I awoke when I felt Xaez move, I yawned, and shoved him a little bit. I couldn't really tell if he was still sleeping, he was curled up into a ball and breathing heavily.
"Xaez," I yawned again, "Wake up buddy." He growled in response, now that I knew that he was awake I went to my backpack to grab some food. I sat and watched Xaez as I munched on the food.
'Today might be interesting,' I looked down at my two new pistols 'Learning to use these, that will be fun, maybe I can go hunting with Xaez, yeah that'd be pretty awesome' I smiled and looked at Xaez again.
He shifted a bit and uncurled.
"Good morning Xaez!" I said cheerfully then looked at my watch to see if it really was morning, it was, 6:54 AM.
Xaez looked at me, he opened his mouth and that second mouth came out and opened too. Then it closed and went back. I stared at him with my head tilted. 'Was that supposed to be a yawn?' He walked up to me, nuzzled his head against mine, then got up onto his back legs.
I ate the food for a little longer, put them back into my backpack, and stood up. "Where do we go next?" I tossed my backpack over my shoulder and looked down at my blanket, "I don't think I should carry that anymore, makes the backpack to big..."
Xaez hissed and began to walk through the forest. I followed behind him. He seemed to have a very easy time walking around the trees and seemed to balance extremely well on tree roots, I on the other hand, was almost walking into the trees and stumbled over the tree roots.
'And people said I was good at bushwhacking... Well... I am when is comes to running...' I grumbled to myself, I was so good when I ran through the bushes I seemed to fly across all the obstacles. I began to watch my feet, in my peripheral view I could see Xaez looking back at me with that big grin on his face.
I looked back up at him and growled, "Can we take it up to a run? I don't stumble as much."
Xaez nodded and began to jog, I jogged up next to him. We jogged for a few minutes then he brought it up to a run, he ran a bit faster than me but I could tell it wasn't his fastest run. We did that for about a minute and he started to sprint.
Now I was sprinting just behind him, and laughing. Xaez didn't look back at me, he just kept sprinting as fast as he could. I tried to push myself to go faster, my backpack wasn't helping me at all. When I finally got beside him, Xaez looked at me and opened his mouth with what I think was surprise.
He grinned at me as he jumped on the nearest tree and began to jump tree to tree. Now he was out running me. 'This is the fastest I've ever gone!' It felt so great being able to run like this and not even be tired yet. I guessed that because of my constant running the days before helped with my stamina.
We ran until we reached a road. I realized that we were pretty far from the city now, but the lake was still there, and a beach was on the other side of the road. I looked both ways to make sure that there was no cars coming then I ran across the road to the beach.
Xaez paused and looked at me and walked across to join me.
"This is my favorite lake," I looked at Xaez and smiled, "I love to swim in it, I used to swim all the time, I remember in swimming lessons my teacher said I was the best and the fastest out of all the other swimmers."
Xaez tiled his head and screeched.
"Do you think I can swim in it one last time before we head off to... where ever we're going to." I asked.
Xaez nodded and grinned at me again.
"Now the only problem... I didn't think to pack extra clothes or a bathing suit, so what do I do?" He growled and shrugged. "Well I guess I could just swim in my underwear... though that's a bit weird... screw it!" I dropped my backpack to the ground and took off my clothes and holsters until I was just wearing my underwear.
Xaez tilted his head and walked toward the lake. I followed him. "This feels so weird." I said again, but it was sunny and nice and hot out so it felt like just a normal day at the beach, but with a Xenomorph.
Xaez ran into the water and swam underneath the waves. I jumped into the water, it was warm and felt so nice to swim in.
I held my breath and dived underneath the water. I could feel Xaez's tail hit my arm. I grabbed at it but it slipped between my fingers. I stayed under the water for about a thirty seconds and went back to the surface.
I gasped for air and kept myself above the water until Xaez popped up. "Xaez!" I called. He swam up beside me. "Hey!" I grabbed onto one of his back spikes, "Swim!!"
Xaez grinned and swam as fast as he could through the water. It felt like a motor boat, I could feel the wind and the water splashing my face as he swam. I began to laugh and tried to keep my grip on his spike but he was going way to fast.
I slipped and went under the water. I quickly held my breath and began to swim in the water until I had to come up for air. Xaez was still swimming as fast as he could. When he noticed me pop up he swam to me and grabbed me, he then dived, slowly, into the water.
Once I knew what he was doing I held my breath and held onto him. When we were both underneath the water he swam like a shark, I had to keep my eyes closed but it still felt really cool, it was like a motor boat but being under the water. It was the best feeling in the world.
Xaez jumped out of the water and dropped me as he dived back underneath like a dolphin. I gasped for air again and began to laugh and splash the water.
When Xaez popped up again he just stayed in one spot, watching me. I smiled at him and swam on my back, I circled him a few times. "This is fun yea know," I laughed again, "You're an extremely good swimmer too, I didn't think a Xenomorph like you could swim," That's when I remembered his markings. I stopped swimming and stared at him, "Your markings!"
Xaez lifted his wrists and tried to jump out of the water a bit to show that the paint on his chest wasn't fading.
"Awesome!" I sighed with relief "I was so worried that it'd fade."
I dived under the water again. Xaez did the same. He swam next to me, I tried to find his claw so I could hold onto it. I could only find his back spike again. I grabbed hold of it and swam for a bit longer. I jumped up to the surface. I began to front crawl around the water.
