Alice spent the next afternoon on a revenge fuelled hunt after being tasked by Boone to find the one responsible for his wife's capture. Although Alice had a fairly questionable moral code, any formalities with the legion were out of the question, along with anything to do with an innocent. From Alice's questioning around the town, Carla's wasn't the most popular woman around but her biggest crime was being a little thoughtless at times. Despite no one having anything nice to say, in her mind Alice was sure that it was one of two inhabitants; Manny Vargas or Jeannie-May Crawford.
For a time, Manny had been her number one suspect. The man had a harshness to him in the way he would speak about her, openly calling her a bitch and showing clear signs of jealousy. Boone's ex partner clearly hated the woman, moaning of her high standards and bratty attitude. She also put him as a contender after discovering he was associated (at least) with the figures travelling with her should be murderer. Despite this, Alice had her doubts after seeing the man's distress over his and Boone's now questionable friendship status. She had also put down his moaning to simply being honest.
Jeannie-May on the other hand had a strange quality to her. Manipulative. She appeared a bit deluded, thinking of the dump that was Novac as a haven. Too friendly and too happy with the towns guards, Alice had thought of her as a highly likely contender. The woman had gloated and openly showed her happiness over the snipers keeping watch in the dinosaur and had also moaned of how Carla wanted to go back to the city. She speculated to Alice that the woman had probably gotten fed up of waiting and left Boone, criticising her over the way in which she hated Novac.
Although she was leaning towards Jeannie being the culprit, the scene with Boone replayed in her mind. He had warned her that she better prove her allegations against whoever she leads to their death or it would be her in trouble. Exasperated, Alice slumped out of the motel reception and went around the corner to sit for a smoke. Halfway through her cigarette she decided that once Manny was back in the dinosaur she would scope out his place and rake around for anything which might prove his involvement. Then, if that search turned fruitless, she would break in to the reception at night to see if she could find proof there.
Admitting defeat for the remainder of the evening she trudged her way up to her room, determined that tonight she would catch a decent amount of shut eye. She passed Boone as she wandered towards her room. Only acknowledging him through a curt nod and giving little eye contact, she felt a deep sorrow for the man who had lost everything and seemed to harbour some vicious demons as a result.
Reaching her room she jammed the key in to the lock and forced it open, wincing as the latches groaned heavily due to lack of maintenance. Dumping all of her possessions Alice stripped off and wandered to the bathroom, washing the sweat and dust off of her skin after a tedious and heart wrenching day. She thought of boone as she washed, her heart broke for him as she wondered of their last moments together and if what Jeannie had said held any truth. Although not close to the scale of death, abandonment could be incredibly damaging to ones psyche. Thoughts about Boone and Carla soon led to thoughts of her own past as she struggled to think if she had loved before. Her hand drifted to the healing wound on her temple, feeling some sense of anxiety over her inability to remember any details of her life beyond two weeks ago.
Having finished washing she emptied the sink and changed for bed. As soon as her head hit the pillow she prayed for a rest full nights sleep, free from dreams of her grave, killer and flickers of her previous life.
Alice awoke in a sweat 3 hours later and she decided that sleep would have to wait. It was midnight and she was convinced Jeannie would no longer be occupying the reception. She wearily pulled on her short and t-shirt combo and roughly pulled her long mahogany hair back into a high ponytail, securing the loose hairs with pins. She grabbed her smokes, screwdriver and small combat knife and went to scope the reception to see if Jeannie was still there. She walked down the stairs, stepping lightly as she did so and lit up a cigarette. The nicotine would help her calm down as she began to get worked up over what she might find in the reception. No light appeared to be coming through the windows, leading Alice to assume she was no longer there. She twisted the handle to double check the door was locked but to her surprise it swung open with a low groan.
Smiling inwardly to herself Alice closed the door behind her and got to work. She raked the filing cabinets apart only to tidy them back to how she left them until noticing a safe during behind the desk. In a fit of giddiness due to adrenaline she was on her knees beside the safe in a matter of seconds prying with the screwdriver and one of the pins from her hair. With a satisfying click the safe jarred open enough so she could latch her fingers and pry it open. Inside was an assortment of crap; 9mm ammo, caps, scrap metal, cram, pencils, clipboards and a worn down folded piece of paper which read a bill of sale for a miss Carla Boone and her unborn child.
In a fit of rage Alice trashed the reception. She burnt the contents of the safe except the bill and intended to also burn down Jeannie's house once boone had blown the bitchs head off. She left the building heading straight in the direction of Jeannie's house, puffing at a smoke all the while. She reached the door, took a deep breath and steadied herself, ready to put on her best acting. Upon opening the doop, Jeannie looked as though she were expecting someone else and seemed to be relieved it were not. A look of irritation began to cloud over,
Jeannie sighed, "Everything alright? Awfull late to be droppin' in unexpected?" Alice twitched at the woman's annoyance.
Alice was ready for this so put on her best show, catching the woman in one of the weaknesses she had figured; making a decent impression for the small settlement of novac. "we need to help! I was out having a cigarette and I saw a woman and a child waiting in front of the dinosaur. They both looked starving and I think they maybe need a place to stay the night"
After their short encounter, the two of them hurried on in front of the dinosaur. Alice had pulled the beret out and was ready to fix it to her head. However, the sight of her pulling it from her pocket must have been sufficient for boone as Jeannie's head exploded from her body just as the beret had begun to rise, splattering brain all over Alice and the rocks surrounding them.
