Xenopacalyps Part Two: The Xeno King

Xenopocalyps Part Two: "Cutie"

I was furious as I walked down the street with Brooke by my side. We just suffered a loss of a close friend, well, I did. Brooke suffered the loss of a loved one, a dearly loved one. Miles had been killed by the Xeno King. Brooke and I buried his body in a cemetery three miles from where he died. We didn't have a gravestone, so we made our own. After we paid our respects to Miles, we headed in the direction that the alien king had gone. I was going to kill it, for all the damage it had done. "I swear, I'm going to chop his head off, and feed it to the other aliens!" I exclaimed. Brooke seemed to share equal, if not more, anger for this creature, even though she never showed it, I could tell she was furious that a monster like that existed in this world. As we were walking down the street, I spot a gun shop. I said, "It's a long shot, but what other choice do we have? We need weapons and ammo if there are any in there." Brooke nodded and we headed to the gun shop. I opened the door slowly, because if someone was in here, then they would obviously be using every gun in the shop to their advantage. I opened the door slowly and heard a voice. "Stop right there! Don't open that door any further!" I stopped opening the door and respected what this man had to say. It sounded like an old crotchety man, but I didn't want took peek my head around the door, in fear of being shot. "Come out slowly!" The man said, "And keep your hands up!" He added. I stepped into the shop, and my eyes astounded me. "Dad?" I said. He lowered the gun in his hands. "Oh my gosh. Devin, I thought you were dead." He said. He hopped the counter and pulled me into the biggest hug he ever gave me. "It's alright, it's just Devin." He said. My stepmom and my stepbrother stepped out from the back room.Melissa, JT!" I hoped the counter and gave them a huge hug. "I never thought I would ever see you again," I told them. JT put his hand on my shoulder, and said, "Devin... I broke so many ankles getting here!" All I could do was laugh. JT always found the good in everything, no matter how bad everything was. I turned to Brooke who was standing at the door and said, "Come on in, it's just my parents." She came into the shop and said hi to everyone. My parents and JT had met Brooke before, but that was so long ago. I told them about all the events leading up to now, and they were shocked that I had shown so much, 'heroism'. I wasn't the most 'heroic' person before the apocalypse, but that all changed when everything went to shit. "Dad, Brooke and I can't stay long. We have something to take care of." He looked at me with concern in his eyes. "No, you're staying here where it's safe. I will assign you and Brooke a gun, and you can live here with us." I showed him the M-9 I took from his bedroom, the night it all started. "I lost one of your AR-15's, I'm sorry Dad." He looked down at the gun and headed into the back room. He came back out with five large boxes about the size of my shoe. He handed them to me, and when I took them, I almost fell to the ground. He gave me five boxes of M-9 ammo. "You're really letting us go?" I asked, and he replied, "I can't stop you, but I can still help you out." He went back to the room and came out with a G36C, and some ammo for it. "This is for her." He told me and handed it to Brooke. He gave me the ammo for both weapons. "Never make the girl carry your haul." He said, winking. I gave him a final nod and started for the door. I saw a football next to the door and picked it up. "Hey JT! How about' one more play?" He looked at the ball and started outside with enthusiasm. I lined up as a wide receiver, and when JT said hike, I took off like a bullet. I fake cut to the left and cut inside to the right, he threw a bullet, and it fell perfectly into my hands. I stopped, and threw the ball back to him, with a less than acceptable spiral, then turned around and started to walk away. Brooke followed right behind. I didn't look back, it would only make the separation harder on me, and them. I just walked, and walked, and walked. Later that night, it started to rain, so Brooke and I found shelter to escape the rain. We ended up at a house that was in pretty good shape. We entered the house slowly and stepped inside. I loaded the     M-9 and searched around for any supplies in the house. I heard a faint voice come from the closet in the hallway. I couldn't make out what the voice was saying, but I could tell it was female. I opened the closet door, to find her sitting against the back wall of the closet, hugging her legs. "Hey, miss, I'm not going to hurt you. Come on out." I told her, but she wasn't budging. She kept repeating one phrase over and over again. "He comes and takes. He comes and kills." She said. I helped her out of the closet. She seemed traumatized by something. I brought her to a couch and set her down on it. "Brooke, do you have any rags or some cloth in your pack?" I asked she pulled out a small cloth the size of my hand. I poured water from my bottle on the rag and cleaned her up. Her face was filthy, probably from some kind of struggle. "I would be willing to bet that the king alien was responsible for this." Brooke said. "Yeah, more than likely, it was here not too long ago, if she's still