A World Without Heroes

Andrella07

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Feedback: ALWAYS! Please and thank you.

This is rated for language and some dark themes. The story takes place between the Resident Evil Apocalypse and Extinction. And finally, it was inspired by the KISS (greatest band in the land btw) song "World Without Heroes."

A world without heroes is like a world without sun.

You can't look up to anyone without heroes.

A world without heroes is like a never ending race,

is like a time without a place;

pointless thing devoid of grace.

Where you don't what you're after

or if someone's after you.

Where you don't know why

– you don't know –

in a world without heroes.

A world without heroes is no place to be.

It's no place for me…

Chapter 1: Time for a Change

If not for the date displayed in simplistic dashes on Alice's Armitron watch she would have no idea what day it was. But as it was the devise read: THU 8-27, below that was the time, and that – the sun-bleached blonde could not live without knowing: 17:53:46. It was a sort of tic she'd developed, and it was so bad that she'd even taken to guessing the time by the position of the sun and checking it against her watch. Practice had made her skilled enough to estimate within ten minutes of the actual time. She was constantly hounded by other compulsions and not surprisingly – a fair amount paranoia, compliments of the apocalyptic world she inhabited.

Alice looked at her watch again. 17:56:33. In four minutes, an Umbrella satellite would zero in on the backwards Colorado town she was currently nearby, and she would have to remain hidden for approximately the next five to avoid detection. The woman had no doubt that she was still being hunted even though it had been three years since her escape from the Corporation in Detroit.

The shack she had holed up in was cramped with the presence of her motorcycle. Alice tapped her fingers on the old work bench she was sitting on. She crossed and uncrossed her legs in anxiety. Be still, she said in her mind and her fingers and legs relaxed. The woman had already gone through the building for useable items. The immediate area had been pretty much picked clean by other scavengers, but that was ok. Alice learned early on that she didn't need much to survive.

Her first year alone was spent in a deep depression and it was then that she discovered she could go long periods of time without water, or food, or even sleep, and for as long as she could get away with it she did none of those things. She eventually found that she had to keep some kind of schedule to remain functioning. She drank water once a day and ate every other; sleep however, was much more sporadic.

After killing Angie in cold blood, Alice's life could hardly be called living. In her misery the woman tried to help the survivors she came across, but she found that more and more the faces of those she met started to show the signs of despair. Eventually, they were completely devoid of hope altogether, and Alice stopped coming to the aid of those who called for it. Many nights were spent listening to transmissions from survivors pleading for rescue, food, water, and companionship…Alice coolly ignored them all.

The only item in the shack that was of any use to her was a pair of black-leather gloves because she refused to let anything other than black clothes adore her unmarred skin. The woman had on a thin cami, over that was a sleeveless and zipped-up hoodie. Alice had the hood on now, as she often did, and her highlighted locks peaked out of the edges in a light curl. She also wore a leather jacket and a pair of black jeans that were in surprisingly good condition. Her feet were incased in jet-black leather boots stolen from a corpse a year and a half ago in Tennessee. She worked hard to keep them in working condition by regularly oiling the leather and mending them as needed. The steal-toed shoes were arguably her most prized possession.

Alice left the deserted roadway in hopes of finding some fuel after she spotted a biker bar. Gasoline was always in short supply in one place and abundant in others. Areas that were crowded with undead tended to have the most supplies – if you wanted to brave the horde to get them. This town used to have a fair amount of infected – before Alice drove in on her BMW that morning. So, the blonde was miffed when she explored the vehicles in the parking lot for fuel and found none. Defeated, Alice entered the building to crash for the night, certain that the place would only be good for the roof over her head.

The floor was littered with broken glass, dirt, and turned over barstools, but aside from that the place was remarkably intact. Alice even found a few unharmed bottles of liquor; two fifths of whiskey and one of tequila. She hadn't had a single drink since the outbreak. In the beginning, the opportunity had been there but she refused it under the guise that she wanted to keep a clear head. Later, the opportunity had already been taken from her by the desire of others to drown their sorrows. But now, she had something to drown and clear-headedness was overrated.

