The farther I walked the more of that strange black goo I seemed to find. It peaked my interest for a while, wondering what it could possibly be.

Xaez just ignored it and kept walking, only once in a while raising his head to hiss or sniff the air.

Every single part of my body ached and all I wanted to do was go back to that house and sleep, but I had to stay with Xaez, he knew what he was doing, where we were going. He had to keep walking slow because of me and he was practically dragging me along with his tail.

It was strange to think that just a few days ago or week ago I was at my school, playing with my friends and complaining about homework, and now I ended up here. Back in school I would've thought that I'd be at home right now, laying in my room and playing with toys, or talking to Roman about how everything was going; but instead, I've killed people, I befriended a horrifying creature, I left my brother and don't know what will happen next.

Tears stung my eyes as I continued to think, but I refused to let them hurt me. 'I want to be with Roman, I want to be home, I don't want to be here anymore... I miss my old life... But I can survive in this one, I know I can, I'm strong...' But my heart ached from the thoughts of my old life. I sniffled and shook my head. 'Everything is gone, there is no point to think about it, it's not like everything can be the way it was before, no matter how many times I want it to be'

I stared at the ground now, only focusing on keeping my grip on Xaez's tail. 'There is nothing left anymore...' I felt sick, my stomach ached from what could be hunger or just from my own thoughts. I wanted to throw up or at least just lay down. Xaez would get upset at that though, he'd want me to keep going at this point.

It took me a while to notice that the black goo was now on the ground and I was stepping on it. Clear thick slime stuck to my shoes, making it even harder to lift my feet off the ground. "Xaez," I called out weakly, "Are we almost there? I ca-..." I paused for a deep breath, "I can't keep walking..."

That's when I hit the ground. Most of my fall cushioned by the strange goo; but my right hand and side of my face scraped against the concrete. I didn't even scream. It hurt but the pain wasn't as bad as the pain I felt in my head and heart. Xaez let out a screech and was already by my side, nuzzling the side of my head, or more of pushing.

I couldn't move. My legs weren't listening, no matter how hard I tried to move them. I could barely move my finger tips. So I just laid there.

Xaez screeched a couple more times, then I heard the sound of a long hiss before I was suddenly being lifted off of the ground. Xaez had grabbed the handle of my backpack and then held me like a mother holding a baby.

All I could do was look up at him as he continued his walk. I curled up as much as I could to try and stay warm and to stop my stomach from aching tremendously. Xaez had sped up his pace, not exactly at a jog but faster than a normal walk.

I closed my eyes, thinking of everything that had happened throughout my life, thinking of my friends and all the fun times we'd have hanging out. I smiled for a moment, only to think that all of my friends were dead, the smile faded quickly.

'I wanna go home...' I thought to myself, already feeling tears fall from the side of my eyes. 'I want to go home and sleep.' I felt like I couldn't do anything.

I opened my eyes to see grey clouds forming once again in the sky, I sighed, knowing that it would rain once again, the sun was still out though, peaking out from behind the clouds after they passed. I turned my face directly towards the sun, closing my eyes as I did, taking in as much heat as I could.

Suddenly I began to think of where Xaez could possibly be taking me but I couldn't think clearly, trying to remember what people had told me was very hard. I didn't want to think of what Prone had said, it was hurting me too much.

Xaez looked down at me for a moment, hissing quietly as he continued walking. 'At least he knows what's going on.'

Prones face seemed to form in my mind, remembering his smile when we were eating corn and MRE's, the fearful expression as we entered the tunnel, the fear in his eyes when he put me in the jeep... 'The blood, there was so much blood...' I covered my face with my hands, suppressing a scream. 'STOP! Stop thinking! Don't remember! You can't remember that, stop it! Stop remembering!'. I shook my head violently, hot tears streaming down my face. 'Stop, stop, stop!' I wanted to yell but couldn't, my head felt heavy and it felt as if it was going to explode. 'Think of something else, anything, think of Xaez, think of... of... I don't know just not this!'

