If there was anything Alice hated, it was waking up surrounded by white. White walls, had forever been the precursor or result of some misfortune that had or would befall her.
So waking up once again surrounded by very similar walls, but in a much different situation was kind of a shock for her. The slight tendril of fear that had appeared at her sudden jump from sleep dissipated when she remembered all that had happened over the last week. Perhaps she could find some paint in a dark corner of the ship that was now Alaska bound.
She rubbed her eyes and sat up, she had fallen asleep in her clothes again but that was a normal state for her. She would take them off, except she had yet to go through the now mostly spoken for supplies of clothing on the ship. Claire had dealt them out to the survivors of the ship and there was little left over to choose from. She refused to wear the white umbrella uniforms, and that was really her only option at this point.
Luckily keeping her current set of clothing wasn't a challenge now. Water was in no short supply, and washing clothing had become a daily occasion for the brunette. Amazing the things one missed doing when the world had ended.
Stretching out stiff muscles, she got up and made her way into the small bathroom. More white. Wonderful. She pushed her annoyance with Umbrella's consistent use of white out of her mind and focused on her plans for the day. First, a shower was in order. She turned the tap on the cramped shower and started stripping off her clothing.
The lukewarm water felt like heaven as she washed the dirt and grim built up from her laboring yesterday. She had spent the majority of the day digging through boxes and helping Claire,Kmart, Chris and Luther take inventory. Umbrella was, of course, well stocked despite the ongoing apocalypse. They had enough food for almost a year without having to worry. The journey to Alaska would take far less time than that.
It still amazed Alice how quickly Claire and Chris had taken control of the chaos that had followed the fight with Umbrella. Shockingly enough, despite a great majority of the survivors suffering memory loss, they had held their own against umbrella. After the fight, things had escalated between survivors. They had all started to demand explanations, and a few small quarrels had broken out between conflicting groups of people. The ones who had tried to take control had tarted butting head with others who had the same plan but different ideas. Claire had efficiently shut them all off, with a little help from one of Alice's guns. She then calmly proceeded to explain everything and answer any questions that came up, by the end, everyone had agreed that of all of the people on the ship, Chris,Claire and Alice were all in a better position to be some form of leader.
She shuddered. Leaving her in charge of anything more than inventory, was not a good idea. Everyone she was ever in charge of died. With this large a group, she didn't want that on her mind.
Claire had understood and had left her in charge of anything involving physical labor, as over the week her powers had slowly started to return, they were a mere shadow of what they were but she was still superior to the other survivors physically, well most of them at least. She grinned, Chris and Luther still owed her a favor after loosing to her in an arm wrestling contest.
Claire had kicked her ass fair and square though and Alice had grudgingly given up her bottle of rum she'd found while exploring. The label had been worn off but it was definitely spiced rum, and Alice had merrily drank down a good portion of it before sharing her find with the rest of their group. She had found the crowd of once convoy members and a contest had quickly ensued in a tournament like fashion. Alice had been sure after beating Luther that she had victory safely in her grasp, as they were the last to challenge her. Then Claire, who had apparently been watching from a corner with some amusement had sat down, given her a cocky grin and then proceeded to somehow win 2 out of three times.
Alice was still puzzled by this, since Claire had left the prison, something had been different about her physically. It was obviously not that she had gotten infected, she would've turned by now. She could have had something similar to Alice's own infection happen, but Alice still would have detected that particular strain of virus with all the close contact they'd had since Alice picked her up in Alaska. Alice shrugged, point was, Claire had beaten her and she had lost the first bottle of booze she'd seen in years.
The water had washed away all it could and Alice turned the tap off and stepped out, shaking her head to rid herself of the stray water droplets and quickly wrapped in one of the white towels on the rack. Clothes were quickly gathered and put on, Hair was put in some semblance of order using a broken comb and mud from boots had been cleaned from her bed. Time for another day to begin, maybe she could find another Umbrella employ's stash of goodies.