traumatized. Although, some people remain traumatized for years with no recovery, so there is no real proof of how long ago it was here if it was here at all." I explained. Suddenly, the girl seemed to come to her senses, because she asked who I was. "Who are you two, are you here to hurt me?" She asked. "No, we're not, we're here to help." I reassured her. She looked down at my gun and flinched. "It's ok, I'm not going to hurt you." I told her again. "What's your name?" I asked her. "My name? My name is Maddie." She said. Brooke interrupted, saying, "Devin, we got company!" I stood up and told Maddie to stay down. Instead of hiding, she stood up and held onto me. "Maddie, stay down." She just froze, with a blank stare in her eyes. "Oh man, what did they do to you?" I asked. I set Maddie down on the couch, and pulled out my gun, and my sword. The first alien that came at us, went for Maddie. She flinched as the creature lunged at her, but I snatched it by its tail mid-jump and threw it back. I stood over Maddie with my sword in one hand, and my gun in the other. "They aren't here for us, protect Maddie!" I told Brooke. She took out the G36C and started spraying out the door. I stood out the window, firing the M-9 at anything that got too close. One of the aliens got in through the chimney and grabbed Maddie's leg. Brook hit the alien's arm with the stock of her gun. She helped her up. "Get behind me, okay." Maddie just nodded and stood behind Brooke. I blocked the chimney with the couch, so nothing could sneak up on us again. There were tons of them, all around. No matter how many we killed, it seemed like three more would take its place. "Brooke, follow me!" I told her. She grabbed Maddie by her arm and followed me to a flight of stairs. We all went up the stairs, killing Xeno's as we went up. We all went into one room and barricaded the door. There was a bathroom in the room we were locked in. "Get in the bathroom, now!" We all went into the bathroom and locked ourselves in there. Brooke and I both aimed our guns at the door, in case anything tried to come through. We could hear the monsters scuttling around outside the bathroom. I whispered to Maddie, "Maddie, what happened to make you so scared?" I had to know if the Xeno King was near. She didn't respond, just stared blankly at the door. Then out of nowhere, she started to scream. I put my hand over her mouth because I didn't want the aliens to discover our position. The scuttling outside the bathroom stopped. I was cursing myself in my mind. I still felt responsible for the people around me, and I would do anything to make sure that didn't happen. "Stay here, and don't move." I whispered. "Make sure she doesn't move," I added. "Where are you going?" Brooke asked. "Don't worry about it, I am coming back." I opened a window and climbed out onto a ledge that led to the roof. I aimed my gun at a car across the street and shot at it. I was aiming for the hood, but I wasn't sure where to shoot. I remembered that my dad said static could make a car explode if gasoline was present. I aimed at the gas tank and shot at it. The first shot, I missed, but on the second shot, I hit it but nothing happened. "Wish I had a sniper's rifle or something." I said. I aimed at the gas tank and shot at it more. The final two shots went in the first hole I made in the gas tank perfectly. The vehicle ignited, and the aliens ran for the ball of fire, inspecting it. I entered through the window, and Brooke asked, "What happened?" I lifted three fingers up and said, "Three, Two, One." An explosion came from outside almost as soon as I said one. "That's what happened," I said with a smug look on my face. I opened the door slightly and took a look outside the bathroom. I motioned for Brooke to follow, and she picked Maddie up and brought her out. The house was destroyed. Everything was everywhere. The couch was thrown across the room, the dresser had toppled over, there were claw marks on every surface. It was a mess. I opened the front door and saw the bodies of the dead aliens spread out around the vehicle. "Well, that's one way to get rid of Xenomorphs." Brooke said. Maddie started to come to her senses again so I asked her, "Hey Maddie, what's up. Are you feeling ok?" She looked at me and said, "Yeah, I'm fine, who are you?" She must have been still out of it earlier when she told us her name. "My name is Devin, and this is Brooke. We're here to help." I told her. She got up slowly and brushed the dust off her shoulders. "What happened here, Maddie?" I asked her. She looked at me and said, "What the hell didn't happen here? One day, I'm minding my own business, texting a few friends, and the next minute, I'm being chased down the street by some monster lookin' thing!" She exclaimed. "Why does my breath smell like a gun?" She asked. I put my hand over her mouth when she started to scream, so I hid the gun behind my back, so she wouldn't start yelling or something. No one wants to smell like a gun. "Okay, well we need to get moving, are you coming with us, Maddie?" Brooke asked. She shrugged and said, "I have nowhere else to go, so why the hell not." I didn't like this. Maddie gave me a few suspicions. One minute she is traumatized to hell and back, and the next minute she is, or seems, completely normal. I wasn't sure if I trusted her