It was really dark now, around 10:25 PM. The moon was out and Prone and I were sitting by a fire he had made, I was leaning against a tree and looking through my backpack for another can of corn.
Prone was holding his combat knife and was slowly sliding it across his fingers, I was tempted to do the same but I knew I'd end up cutting myself by accident. I shifted around the cereal and found a can of the cold corn, I smiled as I picked it out of the pack and set it down in front of me.
Prone lifted his head and peered at me. I zipped up my pack and took out my knife. "Wait," Prone said, "put it by the fire, you can warm it up."
I did as he suggested and shoved it close to the fire, I leaned back against the tree again.
Prone put his knife beside him and went digging through his own bag, he took out a package that said MRE on the side of it. He opened it and pulled out another one of those weird heating things, he put his food into it and waited.
The fire crackled and popped and I could feel the heat against my face, it didn't help with how tired I was but it helped my mood a lot, it looked nice. It was like I was camping with my dad again, but without Roman. I almost wanted to cry but instead I just stared at the fire.
I grabbed a stick and reached out to poke the can of corn back to me. Prone stood up and walked over to me with his food in his hands. He sat himself down next to me and put his food on my lap. I stared down at it for a few moments. 'He wants me to have it?' I looked up at him expectantly.
"Go on," He smiled at me, "you get my food today, I'll get the 'cold' corn." He pulled what looked like a chocolate bar out of a bag and gave it to me," Hooah!" He cheered.
The bar read Hooah and near the bottom Ooh-Rah, "What does that mean?" I smiled up at him.
Prone shrugged, "No one really knows, I've been told it means anything but 'No' and others say it's when you agree with someone."
I chuckled a bit and grabbed the food, Prone waited for the canned corn to cool off a bit before opening and eating. The military food tasted much better than the cold corn, it was like I was eating chicken for the first time in my whole life, it was awesome. I was surprised that it had only been three days since the Xenomorphs attacked, it felt more like two weeks or a month.
I scooped up the last bit of the food and unwrapped the HOOAH! bar. Prone was smiling at me. I smiled back at him before taking a bite out of the bar. 'It really is like I'm camping with my dad.'. I leaned up against the tree and continued to munch on the bar.
'Prone should know how far the base is now, hopefully we can make it that far.' I chewed and looked up at all the other trees, I wished Xaez was here with me, I liked cuddling next to him. I took another bite of the bar then turned to Prone. "You said the Xenomorph's mainly come at night right?"
Prone didn't look at me, he continued to eat his food, "Yeah, I was just thinking about that. Maybe we should move out before we draw any attention."
I finished off the bar. "Why don't we just rest for a bit, then go?" I stood up and looked through my backpack.
"I guess we could do that." He replied. I grabbed my flashlight and walked toward a different area. Prone stared at me and put down the can of corn, "Hey, where are you going?" He said standing up.
I paused and looked at him, "Don't worry, I just have to go to the washroom." I glanced down at my holsters. "I'll be fine."
Prone sighed and sat back down. "Don't go to far."
I nodded and walked off into the bushes. I flicked the flashlight on and went far enough from the site that I could barely see the fire. I relieved myself then wandered around for a little while. I looked up at the trees, " Xaez." I called in a quite tone, "Xaez, where are you?"
Xaez jumped down in front of me with that big grin on his face. I smiled back at him and hugged him. "Hey buddy!" He screeched in surprise and nuzzled my head.
I took a step back and sat down, "You're going to protect us when we're sleeping right?" I asked him. "You're going to make sure we're safe."
Xaez screeched and nodded. He made something like a twittering sound and looked in the direction of the fire.
"Do you like Prone?" I asked him in a worried tone. I wanted him to like him, we could live together and be happy together, we could go to a house and live there. Xaez could be like a pet and it'd be like I was with my dad again. 'Please like him... please'
He lowered his head a bit and hissed. I didn't know what it mean't but I took it in the way that he did like Prone. I stood up and smiled. " I should probably get back to him before he begins to worry." I paused then remember about the Tunnel, "You were there... You were in the tunnel."
This got Xaez's attention and he looked at me with his head lifted high and tilted. He twittered again. "Why didn't you help us?" I asked him.
Xaez hissed again and screeched. He looked side to side as if he was trying to figure out how to show me something. He growled a bit and used his claws to show what he meant. He pawed at the air as if he was scratching it then pointed at himself.
It took some time for me to process what he was saying, "The others would attack you if you did?" He nodded. 'Good, he didn't betray me then.' I smiled at him then I heard Prone call my name. "Xaez... I should go before he comes looking for me."
Xaez seemed to growl and jumped off into the trees.
I sighed and walked back toward the fire. I tried to be as quite as possible so that I wouldn't startle Prone. I crept up to the tree line and saw Prone pacing back and forth holding his rifle. "Prone." I called to him.
He shot his head up and looked at me, "There you are, what took you so long?"
I grinned and sat down next to the fire. I flicked the flashlight off and put it back into my backpack. "I went wandering but I kept the fire in view." I closed my eyes and leaned up against the tree. 'I should just sleep.'
"Well tell me if you're going to do that." He had a stern tone, "I don't want you getting attacked. Now I was thinking about what you said before, about sleeping for a bit and heading off in the night, we're going to do that, it's probably the safest thing we can do."
