We had walked in silence for a few hours, we came across a few Xenomorphs but they didn't last long.
"So," I said breaking the silence as I walked next to Prone, "What's your real name?"
He looked at me, "Cortez Salazar, Sergeant Cortez Salazar."
I smiled at him, "Sounds like a Spanish name."
"Yes, it is," Prone smiled back at me, "Everyone calls me Prone though."
"Why?" I asked as I glanced at the forest. Xaez was still following us, I could see something teal and black move between the tree's when Prone wasn't looking, but other than that he was completely invisible.
"My squad said I was accident prone, I used to end up hurting myself, I don't anymore." He grabbed his Rifle from his back, "so that's how I got the nickname Prone," he nudged me, "know what this is?" He held his weapon up.
I looked at it, " A rifle?"
"Yep, C8A3 Carbine Rifle, if you get good enough with those pistols I bet I can teach you how to use this." He smiled again and held his Carbine close to him.
We went silent again. 'Learning how to use a Carbine? That's even better than these pistols! I just have to learn to trust him and he has to learn to trust me.' Up ahead I could see a small building, I decided to keep quiet knowing that Prone would've already seen it by now.
I waited a few moments then said, "Prone, can we stop and rest for a bit over at that building?"
"Your legs sore?" he asked.
"Yeah."
"Okay, we'll take a small break," He grinned at me, "it looks like a gas station so maybe we can grab a car, or get you some candy."
I chuckled.
I smiled as we got closer, I began to run but Prone grabbed my backpack and pulled me back. "Wait." he said as he crouched and slowly walked toward the entrance of the small building. "Take out your pistol." he whispered to me.
I did as told and crept up beside him, "What are you doing?" I asked.
"We have to make sure it's safe." He whipped around the corner and walked into the store, I followed behind him. He checked behind the counter, in the back, and both of the washrooms. Once we finished checking the area we went back to the counter.
I sat down on a chair behind the counter. Instantly my legs felt so much better, they were still sore, but better.
Prone walked up and down the aisles, "Someone's raided this place," he said looking at me, "basically no food or water left."
"It's okay, I got food and water." I took off my backpack and took out some water, I handed one to Prone. I handed him a bottle as he sat down next to me. I put my pistol back into the holster. "Do you have any food?" I took out a can of corn as he took a sip from the bottled water.
"Yeah but only army rations, they're not the tastiest things in the world." He lowered his own backpack to take out some food.
"Cold corn ain't so good either." I grabbed my combat knife and stabbed at the can until it opened, put the knife down and ate a mouthful of cold corn. Prone chuckled, he opened up a green bag, put a weird bag that said FRH on it into the bag and added some water too. He put some type of chicken on the bag and waited. Suddenly the bag started to steam and Prone began to eat the food. He picked up a bar that read "HOOAH!" on it, and took a bite. I stared at him for a few moments then got back to eating my corn.
We ate for a few minutes, but then Prone noticed my blade, he merely choked on his food, "Why do you have a Combat Knife?"
I grabbed the blade, and finished off my food before answering, "I found it and took it." I walked to a waste bin and tossed out the can. Just as I was about to walk back to Prone, three people walked by the doorway, two men and one woman.
"Well, hello little one." One of the men said.
I growled and backed up, I looked at Prone expectantly. He was already on his feet with his Carbine aimed straight at the People. I noticed two of them were holding knifes. "Drop the weapons!" Prone shouted in an extremely aggressive tone.
The people smiled, "We're simply looking for food and supplies," They looked at each other and grinned. "Which you seem to have plenty of."
I glared at them and walked behind one of the aisles, I made sure that I could still see them. Then I took one of my pistols out of it's holster and flipped the safety off. 'You try something and I'll get you!' I wanted to yell, but I kept my mouth shut.
The woman took a step toward Prone, "Would you mind giving some food?" I could tell from her tone that she was up to something.
Prone glared at her and pulled our backpacks away from them. "You're looters." He growled.
