A/N: This is an old fanfic that I wrote a few months ago just before going on my hiatus, but lost the USB drive that it was saved on. I recently found it (YAY!) and decided to upload this 3 part trilogy. This first part is an AU of Extinction.
I do not take ownership for any characters of the Resident Evil franchise, with the exception of my OC's that are used in this story. All rights belong to Capcom and Constantin Films. This story was made by a fan for entertainment purposes only.
Otto peered intently at Claire Redfield's normally expressionless face as he handed her a sealed can of cream of mushroom soup. She appeared to be watching the new woman Alice with great interest.
"I'll be damned Otto, I still can't figure out how you do that." Claire remarked as she opened the predetermined can's lid with a smile.
"It's just one of my gifts. It's a dying art though." Otto replied as he repeated the simple ritual of determining the can's contents by shaking it beside his right ear. Peaches.
"So, what's the deal with her? Lost her appetite? Shy? What's wrong?" Otto asked as Claire followed his gaze at Alice, who was leaning on a pump in the shadow of a gas station overhang.
"She's a loner. Been so far from other humans for so long that she doesn't really have any social skills left... Not that she had any in the first place." Carlos said as he approached them for his ration of food. "I met her during Raccoon City."
"Hmm... She just hasn't met K-Mart yet." Otto remarked as he handed Carlos the can of peaches.
"Speak of the devil, and she shall appear." A young blonde teen said as she walked around the back of the food van with a smirk on her face.
"Exactly. I heard you from my pump over there." Alice said in a quiet tone, only looking at either Claire or K-Mart. She had just approached them without a sound, and without any effort either.
"Glad to see you're a bit more polite to the ones that can actually speak back." Carlos remarked with a teasing smile. He was referring to Alice's grand entrance a few days earlier with a large crowd of undead and a pack of infected dogs chasing after her. She had mercilessly killed the entire crowd with her kukris and took out most of the dogs bare handed.
"Even if they could speak, I'd still just pop them a shot between the eyes." Claire joined in suddenly after she'd passed off her cream of mushroom soup to another hungry survivor.
"Doesn't matter, they still die." Otto said as he patted the Beretta M92f poking out from under his left arm.
"And what happens when you don't have anymore bullets?" Alice spoke to them all, but only looked at Claire, who was actually packing heat: a pair of Glocks were in a dual shoulder holster under her red cargo vest and she had an M4a1 Carbine slung over her back. To top it all off, she also had a large combat knife lashed to the left strap of her holsters. Not someone to be fucked with.
"We start swinging." Claire replied as she picked at her nails with her huge knife. She was referring to the piece of steel in her hands, which she was no doubt highly skilled with anyway.
"CLAIRE! We've got someone coming towards the camera perimeter!" Mikey suddenly yelled from his news van, his sandy blonde head appearing out the open back doors.
Immediately forming a defensive line around their camp the well disciplined survivors primed their weapons with clicks and pumps tensed for an attack from any undead.
"Do you hear something?" Carlos said from his position atop the tanker truck with the convoy's sharpshooter cowboy, Chase.
After a few seconds the strains of music reached Chase's ears and he nodded. ""I reckon that's AC-DC. I haven't heard that song in many years." He said as he peered through his sniper rifle's scope.
"Claire, we can hear music, can you?" Carlos said into his earpiece. He was further from where Claire was, but could hear the strains of the guitar as it steadily grew louder.
"Yeah, Alice has eyes on the guy. She's approaching him now. He's got a boombox." Claire said with a deadly seriousness, even though she knew the song very well. Back in Black had been her favourite AC-DC song.
Alice was approaching the tall and very muscular man, who was holding the large black boombox on one massive shoulder and carried an AK47 assault rifle in the other hand.
"Turn it off! You'll attract the infected!" She yelled at the young man, who immediately entered a combat stance, dropping the stereo to the sand. His face was hidden by the scarf he wore, and a pair of mirrored aviator sunglasses covering his eyes.
