Alice usually hated people interrupting her while she read, saying in so many words that they knew better than her whether she should be having a conversation or enjoying a book. But she made a permanent exception for Claire. The redhead found her in the crow's nest, enjoying the silence high above the noise of the ship.
"Good read?" Claire asked, pulling herself up off the ladder.
"So I recall." Alice turned the page. "One perk of retrograde amnesia: you get to enjoy everything twice."
"Cuts both ways, doesn't it? Do yourself a favor and never watch Indiana Jones 4." Claire sat down on the grating floor or the nest. The metal combined with the sea wind to put a chill in her. She scooted against Alice for warmth. "You told me about the gas, but there are still things you don't remember?"
Alice grinned. "I'm thinking of writing a strongly-worded letter to Umbrella Human Resources." Claire kept looking at her and the smile disappeared like it'd been carried away on the wind. "The name of my high school. The end of Jurassic Park. My mother's face." Claire kept looking. Alice turned her head. "She's probably dead anyway."
Claire knew Alice, knew her type (cop, soldier, warrior) well enough not to push. She gave the conversation a moment's grace period, then changed the subject. "What's the read?"
Alice held it up, bookmark in place. "Satan was a lesbian."
"Ilene Chaiken's biography?"
Alice laughed and set it aside. "Lesbian pulp. I had one in the mansion. Picked one up on a forage the other day and it turns out they're like crack."
Claire slipped off Alice's shoulder and insinuated herself on Alice's lap. She could look up at that face all day.
Alice had a gravelly laugh, like it had rusted from disuse. "What's gotten into you?"
Claire reached up to give Alice's leg a squeeze. "My memory. I seem to recall you rolling into our camp, saving us from the un-fun Angry Birds."
It wasn't such a fond memory for Alice. She petted Claire's hair sadly. "I put you all in danger. I got a lot of you killed."
"You saved me." Claire reached up, the movement surprisingly supple for someone who'd spent her life in action with no wasted energy. Alice thought Claire was going to touch her lips, like some Harlequin novel bullshit, and was almost as surprised when Claire ran her fingers across a strand of Alice's hair. She wondered how it felt. "Look but don't touch… was it hard? Coming back to me, but then you couldn't be with me. It must've hurt so much…"
Alice grabbed Claire's wrist. "What are you talking about?"
"I remember, Alice. How we talked, how we looked at each other, the way I felt about you…"
All Alice could do was shake her head. "There was nothing between us, Claire. We never did anything."
Claire looked at her more expectantly than anything else, like she was waiting for a punchline, or an explanation. When none came, when Alice just shook her head once more, she moved with the speed that usually possessed her. Her lips crushed against Alice's so hard it was like she was punishing her. Alice's body boiled, her mouth tingled like a bruise. But she pulled away.
"There's someone else."
Rain remembered the antivirus working, her body waking up from its numbness. She was just thinking of what kind of beer she'd buy Alice to celebrate when they were ripped apart. There was a battery of tests done, first by white people, then by Japanese. At one point in her drugged-out convalescence, they must've transferred her. She finally recognized Dr. Isaacs shutting down the project to free up space for his own. Then she recognized a stasis chamber.
Next thing she knew, Alice was setting her on Defrost and they were on a fucking boat. Alice didn't look older, but more weathered, like a diamond left out in a sandstorm to become pitted and scarred. "Good news or bad?"
"Bad news, I've got a feeling it's gonna take longer."
Alice shrugged like she was shifting a huge weight on her shoulders. "The virus got out. Pretty much everyone's dead, it's just a matter of whether they're walking around or not. Good news is I've killed everyone responsible."
Rain shook her head like she'd just heard a corny old joke; still funny. "Fuck, I always knew the world was getting FUBARed. At least the assholes who pulled the trigger caught some recoil. You got any beer?"
Six years of not being able to act on all the flirting counted as foreplay. The minute they were through with one damn bottle of Miller Lite, Alice stopped Rain from opening another to throw her against a wall. Rain reciprocated by throwing Alice on a bed. After that, it was like Alice was starving for her touch, any touch. Rain had an idea of going easy on Alice for their first date, but blondie kept pulling her in, rolling her into new positions and seeing if they fit. Six years of dreams were fulfilled in a few hours.
They didn't move in together. They didn't eat together. Some days they barely even spoke. But more often than not, the days ended with Alice in Rain's quarters, or pulling her into a deserted corner of the ship, or leading her back to her room. Sometimes they'd both stay. Most of the times, they wouldn't. It was rare that one of them wouldn't be left with enough energy to get up and go to her own bed, or attend to business. The Arcadia was rounding the coast, broadcasting for survivors down North America. There was talk of taking the Panama Canal, or cresting South America before settling in Antarctica, or continuing on to Asia or Africa or Europe. Mostly, they just needed something to do while they waited for the zombies to die out. As efficient as the T-virus made their bodies, they couldn't last forever without meat.
It took a week, but they got to the point where Alice and Rain could lie in bed together and be comfortable. They were soldiers, so it always started off as a realization of how strategically untenable their situation was. The orgasm wore off, they rolled off each other, and then they remembered they were nude, unequipped, and if they fell asleep they'd be at the mercy of the other woman. Alice was still used to checking for zombies each time she opened her eyes. But they got used to the vibration of each other's body. For Rain, it actually got to be a little soothing. Alice was her reminder that she was out of the tube.
Two weeks went by before Rain felt up to shattering the peace with talk. She'd always had a thing for the strong, silent type. It was like fucking a mirror. "So what's with the girl?"
"What girl?" Alice teased. "I know a lot of girls…"
"Redfield. Claire. The ginger?" Rain teased right back, her words slick. She mollified herself by dropping onto Alice's back and nibbling her ear.
Alice snuggled deeper into her pillow, trying to escape. "We're just friends."
"Yeah, you look at her bod like she's an all-you-can-eat buffet. And she looks back."
"Jealous?"
"Nah. I stare too. It's, like, the way you look at her. It's pretty gay."
"Me? Gay?" Alice asked with industrial-grade sarcasm.
"You know what I mean." Rain moved her hand to Alice's belly and tickled. "Total high school closet case writing-her-name-in-your-trapper-keeper shit." Alice grabbed her hand, stilling it, but Rain didn't move away. She put her lips back near Alice's ear. "You look at her like you looked at Spence when you were trying to figure out where he fit into your life."
"Spence was a psycho."
"Is that a big consideration with Claire?"
"She's… emotional. Even after all this, she's still a civilian."
That antsy feeling was back. Rain got up and, naked, padded to the table where she'd set her clothes. She left them there, just pulling a cigarette and lighter from her boot. "You know, I'm cool with you using me for sex. But if you're using me to push her away, that really sucks."
Alice pulled the sheets over herself all of a sudden. "You've got nothing to do with it. Sooner or later, I'm gonna lose her or she's gonna lose me. Writing her name in my Trapper Keeper would just make it worse."
Rain lit up, then tossed the lighter and cigarette pack to Alice. "It's been a month, Alice. When are you gonna get used to being safe?"
"When I feel safe."
