I drove around in circles until I found a sign for where I wanted to go. I turned where the sign told me to. I turned into the parking lot of Matthew C. Patterson park and hopped the curb, driving on the grass. I drove until I saw Lake St. Clair. I stopped the truck and got out and began gathering wood and sticks from the trees. Since there was no park maintenance in months it was easy to find plenty of them.
It took a while as I set them up in a pile, only having to shoot a couple of zombies that got too close. I went back to the truck and took out Angie. I carried her over to the pile and placed her down as delically as I could. I walked back to the truck and grabbed one of the many gas cans. Once I emptied it's contents on Angie's body and the sticks I grabbed a cigarette and a match. I lit the cigarette and threw the lit match onto the pile. It went up in flames. I stood watching the fire, mesmerized by it. The sun began it's slow descent behind me, the last reflections of light on the lapping water in front of me.
A couple of tears ran down my face. "Mom and dad brought me here before you were born one summer. We spent all day here, flying kites and having a picnic. Mom was pregnant with you and dad just got a new chair that could go on the grass. It was one last summer fling before school started back up. We never got to do this with you. After mom got sick, I was angry at first. Then I realized you were going to spend a large chunk of your childhood without mom." I sucked in the nicotine and let it out at the memory. "When Isaacs stole the virus from dad I knew I had to do something. I abandoned you when you needed me the most." I choked on my words. "I wished I could've been there for you. I wish I could-" I let out another sob and breathed in another gulp of air. "I wish you could see this place Angie, not now but back before this happened. You would've loved it."
I smoked the rest of the cigarette in silence as I watched the flames lick the sky. My peaceful moment was interrupted as the Hummer's engine roared behind me. I didn't look, I didn't need to. I knew my convoy was here. Without words everyone appeared in my peripheral vision as we all stood and watched the flames die down, leaving ash in its wake. Jill stood at my side and took my hand in hers, giving it a good squeeze. Carlos snaked his arm around me, pulling me to his side. He kissed my temple before releasing me, pulling me out of my reverie. I looked around at the others, my little family. At this point in the dusk all of our tears had dried. I noticed that someone was missing though.
"Where's Alice?" I croaked out, my voice hoarse from the screaming and crying of the day. Everyone looked around to each other to see who would tell me where she was.
Carlos cleared his throat before he spoke. "She left us." He looked back to the pile of ashes and remaining fire before continuing. "She said she couldn't trust herself anymore to be around people." I bit my lip only imagining what she was going though. It was painful for me to think about Alice and not feel anger towards what she done. But I knew better. I knew it was Isaacs not her, she had no control and now she was on her own because she didn't trust herself around us. She didn't hurt us. She didn't want to hurt me more than she already had. After another moment of silence Carlos spoke again. "Come on. We should get going, standing out here in the open makes us a beacon."
We all walked back to the vehicles in silence. L.J. came to my side and put his arm around me, not saying a word as he escorted me to the passengers side of the truck. He embraced me into a hug before he opened the door, waiting for me to crawl in. Once the door was clear he closed it. Carlos was talking to the others before they split off to their vehicles. Carlos got into the drivers side of the truck and started it up.
"We're going to gas up before we go." he said as we drove out of the park. I nodded letting him know that I had heard him. I didn't want to talk at the moment, still gathering my thoughts about the horrific day I had.
We pulled up to an abandoned gas station, everyone but me filed out of the vehicles and fueled up. Moments later Carlos was back in the truck. He sat there for a minute not knowing what to say until he started it up and we drove off into the darkness once again.
I looked out the window as we left the city of Detroit again in the short amount of time since the world was greeted with the virus. I looked at the destruction of the once bustling city. Some power grids still worked here and there but mostly the city was dark and silent. Cars littered the highway, abandoned by their owners weeks ago. All of this because one man wanted to copy my father's work and profit from it. All of this because of money. I shook my head and tried to clear my thoughts.
We continued on driving in silence for miles. I didn't know where we were heading and I had no idea what the man next to me was thinking. I lost track of how many minutes let alone hours we drove in one direction without speaking. Finally he broke the silence. "Alida, what happened?" he asked, his words strained like he didn't want to ask but needed to know. I looked over to him, I could tell at some point while we were driving he had cried. The tear streaks were evident on his dirty face.
I didn't know how to answer him. How did I explain what happened to someone who couldn't grasp my instincts the day before? "Alice-" I started my own voice surprising me. I didn't even know that I was talking for a moment. He looked over at me with shock of his own. Making me believe he wasn't expecting an answer. I took a deep breath before I spoke again. "Alice was - is - I don't know honestly at this point, but she was under the control of a man named Alexander Isaacs." I searched for a water bottle, suddenly realizing how thirsty I was. I took a sip of the cool liquid. "He worked with my father and Umbrella. One of their head scientists. Before Ang-" I stopped mentally encouraging myself to continue. "Before Angie was shot, she yelled to me that Alice had a chip implanted in her. That was how Isaacs was controlling her. I was right, we didn't rescue her. If she was being controlled this whole time, we just picked her up. He probably saw us on a camera and recognized me. He ordered them to let her go. I knew it was too easy." My eyes began to water again. I was so stupid to believe that we had pulled off rescuing Alice. Umbrella was too smart for that, Isaacs was too smart for that.
"This isn't your fault." He said, knowing where my mind was going. "It wasn't any of our faults."
I shook my head. "It was. It was fault. It is my fault my sister is dead. I knew what Umbrella was capable of." Silence greeted me. The conversation was over, for now at least.