It was 23:11:46 when she opened the first bottle of whisky. She wasn't sure what kind of effect the alcohol would have on her altered blood, but she took to finding out with unguarded enthusiasm. The entire fifth gave her a buzz and she basked in the absence of her troubled thoughts. The second bottle impaired her judgment enough so that she drank a third, this time tequila. By now the woman was stumbling around as she ventured through the bar looking for more of the precious liquid. She went back to the locked door she'd found earlier and carelessly kicked in it in.

The blonde staggered inside what she'd expected be a storage room but was actually a living space with a dresser, a mini-fridge, and a small bed. On the spring mattress was a corpse showing signs of only a few weeks of decay. The smell alone should've made Alice gag, but she'd become desensitized to the scent of rot long ago. The man was mature, in his late 40's with a pistol clenched tightly in his right hand and a bullet hole in his head to match. Sucks to be you, you fucking bastard, Alice thought as she looked the man over with her flashlight. He had been the stereotypical biker when he was alive with a whitened goatee, facial scars likely induced from bar fights, leather clothes, and obsidian, silver-buckled, leather boots. Nice boots. Mind if I borrow them? Of course you don't, she thought as she walked up to the man to strip him of his shoes. The leather constructs came off the shrunken feet with ease, and Alice replaced her worn boots with the new ones. They were an incredible fit. Have to wash the stink out, she reasoned as she left the room to sleep for the night.

When she woke the next morning she was happy to find that she had no hangover, but puzzled at the appearance of new shoes on her feet. Alice had never robbed a corpse before. She maneuvered her foot as she looked at the metal buckle wrapped around the ankle of her right boot. I look damn good in these, she thought, and with that Alice made stealing from the dead – a thought once so abhorrent to her – fair game.

18:07:16 It was now safe for Alice to venture back outside. She grabbed the handles of her bike and steered it into the chilled mountain air. The high elevation robbed her lungs of the oxygen it craved, but that was something else she could do without for long periods of times compared to other people. Bullets were what truly sustained her; not to mention the guns that used them. She'd made it her mission in life to exterminate all the cannibals from the planet, but it was an entirely selfish gesture. Alice had not a care in the world that her undertaking helped those who still lived; she simply knew it as a way to pass the time…and after her empathy disappeared, she enjoyed it.

What now? Alice thought. She was low on ammo so she decided a resupply was in order before night fell. At the base of the mountain beneath her was an average sized town that was hopefully not emptied of recourses.

She rode her motorcycle along the descending mountain road at speeds much faster than necessary. The way she was driving was down-right reckless. So far, she had recovered from every single injury she acquired rather quickly, thanks to the T-virus flowing through her veins, but that didn't stop her from trying to find ones she wouldn't heal from. It was sick, she knew, but she relished in the pain because it was always over too fast. Alice didn't just flirt with Death – they had a full on relationship, and the sex was to die for.

The blonde entered the town slowly. She noted that building after building was decorated with boulders; a pretty commonplace practice in mountain towns aimed to attract tourists, but she found it to be kitsch and tacky. Amongst the urban decay were sparse signs of nature and growth. The few pines and fir trees that were scattered on the road she had just passed could be counted on one hand. This place was just like every other settlement she passed through; desolate, abandoned, nothing but destruction and disrepair – she was home.

She'd spent the last month entirely in the mountains and she longed for a good kill; cities were her best bet to run into the infected, but this place was more inactive than most. She thought the noise of her bike would at least attract a few, but there were no bloody, staggering corpses coming her way. The only bodies around were rotting on the side of the road and there weren't many.

Disappointed, Alice drove through the streets looking for a department store that was not completely raided. Luck was with her, about thirty yards down the road was gun shop and if she didn't know any better she'd say that the place was being kept up. Impossible, Alice thought, no one could've survived by staying in one place. Then again, the blonde hadn't seen a single infected. If there was still someone in this town, then they had been cleaning it out of the undead.

