For the rest of the evening James stayed inside the hostel, exploring a few more rooms he had not noticed before, such as the living room where guests could converse or watch TV.  The TV had nothing but news, reports from the Alpha Sections which implied more control than James thought before, and various entertainment shows.  A few were on the local races, and others were mainly sitcoms.  In general he found the quality to be a little lacklustre and nothing more interesting than bickering debates between who truly had control, the people or the military, all of which annoyed him intensely.
At one point however he did take interest in a table game that resembled air hockey, which someone else soon took up a match with him on.  The game was laid out just like an air hockey table, but with several pucks instead of one on each side of the board where the players stood.  As James found out, the aim was to move all of the pucks from his side to the opponent's, and the first person to clear his side of pucks was the winner, which became a challenge by having to push them through a narrow gap in the partition between halves.
Much to his surprise James found himself to be very good at it, and he soon wasted a good couple of hours challenging people up to it, without any actual bets but purely for the challenge.  His reflexes were perfect for such a game, with a few losses to himself as the game soon became the focal interest of the room, and up to seven participants joined in, even making a mini-tournament out of it.
James ended up in second place to a very impressively skilled human who he conceded to in defeat, after the way he almost seemed to perfectly understand where each puck would bounce off from, his mind almost like a chessmaster's.  The raptor was just simply unable to beat him no matter how hard he tried, which was several times, and the least pucks he ever had on his side was 3.  But he wasn't mad, far too relaxed by the general easygoing atmosphere of the hostel to truly be outraged or insulted.
With a rousing night of entertainment cheering him up, and quite frankly everyone else in the room as well, he headed back to his room.  Upon entering, he found something on his bed.  An adorable little red scarf, with a note laid upon it.

Mr. Campbell
I hope your friend enjoys this gift
Thank you again for your help
Mr. John Julian

He gently handled the cloth item as if it were made of silk, eager to give it to Alex tomorrow, which he planned as his final day before deciding resolutely in moving on.  As much as he was enjoying the friendliness of the people, he couldn't trust the environment itself what with the Hillyians being so ignorant that they were mostly part of what potential a military force such as the Alpha Sections could do.  And he had no intention of entering the Iris Network when he knew nobody here, and they would surely never trust him.
Better to leave this world on its own, he thought, seeing the scarf as more of a farewell gift than anything else.
With little else to do in the darkening night sky over the city, which still contained that strange green tint that mystified him so, he went to sleep, sighing in relaxation.  The scarf was put in the dresser beside his bed, safely secure.  In his randomised dreams he encountered another world far away.

He fell into a pool of water, swimming up to find himself on a faraway barren rocky planet, the stone purple and maroon like the sky above.  Looking up was his first mistake, seeing a large monster stand above him upon a rock.  Black as black could be, reptilian snout, the body of a gorilla with piercing red eyes and vicious white fangs.
It gave chase after him.  He tried to run his best to escape it, running towards a dead end, a precipice, fearing he would either fall or be slaughtered until he saw the vine rope that hung over it.  Blessing the gods of luck, he leapt for it, swinging over across the abyss to find there laid nothing on the other side, for there was not even another side of the abyss at all.  Desperately, he swung back and directly over the creature, running the other direction, his heart racing, running so fast he feared his chest would burst.
As he ran, he found a cave, dark but small with a tall ceiling.  He easily reached the other side despite it being festooned with terrible black leeches that tried to leap at him and suck his blood dry to the bone.  Running in desperation, he soon saw people.  Humanoids bulky with brick-like heads and hulking arms in black authoritative clothing.  He ducked as they fired, a blue energy zap streaking across his head to obliterate the creature that had been chasing him, the once-hulking monstrous form reduced to a bony pile of ash.  And as he laid on the ground, gazing up at them, they aimed towards him next.  Before he could say anything, their blocky stone-cold stare gazing down upon them amidst the darkening-coloured rock, he heard a scream and woke up.