Boxes boxes and, oh look, more boxes. Alice sighed and stretched, time to get to work. Luther and a guy who looked like some kind of hulk sized blonde wrestler were her companions for the day of moving, investigating and recording the contents of the seemingly endless piles of crates that had been found in the ship's underbelly. So far it was mostly food with the rare crate of weapons or even more rarely clothes. If it had been up to Alice at this point she would just keep things as they were, but Claire had voiced the very logical concern that there may be some kind of hidden Umbrella suprise hiding somewhere. She also needed to know exactly what she had to work with in order to effectively lead the survivors. For someone with a still very fragmented memory she was doing extraordinarily well. She ocassionally asked Alice or Chris about some vauge or patchy memory, but as far as Alice could tell she had managed to piece things back together. She was the Claire Alice remembered.
Shrugging off her thoughts she grinned at the men. "Time to get to work, boys"
Blondie raised a bushy eyebrow at the use of 'boys' but merely smirked.
Alice mapped out three sections of boxes to be opened and sorted through. They each went to their sector and began to pry the lids off the crates.
First crate. Cans of food. She rummaged around just to be safe but as she had expected. Just food. The next seven crates where all the same, and had been pushed to the side. Alice instantly knew the next one was different, it had been opened and hastily and incorrectly closed. Debating with herself about alerting the others, she decided to open it first. She was better equipped to deal with any situation anyways. She peered into the box confused.
Food.
Frowning she rummaged around not trustingbthe crates contents. Then a familar and most welcome scent reached her senses.
Ah, more goodies. She felt her hand close around a bottle, it felt full. Setting it on the ground beside her she her guess was proven correct. Everclear 95%alc. content.
Now that was something she hadn't seen in a very long time. Not since before joining up with Umbrella.
Further searching revealed a few more bottles of alcohol, weaker, but still.
Deciding to be nice and share she alerted her companions.
"Guys. Check this out"
Luther was there in an instant, followed more cautiously by Blondie. She really needed to ask his name.
"Damn" Luther said after letting out a whistle.
Blondie just grunted and went back to tearing the lids off boxes.
"I dont like to think what might happen if this stuff got in the hands of the survivors in an uncontrolled environment."
"We should probably tell Claire"
Alice bit her lip. She had really missed her drink. One of the first kinds of stores that not only she had hit, but every other living person had hit, were the liquor stores.
"Well... we could do that. Or..." Alice forced the cap off of a bottle of unlabled liquid. "Drink?" she asked and swallowed a mouthful.
Luther grinned and whiped the sweat off his forehead "You know what? Why not."
Alice passed him the bottle and went back to searching the box. Only food remained so she pushed it off into the corner, labelling it 'food'.
"Hey big guy" Alice said.
Blondie turned to face them, if he was insulted it didn't show.
"Come siddown. Break time. "
"The names Jeff, and won't this anger your cute redheaded friend?"
Alice shrugged "I'll handle it if it does. She does tend to allow certain... hmm... lapses in judgement."
"As long as i dont end up on the receiving end of her temper" He shrugged and sat down, Luther passing him the bottle.
An hour and 1.5 bottles later found them talking. Alice did not socialize a lot. Sometimes she would sit with kmart at meal times and chat. But aside from that and serious, if somewhat humorous, conversations about future plans with Claire and Chris, Alice avoided talking to most everyone.
"Know what I missh?"Jeff asked slurring his words slightly.
"Workouts at the gym?" Luther said seeming to be serious. The man had to be drunk. His eyes where unfocused and he swayed slightly.
"T.V. I know thatsh a shtupid thing ta mish with all thatsh happened but shit. "
"I miss fast food" Luther lamented. Jeff nodded his agreement and reached for the bottle.
Alice smirked. "I miss not having to wash my clothes by hand everyday." Alice said, using all her concentration to pronounce each word.
"Well, maybe if you followed your own advice and quit being so damn self sacrificing..."
Shit. Claire. What the hell she never came down here.
