I was in my room stuffing everything back into my backpack and trying to figure out what to do. The marines were everywhere now but I hadn't seen Prone, I was beginning to freak out. 'Maybe he's dead, or he killed someone and the Marines are looking for him'.
I finished with my backpack and swung it around my shoulder, I walked over to the door and looked up and down the corridor. Three Marines and two civilians were in the hall talking to each other with fear in their voices.
The Marines looked over at me but didn't say anything. I looked down at my vest, my knife would probably come in handy now, if the Marines tried anything I could stab them. Not sure If I could get the courage to do that though. The Marines glared at me and when they looked away I took off down the opposite side of the hall. 'Find Prone and get out of the base. Then find Xaez and make sure Prone doesn't kill him.'
I looked to either side and into all the other rooms I passed, there were civilians in most of them and some Marines checking their weapons. The ones that didn't have anyone looked like they had packed up their things and taken off in a hurry, like I did.
Suddenly I stopped in my tracks, I could hear gunfire. I stared down the corridor and wondered whether I should keep going or not. I held my breath and walked to the end and looked down the next hall. No one. I sighed, ' I'm going to be okay.' I ran down the hall looking back a few times.
I was nervous now, I didn't know what was going on or if that "evac" was coming or even here. 'If it was the evac then why are people shooting?' I looked down at my empty holster and frowned, I missed having my guns with me. 'Maybe they're just being safe and taking out the Xenomorphs, making sure they don't get to the choppers. That's most likely what's going on.'
Prone would have to be somewhere in the base, he'd have to be, either that or he was outside fighting the Xenomorphs. 'What if they hit Xaez? They could kill him.' If Xaez died I'd have Prone but I wouldn't be able to live without my little Xenomorph, he saved me so many times and kept me safe from the others.
I made it down the hall and peeked around the corner, I saw a group of four Marines, two holding assault rifles and the others holding pistols. They were firing down the opposite hall and yelling orders. I gasped, took a few steps toward them and called out to them, "Whats going on?"
A Marine stopped firing and looked at me,"Hey kid! Get out of here, take those doors!" He pointed to his left, and I paused. "It's not safe, go!" He shouted between bursts of fire.
Ahead I saw a door to the right. I took a few more steps toward the door but I stopped when I heard the Marine scream. I looked up and saw a Xenomorph on top of him biting down into his neck. It was tearing the flesh right off, spilling his blood all over the floor and the walls. Then the Alien slashed it's tail through his abdomin causing more blood to splatter.
The rest of the Marines, now covered in their friends blood, were retreating and screaming. They desperately fired their guns.
More Xenomorphs came rushing down the hall and pounced at them. A Marine holding a pistol wasn't so lucky and got tackled by at least four of them. They were literally tearing him apart, taking off his arms and shredding through his torso. A few Xenomorphs grabbed a Marine and hauled him back as he screamed for his life.
"Don't let them take me! Help! AHHH!" When the Marine was pulled out of sight his cries for help had stopped.
I stared in shock, scrambling back away from the door and what was left of the Marines. I smacked into the wall behind me and stood there, frozen. The Xenomorphs weren't focused on me but I knew that if I was to stay I would die. I opened my mouth to scream but nothing came out. 'I have to move, why won't I move?!'
A few Xenomorphs stopped at the end of the hall, turning to look at me. One opened it's mouth and hissed loudly. The others stood and slowly stepped forward, saliva dripping down from their jaws and hitting the floor. Their claws were raised and their tails were whipping side to side. The diamond teeth glistened almost like they were grinning at me, like Xaez did.
I stared for a few more seconds before turning, it was so fast that I thought I was going to trip over my own feet. I sprinted as fast as I could and instead of going down the corridor back to my room I ran toward the Mess Hall that was a few halls away.
My fear and adrenaline made me much faster.
"Xaez!" I yelled for my friend and tried to see if he'd come to me, "Xaez, where are you?!" I shrieked as I heard more Xenomorphs. They were screeching and hissing and I could hear them crawling on the walls behind me.
I turned down another hall, glancing back for just a second. The Xenomorphs were extremely close now, just a few feet away, their claws were leaving massive scratch marks on the walls as they pounced and screeched.
'Just run and don't stop, rule number 1, NEVER turn around' I had learned it from a video game but I never thought that it'd come in handy in real life. I looked away and forward, two more corridors until the Mess hall.
I forced myself to move faster as I turned a corner and nearly smashed into the wall, now I could see some Marines, they were at the end of the last hall. They saw me and ran toward me. Then they stopped and raised their weapons, horror was on their faces.
"Xenomorphs!" One screamed, "Open fire!"