His eyes turned fuzzy at the sudden awakening, the visions of that strange other world fading before his eyes quickly, just barely blending into his view of Hillys by a second.  More screams woke him fully from his reverie as he gazed outside, where pure chaos reigned.  The sky had turned a vile dark green, a horrendous air siren deafened the land making him groan in pain and clasp his head.
This was soon deafened even moreso by the torrential rain of meteorites crashing unto the land in random areas.  Surprised when he nearly lost his balance by one hitting at the street in front of the hostel, James was transfixed when he saw the meteors begin to open up, and reveal a horrifying skeletal figure.  Its body was like a single ribcage, with a large emerald trapped inside, headless but with arms and a bony tail.
They began to prowl the streets, hunting people down, clasping them in their claws and pushing them forcefully into the crystals.  Trapping them.  The raptor watched one unfortunate civilian wriggle in fear and panic trying to break out, before a trance washed over his eyes and, as if hypnotised, began falling into a deep sleep.

He saw one boy running with fear through the streets under his window, chased by one of them.  A goat boy.  He feared it was Alex.  At first he was scared, and he contemplated not doing anything, shaking at the creatures' horrifying presence and the way they grabbed and trapped the populace.  They didn't seem to go too into buildings, and he could just run away from something that clearly did not have anything to do with him.  But then he heard Alex scream, or at least he imagined hearing it.  He looked down on his claws and said to himself:
	"Fuck that.  I'm a goddamn raptor."
Without a second thought, he leapt out of the window towards the creature that was chasing the child, leaping upon its back.  A terrible snarl of pain came from it as the kid stopped to turn around.
	"JAMES!"
	"ALEX, GO TO THE HOSTEL!  GO TO ROOM 113!"
	"BU-"
	"JUST RUN, ROOM 113!"
Taking James' advice, the boy ran as fast as he could into the building nearby as the raptor raked his claws mercilessly on the monster, bashing with his fists before it forced him off, facing him down.  If it even had a face.
	"Alright you freak, lessee if I can cut you."
Standing off against this one beast, he avoided its attempts to catch him and tried to punch and claw at the body, finding it to be a little painful to do so considering it was bone and mineral.  Eventually he couldn't hurt it enough without his fists turning sore and throbbing, and he tried to think of a way to attack it, looking for a weapon.
Noticing one building that had been hit, a lot of wood was splintered and burning from it, which he ran and broke a chunk off in order to wield a burning stave.
	"Lessee if you can handle THIS!"
Charging towards the creature, it tried to swipe and float around him, but James did his best in swinging the stick to burn and scar the monster, each thwack sending chilling breathless screeches out of it.
	"Oh you DO feel pain huh, you fucking monster!?!  Well, now yer gonna feel DEATH!"

With a brave lunging attack, he plunged his staff through the top of it, jamming it directly between the collarbones and behind the emerald, burning it horrendously to death from the inside.  Its arms flailed desperately to get the stick out of itself, before it eventually crumbled and broke into pieces like a decaying skeleton would.  With himself in the clear, he ran back to the hostel to find his friend, currently cowering in his room.
	"J-j-james!"
	"Oh god you're okay!"
The two hugged tightly, Alex no longer the confident cocky free running youth, but now a scared little boy, arms around him as tight as they could.
	"W-what the hell's going on!?"
	"Th-the Domz!  They came back, they're kidnappin' people again!"
	"Who are they!?  Aliens?!"
	"Y-yeah!  They come like...every once a while, nobody knows why, they ju-...just...kidnap people...off the streets...th-they took my mom..."
	"Shhh, it's okay, we'll live through this, you can do this."
	"B-but they never stop coming!"
He hugged once more and let go gazing up teary-eyed at James.
	"They always come, every once a while they come, they take people away, an' thassit!  Nobody knows where they go, they're gone, you never see 'em again...m-maybe if I go with them I-"
	"NO!  Never say that Alex, you stay alive with the people here!  One day, one day I know someone will be able to find out what's going on behind all this, they can find people, bring them back, I know it!"
	"You...you really think so?"
	"I do.  I really do.  Also..."
He remembered something now he had forgotten to bring, but perhaps just as well as it could have been ruined in the fight with the monster, when he brought out the scarf from the dresser.  Alex's eyes opened wide with a glistening awe.
	"A-ah...i-is that-"
	"I found someone who made it, did a job for him and...this is for you."
	"W-wow...th-thank you..."
Humbled by such a gift, the goat boy immediately put it on, wrapping it around his neck tightly and looking rather dashing in it, like a fighter pilot from a comic book to James' eyes.
	"Wow...you look a real hero kid."
	"Y-yeah?"
	"Totally.  I bet you'll be able to save people here too."
	"Ya think I can be a hero!?"
	"You're fast, you're smart, you just gotta be brave too!"
	"I-i will!  Thank you James!"
They hugged one more time, tightly so, the raptor nuzzling his snout into the scarf and murring gently.  They would soon be interrupted however by the hissing of a Domz nearby, who was coming along the corridor outside of the room.
	"Th-they fou-"
	"SHH!  ...we get out the window."
	"R-really?!?"
	"We're runners, we can do it."