Jeff and Luther's eyes went suddenly comically huge and Alice couldn't restrain the giggle that bubbled up.
"Wasn't that what you told me in Nevada, Alice?"
Hmm. She decided she really liked the way Claire said her name. "Shtarving yourself and doing laundry are waaaaayy different situations. Have a seat"
Claire chuckled. "Drink on the job? I expected more maturity."
Despite her words, she sat down beside Alice and leaned back against the crate that was propping Alice up.
"Abandoning your shift on watch? For shame, Claire" She drawled and grabbed the bottle from Jeff. She gulped down another mouthful, her world spinning pleasantly.
"Shut up. Chris is on a caffine buzz from the red bull he found and took over. Gimme"
Alice complied and watched in amusement as Claire chugged down nearly all the remaining contents of the bottle before passing it back to Alice.
"Damn. Respect, because that shit is disgusting"
"Hey. I happen to like it... whatever it actually is..." Alice said finishing off the bottle and setting it beside the first one.
"I dont have tastebuds" Claire said sarcastically "They got scorched off in the sun"
Alice chuckled "With the heat you were living in before? Wouldn't suprise me at all" normally Alice wasn't this comfortable with talking. she tended to either get awkward or confrontational. She was pleasantly drunk though and found talking easier, while managing to retain at least most of her reasoning and speech abilities.
"You guys find anymore?"
"Two bottles of what seems to be 40% vodka and a bottle of some of the strongest shit I've ever drank. That stuff can make you go blind."
Claire grinned. "Personal experience?"
"Not with the blindness. Here"
She grabbed the large bottle from inside the crate.
"Everclear?" Claire asked, reading the label as she started to remove the lid.
"Go easy on this." Alice cautioned "Last thing we need is you dying"
"Yeah yeah" Claire said taking a big gulp.
3
2
1
Claire spit out probably half the contents of what was in her mouth. "What the fuck!"
Alice, Luther and Jeff all burst out laughing, causing the redhead's already reddend face to further darken.
"Told ya. You can usr this shit as Gas" Alice said reaching for the bottle. "Mine"
Claire moved it out of her reach. "No. This stuff is too powerful. It could be dangerous in the wrong hands"
Alice frowned "Hey. Many people have told me how amazing my hands are and -"
Claire, who was wide eyed and laughing hysterically, covered Alice's mouth with the hand not protecting the alcohol.
Luther and Jeff were both grinning. "Now theres a thought" Luther said chuckling. "Now, how many of those people were actually guys."
Alice narrowed her eyes in his direction, prying Claires hand fro her mouth "Wouldn't you like to know."
"Oh god." Claire said, recovering from her laughing fit. "I just got an idea. Truth or Dare. Whoever doesnt wuss out, keeps this" she held up the bottle.
"I'm in" Luther said.
Jeff shrugged, which was taken as a yes.
Alice had a decidedly bad feeling but wanted the Everclear too badly to care."Fine."
Claire grabbed one of the empty bottles. "We r doing this spin the bottle style, I'm going first, because you guys drank without me."
Everyone seemed to find this fair. Claire spun the bottle which landed on Luther.
"Hmm... Truth"
"pussy" Alice accused under her breath earning a glare.
"Agreed. Did you actually like those watches you were modeling or no?"
"Hey, those were sick watches. I did" He said and spun the bottle. It landed on Jeff.
"Dare"
"Arm wrestle Alice."
"pfft, why your arm too sore to do it yourself?" Alice asked smirking.
Jeff laughed "Just dont break anything."
There was some shuffling around and eventually a crate was being used as a table.
"Go" claire declared.
Jeff threw all his strength into in and Alice's hand surprisingly held steady. She flashed him a cocky grin and had hi beat merely a second later, slamming his arm down with ease.
"Wow" was the only thing Jeff could say.
"Yeah. my turn." They returned to their previous positions and Alice spun. Luther.
"Dare"
Alice grinned "Betcha cant find where Claire's hiding her handgun"
Claires eyes almost popped out of her head. "Dont"
Luther looked torn between wanting to go search Claire and wanting to run in the other direction.