"I said turn it off!" Alice yelled again, standing her ground as the assault rifle leveled between her eyes.
"Tell your sniper to stand down, and so will I. I will only turn it off without having to worry about being shot." The man spoke in a dangerous, but low voice so that only she could hear him.
"Fine. Carlos, tell Chase to stand down." Alice spoke into the radio that K-Mart had handed her when she'd approached this guy.
"Got it. CHASE! He said put your rifle down." Carlos' voice sounded over the radio. "Everyone, stand down!"
After a few seconds Alice stared pointedly at the tall man who lowered his assault rifle and turned off the song in the middle of the guitar solo.
"When I enter your camp, I speak only to you. You are my voice in the camp." The man said again in his quiet voice as he picked up his stereo and followed her to Claire's side.
"WHAT THE FUCK IS YOUR PROBLEM BUDDY?! YOU COULD HAVE BROUGHT HUNDREDS OF UNDEAD HERE WITH THAT STUNT! WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING?!" Claire exploded as he stopped at Alice's shoulder, seeming like he had once stood there before the outbreak.
"I was intentionally attracting the Unliving to simply kill them." The man said in his quiet voice.
"He was bringing them to him, like the Pied Piper. He's doing what I did before I joined you." Alice said to Claire, which seemed to infuriated Claire further, minus the volume of her initial outburst.
"What? Now you're his fucking mouthpiece? Why don't you speak you big fucking ape?!" Claire poked him in the chest, but he stood his ground behind Alice's shoulder like a bodyguard.
"You can't hear him?" Alice asked in a confused tone, realizing that it was certainly true as K-Mart and Claire shook their heads.
"I am speaking with Telepathy, only you can hear me like this. I too am a Tyrant-Virus Hybrid." He said as he placed his huge hand on her shoulder, removing his scarf and aviators with his other.
"He's... Just like...me." Alice said as she looked up him with dawning comprehension. "Ben? Is that you?"
Claire shot the pair's non vocal conversation a glare but gave her official order to the old friend of Alice.
"You can stay, but only if you ask before you turn that stereo back on. Nod your head if you fucking understand what I just said." She said over her shoulder as she lead K-Mart to her yellow Hummer.
"I can speak, and I accept your terms for my lodging." Ben said with his actual voice, which was quiet, but deep.
When Claire and K-Mart walked away Alice nestled into his large arms and looked up at him with an old teasing glint that only he knew.
"I thought you'd only be speaking to me?" She asked as she kissed him gently on the cheek.
"She should know that I'm not completely silent, but I still speak only to you." Ben replied as he released her from his huge embrace. "Telepathy or otherwise."
"So, what's the story with them?" Betty asked Claire as the two newest members of the convoy, Ben and Alice, sat against the side of the gas pumps. The shady spot seemed to be THEIR spot at this stop location, no one else even dared to approach the completely silent, but very close pair.
"They were both separated during Raccoon City and probably haven't known the other was even alive since then, so I guess they were close. Very close." Claire replied as she cleaned and serviced her M4a1 on the hood of the Hummer, watching them sit in silence.
"Must be nice to talk without words. Kinda kinky, if you think about it." Betty admitted to Claire, but in her head admired how hot Ben actually was. Big pecs, strong jaw, huge arms, mmmm. Yummy.
Alice saw Claire shaking her head but couldn't hear what had been said. She turned back to Ben's face which she hadn't seen in four long and very lonely years.
"You are travelling with them now? What about Umbrella?" Ben asked in his quiet voice, using actual speech instead of Telepathy.
"I destroyed the tracker chip that they put in my head. Unless I look up as a satellite passes, I'm fine. What about you babe? Are you safe?" Alice replied with a teasing glint in her eyes while smirking at him.
"From Umbrella? As safe as you are. From the Unliving? I am still a human, afterall." Ben replied as he brought her a bit closer in his huge arms.