She was about to turn back and leave, deciding that finding ammo was not worth running into strangers, when the wind changed directions and she heard the rumble of another engine. She slowed her bike and set out her feet to hold the vehicle in place while she listened. Alice tried to place the sound and found it was coming from in front of her. Suddenly a yellow hummer turned the corner dangerously fast; it came off its right-side wheels slightly and as they found the pavement again the front wheel popped. The vehicle continued down the road she was on, but it was losing speed as the rubber from the blown tire was stripped from the metal rim.

Alice was panicked; she wasn't certain what to do until she saw the undead clambering up the hood of the vehicle and that behind it was a horde of at least thirty giving chase. The hooded-blonde grinned with deviance as she drove her bike off to the side of the road past the gun shop. She dismounted and drew her black-matte pistols from the holsters on her lower back.

The vehicle hit the breaks in right in front of the gun store causing the undead hood ornament to fly onto the pavement and roll away contorting its limbs into ways that would make any living person scream. Alice set off at a sprint towards the horde completely ignoring the hummer and its passengers. As she neared the undead her blood began to sing. Alice had no other words to describe the way the blue liquid tingled inside her veins in the presence of infected. It was no doubt the aspect of a predator, and she wondered if her prey felt anything at her appearance.

She had ten shots and that was it, but Alice wasn't the least bit concerned. The undead turned their attentions to her and rushed. She expelled the bullets in rapid fire, not even blinking as the metal left the chambers of her guns with a loud explosion. Ten pulls of a trigger later and ten undead were out of commission. However, an upwards of twenty were still on their feet and they were closing in.

The blonde lowered her guns and considered with a sadistic smile if now was the time to try her new idea inspired by a rockslide she'd caused a few weeks ago. Why not? Alice questioned rhetorically and felt her pupils dilate from the pressure in her skull. Tiny pebbles no bigger than marbles lifted from the side of the road around her. She let them float in the air for a moment as she focused on her targets. Alice shot them out and watched as they entered the undead's brains and instantly brought them down.

A few of the undead survived the assault because the red sandstone they had been hit with burst upon impact. Hm, I'll have to be a little bit more particular about rock selection, the blonde contemplated as she prepared to take the last ones on with her bare hands. She holstered her guns, but for some reason the remaining infected ran right past her. Alice turned and saw that they were going for the two new targets that had emerged from the hummer. Oh, no you don't. I'm not through with you yet, she thought and used her mental powers to put three more rocks into the air. This time she wanted to see what she could away with. The rocks were no longer pebbles, but the boulders that were placed outside the gun shop for decoration. She shot them forward as fast as she could and then released control. They hit the infected like a train, dashing their brains out and then continued on their flight. Alice's vision shifted from the falling bodies to the passengers of the vehicle now in the path of the projectiles.

She made eye contact with a redheaded woman and swiftly flexed her mental abilities to make the boulders drop to the ground before they impacted with her. The unexpected exertion caused Alice's nose to bleed and she wavered on her feet, but remained standing. There was something in the woman's sea green eyes; she'd seen it before but Alice couldn't place it.

The blonde wiped away the blood from her nostril and it left a red smear on the back of her hand. She quickly walked to collect her motorcycle and leave, but before she could start the bike's engine the redhead called out to her.

"Wait! Don't go."

The blonde's shoulders fell in resignation of the request as she looked up at the strangers she'd been trying to avoid. Alice wasn't sure why she was not just driving away; then she remembered – hope. There had been hope and a spark of life behind the redhead's gaze, and Alice craved to see more of it.

She dismounted the bike and looked at the survivors, the redhead was joined by a young blonde no older than 15. As far as Alice could tell the older woman was armed with a handgun and a rifle slung over her back, and the teen had no weapons at all. The two were dressed pretty conventionally. The girl was in jeans and an olive green vest over a brown shirt, but she was decorated more like a klepto with colorful bracelets, necklaces, and mismatched earrings. The other woman was also in jeans, a tan leather jacket and similar boots. Her only unique feature was a warn ball cap that she had on backwards.

