Chapter Four:

The night was still young when Alice pressed her foot down on the Jeep's accelerator as they hit an open part of freeway. For a long while, things were quiet, the headlights illuminating the cracked asphalt ahead of them. Jill sat back, massaging her left knee. The swelling had gone down a little bit with the cold air of the night, but it was still tender to touch. Alice only cast her eyes to her right every now and again to check if Jill was still with her, and for once, the blonde caught her.

"Why do you care so much for Claire and Chris?" Jill asked curiously, her voice gentle. She didn't want to offend the woman who had already threatened to put a bullet in her head first if she betrayed her. Alice's grip on the black steering wheel tightened as she looked ahead again, turning slightly to avoid a parked car.

"It's a long story." Alice replied curtly.

"We've got time." Jill retorted and shifted in her seat, the breeze blowing her hair back out of her face.

"We've been through a lot." Her voice suddenly became raspier. That was an understatement for what she and Claire had gone through from the days in the desert of Nevada to the nights travelling back down the coast from Alaska. Chris was another story, and Alice figured from the way he recognised Jill on the ship that he had known her before too. They used to both be cops, maybe that was their connection.

"Like what?"

"I don't want to talk about it." Alice paused, and then began slowing down as the meter measuring the gas in the Jeep hit the big E, signalling it was empty. "Looks like we're walking from here on in."

"Are you kidding me?" Alice reached for the rifle and cocked the mechanism.

"Do I look like I'm kidding?" Alice replied dryly, stepping on onto the pavement after putting the vehicle into park. She started walking with her quick pace. They had been travelling all night, and the sun was just starting to come up. She searched for a sign of where they could be, but all that surrounded them was dry hills, and dying vegetation. Jill struggled to catch up, hobbling as her heels clicked on the pavement to reach Alice again.

"Why don't you want to talk about it?" Jill persisted as she fiddled with her own rifle, letting it hang from her waist. Alice rolled her eyes, annoyed.

"Just shut up. I could kill you if I wanted. I don't need you anymore."

"Whatever it is, I was just curious. Besides, you'll need me to get in."

"Really."

"I mean it." Jill finally fell into pace with the taller woman and huffed, catching her breath.

"How so?"

"I know how to get in without being noticed. We could fake it. I've captured you, you go peacefully, and we make in all in one piece."

"I don't like that idea." Alice turned and looked at Jill, squinting as the sun's light rose above one large ridged hill to the east. The shadows of several desert plants decorated the plain dry grass and sand. Alice's boots crunched against the gravel shoulder of the highway, and the sound echoed with every step. "You're getting me in there, we're finding Chris and Claire, and then I don't know about you, but we're going to Alaska. That's that."

"Who said you were in charge?"

"I never did. That's just what my plans are. You can choose to stay or go your own way. Up to you." Alice retorted. She wanted Jill to stop talking, but the blonde wasn't getting it.

"You seem a hell of a lot more dedicated than you did back in Raccoon City." Jill's answer was cold, and Alice's dark brows furrowed as she glanced sideways at the other woman again. Did she remember what Alice had tried her hardest to forget?

"Alice! What have you done!" Jill's high pitched scream resonated in the air as she discovered the other woman holding a smoking pistol and the body of Angela Ashford with a single bullet hole to the head. It was a clean shot through and through. Alice turned, her eyes darting down to the girl. She nearly dropped her gun as Jill drew hers and held it to the dirty blonde's head. "You killed her!" Jill nearly shrieked again, hitting the barrel of her Beretta pistol against Alice's head, trying to get an answer. Alice felt weak in the knees, shivering in the night air. She, Carlos, Jill, Angie, and LJ had stopped for the night, when she felt something take control, something foreign, and before she knew it, her pistol was locked and loaded, and Angie was dead. Tears stung at the edges of her eyes, and Alice looked at Jill.

"I don't know."

"You killed her, Alice! Angie is dead!" Jill's voice wavered as she looked back at the body of the little girl that she had become quite attached to through their journey after escaping Raccoon City. Jill nudged the cold barrel of the pistol again. "How could you?"

"It wasn't my fault." Alice's voice was low, and her gaze fell to the scars on her inner forearm. "I don't know what happened…it wasn't my fault."

"You fired the gun! It's your fault, goddammit!" Jill cocked the hammer down on her handgun, and was about to pull the trigger when Carlos and LJ finally returned from the nearby truck stop.

"Woah, what the hell is goin' on here?" LJ exclaimed, running over beside Carlos. His dark eyes widened as he saw Angie's still body on the pavement. Carlos' gaze fell to Alice's and for a moment, he hesitated. He could see it in her eyes.

"It's Umbrella's fault." He said, finally as the voice of reason. Jill turned to him, gun still on Alice's head.

"How do you know? Did you see them come down and shoot Angie? I don't think so, Carlos!"

"Jill, put the gun down." Carlos moved, and put himself between the two women. She reluctantly lowered her pistol, discharging the round from the chamber. Alice felt slightly at ease, but at the same time, began to wonder what had happened while she was under Umbrella's control.

"They've done something to me. I don't know how, but they….they took over me." Alice admitted, and Jill tensed yet again.

"Either she leaves or I do." Her voice was cold, and unrelenting. Carlos looked between them. He wasn't leaving Alice on her own, only for her to come back to haunt them later.

"Then I guess you're on your own then."

"You remember what happened after that?" Alice said, swallowing slightly. Her hands tensed over the cold metal of the assault rifle. Jill nodded, just once.

"I remember." She replied, just as coldly as she had that night. Alice could feel the tension settle around them as the pair walked. The outline of San Francisco and the Golden Gate Bridge were in the distance, maybe ten miles ahead. "But I understand it now. Umbrella took over your mind, and you hadn't the ability to resist them then."

"Now you believe me."

"Better late than never, right?" Jill paused in her step. "Come on. We're going to need to find some sort of boat again to get to Alcatraz."

"Why do you want to help me so much?"

"Alice, just accept it. I need to feel in control of myself again,, and this is how I'm doing it."

"By tagging along in my rescue mission."

"Exactly. I…I want to make up for wanting to kill you before for Angie."

"This isn't exactly the greatest way for that." Alice continued down the highway, the sun rising higher as the time went on. "You're going to tell me how to get in, get out, and then after that, you can feel redeemed and forgiven."

"Consider it done."