"Hey! You two! We're packing up to leave!" K-Mart called over to them suddenly. "You're riding with me and Claire!"
The whole camp was taken down in minutes, fires were kicked out, possessions gathered and vehicles were boarded and driven away.
Inside Claire's Hummer Ben and Alice were closely sitting side by side in the back seat with the outward appearance of silence. Claire and K-Mart were directing the convoy and planning the next rest stop in the Nevada desert.
"Chase, we've got two off the right side. You want them?" Claire said into her radio. She had spotted two shambling undead from about sixty yards ahead of them.
"He's already hanging out the window, boss lady." Carlos said over the radio, sounding like he was trying not to laugh.
A second later, the two undead crumpled to the ground at the exact same time.
"Double kill!" LJ called over the radio as he passed the two dead zombies on the side of the road. He was driving in his pickup truck right behind Claire's Hummer.
"You know it, partner." Chase said as he smoothly worked his rifle's bolt to eject the empty round from the chamber.
"Impressive shot. Does he ever save any for the rest of us?" Ben asked Alice with Telepathy.
"Not sure, you should see me and Claire fighting them." Alice replied vocally, looking up at him with her eyes glinting to tease him. "That's where most of the kills go to."
"I'm sure Claire has her fair share of Unliving taken down." Ben said vocally, surprising Claire, who had been listening to the one sided conversation behind her. Even K-Mart was mildly surprised by him speaking so suddenly.
"Um... Thanks, it's Ben, right?" Claire asked when she glanced in the rearview mirror at him, taking in his dark attire: a long black leather trench coat, a pair of holstered pistols strapped to his denim clad legs and his Kalashnikov assault rifle resting on his lap. Just visible behind the ammo pouches on his belt were a pair of tomahawks on his lower back. He had draped his khaki coloured scarf around his neck, and his shades were firmly on his face.
"Yes, his name is Ben Garant. He's my sexy Hybrid." Alice replied, getting too used to being his voice already, she missed the fact he was actually about to answer. She leaned over to give him a kiss.
Momentarily surprised by the open display of affection Claire had noticed that Ben was indeed about to answer her question himself. He was a big boy after all... A very, very big boy…
When Alice and Ben separated Ben smiled at Claire before answering her question.
"Yes, my name is Ben. I've gathered that you are Claire Redfield, younger sister to one Captain Chris Redfield." Ben said with his hands resting on the Kalashnikov on his lap.
"You know my brother?! Where is he? Is he alive?" Claire exclaimed, he grip on the steering wheel visibly tightening.
"He is on the west coast, Los Angeles specifically. I heard him over the radio transmissions all week. 'This is Captain Chris Redfield, Los Angeles is gone. The last survivors escaped from the city, this is a warning: Los Angeles is gone.' That was the latest transmission from him specifically. All the others I'd heard stated the same message, but a different person speaking." Ben explained as he checked his magazine for a moment before suddenly leaning out the open window, loading the mag back into the weapon.
A single shot rang out and Ben returned inside with a smile.
"Now, I believe LJ will speak in three, two, one..." Ben said, counting down on his fingers. LJ promptly spoke up, just like Ben had said.
"Hey, hey, hey, that there is a confirmed triple kill. Looks like our cowboy's finally got some competition." LJ laughed for a second, then added. "Benny Boy, did you do that with an AK?"
"Yeah." Ben said into the radio that Claire was holding behind her for him, grinning from ear to ear. Alice rewarded him with another kiss, her hazel eyes sparkling with their teasing glint that was only for him.
"Don't go all Brokeback Mountain on me, babe. Leave the poor cowboy alone." She teased, smiling mischievously at him.
Closing Remarks: Ben was inspired by a different OC i created for another fanfic that I scrapped. He is basically the same size as Chris from RE5.
Anyway, I hope you liked this old fanfic, I plan on uploading the entire trilogy very quickly, so be ready for that. :P