"Aww c'mon. He wont grope... much" Alice teased.
"Truth"
Alice frown "cheating, but since that was a mean dare fine. When... did you last get laid."
"like... ten hours ago." Luther said.
They all stared.
"What..."
"No faiiiirrrr" Alice said shaking her head.
"Agreed."
Jeff just shook his head,
Luther shrugged and spun. Alice.
"Dare"
Luther grinned "Okay, YOU find Claire's gun."
Claire just sighed as Alice did exactly that. Luckily Alice had just been trying to intimidate Luther before and he gun was actually strapped midway up her leg. How Alice knew that Claire had no idea.
Luther just stared and Alice casually tucked the gun into her boot.
"Gotcha" Alice said smugly as she spun the bottle.
It landed on Claire finally. Alice was looking pretty devious, but Claire did not back down from a challenge.
"Dare"
"Drink that." She gestured to one of the other bottles. "only fun if we are alll drunk"
Claire expected far worse and accepted the offered bottle.
She spun. Jeff.
"Dare"
"Go lock Alice in that crate"
"Try it" Alice growled, eyes growing black.
Jeff gulped. "I give. Entertain' ash thish hash been, i will be leaving now" He got up and stumbled out of site, headed for the stairs.
"Shit... Thanks Alice you scared him off"
Alice shrugged and Claire spun and then gulped down more alcohol. Luther.
"Truth"
"How many times have you gotten laid since being on the ship"
"Like... ten times?"
"I hate you" Alice huffed.
"Alice, c'mon don't lie, you want-"
"Just spin Luther"
He made a smart decision and did just that. Claire.
"Dare"
"Hmmm... Sing"
Claire blinked. "Sing?"
Luther nodded. Claire rolled her eyes... Then sang Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.
Luther nearly pissed himself laughing.
Claire grinned when her next spin landed on Luther.
"Truth"
"On a scale of one to ten how badly... Do you want in Alice's pants. C'mon. We all notice you staring."
"7" he said
Alice shrugged not really caring either way.
Luthers next spin landed on Claire.
"Dare"
"Kiss Alice."
"Reeeaaaally Luther" Claire said, moreso because that was lame. she had been drinking since Alice handed her the new bottle and was pretty well drunk.
"Yes. Now do it or no Alcohol."
Claire shrugged, pulled Alice to her and kissed her. She wasn't overly suprised at the warmth that the action generated nor the taste of vodka on her lips. Alice was damned attractive, she had been back in Nevada and was moreso here. What suprised her was Alice returning the kiss, she didn't technically need to. It caused almost all thoughts of their surroundings to fade away.
Almost reluctantly Claire pulled away and raised and eyebrow at a gaping Luther.
Alice grinned. Claire spun the bottle and it landed on Alice.
"Dare"
"Kick Luther's ass."
Luther snapped out of his daydream and stood. "I'm done..." Alice stood up anyways and stepped towards him. He jumped and ran off in the other direction.
Alice grinned and turned to Claire. "Share?"
"Why not" Claire said standing up and gathering up the other bottles. She staggered and tripped nearly dropping the new additions to her stash.
Alice helped steady her, despite not being very steady herself.
"Thanks" Claire said as they navigated the next level of the ship.
"No problem. You gonna make it back to your cabin or..?"
"I don't know... Fuck it. I'm just going to crash on your floor... or bathroom. I'll probably fall on my face."
"Fine by me. C'mon" Alice said leading the way.
AN: Okay, so this is what happens when I find the first portion of this story and then decide to start adding to it. While sleep deprived (nearly 48hrs with NO sleep) and only able to write on my 3Ds -.- Ipod has broken wifi and i spent my'laptop' savings on a horse (who's putting up with me amazingly well for only being 5) SOOOO yeah. Just let it be known, i will continue all my other stuff i have going on but it will be slow goings unless i successfully talk my grandparents into letting me hijack their net-book.