Alice tightened her abdomen, forced her shoulders back, and lifted her chin. The subtle adjustments to her posture instilled the message that she was not to be trifled with. Her blood was still humming, but she ignored it. The two strangers approached her and she saw that they did so with slight apprehension, but the redhead kept the pistol in her hand at her side. They stopped their advance a few yards from the blonde next to an old car abandoned in the road, close enough to speak and far enough to run.

The taller woman looked past Alice and her lips upturned softly.

"Is that your bike?" the redhead asked a bit of excitement lilting her words, but the blonde tensed and the woman backtracked. "We're not gonna steal it or anything, relax." Alice flared her nostrils in response, her nose almost twitching into a snarl but the redhead didn't notice. "I'm Claire, and this is K-mart," she nudged the young girl next to her with her shoulder. "We're both very grateful for your help."

Help? I didn't help… Alice thought as she looked down in contemplation, but then brought her eyes back up quickly, fighting the urge to question her decision and appear distracted.

Suddenly the undead that had been thrown from the hummer a few yards back was crawling around the car. Its twisted limbs managed a fast approach that was remarkably silent considering. Alice merely watched as it drew closer to the pair; she assumed Claire would stop it but the redhead continued talking.

"So, what's your name?" The woman waited patiently for a moment and then spoke up again, "don't tell me I have to name you too…"

Alice's eyebrow raised as K-mart's shoulders moved in a silent giggle.

Deciding that she didn't like the idea of being named after a department store, the blonde said, "Alice. My name is Alice."

The redhead smiled, and the fiend was about to be upon them. The blonde may have saved them unconsciously before, but this time she would not. She'd been given enough time to consider this decision unlike the gut-reaction that stopped the boulders earlier.

"It's good to meet you Alice. What you did back there," Claire was at somewhat of a loss to describe it, "it was amazing."

The blonde's eyebrows knitted together in confusion. She'd been called many things – 'amazing' had never been among them.

The infected looked as if it was about to go for Claire's booted foot. The high leather would be protection enough – not that Alice cared, but then the undead shifted to bite the teen, who would not be able to rely on the defense of her tennis shoes and jeans. Incisors could tear through denim material with sufficient force, and the human jaw had strength in excess.

Alice mentally sighed as she whipped back the right side of her coat to quick-draw her knife and sent the fixed blade into the forehead of the creature. Better to kill one undead now, than have to deal with two later, she reasoned after stopping the girl from joining the countless ranks of the infected. The body collapsed to the pavement as Claire gasped in shock, aiming her pistol too late to be of any use.

Claire lowered the weapon back to her side and K-mart moved in to wrap her hands around the redhead's elbow. The teen seemed to tremble as she looked at the black hilt sticking out of the corpse's skull.

The redhead took a breath and looked back at Alice. "Thank you for that," she said with gratitude.

"You've got a flat," Alice responded awkwardly as she looked over at the hummer.

"A flat?" the woman questioned rhetorically. "I don't even have a tire. Luckily, I have a spare. What I don't have is a jack." She sighed, and Alice thought for a moment.

"You won't need one." The blonde walked past the two survivors who tensed slightly at her passing. She approached the yellow vehicle, reached underneath it and lifted it about a foot off the pavement. Claire watched impressed.

"I could definitely find reasons to keep you around." Alice lowered the hummer back down as the woman continued, "so, how about it? Do you want to stay with us for while?" The blonde bit the inside of her cheek and the Claire amended, "you don't have to decide now, but at least stay the night." K-mart nodded with enthusiasm. "We've got this gun shop set up pretty nicely. You're welcome to take whatever you need and leave whenever you want."

Alice brought her wrist up to check the time. 20:49:17 She hadn't realized it was so late; she glanced west and saw that the sun was close to dipping below the mountain covered horizon robbing them of precious daylight.

"It is getting dark…"

Claire looked behind her at the setting star and said, "that it is. Come on," she motioned for the blonde to follow her inside the store. Alice walked over to the undead and pulled out her combat knife with a sickening, slick noise. She wiped the coagulated blood on the dirty shirt of the corpse and re-sheathed it; then turned to join Claire. K-mart grabbed a duffle bag from the hummer and rushed to catch up.

To continue or not to continue - that is the question...