I shrieked as the Marines fired, the shots missed me but I could feel them flying past my skull. "Xaez!" I called again, I didn't care if the Marines heard me, "Xaez!!!". I made it to the end of the hall and as I turned I bumped into someone. I yelped as I fell to the ground.
"Who's Xaez?" I looked up and saw Prone, he extended his hand to help me up.
I opened my mouth to say something but instead said nothing and grabbed his hand. He pulled me to my feet. "Where do we go?" I asked.
Prone looked behind himself, at the mess hall door, "There is an emergency exit it in the Mess Hall, we'll leave through those okay?" He looked at the Marines that were still firing. "Do you have your pistols?"
"No." I began to walk toward the mess hall but Prone grabbed my wrist.
"Wait," He said, "The Armory is just a few corridors away, we can make it there, grab your guns, and leave this place. Come on." He walked to where the other Marines were, "I'm heading to the Armory, I'll be back in five."
He began to jog down the opposite hall, I chased after him. "What's a Corridor?"
He glanced down at me, "A hall basically." He looked forward again and lifted his assault rifle, "Stay close to me, Xenomorphs are everywhere now."
We both jogged down the Corridors, we could still hear the Xenomorphs screeching and hissing some snarled loud enough to make the ground shake slightly. 'What creature can make a noise that loud?' Prone seemed uneasy when ever he heard the snarls, and appeared to shiver a bit.
I tried to remember what Prone told me about the Xenomorphs and how there were different kinds of them. 'Praetorian and Queen? Yeah I think that was it. Maybe the snarls are from those things. He said they were big so wouldn't they be loud too?'
Prone didn't look back no matter what noises he heard, he just kept going and didn't stop. It didn't take long until we reached the Armory and now Prone seemed even more unsettled.
As I saw the door I opened it and walked in, there were weapons all over the place. I went to the pistols. Prone was holding onto my backpack, probably to make sure he could pull me back if he had to.
I grabbed the pistols that looked like my old ones and looked back at Prone. "What's wrong?" I asked as I holstered them and looked for extra magazines.
"We didn't see a single Xenomorph on the way here," He glanced at the door, "Somethings not right. Please hurry."
I grabbed as many Magazines as I could and put them on my belt and into the pistols, "Okay, go."
We walked out of the Armory and half way down the corridor all the lights went out causing me to yelp in fear. "Shit!" Prone cursed, "They cut the power." He flicked on his shoulder light and immediately dragged me into a run.
"Ahh!" I screamed as I began to run with him. Now the Xenomorphs seemed to be getting louder and smarter. I could hear them behind us now, screeching and snarling. "Prone!" I yelled, "They're behind us!"
Prone glanced back and fired a couple times, "There are too many to take out, just keep running and don't stop!" We ran back to the Mess Hall only to find that more than half of the Marines had been killed.
Blood was splattered against the walls and the last two remaining Marines were huddled by the Mess Hall doors. Their faces were covered in blood and they we screaming and yelling at the top of their lungs.
"Prone!!! Run now!" A female Marine shrieked, "Get through these doors before he notices you!"
At the word "he" I glanced to the other end of the corridor. A massive Xenomorph was there who had a head crest and looked like it was bigger then the hall itself.
It seemed to duck and had a massive tail swaying side to side. Xenomorphs were crawling by it, protecting it. I squinted and even though it was exetremely dark I could see that it only had two arms, and massive back spikes.
Xenomorphs were crawling all over it, they all turned to look at Prone and I.
I swallowed and stared up at Prone. He was wide eyed with his mouth gaping. "Praetorian..." He wrapped his hand around my wrist and ran straight toward the doors. The Xenomorphs behind us screeched louder as they also saw the Praetorian.
"Let's go!" Prone smashed open the doors and ran toward the exit. The Marines followed behind him, slamming the door shut as they did so.
The Xenomorphs didn't need much effort to break through the doors again. The Praetorian was right behind them, it snarled loudly and Prone, the Marines, and I turned to stare up at it.
It opened it's jaw and screeched, saliva flying out as it outstretched miniture jaw. Xenomorphs screeched with it, surrounded us, they didn't attack but they made sure there was no place we could go to hide.
"Take out your gun." Prone said and pushed me behind him, "When I say fire, we shoot that thing."
The Marines stepped beside Prone and raised their weapons, Prone did the same. I took out the pistol, shaking violently. 'I didn't think it'd be that big...' I was breathing heavily now.
The Praetorian took a step forward. Prone yelled, "Fire! Fire, now!" Everyone shot at it.
The Praetorian hissed and lunged. It's claws reached out toward the female Marine but she jumped back and fired some more, the bullets bouncing off of it's head crest.
I fired three times, one hit to the chest. It screeched in pain and ran at me. I yelped and ran to the right.