I could hear a faint screech nearby, and what sounded like something scuttling across the ground, I turned my body so that my face was buried into Xaez's chest, not wanting to see what it could possibly be. 'What is that sound?' I thought, trying to think of anything else other than Prone.

Xaez hissed through his teeth and some of his drool landed onto my clothes, I didn't care at this point, it was bound to happen considering he was carrying me. The scuttling continued, it had stopped for a couple of seconds before it sounded like it was going farther away. I turned around again to see the wall of a house, I looked up and saw what looked like a long beige tail disappear over the top of the roof. 'What was that?' I squinted, trying to see if it was still there but it wasn't.

Xaez had already walked pretty far, there was a lot more black goo covering the ground and covering the buildings in the area, some had a clear substance dripping from it. I reached a hand out to touch the walls, luckily Xaez was walking close enough that I could actually touch it.

My fingers slid through the clear substance and when I removed my hand to look at it more closely it was sticky and wet, it slide down my fingers slowly, like slime. "What is this stuff Xaez?" I asked as I wiped the gelatinous resin on my clothes, it was so thick that it had made it hard to move my fingers.

Xaez looked down at my for a moment, and hissed as he grinned. I smiled back at him and pet the top of his head. "I can't wait to just go into one of these houses and sleep..." My body felt heavy and all I wanted to do was close my eyes and sleep, but I had to stay awake, I had to find out where we were heading too.

Screeches could be heard in the distance, very loud screeches, it was obvious there were lots of Xenomorphs in this area but I didn't care, Xaez was here to protect me from them. 'Even if one did show up, I still have my pistol, I could shoot them... '

Xaez was walking along a small house right next to the wall, it was almost as if he was trying to stay silent. Suddenly I could hear someone grunting and I looked up, Xaez growled in unease as he reached the corner of the house.

I shifted silently to see around the corner, there was a man, a marine by the looks of him. He was against the wall of what looked like a veterinary building. The marine looked as if he was cocooned to the wall with some kind of black and clear webbing, almost like the goo covering the ground. In front of him were three large dark brown oval shapes, they looked leathery and the one farthest from the man looked like it had been opened by something. 'I've never seen those before, what could those be?' They looked huge, it looked like they were almost half the size of the marine.

Xaez bared his teeth and hissed loud enough for the man to gasp and look in our direction. Xaez then quickly backed away to stay hidden and looked at me once more. I peered back at him, "I'm not going to leave again." I told him, sensing that that's what he thought I would do.

We heard more grunts and some sudden crunching and other sounds I couldn't describe. Xaez waited a couple more seconds before looking around the corner once more, the man had pulled off most of the webbing. He reached for a blade in his holster, one that looked almost exactly like my combat knife, and cut at the rest on his chest.

He fell to the ground with a thud and a groan of annoyance. The marine looked in our direction once more before he turned and ran in the other direction. Xaez snarled at the marine but didn't chase after him, instead he turned in the opposite direction and continued his walk.

I squirmed and moved up to look past Xaez's shoulder, the marine was already out of sight, louder screeches could be heard as nearby Xenomorphs became alerted to the human's presence. I could even hear the same scuttling I had heard earlier, but it wasn't as close as before. The large oval shapes continued to stay where they were, unmoving and unreactive. "What are those Xaez?" I said to him, squinting at them one more time, "Are they supposed to move?"

Xaez made a low growl, one that I could feel vibrate in his chest. 'He's been acting so different recently.' The X on his forehead still glowed slightly, the X on his chest however seemed to have lost it's glow, including some other markings. I smiled as I remembered giving him those, it was a happy memory, it was fun chasing him down the isles trying to find out where he had gone. His hisses and the clanking of paint cans when he disapproved of a certain colour. 'That was fun... he was so happy.'

