With the rooms sudden descent into darkness, the two soldiers momentarily stiffened as they grew anxious, unable to find their target. 

I, who was stealthily hiding behind the various furnitures, had a perfect view of the two.

Every subtle movement they made, down to the rise and fall of their chests, their rapid eye movement a darting across the room trying to find me, all of it I took in and calculated which move I should make and when.

"We need some light, let's just retreat outside the room for now. Forget about Tanya, she's as good as dead with that thing in here"

Spoke one of the soldiers in a hushed but urgent tone. The other soldier had an ugly expression on his face as it twisted at thet thought of abandoning his good friends daughter, but there was nothing he could do to 'save' her from that alien.

Sighing deeply to himself, he turned around carefully ready to access the door panel to open it and escape.

Meanwhile, in that short span of time they spoke and decided to retreat, Raya had already approached not more than 10 meters away from them. 

Silent, and stealthy, like the perfect assassin. 

Movements so precise and quiet that only the faint swishing of air caused by their tail confirmed that there was indeed something lurking in the dark.

5 meters away from the soldiers Raya had moved from the low floors and crawled up the walls until they were hanging on the ceiling.

2 meters away from the soldiers and he was now almost directly above them, it was at this time that one of them had noticed that the door panel was malfunctioning, thus having to manually bypass through the securities through the wires behind the panel screen.

Finally, Raya took this chance while one of them was busy to drop from the ceiling, completely catching the soldier who was on guard, by surprise. 

Though as a hardened marine soldier, this brief pause was just that, brief, as he immediately brought his pulse rifle up ready to shoot.

But how would he be able to pull that off with the speed and strength of a Xenomorph? 

Before his gun was even halfway to its target, a slender black arm with claws grasped the wrist holding the gun, keeping it fixed on the spot.

Another black hand covered his mouth at the same time while a flash of light viciously cut threw the air and across his neck.

All of this was done in one smooth motion without the slightest unnecessary movement, using the maximum amount of power with minimum amount of energy to execute such attack.

With a bewildered and unwilling expression, the marines life force drained rapidly from himself along with the massive amounts of blood gushing from his neck.

By the time the other soldier had unlocked the door and turned around, the light coming from the hallway pushed the darkness further into the back of the room with a few meters of brightly lit space. 

That space, however, wasnt occupied by his partner, but was instead replaced by something else. 

"Aa-" 

*Crush*

*Thud*

There was little needing to be explained by what just happened as the marine fell to the ground with a wide gaping hole in his forehead.

...

By the time Raya had 'cleaned up' the mess near the door, the chaotic noises of rushed footsteps, screams, and gunfire ceased all together. The once bustling, noisy facility now a eerie silence, suffocating any hiding survivors. 

Tanya at this point had also noticed this silence but dared not leave the cupboard she was hiding within. Not until Raya returned, that is. 

Light rhythmic thuds and faint hissing noises came from the other side of the cupboard Tanya was sitting within. Though she knew it was Raya, she couldn't help but shudder a little under this tense atmosphere. 

Taking note of their own appearance and Tanya's unstable mentality right now, Raya chose to siit outside of view as they opened the cupboard slowly. 

"Raya?" Tanya questioned in a whisper.

⌈ It's okay Tanya, you can come out... When you're comfortable ⌋ 

A brief silence ensued between the two until Tanya plucked up the courage to leave the cupboard. 

Now that the lights were out, it was near impossible for little Tanya to see Raya without squinting her eyes, even though the latter was a few feet away from her. 

"My uncle..."

⌈ He's dead ⌋

"Oh... Sniff"

Tanya had been prepared beforehand but still couldn't help but quietly cry to herself. 

It was her uncle after all. 

Raya glanced at the pitiful Tanya feeling sympathy toward her. 

A tail wrapped around the pitiful girl and pulled her closer to Rayas body. 

It was considered a simple act from Raya to try and console Tanya as best they could, but it was this simple act that caused Tanya to finally release all her pent up emotions. 

Loud cries and sniffing echoed down the hallways outside their room, shattering the quiet place. 

...

Some time later Tanya had fallen asleep within Rayas embrace sleeping peacefully. 

Raya on the other hand was on edge, fully focused on their surroundings.

But after a long time their was no sense of danger or movement around them. 

⌈ Have they all died? ⌋

No humans or aliens came to their position, giving rise to that sudden thought.

But there was no way to confirm those thoughts unless they personally went out to see. 

"Mmn~"

Tanya's small actions brought Rayas focus back to her as she thought of another problem.

Food. 

It wasn't a big problem for Raya as they could scavange the more fresher corpses. Another food source would be metallic substances as their digestive system should be a lot stronger than any other creature on earth, given the acidic trait their species have. 

While walking down the dark and silent hallways, Raya made sure to pay close attention to the vents or other crevices where aliens or humans could hide in. 

They had to keep their guard up for any possible danger towards theirs or Tanya's life. 

While keeping a lookout for danger, Raya also searched the rooms for anything edible that Tanya could eat.

...

A few hours have passed with Raya confirming that no humans or aliens had survived. However, their were traces of the aliens escape outside of the facility toward another direction.

⌈ Hopefully they don't return ⌋

Inside a relatively cleaner and less destroyed lounge sat a little girl happily munching on some snacks while swaying her legs back and forth. 

Beside her on the large sofa was Raya curled up on the couch with their head resting on their hand. 

"Aren't you hungry Raya?" Said Tanya with half her mouth full of food. 

⌈ I'm fine. But don't eat to much, you need to ration in out for a few days until more marines arrive ⌋

"Marines?"

Questioned Tanya with her head tilted to the side. 

The two of them had become a lot closer and comfortable with each other so their wasn't a problem to converse normally. 

The matter with the marines was something Raya discovered when passing a certain room. 

A brief glance over the contents on the  shattered screen suggested that an emergency report was sent to the nearest marine base outside. 

"Does that mean I won't get to see Raya anymore?" Said Tanya with slowly watering eyes. 

⌈ I... Don't know ⌋

Given Rayas new identity as an alien along with the facilities demise because of their species, it was hard to imagine the marines not immediately opening fire on them.

The earlier example of the two marines confronting Raya was a good example of why, even though given an explanation, they still won't believe that an alien was 'good'.

But Raya didn't say these things aloud since Tanya was on the verge of crying again. 

Raya also hoped not to part with Tanya as she was her first friend in this new, dangerous life.