An Unlikely Ally

Chapter 10 - Relieving tensions

John was staring at the alien lying on the ground and looking up at him as it held the CD player. "You brought it back to me?" John asked, dumbfounded.

The creature clicked softly in response, causing John to gasp. "Wait did you just, acknowledge what I said?" John asked with a shocked expression of which the creature paused, and an uncertain click came back.

"Oh dear heavens, this is too much," John said, shaking his head and running his hands through his shaggy brown hair. "Where do I even start? Oh my goodness. So you aren't some demon whose entire purpose is wiping out humanity?" John half said aloud and half murmured, leading to an uncertain gaze from the alien.

John looked down to his knife, and back up to the creature. "You spent, goodness knows how long now. A month, trying to kill me, only to tell me you could understand me, all along?" John pressed, waving the knife forward.

"A month, where I felt I was going to die if I made a mistake. Only for you to tell me, your 'only reason for coming here right now, is to give me my CD player'?" John pressed even further, causing the creature to shift backwards against the table.

John sighed and let the knife droop down as the creature just stared onwards. "It doesn't understand everything I am saying, but how does it even know English?"

"I am talking to you right now, in English. How on earth do you know parts of english?" John asked, his tone shifting from accusing to now just dumbfounded. The creature stared for a few moments, before touching the cd player uncertainly. "With the CD-Player? So the one I setup. You listened to it enough to drain the batteries, then got more. Well, an entire Hunger Games book would certainly contain a lot of words, but just, how?" John asked as he tried to wrap his head around things.

"Wait wait I am getting side-tracked. How do I know I can trust you enough that you won't kill me the second I drop this?" John said, waving the knife towards the alien. "Oh, how is it going to answer that? I am asking the wrong questions."

However, the right section of its face plates opened, exposing half of its mouth and bright red flesh underneath, causing John to startle. "Ah- Oh, wait. That was closed this entire time, so this knife would have done nothing if you did indeed want to attack me. But why? Why now, and not at the beginning? Why not spare other people, why choose me?" John asked warily and in response the creature simply held the CD player with it's right hand, breaking John's gaze.

"Well... Answers will come in the future, they better alright? Just right my eventual death is one of three things. You, myself from stupidity or another one of you aliens. Just the first two are seeming slightly less likely then the third." John stated while walking over to the left and placing the knife on the table.

John looked back to the creature, who slowly closed its face and looked back at it quietly, not making any notion of moving anywhere. "Thanks, I didn't expect integrity from something like you, but at least for now I feel a lot better." John sighed with relief, feeling the adrenaline ease from his system and letting himself relax somewhat, but still wary of his new guest. The creature simply clicked in response to what John said, causing him to smile somewhat.

John was sitting against the wall of the kitchen, opposite to the creature who assumed a more relaxed sitting position as well.

"I honestly don't know what to do going forward, I don't know how much of the world is affected by this, if at all. I am currently survivng day by day, just trying to stablise everything, yknow?" John said while he held his own hands together, feeling his slightly overgrown nails, before looking back up to the creature.

The alien kept its gaze but was quiet and started looking down. "Apologies, just didn't expect this to happen, so my priorities have been shifted around. Also, I am not forcing you to stay here right now, so you can leave if you want, you did drop off the CD player after all." John said feeling aware of the situation, the alien clicked in acknowledgement, but showed no attempts to move, and simply touched the CD player.