I looked at the giant oval shapes for a few more seconds before relaxing into Xaez's arms again. 'This place is so weird, I wonder what happened...' It was almost like the buildings had been partly destroyed by human weapons, some parts of brick walls crumbled down the sides of nearby buildings, only to get stuck into the black slime. Some other buildings, like the one I first entered, look like they had been set on fire once before.

'Maybe there was a war here once, but it would've been a while ago... Maybe the Xenomorphs attacked and then the army came in and tried to kill them but messed up the city and ended up losing anyway.' I shook my head, remembering that's exactly what happened in my town, we had clearly lost that fight.

I allowed my mind to wonder again, thinking about my old friends and back to how school used to be, I was like anyone else, hated going to school and thought it was boring. I would have sleepovers with my friends at their houses, they were never allowed at mine, my mom seemed to hate it whenever I brought anyone home. She'd act all nice and sweet but as soon as they were gone she'd yell, Roman used to come cheer me up afterwards like he always did.

'Moms gone now though' Images tried to form into my mind but I resisted it, 'Roman mentioned dad back at the camp... something about him leaving to some place? He's probably dead by now, he would've had to land eventually and if he did he's dead. The Xenomorphs would be after him.' I sighed, trying not to feel pain in my chest, it hurt so much but I had to resist it, nothing mattered anymore.

I took a deep breath, untensing my muscles as I eased back into Xaez's arms. Closing my eyes once more, I tried not to think about anything. 'Xaez is taking me somewhere, there is nothing to worry about with him watching over me...'

Xaez made a snarl and I turned my head to look at where he was looking. I could see in the distance what looked like a cave, the ground beneath us was covered in strange black intestine looking tubes that were squishy and covered with the thick clear slime. From what I could see, the cave looked as if there was steam inside. Squinting my eyes I noticed everything within the cave was black, some of it shone from what I assumed was the goo.

A sudden crackle of thunder caused me to twitch in Xaez's arms, of which he made a quiet hiss in response. Rain started drizzling down once more. 'Ugh, not again' I stared at the now dark cloud covered sky. Wishing it would leave like it did before.

Xaez approached the cave, stopping a few feet away from it. I pushed myself away from him to stand on my own, peering into the cave as I did so. I could hear a roar come from within. Ignoring it I looked at Xaez, he looked back at me.

It was like in a sudden moment all the memories came back. My mom, my dad, Roman... Prone...

'Xaez has always been here. He'll never leave me and I'll never have to leave him.'

Xaez tilted his head and growled under his breath. We stared at each other for awhile, it's like we both had a mutual understanding but I wasn't sure what I was supposed to understand. What did he expect from me. "Is this home?" I said quietly. I didn't feel right.

Xaez suddenly whipped his head to the right and stared off in the distance, his body tense and he was snarling. His tail curled slightly around my body as I looked into the mouth of the black abyss.

I ignored him, the thoughts flooding my mind. I looked at my hands, still pale, still covered in scratches. 'I'll be safe here' I thought to myself. Remembering the warmth of being at home, curled in a blanket on the couch with Roman while we watched movies.

'What's in there?' I tried to see further within the cave, some more oval's seemed to be in the distance but the steam was making it hard to see any farther than that. There were strange shapes on the walls, some looking like the tubing on the ground. 'The tunnel' Prone's face entered my mind. 'What did he say before?' It was so hard to remember. It was like my mind was now forcing the memories out. It wasn't letting me remember.

Xaez turned again, facing the cave. He made a sound almost like a chirp. He turned his head back to me, tilting his head expectantly. 'What is he waiting for?'

I faced him, giving him the same tilted head but with a confused expression. My hands were gripping Prones dog tags. I could feel the cold rain run down my hand onto the cool metal. Tears dripped down my eyes but I wasn't sad or happy. I didn't feel... anything. I was cold. 'I want to go home'

I closed my eyes, taking a deep breath. Turning myself towards the cave and with my family in mind, I shakily made my way into the entrance; with my xenomorph right beside me.

The end.