How long has he been walking for?

Looking up at the position of the sun Adrian could see it had barely began its descent from the peak of its rise. Must have been barely even an hour since he started his exploration through the wilderness of god knows where. But if he had to guess from the biome of lush trees and flora within the forest he would have to guess he was somewhere either on the eastern side of America or someplace in Europe. But he should have at least reached a road or discovered some sorts of signs of civilization by now instead he hasn't heard nothing other than the tweets and howls of birds.

Adrian constantly kept both his eyes and ears on alert, for not only signs of civilization but also for potential dangers. He only had so much ammo and he would rather not have to waste it on a bear or god forbid a pack of wild wolves.

The marine walked through the forest on high alert for danger keeping his steps light as to not make too much noise that could attract a predators attention.

Ten minutes go by in silence his eyes scanning the brush carefully for signs of movement and listening for anything out of the ordinary.

His awareness was rewarded when he could begin to make out the faint sound of rushing water indicating there was a river.

Adrian crept forward in the direction of the sound still cautious keeping his finger on the trigger of the rifle.

He came into a clearing that split into two halves down the middle by a large river. After scanning the clearing for any signs of danger and finding none Adrian walked out and walked to the edge of the flowing river.

He knelt down at the edge of the river and undid the straps on his mask exposing his face allowing his lungs to breath in the natural forest air around him and his nostrils to take in the scent of the forest before plunging his hands into the cool running water and scooping up a handful and placing it to his mouth quenching his parched throat.

He had never realized just how thirsty he truly was up until now, suppose fighting for your life can really pull your mind in another direction. After taking in a few more drinks from the river he put his gas mask on tightening the straps around his face, he felt more comfortable with it on for some odd reason.

Looking down at the river he was preparing to follow the direction of the rivers flow, when his eyes wandered to the brush on the other side of the river and if not for his eyesight he surely would have missed the strange structure just barely visible through the greenery and foliage surrounding it.

From where he stood it appeared to be made out of wood and fairly small like it was a shack. Deciding to get a closer look at it Adrian dove into the river, his PVC could withstand water and more so he had no reason to fear the water. Swimming across the river Adrian reached the other side and made his way over to the object.

Getting closer he could confirm it was in fact a shack. An old one at that, the wood was old and rotting some of the planks barely just holding on by the rusted nails that held them together. Pulling and ripping the foliage aside Adrian unmasked more of the hidden structure until exposing a wooden door locked in place by a rusted padlock.

He fiddled with the padlock but found he was unable to pry it off the old wood or the metal that was screwed into the door. Rather than waste time searching for another way of entry Adrian simply bashed the padlock with the butt of his rifle.

After a few good hits the old rusted metal gave in and broke apart falling to the forest earth.

'If it doesn't work just bash it a few times' Adrian thought to himself chuckling.

Pulling the door open, the hinges that held the door in place creaked and groaned from the sudden friction being applied having not obviously not been opened or even maintained in many years.

Inside the small shack it was dusty and thanks to his gasmask Adrian had to not worry about it. Lining the walls on either side were a variety of tools that looked as old as the shack itself. Screwdrivers, drills, hammers, all that stuff lined the walls hung up by nails.

At the back wall was a workshop table with a once red tool box that was now rusted with a majority of the red paint that made up its coat now flakey and falling apart. The marine approached the tool box and pulled it open and began rummaging through the box in search anything of use.

Most of the stuff inside of it was crap and useless, like hammers, screwdrivers, drill bits, etc. He was just about to give up believing there was nothing inside he could have used until his eyes caught a glimpse of red beneath a pile of oil stained cloth at the bottom of the tool box. Moving the cloth aside he took the object in his hands.

Easy to carry, fairly heavy, and most importantly; heavy enough to break a motherfuckers bones with the right amount of force.

The Pipe Wrench.

Unlike the rest of the tools in the shack this one seemed in pristine condition despite the few flakes of rust here and there. Adrian tested the weight of the Pipe Wrench in his hands giving it a few short swings, it felt just right in his hands. Granted it was no knife the wrench had been a mighty tool that had saved his ass more than once back in Black Mesa.

Adrian clipped the wrench to his belt and searched the remained of the shack but found nothing else of use. Done with his search Adrian left the shack and continued on his way.