Prone fired at it's head to get it's attention and ran the opposite way. "Aim for the chest, that seems to be the weak spot."
The Praetorian turned to him and charged, whipping it's tail causing Prone to dive to the ground to dodge. Instead it tore the other Marine in half, his guts went flying into the wall and his blood splattered onto the floor.
I gagged and ducked behind a table. The Xenomorphs stared at me with their mouths open as they snarled. 'Why aren't they attacking? Are they testing us?' I tilted my head at them and looked back at the Praetorian. It was going after Prone again.
I fired my pistol five more times and hit it in the stomach and chest. It snarled and whipped around toward me, then the female Marine fired from the other side, and Prone from the left. The Praetorian spun, beginning to look disoriented. It couldn't decide who to attack.
The female marine then shot at the Xenomorphs standing by the exit. "Go! Prone! Take the kid and go!"
The Xenomorphs snarled and leapt at her. Prone hesitated for a fraction of a second before bolting toward me, "Let's go, Kat!" He ran past me and I followed him.
The Xenomorphs were going crazy now. They were lunging and screeching with anger. The last Marine looked right into my eyes as I ran to the exit. I stared at her with sadness.
"Go!" She yelled one more time and lifted her left hand. She was holding a grenade. She pulled the pin and released the trigger.
"Kat!" Prone yelled again and covered my eyes just as I heard the explosion. He dragged me out of the Mess Hall. "We have to go, the Xenomorphs will be after us now."
I swallowed and nodded. I looked around at the base for a few more seconds, Xenomorphs were crawling all over it, I could hear screams of pain, screeches and snarls. Tears welled in my eyes and I looked up at Prone, "Where-" I sniffed, "Where do... we go?"
"There's a Jeep over there." He pointed some where to his left. "I have the keys we can leave with that." He put a hand on my shoulder, "Everything will be okay Kat, I promise you."
I nodded and Prone began to run.
I followed him and raised my pistols. Prone held his rifle, shooting at all the near by Xenomorphs. Their acid sprayed out everywhere but we jumped over the bodies. I shot four times at a Xenomorph running toward us, I missed once but the other three hit it in the head and arms.
It dropped to the ground and began to melt away.
'Everything is going to be okay, Prone said it was.' Suddenly I remembered who I was supposed to find. 'Xaez'
I halted to a stop, turning around. Prone stopped and looked back at me, "What are you doing?" he asked as he walked over to me and grabbed my wrist, "We have to go, the Xenomorphs-"
"Xaez, I have to find Xaez!" I stared at the over run base and tried to go to it.
"No Kat! We can look for him later, we have to go." He paused for a second, "If you go you can die and you'll never find him."
I whimpered, tears running down my face. 'He's right, I can't find him if i'm dead.' I turned back toward the Jeep, "Fine let's go."
Prone smiled at me, "Hey, remember what I said, we'll be okay." We ran to the Jeep and I jumped into the passenger seat.
"You have everything in your backpack right?" Prone asked.
I nodded, 'Xaez...' I holstered my pistols, "Yeah, come on we should go before they get her-" Suddenly blood, brain and guts splashed over my face and my eyes widened in complete horror.
Prone's body flopped down into the drivers seat, his head was completely destroyed.
I looked up and saw Xaez standing over his body, he was grinning at me with his blood stained teeth and face. He hissed softly and turned around and took a few steps away.
'Prone!!' I wanted to scream but nothing came out, everything was happening too fast, it felt like I couldn't breathe. I tried to move, my body wasn't listening to me, I was completely frozen and now I was crying uncontrollably.
Tears kept running down my face but I wasn't making any sounds, no sniffling or cries.
Xaez looked back at me once he noticed I wasn't moving. He screeched expectantly and when I didn't reply he stepped back to me.
He made something like a twitter and stared at me. He hissed again. I didn't move. He lifted me up and held me close to him and jumped up onto the Jeep.
Xaez held the hook of my backpack in one claw and the other claw around my waist to keep me up. He screeched one last time, looked at the base, and ran straight into the forest. He looked down at me as he ran and kept trying to screech to me, to try and get me to reply to him.
'He killed him, he killed Prone right in front of me. I told him I liked him, why did he just kill him?' More tears ran down my face and I looked up at Xaez just for a few seconds then looked away from him. 'I don't want to look at him, he betrayed me, he killed my friend... but why is he saving me?'
I tried to shake the words out of my head. He may be saving me but I would've been safe with Prone too. 'I can't forgive him, I know I can't...' But something else was telling me otherwise, 'But I have to, he's the only one I have left'
Xaez wasn't looking at me anymore, just running farther and farther away from the base. All I had to do was wait for him to put me down and then I could try and think more clearly about what had just happened.
'I don't know what to do now'