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."
I yawned, "What?" I opened my eyes just a little bit to look at him.
"We're at the tunnel but something doesn't look right," He pointed out of the front window, "See that right there? It wasn't there before when I come through, the only problem is that there is no other way to go around I-" He stopped when he heard something screech.
I rubbed my eyes and stared out the window, I ignored the sound. 'Probably just Xaez.'. The sun was beginning to set in the horizon, it's rays of light glimmering in orange and yellow and pink. Outside, at the tunnel, I could see black webbing surrounding the mouth of the tunnel, it shined slightly. And from where I was it looked like it was wet or slimy. "What's that?"
"I'm not sure," Prone replied, "I'm guessing it has something to do with Xenomorphs though. We can't go around it, we have to go through." He sounded nervous.
"Okay." I tossed my backpack in the back seat of the car and looked down at my holstered Pistols, "Should I use one of my pistols just in case?" I asked.
"Yes. But only fire if I tell you to." Prone grabbed his Carbine and set it on his lap. He slowly moved the car toward the entrance of the tunnel.
At first everything was completely fine. Nothing was there. But Prone was being extremely cautious, he stared out the window at the gooey substance on the walls of the tunnel. I held one of my pistols and stared out of my window. 'Nothing yet...'
The peace didn't last long, we suddenly heard a ear piercing screech and I screamed as the the car shuddered.
Prone cursed and immediately stepped on the gas. The car seemed to whine and we heard more screeches and hisses.
A Xenomorph jumped onto the side of the car where I was and used it's extra mouth to break the glass. It snarled and tried to get into the car, I raised my pistol to fire at it but Prone reached out and pulled me off my seat.
"Shoot!" He yelled as he quickly grabbed the wheel and plowed through a bunch of Xenomorphs. The creature clinging to the passenger door screeched and tried to grab at me. I fired the pistol and watched as it slumped on the seat. I began to hear something, like something was slowly sizzling.
I watched, amazed as the car seat in front of me began to dissolve right in front of my eyes. I stared out the broken window. Several Xenomorphs were crawling on the car now, I could hear them bashing the top of the roof. He rammed the car into the left side of the tunnel, scattering black shapes as he tried to keep them off the drivers side.
Prone was yelling my name, I wasn't listening to him. Then I heard gun shots. I covered my ears and looked to see Prone shooting the front glass window. A Xenomorph was on the hood and scratching through the cracked window at him. I lifted my pistol and aimed it at the Alien. "No don't!" Prone screamed, "The acid will burn the engine!"
"Then what do I do!?" I yelled back at him.
"Wait for it to move first!"
I kept my aim on the Xenomorph as it moved toward my broken window, other Xenomorphs began to crowd around it as well. I held my breath and aimed my pistol at the nearest Xenomorph's head. I fired twice and killed the first one.
My old seat was now completely gone, and the front right wheel seemed to be starting to dissolve as well. More Xenomorphs tried to get through.
Prone kept his foot on the gas and shot at the Xenomorphs on the passenger door. The car drifted off to the right and hit the tunnel wall. I could hear the metal grinding and whining against the concrete tunnel.
I could smell something acrid, I guessed that it was the burning rubber from the car wheels, or the metal being melted by the Alien acid.
By now the Xenomorphs completely covered the car. There claws were tearing through the top of the car and reaching down to grab at us. I yelped, ducking "What do we do!?!?" I yelled.
"We're almost to the end! We just have to hold on until we reach it." Prone fired at the back car window, killing and knocking off three Xenomorphs. I shot the nearest Xenomorph and emptied my clip into the rest by the window.
I quickly reloaded the pistol and screamed as a Xenomorph grabbed my arm. "Prone!" I kicked at the Alien but it wouldn't let go. Now everything got slow. I could see all the Xenomorphs jumping up onto the car, and up on the wall behind every single one of them was Xaez, Xaez, he was watching the whole time. I didn't blame him for not helping. With this many Xenomorphs he'd be torn apart in seconds.
But he wasn't getting them to stop. 'Why isn't he getting them to stop? Can't he tell them to?' I screamed as loud as I could and fired at the Xenomorph holding my arm, I made sure I hit it in the leg so that the blood wouldn't touch me.
The Xenomorph screeched in alarm but didn't let go of me as it began to fall. Prone grabbed my other arm and yanked me back to him. Now everything was back to normal and Xaez seemed to have disappeared. 'Had I just imagined him? No I saw him I know I did...'
The car burst out of the tunnel and onto the open road. We made it a few metres away from the tunnel when Prone stomped on the brakes. The car skidded to a stop and the Xenomorphs on the roof went flying forward.
Prone hit the gas again and smashed through the recovering Aliens, acid spattering the hood and windshield. Prone drove away as fast as he could, Xenomorphs chased after us for what seemed like forever, until eventually they seemed to dwindle and disappear, roughly three kilometers away from the tunnel. Prone slowed the car to a stop and slumped back into the seat, idly flipping the windshield wipers on.
"We got some bugs on our windshield." He said, as the smoldering remains of the wipers twitched by the gapping hole of what used to be the windsheild. I giggled abit, forgetting the fear and adrenaline of escaping the tunnel for a moment.
I looked into the backseat, my backpack was still there just the way I had left it, unlike everthing around it. I got up, grabbed it and swung it around my shoulder. I got out and admired the car with Prone.
I looked up at him and grinned, "Good as new."
Prone laughed and put a hand on my shoulder, "You're good Kat, I didn't think you'd actually kill any of those things."
"Well if they attack me they're going to die."
Prone smiled at me and started to pace up and down the road. "Now the only problem is that we don't have a car and it's almost dark out. Xenomorphs seem to mainly be active at night."
"Really?" I asked and looked at the forest, "I've been out here at night and never seen one."
"Maybe cause they're dark and quiet," He looked at the forest too, "We'll have to walk the rest of the way to the base." He started to make his way toward the forest.
I followed behind him. 'I have to find Xaez and talk to him... maybe I can when Prone is sleeping tonight, yeah that's when I'll go looking for him.' I smiled to myself, everything was going well. We didn't have a car but we weren't dead either. Everything was going to be fine.