Waveland

Chapter 4

Rose had a perfect view of the alien's claimed territory. A large rusty building, that she assumed used to be a factory until it got overrun by aliens. They were everywhere. Coming in and out of the building. It looked like they were carrying pounds of metal and creating a giant pile outside the building. Death lurking in her eyes for every single alien she saw. She hid high in the trees waiting for the perfect moment to strike. She knew how ridiculous it was doing all this for a boy she hardly knew. But a smirk did appear on her face thinking about David's reaction when she came back with an alien corpse tied to her back. Rose held a sharp edge sword against her chest, patiently waiting for an unlucky alien to fall into her grasp.

—--

Rose could hear the awful high pitch sound of screeching in the distance. It was how the creatures communicated. They were approaching the top of the hill away from the army of the aliens still remaining at the rusty building. With each piercing sound she could tell they were coming closer to her, she had to control her rage from wanting to jump out of this tree and take them all on, ripping out their throats slowly until they screamed like the innocent humans they killed numerous of times. Five against one wouldn't be pretty and she probably wouldn't survive before they tore her apart just like the rest of the human race. But the blood-red anger in her soul didn't care about logic. They weren't tall, but they had six legs spider-like making them more powerful than the average human. With their accelerated speed, no human stood a chance during an isolated attack. They Aggressively crawled up the hill, crunching branches underneath them having no idea about the human watching them, planning their demise.

Rose was itching to rip them from limb to limb with every passing second. She gripped her sword tighter and tighter making her palms turn white, Slight blood dripping from her weak skin. Patience has always been hard for her. But she remained in her spot, determined to see Xavier again. All she needed was an unfortunate victim.

The crawlers, it is what Rose called these type of creatures. She was no Cisco Ramon, coming up with creative names was probably the one thing she would never be good at. The crawlers stopped directly underneath her, Rose froze her muscles, not wanting to lose the only advantage she had on them, surprise. She didn't dare move a muscle, any slight movement then a weak branch may break, and then she would be in serious trouble. The crawlers didn't move, they were silent ending their communication underneath her.

After a few seconds of only the dark night whistling, the high pitch screeching continued, the crawlers moved on past her treeline but one of the aliens drifted from the group. Rose's eyes immediately followed the crawler, and she knew she had her target. She thought about Xavier. The sweetest person she meant during the apocalypse. She thought every decent died within the first few months of the world ending, but she was wrong. She just wasn't one of the fortunate ones to have people who loved her enough to help her survive, a sacrifice is what she was always meant to be. She thought about Xavier's beautiful thick blonde hair that every once in a while fell in front of his perfect face and the pretty blue eyes that made all the hate she had in the world drift away in those few moments. Xavier was the last thing that entered her mind before she forced her mind to go blank preparing mentally for this attack. She wasn't going to be the victim, she wasn't going to be weak.

Rose silently followed the lone crawler, being as stealthy as possible. She trained herself for months in the wild making sure her footsteps were silent. With her same size, the best scenario is always to make sure her opponent doesn't see her coming. She waited until they were a safe distance away from the rest of its friends so they wouldn't hear its bloody screech.

Rose ran throwing her body off the tree at full speed landing on top of the crawler. She neared the ground swinging her sword against one of the crawler's legs. It made a painful sound and immediately tried to pounce on her.

But missing one leg proved to be a bigger advantage than Rose thought. It was having a hard time standing straight. She smiled in a murderous way. Rose continued to attack, she flipped sideways in the air slicing another leg on the same side of the creature. It groaned, not able to get up. The imbalance is too much for it. Rose ran up the nearest tree using her legs as a force to do a back flip, jumping off the stump over the crawler, and striking her favorite weapon through its chest from behind. Thick Mahogany Alien Blood covered her sword. With one last strike, she swung her sword slicing the Alien's head and cutting off its scream before it was heard by its friends. The last thing she needed was for the whole camp to learn that a human was in their camp and killed one of their own.

Rose watched the alien's slowly body collapse to the ground thanks to the power of gravity. The almost silent crunch of a twig meters behind her, had her frozen in place. She just killed an alien, but someone was here. She wasn't sure yet if it was human or if she miscalculated the difference between this crawler and the rest. She quickly climbed one of the many trees surrounding them in the thick woods.

Rose saw an outline of a dark figure crouching low between the trees, walking directly toward her latest victim. Rose wondered who else would come to the alien's base out of their own free will.

"What the hell are you doing?" Rose jumped onto the ground landing eerily silent, instantly covering the stranger's mouth, and held her blade against their throat just as they were about to scream when they saw the head of a decapitated alien.

The figure turned around to face her. "Rose!" Xavier didn't hesitate to embrace her, wrapping his arms tightly around her. Rose was too shocked to move. She relaxed her muscles, dropping the sword to the ground. She finally allowed herself to hug him back. She felt herself breathe a warm sigh of relief reuniting with Xavier. Although she was furious that he came out here and about to get them both killed.

"You shouldn't be here," Rose spoke, breaking their touch and walking past him to collect the alien. She sat her backpack on the ground pulling out an old rusty fishing trap she collected on the way here. She threw the corpse in the bag, tied a tight knot, and threw it over her shoulder.

"I have to make sure you didn't die because of me." He said, his eyes huge looking at the crawler sitting on her shoulder.

"So you thought you would rescue me?" Rose asked. A warmth was in her chest that someone cared about her so much they would risk their own life. Her family didn't even do that for her. Although she was still furious at him for almost getting himself killed, again.

"I care about you, and it is my fault you are out here," Xavier said speaking softly staring at the ground unable to look Rose in the eyes.

There was a moment of silence between them.

"Trust me I don't go to the alien base just for anyone." She cracked a smile, being genuine. The act felt odd because she hadn't allowed herself to feel this emotion in a long time. She felt it was a weakness, but around Xavier everything was different. She didn't know how long this would last, or how long until Xavier eventually betrayed her.

"Let's go before the aliens find out about their friend," Rose spoke instinctually placing his hands in hers. They walked back to Xavier's base but this time with a gift for their lovely leader. The best feeling is proving you survived when everyone betted against you. They walked hand in hand heading back to what Rose secretly was hoping would be her new home. She felt doubt creeping in her gut, but with one look at Xavier, she forced herself to shove the weak thoughts down.