"Let's take a walk."
Carlos guided her to a more isolated part of the makeshift campsite. It was behind one of the gas station's fixtures, the gas station they'd stopped out in hopes to fuel up but found barely any gasoline within it.
"What have you been doing?" he asked, unable to contain his curiosity. "Where have you been?" Alice refused to make eye-contact with him during his interview. "It's been eight months, Alice." Images from the time during which they knew each other, the first night mainly, flashed through her mind. She closed her eyes, tilting her head slightly as she willed the pictures to leave her.
"I've been everywhere," she answered with a breath. "After Umbrella…" her voice faded. She licked her lips and looked to him almost sadly. "I just tried to stay away from people. It's better if I'm on my own."
"So what did you do?" he continued. "How did you get around?"
"Well I used to have a motorcycle," she said with a hint of a laugh. "I just migrated around, killing as many of those monsters as I could. Now I'm here." Carlos exhaled, letting his broad shoulders drop.
"But what about Jill and Angie and-"
"Don't," begged Alice, raising her hand slightly to silence him. She grimaced when he spoke their names, feeling the familiar pain in her stomach. "Let's not talk about them. Let's not talk about anything from back then." She inhaled deeply, looking past him to one of the children who was hiding behind an RV to get a look at her. She waved and he sunk back out of sight. That just further proved her point. She returned her gaze to Carlos. "When I think about that and how things were eight months ago…" she shook her head, "it reminds me of how I failed them." Her voice trailed off, breaking a little towards the end as she let some of her most painful memories show themselves in her tone. Her eyes darted away for a moment but were filled with tears when she returned them to him. "How I failed you."
Carlos looked to her with sympathy, completely taken aback by the sudden display of vulnerability. He put a strong hand on her shoulder.
"Hey," he said sternly, "you didn't fail me." Alice looked as if she was going to speak again but he didn't pause long enough to let her. "And even if you did," he began, a sly smile spreading across his tanned face, "I think you just made up for it with that little fire trick there." Alice laughed through her tears and Carlos could do nothing else but follow suit.
"I've missed you, Carlos," she admitted quietly, a begrudging confession that she would have kept to herself if it hadn't been burning at her throat.
"I've missed you too," he responded just as quietly, and with that, he pulled her to his chest, a hand on the back of her head that held her to him. She wrapped her arms around him, hoping no one in the camp was looking. She would rather be regarded as the frightening creature that could stop fire with her mind than have people look to her affectionately. Well, except for Carlos.
A second later, a third party stepped onto the stage, approaching slowly as not to interrupt an obviously tender moment. Claire cleared her throat when she was within earshot. Alice snapped back, straightening her posture and wiping a tear under the guise of rubbing her eye.
"Hi," Claire greeted, an uncharacteristic meekness in her voice. She extended a gloved hand to the admittedly intimidating stranger. Alice hesitated but soon enough accepted the friendly gesture and shook the slender woman's hand.
"Alice," Carlos began with a gesture in Claire's direction, "this is Claire Redfield. This is her convoy." Alice nodded, a single bob of her head that conveyed acknowledgment.
"What you did before," Claire began once she released Alice's hand.
"I'm sorry about that," Alice interrupted. "I didn't mean to scare anyone." The same child who had been staring at her from behind the RV was back in position, only now he'd brought two friends along to enjoy the show.
"No, no, please" Claire interrupted, "I wanted to thank you on behalf of the entire convoy. There's a good chance we wouldn't have survived that if it wasn't for you. We're all extremely grateful." Alice scoffed. She didn't mean to but her extended lack of human-contact had all but evaporated her filter.
"Yeah, but how long am I going to stay?" she asked impatiently.
"They're scared," Claire disclosed with a nod. "They're not sure about what they saw and that uncertainty is scares them." Alice did all she could not to frown.
"Yeah," she nodded, "that's what I thought."