I nodded but didn't open my eyes or reply. I tried thinking about Xaez and me swimming again. It was so fun, I wanted to go back to the lake with him and swim while it was still warm out. Soon I began to drift off and fell asleep.
I awoke to Prone calling my name. "Kat, we should move now." he whispered.
I grumbled a bit and rubbed my eyes. 'Worst. Idea. Ever... I have to learn to shut up.' I yawned and grabbed my flashlight from my bag, zipped the bag up, and walked over to Prone. This was when I noticed that Prone had a light on his shoulder that he simply flicked on.
Prone grabbed his backpack and put it on his back. I did the same. Prone walked off into the direction that he thought the Military base was in, I followed behind.
'What does a Military base look like anyway? I know they don't look like stupid video game bases. Maybe it's just a big house that they call a 'base'... or maybe it's like one of those things with barricades and stuff, now that'd be really cool!' I smiled to myself and flashed my light around the tree's.
There were noises in the distance that seemed to unsettle Prone. He looked nervously at his surroundings, he kept his rifle up and ready to be fired. I didn't blame him. I was a bit nervous too, I knew the noises were either Xenomorphs or wild Animals... or wild Animals being chased by Xenomorphs.
I stayed close to Prone, unholstered one of my pistols and held it in my right hand with my flashlight in my left. 'I always did hate the darkness...'
Now I could hear loud screeches and hisses. 'Please be Xaez, please be Xaez.' I could feel my heart beating really fast now and I started to breath heavily.
Suddenly Xenomorphs leapt out of the darkness toward us. I screamed and threw myself to the ground, but Prone grabbed my backpack and hauled me back to my feet, dragging me into a run as the Xenomorphs chased after us.
Prone fired at the Xenomorphs and dropping two of them. I fired my pistol four times, three of the shots missed but one hit a Xenomorph straight in the head. There was at least six Xenomorphs behind us, jumping tree to tree and bounding closer.
I tried to push myself to go faster but my legs were already starting to hurt. Prone had to keep dragging me behind him. We ran another few feet when Prone shoved me under a fallen log.
I yelped and rolled under it. I saw him leap over the log and turn around, firing rounds at the Xenomorphs. He dropped one, then another, and another but then one of them was on him. He used his arm to keep the second mouth away from his face as he struggled to get the monster off of him.
"Prone!" I yelled and lifted my gun up to shoot at the Xenomorph, then remembered what happened my mom when one had bled on top of her. I fired at one of the other Aliens that was about to pounce on him and it hit the ground in front of the log. It's body already began to disintegrate.
More of them began to come, there was just too many. I fired until my clip was empty. Suddenly the other Xenomorphs dropped on the ground and three Marines came bursting into the light. One of them drop-kicked the Xenomorph on top of Prone, then fired several rounds through it's head and watched as it began to disintegrate before getting up.
The other Marines helped Prone to his feet as I crawled out from under the log and stepped around the dead Xenomorphs. I stared up at them.
The Marines didn't look down at me. "Name and Rank." the Marine had a Irish accent.
"Sergeant Cortez Salazar." Prone replied and nodded at the fellow Marine, "Thanks by the way."
The other two Marines, one with dark skin, and one with a lighter skin stood beside the one with the Irish accent. They looked at each other and seemed to nod.
"You should come with us." The lighter skinned one said, 'The base is about two clicks away from here, I think it's safer then running around in the dark with two lights." he looked at me, "You hurt?" he asked in a gentle tone.
I nodded but didn't say anything, I walked behind Prone.
Prone took a few steps then stopped, "First, what's your names?"
The Irish one said, "Lieutenant Carter,." He pointed to the dark skinned one, "This is Private Timber, and Corporal Laine."
Prone nodded, "Okay, let's go."
We walked for about thirty or forty minutes, the Marines and Prone had killed several Xenomorphs on the way. I stayed close to Prone, I didn't trust any of the new Marines.
As we got to the treeline of the forest I gaped and stared at the massive Military base. I never expected to see what I saw, it wasn't like a video game one at all. It was much bigger than I thought it'd be, there was a massive building and what looked like a landing strip and road that lead toward it. I looked up at Prone who seemed to be completely calm, but he knew what a base looked like. He seemed a bit nervous though.
Prone held onto my hand as we walked nearer. Now I was getting nervous, I glanced back at the forest to see if Xaez was there. He wasn't.
I held my breath as Prone and the others walked up to a heavily armed Marine with two others at his side.
Prone stopped a few feet away from him and saluted, "Sir."
The Marine had plenty of metals on his uniform, maybe twenty or more. He had a stern look on his face and he was glaring at Prone. " At ease." He looked down at me for a few seconds and back at Prone, "You abandoned your squad Sergeant."
Prone seemed like he was on the verge of panic, "I know sir. I thought everyone was dead." He said standing straight.
"This could call for court-martial!" The Marine raised his voice a bit.
"General... I know, I thought they were dead. I had no choice but to run." He looked down at me. "I found a survivor."
The General looked down at me again, "An armed civilian at that, did you give her those weapons?"
"No, Sir."
The General narrowed his eyes and looked back at Prone, "We will discuss this later." He looked at the Marine named Carter, "Take their weapons, escort them to their quarters and keep them under guard."
I growled with disapproval as the marines took my pistols. They didn't take my knife though. After the Marines waved us to follow them. We did as we were told. 'Great... this is not what I thought it'd be...'