He started following the river flow south. Hopefully he would find a city or even a village. Worse case scenario was he wanders into a village and discovers he's in some place like Russia. The idea of being taken captive by nations government did not sit well with the young marine. It wasn't everyday the soldier of a rival nation would come wandering into a village in full uniform and Adrian doubted they would believe his story…

He was just going to have to hope he wasn't in Russia and was just in some place like Europe or something.

'Hopefully they have pizza. I could go for some right about now…'

His mind started to wander again back to Black Mesa and all his fellow marines and who probably had survived.

'I wonder if anyone made it out of Black Mesa…' He doubted that though it was possible they were all silenced by those black ops pricks he had fought against now that he thought about it. Even then it was unlikely the government would simply just let them all go after everything they all saw. Unless they all got paid to keep their mouths shut.

'Probably all in the Bahamas getting wasted if that's the case…' he felt a bit jealous now.

'No early retirement for me though, no I have to…'

"Dogoo!"

Adrian halted in his tracks his internal complaining interrupted by a sudden sound. He was so busy complaining he didn't hear where it had come from, and scanning the area around him did nothing to help identify where the noise had come from.

"Dog-Dogoo!"

Their it was again. Suddenly from the brush in front of Adrian rustled and shifted causing him to instinctively bring his wrench up into a swing. But lowered it when the creature responsible for making the sound came out from the brush and into view.

"Dogoo!" it yelled.

Adrian was at a sudden loss of words unable to comprehend what it was he was now looking at. It wasn't like any animal nor alien he had ever seen before, though he shouldn't be surprised considering what he had encountered before, but this…

It was some sort of blue jelly tear shaped blob with a dog like snout and tail with two beady black eyes. On its face it had an unwavering smile that formed into an O at the sight of Adrian.

"Dogoo?" it said questioningly looking at the wrench wielding marine hopping closer making Adrian step back raising his weapon up threateningly.

If this creature was smart like it was giving off then it would understand the 'back off' gesture he was making. He was willing to give this thing the benefit of the doubt and let it hop away in peace so long as it didn't get too close to him.

Adrian started circling around the creature keeping his wrench up in a defensive manner all the while keeping his full focus on the blob and his environment incase it had any friends nearby waiting for the moment to strike.

As he moved around the small dog blob it turned around to keep starting at him with that unwavering smile that gave Adrian the chills despite how cute it looked. Backing away into the brush the creature had emerged from the blob just stood there staring at him watching him back away.

Once he was out of sight of the blob Adrian turned on his heels and hauled his ass away from the creature and whatever possible friends it could have.

'What the fuck, what the fuck, what the fuck.'

What in the actual fuck was that thing? Was that some alien he had never encountered that had escaped to earth? No it couldn't have been, the entire facility was burned in fire, how the fuck did they survive?

So many questions swirled through Adrians mind as he pushed himself to run as fast as he could. He doubted his wrench would do anything against a boneless blob and he had no intent to figure out how it defended itself. For all he knew its body could be corrosive acid and one touch could melt him to a puddle.

He continued on running for a good ten minutes until he was sure he would have lost the damn thing. Looking back the way he had run Adrian made sure he was not followed by either that jelly alien or anything else that could have spotted him while running.

He leaned himself against a tree and allowed his body a moment of rest while he gathered his thoughts on what he had just witnessed.

Last time Adrian had checked, their was no record of some jelly dog ever existing on Earth. That could only mean the warhead detonation failed allowing the aliens to escape and were now roaming the Earth.

He would have believed he was on some other world for a moment, but the shack and forest told him he was still on Earth.

'How long was I gone?'

If he had been gone what if humanity no longer existed? What if they were wiped out by the aliens? He had doubts all of humanity would be gone, but the collapse of global government was a likely scenario Adrian could only hope did not occur.

He rested on the tree for a while longer before finally getting himself together.

If humanity was still somewhat alive he wasn't going to be much use just sitting here. He was a marine despite his government having betrayed him, and his duty as a soldier was to help those in need no matter the risk.

With new found motivation to continue moving Adrian started on his walk again continuing to follow the river as he had planned starting to think of a plan.

If society really is gone having been destroyed by the aliens, than that meant Adrian was going to need find survivors. If he was lucky he would find a small settlement or some place occupied by humans who can fill him in on what happened in his absence. If not he can scavenge.

Worst case scenario he encounter some not so friendly people who'd love to get ahold of his PVC…

But whatever is held for Adrian in the future, he will be ready for it.

A/N: Kind of a short chapter, a bit to short for my taste but I think it's a good place to leave off for now.