"Who are you?" Kim asked.

The man smiled and held out his hand. "The name's Ben. Who might you be?"

"Kim," Kim said and shook Ben's hand.

"Kim," Ben repeated, "I see that you met one of them too."

"Oh, yes, Cobra," Kim said. Cobra hissed happily and rubbed Kim's side with his head.

"Cobra? Hm," Ben said, "I never thought about giving them names."

"Well, I'm a vet. I can't help it!"

Ben laughed. "So how long have you known Cobra?"

"A couple of days, actually. How long have you been here?"

"A couple of days also. This little coven was attacked by another group of aliens and a lot of them were injured. I decided to stay and help them out." Cobra hissed at that moment and walked away. A couple of aliens hurried after him and walked at his side. "Looks like Cobra is their leader." Ben said.

"Yeah," Kim said as she watched Cobra walk off.

"How did you find him?"

"He was injured on the side of the road and I healed his wounds," Kim said, "He didn't like me at first, in fact, it was a friend's dog that got him to trust me."

"Wow, that's pretty awesome," Ben said.

"How did you find the Hive?" Kim asked.

"I heard the sounds of the fight. When I came to investigate, the battle had already been fought and the few that were left were barely alive."

"You seemed to have done a good job patching things up," Kim said, looking around.

"Yeah, well, they heal pretty quickly on their own."

"I know; I was surprised on how fast Cobra had healed when I found him."

Ben nodded. He sat back down on the pile of leaves and made a movement with his hands. Kim accepted the offer and sat down next to him. Suddenly, her stomach let out a loud growl. Kim looked down at her stomach and wondered when she had last eaten.

"Hungry?" Ben asked.

"A little," Kim said, slightly embarrassed that he had heard the noise.

"Don't worry; they'll be bringing us something in a little bit," Ben said, "They realized quickly that I didn't have the same kind of tastes as them and have been bringing me berries and stuff."

"Oh, good."

At that moment two Xenomorphs came forward, dragging a basket woven out of leaves. Inside the basket was a mixture of all sorts of delicious looking nuts or berries. Kim reached out eagerly for a handful, but Ben grabbed her hand.

"Wait, let me take a look real quick," Ben said and he sorted out the nuts and berries, throwing some over his shoulder. "The aliens don't know which ones are poisonous or not."

"And you do?" Kim asked.

"Yeah, I'm a botanist, I study plants and animals," Ben said, "I spend most of my time out in the wilderness, eating whatever I can find; I have to know what will kill me and what won't."

"That's what you mean by not having the same tastes as them? You're a vegetarian?" Kim asked.

Ben smiled. "Guilty." He sat back. "I've studied animals all my life and I can't bear to eat them. Those are okay to eat." He added gesturing to the basket.

Kim reached in with her left hand and took a handful of berries, popping them all into her mouth. Ben took a handful of his own and popped them into his mouth one at a time.

"Where's your husband?" Ben asked after a while.

"What?" Kim asked, not hearing.

"I noticed you have a wedding ring," Ben said.

Kim looked down at her left hand to see the golden band encircling her ring finger. "Oh, yeah, I was married until yesterday."

"What happened?"

"Some of the aliens from the other Hive tracked Cobra to my house and killed my husband," Kim said, it felt like she was talking underwater.

"Oh, I'm so sorry," Ben said and he placed his hand over Kim's right hand, giving it a gentle squeeze.

"It's alright; I've been trying not to think about it," Kim said.

Ben nodded and remained silent as he continued to eat from the basket. Kim sighed and looked around. Cobra was nowhere to be seen and she missed him by her side. Suddenly, a large group came in from the opposite end of the clearing with Cobra in the lead. He broke away from the rest of the group and trotted over quickly to Kim. He hissed and curled up next to her, laying his head in her lap and wrapping his tail around her waist.

"That's quite a bond," Ben noted.

"I'm sure something like this interests you, being a botanist and all," Kim said, stroking Cobra's head gently.

Ben chuckled. "Guilty again."

"So what can you tell me about Cobra? What makes him so attached to me?" Kim asked.

"I'm not sure. There's not much I know about these creatures yet to make an assessment."

"Oh, I actually did learn something about them," Kim said and she proceeded to explain to Ben what she had learned about Cobra and his race.

"Xenomorphs, eh?" Ben said, scratching his chin, "Well, unless I knew what creature he came from originally; most animals attach themselves to ones that are close to them. If you took in a wounded animal it would probably develop an attachment. I'm going to go ahead and say that the Xenomorphs are the same way."

"Well, that makes sense," Kim said.

Cobra twitched and let out a slight shriek in his sleep and Kim looked down, stroking his head. She wondered briefly what he was dreaming about, but then realized she didn't really want to know.

"Do you have any kids?" Ben asked.

"Yes, two," Kim said, "They left for college a couple of years ago. I guess, when this is all over, I should call them and tell them what happened to their father."

"That is, if we make it through this experience," Ben said with a laugh.

Kim laughed as well and Cobra raised his head groggily at the sound of Kim's laughter.

"What about you? Do you have any family?"

"Oh, not really, there is this nice woman that I'm seeing--," Ben started, but was cut off at the sound of harsh shrieking.