"But you helped us," Claire went on. "You helped us and that means we'll help you. You're welcome to join the convoy. You can ride with me and K-Mart." When Alice's skeptical expression didn't change, Claire continued. "You went out of your way to save the lives of two perfect strangers. No matter how you did it, that's worth something."
"Well, they weren't both perfect strangers," said Alice, looking to Carlos.
"You two know each other?" Claire questioned. She got her answer when neither of them broke their gaze to respond. "I figured as much." Alice turned away from Carlos and nodded. "Before the world ended?"
"Something like that," said Carlos slyly. "We met in Raccoon City. The original danger zone." Claire's face changed as a jab of painful familiarity got her in the chest. Her grimace was clear enough to get the attention of both Alice and Carlos. "Something wrong?"
"No," Claire lied, fighting the waves of aching remembrance that were ailing her. "Not at all." Alice picked up on this in a much greater way than Carlos. She wondered if perhaps her people skills were also heightened by Umbrella's experiments. "I just knew someone in Raccoon City." She shook her head before adding, "A long, long time ago."
"Who?" Carlos asked. Claire's face didn't change, still reflecting an obvious amount of affliction. "It must have been a long time ago if Raccoon City was still up and running."
"Leave her be," Alice whispered to the man beside her. The amount of pain within Claire Redfield was quite clear and Alice didn't want to see it intensify. She swiftly changed the subject. "It's a nice convoy you got here," she said, scanning the campsite full of large vehicles and curious onlookers. "You mind showing me around? You know, if I'm going to stick with you guys for a little while." Claire nodded, releasing the pained breath she'd been storing within her chest.
"Of course," she said graciously, motioning for Alice to follow her as she headed off towards the rest of the camp. Carlos stayed behind, watching the two of them walk away. Alice peered over her shoulder, getting one last glance of her long-lost friend before continuing with the convoy leader.
The first stop on the Claire Redfield convoy tour was the truck of a rather esteemed member of the group.
"Chase," greeted Claire with a smile.
"Well hello, Claire," he answered. He was in the bed of his truck, checking ammo and taking inventory as was one of the duties assigned to him. He looked up when he realized Claire wasn't alone. When he noticed who the woman beside her was, he removed his hat out of respect and extended a powerful hand. "Ma'am," he said courteously. Alice glanced at Claire as if looking for confirmation before shaking his hand in return. "Thanks for your help back there. If you didn't come walking by when you did, we'd all been screwed."
"Chase," repeated Claire, "this is Alice. She's going to be joining us."
"Happy to have you on board, ma'am."
"Chase is our cowboy," explained the brunette. "He's the tough guy on board." Chase tipped his hat again, adding a wink to flourish the compliment. 'If you ever need anything and I'm not around, Chase here's your guy."
"Don't flatter me, Claire," he answered coolly.
The next vehicle belonged to another familiar face, a Mr. Lloyd Jefferson Wade.
"Hey!" cried LJ when the ladies approached the tricked out ambulance. "I remember you! Raccoon City, right?" Alice inhaled deeply, smiling a little as the memory of the man washed over her.
"LJ, right?"
"Yeah!" exclaimed an overly-animated LJ. God, he was just as eccentric as she'd remembered. The attractive woman beside him, a dark-skinned woman with slicked back hair and a sash of bullets, listened intently, almost appearing intimidated.
"You know LJ, too?" Claire asked.
"What can I say," Alice shrugged, half-joking. "I was a social butterfly."
"Aw, Betty, you've got to meet this girl. I've never met someone as hardcore as this lady right here." She allowed herself to laugh.
"Pleasure to make your acquaintance," Betty said with a smile, offering another handshake. "LJ seems to think very highly of you."
"You don't even know the kind of crazy ninja things this girl can do, man," he continued.
"Well, we got a taste of that with that fire thing," added Betty. "Thanks for that."
"Happy to help," Alice said with a nod. She looked to Claire imploringly. She wanted to move on to the next group of people, the next select few who would obligatorily shake her hand and force out a 'thank you' for her mind trick. Claire picked up on this and led her to the next van.