James also decided to take his pouch with him, gently putting it around his waist before they leapt from the hostel window to roll onto the streets, running to somewhere, anywhere they could be safe.
	"Where's a good safe place!?!"
	"Maybe the sewers!  Nobody's down there!"
	"What about the water!?"
	"They got huge fish monsters out there, they can eat boats in one gulp!"
	"DAMMIT!"
As they ran through the streets with Alex leading once again to reach the sewers, they soon accidentally encountered several Domz.  Four at once, nestled in an alleyway where fires had broken out all over the place from forceful invasions, the people already being taken.  He also saw at least two of the Domz had people already inside.
	"SHIT DAMMIT!"
	"Whatta we do!?!?"
	"Hang on...I got an idea!"
Feeling the pouch to his side, he decided on a daring idea, but he had to test it.  And seeing the place was narrow enough, he warned his friend.
	"Alex, get up on the roofs until I deal with them, this is gonna get dangerous."
	"O-okay."
Alex ran up to the roof with his parkour skill and left James alone to face the skeletal aliens, the raptor bringing out a handgun clip from the pouch, tossing and catching it with a chuckle as he saw a small burning fire between them.  Waiting for them to get closer, he threw it at the small puddle of fire and backed off hoping it would go off, watching the Domz get nearer and nearer towards it.  Around 15 seconds later when they had almost completely passed it, something went off, but the Domz were unfazed.
	"FUCK!  ...okay new plan...I know this works dammit, Sarah told me about this!"
As he backed away more and more, he had another idea, feeling how tough the clip casings actually were when his jostling of the bag made one bullet fall out.
Maybe it's like if you wanna fry an egg, you get the shell open first, he thought.
With that in mind, he ran up and over the Domz with his agility, running up along the walls briefly to jump to the other, and landed behind them with the fire still between them.
He then emptied his three emaining bullet clips to fill the bag up as if it were full of nuts, throwing the clips away as he roared:
	"Come on then!  YEAH!  COME ON!  I gotta little present for ya!"
Standing near the fire, he waited for the Domz to crowd around him.  Four skeletal abominations, slowly floating ever closer before he brought out his pouch bag full of bullets.
I seriously fucking hope this works.