Xaez swam up beside me and swam with me.
Suddenly, after a few more minutes of swimming, Xaez screeched in alarm and dived under the water. I thought he was playing so I laughed and splashed the water.
"Hey!" Someone yelled.
I stopped and held my breath as I turned to look at the beach. A marine was standing there and waving. "Hey!" He called again.
I looked at him with shock, "He-... Hey!" I called back and swam back toward the shore.From the distance I was from him I noticed that the marine had darkish skin. I slowly walked out of the water, I was a little embarrassed.
The Marine smiled and sighed, "Thank god, I'm not the only one left." He walked up to me but I growled and walked back. He stopped and stood there, "Oh sorry..."
I glared at him and walked back to my backpack. I put my clothes on over my wet undergarments and put on my holster and vest. "Who are you?" I asked. I didn't dare go near him.
"I'm Prone, I'm a Marine, don't worry I'm not going to hurt you." Prone said. "What's your name?"
"Kat, I'm Kat." I picked up my backpack and swung it around my back, " Why are you here? The city is dead." I stared into his green eyes.
"What?" Prone asked with a sad tone, "It's dead? Everyone there is dead?"
"Yeah, at least I think so, when I was there I didn't see anyone else except for a bunch of Xenomorphs." I stared back at the lake to see if Xaez was there.
'Please be okay Xaez'
"Xenomorphs," Prone repeated, "You know what they're called? It was supposed to be classified. Shit."
"Yeah, I over heard a marine." I looked down at my holster and picked up my pistols and held them tightly.
Prone noticed and stared into my face, "I'm not going to hurt you and to answer your other question, I was out of a scouting mission when my squad was attacked by Xenomorphs, they all died and I'm the last one left, I knew there was a city near here so I decided it would probably be the safest place to go."
"Well you're wrong." I lifted the pistols and aimed them at him, I began to shake. "If you make one wrong move I will shoot you."
That's when the Marine seemed to relax, and grinned at me, "You don't even know how to fire those, do you?"
I didn't reply, I just held the pistols.
We stood and watched each other, then Prone lunged at me and knocked the pistols out of my hands.
I was about to scream but he covered my mouth. "Shhh It's okay, I'm not going to hurt you, please calm down."
He sat down and I sat down next to him. "I'm a marine, I'm supposed to protect civilians." I sat there listening to him. " I can teach you how to use those pistols, and I can take you to a safer place, why were you in that lake anyway? It could not be very safe there."
'Don't mention Xaez, he'll try to kill him for sure' I growled a bit, "It's water, I bet I can swim faster than I can run." I looked up at Prone. He had green eyes, brown hair, and scruff. " Where is safer?"
"There is a base set up a few miles from here, I can take you there, you can be safe." He smiled.
I smiled back at him, he wasn't to bad, "Okay, but I'll only go if you teach me how to use those." I pointed to the pistols.
"Alright," He got up and grabbed my pistols. "You'll need to use these anyway, Xenomorphs aren't easy when you fight them up close so having a gun makes it a bit easier." He examined the pistols, "Yep these are p226's."
I stood up, "Are they good?" I asked.
"Yep," He pointed to the magazine, "It holds 12 to 13 bullets. It's also Semi-automatic so you fire one bullet everytime you pull the trigger." He handed the pistols to me.
I looked down at the pistols and aimed them at a tree, "So I just pull the trigger?"
"No, you have to turn the safety off first." He pointed to it.
I turned off the safety. "How much bullets do you think are in this magazine?" I asked him.
"They're probably fully loaded, fire at that tree, the kick back might hurt your wrist but you'll get used to it." He stepped back as I aimed the pistols. "Go on, empty the clips."
"Wait, should I only use one?" I asked looking at him.
He nodded. I handed one of the pistols to him and steadied the other. I stared down the barrel and fired the weapon. A few bullets bounced off of the tree but most missed. I grumbled with disapproval.
"Hold your breath, it gives you more accuracy." Prone said.
I did as told and steadied the weapon again. I emptied the clip into the tree, this time I hit it more but some bullets still missed it. I sighed and turned around to look at Prone.
"Not bad, but not the best either." He smiled, "Take off that clip and put in a new magazine."
I looked past Prone just for a second, in the distance I could see Xaez jump out of the lake and leap into the forest. I smiled knowing that he was safe and looked down at the pistol. "This thing release's the magazine right?"
"Yes, how did you know?"
"I like video games." I smiled up at him and reloaded the pistol.
"Keep doing that, see how fast you can unload and reload, the p226."
I tried at least ten times until I got to unload it and reload it in three seconds.
Prone put his hand on my shoulder, "Great now you know how to fire and reload the pistol, now I'll have to show you how to get it unjammed if that ever happens but at the moment I think we should get somwhere more safe," I holstered the pistols and he continued, "The shots will most likely attract Xenomorphs, and I don't really feel like messing with any of them."
'Great... so I have to head to a marine base with this guy but what about Xaez?' I stared back at the forest "Okay, you lead the way." As Prone began to walk I followed behind him, not taking my eyes off the forest just in case I saw Xaez.
Xaez popped up on the top of a tree but he kept himself hidden. I grinned at him and waved. I could hear Xaez hiss a bit.
'Maybe he'll just follow us and I don't have to worry about him getting killed, yeah, he'll just follow, he's good like that.'
Prone and I walked silently on the road, not knowing what lies ahead of us.