." I stood there petrified, remembering the haze of painful stitches. He stood awkwardly seeming to sense my discomfort, "Ah, I'm sorry about earlier, with the stitches and all.. I wish somebody else could've done it, but their all a bunch of ham-fisted grunts who couldn't tell the difference between a band-aid and a beer."

I relaxed a bit as he laughed, changing the subject, "Anyway, Kelly here's amphibious, which means she can go in water." Vance patted the APC, "She's the safest thing in this camp, nothing can get in her unless we keep the door open." The smile slightly faded from his lips, "Your brother was looking for you ever since this all happened."

I stared at him, 'He was?'

"Been searching for a long time, then things happened and everything went sideways." He walked up to me and crouched down, "But it seems fate brought us together, and we'll keep you safe. Hey, you know what time it is?"

I looked down at my watch, 5:57 PM. I showed Vance and he nodded. "They'll be handing out the rations soon, come on, let's go wait for some dinner." He walked off toward the Civilians and I followed behind him, 'At least the marines here are very nice, Vance, Stephen, not sure about everyone else but they're nice.'

Vance sat down next to a ring of rocks that I knew where meant for a camp fire. Already some people began to walk up to it with sticks that they had found on the ground, or maybe they had gathered some from nights before, and set them on the spot.

I sat down and watched. After half an hour the fire was up and almost everyone was sitting by it, except for some of the other marines. I sighed and stared at the fire. It was starting to get slightly dark out, the sky was turning orange and the sun was starting to set.

"Everyone here?" Stephen walked up to the fire holding a bag. "I got the MRE's, so I'm passin' em 'round ta'day." He began to walk to each person and hand them a package. Everyone started to heat up their meals and eat. 'I wonder how long they've been here, probably a few days by the looks of it.' I looked around at the people sitting by the flickering fire, many of them seemed listless, haggard and edgy, like they hadn't slept in days.

I heard some more talking and I looked over my shoulder, Roman came to join everyone, and the quiet one named Emmanuel too. 'Finally, figured out who he is.' Stephen came up and handed me one of the packages, "You need any help with that?" I shook my head and tore the top open, just like Prone had shown me.

I shut my eye's and left the package in my lap, remembering when Prone and I had these meals together, and I didn't have to eat cold corn anymore. When we went to the base, when I was in the Jeep... I could feel the gore on my skin, the smell of blood mixing with the scent of smoke and carnage. That man Vaxer, the sounds of Xaez ripping into his screaming flesh, the crunching of bone punctuating his shrieks. Amy...

I felt sick and held my stomach, the packet falling forgotten to the ground. 'No, no, no.. I don't want to be here...' I rocked slightly back and forth, trying to bury my mind.

"Kat," Roman said as he walked up next to me, "Are you alright? Here, let me help you with that." He took the MRE, opened the heating bag, and stuffed the food into it. "Just wait a few minutes and it should be good." He sat down next to me as I stared at the packet cooking on the ground, the smell of the smoke and food everyone was eating mixing together.

I threw up.

"Ah, Kat, geez." Roman held me and rubbed my back trying to comfort me, some of the people around the campfire were glancing over towards us. Stephen got up and came over, "Seems somebodies had a bit too much excitement, how 'bout  I bring 'er back to her tent ta rest."

"Alright, I'll.. I'll clean up here and be there in a minute." Roman picked up my MRE and went off, as Stephen led me back towards my tent. 'Xaez is going to be back, he's coming back for me, he won't leave me here...' I laid down on the bed and closed my eyes for a few minutes while I waited for Roman to come back.

Time passed, and I started to worry, 'Whats taking him so long? He said he'd be here in a minute. Did something happen to him? Is Xaez here!' Fear clenched my insides as I started getting off the cot.

Roman suddenly came in holding a bottle of water, "Here, I thought you might want something to drink." He handed me the water as I sighed in relief sitting on the cot. "You should get some sleep now, I have to go and talk to the others for awhile, if you need anything just come and get us, ok?" I nodded, he gave me a hug for a moment, then reluctantly went back outside.

I looked at my sleeveless shirt, 'I'm so stupid.' I put on my jacket and vest, then laid back down, resting my head on the pillow. 'Xaez will come back, what if next time something really does happen? I should go before they decide to come...'

Slowly I drifted off to sleep, thinking of tomorrow.