He threw it into the fire and immediately ran through the Domz, ducking under their claws.  10 seconds later, the bullets had heated up enough to explode, sending shrapnel blasts everywhere within the short radius of the fire.  It wounded the Domz greatly, crippling them with a volley of shell pieces as the clips went a-banging, killing all but one of the Domz who was lucky enough to avoid the shots.
This was rectified when James ran up to the wounded monster and slashed furiously at it to deliver a swift violent death.  As a result, the two people who had been trapped inside, a male cow and a female feline, were also freed, shaking their minds clear of the sleep they'd been in and looking around rather confused.
	"Wh-what happened!?"
	"The Domz nearly got you, but I got you out, you gotta go somewhere safe, hurry!"
	"B-but we don't know where to go that's safe!"
	"We can try the sewers!" shouted Alex from above who climbed down after seeing what had happened.  "I know where it is, they never go down there cuz there's no people to kidnap!"
	"Alright, we'll do that, you two come on!"
The four ran through the streets, following Alex's fastest route to the sewers before finding a large enough grating that was loose enough for them to lift up and climb into.
	"Alright, you all go first!"
Alex, the feline and the cow went in first, climbing carefully down the sewer ladder as safely as they could with James following up last to make sure nobody saw them, before closing the manhole over him.  The sewers were quiet, other than the dull thuds of comets from above to land more Domz upon the city.
The four walked along the dank passageways beside the dark water, huddled together in apprehension of what could lurk within the murky depths.  So far Alex had been right.  In what felt like half an hour just walking through the place, nobody else was in the sewers, and the place was virtually Domz-free.  Relief came to them individually, the cow saying:
	"Hey thanks kid, you sure know the city well."
	"Is okay, I jus' know places to hide!"
	"Where are your parents?" asked the feline.
Alex merely looked away with a wistful plaintiveness.
	"Oh...I-i'm sorry."
	"S'okay...."
	"What about you?" said the bovine to the raptor.
	"Me?  I just arrived here a while back, became friends with Alex here and next thing I know, Domz everywhere."
	"Huh, bad luck there huh?  What's yer name?"
	"James.  And you two?"
	"I'm Bill and this is Jess."
	"Cool...so what happened to you guys?"
	"We were just living in that house you found us at when a Domz landed right above us, pretty much got us quickly-"
	"OH we should have said before," butted in the female, "thank you so much for freeing us!"
	"No problem miss...so Alex, you know where we're going?"
	"Yeah, jus' along to near the ports so we can get away from the city."

Alex was in all honesty unsure of where to go, as he was just trying to escape the Domz and thought that the water might be the best idea, if only to get a better view on the situation.  After travelling for what felt like another half hour, they saw light at the end of one spacious tunnel in the distance, a pinprick to their eyes.
	"There it is!"
Hurrying onwards, they tried to reach the outside to the exit of the city, which would face the sea itself.  Hope rose up within their hear as they ran as fast as they could together.
But before anyone could congratulate the little billy goat, a rumbling sound came from the exit, and the light was temporarily blocked by a huge long shadow of some kind.  It appeared to be some sort of lunging spine, as it slammed into the sewer exit powerfully so.  They all nearly fell into the water, except for James who did, thanks to a slippery puddle he stepped on that threw his balance off.
	"AAAAARGH!"
	"JAAAMES!"
Falling into the deep water, he tried to swim up, desperately paddling and flailing to keep himself afloat and looking up at them before another rumbling came to nearly upset their balance further.  The water seemed to swell, as a tidal wave came from the direction they were going, the three on land panicking and trying to hide in a nearby alcove.  All while James was left helpless before the huge rising water that blasted him through the sewers, splitting him far away from the rest of the group.
	"AAAAALEEEEEEX!"
He could barely roar with the water filling up his nostrils as he was blown clean through the waterways, traversing with the will of the currents that had so forcefully been shoved through the sewers.  He found himself sinking into blackness, not having learnt to swim very well in his life, and unable to do so anyway against such a strong current, as he felt himself fall down a waterfall, into a deeper place.  A cavern of some sorts.
All he could think of as he fell was Alex.  He hoped the boy would be safe, he hoped the scarf would inspire him to become a hero or something brave, and in his most tender of fantasies, he imagined the couple adopting him as foster parents.  Something he had imagined for others all too often in younger days.  Yet for once, he did not think of Sarah, and how she was to him.  All he could think of was Alex.  And as he pleaded to no one for him to be safe, the cold sluiced water rushing through his body ever downwards, he hoped he would survive this, wanting to be somewhere else, away from this catastrophe.
And then he felt something even colder than the roaring water.  That familiar howling wind.  He never even hit the bottom of the sewer waterfall.