"Alice, meet Mikey," Claire said, pointing inside the van of computers to the shaggy-haired blonde in the chair. "He's my little tech-geek."
"Hey," said Mikey, leaning out of his chair enough to reach Alice's small hand. "It's nice to meet you, Alice." She forced a smile and nodded. "Pretty neat trick you had back there. Mind teaching me that?" She mustered up another polite laugh.
"I would if I could."
After making their way around the entire campsite, Claire showed Alice to the infamous yellow Hummer.
"Last but not least," began Claire, "this one is mine." She knocked on the window of the truck, alerting the small person inside. K-Mart appeared a moment later. "K-Mart, I'd like you to meet Alice. She's going to be bunking with us for a while." K-Mart stayed where she was, staring a little, probably in shock to be face-to-face with the person who she'd seen stop fire with their bare hands.
"Hi," Alice greeted sweetly.
"Hi," K-Mart said eventually.
"Sorry," Alice apologized, "if I scared you before." K-Mart's face turned red.
"Don't be," she said after a moment. "You saved Carlos. And Elizabeth." She shook her head as if trying to reset her train of thought. "That was really cool of you." Alice's smile was sincere for the first time in many introductions.
"You sure you have room for me?" Alice asked, peeking inside the Hummer.
"It's got three rows of seating," answered the leader. "Plenty of room for all of us." Alice licked her lips again and nodded, almost unwilling to accept what seemed like charity from this confident stranger. She swallowed her unreasonable pride, knowing that without her precious motorcycle she was probably in for some trouble anyway. At least here she could regroup until she found a way to return to her lonesome lifestyle.
Across the camp, Carlos sat atop one of the motor homes, pretending to be scanning the perimeter when really he was admiring the woman whose legend and memory had haunted him for the last eight months. He was mesmerized. There had always been this hypnotic quality about her. Ever since the moment they met, two strangers trying to survive pure mayhem together, he was entranced.
Part of it came from the way she spoke. The voice had been stuck in his head since the last words she'd spoken to him. That sultry sort of whisper, the throaty, breathy tone of voice that seemed to wrap each and every word with a unique heat. She was intelligent. That much was clear in the way she'd led the group out of Raccoon City. She had no trouble speaking her intellect, showing the wisdom that was within her and proving just how capable she really was. He didn't care if Umbrella made her that way; he was completely infatuated with her wit and mentality.
One thing for which he knew Umbrella was not responsible was her looks. If her intelligence was what drew him to her, her looks made damn sure that he'd never go astray. It was a combination of things that attracted him. Perhaps it was the way she carried herself, the constant air of seduction that followed her around like a cloud of temptation. Her crystal blue eyes, taunting whenever they looked in his direction, seemed as if they could pierce his soul and read his mind, viewing every last erotic thought he'd had about her since that first night in Raccoon City. He watched her lips when she spoke, the intoxicatingly full lips that he imagined were so soft but never had the audacity to find out. Her clothes back in the Arklay Mountain city hadn't been as revealing as, say, Jill Valentine's but her outfit revealed just enough to give him an idea of what he was missing; toned arms, long legs and a tantalizingly flat stomach. Her current outfit was even less-revealing, though it did give him uniquely clear view of her thighs. But it didn't matter. He knew what was there. There are some things a man can never forget.
His trance was broken when the beautiful women approached the trailer. He yelled down for her to stay where she was and hastily climbed down the side.
"So it looks like I'm going to be staying here for a little while," she told him. "At least until I can find a new motorcycle." His heart sped up as the idea of spending his days with Alice entered his mind.
"That's good to hear," he agreed, trying to hide how eager he actually was.
"Maybe I can teach you a few moves in the meantime," she teased. "You know, so you don't get your ass kicked by the birds again." He laughed as he watched her walk away, walking off towards the Hummer that she now called home. For as much as some things had changed in the last eight months, Carlos thought to himself, some things stayed exactly the same.