The woman looked to the men by the door, they both nodded and she lunged at Prone lifting her knife as she did so. Prone dropped her with a round to the head, I jumped out of the aisle and shot at the men by the doorway three times, I hit one once in the leg, he screamed and fell to the ground.
The other man ran toward Prone. Prone leapt back and opened fire, taking him out in a few seconds. I ran to him and glared down at the wounded man.
Prone looked at me and said, "People like these are the ones that you have to stay away from," He looked down at the man, " It's only been a few days and everyone is already turning into beasts." He looked at me again.
"You bastard!!" The man yelled, "You killed them! You killed them!"
"You attacked us!" I yelled at him and lifted the pistol so that it was aimed square at his head.
His eyes widened and he gasped and then his eyes drew narrow. "You wouldn't dare," He growled, "You wouldn't kill a Human, you're just a kid!"
Prone stepped in, "Pipe down! You'll attract the bugs!"
"Oh god please don't kill me! Take whatever you want!" The man yelled again.
"It's better than leaving him to get dragged away by the Xenomorphs." Prone looked at me.
'What's so bad about being taken by Xenomorphs?'
I walked a bit closer and aimed the gun between his eyes. My hand shook violently but I took in a breath to steady it.
Prone gave me a nod, I hesitated for a few seconds. The man yelled again but never got to finish his sentence, I pulled the trigger and he was gone.
Prone said, "You did the right thing Kat." He patted me on the shoulder and grabbed my backpack and put it down next to me.
I let out a breath and stared down at the backpack. 'I had to, he tried to attack Prone, he would've kill me too.' I looked back at Prone. "My wrist hurts..."
He grabbed his backpack and swung it around his back, "Don't worry, that's just from the kick back, it should be okay in a few hours." He walked outside of the gas station, "I'm going to look for a car. Stay here and don't move."
I nodded and he left my sight. I stared down at my gun. 'I can't believe I killed someone... I... I shouldn't of...' . I felt tears run down my face but I quickly wiped them away. "I had to do it." I said to myself and holstered my pistol. Grabbing my backpack I went to look down some of the small aisles.
There wasn't much Candy left, a few chocolate bars and hard candy but that was it. I stared at the Candy and sighed, after shooting someone I didn't have much of an appetite. Suddenly hissing came from behind me. I swung around to see Xaez standing there.
"Xaez!" I yelled, running and embracing him. Xaez screeched in alarm. He tilted his head and grinned. "Are you mad that I'm wandering around with Prone?" He shook his head and hissed softly. "So you don't mind? You're not going to kill him right? You're going to follow us right?"
He made something like a twittering sound and nodded. When we both heard Prone walk by the building Xaez screeched and jumped up onto the roof, he looked at the door for a few seconds and skittered out of sight.
I watched as he went away, Prone came up from behind me and grabbed my shoulder. "I swear I heard a Xenomorph," he sighed with relief, "You okay?"
"Yeah." I turned around to look at him, "Did you find a car?"
"Yes." I stayed behind him as he gestured me to follow out of the building. "All I got to do is hot wire it, know what hot wiring is?"
"Isn't it that thing where you can drive a car without it's keys or something."
"Yes," He walked up to the car that was parked behind the gas station, he opened the driver's door and hopped in while I got in the passengers side.
As Prone hot wired the car I took off my backpack and set it on my lap. I sighed. 'I hope Xaez is safe... Do other Xenomorph's attack him cause he was with me or do they not attack him cause he is their own species? Oh I wish he could talk.'
The engine of the car came to life and Prone cheered triumphantly. "Yes!" He smiled at me, "Now we can get to the base faster, hopefully this car will last the ride there."
"What if Xenomorphs attack us?" I looked out of the window and into the forest, Xaez moving through the tree's.
Prone noticed him and quickly put on my seat belt and buckled himself in, "We have to go, and we'll worry about that when it happens." He drove the car away from the gas station and went down the road. He glanced out the window occasionally with a worried face.
'Everything should be fine now, we have a car, supplies, food and water... we're okay... we're safe.'