just yet, but I had to keep her in the group, well, what little of the group remained. The sun was setting, casting an orange glow on the land. "We should probably get moving, find shelter." I told them. "I know a place," Maddie said. "I grew up here, I know a lot of good spots." She led us to a building and brought us behind it. I pulled out my M-9 just in case. She brought us to a hole that was dug underneath the building. "I used to come here all the time, to think." She crawled into the hole, and Brooke and I followed. It was dark and musty with cobwebs everywhere. Could have sworn I saw something crawling down there, so I held my gun at the ready. Maddie led us to a spot in the ground where it was deep enough for us to stand up. "Okay, now that we are here," she said. She went over to a small burner with a smaller pot on it. "I use this so that it doesn't generate any smoke, and suffocate me." This girl was pretty smart. Maybe my suspicions about her were wrong, just me being me I guess. I saw a guitar in the corner, and asked, "Do you play?" She looked over at the instrument and replied, "I used to, but I forgot how to." I looked over at Brooke and she said, "Play something like you did when we were in school together." I looked back at the guitar, then at Brooke again. "It's been so long, I don't even know many songs anymore." Maddie looked at me and said, "Just play what you know." She smiled, and I went over to the guitar and picked it up. It lies across my lap, and I move my fingers up and down the strings. It was a steel string acoustic guitar. I played a G chord, and it was horribly out of tune. Everyone winced as I played the chord. "Sorry." I said. I turned the tuning pegs until each string sounded just right. I played the same chord, and it sounded way better than before. I played a few more chords, and they all sounded just right. I moved my fingers up and down the fretboard, pressing, and plucking each individual string so that it played a tune all of us recognized. When the tune ended, I stood the guitar up against the wall. "Wow, that was really good Devin." Brooke said. "Thank you, I haven't played in a while, so I'm a bit rusty." My gun lay beside me. I reached for it, but I stopped because Maddie was looking at me in the most unusual way. "What, is there something on my face?" She replied. "Nothing." She continued to stare. My face became red. "Well, we should probably get to bed. Don't want to be tired tomorrow." I wanted to escape that situation. I didn't know if she was liked me, or was just trying to figure out if I was dangerous. I was still getting over Ashely, and I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I let Maddie die, like Ashely. I covered up in some covers that were in the hole and fell asleep. When we woke up the next morning, I reached for my sword, but it was gone. I looked around, and Maddie was gone as well. "Damnit, I knew I shouldn't have trusted her!" I got up and crawled out of the hole. I turned the corner and saw Maddie with the sword in one hand, and meat in the other. "I was going to ask, but you were asleep." We crawled back into the hole where Maddie was waiting. "Did you find that two-timing..." I motioned for her to be quiet, making the motion across my neck. Maddie came in behind me, and she cooked the meat on the small burner. After we ate, I thanked her for the food, and the shelter for the night, and told her that Brooke and I should get going. "What? I'm coming with you, there's no way I'm letting a cutie like you get away." My face turned red. "E-Excuse me?" I stuttered. She replied, "You heard me, let's go cutie." Brooke was staring at me, and said, "Let's go, 'cutie'" She laughed and walked away with a skip in her step. My face turned bright red, and I let out a sigh. "Brooke." I said, getting her attention. "Yeah, 'cutie.'" She said. I replied, "Really, come on now." She laughed and replied, "Nope, That is going to haunt you to the end of time." Maddie was walking ahead of us. Her hair blew in the wind, almost as if it was a movie. "I guess I could just... embrace it?" I was hesitant to just let it happen after Ashely "Embrace what? Her? Man, you can totally tell that she wants to be with you. Go for it, I got your back." I knew she wasn't lying, Brooke had my back ever since we met. "And besides, she's really pretty. When was the last time a girl had a thing for you?" She was right, I was never the 'attractive' type. I can't even remember the last time a girl even looked at me, besides Brooke. I looked at Maddie, and I could tell she was probably listening. "I just don't know, I have never been good with girls, like ever." Brooke looked over at me and said, "Well, I think you might be pretty good at it. Your hella caring, you know what you want, and you seem like the kind of guy that would fight for what he cares for." I looked down and replied, "Yeah, well your right about that last part." She stopped me and told me, "I'm right about all of it. Maddie would be lucky to have you by her side." As we were walking, I felt the ground rumble. "Wait," Brooke looked at me and said, "Cmon' man just do it." I shot her a look and said, "Hide, now, something big is coming." I grabbed Maddie's hand and we all went inside to a nearby building. We ducked behind a wall, and I kept watch for anything