VII


Shards of glass burst through the small opening in the doorway resulting from the blast and cut lines across Rain's face. Max winced and grabbed a small med kit from another pouch on her vest. She pulled Rain toward her and carefully used the small plastic tweezers to dig out the larger pieces of glass from her cheek. She took out another alcohol soaked pad and rubbed over the wounds. With a hiss, Rain smacked her hand away.

Max just laughed, "Big baby." She put away the rest of the med kit and turned just in time to catch a half eaten undead child coming toward them.

"SHIT!" Rain turned on a dime and fired a round which, had the undead been an adult, would have hit its mark in the head. The undead girl grabbed at Rain's waist trying to bite into the soft flesh beneath the denim. Max reacted quickly and punched the zombie child in the face. It staggered backward and Rain hesitated. She couldn't bring herself to shoot a child.

Max watched her for a moment before drawing her own weapon and dropping the undead creature. She didn't look at Rain directly, but could see from the corner of her eyes that she was watching her. She felt shame and guilt at having to put down the undead girl. She turned and tried to make her way toward the voices she heard coming from down the hall. After a moment, Rain followed after her.

The guilt was clawing at Max's insides. She replayed the events of killing both undead children and she felt sick to her stomach. Her mind knew and tried to make sense that it was either that or be killed; her heart couldn't tell the difference. It had still been a child.

They took an alternate route into the room where they saw Angela pulling out a case, Jill recovering with a cigarette, and to their surprise, there stood Alice.

Jill looked up in time to see the two of them, "Glad to see you two made it."

Alice turned and her eyes widened as she took in the two girls, "Rain. Max. Never thought I'd see you two here."

"Well you know Rain," Max started, "has to be a fucking hero. Oops, sorry kid."

Angela let out a slight giggle at an adult apologizing to her for her language. Rain shrugged and walked over to Alice; she stuck her hand out and Alice snorted before pulling her into a hug. Max felt the smallest hints of jealousy tugging at her but tried to put it off as nothing. Their hug lasted a few moments until it was interrupted by the door coming open and three men walking in. One of which had a weapon trained right on Alice's heart. Without blinking or hesitating, Alice had her own shotgun aimed dead at him.

"Don't shoot! Don't shoot! He's cool, he made a deal with Dr. Doom, same as you," a rather enigmatic looking man in a very cool hat held his hands up to stop them from shooting each other. Alice put away her shotgun and he lowered his weapon. Kaplan limped over to Rain and Max to make sure they were okay. They assured him they were fine but he looked a little worse for wear. He was pale and shaky, and very clearly in pain. His limp was much more prominent.

Jill paused for a moment and turned full on to address the Umbrella mercenary, "How many of you guys are there?" He paused for a moment and gave her a look of confusion.

"What do you mean?" She nodded at the man who'd saved their asses earlier; he lay in a pool of blood on the floor.

"Nicholai," behind him, the man with the hat took it off as a sign of respect for the deceased mercenary. Another strange scent filled the air in Max's nostrils; it smelled like vinegar and oranges and a tad bit of seawater combined. It wasn't pleasant but it wasn't unpleasant either. It was then that the mercenary began to cough and gag; a blob of blood and sputum hit the floor next to his feet.

"Sexy," Rain mumbled under her breath.

"When were you bitten?" Alice started walking toward him like a bad ass with the shotgun on her shoulder.

"What the-," the black man stepped back and gave the mercenary a rather dirty look.

"Three hours ago," he stared at Alice as she walked closer.

"Looks like it's your lucky day," she smirked and walked past him.

"Should of told me you got bit mother-fucker, I'm hanging with you and shit," Max and Rain burst into simultaneous laughter. Max didn't know this man, but she liked him already.

They followed Alice out of the school and the moment they got near the payphone it began to ring. Alice picked it up and after a moment of listening, responded with, "First, you tell us how we're getting out."