very large. A gigantic Xeno Rex came walking by. "Damn," I said under my breath. I hadn't seen one yet. They were very elusive. The Xeno Rex knocked over the building across the street and continued on. I slowly crept out into the road. The monster stomped down the street like Godzilla. I accidentally stepped on a metal grate, and it made a sound like the out of tune guitar. The giant looked back and saw all of us out in the open, and roared a ferocious roar. It came running at us, and I pushed both Maddie and Brooke back into the building. The Rex was ramming the building trying to lure us out. "We need to get out of here, the whole thing is coming down." I headed to the back of the building past all the dust and debris and found a back exit. "Guys, come on, this way!" I waved over to them, and they came to the exit. Before Maddie could get to the exit, a column came down between Maddie and the door. "Devin, I need a bit of help." I looked back at Maddie and saw what was going on. "Crap, alright I will find a way in." I assured her. I went to the side and found a small hole just big enough for me to crawl through. Everything was coming down, and I could hear the Rex outside ramming the building. I headed towards the back exit and found Maddie hiding under the column. "Are you okay Maddie?" I asked. She nodded and I led her to the small hole in the wall. The hole had been blocked by debris. "Dang, we have to go out the front." I told her. A look of terror came across her face. "Are you trying to kill us, that thing is still out there!" I looked back at her and replied, "We don't have another choice. What would you suggest?" She looked down, submissive to my idea. We headed towards the main entrance, and I could see the Rex's giant legs out the door. I picked up a giant rock and threw it out the door between its legs. It turned around as the rock went beneath it. "Now!" I told her, and we went around to the back of the building. The Xeno Rex saw us leave the building and started chasing us. It roared a mighty roar and shook the ground when it stomped. I could see the woods across the field behind the building. "Run to the trees!" I yelled, and Brooke took off for the trees when she saw the massive alien behind us. "You better run cutie!" Maddie said. "This is not exactly the time for playing games, Maddie!" She looked forward to where she was going, and replied, "Yeah, maybe, but I thought I should lighten the mood." The giant monster was getting near. Brooke was already in the woods, waving us in. "Come on, hurry hurry!" She yelled. I ran with all my force. As soon as I noticed Maddie was slowing, I took her hand and ran as fast as I could. "Devin, I can't take any more of this." She said, out of breath. "Just a little bit farther!" The monsters secondary mouth came out at us, and I had to speed up a bit to avoid it from taking a chunk out of my back. "Come on Maddie, were almost there." When we got to the woods, I pushed Maddie as hard as I could into the dense woods, and just before the alien grabbed me, I followed. The creature tried to get through but to no avail. It gave up and stormed away, missing out on it's dinner. "Are you okay Brooke?" I asked. "Yeah, I'm fine." She motioned with her head for me to talk to Maddie. I knew Brooke wouldn't let this down. I walked over to her and sat down. "Are you okay Maddie?" I asked, turning red. "Yeah, I'm fine, cutie."  She smiled, and I turned beet red. I looked over at Brooke, and she mouthed 'Cutie', and laughed. "What's her deal?" Maddie asked. "Not sure." I replied. "Uh, hey Maddie," I started, but she interrupted me. "Devin," She said looking into my eyes with a stare so strong, I couldn't look away. "Uh, yeah Maddie?" She got closer, and said, "Just kiss me already." She said. I heard a screech and pulled away before our lips met. "I uh, better go check that out." I said, escaping the situation. Brooke just watched me walk away with disappointment in her eyes. After I had gotten a decent distance from where Brooke and Maddie were, I yelled and punched a tree. I pulled my fist away, and it started to bleed. I looked in my pack for anything to clean the wound, but nothing. "Great, now Brooke is going to ask what happened." I didn't like to lie to her, after all, she always had my back. She always knew what was best for me in these harsh times. "Maybe Brooke was right, maybe it would be nice to be with her." I didn't want to start anything until I got over Ashely, but I realized that the only way to do that, was to be with someone that cared for me. "Heh, cutie." I said to myself. "I'm not cute, let alone date material." A rustle in some bushes interrupted my thoughts. I reached for my gun but realized I had left it back at the spot. I looked around and saw a tiny head pop out of the bushes ahead. It was definitely a Xenomorph, but it wasn't attacking me, it just stood there. I realized that this creature was a stalker alien. The only time I had encountered one, was with Katherine. I ran back to the spot and told the others to get up. "Why, what's going on?" Brooke asked with despair. "It's a stalker alien. We're leaving now." I told them. We all got up, and aliens started to surround us. One of the ones behind me brought me to my knees. Same with Maddie and Brooke. Then, out from the field, the Xeno King emerged.