Max helped Kaplan into the truck that Jill pointed them to. She helped get him up on to the tailgate and he let out a sigh of relief. Her eyes looked around and she pulled out a bottle of painkillers, she gave him two and he gave her a thankful look before dry-swallowing them.

Max jumped aboard next to him and pulled him back toward the cab; Rain closed the tailgate shut behind them and jumped over it. She checked the clip in her silenced weapon before shoving a few more rounds in it. The black man with the hat walked over to them in silence before sticking his hand out to them.

"Name's Lloyd Jefferson Wade, you can call me LJ," he shook their hands as they introduced themselves to him. Then he proceeded to jump into the truck before the mercenary came to introduce himself.

"Carlos, Carlos Olivera, it's nice to meet you," he smiled as he shook their hands. The scent coming from him was stronger than it had been when he was further; a light hint of seawater. Actually rather pleasant when not combined with the other smells.

"Max, Rain, and Kaplan," Kaplan made a noise of protest.

"My name is Chad damn it," they chuckled and shook their heads.

"Doesn't fit Kap, sorry."

Alice made her way over to them and the others got into the vehicle; Alice opened the trucks back window so they could speak to each other.

"How the hell did you three get away?" Max's face lost color as she remembered John and Andy. The feeling of guilt overwhelmed her again and she let out a sigh. Clearly Kaplan was on the same page as her as he patted her leg gently.

"We had help," Rain nodded slowly, "they are...were good people. Anti-Umbrella of course, but good people. They told us where you were but when we went to get you, you were already gone. They helped get Max here out of hot shit, helped us acquire some not so legal items."

Rain went silent as Alice nodded in understanding. She took something out of the case Angela had given her and Max recognized it as the anti-virus.

"So what are you injecting me with?" Carlos held his arm out, clearly unlike Max in the aspect of needles. The truck passed by various undead who tried in vain to make a grab at the truck. The smell of death hung in the air like a light coast mist.

"The T-Virus reanimates dead cells. Basically, bringing the dead back to life. Or, in a living human, it can cause uncontrollable mutation. Or, it can help her walk again, if the virus is kept in check with this." Carlos seemed to be putting the proper two and two together to get the sum of five.

"Angie's infected?"

"Yes," Angela looked back at Alice and Carlos who both gave her a reassuring smile.

"The cellular growth is enough to regenerate her, but not enough to cause mutation." Alice looked back at Rain who was sitting against the tailgate, weapon in hand ready for action.

"And they infected you with the T-Virus as well?" Max saw them both flash a smile at each other and felt yet another pang of jealousy before Alice turned back to Carlos.

"Yeah. But don't worry, I'm not contagious," the look Alice and Carlos exchanged made Max feel a little better. Devious little minx that Alice was.

"Here. Tape the story and I'll see that it gets put to good use," Jill passed Alice the video camera that Terri had used earlier. Alice held the camera up to her face and began to speak.

"My name is Alice. I worked for the Umbrella Corporation, the largest and most powerful commercial entity in the world."

"Don't forget the biggest douche-bags," Max yelled out and Alice laughed.

"Anyway, I was head of security at a secret high-tech facility called The Hive," at this Max popped into the background behind Alice.

"I worked there too, and a bottle of Jose Cuervo saved my life," Max winked at Alice as she shook her head and gently pushed her head back out the window.

"Like that's anything to be proud of Loca!"

"As I was saying, before Maximilian can interrupt me again," with that she looked back at Max who gave her a thumbs up and waved a bit at the camera, "The Hive. A giant underground laboratory developing experimental viral weaponry." They turned the corner and passed a bus with shattered, bloody windows. They parked nearby in time to see a helicopter landing very carefully on top of City Hall. They jumped out of the vehicle (Kaplan was sliding out) and scanned the area.

Rain ducked down and looked up, her eyes spotting movement on one of the taller buildings ahead of them. She pointed it out to Alice who nodded before taking off to do her own thing.

"Alright, here's the plan. We're gonna walk up to the top of City Hall and commandeer that helicopter," though the plan seemed simple Max couldn't help but wonder if it truly would be.